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Post by Tamrin on Jan 2, 2014 7:16:08 GMT 10
2 of 2:No law can possibly meet the convenience of every one: we must be satisfied if it be beneficial on the whole and to the majority
Law is a thing which is insensible, and inexorable, more beneficial and more profitious to the weak than to the strong; it admits of no mitigation nor pardon, once you have overstepped its limits
Under the influence of fear, which always leads men to take a pessimistic view of things, they magnified their enemies’ resources, and minimized their own
Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war
Men are only too clever at shifting blame from their own shoulders to those of others
Truth, they say, is but too often in difficulties, but is never finally suppressed
A fraudulent intent, however carefully concealed at the outset, will generally, in the end, betray itselfTitus Livius (Livy)(Died this day 17 CE) The sun has not yet set for all time
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 2, 2014 7:16:50 GMT 10
My hopes are not always realized, but I always hope
Chance is always powerful. Let your hook always be cast; in the pool where you least expect it, there will be fish
Treason doth never prosper: what's the reason? Why if it prosper, none dare call it treason.
At times it is folly to hasten at other times, to delay. The wise do everything in its proper time
Nothing is more powerful than custom or habit
Habits change into character
What is now reason was formerly impulse or instinctPublius Ovidius Naso (Ovid), Roman poet (Died this day 18 CE) There is a god within us
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 2, 2014 7:17:39 GMT 10
Few of the great works of ancient Greek literature are easy reading
It is doubtless one of Aristotle's great services that he conceived so clearly the truth that literature is a thing that grows and has a history
Sometimes Aristotle analyses his terms, but very often he takes them for granted; and in the latter case, I think, he is sometimes deceived by them
Greek was very much a live language, and a language still unconscious of grammar, not, like ours, dominated by definitions and trained upon dictionaries
The fact is that much misunderstanding is often caused by our modern attempts to limit too strictly the meaning of a Greek word
The life and liberty and property and happiness of the common man through- out the world are at the absolute mercy of a few persons whom he has never seen, involved in complicated quarrels that he has never heard of
Be careful in dealing with a man who cares nothing for comfort or promotion, but is simply determined to do what he believes to be right. He is a dangerous uncomfortable enemy, because his body, which you can always conquer, gives you little purchase upon his soulGilbert MurrayAustralian-born British classical scholar (Born this day 1866) The fashions of the ages vary in this direction and that, but they vary for the most part from a central road which was struck out by the imagination of Greece
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 2, 2014 7:18:18 GMT 10
The government is us; we are the government, you and I
No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it
A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards
I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being
It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize
Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe
Do what you can, with what you have, where you areBro. Theodore Roosevelt, US President (Made a Mason this day 1901 Matincock Lodge #806, Oyster Bay, NY) Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 2, 2014 7:19:11 GMT 10
1 of 2:People are entirely too disbelieving of coincidence. They are far too ready to dismiss it and to build arcane structures of extremely rickety substance in order to avoid it. I, on the other hand, see coincidence everywhere as an in- evitable consequence of the laws of probability, according to which having no unusual coincidence is far more unusual than any coincidence could possibly be
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge"
There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death
When life is so harsh that a man loses all hope in himself, then he raises his eyes to a shining rock, worshipping it, just to find hope again, rather than looking to his own acts for hope and salvation. Yes, atheism is a redemptive belief. It is theism that denies man's own redemptive nature
I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say that one is an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or agnostic. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time
There are many aspects of the universe that still cannot be explained satisfactorily by science; but ignorance only implies ignorance that may someday be conquered. To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today
Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own fieldIsaac AsimovRussian-American scientist, author (I Robot, Foundation Trilogy) (Born this day 1920) If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 2, 2014 7:20:08 GMT 10
2 of 2:How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection ...That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value
I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be
Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night
But suppose we were to teach creationism. What would be the content of the teaching? Merely that a creator formed the universe and all species of life ready-made? Nothing more? No details?
Imagine the people who believe such things and who are not ashamed to ignore, totally, all the patient findings of thinking minds through all the centuries since the Bible was written. And it is these ignorant people, the most uneducated, the most unimaginative, the most unthink- ing among us, who would make themselves the guides and leaders of us all; who would force their feeble and childish beliefs on us; who would invade our schools and libraries and homes
All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand every- one else. We’re in no way different ourselves... You show me someone who can’t understand people and I’ll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself Isaac Asimov(Born this day 1920) The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...'
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 2, 2014 7:21:01 GMT 10
A person, who no matter how desperate the situation, gives others hope, is a true leader
It is impossible to build one's own happiness on the unhappiness of others. This perspective is at the heart of Buddhist teachings
Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself
Leave behind the passive dreaming of a rose-tinted future. The energy of happiness exists in living today with roots sunk firmly in reality's soil
Reality is harsh. It can be cruel and ugly. Yet no matter how much we grieve over our environment and circumstances nothing will change. What is important is not to be defeated, to forge ahead bravely. If we do this, a path will open before us
Rise to the challenges that life presents you. You can't develop genuine character and ability by sidestepping adversity and struggle
A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, can even enable a change in the destiny of all humankind
Daisaku Ikeda Japanese anti-nuclear activist (Sōka Gakkai International) (Born this day 1928)
People can only live fully by helping others to live. When you give life to friends you truly live. Cultures can only realize their further richness by honoring other traditions. And only by respecting natural life can humanity continue to exist
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 2, 2014 7:23:05 GMT 10
Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas
There is a systematic flocci-nauci-nihili-pilification of all other aspects of existence that angers me
But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either “my country, right or wrong,” which is infamous, or “my country is always right,” which is imbecile
I have had such a sickening of men in masses, and of causes, that I would not cross this room to reform parliament or prevent the union or to bring about the millennium. I speak only for myself, mind — it is my own truth alone — but man as part of a movement or a crowd is indifferent to me. He is inhuman. And I have nothing to do with nations, or nationalism. The only feelings I have — for what they are — are for men as individuals; my loyalties, such as they may be, are to private persons alone
If men were to consider what they were at — if they were to look around them, and reflect upon the cost of life in a universe where prisons, brothels, mad- houses, and regiments of men armed and trained to kill other men are so very common — why, I doubt we should see many of these poor mewling little larval victims, so often a present misery to their parents and a future menace to their kind
But the tale or narrative set in the past may have its particular time-free value; and the candid reader will not misunderstand me, will not suppose that I intend any prepost- erous comparison, when I observe that Homer was farther removed in time from Troy than I am from the Napoleonic wars; yet he spoke to the Greeks for 2,000 years and more
I have never yet known a man admit that he was either rich or asleepPatrick O'Brian, CBEEnglish novelist (Aubrey–Maturin series) (Died this day 2000) I am opposed to authority, that egg of misery and oppression; I am opposed to it largely for what it does to those who exercise it
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 3, 2014 7:52:07 GMT 10
Friday’s Quotes:When you have no basis for an argument, abuse the plaintiff
The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct
The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil
In doubtful cases the more liberal interpretation must always be preferred
According to the law of nature it is only fair that no one should become richer through damages and injuries suffered by another
What is permissible is not always honorable
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you needMarcus Tullius Cicero (Cicero)Roman statesman and author ( Academica) (Born this day 106 BCE) One who sees the Supersoul accompanying the individual soul in all bodies and who understands that neither the soul nor the Supersoul is ever destroyed, actually sees/center]
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 3, 2014 8:03:58 GMT 10
If our principles are right, why should we be cowards?
Let her [woman] receive encouragement for the proper cultivation of all her powers, so that she may enter profitably into the active business of life
The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation, because in the degradation of women, the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source
It is time that Christians were judged more by their likeness to Christ than their notions of Christ. Were this sentiment generally admitted we should not see such tenacious adherence to what men deem the opinions and doctrines of Christ while at the same time in every day practice is exhibited anything but a likeness to Christ
It is not Christianity, but priestcraft that has subjected woman as we find her
I have no idea of submitting tamely to injustice inflicted either on me or on the slave. I will oppose it with all the moral powers with which I am endowed. I am no advocate of passivity
We too often bind ourselves by authorities rather than by the truthLucretia MottUS teacher, minister, abolitionist and feminist (Born this day 1793) I grew up so thoroughly imbued with women's rights that it was the most important question of my life from a very early day
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