Friday, September 14, 2007

Quotes: Physicians. Pioneers. Places. Planning. Plato. Playing. Plays. Pleasure.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Physicians
Physicians make healthy people sick so that they can have authority over both the sick and the well.
Physicians 239 Physicians are not content to have authority over sickness; they make health sick to prevent men from being able at any time to escape their authority. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

If a person is perfectly healthy, physicians use that condition to predict a coming sickness.
Physicians 239 Do they [physicians] not from a continual and perfect health derive an argument of some great sickness to ensue? Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Physicians and apothecaries afflict more people than diseases.
Physicians 240 I do not become upset at being without physician or apothecary, or any assistance, by which I see most men more afflicted than by the disease. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Physicians are lucky that people can see their successes and the earth hides their failures.
Physicians 242 But they [physicians] have this good fortune according to Nicocles, that the sun shines on their successes and the earth hides their failures. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Pioneers
Sleepy, sluggish stay-at-homes do not make good pioneers.
Pioneers 840 It was a splendid population [California]—for all the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained sloths staid at home—you never find that sort of people among pioneers—you cannot build pioneers out of that sort of material. Twain, Roughing It

Places
The very sound of the name of the place portends dire consequences.
Places 310 Mrs. Elton: One has not great hopes from Birmingham; I always say there is some thing direful in the sound. Austen, Emma

Planning
If I plan it and mention it to others, I seem to impose the action on myself; therefore, I seldom tell my plans to others.
Planning 465 Yes, even in actions wholly my own and free from others, if I state the plan, it seems to me that I prescribe it for myself, and that to give it to the knowledge of another is to impose it upon myself; it seems to me that I promise it when I mention it; therefore I seldom air my plans. Montaigne, Selected Essays.

Plato
Plato ignores the ever-present process of change in life.
Plato 45 What Plato lacks above all, perhaps, is the Heraclitean sense of flux and change; he is too anxious to have the moving picture of this world become a fixed and still tableau…arranges men in classes like an entomologist classifying flies. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.

Plato exalts order at the expense of freedom of will.
Plato 45 [Plato]: …exalts order so dear to the scientific mind, and quite neglects that liberty which is the soul of art. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Plato.

Plato’s topics continue to be debated by men of thought.
Plato 633 Out of Plato come all things that are still written and debated among men of thought. Emerson, Representative Men: Plato, or The Philosopher.

Playing
The Greeks played; the Romans watched others play.
Play 320 The Roman games played an important part in the life of the Romans, but, as has often been remarked, the Greeks played; the Romans watched others play. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.

Plays
The nature of the play changes according to the nature of the audience and the quality of the performance.
Plays 323 H. Freedman: An over- or unsympathetic audience on an opening night, an “off” or unusually brilliant performance, and you will hardly recognize the play you have seen only a few days before. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.

Plays always seem one act too long.
Plays 266 John Updike: I’ve never much enjoyed going to plays myself; they always seem one act too long…. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook

Pleasure
Many buildings in the 18th century were built to give pleasure.
Pleasure 240 Many buildings of the eighteenth century were erected simply to give pleasure by people who believed that pleasure was important, and worth taking trouble about…. Clark, Civilization.

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