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Post by Tamrin on Jan 23, 2014 7:40:47 GMT 10
1 of 2:The men whom I have seen succeed best in life have always been cheerful and hope- ful men, who went about their business with a smile on their faces, and took the changes and chances of this mortal life like men, facing rough and smooth alike as it came
The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth
Truth, for its own sake had never been a virtue with the Roman clergy
Did not learned men, too, hold, till within the last twenty-five years, that a flying dragon was an impossible monster? And do we not now know that there are hundreds of them found fossil up and down the world? People call them Pterodactyles: but that is only because they are ashamed to call them flying dragons, after denying so long that flying dragons could exist
Young blood must have its course, lad, and every dog its day
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about
Pain is no evil, unless it conquers usRev. Dr. Charles KingsleyEnglish writer ( Water Babies, Hypatia) (Died this day 1875) Do noble things, not dream them all day long
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 23, 2014 7:41:50 GMT 10
2 of 2:Every duty that is bidden to wait comes back with seven fresh duties at its back
There are two freedoms — the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought
A blessed thing it is to have a friend; one human soul whom we can trust utterly; who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults; who will speak the honest truth to us, while the world flatters us to our face, and laughs at us behind our back; who will give us counsel and reproof in a day of prosperity and self-conceit; but who, again, will comfort and encourage us in days of difficulty and sorrow, when the world leaves us alone to fight our own battle as we can
It is only the great hearted who can be true friends. The mean and cowardly, can never know what true friendship means
Friendship is like a glass ornament, once it is broken it can rarely be put back together exactly the same way
Never, if possible, lie down at night without being able to say: I have made one human being at least a little wiser, or a little happier, or at least a little better this day
Have thy tools ready. God will find thee workRev. Dr. Charles Kingsley(Died this day 1875) Do as you would be done by
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 23, 2014 7:45:03 GMT 10
1 of 2:Ignorance has been our king. Since the death of empire, he sits unchallenged on the throne of Man. His dynasty is age-old. His right to rule is now consid- ered legitimate. Past sages have affirmed it. They did nothing to unseat him
Ignorance is king. Many would not profit by his abdication. Many enrich themselves by means of his dark monarchy. They are his Court, and in his name they defraud and govern, enrich themselves and perpetuate their power. Even literacy they fear, for the written word is another channel of communication that might cause their enemies to become united. Their weapons are keen-honed, and they use them with skill. They will press the battle upon the world when their interests are threatened, and the violence which follows will last until the structure of society as it now exists is leveled to rubble, and a new society emerges
The monks of the earliest days had not counted on the human ability to generate a new cultural inheritance in a couple of generations if an old one is utterly destroyed, to generate it by virtue of lawgivers and prophets, geniuses or maniacs; through a Moses, or through a Hitler, or an ignorant but tyrannical grandfather, a cultural inheritance may be acquired between dusk and dawn, and many have been so acquired
The Simplification had ceased to have plan or purpose soon after it began, and became an insane frenzy of mass murder and destruction such as can occur only when the last traces of social order are gone
The madness was transmitted to the children, taught as they were — not merely to forget — but to hate, and surges of mob fury recurred sporadically even through the fourth generation after the Deluge. By then, the fury was directed not against the learned, for there were none, but against the merely literate
For Man was a culture-bearer as well as a soul-bearer, but his cultures were not immortal and they could die with a race or an age
You heard him say it? 'Pain's the only evil I know about.' You heard that? … And that 'Society is the only thing that determines whether an act is wrong or not'. That too? … Dearest God, how did those two heresies get back into the world after all this time Walter M. MillerAmerican science fiction writer ( A Canticle for Leibowitz) (Born this day 1923) Objective evidence is the ultimate authority. Recorders may lie, but Nature is incapable of it
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 23, 2014 7:46:56 GMT 10
2 of 2:To abuse the intellect for reasons of pride, vanity, or escape from responsibility, is the fruit of that same tree
Men must fumble awhile with error to separate it from truth, I think — as long as they don't seize the error hungrily because it has a pleasanter taste
Because a doubt is not a denial. Doubt is a powerful tool, and it should be applied to history
When you tire of living, change itself seems evil, does it not? For then any change at all disturbs the deathlike peace of the life-weary
One should be embarrassed to speak of God in the third person
If you try to save wisdom until the world is wise, Father, the world will never have it
The last monk, upon entering, paused in the lock. He stood in the open hatchway and took off his sandals. "Sic transit mundus," he murmured, looking back at the glow. He slapped the soles of his sandals together, beating the dirt out of themWalter M. Miller(Born this day 1923) I'm not so sure he's mad, Father. Just a little devious in his sanity
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 23, 2014 7:48:21 GMT 10
I read; I travel; I become
I come from a place that likes grandeur; it likes large gestures; it is not inhibited by flourish; it is a rhetorical society; it is a society of physical performance; it is a society of style
The sigh of History rises over ruins, not over landscapes, and in the Antilles there are few ruins to sigh over, apart from the ruins of sugar estates and abandoned forts
I'm just a red nigger who loves the sea, I had a sound colonial education, I have Dutch, nigger, and English in me, and either I'm nobody, or I'm a nation
The English language is nobody's special property. It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself
Break a vase, and the love that reassembles the fragments is stronger than that love which took its symmetry for granted when it was whole
Any serious attempt to try to do something worthwhile is ritualisticDerek Walcott, OBE, OCCSaint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist (Nobel 1992) (Born this day 1930) I try to forget what happiness was, and when that don't work, I study the stars
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 23, 2014 7:49:51 GMT 10
Every morning when I awake, the greatest of joys is mine: that of being Salvador Dali.
Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings
At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. My ambitions have continued to grow at the same rate ever since
Don't bother about being modern. Unfortunately it is the one thing that, whatever you do, you cannot avoid
There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad
Have no fear of perfection — you'll never reach it
Let my enemies devour each otherSalvador DalíSpanish-Catalan surrealist painter (Died this day 1989) Geniuses don't die. I'm going to live forever
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 24, 2014 7:35:11 GMT 10
Friday’s Quotes:Musick has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak
Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing, through the overtaking and possessing of a wish discovers the folly of the chase
I find we are growing serious, and then we are in great danger of being dull
He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views
There are some Critics so with Spleen diseased, they scarcely come inclining to be pleased: And sure he must have more than mortal skill, who pleases one against his will
Fear comes from uncertainty. When we are absolutely certain, whether of our worth or worthlessness, we are almost impervious to fear
Come, come, leave business to idlers, and wisdom to fools: They have need of 'em: Wit be my faculty, and pleasure my occupation, and let Father Time shake his glassWilliam Congreve, English playwright and poet (Born this day 1670) Wit must be foiled by wit: cut a diamond with a diamond
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 24, 2014 7:35:53 GMT 10
1 of 2:I love opposition that has convictions
An educated people can be easily governed
Diplomacy without arms is like a concert without a score
Everything which the enemy least expects will succeed the best
It is your attitude, and the suspicion that you are maturing the boldest designs against him, that imposes on your enemy
If my soldiers began to think, not one would remain in the ranks
Without supplies no army is braveBro. Frederick the Great, King of Prussia (Born this day 1712) A crown is merely a hat that lets the rain in
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 24, 2014 7:36:35 GMT 10
2 of 2:I have no fault to find with those who teach geometry. That science is the only one which has not produced sects; it is founded on analysis and on synthesis and on the calculus; it does not occupy itself with the probable truth; moreover it has the same method in every country
Religions must all be tolerated and the state has to keep an eye that none of them shall derogate the other, because here everyone must find his salvation in his own way
All Religions are equal and good, if only the people that practice them are honest people; and if Turks and heathens came and wanted to live here in this country, we would build them mosques and churches
I think it better to keep a profound silence with regard to the Christian fables, which are canonized by their antiquity and the credulity of absurd and insipid people
Religion is the idol of the mob; it adores everything it does not understand
The greatest and noblest pleasure which men can have in this world is to discover new truths; and the next is to shake off old prejudices
Every man must get to Heaven his own wayBro. Frederick the Great(Born this day 1712) I am the first servant of my state
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 24, 2014 7:37:26 GMT 10
Is it not in the most absolute simplicity that real genius plies its pinions the most wonderfully?
Think of the wonderful circles in which our whole being moves and from which we cannot escape no matter how we try. The circler circles in these circles
It is useless to contend with the irresistible power of Time, which goes on continually creating by a process of constant destruction
It is nearly always the most improbable things that really come to pass
Not a single man on earth knows from his own experience the how and where of his birth, only from tradition, which is often very uncertain
How prone poor Humanity is to dam up the minutest remnants of its freedom, and build an artificial roof to prevent it looking up to the clear blue sky
Once you are dancing with the devil, the prettiest capers won't help youErnst Theodor Amadeus HoffmannGerman writer, judge and composer ( Undine) (Born this day 1776) Boys should not play with weapons more dangerous than they understand
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