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Post by Tamrin on Feb 22, 2014 6:44:45 GMT 10
Beauty is whatever gives joy
It's not true that life is one damn thing after another; it's one damn thing over and over
Please give me some good advice in your next letter. I promise not to follow it
I am glad that I paid so little attention to good advice; had I abided by it I might have been saved from some of my most valuable mistakes
My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends — it gives a lovely light!
There is no God. But it does not matter. Man is enough
Soar, eat ether, see what has never been seen; depart, be lost, but climbEdna St Vincent MillayAmerican lyrical poet, playwright and feminist (Born this day 1892) I love humanity but I hate people
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 22, 2014 6:45:28 GMT 10
My mission in life is to make everybody as uneasy as possible. I think we should all be as uneasy as possible, because that's what the world is like
Explaining something makes it go away, so to speak; what's important is left after you have explained everything else
Life is intrinsically, well, boring and dangerous at the same time. At any given moment the floor may open up. Of course, it almost never does; that's what makes it so boring
I realize that homosexuality is a serious problem for anyone who is — but then, of course, heterosexuality is a serious problem for anyone who is, too. And being a man is a serious problem and being a woman is, too. Lots of things are problems
What is, is, and what might have been could never have existed
It's well we cannot hear the screams we make in other people's dreams
When people are finding meaning in things — bewareEdward GoreyAmerican author ( The Doubtful Guest) (Born this day 1925) Books, cats, life is good
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 22, 2014 6:47:56 GMT 10
Of one thing I am certain, the body is not the measure of healing, peace is the measure
When blithe to argument I come, though armed with facts, and merry, may Providence protect me from the fool as adversary, whose mind to him a kingdom is where reason lacks dominion, who calls conviction prejudice and prejudice opinion
Praise is warming and desirable. But it is an earned thing. It has to be deserved, like a hug from a child
Gossip isn't scandal and it's not merely malicious. It's chatter about the human race by lovers of the same
Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart
Nothing fails like success; nothing is so defeated as yesterday's triumphant Cause
Seventy is wormwood, seventy is gall but its better to be seventy, than not alive at allPhyllis McGinley, American writer and poet (Died this day 1978) In Australia, not reading poetry is the national pastime
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 22, 2014 6:50:14 GMT 10
I used to think that everything was just being funny but now I don't know. I mean, how can you tell?
Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art
I've decided something: Commercial things really do stink. As soon as it becomes commercial for a mass market it really stinks
Once you 'got' Pop, you could never see a sign again the same way again. And once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again
I think having land and not ruining it is the most beautiful art that anybody could ever want to own
In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes
I'm bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is "In 15 minutes everybody will be famous”Andy Warhol, US Pop artist (Died this day 1987) I am a deeply superficial person
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 23, 2014 7:49:48 GMT 10
Sunday’s Quotes:But Lord! To see the absurd nature of Englishmen, that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at everything that looks strange
But me thought it lessened my esteem of a king, that he should not be able to command the rain
Strange, to see what delight we married people have to see these poor fools decoyed into our condition, every man and wife gazing and smiling at them
I went out to Charing Cross to see Major General Harrison hanged, drawn, and quartered; which was done there, he looking as cheerful as any man could in that condition
Strange to see how a good dinner and feasting reconciles everybody
The truth is, I do indulge myself a little the more in pleasure, knowing that this is the proper age of my life to do it; and, out of my observation that most men that do thrive in the world do forget to take pleasure during the time that they are getting their estate, but reserve that till they have got one, and then it is too late for them to enjoy it
Thanks be to God. Since my leaving the drinking of wine, I do find myself much better, and do mind my business better, and do spend less money, and less time lost in idle companySamuel PepysEnglish navy expert, composer and diarist (Born this day 1633) I did not like that Clergy should meddle with matters of state!
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 23, 2014 7:50:48 GMT 10
The poetry of the earth is never dead
Scenery is fine — but human nature is finer
I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest
A thing of beauty is a joy forever: its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness
Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?
I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for religion — I have shuddered at it. I shudder no more — I could be martyred for my religion - Love is my religion — I could die for that
My imagination is a monastery and I am its monkJohn KeatsEnglish Romantic poet (Died this day 1821) Severn – lift me up – I am dying – I shall die easy; don't be frightened – be firm, and thank God it has come(Keats’ last words) Here lies one whose name was writ in water(On Keats’ headstone, at his request)
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 23, 2014 7:51:55 GMT 10
One of the most important and familiar manifestations of the unconscious is Instinct, and the conception of Instinct rests on that of purpose
Instinct is purposive action without consciousness of the purpose
Nature never makes use of double means to an end, and refuses instinct where it has granted the means for conscious performance or acquisition
Nature and history, or the origin of the organisms and the development of the human race, are two parallel problems. In both cases the question runs: particular contingency or universal necessity, dead causality or living conformity to an end, mere sport of atoms and individuals or a single plan and general superintendence?
There is no manifestation of will without an exciting cause or motive. The will of the individual is primarily potential, a latent force, and its passage into the manifestation of energy, into definite volition, requires as sufficient reason a motive which always possesses the form of a mental representation
Experience shows that one and the same motive, quite apart from accidental differences of disposition, acts differently on different individuals. Public opinion fails to affect one, is all in all to another. To this man the laurel crown of the poet or a beautiful woman seems contemptible, whilst another sacrifices his life-happiness for their possession
There is no conscious mental activity outside or behind the cerebral function; for if, in conformity with the fore- going, we may assume it proved that eerie disturbance of the normal function of the brain disturbs the activity of consciousness, we may well assume it as certain that, without the complete abolition of the cerebral function, the activity of consciousness is likewise actually abolished, and not merely its manifestation preventedEduard von HartmannGerman philosopher (“Transcendental Realism”) (Born this day 1842) Interest even insinuates itself into pure science, for a favorite hypothesis sharpens the glance for everything confirmative, and causes us to overlook the plainest counterevidence, or to let go out at one ear what comes in at the other
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 23, 2014 7:53:31 GMT 10
The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience
There is always a certain glamour about the idea of a nation rising up to crush an evil simply because it is wrong. Unfortunately, this can seldom be realized in real life; for the very existence of the evil usually argues a moral weakness in the very place where extraordinary moral strength is called for
How shall Integrity face Oppression? What shall Honesty do in the face of Deception, Decency in the face of Insult, Self-Defense before Blows? How shall Desert and Accomplishment meet Despising, Detraction, and Lies? What shall Virtue do to meet Brute Force? There are so many answers and so contradictory; and such differences for those on the one hand who meet questions similar to this once a year or once a decade, and those who face them hourly and daily
Unfortunately there was one thing that the white South feared more than Negro dishonesty, ignorance, and incompetency, and that was Negro honesty, knowledge, and efficiency
Daily the Negro is coming more and more to look upon law and justice, not as protecting safeguards, but as sources of humiliation and oppression. The laws are made by men who have little interest in him; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive for treating the black people with courtesy and consideration; and, finally, the accused law-breaker is tried, not by his peers, but too often by men who would rather punish ten innocent Negroes than let one guilty one escape
To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships
In my own country for nearly a century I have been nothing but a niggerW.E.B. Du BoisAmerican civil rights activist sociologist and historian (Born this day 1868) There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 23, 2014 7:54:20 GMT 10
Man is always something more than what he knows of himself. He is not what he is simply once and for all, but is a process
It is the search for the truth, not possession of the truth which is the way of philosophy. Its questions are more relevant than its answers, and every answer becomes a new question
We cannot avoid conflict, conflict with society, other individuals and with oneself. Conflicts may be the sources of defeat, lost life and a limitation of our potentiality but they may also lead to greater depth of living and the birth of more far-reaching unities, which flourish in the tensions that engender them
Our questions and answers are in part determined by the historical tradition in which we find ourselves. We apprehend truth from our own source within the historical tradition. The content of our truth depends upon our appropriating the historical foundation. Our own power of generation lies in the rebirth of what has been handed down to us. If we do not wish to slip back, nothing must be forgotten; but if philosophising is to be genuine our thoughts must arise from our own source. Hence all appropriation of tradition proceeds from the intent- ness of our own life. The more determinedly I exist, as myself, within the conditions of the time, the more clearly I shall hear the language of the past, the nearer I shall feel the glow of its life
One who would influence the masses must have recourse to the art of advertisement. The clamour of puffery is to-day requisite even for an intellectual movement
When the titanic apparatus of the mass-order has been consolidated, the individual has to serve it, and must from time to time combine with his fellows in order to renovate it. If he wants to make his livelihood by intellectual activity, he will find it very difficult to do this except by satisfying the needs of the many. He must give currency to something that will please the crowd
Man, if he is to remain man, must advance by way of consciousness. There is no road leading backward ... We can no longer veil reality from ourselves by renouncing self-consciousness without simultaneously excluding ourselves from the historical course of human existenceKarl Theodor JaspersGerman psychiatrist and philosopher (“Axial Age”) (Born this day 1883) Reason is like an open secret that can become known to anyone at any time; it is the quiet space into which everyone can enter through his own thought
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Post by Tamrin on Feb 23, 2014 7:59:01 GMT 10
The only people who attain power are those who crave it
Real, appointed, born teachers are almost as rare as heroes and saints
A child who has learnt to read and does so with pleasure, discovers and conquers the second world, the empire of the letters
Not until the courageous have become smart and the smart courageous, can we feel what often has been erroneously declared: an advancement of human kind
You can build something beautiful from stones that are put in your way
One does not show courage with the fist only, one also needs the head
Only one who becomes adult and remains a child, is a person
Emil Erich Kästner German author, poet, screenwriter and satirist (1968 Prize in Literature of Prize in Literature of the German Masonic Order) (Born this day 1899) Who had not worked in other towns and with foreign masters, might not become a master himself. One had to have been away from home as a journeyman if one wanted to become at home a master
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