|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 16, 2014 7:52:02 GMT 10
War seldom ever leads to good results
War has a momentum of its own and it carries you away from all thoughtful intentions when you get into it
Public opinion, or what passes for public opinion, is not invariably a moderating force in the jungle of politics. It may be true, and I suspect it is, that the mass of people everywhere are normally peace- loving and would accept many restraints and sacrifices in preference to the monstrous calamities of war. But I also suspect that what purports to be public opinion in most countries that consider themselves to have popular government is often not really the consensus of the feelings of the mass of the people at all, but rather the expression of the interests of special highly vocal minorities — politicians, commentators, and publicity-seekers of all sorts: people who live by their ability to draw attention to themselves and die, like fish out of water, if they are compelled to remain silent
The counsels of impatience and hatred can always be supported by the crudest and cheapest symbols; for the counsels of moderation, the reasons are often intricate, rather than emotional, and difficult to explain. And so the chauvinists of all times and places go their appointed way: plucking the easy fruits, reaping the little triumphs of the day at the expense of someone else tomorrow, deluging in noise and filth anyone who gets in their way, dancing their reckless dance on the prospects for human progress, drawing the shadow of a great doubt over the validity of democratic institutions. And until people learn to spot the fanning of mass emotions and the sowing of bitterness, suspicion, and intolerance as crimes in themselves — as perhaps the greatest disser- vice that can be done to the cause of popular government — this sort of thing will continue to occur
If the Western world was really going to make a pretense of a higher moral departure point — of greater sympathy and understanding for the human being as God made him, as expressed not only in himself but in the things he had wrought and cared about — then it had to learn to fight its wars morally as well as militarily, or not fight them at all; for moral principles were a part of its strength. Shorn of this strength, it was no longer itself; its victories were not real victories; and the best it would accomplish in the long run would be to pull down the temple over its own head
The best thing we can do if we want the Russians to let us be Americans is to let the Russians be Russians
For the love of God, for the love of your children and of the civilization to which you belong, cease this madness. You are mortal men. You are capable of error. You have no right to hold in your hands — there is no one wise enough and strong enough to hold in his hands — destructive power sufficient to put an end to civilized life on a great portion of our planetGeorge Frost Kennan (“Father of Containment) American advisor, diplomat, political scientist and historian (Born this day 1904) I felt an unshakable conviction that no momentary military advantage — even if such could have been calculated to exist — could have justified this stupendous, careless destruction of civilian life
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 16, 2014 7:53:19 GMT 10
In the New World, happiness is enforced
In Australia inter alia, mediocrities think they’re Socrates
I started off in England and very few people knew I was Australian. I mean, the clues were in the poems, but they didn't read them very carefully, and so for years and years I was considered completely part of the English poetry scene
Much have I travelled in the realms of gold for which I thank the Paddington and Westminster Public Libraries
Language of the liberal dead speaks from the soil of Highgate, tears show a great water table is intact. You cannot leave England, it turns a planet majestically in the mind
A professional is one who believes he has invented breathing
Redeemers always reach the world too late. God dies, we live; God lives, we die. Our fatePeter PorterAustralian-born British poet and critic (Born this day 1929) Somewhere at the heart of the universe sounds the true mystic note: Me
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 16, 2014 7:53:55 GMT 10
I know you can dream your way through an otherwise fine life, and never wake up, which is what I almost did
Humans generally get out the gist of what they need to say right at the beginning, then spend forever qualifying, contradicting, burnishing or taking important things back. You rarely miss anything by cutting most people off after two sentences
Something will be there when the flood recedes. We know that. It will be those people now standing in the water, and on those rooftops - many black, many poor. Homeless. Overlooked. And it will be New Orleans – though its memory may be shortened, its self-gaze and eccentricity scoured out so that what's left is a city more like other cities, less insular, less self-regarding, but possibly more self-knowing after today. A city on firmer ground
It's not surprising. A lot of blacks didn't get to go to school. They were kept from being educated. It hasn't been a question of talent, it's been a question of opportunity
Maturity, as I conceived it, was recognizing what was bad or peculiar in life, admitting it has to stay that way, and going ahead with the best of things
Your life doesn't mean what you have or what you get. Its what you’re willing to give up
Married life requires shared mystery even when all the facts are knownRichard FordPulitzer Prize winning US novelist (Born this day 1944) Someone ... tell us what's important, because we no longer know
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 16, 2014 7:54:47 GMT 10
Oh, they never lie. They dissemble, evade, prevaricate, confound, confuse, distract, obscure, subtly misrepresent and willfully misunderstand with what often appears to be a positively gleeful relish and are generally perfectly capable of contri- ving to give one an utterly unambiguous impression of their future course of action while in fact intending to do exactly the opposite, but they never lie. Perish the thought
The Universe says simply, but with every possible complication, 'Existence' and it neither pressures us nor draws us out, except as we allow. It all boils down to nothing, and where we have the means and will to fix our reference within that flux, then there we are. Let me be part of that outrageous chaos… and I am
You need to read more science fiction. Nobody who reads science fiction comes out with this crap about the end of history
People can be teachers and idiots; they can be philosophers and idiots; they can be politicians and idiots... in fact I think they have to be... a genius can be an idiot. The world is largely run for and by idiots; it is no great handicap in life and in cer- tain areas is actually a distinct advantage and even a prerequisite for advancement
Our lives are about development, mutation and the possibility of change; that is almost a defin- ition of what life is: change ... If you disable change, if you effectively stop time, if you prevent the possibility of the alteration of an individual's circumstances — and that must include at least the possibility that they alter for the worse — then you don't have life after death; you just have death
People were always sorry. Sorry they had done what they had done, sorry they were doing what they were doing, sorry they were going to do what they were going to do; but they still did whatever it is. The sorrow never stopped them; it just made them feel better. And so the sorrow never stopped
Empathize with stupidity and you're halfway to thinking like an idiotIain BanksScottish author (Humanist Society of Scotland) (Born this day 1954) What do I really want? he thinks. This is, of course, an extremely good question. It was just such a pity that, life being as it tended to be, it so rarely came as part of a matched pair, with an extremely good answer
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 16, 2014 7:57:57 GMT 10
A day without an argument is like an egg without salt
Anxiety is the beginning of conscience, which is the parent of the soul but is not compatible with innocence
I think it's one of the scars in our culture that we have too high an opinion of ourselves. We align ourselves with the angels instead of the higher primates
In the mythic schema of all relations between men and women, man proposes, and woman is disposed of
Mother goddesses are just as silly a notion as father gods. If a revival of the myths of these cults gives woman emotional satisfaction, it does so at the price of obscuring the real conditions of life. This is why they were invented in the first place
I haven't changed much, over the years. I use less adjectives, now, and have a kinder heart, perhaps
Nothing is a matter of life and death except life and death
Angela Carter British novelist (Magic Toyshop) (Died this day 1992)
Is not this whole world an illusion? And yet it fools everybody
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 16, 2014 7:58:49 GMT 10
When things don't work well in the bedroom, they don't work well in the living room either
Sex is a natural function. You can't make it happen, but you can teach people to let it happen
The best sex education for kids is when Daddy pats Mommy on the fanny when he comes home from work
A more concise picture of the physiologic reaction to sexual stimuli may be pre- sented by dividing the human male’s and female’s cycles of sexual response into four separate phases. Progressively, the four phases are: (1) the excitement phase; (2) the plateau phase; (3) the orgasmic phase; and (4) the resolution phase
In our culture, the human female’s orgasmic attainment never has achieved the undeniable status afforded the male’s ejaculation. While male orgasm (ejaculation) has the reproductive role in support of its perpetual acceptance, a comparable regard for female orgasm is still in limbo
Three disciplinary foci that have been employed ... in an attempt to interpret the human female’s orgasmic experience. These foci are: (1) physiologic (characteristic physical conditions and reactions during the peak of sex tension increment); (2) psychologic (psychosexual orientation and receptivity to orgasmic attainment); and (3) sociologic (cultural, environmental, and social factors influencing orgasmic incidence or ability)
The “fear of performance” developing from cultural demand for partner satisfaction has been in the past uniquely the burden of the responding maleDr. William H. MastersAmerican gynecologist and sexologist ( Human Sexual Res[ponse) (Died this day 2001) Science by itself has no moral dimension. But it does seek to establish truth. And upon this truth morality can be built
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 17, 2014 9:35:06 GMT 10
Monday’s Quotes:All things are in all
The Divine Light is always in man, presenting itself to the senses and to the comprehension, but man rejects it
We find that everything that makes up difference and number is pure accident, pure show, pure constitution. Every production, of whatever kind, is an alteration, but the substance remains always the same, because it is only one, one divine immortal being
Anything we take in the Universe, because it has in itself that which is All in All, includes in its own way, the entire soul of the world, which is entirely in any part of it
Everywhere there is incessant relative change in position through- out the universe, and the observer is always at the centre of things
It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people
The fools of the world have been those who have established religions, ceremonies, laws, faith, rule of lifeGiordano BrunoItalian philosopher and religious reformer (plurality of worlds) Burnt at stake this day 1600) Perchance you who pronounce my sentence are in greater fear than I who receive it
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 17, 2014 9:35:59 GMT 10
It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I'm right
I prefer a pleasant vice to an annoying virtue
If everyone were clothed with integrity, if every heart were just, frank, kindly, the other virtues would be well-nigh useless
It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do
One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others
Esteem must be founded on preference: to hold everyone in high esteem is to esteem nothing
Some of the most famous books are the least worth reading. Their fame was due to their having done something that needed to be doing in their day. The work is done and the virtue of the book has expiredMolière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin)French playwright ( Learned Lady) (Died this day 1673) Books and marriage go ill together
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 17, 2014 9:37:45 GMT 10
Since the time when equal suffrage was first agitated, the subject has been grossly misrepresented and grossly caricatured... [there is always] the covert sneer, the attempt at witticism, the unkind comparison...
The popular idea of an advocate of women's rights, is this: she is an angular hard-featured withered creature with a shrill, harsh voice, no pretence to comeliness, spectacles on nose, and the repulsive title, “blue-stocking” visible all over her. Metaphorically she is supposed to hang half-way over the bar which separates the sexes, shaking her skinny fist at men and all their works
I don't think it will be difficult to unseat this idea as soon as we can get people to think about the subject at all, for it is remarkable that almost every thinking man who does investigate the topic seriously, at once hands in his allegiance. For, as a clever American woman has said, "There are no arguments against women's suffrage – only objections”
A woman's opinions are useless to her, she may suffer unjustly, she may be wronged, but she has no power to weightily petition against man's laws, no representatives to urge her views, her only method to produce release, redress, or change, is to ceaselessly agitate
Women are what men make them. Why, a woman can't bear a child without it being received into the hands of a male doctor; it is baptized by a fat old male; a girl goes through life obey- ing laws made by men; and if she breaks them, a male magistrate sends her to gaol where a male warder handles her and looks in her cell at night to see if she's all right. If she gets so far as to be hanged, a male hangman puts the rope around her neck; she is buried by a male grave- digger; and she goes to heaven ruled over by a male God or hell managed by a male devil
Why shouldn't a woman be tall and strong? I feel sorry for some of the women that come to see me sometimes; they look so weak and helpless — as if they expected me to pick 'em up and pull 'em to pieces and put 'em together again!
If this mania of abject grovelling to Royal ermine and jeweled heads prevails, the sooner we shake the dust from our knees and hold our heads erect the better. It is high time that the national hope found a Voice... to give to the world the Flag of a Federated Australia, the Great Republic of the Southern SeasLouisa LawsonAustralian 'Mother of Women's Suffrage' (Born this day 1848) I have always loved my countrywomen, always admired them, and believed in them, and believed them to be the most patient, long suffering, generous and capable Women in the whole World. I still think so. It does not seem so odd now as it did years ago, when Austral- ians male and female were not considered as they are now. I had in my mind's eye a big cap- able, strong, virtuous Woman as a Representative of Australia. I saw her in my dreams when little child, and when I grew up I wanted to fight every obstacle out of her way, and I fought, God knows I did with a persistence almost amounting to mania as long as health and means lasted
|
|
|
Post by Tamrin on Feb 17, 2014 9:39:00 GMT 10
Atheism is the last word of theism
God will forgive me; that's his business
In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind, old men as guides
Experience is a good school. But the fees are high
Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid
Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings
He only profits from praise who values criticismBro. Heinrich HeineGerman poet, journalist, essayist and literary critic (Born this day 1856) Ask me not what I have, but what I am
|
|