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Post by Tamrin on Jan 25, 2014 8:50:26 GMT 10
Saturday’s Quotes:The Requisites of a good Hypothesis are: That It be Intelligible. That It neither Assume nor Suppose anything Impossible, unintelligible, or demonstrably False. That It be consistent with Itself. That It be lit and sufficient to Explicate the Phaenomena, especially the chief. That It be, at least, consistent, with the rest of the Phaenomena It particularly relates to, and do not contradict any other known Phaenomena of nature, or manifest Physical Truth
The Qualities and Conditions of an Excellent Hypothesis are: That It be not Precar- ious, but have sufficient Grounds in the nature of the Thing Itself or at least be well recommended by some Auxiliary Proofs. That It be the Simplest of all the good ones we are able to frame, at least containing nothing that is superfluous or Impertinent. That It be the only Hypothesis that can Explicate the Phaenomena; or at least, that do's Explicate them so well. That it enable a skilful Naturailst to foretell future Phaenomena by the Congruity or Incongruity to it; and especially the event of such Experlm'ts as are aptly devis'd to examine It, as Things that ought, or ought not, to be consequent to It
And of universal nature, the notion I would offer, should be something like this. Nature is the aggregate of the bodies, that make up the world, in its present state, considered as a principle, by virtue whereof, they act and suffer, according to the laws of motion, prescribed by the author of things
I need not tell you, what complaints the more candid and judicious of the Chy- mists themselves are wont to make of those boasters, that confidently pretend, that they have extracted the salt or sulphur of quicksilver, when they have dis- guised it by additaments, wherewith it resembles the concretes, whose names are given it; whereas by a skilful and rigid examen, it may be easily enough stripped of its disguises, and made to appear again in the pristine form of running mercury
I look upon a good physician, not so properly as a servant to nature, as one, that is a counsellor and friendly assistant, who, in his patient's body, furthers those motions and other things, that he judges conducive to the welfare and recovery of it; but as to those, that he perceives likely to be hurtful, either by increasing the disease, or other- wise endangering the patient, he thinks it is his part to oppose or hinder, though nature do manifestly enough seem to endeavour the exercising or carrying on those hurtful motions
If the juices of the body were more chymically examined, especially by a naturalist, that knows the ways of making fixed bodies volatile, and volatile fixed, and knows the power of the open air in promoting the former of those operations; it is not improbable, that both many things relating to the nature of the humours, and to the ways of sweetening, actuating, and otherwise altering them, may be detected, and the importance of such discoveries may be discerned
And let me adde, that he that throughly understands the nature of Ferments and Ferm- entations, shall probably be much better able than he that Ignores them, to give a fair account of divers phenomena of severall diseases (as well Feavers and others) which will perhaps be never throughly understood, without an insight into the doctrine of Fermentation Robert BoyleIrish physicist, chemist and author (experiments with color) (Born this day 1627) Divers of Hermetic Books have such involv'd Obscuritys that they may justly be compar'd to Riddles written in Cyphers. For after a Man has surmounted the difficulty of deciphering the Words and Terms, he finds a new and greater difficulty to discover ye meaning of the seemingly plain Expression
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 25, 2014 8:51:01 GMT 10
We can make mayors and officers every year, but not scholars
They are proud in humility; proud in that they are not proud
The men who succeed are the efficient few. They are the few who have the ambition and will power to develop themselves
If there be a hell upon earth it is to be found in a melancholy man's heart
Truth is the shattered mirror strewn in myriad bits; while each believes his little bit the whole to own
Great feelings will often take the aspect of error, and great faith the aspect of illusion
One religion is as true as anotherRobert BurtonEnglish scholar & essayist ( The Anatomy of Melancholy) (Died this day 1640) We can say nothing but what hath been said
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 25, 2014 8:52:41 GMT 10
Dare to be honest and fear no labor
Oh wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursel's as others see us!
Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn
While Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things, The fate of empires and the fall of kings; While quacks of State must each produce his plan, And even children lisp the Rights of Man; Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention, The Rights of Woman merit
There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing
The best plans of men and mice often go awry
Some have meat, and cannot eat, And some cannot eat that want it; But we have meat, and we can eat - And let the Lord be thankedBro. Robbie BurnsScotland’s national poet (Born this day 1759) Prudent, cautious self-control is wisdom's root
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 25, 2014 8:53:19 GMT 10
Common sense and good nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult
Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job
Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me
Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit
It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it
There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they areSomerset MaughamEnglish novelist, playwright & poet ( Of Human Bondage) (Born this day 1874) If you don't change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 25, 2014 8:54:21 GMT 10
To enjoy freedom we have to control ourselves
One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellow- ship with other human beings as we take our place among them
While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a man like a mist; obscurity is dark, ample, and free; obscurity lets the mind take its way unimpeded. Over the obscure man is poured the merciful suffusion of darkness. None knows where he goes or comes. He may seek the truth and speak it; he alone is free; he alone is truthful, he alone is at peace
Rigid, the skeleton of habit alone upholds the human frame
If you insist upon fighting to protect me, or ''our'' country, let it be understood soberly and rationally between us that you are fighting to gratify a sex instinct which I cannot share; to procure benefits which I have not shared and probably will not share
Once you begin to take yourself seriously as a leader or as a follower, as a modern or as a conservative, then you become a self-conscious, biting, and scratching little animal whose work is not of the slightest value or importance to anybody
It is far harder to kill a phantom than a realityVirginia WoolfFabian English author ( Jacob's Room, To the Lighthouse) (Born this day 1882) For most of history, Anonymous was a woman
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 25, 2014 8:55:20 GMT 10
My friends, listen to the bells going down the fields through the village with grape vines ripening
The drop of milk Which had fallen On the light red polish Of her nails Made me yearn for the past
My friends, come, let us go now Together to the fields Let us sing, Blow the water buffalo horn. Look, already the fruits are ripe
I can hear so faintly My mother and father Awake Whispering Dawn after a snowfall
I climb a hill With a fish over my shoulder The purple flowers In the potato fields Are now in full bloom
We are well into spring And I have thought of peonies For several days now How many years have passed Since my eyesight failed?
People from Java Pass beyond the potato fields Into their gardens. Over that hill The temple bell stops ringingHakushū Kitahara (nom de plume of Kitahara Ryūkichi)Japanese tanka poet (Born this day 1885) How sad is The road man must take The road to prison The pebbled road down which a police wagon creaks
Entropy is the price of structure
The main character of any living system is openness
The future is uncertain ... but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity
The irreversibility of time is the mechanism that brings order out of chaos
Whatever we call reality, it is revealed to us only through the active construction in which we participate
We grow in direct proportion to the amount of chaos we can sustain and dissipate
The threat lies in the realization that in our universe the security of stable, permanent rules are gone forever. We are living in a dangerous and uncertain world that inspires no blind confidence. Our hope arises from the knowledge that even small fluctuations may grow and change the overall structure. As a result, individual activity is not doomed to insignificanceViscount Ilya PrigogineBelgian physical chemist and Nobel laureate (Chemistry, 1977) noted for his work on dissipative structures, complex systems and irreversibility (Born this day 1917) Order arises from chaos(compare Ordo ab Chao)
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 25, 2014 8:56:53 GMT 10
Life is accepting what is and working from that
I don't believe that life is supposed to make you feel good, or make you feel miserable either. Life is just supposed to make you feel
It ain't really what you'd call change. It's all happened before and it'll happen again with a different set of facts
Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over
His entire life was becoming a race against the natural — and he was winning
Lord keep her safe since you can't keep her sane
Not only is your story worth telling, but it can be told in words so painstakingly eloquent that it becomes a songGloria NaylorAfrican American novelist and educator (Born this day 1950) One should be able to return to the first sentence of a novel and find the resonances of the entire work
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 26, 2014 9:23:42 GMT 10
Quotes for the Day:Each flower is a soul blossoming out to nature
How have I been able to live so long outside Nature without identifying myself with it? Everything lives, moves, everything corresponds; the magnetic rays, emanating either from myself or from others, cross the limitless chain of created things unim- peded; it is a transparent network that covers the world, and its slender threads communicate themselves by degrees to the planets and stars. Captive now upon earth, I commune with the chorus of the stars who share in my joys and sorrows
The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life! And yet can we cast out of our spirits all the good or evil poured into them by so many learned generations? Ignorance cannot be learned
I have always differentiated between two types of friends; those who want proofs of friend- ship, and those who do not. One kind loves me for myself, and the others for themselves
The first moments of sleep are an image of death; a hazy torpor grips our thoughts and it becomes impossible for us to determine the exact instant when the ''I,'' under another form, continues the task of existence
Our dreams are a second life. I have never been able to penetrate without a shudder those ivory or horned gates which separate us from the invisible world
It has been rightly said that nothing is unimportant, nothing powerless in the universe; a single atom can dissolve everything, and save everything! What terror! There lies the eternal distinction between good and evilGérard de Nerval (Gérard Labrunie)French Romantic poet, essayist and translator (Died this day 1855) God is dead! Heaven is empty — Weep, children, you no longer have a father
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 26, 2014 9:24:27 GMT 10
In war, you win or lose, live or die — and the difference is just an eyelash
I have known war as few men now living know it. It's very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes
It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear
Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency
Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it
One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda
Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would yield every honor which has been accorded by warBro. Douglas MacArthurAmerican five-star general (Born this day 1880) In war there is no substitute for victory
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 26, 2014 9:25:18 GMT 10
Cultural anthropology is not valuable because it uncovers the archaic in the psychological sense. It is valuable because it is constantly rediscovering the normal
Cultural anthropology is more and more rapidly getting to realize itself as a strictly historical science
Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ord- inarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the 'real world' is to a large extent unconsciously built upon the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached
In a sense, every form of expression is imposed upon one by social factors, one's own language above all
Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations
The psychology of a language which, in one way or another, is imposed upon one because of factors beyond one's control, is very different from the psychology of a language which one accepts of one's free will
We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretationEdward SapirGerman-born American anthropologist-linguist (structural linguistics) (Born this day 1884) What fetters the mind and benumbs the spirit is ever the dogged acceptance of absolutes
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