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Post by Tamrin on Jan 9, 2014 7:28:47 GMT 10
I want, by understanding myself, to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming
Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change
Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different
When we can begin to take our failures seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves
What do you want most to do? That's what I have to keep asking myself, in the face of difficulties
Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth
I'm a writer first and a woman afterKatherine MansfieldNZ-British modernist writer ( Bliss) (Died this day 1923) This is not a letter but my arms around you for a brief moment
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 9, 2014 7:32:31 GMT 10
As long as one keeps searching, the answers come
My concern has always been for the people who are victimized, unable to speak for themselves and who need outside help
If it's natural to kill, how come men have to go into training to learn how?
The only thing that's been a worse flop than the organization of non-violence has been the organization of violence
I have been true to the principles of nonviolence, developing a stronger and stronger aversion to the ideologies of both the far right and the far left and a deeper sense of rage and sorrow over the suffering they continue to produce all over the world
You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can decide how you're going to live now
Action is the antidote to despairJoan BaezUS folk singer and human rights advocate (Born this day 1941) I've never had a humble opinion. If you've got an opinion, why be humble about it?
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 9, 2014 7:33:30 GMT 10
I have a rendezvous with life
My poetry, I think, has become the way of my giving out what music is within me
If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET
There is no secret to success except hard work and getting some- thing indefinable which we call the "breaks." In order for a writer to succeed, I suggest three things — read and write — and wait
We have always resented the natural inclination of most white people to demand spirituals the moment it is known that a Negro is about to sing. So often the request has seemed to savor of the feeling that we could do this and this alone
For we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain to bind you to earth
The play is done, the crowds depart; and see that twisted tortured thing hung from a tree, swart victim of a newer CalvaryCountee Cullen, US poet ( Harlem Renaissance) (Died this day 1946) The key to all strange things is in thy heart... My spirit has come home, that sailed the doubtful seas
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 9, 2014 7:34:28 GMT 10
Human thought arises, and operates, not in a social vacuum but in a definite social milieu
What is intelligible in history can be formulated only with reference to problems and conceptual constructions which themselves arise in the flux of historical experience
Once we recognize that all historical knowledge is relational knowledge, and can only be formulated with reference to the position of the observer, we are faced, once more, with the task of discriminating between what is true and what is false in such knowledge
It has become extremely questionable whether, in the flux of life, it is a genuinely worthwhile intellectual problem to seek to discover fixed and immutable ideas or absolutes. It is a more worthy intellectual task perhaps to learn to think dynamically and relationally rather than statically
In our contemporary social and intellectual plight, it is nothing less than shocking to discover that those persons who claim to have discovered an absolute are usually the same people who also pretend to be superior to the rest
When the empirical investigator glories in his refusal to go beyond the specialized observ- ation dictated by the traditions of his discipline, be they ever so inclusive, he is making a virtue out of a defense mechanism which insures him against questioning his presuppositions
Relationism signifies merely that all of the elements of meaning in a given situation have reference to one another and derive their significance from this reciprocal interrelationship in a given frame of thought. Such a system of meanings is possible and valid only in a given type of historical existence, to which, for a time, it furnishes appropriate expressionKarl MannheimHungarian-German-British sociologist ( Diagnosis of Our Time) (Died this day 1947) It may indeed be true that in order to act we need a certain amount of self-confidence and intellectual self-assurance. It may also be true that the very form of expression, in which we clothe our thoughts, tends to impose upon them an absolute tone
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 10, 2014 7:44:55 GMT 10
Friday’s Quotes:This not being pleasing, and less profitable to me, I consulted with my two brothers, Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience, and took a voyage to visit my mother Nature, by whose advice, together with the help of Dr. Diligence, I at last obtained my desire; and, being warned by Mr. Honesty, a stranger in our days, to publish it to the world, I have done it
In all Diseases strengthen the part of the Body afflicted
It provoketh Urine and womens Courses, helpeth the biting of a Mad Dog and of other Venemous Creatures, killeth Worms in Children, cutteth and avoydeth tough flegm purgeth the head, helpeth the Lethargie, is a good preservative against, a remedy for any Plague sore, or foul Ulcer: taketh away spots and blem- ishes in the Skin, easeth pains of the eares ripeneth and breaketh Impostumes or other swellings: And for all these diseases the Onyons are also effectual
The Herbs ought to be distilled when they are in their greatest vigor, and so ought the Flowers also
Many a times I find my patients disturbed by trouble of conscience and sorrow and I have to act a divine before I can be a physician. In fact our greatest skills lies in the infusion of hopes, to induce confidence and peace of mind
If you will sweeten your Decoction with Sugar, or any Syrup fit for the occasion you take it for which is better, you may and no harm done
The liberty of our Commonwealth is most impaired by three sorts of men, priests, physicians, lawyers Nicholas CulpeperEnglish author, botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer (Died this day 1654) For God's sake build not your faith upon Tradition, 'tis as rotten as a rotten Post
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 10, 2014 7:45:41 GMT 10
In natural science the principles of truth ought to be confirmed by observation
The first step in wisdom is to know the things themselves; this notion con- sists in having a true idea of the objects; objects are distinguished and known by classifying them methodically and giving them appropriate names. There- fore, classification and name-giving will be the foundation of our science
Natural bodies are divided into three kingdomes of nature: viz. the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Minerals grow, Plants grow and live, Animals grow, live, and have feeling
Nomenclature, the other foundation of botany, should provide the names as soon as the classification is made... If the names are unknown know- ledge of the things also perishes... For a single genus, a single name
Nature's economy shall be the base for our own, for it is immutable, but ours is secondary. An economist without knowledge of nature is therefore like a physicist without knowledge of mathematics
Of what use are the great number of petrifactions, of different species, shape and form which are dug up by naturalists? Perhaps the collection of such specimens is sheer vanity and inquisitiveness. I do not presume to say; but we find in our mountains the rarest animals, shells, mussels, and corals embalmed in stone, as it were, living specimens of which are now being sought in vain throughout Europe. These stones alone whisper in the midst of general silence
If I were to call man ape or vice versa, I should bring down all the theologians on my head. But perhaps I should still do it according to the rules of scienceCarolus Linnæus "Carl von Linné"Swedish naturalist, "Father of Taxonomy" (Died this day 1778) Temporis fila = “Child of time” (A favourite expression of Linnaeus)
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 10, 2014 7:46:46 GMT 10
All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it
The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities
The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections
In every age its [liberty's] progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food
And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely
Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity
Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testingSir John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton,1st Baron Acton, English statesman and historian (Born this day 1834) Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 10, 2014 7:47:44 GMT 10
The world is large
It is said that heaven does not create one man above or below another man. Any existing distinction between the wise and the stupid, between the rich and the poor, comes down to a matter of education
Each individual man and each individual country, according to the principles of natural reason, is free from bondage
There are those who form cliques to vie for the reins of power and who, when deprived of that power, decry the injustice of it all. Even worse, international diplomacy is really based on the art of deception. Surveying the situation as a whole, all we can say is that there is a general prevalence of good over bad, but we can hardly call the situation perfect
Civilization is an open-ended process. We cannot be satisfied with the present level of attainment of the West
In its broad sense, civilization means not only comfort in daily necessities but also the refining of knowledge and the cultivation of virtue so as to elevate human life to a higher plane
We do not have time to wait for the enlightenment of our neighbors so that we can work together toward the development of AsiaFukuzawa Yukichi (“Japan’s Voltaire”) Japanese author, writer, teacher, entrepreneur and political theorist (Born this day 1835) I think I have made it clear that I never intended to make enemies. But in an age when anti-foreign sentiment was running high, it was unavoidable that in my position as an advocate of open intercourse and free adoption of Western culture, I should make some adversaries
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 10, 2014 7:49:23 GMT 10
Keep clear of the dupes that talk democracy and the dogs that talk revolution, drunk with talk, liars and believers. I believe in my tusks. Long live freedom and damn the ideologies
Standing on that peak above the blinding clouds of prejudice, would we could see all truly as it is; The calm eternal truth would keep us meek
I think that one may contribute (ever so slightly) to the beauty of things by making one's own life and environment beautiful, as far as one's power reaches
I believe that the Universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. (This is physics, I believe, as well as religion.). The parts change and pass, or die, people and races and rocks and stars, none of them seems to me important in itself, but only the whole
This whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine. It seems to me that this whole alone is worthy of the deeper sort of love and there is peace, freedom, I might say a kind of salvation, in turning one's affections outward toward this one God, rather than inwards on one's self, or on humanity, or on human imaginations and abstractions — the world of spirits
Science and mathematics run parallel to reality, they symbolize it, they squint at it, they never touch it: consider what an explosion would rock the bones of men into little white fragments and unsky the world if any mind for a moment touch truth
There is no reason for amazement: surely one always knew that cultures decay, and life's end is deathJohn Robinson JeffersAmerican poet ( Give Your Heart to the Hawks) (Born this day 1887) Know that however ugly the parts appear the whole remains beautiful
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 10, 2014 7:50:08 GMT 10
Frontiersmen good and bad, gunmen as well as inspired prophets of the future, have been my camp companions. Thus, I know the country of which I am about to write as few men now living have known it
But the West of the old times, with its strong characters, its stern battles and its tremendous stretches of loneliness, can never be blotted from my mind
Some days I would go without any fire at all, and eat raw frozen meat and melt snow in my mouth for water
The greatest of all the Sioux in my time, or in any time for that matter, was that wonderful old fighting man, Sitting Bull, whose life will someday be written by a historian who can really give him his due
I don't hold with General Sherman that a good Indian is a dead Indian. From what I've seen, the Indian is a free-born American who'll fight for his folks, for his land and for his living ... just like any other American
Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government
When you do an Indian a favor, he never forgets it. But if you do him bad, he never forgets that eitherBro. William F. Cody, aka Buffalo BillUS Solier, bison hunter and showman (Died this day 1917) I could never resist the call of the trail
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