A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Paternity
Fathers never consciously beget their offspring.
Paternity 416 Joyce: Fatherhood, in the sense of conscious begetting, is unknown to man. Bloom, Western Canon.
Patience
The great sin is impatience, embracing all other sins.
Patience 448 Impatience, Kafka insisted, was the only major sin, embracing all others. Bloom, Western Canon.
Pain has taught me patience.
Patience pain time 87 Oedipus: Patience is what I’ve learnt from pain; from pain and time and my own royalty. Sophocles. Oedipus at Colonus.
Patriotism
Patriotism is hating every other country but one’s own.
Patriotism 244 Voltaire: Patriotism commonly means that one hates every country but one’s own. . Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Voltaire.
Military states hate every other country; industrial society loves one’s own country.
Patriotism 381 Spencer: …patriotism [in an industrial society] becomes the love of one’s country rather than [in military states], a hatred of every other. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.
Peace
Peace does not end all quarrels and conflicts.
Peace 823 Nor was it correct to suppose that peace would end all quarrels and conflict. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Peace does not mean that people have to love each other; it just means that they are tolerant of each other.
Peace 823 JFK: [Peace] does not require that each man love his neighbor—it requires only that they live together in mutual tolerance. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Peace can only occur when people learn to tolerate other people’s differences.
Peace 237 Voltaire: No such perpetual peace as the Abbé de St. Pierre had pleaded for could ever be realized unless men learned to tolerate one another’s philosophic, political and religious differences. . Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Voltaire.
The only peace is in a cemetery.
Peace 283 Kant on the words "eternal peace" [in the world]: These words were once put by a Dutch inn-keeper on his sign-board as a satirical inscription, over the representation of a church-yard cemetery. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
Like health we only appreciate peace when it is absent.
Peace and Health 63 In one respect Peace is like health; we do not sufficiently know its value but by its absence. Charles Inglis, The True Interest of America Impartially Stated, 1776. Hofstadter, ed. Great Issues in American History. Vol. 1. Independence.
Peace Corps
The only goal of the Peace Corps was to help people help themselves; the only recognition came from their own sense of achievement.
Peace Corps 559 Their [the Peace Corp’s] only job…was to help people help themselves …with little recognition or reward beyond their own sense of achievement and growth. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Experience in the Peace Corps gave the volunteers a new understanding of the world and of themselves.
Peace Corps 560 …the extent to which the experience gave the volunteers a new understanding of the world and themselves. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Pedant
A pedant is one who can talk only about books.
Pedant 322 A man who has been brought up among books, and is able to talk of nothing else, is a very indifferent companion, and what we call a pedant. Addison, 6/30/1711. The Spectator.
People
Lincoln brooded over the mystery of personality and man’s behavior.
People 129 Lincoln’s broodings over the mysteries of personality, man’s behavior, the baffling currents of body and mind.... Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years
Perception
No one can understand the perceptions of others.
Perception 11 …no man can ever know whether his sensation of red or of Middle C is the same as another man’s…. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein.
Perfection
Don’t do anything in excess is better than advice to achieve perfection.
Perfection 86 Nurse: ‘Nothing in excess’ is better far than counsels of perfection.
Personal Relationship
Because he had poured out his soul to me, he hated me.
Personal relationship 195 And when he had poured out his heart, he felt ashamed at having shown me his inmost soul like that…began to hate me at once. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
Care for others as you would for children.
Personal relationships 196 …my elder told me once to care for most people exactly as one would for children. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Quotes: Pain. Parents and Children. Paris. Parties. Past.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Pain
He can hurt you with his words, but he cannot make you change your mind.
Pain 136 Antigone: …whatever pain his words may give, he cannot wrench your will away. Sophocles. Oedipus at Colonus.
Pain individualizes.
Pain individual 307 Pain is the most individualizing thing on earth. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Parents and Children
Who doesn’t desire his father’s death?
Parents and children 621 Ivan: He [Smerdyakov] murdered him and I incited him to do it…who doesn’t desire his father’s death? Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
If every child asks his father why he (the child) should love him, the foundations of society would crumble.
Parents and children 678 …if every child is to ask his father why he is to love him, what…will become of the foundations of society? Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
We are happier with our children’s playing than we are with their actions when they grow up, as if they are more important as entertainers than they are as people.
Parents and children 131 …and most commonly we feel ourselves more roused by the prancings, the games, and the infantile antics of our children than we do afterwards by their grown-up actions, as if we had loved them for our pastime, as monkeys, not as men. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Paris
Impressions of Paris.
Paris 90 Paris: Two hundred people sat at little tables on the sidewalk, sipping wine and coffee; the streets were thronged with light vehicles and with joyous pleasure seekers; there was music in the air, life and action all about us, and a conflagration of gaslight everywhere. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Parties
Large parties are intimate; with small parties there is no privacy.
Parties 50 …I like large parties; they’re so intimate; at small parties there isn’t any privacy. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Past
The past exists simultaneously with the present.
Past 129 ...the actuality of Albert Einstein’s simultaneously existing past.... Finney, From Time to Time.
Of course, you can repeat the past.
Past 111 Gatsby: “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously; “why of course you can!” Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Writing about the events of the past makes them seem determined, without the freedom that accompanied those events.
Past 105 Thornton Wilder: A great deal of writing and talking about the past is unacceptable …freezes the historical in a determinism…rob[s] those events of their character of having occurred in freedom. Cowley, ed., Writers at Work.
Writers write about the past as if the characters knew what was going to happen to them.
Past 106 Thornton Wilder: [The writer] recounts the past as though the characters knew what was going to happen next. Cowley, ed., Writers at Work.
Can’t we ever get rid of the past that lies on the present like a giant dead body?
Past and present 509 Holgrave: “Shall we never, never get rid of this past…[which] lies upon the present like a giant’s dead body!” Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.
An old home is poisoned by the forefathers and relatives who lived there.
Past and present 576 There is no such unwholesome atmosphere as that of an old home, rendered poisonous by one’s defunct forefathers and relatives. Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.
Don’t alter the past because you can do unseen damage to the future.
Past future 264 Dr. D: don’t ever, ever alter the past...or you’ll alter the future in a way or ways you cannot know. Finney, From Time to Time.
The idea that people of old handled these pages, but are now gone beyond memory.
Past present 275 …the idea that those same musty pages have been handled by people—once alive and bustling among the scenes there recorded, yet now in their graves beyond the memory of man. Hawthorne, Tales and Sketches
The past is a burden on the present.
Past present 461 “The present is burthened too much with the past.” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
The old New York of 1912 is lying all around me at the same time that I am living in the present.
Past present 130 ...that another New York was here, too, lying invisibly all around me [--the New York of 1912]. Finney, From Time to Time.
The great sin is interfering with the past.
Past sin 120 ...interfering with the past, the great sin. Finney, From Time to Time.
In the old days, there were a lot of queer people around; now, everybody’s the same and there’s no one to laugh about.
Past vs. present 428 "What a lot o' queer folks there used to be about here, anyway, when we was young, Almiry[;] everybody's just like everybody else, now; nobody to laugh about, and nobody to cry about." Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
Pain
He can hurt you with his words, but he cannot make you change your mind.
Pain 136 Antigone: …whatever pain his words may give, he cannot wrench your will away. Sophocles. Oedipus at Colonus.
Pain individualizes.
Pain individual 307 Pain is the most individualizing thing on earth. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Parents and Children
Who doesn’t desire his father’s death?
Parents and children 621 Ivan: He [Smerdyakov] murdered him and I incited him to do it…who doesn’t desire his father’s death? Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
If every child asks his father why he (the child) should love him, the foundations of society would crumble.
Parents and children 678 …if every child is to ask his father why he is to love him, what…will become of the foundations of society? Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
We are happier with our children’s playing than we are with their actions when they grow up, as if they are more important as entertainers than they are as people.
Parents and children 131 …and most commonly we feel ourselves more roused by the prancings, the games, and the infantile antics of our children than we do afterwards by their grown-up actions, as if we had loved them for our pastime, as monkeys, not as men. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Paris
Impressions of Paris.
Paris 90 Paris: Two hundred people sat at little tables on the sidewalk, sipping wine and coffee; the streets were thronged with light vehicles and with joyous pleasure seekers; there was music in the air, life and action all about us, and a conflagration of gaslight everywhere. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Parties
Large parties are intimate; with small parties there is no privacy.
Parties 50 …I like large parties; they’re so intimate; at small parties there isn’t any privacy. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Past
The past exists simultaneously with the present.
Past 129 ...the actuality of Albert Einstein’s simultaneously existing past.... Finney, From Time to Time.
Of course, you can repeat the past.
Past 111 Gatsby: “Can’t repeat the past?” he cried incredulously; “why of course you can!” Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Writing about the events of the past makes them seem determined, without the freedom that accompanied those events.
Past 105 Thornton Wilder: A great deal of writing and talking about the past is unacceptable …freezes the historical in a determinism…rob[s] those events of their character of having occurred in freedom. Cowley, ed., Writers at Work.
Writers write about the past as if the characters knew what was going to happen to them.
Past 106 Thornton Wilder: [The writer] recounts the past as though the characters knew what was going to happen next. Cowley, ed., Writers at Work.
Can’t we ever get rid of the past that lies on the present like a giant dead body?
Past and present 509 Holgrave: “Shall we never, never get rid of this past…[which] lies upon the present like a giant’s dead body!” Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.
An old home is poisoned by the forefathers and relatives who lived there.
Past and present 576 There is no such unwholesome atmosphere as that of an old home, rendered poisonous by one’s defunct forefathers and relatives. Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.
Don’t alter the past because you can do unseen damage to the future.
Past future 264 Dr. D: don’t ever, ever alter the past...or you’ll alter the future in a way or ways you cannot know. Finney, From Time to Time.
The idea that people of old handled these pages, but are now gone beyond memory.
Past present 275 …the idea that those same musty pages have been handled by people—once alive and bustling among the scenes there recorded, yet now in their graves beyond the memory of man. Hawthorne, Tales and Sketches
The past is a burden on the present.
Past present 461 “The present is burthened too much with the past.” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
The old New York of 1912 is lying all around me at the same time that I am living in the present.
Past present 130 ...that another New York was here, too, lying invisibly all around me [--the New York of 1912]. Finney, From Time to Time.
The great sin is interfering with the past.
Past sin 120 ...interfering with the past, the great sin. Finney, From Time to Time.
In the old days, there were a lot of queer people around; now, everybody’s the same and there’s no one to laugh about.
Past vs. present 428 "What a lot o' queer folks there used to be about here, anyway, when we was young, Almiry[;] everybody's just like everybody else, now; nobody to laugh about, and nobody to cry about." Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Quotes: Olive trees. Opera. Oppression. Orator. Order. Organization. Oriental Spirit. Originality. Owls. Oxymoron.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Olive Trees
Olive trees are humorists with twisted trunks and boughs.
Olive trees 1095 …those old humorists with gnarled trunks and twisted boughs, the olives. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Opera
When churches lost fashion, opera houses took their place.
Opera 242 Opera houses came in when churches went out. Clark, Civilization.
Sparrows fly all over the opera house, causing concern by the audience about their heads and disrupting the scenes.
Opera 19 But to return to the sparrows: There have been so many flights of them let loose in this opera, that it is feared the House will never get rid of them; and that in other plays they may make their entrance in very wrong and improper scenes, so as to be seen flying in a lady’s bed chamber or perching upon a king’s throne; besides the inconveniences which the heads of the audience may sometimes suffer from them. Addison, 3/6/1711. The Spectator.
Oppression
The oppressed shape themselves in the image of their oppressors.
Oppression 101 It is startling to see how the oppressed almost invariably shape themselves in the image of their hated oppressors. Hoffer, The True Believer
Orator
With regard to Webster, wrong looked right and right, wrong.
Orator 292 Hawthorne on Daniel Webster: “So wonderfully eloquent was he…that whatever he might choose to say, his auditors had no choice but to believe him; wrong looked right, and right looked wrong. [orator]. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Preparation is a necessity. A fine oration does not make great warriors, just as a musician does not become good from hearing a fine song.
Oratory 431 Cyrus: “That men are not made valiant and warlike all of a sudden by a fine oration, any more than a man becomes at once a good musician by hearing a fine song” …apprenticeships… have to be served beforehand by a long and continued education. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Order
National Socialism promised to establish order and stability.
Order 229 …a new regime that promised to substitute order, stability, efficiency, and “national values….” Bracher, The German Dictatorship
The power and apparent success of National Socialism gave the impression of order and unity and overcame any reservations.
Order 245 Stronger than any reservations was the pull of power and apparent success, the impression of order and unity, the recollection of the pre-democratic authoritarian state, and the belief in the unlimited promises of the regime. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Organization
The movement was so organized that it had perfected itself before becoming the institution in power.
Organization 139 The movement was to be so organized that not only would it “in itself contain the germ of the future state” but “also have it in readiness as the perfected embodiment of its own state.” Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Order is a requirement for successful activity.
Organization 99 …the prime condition of successful activity is order…. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Form and procedure of the deliberations were perfect, thus avoiding substance.
Organizations 547 He remembered the conscientious and prolonged deliberations that took place at those meetings on every point relating to form and procedure, and how sedulously and promptly all that touched the substance of the business was evaded. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
The belief that totalitarian organization is perfect is a myth.
Organized 236 …widespread idea about the better organized and more effective “order” of totalitarian one-man rule is a myth all too easily believed in crisis-ridden democracies. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
The organization of animal and plant metabolism is so remarkable that we take it for granted.
Organizing 142 …the sheer organizing power of animal and plant metabolism is…most remarkable, but, as in the case of most everyday marvels, we take it for granted. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Not everything in the world should be perfectly organized.
Organizing 51 We acquired the organizing habit with a vengeance and have not since had time to reflect that there may be things in the world that it would be a profanation to organize—courtship for example—or things not worth organizing…or things that cannot be organized, or if organizable, better left as they are—scientific research perhaps. W M Wheeler. 1920. A Random Walk in Science.
Oriental Spirit
The oriental spirit: apathy and resignation.
Oriental spirit 94 …the Oriental spirit of apathy and resignation…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
Originality
Originality is relative.
Originality 715 Thus, all originality is relative. Emerson, Representative Men: Shakespeare, or the Poet.
Originality is like morning, springtime and other renewals.
Originality 217 …showing such originality as we all share with the morning and the spring-time and other endless renewals. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
Owls
Owls drift across the night.
Owls 104 Owls…drift silently as smoke across the night air. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Oxymoron
Oxymoron 314 “Civilized warfare.” Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Olive Trees
Olive trees are humorists with twisted trunks and boughs.
Olive trees 1095 …those old humorists with gnarled trunks and twisted boughs, the olives. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Opera
When churches lost fashion, opera houses took their place.
Opera 242 Opera houses came in when churches went out. Clark, Civilization.
Sparrows fly all over the opera house, causing concern by the audience about their heads and disrupting the scenes.
Opera 19 But to return to the sparrows: There have been so many flights of them let loose in this opera, that it is feared the House will never get rid of them; and that in other plays they may make their entrance in very wrong and improper scenes, so as to be seen flying in a lady’s bed chamber or perching upon a king’s throne; besides the inconveniences which the heads of the audience may sometimes suffer from them. Addison, 3/6/1711. The Spectator.
Oppression
The oppressed shape themselves in the image of their oppressors.
Oppression 101 It is startling to see how the oppressed almost invariably shape themselves in the image of their hated oppressors. Hoffer, The True Believer
Orator
With regard to Webster, wrong looked right and right, wrong.
Orator 292 Hawthorne on Daniel Webster: “So wonderfully eloquent was he…that whatever he might choose to say, his auditors had no choice but to believe him; wrong looked right, and right looked wrong. [orator]. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Preparation is a necessity. A fine oration does not make great warriors, just as a musician does not become good from hearing a fine song.
Oratory 431 Cyrus: “That men are not made valiant and warlike all of a sudden by a fine oration, any more than a man becomes at once a good musician by hearing a fine song” …apprenticeships… have to be served beforehand by a long and continued education. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Order
National Socialism promised to establish order and stability.
Order 229 …a new regime that promised to substitute order, stability, efficiency, and “national values….” Bracher, The German Dictatorship
The power and apparent success of National Socialism gave the impression of order and unity and overcame any reservations.
Order 245 Stronger than any reservations was the pull of power and apparent success, the impression of order and unity, the recollection of the pre-democratic authoritarian state, and the belief in the unlimited promises of the regime. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Organization
The movement was so organized that it had perfected itself before becoming the institution in power.
Organization 139 The movement was to be so organized that not only would it “in itself contain the germ of the future state” but “also have it in readiness as the perfected embodiment of its own state.” Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Order is a requirement for successful activity.
Organization 99 …the prime condition of successful activity is order…. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Form and procedure of the deliberations were perfect, thus avoiding substance.
Organizations 547 He remembered the conscientious and prolonged deliberations that took place at those meetings on every point relating to form and procedure, and how sedulously and promptly all that touched the substance of the business was evaded. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
The belief that totalitarian organization is perfect is a myth.
Organized 236 …widespread idea about the better organized and more effective “order” of totalitarian one-man rule is a myth all too easily believed in crisis-ridden democracies. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
The organization of animal and plant metabolism is so remarkable that we take it for granted.
Organizing 142 …the sheer organizing power of animal and plant metabolism is…most remarkable, but, as in the case of most everyday marvels, we take it for granted. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Not everything in the world should be perfectly organized.
Organizing 51 We acquired the organizing habit with a vengeance and have not since had time to reflect that there may be things in the world that it would be a profanation to organize—courtship for example—or things not worth organizing…or things that cannot be organized, or if organizable, better left as they are—scientific research perhaps. W M Wheeler. 1920. A Random Walk in Science.
Oriental Spirit
The oriental spirit: apathy and resignation.
Oriental spirit 94 …the Oriental spirit of apathy and resignation…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
Originality
Originality is relative.
Originality 715 Thus, all originality is relative. Emerson, Representative Men: Shakespeare, or the Poet.
Originality is like morning, springtime and other renewals.
Originality 217 …showing such originality as we all share with the morning and the spring-time and other endless renewals. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
Owls
Owls drift across the night.
Owls 104 Owls…drift silently as smoke across the night air. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Oxymoron
Oxymoron 314 “Civilized warfare.” Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Quotes: Old Age
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Old Age
Few people know how to grow old.
Old age 48 LaRochefoucauld said that “Few know how to grow old.” Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.
If I were a figure in wax, it would be just as well because I go through the same routine every day.
Old Age 231 I said to myself yesterday that a figure of me in wax would do just as well…I get up and dress myself, and make the journey downstairs, and sit here at the window and have my dinner and go through the same round day after day. Jewett, A Country Doctor.
The old mariners sun themselves every morning on the wharves.
Old age 49 …the ancient mariners, who may be found every pleasant morning sunning themselves like turtles on one of the wharves. Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
He hoarded his wealth in order to maintain the respect of his relatives.
Old Age 133 And if a man should reply to me, as a lord of good understanding once did, that he hoarded up wealth not to extract any other fruit and use from it but to make himself honored and sought after by his own relations, and that age having deprived him of all other powers, it was the only remedy left to him for maintaining his authority in his family and for avoiding being scorned and despised by everybody…. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
The mind must rescue me from old age.
Old age 321 …it is the privilege of the mind to rescue itself from old age. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
As we grow older, we lose our closeness to nature because of our accumulation of experience.
Old age 1059 We all of us, as we grow older…lose somewhat of our proximity to nature…the price we pay for experience. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
She was older by a hundred wrinkles.
Old age 458 Epigenes: She’s worse than the other, worse by a hundred wrinkles. Ecclesiazusae.
He was the leader of “Young America” against the old fogies who were people of hesitation.
Old Fogies 199 Douglas had become the foremost dramatic leader of the Democratic Party, speaking, as he said, for “Young America” as against “Old Fogies,” meaning Cass, Buchanan and other figures of hesitation. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years
Old Age
Few people know how to grow old.
Old age 48 LaRochefoucauld said that “Few know how to grow old.” Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.
If I were a figure in wax, it would be just as well because I go through the same routine every day.
Old Age 231 I said to myself yesterday that a figure of me in wax would do just as well…I get up and dress myself, and make the journey downstairs, and sit here at the window and have my dinner and go through the same round day after day. Jewett, A Country Doctor.
The old mariners sun themselves every morning on the wharves.
Old age 49 …the ancient mariners, who may be found every pleasant morning sunning themselves like turtles on one of the wharves. Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
He hoarded his wealth in order to maintain the respect of his relatives.
Old Age 133 And if a man should reply to me, as a lord of good understanding once did, that he hoarded up wealth not to extract any other fruit and use from it but to make himself honored and sought after by his own relations, and that age having deprived him of all other powers, it was the only remedy left to him for maintaining his authority in his family and for avoiding being scorned and despised by everybody…. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
The mind must rescue me from old age.
Old age 321 …it is the privilege of the mind to rescue itself from old age. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
As we grow older, we lose our closeness to nature because of our accumulation of experience.
Old age 1059 We all of us, as we grow older…lose somewhat of our proximity to nature…the price we pay for experience. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
She was older by a hundred wrinkles.
Old age 458 Epigenes: She’s worse than the other, worse by a hundred wrinkles. Ecclesiazusae.
He was the leader of “Young America” against the old fogies who were people of hesitation.
Old Fogies 199 Douglas had become the foremost dramatic leader of the Democratic Party, speaking, as he said, for “Young America” as against “Old Fogies,” meaning Cass, Buchanan and other figures of hesitation. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years
Monday, August 27, 2007
Quotes: Objectives; Objectivity. Obscenity. Obscurity. Obsession. Obstructions. Occupation.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Objectives
Military action has to have political objectives.
Objectives 360 JFK: The paper indicates no relationship between the proposed military action and larger political objectives. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Objectivity
Passionate participant cannot be objective.
Objectivity 6 JFK: An impassioned participant cannot be an objective observer. Sorenson, Kennedy
Obscenity
Epithets are not obscene; tolerance of inhumanity by those in power is genuinely obscene.
Obscenity 427 [About Lenny Bruce]: Bruce was saying that individual foul epithets were not obscene; it was the tolerance of all kinds of inhumanity by people in power which was genuinely obscene. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
Obscurity
It seems deep because it is obscure.
Obscurity in meaning 502 They will conclude that there is depth to my meaning because of the obscurity. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Obsession
I wish there were a cure for obsession.
Obsession 325 Johnson: I wish there were some cure…for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
He has only one idea, and it is wrong.
Obsession 393 Johnson: That fellow seems to me to possess one idea, and that is a wrong one. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
Obstructions
Any time is the right time if we know what to do with it.
Obstructions 68 This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Emerson, The American Scholar.
Occupation
Our occupations tend to be funny in nature.
Occupation 520 Most of our occupations smack of comedy. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Objectives
Military action has to have political objectives.
Objectives 360 JFK: The paper indicates no relationship between the proposed military action and larger political objectives. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Objectivity
Passionate participant cannot be objective.
Objectivity 6 JFK: An impassioned participant cannot be an objective observer. Sorenson, Kennedy
Obscenity
Epithets are not obscene; tolerance of inhumanity by those in power is genuinely obscene.
Obscenity 427 [About Lenny Bruce]: Bruce was saying that individual foul epithets were not obscene; it was the tolerance of all kinds of inhumanity by people in power which was genuinely obscene. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
Obscurity
It seems deep because it is obscure.
Obscurity in meaning 502 They will conclude that there is depth to my meaning because of the obscurity. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Obsession
I wish there were a cure for obsession.
Obsession 325 Johnson: I wish there were some cure…for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
He has only one idea, and it is wrong.
Obsession 393 Johnson: That fellow seems to me to possess one idea, and that is a wrong one. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
Obstructions
Any time is the right time if we know what to do with it.
Obstructions 68 This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Emerson, The American Scholar.
Occupation
Our occupations tend to be funny in nature.
Occupation 520 Most of our occupations smack of comedy. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Quotes: Novel. November. Nuclear Holocaust.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Novel
Each novel is a new, self-contained world.
Novel 273 As the French novelist François Mauriac has remarked, each great novel is a separate and distinct world operating under its own laws with a flora and fauna totally its own. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Each element in a novel is interrelated.
Novel 233 John Irving quoting D.H. Lawrence: The novel is the highest example of subtle interrelatedness that man has discovered. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
Novels are a form of new experience.
Novel 354 Bernard Malamud: The human race needs the novel[;] we need all the experience we can get. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
Novels dealt with probability; romances with legend.
Novel romance legend 352 …tried hard to define the differences between the novel proper and the romance…the novel aimed at “a very minute fidelity, not merely to the possible, but to the probable and ordinary course of man’s experience”…a romance because…it dealt with a legend…. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
November
I wish he were here to put November in perspective for us.
November xiii I wish he [Ted Browning] were here to put it in perspective for us. D. Thomas, Editor, The Kennett Paper. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Nuclear Holocaust
A nuclear holocaust would be the equivalent of five hundred WWII’s.
Nuclear Holocaust 597 When that day comes, and there is a massive exchange, then that is the end, because you are talking about…150 million fatalities in the first eighteen hours”…the equivalent for this country of five hundred World War II’s in less than a day. Sorenson, Kennedy
In the era of nuclear war, misjudgment on either side could produce more devastation than all the wars in history.
Nuclear war 364 In the thermonuclear age, any misjudgment on either side about the intentions of the other could rain more devastation in several hours than has been wrought in all the wars of human history. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Khrushchev: England, could be destroyed by only six nuclear bombs, France by eight.
Nuclear war 420 Khrushchev: In early July…remarked to the British Ambassador in his genial way that it would take only six nuclear bombs to destroy England, eight to destroy France. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Khrushchev boasted of detonating a bomb 2500 times bigger than the one that killed 100,000 in Hiroshima and 5 times larger than the total of all explosives in all wars in human history.
Nuclear war 426 Soon [Khrushchev] was boasting to the Communist 22nd Congress of his intention to detonate a 50-megaton bomb—2500 times bigger than the one which had killed 100,000 people at Hiroshima and five times larger than the total of all high explosives used in all the wars in human history. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Novel
Each novel is a new, self-contained world.
Novel 273 As the French novelist François Mauriac has remarked, each great novel is a separate and distinct world operating under its own laws with a flora and fauna totally its own. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Each element in a novel is interrelated.
Novel 233 John Irving quoting D.H. Lawrence: The novel is the highest example of subtle interrelatedness that man has discovered. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
Novels are a form of new experience.
Novel 354 Bernard Malamud: The human race needs the novel[;] we need all the experience we can get. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
Novels dealt with probability; romances with legend.
Novel romance legend 352 …tried hard to define the differences between the novel proper and the romance…the novel aimed at “a very minute fidelity, not merely to the possible, but to the probable and ordinary course of man’s experience”…a romance because…it dealt with a legend…. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
November
I wish he were here to put November in perspective for us.
November xiii I wish he [Ted Browning] were here to put it in perspective for us. D. Thomas, Editor, The Kennett Paper. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Nuclear Holocaust
A nuclear holocaust would be the equivalent of five hundred WWII’s.
Nuclear Holocaust 597 When that day comes, and there is a massive exchange, then that is the end, because you are talking about…150 million fatalities in the first eighteen hours”…the equivalent for this country of five hundred World War II’s in less than a day. Sorenson, Kennedy
In the era of nuclear war, misjudgment on either side could produce more devastation than all the wars in history.
Nuclear war 364 In the thermonuclear age, any misjudgment on either side about the intentions of the other could rain more devastation in several hours than has been wrought in all the wars of human history. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Khrushchev: England, could be destroyed by only six nuclear bombs, France by eight.
Nuclear war 420 Khrushchev: In early July…remarked to the British Ambassador in his genial way that it would take only six nuclear bombs to destroy England, eight to destroy France. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Khrushchev boasted of detonating a bomb 2500 times bigger than the one that killed 100,000 in Hiroshima and 5 times larger than the total of all explosives in all wars in human history.
Nuclear war 426 Soon [Khrushchev] was boasting to the Communist 22nd Congress of his intention to detonate a 50-megaton bomb—2500 times bigger than the one which had killed 100,000 people at Hiroshima and five times larger than the total of all high explosives used in all the wars in human history. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Quotes: Necessity. Negotiation. Nemesis. Neurosis. New England. News. Night. Nonchalance. Nonconformist. North and South. Nostalgia.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Necessity
Necessity is beautiful.
Necessity 967 Let us build altars to the Beautiful Necessity. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Fate.
Negotiation
Negotiation leaves everyone disappointed.
Negotiation 89 JFK: A truly just solution will leave every nation somewhat disappointed. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Never corner an opponent; always let him save face.
Negotiation 108 Liddell Hart: Never corner an opponent, and always assist him to save his face. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK tried to restore communication with his opponent and to find areas on which they could agree.
Negotiation 811 So his [Kennedy’s] first instinct after the missile crisis had been to restore communication with his adversary and resume the search for areas of common interest. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
True negotiations are not about victory or defeat.
Negotiation 581 JFK: “Negotiations…are not a contest spelling victory or defeat.” Sorenson, Kennedy
Orientals save face of individuals, Westerners, institutions.
Negotiation 230 Orientals must save the “face” of individuals; Anglo-Saxons must save the face of institutions. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
He came up on his opponent quietly.
Negotiation, metaphor 794 As John Randolph said of Van Buren, he ‘rowed to his object with muffled oars.’ Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
The mediator must be prepared to make everyone mad if it means progress.
Negotiations 654 JFK: The role of the mediator is not a happy one; we are prepared to have everybody mad if it makes some progress. Sorenson, Kennedy
Nemesis
Nemesis lets no offense pass unpunished.
Nemesis 292 ...that ancient doctrine of Nemesis, who keeps watch in the universe, and lets no offense go unchastised. Emerson, Compensation.
Neurosis
People who are neurotic go from doctor to doctor trying to find cures for what is not wrong with them.
Neurosis 107 There is a wandering group of neurotics in every city, running to each new doctor in the hopes of miracle cures for non-existent illnesses…thousands of bright, healthy men and women who need an illness, need a pain. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
New England
New England is the land of schools.
New England 29 …set out for New England, the land of schools. Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise.
News
All news is gossip and people who write it gossip mongers.
News 397 …all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. Thoreau, Walden.
Most news could have been written twelve years ago and twelve years in the future.
News 397 …news which I seriously think a ready wit might write a twelvemonth or twelve years beforehand with sufficient accuracy. Thoreau, Walden.
Reading a newspaper 50 years old is not much different from reading the newspaper today.
Newspapers 71 J.P. Donleavy: Indeed, in Ireland, to read a local paper that’s 50 years old is not much different than reading today’s. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
Night
Modern civilization is out of touch with the night.
Night 168 Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The experience of night is almost a religious emotion.
Night 176 Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Impressions of London streets at night.
Nighttime 53 [London streets in the evenings]: …the heavy lazy mist, which hangs over every object, makes the gas lamps look brighter, and the brilliantly-lighted shops more splendid, from the contrast they present to the darkness around. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.
On nights like this, people at home make themselves snug and the envy of those who pass outside.
Nighttime 53 All the people who are at home on such a night as this, seem disposed to make themselves as snug and comfortable as possible; and the passengers in the streets have excellent reason to envy the fortunate individuals who are seated by their own firesides. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.
Nonchalance
Maintaining my nonchalance costs me.
Nonchalance 200 I put down to the account of my expenses what it costs me to nourish and maintain my nonchalance Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Nonconformist
To be a man, one must be a nonconformist.
Nonconformist 261 Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. Emerson, Self-Reliance.
North and South
The North hungers for truth, the South for beauty.
North and South 169 [Spinoza] had the northern hunger for truth rather than the southern lust for beauty. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.
Nostalgia
In the past, days were longer and slower.
Nostalgia 137 But Fielding lived when the days were longer…when summer afternoons were spacious, and the clock ticked slowly in the winter evenings. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
Necessity
Necessity is beautiful.
Necessity 967 Let us build altars to the Beautiful Necessity. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Fate.
Negotiation
Negotiation leaves everyone disappointed.
Negotiation 89 JFK: A truly just solution will leave every nation somewhat disappointed. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Never corner an opponent; always let him save face.
Negotiation 108 Liddell Hart: Never corner an opponent, and always assist him to save his face. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK tried to restore communication with his opponent and to find areas on which they could agree.
Negotiation 811 So his [Kennedy’s] first instinct after the missile crisis had been to restore communication with his adversary and resume the search for areas of common interest. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
True negotiations are not about victory or defeat.
Negotiation 581 JFK: “Negotiations…are not a contest spelling victory or defeat.” Sorenson, Kennedy
Orientals save face of individuals, Westerners, institutions.
Negotiation 230 Orientals must save the “face” of individuals; Anglo-Saxons must save the face of institutions. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
He came up on his opponent quietly.
Negotiation, metaphor 794 As John Randolph said of Van Buren, he ‘rowed to his object with muffled oars.’ Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
The mediator must be prepared to make everyone mad if it means progress.
Negotiations 654 JFK: The role of the mediator is not a happy one; we are prepared to have everybody mad if it makes some progress. Sorenson, Kennedy
Nemesis
Nemesis lets no offense pass unpunished.
Nemesis 292 ...that ancient doctrine of Nemesis, who keeps watch in the universe, and lets no offense go unchastised. Emerson, Compensation.
Neurosis
People who are neurotic go from doctor to doctor trying to find cures for what is not wrong with them.
Neurosis 107 There is a wandering group of neurotics in every city, running to each new doctor in the hopes of miracle cures for non-existent illnesses…thousands of bright, healthy men and women who need an illness, need a pain. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
New England
New England is the land of schools.
New England 29 …set out for New England, the land of schools. Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise.
News
All news is gossip and people who write it gossip mongers.
News 397 …all news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea. Thoreau, Walden.
Most news could have been written twelve years ago and twelve years in the future.
News 397 …news which I seriously think a ready wit might write a twelvemonth or twelve years beforehand with sufficient accuracy. Thoreau, Walden.
Reading a newspaper 50 years old is not much different from reading the newspaper today.
Newspapers 71 J.P. Donleavy: Indeed, in Ireland, to read a local paper that’s 50 years old is not much different than reading today’s. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
Night
Modern civilization is out of touch with the night.
Night 168 Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The experience of night is almost a religious emotion.
Night 176 Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Impressions of London streets at night.
Nighttime 53 [London streets in the evenings]: …the heavy lazy mist, which hangs over every object, makes the gas lamps look brighter, and the brilliantly-lighted shops more splendid, from the contrast they present to the darkness around. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.
On nights like this, people at home make themselves snug and the envy of those who pass outside.
Nighttime 53 All the people who are at home on such a night as this, seem disposed to make themselves as snug and comfortable as possible; and the passengers in the streets have excellent reason to envy the fortunate individuals who are seated by their own firesides. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.
Nonchalance
Maintaining my nonchalance costs me.
Nonchalance 200 I put down to the account of my expenses what it costs me to nourish and maintain my nonchalance Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Nonconformist
To be a man, one must be a nonconformist.
Nonconformist 261 Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist. Emerson, Self-Reliance.
North and South
The North hungers for truth, the South for beauty.
North and South 169 [Spinoza] had the northern hunger for truth rather than the southern lust for beauty. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.
Nostalgia
In the past, days were longer and slower.
Nostalgia 137 But Fielding lived when the days were longer…when summer afternoons were spacious, and the clock ticked slowly in the winter evenings. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Quotes: Nazis
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows. Note: The quotes in this blog on the topic of "Nazism" are some of the most graphic statements on the inhuman treatment of innocent people in the history of civilization. Readers should be forewarned.
Nazis
Nazi actions had not been all that different from the American slaughter of the Indians.
Nazi defense 319 Ribbentrop thought that the German actions had not been all that different from American and the British: “Haven’t you heard about how the Americans slaughtered the Indians…an inferior race too?” Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi actions were not that different from the actions of the British during the Boer War.
Nazi defense 319 The Boer War between Dutch settlers and the British colonists in South Africa had evolved into guerrilla warfare between 1899 and 1902…British cleared the countryside and herded 120,000 women and children into concentration camps…approximately 20,000 died from disease and neglect. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Hoss did not commit the murders at Auschwitz; he was simply the executioner.
Nazi defense 424 But that murder [Auschwitz] was not committed by Hoss; Hoss was merely the executioner. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazis had simply been following the principles of Henry Ford’s efficiency engineering.
Nazi defense 430 In demanding that workers “must be fed, housed, and treated in such a way that with the least possible effort the greatest possible results will be achieved,” Sauckel claimed, on the witness stand, he had merely been following the principles of Henry Ford’s efficiency engineering. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazi official claimed he worked in Czechoslovakia because he was a moderating influence.
Nazi official’s defense 450 Neurath claimed…that he had…retained his position in Czechoslovakia as long as possible in order to provide a moderating influence. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazis targeted the clergy, aristocracy, intelligentsia and Jews in order to eliminate any vestige of Polish nationalism.
Nazism 189 Hitler: …to break all elements of the Polish will to resist[,] it is especially necessary to eliminate the clergy, the aristocracy, the intelligentsia and the Jews…all…to be expelled from the four westernmost provinces of Poland, which were to be annexed to Germany[;] the most prominent and vigorous of the men were to be exterminated so as to extirpate all nationalism and ethnic identity, and leave the masses without leadership. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Personal freedom must be sacrificed to preserving the race.
Nazism 205 Mein Kampf: The right of personal freedom recedes before the duty to preserve the race. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Sick people contaminate the healthy people, so eliminate them.
Nazism 205 Mein Kampf: It is a half measure to let incurably sick people steadily contaminate the remaining healthy ones. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
When people resisted, the Nazis increased the terror.
Nazism 278 Under Hitler’s directives, the only German reaction to resistance was to intensify terror. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
How could Germany with its Christian and humanistic heritage return to such primitive barbarism?
Nazism 285 Francois de Menthon: How can one explain how Germany, fertilized through the centuries by classic antiquity and Christianity, by the ideals of liberty, equality, and social justice, by the common heritage of western humanism to which she had brought such noble and precious contributions, could have come to this astonishing return to primitive barbarism? Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Germany’s primitive passions had been aroused and led to atrocities.
Nazism 318 DuBost: Evil masters came who awakened its [Germany’s] primitive passions and made possible the atrocities which I have described to you. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazis’ crime was their policy of exterminating innocent people.
Nazism 318 DuBost: Their crime is that they conceived and achieved, as an instrument of government, a policy of terrorism toward the whole of the subjugated nations and toward their own people; their crime is that they pursued, as an end in itself, a policy of extermination of entire categories of innocent citizens…[which] alone would suffice to determine capital punishment. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Hess: Hitler, the greatest son ever brought forth upon the earth.
Nazism 478 Hess: I was permitted to work for many years of my life under the greatest son whom my people have brought forth in its thousand-year history. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
In Nuremberg only a small number of those responsible for Nazi actions were tried; Nazi responsibility also lay with hundreds of decision-makers, thousands of deputies and tens of thousands of the rank and file.
Nazism 516 From the evidence presented, it was clear that beyond the twenty-one men tried, decision-makers and perpetrators of major criminal acts ranged into the hundreds, their deputies into the thousands, and the rank and file directly involved into the tens of thousands. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
In the future, the Nazi experience will never be forgotten.
Nazism 523 Karl S. Bader: Nobody who considers the years 1933 to 1945 will in future time be able to pass by this material, tremendous in its extent and value for the perception of the errors of man. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi accounting not for human beings but for deliveries of carcasses.
Nazism and bureaucracy 259 But the episode revealed the inhuman banality of the perpetrators of the Final Solution—Eichmann had not thought in terms of human beings, of despair and agony, terror and torture, but of Judenmateriel: So and so many Jewish carcasses that he had contracted to deliver. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi “problems” can only be resolved with “ruthless severity.”
Nazism and decision making 268 Bormann and Goebbels: It lies in the very nature of these problems, which in part are very difficult, that they can be solved only with ruthless severity. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
According to the Nazis, it is more difficult to “discipline” “obstructive populations” than to fight the war.
Nazism and discipline 212 Himmler: Where we had to have the toughness…to shoot thousands of leading Poles…much easier to go into combat than to suppress an obstructive population…or to carry out executions, or to haul away people, or to evict crying and hysterical women. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi “character”: To remain “decent” people when we have been responsible for thousands of corpses lying side by side, that is what it means to be “hard,” a glorious page in our history.
Nazism and discipline 269 Himmler: Most of you must know what it means when a hundred corpses are lying side by side, or five hundred, or a thousand [but] to have stuck it out and at the same time remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard…a page of glory in our history…. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi euphemism: We are not conquering people, but agriculturally necessary space.
Nazism and doublespeak 136 Hitler: It is not a case of conquering people, but of conquering agriculturally useful space. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi economics: “Worthless” people cost far more than average laborers and civil servants; it is not economically sound to support them.
Nazism and economics 205 A German medical economist pointed out, in an article entitled “The Fight Against Degeneration,” that the care of a deaf-mute or cripple cost 6 marks a day, that of a reform school inmate 4.85 marks, and that of a mentally ill or deficient person 4.5 marks…average earnings of a laborer…only 2.5 marks and those of a civil servant 4 marks daily…state spends far more for the existence of these actually worthless compatriots than for the salary of a healthy man…. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazi reason for euthanasia is to relieve people of their suffering.
Nazism and euthanasia 207 The reason [for euthanasia] was to make room for sick soldiers, but otherwise also the reason was to relieve these people from their suffering. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Euthanasia is necessary because efficient nations have no room for weak and frail people.
Nazism and euthanasia 209 Bishop Wurm to Frick: the basis for this practice [euthanasia exterminations] seems to be the opinion that in an efficient nation there is no room for weak and frail people. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazi extermination “program” showed how fragmenting authority and tasks led to an efficient system for murder.
Nazism and extermination 210 The euthanasia program, serving as the prototype for the extermination of millions that was to follow, demonstrated how, through fragmentation of authority and tasks, it was possible to fashion a murder machine. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The unsightly shooting of women and children led to use of the gas chambers.
Nazism and extermination 262 The drawbacks and difficulties of shooting women and children had become evident…and led to the invention of the gas vans. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The great conquerors of history are not viewed as murderers.
Nazism and history 204 Goering: Don’t forget that the great conquerors of history are not seen as murderers-Genghis Khan, Peter the Great, Frederick the Great…. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Following orders was not illegal; they had sworn obedience to the people who gave the orders.
Nazism and legality 238 Ohlendorf: Since the order was issued by the superior authorities, the question of legality could not arise…for they had sworn obedience to the people who had issued the orders. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The priests’ job is to keep Poles quiet.
Nazism and religion 213 Frank: the task of the priest is to keep the Poles quiet, stupid, and dull-witted. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Although thousands were responsible, they considered themselves cogs in the machine and the machine was responsible.
Nazism and responsibility 21 Thousands of people were involved, but each considered himself nothing but a cog in the machine and reasoned that it was the machine, not he, that was responsible. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Hitler had no trouble finding physicians and medical personnel to carry out his decisions.
Nazism and the Professions 205 As was the case throughout the Nazi regime in all the various professions, Hitler had no difficulty finding doctors, nurses, and hospitals to execute his designs. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazis
Nazi actions had not been all that different from the American slaughter of the Indians.
Nazi defense 319 Ribbentrop thought that the German actions had not been all that different from American and the British: “Haven’t you heard about how the Americans slaughtered the Indians…an inferior race too?” Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi actions were not that different from the actions of the British during the Boer War.
Nazi defense 319 The Boer War between Dutch settlers and the British colonists in South Africa had evolved into guerrilla warfare between 1899 and 1902…British cleared the countryside and herded 120,000 women and children into concentration camps…approximately 20,000 died from disease and neglect. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Hoss did not commit the murders at Auschwitz; he was simply the executioner.
Nazi defense 424 But that murder [Auschwitz] was not committed by Hoss; Hoss was merely the executioner. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazis had simply been following the principles of Henry Ford’s efficiency engineering.
Nazi defense 430 In demanding that workers “must be fed, housed, and treated in such a way that with the least possible effort the greatest possible results will be achieved,” Sauckel claimed, on the witness stand, he had merely been following the principles of Henry Ford’s efficiency engineering. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazi official claimed he worked in Czechoslovakia because he was a moderating influence.
Nazi official’s defense 450 Neurath claimed…that he had…retained his position in Czechoslovakia as long as possible in order to provide a moderating influence. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazis targeted the clergy, aristocracy, intelligentsia and Jews in order to eliminate any vestige of Polish nationalism.
Nazism 189 Hitler: …to break all elements of the Polish will to resist[,] it is especially necessary to eliminate the clergy, the aristocracy, the intelligentsia and the Jews…all…to be expelled from the four westernmost provinces of Poland, which were to be annexed to Germany[;] the most prominent and vigorous of the men were to be exterminated so as to extirpate all nationalism and ethnic identity, and leave the masses without leadership. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Personal freedom must be sacrificed to preserving the race.
Nazism 205 Mein Kampf: The right of personal freedom recedes before the duty to preserve the race. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Sick people contaminate the healthy people, so eliminate them.
Nazism 205 Mein Kampf: It is a half measure to let incurably sick people steadily contaminate the remaining healthy ones. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
When people resisted, the Nazis increased the terror.
Nazism 278 Under Hitler’s directives, the only German reaction to resistance was to intensify terror. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
How could Germany with its Christian and humanistic heritage return to such primitive barbarism?
Nazism 285 Francois de Menthon: How can one explain how Germany, fertilized through the centuries by classic antiquity and Christianity, by the ideals of liberty, equality, and social justice, by the common heritage of western humanism to which she had brought such noble and precious contributions, could have come to this astonishing return to primitive barbarism? Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Germany’s primitive passions had been aroused and led to atrocities.
Nazism 318 DuBost: Evil masters came who awakened its [Germany’s] primitive passions and made possible the atrocities which I have described to you. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazis’ crime was their policy of exterminating innocent people.
Nazism 318 DuBost: Their crime is that they conceived and achieved, as an instrument of government, a policy of terrorism toward the whole of the subjugated nations and toward their own people; their crime is that they pursued, as an end in itself, a policy of extermination of entire categories of innocent citizens…[which] alone would suffice to determine capital punishment. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Hess: Hitler, the greatest son ever brought forth upon the earth.
Nazism 478 Hess: I was permitted to work for many years of my life under the greatest son whom my people have brought forth in its thousand-year history. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
In Nuremberg only a small number of those responsible for Nazi actions were tried; Nazi responsibility also lay with hundreds of decision-makers, thousands of deputies and tens of thousands of the rank and file.
Nazism 516 From the evidence presented, it was clear that beyond the twenty-one men tried, decision-makers and perpetrators of major criminal acts ranged into the hundreds, their deputies into the thousands, and the rank and file directly involved into the tens of thousands. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
In the future, the Nazi experience will never be forgotten.
Nazism 523 Karl S. Bader: Nobody who considers the years 1933 to 1945 will in future time be able to pass by this material, tremendous in its extent and value for the perception of the errors of man. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi accounting not for human beings but for deliveries of carcasses.
Nazism and bureaucracy 259 But the episode revealed the inhuman banality of the perpetrators of the Final Solution—Eichmann had not thought in terms of human beings, of despair and agony, terror and torture, but of Judenmateriel: So and so many Jewish carcasses that he had contracted to deliver. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi “problems” can only be resolved with “ruthless severity.”
Nazism and decision making 268 Bormann and Goebbels: It lies in the very nature of these problems, which in part are very difficult, that they can be solved only with ruthless severity. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
According to the Nazis, it is more difficult to “discipline” “obstructive populations” than to fight the war.
Nazism and discipline 212 Himmler: Where we had to have the toughness…to shoot thousands of leading Poles…much easier to go into combat than to suppress an obstructive population…or to carry out executions, or to haul away people, or to evict crying and hysterical women. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi “character”: To remain “decent” people when we have been responsible for thousands of corpses lying side by side, that is what it means to be “hard,” a glorious page in our history.
Nazism and discipline 269 Himmler: Most of you must know what it means when a hundred corpses are lying side by side, or five hundred, or a thousand [but] to have stuck it out and at the same time remained decent fellows, that is what has made us hard…a page of glory in our history…. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi euphemism: We are not conquering people, but agriculturally necessary space.
Nazism and doublespeak 136 Hitler: It is not a case of conquering people, but of conquering agriculturally useful space. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Nazi economics: “Worthless” people cost far more than average laborers and civil servants; it is not economically sound to support them.
Nazism and economics 205 A German medical economist pointed out, in an article entitled “The Fight Against Degeneration,” that the care of a deaf-mute or cripple cost 6 marks a day, that of a reform school inmate 4.85 marks, and that of a mentally ill or deficient person 4.5 marks…average earnings of a laborer…only 2.5 marks and those of a civil servant 4 marks daily…state spends far more for the existence of these actually worthless compatriots than for the salary of a healthy man…. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazi reason for euthanasia is to relieve people of their suffering.
Nazism and euthanasia 207 The reason [for euthanasia] was to make room for sick soldiers, but otherwise also the reason was to relieve these people from their suffering. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Euthanasia is necessary because efficient nations have no room for weak and frail people.
Nazism and euthanasia 209 Bishop Wurm to Frick: the basis for this practice [euthanasia exterminations] seems to be the opinion that in an efficient nation there is no room for weak and frail people. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The Nazi extermination “program” showed how fragmenting authority and tasks led to an efficient system for murder.
Nazism and extermination 210 The euthanasia program, serving as the prototype for the extermination of millions that was to follow, demonstrated how, through fragmentation of authority and tasks, it was possible to fashion a murder machine. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The unsightly shooting of women and children led to use of the gas chambers.
Nazism and extermination 262 The drawbacks and difficulties of shooting women and children had become evident…and led to the invention of the gas vans. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The great conquerors of history are not viewed as murderers.
Nazism and history 204 Goering: Don’t forget that the great conquerors of history are not seen as murderers-Genghis Khan, Peter the Great, Frederick the Great…. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Following orders was not illegal; they had sworn obedience to the people who gave the orders.
Nazism and legality 238 Ohlendorf: Since the order was issued by the superior authorities, the question of legality could not arise…for they had sworn obedience to the people who had issued the orders. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
The priests’ job is to keep Poles quiet.
Nazism and religion 213 Frank: the task of the priest is to keep the Poles quiet, stupid, and dull-witted. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Although thousands were responsible, they considered themselves cogs in the machine and the machine was responsible.
Nazism and responsibility 21 Thousands of people were involved, but each considered himself nothing but a cog in the machine and reasoned that it was the machine, not he, that was responsible. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Hitler had no trouble finding physicians and medical personnel to carry out his decisions.
Nazism and the Professions 205 As was the case throughout the Nazi regime in all the various professions, Hitler had no difficulty finding doctors, nurses, and hospitals to execute his designs. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Quotes: Nature.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Nature
Only when man communes with nature at rare moments is he no longer solitary.
Nature 37 Only in acts of inarticulate compassion, in rare and hidden moments of communion with nature, does man briefly escape his solitary destiny. Eiseley, The Star Thrower.
Nature does not know individual plants but only vegetable life.
Nature 216 Emerson: “[Nature] knows neither palm nor oak, but only vegetable life, which sprouts into forests and festoons the globe.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
I was proudest when a sparrow alighted on my shoulder while I was gardening.
Nature 541 I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. Thoreau, Walden.
A golden day in August when everything seemed to revive.
Nature 320 …a golden afternoon of August: every breath from the hills so full of life, that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
Nature is economical with its checks and balances of competing life.
Nature 221 The economy of nature, its checks and balances, its measurements of competing life—all this is its great marvel and has an ethic of its own. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The pastoral fallacy is looking at earth, not as a place for digging and plowing, but as a paradise.
Nature 112 ...when the men of the Renaissance looked at the countryside it was not as a place of plowing and digging, but as a kind of earthly paradise...awareness of nature is associated with the desire to escape and with hope of a better life...the pastoral fallacy.... Clark, Civilization.
The word “nature” has many meanings.
Nature 269 It’s said that one can attach fifty-two different meanings to the word ‘nature.’ Clark, Civilization.
With the rise and retreat of waves, Rousseau said he lost all sense of individuality and became one with nature.
Nature 272 In listening to the flux and reflux of the waves, [Rousseau] tells us, he became completely at one with nature, lost all consciousness of an independent self, all painful memories of the past or anxieties about the future, everything except the sense of being. Clark, Civilization.
Total immersion in nature means losing identity in the whole and gaining an intense consciousness of being.
Nature 291 Total immersion: this is the ultimate reason why the love of nature has been for so long accepted as a religion…a means by which we can lose our identity in the whole and gain thereby a more intense consciousness of being. Clark, Civilization.
Nature is hidden, overcome but seldom extinguished.
Nature 113 F. Bacon: “Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.” Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
One can only command nature by obeying it.
Nature 120 F. Bacon: Nature cannot be commanded, except by being obeyed. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
Highlights of the seasons.
Nature 54 [Browning’s 15 great natural events of the year: skunk cabbage blooming; return of red-winged blackbird; song of spring peepers; dogwood blooming; leaf burst; arrival of spring warblers; song of the wood thrush; night sky: the rising of the summer triangle; bloom of summer meadow wild flowers; swallows gathered on telephone wires; katydid singing; beginning of hawk migration; fall color at peak; night sky: rising of Orion the Hunter; first snow fall of winter; pond freezes over.] Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Why does the cicada awaken every 17 years?
Nature 90 What makes the cicada awake after 17 years? Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
In nature, metamorphosis is an enduring principle.
Nature 101 Metamorphosis is not an isolated event but an enduring principle. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Sights and sounds of the seasons.
Nature 126 …blockbuster, hawk-lifting cold fronts, warm buttery October days, midnight cannonball thunderstorms. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
If you live outdoors, inanimate things take on personality.
Nature 104 “I think,” said Kate, “that the more one lives out of doors the more personality there seems to be in what we call inanimate things.” Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
A day is not entirely lost if you have spent some time observing some thing in nature.
Nature 542 It seems as if the day was not wholly profane, in which we have given heed to some natural object. Emerson, Nature, Second Series.
Nature arms and equips natural things to survive, but arms and equips other things to destroy it.
Nature 547 She [Nature] arms and equips an animal to find its place and living in the earth, and, at the same time, she arms and equips another animal to destroy it. Emerson, Nature, Second Series.
The unknowing eye does not see the life within a natural object.
Nature 154 The unknowing eye saw the stillness and missed the vortex of life within. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.
Trees in summer release more water than is in a pond.
Nature 171 In one summer, the trees would release more water than was contained in the pond. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.
Flying male ants fell dead after mating with the female.
Nature 203 Later that day…male [flying] ants fell steadily from the sky, dying and dead…their lives…ended the moment they mated with the flying females…. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.
The fallen leaves awaken my grief.
Nature 394 But every leaf awakens my grief,/ As it lieth beneath the tree. Dickens, Pickwick.
The power of each portion of a plant to help the other portions is life; intensity of life is intensity of helpfulness.
Nature and morality 285 Ruskin: the power which causes the several portions of a plant to help each other we call life; intensity of life is also intensity of helpfulness; the ceasing of this help is what we call corruption…a moral at least as convincing as most of those that can be drawn from Holy Writ. Clark, Civilization.
The line where sky and sea meet each other symbolizes harmony.
Nature and symbol 287 And [Turner] was particularly fascinated by the line where the sky and the sea join each other, that mingling of the elements which seems, by its harmony of tone, to lead to a general reconciliation of opposites. Clark, Civilization.
Nature teaches, but what it teaches is often obscure.
Nature teaches 121 Nature teaches, though what it teaches is often hidden and obscure. Eiseley, The Star Thrower.
The only way to know the nature of birds is to see them in flight.
Nature, birds 98 …no one really knows a bird until he has seen it in flight. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Man sees only a moment in the symphony of nature’s creation.
Nature, creation 220 So near is man to the creative pageant, so much a part is he of the endless and incredible experiment, that any glimpse he may have will be but the revelation of a moment, a solitary note heard in a symphony…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Geese flying at sunset with their musical bell-like cry.
Nature, geese 116 …a flock of geese flying over the meadows along the rift of dying, golden light, their great wings beating with a slow and solemn beauty, their musical bell-like cry…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
In the world of winter, the tracks of insects on the dunes are no longer visible.
Nature, insects 65 That multiplicity of insect tracks, those fantastic ribbons which grasshoppers, promenading flies, spiders, and beetles printed on the dunes as they went about their hungry and mysterious purposes, have come to an end in this world [of winter]…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The trillions of intense lives of insects, created for no apparent purpose, except, perhaps for a sound or a color.
Nature, insects 65 Those trillions of unaccountable lives [insects], those crawling, buzzing intense presences which nature created to fulfill some unknown purpose or perhaps simply to satisfy a whim for a certain sound or a moment of exquisite color…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
We fail to appreciate that Insects contribute to the symphony of natural sounds.
Nature, insects 65 As I muse here, it occurs to me that we are not sufficiently grateful for the great symphony of natural sound which insects add to the natural scene…all those little fiddles in the grass, all those cricket pipes, those delicate flutes…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The many sounds of the ocean.
Nature, ocean 43 The sea has many voices…hollow boomings…heavy roarings, great watery tumblings and tramplings, long hissing seethes, sharp, rifle-shot reports, splashes, whispers, the grinding undertone of stones, and sometimes vocal sounds that might be the half-heard talk of people in the sea. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The rhythm of the ocean changes.
Nature, ocean 44 [The ocean]…constantly changing its tempo, its pitch, its accent, and its rhythm, being now loud and thundering, now almost placid, now furious, now grave and solemn-slow, now a simple measure, now a rhythm monstrous with a sense of purpose and elemental will. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Away from the beach, the sounds of the surf meld into a distant cannonade.
Nature, ocean 47 Away from the beach, the various sounds of the surf melt into one great thundering symphonic roar…an endless, distant, elemental cannonade. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The toppling of ocean waves.
Nature, ocean 53 Toppling over and hurled ahead, the wave crashes, its mass of glinting blue falling down in a confusion of seething, splendid white, the tumbling water rebounding from the sand to a height almost always a little above that of the original crest. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The sound of the ocean at night.
Nature, ocean 175 The beach at night has a voice all its own, a sound in fullest harmony with its spirit and mood—with its little, dry noise of sand forever moving, with its solemn, over spilling, rhythmic seas, with its eternity of stars that sometimes seem to hang down like lamps from the high heavens—and that sound the piping of a bird. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Nature is full of rhythm.
Nature, rhythm 366 Spencer: All nature is rhythmical, from the pulsations of heat to the vibrations of the violin strings; from the undulations of light, heat and sound to the tides of the sea; from the periodicities of sex to the periodicities of planets and comets and stars; from the alternation of night and day to the succession of the seasons, and perhaps to the rhythms of climactic change; from the oscillations of molecules to the rise and fall of nations and the birth and death of stars. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.
The smells of nature.
Nature, smells 189 I like a good smell—the smell of a freshly ploughed field on a warm morning after a night of April rain, the clove-like aroma of our wild Cape Cod pinks, the morning perfume of lilacs showery with dew, the good reek of hot salt grass and low tide blowing from these meadows late on summer afternoons. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The elemental sounds of nature.
Nature, sounds 43 The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The sun is a natural drama.
Nature, sun 59 We lose a great deal, I think, when we lose this sense and feeling for the sun…the adventure of the sun is the great natural drama by which we live…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The sounds of a thunderstorm.
Nature, thunderstorm 186 Now came flash after stabbing flash amid a roaring of rain, and heavy thunder that rolled on till its last echoes were swallowed up in vast detonations which jarred the walls. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Nature
Only when man communes with nature at rare moments is he no longer solitary.
Nature 37 Only in acts of inarticulate compassion, in rare and hidden moments of communion with nature, does man briefly escape his solitary destiny. Eiseley, The Star Thrower.
Nature does not know individual plants but only vegetable life.
Nature 216 Emerson: “[Nature] knows neither palm nor oak, but only vegetable life, which sprouts into forests and festoons the globe.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
I was proudest when a sparrow alighted on my shoulder while I was gardening.
Nature 541 I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. Thoreau, Walden.
A golden day in August when everything seemed to revive.
Nature 320 …a golden afternoon of August: every breath from the hills so full of life, that it seemed whoever respired it, though dying, might revive. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
Nature is economical with its checks and balances of competing life.
Nature 221 The economy of nature, its checks and balances, its measurements of competing life—all this is its great marvel and has an ethic of its own. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The pastoral fallacy is looking at earth, not as a place for digging and plowing, but as a paradise.
Nature 112 ...when the men of the Renaissance looked at the countryside it was not as a place of plowing and digging, but as a kind of earthly paradise...awareness of nature is associated with the desire to escape and with hope of a better life...the pastoral fallacy.... Clark, Civilization.
The word “nature” has many meanings.
Nature 269 It’s said that one can attach fifty-two different meanings to the word ‘nature.’ Clark, Civilization.
With the rise and retreat of waves, Rousseau said he lost all sense of individuality and became one with nature.
Nature 272 In listening to the flux and reflux of the waves, [Rousseau] tells us, he became completely at one with nature, lost all consciousness of an independent self, all painful memories of the past or anxieties about the future, everything except the sense of being. Clark, Civilization.
Total immersion in nature means losing identity in the whole and gaining an intense consciousness of being.
Nature 291 Total immersion: this is the ultimate reason why the love of nature has been for so long accepted as a religion…a means by which we can lose our identity in the whole and gain thereby a more intense consciousness of being. Clark, Civilization.
Nature is hidden, overcome but seldom extinguished.
Nature 113 F. Bacon: “Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished.” Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
One can only command nature by obeying it.
Nature 120 F. Bacon: Nature cannot be commanded, except by being obeyed. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
Highlights of the seasons.
Nature 54 [Browning’s 15 great natural events of the year: skunk cabbage blooming; return of red-winged blackbird; song of spring peepers; dogwood blooming; leaf burst; arrival of spring warblers; song of the wood thrush; night sky: the rising of the summer triangle; bloom of summer meadow wild flowers; swallows gathered on telephone wires; katydid singing; beginning of hawk migration; fall color at peak; night sky: rising of Orion the Hunter; first snow fall of winter; pond freezes over.] Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Why does the cicada awaken every 17 years?
Nature 90 What makes the cicada awake after 17 years? Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
In nature, metamorphosis is an enduring principle.
Nature 101 Metamorphosis is not an isolated event but an enduring principle. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Sights and sounds of the seasons.
Nature 126 …blockbuster, hawk-lifting cold fronts, warm buttery October days, midnight cannonball thunderstorms. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
If you live outdoors, inanimate things take on personality.
Nature 104 “I think,” said Kate, “that the more one lives out of doors the more personality there seems to be in what we call inanimate things.” Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
A day is not entirely lost if you have spent some time observing some thing in nature.
Nature 542 It seems as if the day was not wholly profane, in which we have given heed to some natural object. Emerson, Nature, Second Series.
Nature arms and equips natural things to survive, but arms and equips other things to destroy it.
Nature 547 She [Nature] arms and equips an animal to find its place and living in the earth, and, at the same time, she arms and equips another animal to destroy it. Emerson, Nature, Second Series.
The unknowing eye does not see the life within a natural object.
Nature 154 The unknowing eye saw the stillness and missed the vortex of life within. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.
Trees in summer release more water than is in a pond.
Nature 171 In one summer, the trees would release more water than was contained in the pond. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.
Flying male ants fell dead after mating with the female.
Nature 203 Later that day…male [flying] ants fell steadily from the sky, dying and dead…their lives…ended the moment they mated with the flying females…. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.
The fallen leaves awaken my grief.
Nature 394 But every leaf awakens my grief,/ As it lieth beneath the tree. Dickens, Pickwick.
The power of each portion of a plant to help the other portions is life; intensity of life is intensity of helpfulness.
Nature and morality 285 Ruskin: the power which causes the several portions of a plant to help each other we call life; intensity of life is also intensity of helpfulness; the ceasing of this help is what we call corruption…a moral at least as convincing as most of those that can be drawn from Holy Writ. Clark, Civilization.
The line where sky and sea meet each other symbolizes harmony.
Nature and symbol 287 And [Turner] was particularly fascinated by the line where the sky and the sea join each other, that mingling of the elements which seems, by its harmony of tone, to lead to a general reconciliation of opposites. Clark, Civilization.
Nature teaches, but what it teaches is often obscure.
Nature teaches 121 Nature teaches, though what it teaches is often hidden and obscure. Eiseley, The Star Thrower.
The only way to know the nature of birds is to see them in flight.
Nature, birds 98 …no one really knows a bird until he has seen it in flight. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Man sees only a moment in the symphony of nature’s creation.
Nature, creation 220 So near is man to the creative pageant, so much a part is he of the endless and incredible experiment, that any glimpse he may have will be but the revelation of a moment, a solitary note heard in a symphony…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Geese flying at sunset with their musical bell-like cry.
Nature, geese 116 …a flock of geese flying over the meadows along the rift of dying, golden light, their great wings beating with a slow and solemn beauty, their musical bell-like cry…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
In the world of winter, the tracks of insects on the dunes are no longer visible.
Nature, insects 65 That multiplicity of insect tracks, those fantastic ribbons which grasshoppers, promenading flies, spiders, and beetles printed on the dunes as they went about their hungry and mysterious purposes, have come to an end in this world [of winter]…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The trillions of intense lives of insects, created for no apparent purpose, except, perhaps for a sound or a color.
Nature, insects 65 Those trillions of unaccountable lives [insects], those crawling, buzzing intense presences which nature created to fulfill some unknown purpose or perhaps simply to satisfy a whim for a certain sound or a moment of exquisite color…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
We fail to appreciate that Insects contribute to the symphony of natural sounds.
Nature, insects 65 As I muse here, it occurs to me that we are not sufficiently grateful for the great symphony of natural sound which insects add to the natural scene…all those little fiddles in the grass, all those cricket pipes, those delicate flutes…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The many sounds of the ocean.
Nature, ocean 43 The sea has many voices…hollow boomings…heavy roarings, great watery tumblings and tramplings, long hissing seethes, sharp, rifle-shot reports, splashes, whispers, the grinding undertone of stones, and sometimes vocal sounds that might be the half-heard talk of people in the sea. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The rhythm of the ocean changes.
Nature, ocean 44 [The ocean]…constantly changing its tempo, its pitch, its accent, and its rhythm, being now loud and thundering, now almost placid, now furious, now grave and solemn-slow, now a simple measure, now a rhythm monstrous with a sense of purpose and elemental will. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Away from the beach, the sounds of the surf meld into a distant cannonade.
Nature, ocean 47 Away from the beach, the various sounds of the surf melt into one great thundering symphonic roar…an endless, distant, elemental cannonade. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The toppling of ocean waves.
Nature, ocean 53 Toppling over and hurled ahead, the wave crashes, its mass of glinting blue falling down in a confusion of seething, splendid white, the tumbling water rebounding from the sand to a height almost always a little above that of the original crest. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The sound of the ocean at night.
Nature, ocean 175 The beach at night has a voice all its own, a sound in fullest harmony with its spirit and mood—with its little, dry noise of sand forever moving, with its solemn, over spilling, rhythmic seas, with its eternity of stars that sometimes seem to hang down like lamps from the high heavens—and that sound the piping of a bird. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Nature is full of rhythm.
Nature, rhythm 366 Spencer: All nature is rhythmical, from the pulsations of heat to the vibrations of the violin strings; from the undulations of light, heat and sound to the tides of the sea; from the periodicities of sex to the periodicities of planets and comets and stars; from the alternation of night and day to the succession of the seasons, and perhaps to the rhythms of climactic change; from the oscillations of molecules to the rise and fall of nations and the birth and death of stars. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.
The smells of nature.
Nature, smells 189 I like a good smell—the smell of a freshly ploughed field on a warm morning after a night of April rain, the clove-like aroma of our wild Cape Cod pinks, the morning perfume of lilacs showery with dew, the good reek of hot salt grass and low tide blowing from these meadows late on summer afternoons. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The elemental sounds of nature.
Nature, sounds 43 The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The sun is a natural drama.
Nature, sun 59 We lose a great deal, I think, when we lose this sense and feeling for the sun…the adventure of the sun is the great natural drama by which we live…. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
The sounds of a thunderstorm.
Nature, thunderstorm 186 Now came flash after stabbing flash amid a roaring of rain, and heavy thunder that rolled on till its last echoes were swallowed up in vast detonations which jarred the walls. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Quotes: Nabokov. Names. National Socialism. Nationalities. Native Americans.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Nabokov
Lolita is an account of the author’s love for the English language.
Nabokov 288 After Olympia Press in Paris, published the book [Lolita], an American critic suggested that Lolita was the record of my love affair with the romantic novel...substitution [of] “English language” for “romantic novel” would make this elegant formula more correct. Nabokov, Lolita.
Names
Careful what names you give to kids; they’ll grow up to fit them; “John” will be a different kid from “Rudolph.”
Names 172 John Gardner: If you name a kid John, he’ll grow up a different kid than if you named him Rudolph. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
National Socialism
National Socialism’s successes weakened any possible opposition.
National Socialism 398 The next three years the regime went from one success to another, which weakened the ranks of the opposition and made any counteraction hopeless. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
National Socialism’s personnel: “Desk Criminals.”
National Socialist 286 The National Socialist elite: “Desk criminals.” Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Nationalities
In France, everybody thinks of himself as Napoleon; in Italy, everybody thinks he’s Christ.
Nationalities 247 I like France, where everybody thinks he’s Napoleon—down here [Italy] everybody thinks he’s Christ. Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night.
In England you can do it if it’s not specifically forbidden; in Germany you can’t do it unless it is specifically allowed.
Nationalities 40 …in England everything is allowed except what is specifically forbidden; in Germany everything is forbidden except what is specifically allowed. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
The Irish are fair; they never speak well of one another.
Nationalities 522 Johnson: The Irish are a fair people; --they never speak well of one another. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
The French are conceited because they think they are irresistible.
Nationalities iii A Frenchman’s conceit springs from his belief that mentally and physically he is irresistibly fascinating both to men and women. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Englishmen think they always know the correct thing to do and that everything they do is right.
Nationalities iii The Englishman’s self assurance comes from being a citizen of the best-organized kingdom in the world, and because as an Englishman he always knows what is the correct thing to do, and that everything he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly right. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Italians are excitable, forgetting themselves and others.
Nationalities iii An Italian is conceited because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Russians are conceited because they don’t know anything and don’t want to know anything.
Nationalities iii A Russian is conceited because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe that it is possible to know anything completely. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Germans are conceited because they think they have the truth in science and that is absolute truth.
Nationalities iii A conceited German is the worst of them all…because he imagines that he possesses the truth in science…which for him is absolute truth. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Native Americans
It is said of North American Indians that if the torture abates, they will sleep until the fire is reapplied.
Native Americans 179 …it is mentioned of the North American Indians, when at the stake of torture, that on the least intermission of agony, they will sleep until the fire is applied to awaken them. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
Nabokov
Lolita is an account of the author’s love for the English language.
Nabokov 288 After Olympia Press in Paris, published the book [Lolita], an American critic suggested that Lolita was the record of my love affair with the romantic novel...substitution [of] “English language” for “romantic novel” would make this elegant formula more correct. Nabokov, Lolita.
Names
Careful what names you give to kids; they’ll grow up to fit them; “John” will be a different kid from “Rudolph.”
Names 172 John Gardner: If you name a kid John, he’ll grow up a different kid than if you named him Rudolph. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
National Socialism
National Socialism’s successes weakened any possible opposition.
National Socialism 398 The next three years the regime went from one success to another, which weakened the ranks of the opposition and made any counteraction hopeless. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
National Socialism’s personnel: “Desk Criminals.”
National Socialist 286 The National Socialist elite: “Desk criminals.” Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Nationalities
In France, everybody thinks of himself as Napoleon; in Italy, everybody thinks he’s Christ.
Nationalities 247 I like France, where everybody thinks he’s Napoleon—down here [Italy] everybody thinks he’s Christ. Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night.
In England you can do it if it’s not specifically forbidden; in Germany you can’t do it unless it is specifically allowed.
Nationalities 40 …in England everything is allowed except what is specifically forbidden; in Germany everything is forbidden except what is specifically allowed. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
The Irish are fair; they never speak well of one another.
Nationalities 522 Johnson: The Irish are a fair people; --they never speak well of one another. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
The French are conceited because they think they are irresistible.
Nationalities iii A Frenchman’s conceit springs from his belief that mentally and physically he is irresistibly fascinating both to men and women. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Englishmen think they always know the correct thing to do and that everything they do is right.
Nationalities iii The Englishman’s self assurance comes from being a citizen of the best-organized kingdom in the world, and because as an Englishman he always knows what is the correct thing to do, and that everything he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly right. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Italians are excitable, forgetting themselves and others.
Nationalities iii An Italian is conceited because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Russians are conceited because they don’t know anything and don’t want to know anything.
Nationalities iii A Russian is conceited because he knows nothing and does not want to know anything, since he does not believe that it is possible to know anything completely. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Germans are conceited because they think they have the truth in science and that is absolute truth.
Nationalities iii A conceited German is the worst of them all…because he imagines that he possesses the truth in science…which for him is absolute truth. Introduction. Quoted by R. Edmonds. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Native Americans
It is said of North American Indians that if the torture abates, they will sleep until the fire is reapplied.
Native Americans 179 …it is mentioned of the North American Indians, when at the stake of torture, that on the least intermission of agony, they will sleep until the fire is applied to awaken them. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Quotes: Movies and Books. Mozart. Multimedia. Murder. Mysticism. Myth.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Movies and Books
The movie version halted the sales of the book.
Movies and books 117 “Myra Breckinridge,”[ Gore Vidal’s transsexual satire], West’s 1970 return to the screen…mutilated to a point of toneless X-rated incomprehensibility: Vidal declared it the first time a movie had entirely halted the sales of a book. Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “A Critic at Large: The Strong Woman.” The New Yorker (Nov. 11, 1996), pp. 106-118.
Mozart
Mozart was interested in the drama of human relationships.
Mozart 241 Mozart…a passionate interest in human beings, and in the drama of human relationships.
Multimedia
I am convinced that a combination of media extends human experience in a way that words alone cannot do.
Multimedia xv I am convinced that a combination of words and music, color and movement can extend human experience in a way that words alone cannot do. Clark, Civilization.
Murder
If someone is intent on killing you, would you stop and ask if he is your father?
Murder 128 Oedipus: Let me ask you this one simple thing: If at this moment someone should step up to murder you, would you, godly creature that you are, stop and say: “Excuse me, sir, are you my father?” Sophocles. Oedipus at Colonus.
I didn’t kill him, but I accept the punishment because I intended to kill him.
Murder 561 But listen, for the last time, I am not guilty of my father’s blood…I accept my punishment not because I killed him but because I meant to kill him…. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
Mysticism
Today a mystic is one who is capable of wonder.
Mystic wonder wisdom 272 The convenient label “mystic” is, in our day, readily applied to men who pause for simple wonder. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
He had a sense of the wholeness of things, saw how everything was related.
Mysticism 325 But yet there was reigning in his soul a sense of the wholeness of things…. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
His soul seemed to be linked by threads to innumerable worlds.
Mysticism 328 There seemed to be threads from all those innumerable worlds of God, linking his soul to them. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
I cease to live and just begin to be.
Mysticism 188 Thoreau: “Sometimes as I drift idly on Walden Pond, I cease to live and begin to be.” Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.
Mysticism is removal from one’s body to become pure thought.
Mysticism 663 The ancients called it [mysticism] ecstasy or absence,--getting out of their bodies to think. Emerson, Representative Men: Swedenborg, or The Mystic.
Myth
Political myths: Fascism, an imperial past; Communism, a utopian future; National Socialism, racial superiority.
Myth 9 Political myth: …in the case of Fascism, the myth is of an imperial past; in the case of Communism, of a socialist-utopian future; and in the case of National Socialism, of racial superiority. Bracher, The German Dictatorship.
Myths are stories that seem to be different but they are really the same story.
Myth 121 Myths: The stories seem to be different stories, but the underlying structure is always the same, in any part of the world, at any time. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
The “myths” of American foreign policy: inherently bad nations; punishment by withholding diplomatic recognition and the belief that democracy will inevitably win against an alien power.
Myths 574 As a Senator in 1954, he [Kennedy] had assailed in a magazine article the “myths” which “surrounded …American foreign policy,” including “…the existence of inherently good, bad or backward nations…the impairment of an aggressor’s military power by refusing…our diplomatic recognition…that the democratic way of life…will inevitably be the victor in any struggle with an alien power….” Sorenson, Kennedy
Movies and Books
The movie version halted the sales of the book.
Movies and books 117 “Myra Breckinridge,”[ Gore Vidal’s transsexual satire], West’s 1970 return to the screen…mutilated to a point of toneless X-rated incomprehensibility: Vidal declared it the first time a movie had entirely halted the sales of a book. Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “A Critic at Large: The Strong Woman.” The New Yorker (Nov. 11, 1996), pp. 106-118.
Mozart
Mozart was interested in the drama of human relationships.
Mozart 241 Mozart…a passionate interest in human beings, and in the drama of human relationships.
Multimedia
I am convinced that a combination of media extends human experience in a way that words alone cannot do.
Multimedia xv I am convinced that a combination of words and music, color and movement can extend human experience in a way that words alone cannot do. Clark, Civilization.
Murder
If someone is intent on killing you, would you stop and ask if he is your father?
Murder 128 Oedipus: Let me ask you this one simple thing: If at this moment someone should step up to murder you, would you, godly creature that you are, stop and say: “Excuse me, sir, are you my father?” Sophocles. Oedipus at Colonus.
I didn’t kill him, but I accept the punishment because I intended to kill him.
Murder 561 But listen, for the last time, I am not guilty of my father’s blood…I accept my punishment not because I killed him but because I meant to kill him…. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
Mysticism
Today a mystic is one who is capable of wonder.
Mystic wonder wisdom 272 The convenient label “mystic” is, in our day, readily applied to men who pause for simple wonder. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
He had a sense of the wholeness of things, saw how everything was related.
Mysticism 325 But yet there was reigning in his soul a sense of the wholeness of things…. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
His soul seemed to be linked by threads to innumerable worlds.
Mysticism 328 There seemed to be threads from all those innumerable worlds of God, linking his soul to them. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
I cease to live and just begin to be.
Mysticism 188 Thoreau: “Sometimes as I drift idly on Walden Pond, I cease to live and begin to be.” Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.
Mysticism is removal from one’s body to become pure thought.
Mysticism 663 The ancients called it [mysticism] ecstasy or absence,--getting out of their bodies to think. Emerson, Representative Men: Swedenborg, or The Mystic.
Myth
Political myths: Fascism, an imperial past; Communism, a utopian future; National Socialism, racial superiority.
Myth 9 Political myth: …in the case of Fascism, the myth is of an imperial past; in the case of Communism, of a socialist-utopian future; and in the case of National Socialism, of racial superiority. Bracher, The German Dictatorship.
Myths are stories that seem to be different but they are really the same story.
Myth 121 Myths: The stories seem to be different stories, but the underlying structure is always the same, in any part of the world, at any time. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
The “myths” of American foreign policy: inherently bad nations; punishment by withholding diplomatic recognition and the belief that democracy will inevitably win against an alien power.
Myths 574 As a Senator in 1954, he [Kennedy] had assailed in a magazine article the “myths” which “surrounded …American foreign policy,” including “…the existence of inherently good, bad or backward nations…the impairment of an aggressor’s military power by refusing…our diplomatic recognition…that the democratic way of life…will inevitably be the victor in any struggle with an alien power….” Sorenson, Kennedy
Monday, August 13, 2007
Quotes: Morning. Motherhood. Motivation.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Morning
On a pleasant morning, men’s sins are forgiven.
Morning 573 In a pleasant spring morning all men’s sins are forgiven. Thoreau, Walden.
Let me breathe the morning air.
Morning 432 …let me have a draught of undiluted morning air…. Thoreau, Walden.
Motherhood
The mother knows she has brought forth this spirit, but does not have the power to control it.
Motherhood 197 The mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit, but, by some irregularity in the process of conjuration, has failed to win the master-word that should control this new and incomprehensible intelligence. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.
As long as you have a mother, you will never stop being a child.
Mothers 405 Mrs. Todd: There, you never get over bein’ a child long’s you have a mother to go to. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
She remembers him before he was born and now sees him as a strong, brave man.
Mothers and Sons 272 Just as twenty years before she could not believe that the little creature that was lying somewhere under her heart would one day wail and suck her breast and begin to talk, so now it was incredible that that little creature could be this strong, brave man, the paragon of sons and men, that judging by this letter he was now. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Motivation
His motivation was to be indispensable to others.
Motivation 241 He found something that he wanted…not to be admired…not to be loved…but to be necessary to people, to be indispensable…. Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise.
Revulsion at one’s unwanted self motivates losing individuality and merging into a collective whole.
Motivation 62 The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both a readiness to sacrifice the self and a willingness to dissolve it by losing one’s individual distinctness in a compact collective whole. Hoffer, The True Believer
We see in others the faults in ourselves.
Motivation 128 We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves. Hoffer, The True Believer
My interest in DNA came from my interest in learning what a gene was.
Motivation 21 My interest in DNA had grown out of a desire, first picked up while a senior in college, to learn what a gene was. Watson, The Double Helix.
We don’t understand our motivations.
Motivation 519 …even the best of us have trouble understanding our motivations. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
The basic motivations are ambition, power and pleasure.
Motivation 138 Faulkner: Life is motion, and motion is concerned with what makes man move--which is ambition, power, pleasure. Cowley, ed., Writers at Work.
I act to imitate.
Motivation 700 Montaigne: Most of my actions are guided by example, not choice. Emerson, Representative Men: Montaigne, or The Skeptic.
In seeking to do something we are seeking to escape from life.
Motivation 636 And it seemed to Pierre that all men were…seeking refuge from life: some in ambition, some in cards, some in framing laws, some in women, some in playthings, some in horses, some in politics, some in sport, some in wine, and some in government service. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
One’s spirit is the basic motivation.
Motivation 165 …men are motivated by their spirits. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
We take satisfaction in doing something because it is not a common experience.
Motive 577 In a small way we were the same sort of simpletons as those who climb unnecessarily the perilous peaks of Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn and derive no pleasure from it except the reflection that it isn’t a common experience. Twain, Roughing It
Hawthorne was concerned with the unspoken motives of heart and mind.
Motives 8 With his [Hawthorne] instinct for the unspoken motives of the heart and mind.... Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Morning
On a pleasant morning, men’s sins are forgiven.
Morning 573 In a pleasant spring morning all men’s sins are forgiven. Thoreau, Walden.
Let me breathe the morning air.
Morning 432 …let me have a draught of undiluted morning air…. Thoreau, Walden.
Motherhood
The mother knows she has brought forth this spirit, but does not have the power to control it.
Motherhood 197 The mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit, but, by some irregularity in the process of conjuration, has failed to win the master-word that should control this new and incomprehensible intelligence. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.
As long as you have a mother, you will never stop being a child.
Mothers 405 Mrs. Todd: There, you never get over bein’ a child long’s you have a mother to go to. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
She remembers him before he was born and now sees him as a strong, brave man.
Mothers and Sons 272 Just as twenty years before she could not believe that the little creature that was lying somewhere under her heart would one day wail and suck her breast and begin to talk, so now it was incredible that that little creature could be this strong, brave man, the paragon of sons and men, that judging by this letter he was now. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Motivation
His motivation was to be indispensable to others.
Motivation 241 He found something that he wanted…not to be admired…not to be loved…but to be necessary to people, to be indispensable…. Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise.
Revulsion at one’s unwanted self motivates losing individuality and merging into a collective whole.
Motivation 62 The revulsion from an unwanted self, and the impulse to forget it, mask it, slough it off and lose it, produce both a readiness to sacrifice the self and a willingness to dissolve it by losing one’s individual distinctness in a compact collective whole. Hoffer, The True Believer
We see in others the faults in ourselves.
Motivation 128 We usually strive to reveal in others the blemishes we hide in ourselves. Hoffer, The True Believer
My interest in DNA came from my interest in learning what a gene was.
Motivation 21 My interest in DNA had grown out of a desire, first picked up while a senior in college, to learn what a gene was. Watson, The Double Helix.
We don’t understand our motivations.
Motivation 519 …even the best of us have trouble understanding our motivations. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
The basic motivations are ambition, power and pleasure.
Motivation 138 Faulkner: Life is motion, and motion is concerned with what makes man move--which is ambition, power, pleasure. Cowley, ed., Writers at Work.
I act to imitate.
Motivation 700 Montaigne: Most of my actions are guided by example, not choice. Emerson, Representative Men: Montaigne, or The Skeptic.
In seeking to do something we are seeking to escape from life.
Motivation 636 And it seemed to Pierre that all men were…seeking refuge from life: some in ambition, some in cards, some in framing laws, some in women, some in playthings, some in horses, some in politics, some in sport, some in wine, and some in government service. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
One’s spirit is the basic motivation.
Motivation 165 …men are motivated by their spirits. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
We take satisfaction in doing something because it is not a common experience.
Motive 577 In a small way we were the same sort of simpletons as those who climb unnecessarily the perilous peaks of Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn and derive no pleasure from it except the reflection that it isn’t a common experience. Twain, Roughing It
Hawthorne was concerned with the unspoken motives of heart and mind.
Motives 8 With his [Hawthorne] instinct for the unspoken motives of the heart and mind.... Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Quotes: Moral Responsibility. Moral Victory. Morality.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Moral Responsibility
McCarthy’s strength was not in him personally, but in the acquiescence of those who should have known better.
Moral Responsibility 119 The real strength of McCarthy was not his own force or brilliance; it was the acquiescence of those who should have known better. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
Moral Victory
A moral victory recognizes the moral superiority of his opponent.
Moral victory 973 …a moral victory, the kind of victory which compels the enemy to recognize the moral superiority of his opponent and his own impotence. Tolstoi, War and Peace
Morality
The SS morality was victory over all scruples.
Morality 421 SS “morality” sought the heroic victory over the self as the victory over all moral and religious scruples. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
It is harder to resist mercy in holding down captured peoples than it is to be in battle.
Morality 422 Himmler to the leaders of the SS: “In many cases it is considerably easier to lead a company into battle than to command a company responsible for some area where it has to hold down a hostile population, probably one with a long history, to carry out executions, to deport people, to remove shrieking, weeping women…to do this unseen duty…to be always consistent, always uncompromising—that is in many cases far harder.” Bracher, The German Dictatorship.
Should people resist when resistance is futile?
Morality xi The problem of power: Has anyone any ‘right’ to resist the stronger when resistance is likely to be ineffective? Warner, Euripides.
Don’t do things because you are able, but because you ought.
Morality 235 Arthur: I don’t think things ought to be done because you are able to do them; I think they should be done because you ought to do them. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
King Arthur: “Might for Right.”
Morality 353 King Arthur’s slogan: “Might for right.” T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
When people are determined to do right all the time, they will find themselves in a tangle that even an angel can’t get out of.
Morality 432 Lionel: Give me a moral man who insists on doing the right thing all the time, and I will show you a tangle which an angel couldn’t get out of. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
People need to foresee the distant results of their actions.
Morality 8 If men could be taught to see clearly their real interests, to see afar the distant results of their deeds…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.
The individual must at times sacrifice individuality for the common good.
Morality 40 Morality: …life in society requires the concession of some part of the individual’s sovereignty to the common order. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.
The only unqualified good: to do right regardless of profit or loss for ourselves.
Morality 276 Kant: the only unqualifiedly good in this world is…the will to follow the moral law, regardless of profit or loss for ourselves. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
Never treat people as a means.
Morality 277 Kant: …treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of another, in every case as an end, never only as a means. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
People will respect you more if you give them money rather than a lecture on morality.
Morality 272 Johnson on morality vs. money: Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
People worry about others cheating them; one day they will worry that they might cheat others.
Morality 1062 Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him…but a day comes when he begins to care that he do not cheat his neighbor. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Worship.
If you do wrong, you will suffer wrong.
Morality 294 You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong. Emerson, Compensation.
Intention is important in deciding right or wrong.
Morality 671 But of course intention was everything in the question of right and wrong. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
In deciding what to do, choose that which has more good than evil.
Morality 141 Lincoln: The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject anything, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years
Conscience is an inescapable feeling that we are doing right or wrong.
Morality, conscience 276 Kant: Now the most astounding reality in all our experience is precisely our moral sense, our inescapable feeling, in the face of temptation, that this or that is wrong…the categorical imperative in us, the unconditional command of our conscience…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
We must avoid behavior that if all men engaged in it, social life would be impossible.
Morality, conscience 276 Kant: We know, not by reasoning, but by vivid and immediate feelings, that we must avoid behavior which, if adopted by all men, would render social life impossible. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
Conscience legislates a priori that what we are doing is right or wrong.
Morality, conscience 276 Kant: An action is good not because it has good results, or because it is wise, but because it is done in obedience to this inner sense of duty, this moral law that does not come from our personal experience, but legislates imperiously and a priori for all our behavior, past, present, and future. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
Moral Responsibility
McCarthy’s strength was not in him personally, but in the acquiescence of those who should have known better.
Moral Responsibility 119 The real strength of McCarthy was not his own force or brilliance; it was the acquiescence of those who should have known better. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
Moral Victory
A moral victory recognizes the moral superiority of his opponent.
Moral victory 973 …a moral victory, the kind of victory which compels the enemy to recognize the moral superiority of his opponent and his own impotence. Tolstoi, War and Peace
Morality
The SS morality was victory over all scruples.
Morality 421 SS “morality” sought the heroic victory over the self as the victory over all moral and religious scruples. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
It is harder to resist mercy in holding down captured peoples than it is to be in battle.
Morality 422 Himmler to the leaders of the SS: “In many cases it is considerably easier to lead a company into battle than to command a company responsible for some area where it has to hold down a hostile population, probably one with a long history, to carry out executions, to deport people, to remove shrieking, weeping women…to do this unseen duty…to be always consistent, always uncompromising—that is in many cases far harder.” Bracher, The German Dictatorship.
Should people resist when resistance is futile?
Morality xi The problem of power: Has anyone any ‘right’ to resist the stronger when resistance is likely to be ineffective? Warner, Euripides.
Don’t do things because you are able, but because you ought.
Morality 235 Arthur: I don’t think things ought to be done because you are able to do them; I think they should be done because you ought to do them. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
King Arthur: “Might for Right.”
Morality 353 King Arthur’s slogan: “Might for right.” T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
When people are determined to do right all the time, they will find themselves in a tangle that even an angel can’t get out of.
Morality 432 Lionel: Give me a moral man who insists on doing the right thing all the time, and I will show you a tangle which an angel couldn’t get out of. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
People need to foresee the distant results of their actions.
Morality 8 If men could be taught to see clearly their real interests, to see afar the distant results of their deeds…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.
The individual must at times sacrifice individuality for the common good.
Morality 40 Morality: …life in society requires the concession of some part of the individual’s sovereignty to the common order. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.
The only unqualified good: to do right regardless of profit or loss for ourselves.
Morality 276 Kant: the only unqualifiedly good in this world is…the will to follow the moral law, regardless of profit or loss for ourselves. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
Never treat people as a means.
Morality 277 Kant: …treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of another, in every case as an end, never only as a means. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
People will respect you more if you give them money rather than a lecture on morality.
Morality 272 Johnson on morality vs. money: Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
People worry about others cheating them; one day they will worry that they might cheat others.
Morality 1062 Every man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him…but a day comes when he begins to care that he do not cheat his neighbor. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Worship.
If you do wrong, you will suffer wrong.
Morality 294 You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong. Emerson, Compensation.
Intention is important in deciding right or wrong.
Morality 671 But of course intention was everything in the question of right and wrong. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
In deciding what to do, choose that which has more good than evil.
Morality 141 Lincoln: The true rule, in determining to embrace, or reject anything, is not whether it have any evil in it; but whether it have more of evil, than of good. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years
Conscience is an inescapable feeling that we are doing right or wrong.
Morality, conscience 276 Kant: Now the most astounding reality in all our experience is precisely our moral sense, our inescapable feeling, in the face of temptation, that this or that is wrong…the categorical imperative in us, the unconditional command of our conscience…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
We must avoid behavior that if all men engaged in it, social life would be impossible.
Morality, conscience 276 Kant: We know, not by reasoning, but by vivid and immediate feelings, that we must avoid behavior which, if adopted by all men, would render social life impossible. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
Conscience legislates a priori that what we are doing is right or wrong.
Morality, conscience 276 Kant: An action is good not because it has good results, or because it is wise, but because it is done in obedience to this inner sense of duty, this moral law that does not come from our personal experience, but legislates imperiously and a priori for all our behavior, past, present, and future. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Quotes: Mood
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Mood
It was as if all joy had vanished from the world.
Mood 210 …it seemed as if all joy had vanished from the world, never to be restored. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
He threw all the books on the fire to offer sacrifice to his spleen.
Mood 369 He [Hareton] afterwards gathered the books and hurled them on the fire…I read in his countenance what anguish it was to offer that sacrifice to spleen. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
I have so little interest in my daily life that I hardly remember to eat and drink.
Mood 390 Heathcliff: I take so little interest in my daily life, that I hardly remember to eat and drink. . E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
I have to remind myself to breathe and remind my heart to beat.
Mood 392 Heathcliff: I have to remind myself to breathe—almost to remind my heart to beat. . E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
She anticipated some event to interrupt her composed and tranquil state.
Mood 315 [Emma] felt as if the spring would not pass without bringing a crisis, an event, a something to alter her present composed and tranquil state. Austen, Emma
In her present mood the only solace came from her resolution to behave better.
Mood 423 When it came to such a pitch as this, she was not able to refrain from a start, or a heavy sigh, or even from walking about the room for a few seconds—and the only source whence anything like consolation or composure could be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better conduct…. Austen, Emma
He went to London to learn how to be indifferent.
Mood 432 He [Mr. Knightley] had gone [to London] to learn to be indifferent. Austen, Emma
The castle was too full of night and winter.
Mood 601 For both women the castle was suddenly too dark, too empty, too lonely, too northerly, too full of night and winter. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
She had gained ideas that disposed her to be courteous and kind to everyone and to pity everyone whom she thought to be less happy than she.
Mood 184 She had received ideas which disposed her to be courteous and kind to all, and to pity everyone, as being less happy than herself. Austen, Persuasion.
I sat in the rocking chair and felt that it was a place of peace.
Mood 470 I sat in the rocking-chair…the heart of the old house on Green Island…and felt that it was a place of peace, the little brown bedroom, and the quiet outlook upon field and sea and sky. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
She said, “She’s really gone” to impress the sad fact upon her mind.
Mood 425 "So she's really gone, and the funeral was up to Lynn!" repeated Mrs. Todd, as if to impress the sad fact upon her mind. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
I have patience, but no hope.
Mood 439 "I have come to know what it is to have patience, but I have lost hope." Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
A day like this gives beauty to people with the plainest faces.
Mood 457 Such a day as this has transfiguring powers, and easily makes friends of those who have been cold-hearted, and gives to those who are dumb their chance to speak, and lends some beauty to the plainest face. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
I wished again for days in which nothing happened but herbs growing and the course of the sun.
Mood 484 I wished to have one of my first weeks back again, with those long hours when nothing happened except the growth of herbs and the course of the sun. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
I was so beset by ennui that I almost was asphyxiated.
Mood 53 Flaubert on Rouen, France: At sunset yesterday the walls [of Rouen] were oozing such ennui that I was almost asphyxiated as I passed. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
My own cheerfulness made everything around me cheerful.
Mood 1039 …when I brought my own cheerfulness into the saloon, these frescoes looked cheerful too. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Dreariness magnifies and multiplies.
Mood 1123 …where all that is dreary in domestic life seems magnified and multiplied…. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Mood
It was as if all joy had vanished from the world.
Mood 210 …it seemed as if all joy had vanished from the world, never to be restored. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
He threw all the books on the fire to offer sacrifice to his spleen.
Mood 369 He [Hareton] afterwards gathered the books and hurled them on the fire…I read in his countenance what anguish it was to offer that sacrifice to spleen. E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
I have so little interest in my daily life that I hardly remember to eat and drink.
Mood 390 Heathcliff: I take so little interest in my daily life, that I hardly remember to eat and drink. . E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
I have to remind myself to breathe and remind my heart to beat.
Mood 392 Heathcliff: I have to remind myself to breathe—almost to remind my heart to beat. . E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
She anticipated some event to interrupt her composed and tranquil state.
Mood 315 [Emma] felt as if the spring would not pass without bringing a crisis, an event, a something to alter her present composed and tranquil state. Austen, Emma
In her present mood the only solace came from her resolution to behave better.
Mood 423 When it came to such a pitch as this, she was not able to refrain from a start, or a heavy sigh, or even from walking about the room for a few seconds—and the only source whence anything like consolation or composure could be drawn, was in the resolution of her own better conduct…. Austen, Emma
He went to London to learn how to be indifferent.
Mood 432 He [Mr. Knightley] had gone [to London] to learn to be indifferent. Austen, Emma
The castle was too full of night and winter.
Mood 601 For both women the castle was suddenly too dark, too empty, too lonely, too northerly, too full of night and winter. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
She had gained ideas that disposed her to be courteous and kind to everyone and to pity everyone whom she thought to be less happy than she.
Mood 184 She had received ideas which disposed her to be courteous and kind to all, and to pity everyone, as being less happy than herself. Austen, Persuasion.
I sat in the rocking chair and felt that it was a place of peace.
Mood 470 I sat in the rocking-chair…the heart of the old house on Green Island…and felt that it was a place of peace, the little brown bedroom, and the quiet outlook upon field and sea and sky. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
She said, “She’s really gone” to impress the sad fact upon her mind.
Mood 425 "So she's really gone, and the funeral was up to Lynn!" repeated Mrs. Todd, as if to impress the sad fact upon her mind. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
I have patience, but no hope.
Mood 439 "I have come to know what it is to have patience, but I have lost hope." Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
A day like this gives beauty to people with the plainest faces.
Mood 457 Such a day as this has transfiguring powers, and easily makes friends of those who have been cold-hearted, and gives to those who are dumb their chance to speak, and lends some beauty to the plainest face. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
I wished again for days in which nothing happened but herbs growing and the course of the sun.
Mood 484 I wished to have one of my first weeks back again, with those long hours when nothing happened except the growth of herbs and the course of the sun. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
I was so beset by ennui that I almost was asphyxiated.
Mood 53 Flaubert on Rouen, France: At sunset yesterday the walls [of Rouen] were oozing such ennui that I was almost asphyxiated as I passed. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
My own cheerfulness made everything around me cheerful.
Mood 1039 …when I brought my own cheerfulness into the saloon, these frescoes looked cheerful too. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Dreariness magnifies and multiplies.
Mood 1123 …where all that is dreary in domestic life seems magnified and multiplied…. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Quotes: Mind. Miracle. Misanthrope. Misfit. Mobs. Moderation. Modern. Monarch.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Mind
One part of my mind watched the other part.
Mind 79 And then sat watching myself, watching one part of my mind with another. Finney, From Time to Time.
The history of mind has been concealing it.
Mind 118 The history of men’s minds has been the concealing of them…. F. Scott Fitzgerald on Writing.
Only the mind of man remains unmeasured.
Mind man 174 …there is little or nothing that remains unmeasured: Nothing, that is, but the mind of man. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Miracle
A miracle appears and disappears within the natural order, a definition that also includes each individual human being.
Miracle 57 The only thing that characterizes a miracle, to my mind, is its sudden appearance and disappearance within the natural order, although, strangely, this loose definition would include each individual person. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Misanthrope
People are selfish, mean, cowardly and treacherous.
Misanthrope 120 Johnson: Convinced by time of the selfishness, the meanness, the cowardice, the treachery of men. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
I hate people; I’m one of the best and I know how bad I am.
Misanthrope 315 Boswell, quoting a certain man: “I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.” Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
Misfit
The permanent misfit cannot do the one thing he craves to accomplish.
Misfit 49 The permanent misfits are those who because of a lack of talent or some irreparable defect in body or mind cannot do the one thing for which their whole being craves. Hoffer, The True Believer
Mobs
Men in crowds are more foolish, violent and cruel than men separate and alone.
Mobs 8 …is it not universally seen that men in crowds are more foolish and more violent and more cruel than men separate and alone? Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.
In crowds, we lose our humanity.
Mobs 110 …we haven’t yet learned how to stay human when assembled in masses. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
Moderation
Moderation is rarer than patience.
Moderation 200 …the virtue of moderation is more rare than that of patience. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Modern
The modern mind disregards what is good in its age and focuses on what is wrong. Modern 254 [The modern mind]: What is good in the age they live in they do not regard; their eyes are fixed on what is wrong. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
On passing the iron works, he scratched these lines: We didn’t come to view your works in hopes to be more wise, but only if we go to hell, it will be no surprise.
Modern society 321 And Burns, passing the Carron Iron Works in 1787, scratched these lines on a window-pane: We cam na here to view your warks,/ In hopes to be mair wise,/ But only, lest we gang to Hell,/ It may be nae surprise. Clark, Civilization.
Monarch
Absolute monarchs: cruelty, sorrow, age, pride, selfishness, loneliness.
Monarch 44 …a face which had been ravaged by all the passions of an absolute monarch—by cruelty, sorrow, age, pride, selfishness, loneliness and thoughts too strong for individual brains. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Mind
One part of my mind watched the other part.
Mind 79 And then sat watching myself, watching one part of my mind with another. Finney, From Time to Time.
The history of mind has been concealing it.
Mind 118 The history of men’s minds has been the concealing of them…. F. Scott Fitzgerald on Writing.
Only the mind of man remains unmeasured.
Mind man 174 …there is little or nothing that remains unmeasured: Nothing, that is, but the mind of man. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Miracle
A miracle appears and disappears within the natural order, a definition that also includes each individual human being.
Miracle 57 The only thing that characterizes a miracle, to my mind, is its sudden appearance and disappearance within the natural order, although, strangely, this loose definition would include each individual person. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Misanthrope
People are selfish, mean, cowardly and treacherous.
Misanthrope 120 Johnson: Convinced by time of the selfishness, the meanness, the cowardice, the treachery of men. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
I hate people; I’m one of the best and I know how bad I am.
Misanthrope 315 Boswell, quoting a certain man: “I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.” Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
Misfit
The permanent misfit cannot do the one thing he craves to accomplish.
Misfit 49 The permanent misfits are those who because of a lack of talent or some irreparable defect in body or mind cannot do the one thing for which their whole being craves. Hoffer, The True Believer
Mobs
Men in crowds are more foolish, violent and cruel than men separate and alone.
Mobs 8 …is it not universally seen that men in crowds are more foolish and more violent and more cruel than men separate and alone? Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.
In crowds, we lose our humanity.
Mobs 110 …we haven’t yet learned how to stay human when assembled in masses. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
Moderation
Moderation is rarer than patience.
Moderation 200 …the virtue of moderation is more rare than that of patience. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Modern
The modern mind disregards what is good in its age and focuses on what is wrong. Modern 254 [The modern mind]: What is good in the age they live in they do not regard; their eyes are fixed on what is wrong. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
On passing the iron works, he scratched these lines: We didn’t come to view your works in hopes to be more wise, but only if we go to hell, it will be no surprise.
Modern society 321 And Burns, passing the Carron Iron Works in 1787, scratched these lines on a window-pane: We cam na here to view your warks,/ In hopes to be mair wise,/ But only, lest we gang to Hell,/ It may be nae surprise. Clark, Civilization.
Monarch
Absolute monarchs: cruelty, sorrow, age, pride, selfishness, loneliness.
Monarch 44 …a face which had been ravaged by all the passions of an absolute monarch—by cruelty, sorrow, age, pride, selfishness, loneliness and thoughts too strong for individual brains. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Quotes: Military
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Military
In the military there is no turmoil such as occurs in the outside world as we exercise free will.
Military 462 Here [in the Regiment] was none of that turmoil of the world at large in which he found himself out of his element and made mistakes in exercising his free will. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
In war the cruel and incompetent have power over the helpless and the sensitive.
Military 83 …the armed services in the protest novels of the war gave to the cruel and the incompetent power over the lives of the helpless and the sensitive. [military] Blum, V Was for Victory
Even the presentiment of dread was dulled by the drab military routine.
Military 36 …even the dull presentiment of dread, like the first hint of a toothache—with which the day began, was utterly stifled, deadened by drab army routine. [military] Childers, Wings of Morning
Hitler’s party was military not merely militant.
Military 149 The main attribute of the “new party” was its military, not merely militant, character. Bracher, The German Dictatorship.
Out of the army, a man longs for certitude, camaraderie, freedom from individual responsibility different from the competitive free society.
Military 47 He [the man just out of the army] longs for certitude, camaraderie, freedom from individual responsibility, and a vision of something altogether different from the competitive free society around him…. Hoffer, The True Believer
Uniforms, flags, emblems, parades, music and elaborate etiquette are designed to remove the sense of individuality and mask the reality of death.
Military 70 Their [the army’s] uniforms, flags, emblems, parades, music, and elaborate etiquette and ritual are designed to separate the soldier from his flesh-and-blood self and mask the overwhelming reality of life and death. Hoffer, The True Believer
Mass movements and armies are collective bodies, strip the individual of his separateness and distinctness, demand self-sacrifice and unquestioning obedience and are a refuge for the frustrated who cannot endure an autonomous existence.
Military 91 The similarities [between armies and mass movements] are many: both mass movements and armies are collective bodies; both strip the individual of his separateness and distinctness; both demand self-sacrifice, unquestioning obedience and single hearted allegiance; both make extensive use of make-believe to promote daring and united action; and both can serve as a refuge for the frustrated who cannot endure an autonomous existence. Hoffer, The True Believer
Unlike mass movements, armies are not to achieve salvation but an instrument for the preservation of established order.
Military 92 …the differences [between armies and mass movements] are fundamental: an army…is not a road to salvation…mainly an instrument devised for the preservation of an established order. Hoffer, The True Believer
Armies are designed to protect the present.
Military 92 The army is an instrument for bolstering, protecting, and expanding the present. Hoffer, The True Believer
JFK: The U.S. will never strike the first blow.
Military 681 JFK: “Our arms will never be used to strike the first blow in any attack.” Sorenson, Kennedy
The military must always be subject to civilian control.
Military 682 “Our arms must be subject to ultimate civilian control and command at all times, in war as well as peace. Sorenson, Kennedy
Military conflicts need more than military solutions.
Military 715 Military conflicts required more than military solutions…the Communists exploited genuine noncommunist grievances. Sorenson, Kennedy
War pricks the democratic bubble: People go from being citizens with equal rights to slaves of the military.
Military 150 One of the most amusing by-products of war is its pricking of the fundamental democratic delusion…Homo boobus…flapping his wings over his God-given rights, his inalienable freedom, his sublime equality to his masters…of a sudden he is thrust into a training camp, and discovers that he is a slave after all--that even his life is not his own.
Mencken, Minority Report.
We need a professional military just as we need businessmen, scientists, clergymen and scholars.
Military 481 Maxwell Taylor: We must perhaps progress further toward maturity before there will be a whole hearted acceptance at home of the continuing need for a large and respected military profession in the United States in the same way as there is a need for a class of businessmen, professional men, scientists, clergymen and scholars. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
Our business is to fight, not to think.
Military 489 Our business is to do our duty, to fight, and not to think! Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Marching leads to a feeling of being part of an irresistible force.
Military 59 …when marching…I had a thrilling feeling of being part of a living, irresistible force…. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
The military uniform was a convict suit for a prison of the human spirit.
Military 63 We regarded the uniform as a convict suit, worn by inmates of the prison house of the human spirit….
The true test of an army is its spirit.
Military 203 I clung to my intuitive belief that the true test of any army is a matter of the spirits of men, which alone could not be improvised by American ingenuity or purchased by American wealth. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
The myth that the military was a melting pot.
Military 377 The popular belief that army life was melting all Americans from whatever social strata, of whatever personal interests, into one common amalgam was pure legend. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
In the crisis of battle, men became as one, but battles are brief and men return to making life as much like normal as possible.
Military 377 It is true that in the crisis of battle men became as one, but battles are of brief duration, and meanwhile life goes on—each man making it as nearly like the life he had left as he possibly could. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Military
In the military there is no turmoil such as occurs in the outside world as we exercise free will.
Military 462 Here [in the Regiment] was none of that turmoil of the world at large in which he found himself out of his element and made mistakes in exercising his free will. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
In war the cruel and incompetent have power over the helpless and the sensitive.
Military 83 …the armed services in the protest novels of the war gave to the cruel and the incompetent power over the lives of the helpless and the sensitive. [military] Blum, V Was for Victory
Even the presentiment of dread was dulled by the drab military routine.
Military 36 …even the dull presentiment of dread, like the first hint of a toothache—with which the day began, was utterly stifled, deadened by drab army routine. [military] Childers, Wings of Morning
Hitler’s party was military not merely militant.
Military 149 The main attribute of the “new party” was its military, not merely militant, character. Bracher, The German Dictatorship.
Out of the army, a man longs for certitude, camaraderie, freedom from individual responsibility different from the competitive free society.
Military 47 He [the man just out of the army] longs for certitude, camaraderie, freedom from individual responsibility, and a vision of something altogether different from the competitive free society around him…. Hoffer, The True Believer
Uniforms, flags, emblems, parades, music and elaborate etiquette are designed to remove the sense of individuality and mask the reality of death.
Military 70 Their [the army’s] uniforms, flags, emblems, parades, music, and elaborate etiquette and ritual are designed to separate the soldier from his flesh-and-blood self and mask the overwhelming reality of life and death. Hoffer, The True Believer
Mass movements and armies are collective bodies, strip the individual of his separateness and distinctness, demand self-sacrifice and unquestioning obedience and are a refuge for the frustrated who cannot endure an autonomous existence.
Military 91 The similarities [between armies and mass movements] are many: both mass movements and armies are collective bodies; both strip the individual of his separateness and distinctness; both demand self-sacrifice, unquestioning obedience and single hearted allegiance; both make extensive use of make-believe to promote daring and united action; and both can serve as a refuge for the frustrated who cannot endure an autonomous existence. Hoffer, The True Believer
Unlike mass movements, armies are not to achieve salvation but an instrument for the preservation of established order.
Military 92 …the differences [between armies and mass movements] are fundamental: an army…is not a road to salvation…mainly an instrument devised for the preservation of an established order. Hoffer, The True Believer
Armies are designed to protect the present.
Military 92 The army is an instrument for bolstering, protecting, and expanding the present. Hoffer, The True Believer
JFK: The U.S. will never strike the first blow.
Military 681 JFK: “Our arms will never be used to strike the first blow in any attack.” Sorenson, Kennedy
The military must always be subject to civilian control.
Military 682 “Our arms must be subject to ultimate civilian control and command at all times, in war as well as peace. Sorenson, Kennedy
Military conflicts need more than military solutions.
Military 715 Military conflicts required more than military solutions…the Communists exploited genuine noncommunist grievances. Sorenson, Kennedy
War pricks the democratic bubble: People go from being citizens with equal rights to slaves of the military.
Military 150 One of the most amusing by-products of war is its pricking of the fundamental democratic delusion…Homo boobus…flapping his wings over his God-given rights, his inalienable freedom, his sublime equality to his masters…of a sudden he is thrust into a training camp, and discovers that he is a slave after all--that even his life is not his own.
Mencken, Minority Report.
We need a professional military just as we need businessmen, scientists, clergymen and scholars.
Military 481 Maxwell Taylor: We must perhaps progress further toward maturity before there will be a whole hearted acceptance at home of the continuing need for a large and respected military profession in the United States in the same way as there is a need for a class of businessmen, professional men, scientists, clergymen and scholars. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
Our business is to fight, not to think.
Military 489 Our business is to do our duty, to fight, and not to think! Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Marching leads to a feeling of being part of an irresistible force.
Military 59 …when marching…I had a thrilling feeling of being part of a living, irresistible force…. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
The military uniform was a convict suit for a prison of the human spirit.
Military 63 We regarded the uniform as a convict suit, worn by inmates of the prison house of the human spirit….
The true test of an army is its spirit.
Military 203 I clung to my intuitive belief that the true test of any army is a matter of the spirits of men, which alone could not be improvised by American ingenuity or purchased by American wealth. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
The myth that the military was a melting pot.
Military 377 The popular belief that army life was melting all Americans from whatever social strata, of whatever personal interests, into one common amalgam was pure legend. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
In the crisis of battle, men became as one, but battles are brief and men return to making life as much like normal as possible.
Military 377 It is true that in the crisis of battle men became as one, but battles are of brief duration, and meanwhile life goes on—each man making it as nearly like the life he had left as he possibly could. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Quotes: Metaphysics. Middle Age. Middle ages. Middle Class. Midwest. Might.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Metaphysics
Metaphysics meant discovering the essential nature of reality.
Metaphysics 351 …metaphysics had meant, throughout the history of thought, an attempt to discover the ultimate nature of reality. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.
Middle Age
Middle-aged people can believe in God while breaking all his commandments.
Middle-age 368 Middle-aged people can balance between believing in God and breaking all the Commandments, without difficulty. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Middle-aged men are tired looking.
Middle-aged men 165 [Men aged forty-five]: …they know life and are so adorably tired looking. Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise.
Middle Ages
The initial letters of their manuscripts were so illuminated that it was impossible to read the first page.
Middle Ages 414 In the abbeys all the monks were illuminating the initial letters of their manuscripts with such a riot of invention that it was impossible to read the first page at all. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Now that the guns have come, the Round Table is over.
Middle Ages 613 “Now that the guns have come,” said Arthur, “the Table is over.” T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Middle Class
Average people do the work and are manipulated by minorities at either end, the best and the worst.
Middle class 25 The decent, average people who do the nation’s work in cities and on the land are worked upon and shaped by minorities at both ends—the best and the worst. Hoffer, The True Believer
The great periods of culture were not produced by the aristocracy but by the bourgeoisie.
Middle class vs. aristocracy 444 It is a common delusion that the great periods of culture have been ages of hereditary aristocracy: on the contrary, the efflorescent periods of Pericles and the Medici and Elizabeth and the Romantic Age were nourished with the wealth of a rising bourgeoisie; and the creative work in literature and art was done not by aristocratic families but by the offspring of the middle class--by such men as Socrates, who was the son of a midwife, and Voltaire, who was the son of an attorney, and Shakespeare, who was the son of a butcher. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Nietzsche.
Midwest
Memories of growing up in the Midwest.
Midwest 177 That’s my Middle West—not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Might
Might unfortunately is right.
Might 167 Ismene: For might unfortunately is right and makes us bow to things like this and worse. Sophocles. Antigone.
When might is right there is no right.
Might right 194 Chorus: Where might is right/ There is no right. Sophocles. Antigone.
Metaphysics
Metaphysics meant discovering the essential nature of reality.
Metaphysics 351 …metaphysics had meant, throughout the history of thought, an attempt to discover the ultimate nature of reality. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.
Middle Age
Middle-aged people can believe in God while breaking all his commandments.
Middle-age 368 Middle-aged people can balance between believing in God and breaking all the Commandments, without difficulty. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Middle-aged men are tired looking.
Middle-aged men 165 [Men aged forty-five]: …they know life and are so adorably tired looking. Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise.
Middle Ages
The initial letters of their manuscripts were so illuminated that it was impossible to read the first page.
Middle Ages 414 In the abbeys all the monks were illuminating the initial letters of their manuscripts with such a riot of invention that it was impossible to read the first page at all. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Now that the guns have come, the Round Table is over.
Middle Ages 613 “Now that the guns have come,” said Arthur, “the Table is over.” T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Middle Class
Average people do the work and are manipulated by minorities at either end, the best and the worst.
Middle class 25 The decent, average people who do the nation’s work in cities and on the land are worked upon and shaped by minorities at both ends—the best and the worst. Hoffer, The True Believer
The great periods of culture were not produced by the aristocracy but by the bourgeoisie.
Middle class vs. aristocracy 444 It is a common delusion that the great periods of culture have been ages of hereditary aristocracy: on the contrary, the efflorescent periods of Pericles and the Medici and Elizabeth and the Romantic Age were nourished with the wealth of a rising bourgeoisie; and the creative work in literature and art was done not by aristocratic families but by the offspring of the middle class--by such men as Socrates, who was the son of a midwife, and Voltaire, who was the son of an attorney, and Shakespeare, who was the son of a butcher. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Nietzsche.
Midwest
Memories of growing up in the Midwest.
Midwest 177 That’s my Middle West—not the wheat or the prairies or the lost Swede towns, but the thrilling returning trains of my youth, and the street lamps and sleigh bells in the frosty dark and the shadows of holly wreaths thrown by lighted windows on the snow. Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Might
Might unfortunately is right.
Might 167 Ismene: For might unfortunately is right and makes us bow to things like this and worse. Sophocles. Antigone.
When might is right there is no right.
Might right 194 Chorus: Where might is right/ There is no right. Sophocles. Antigone.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)