Values
The ethics of Jesus and Buddha emphasize the feminine virtues: all people are precious; returns good for evil and identifies virtue with love.
Values 179 One [system of ethics] is that of Buddha and Jesus, which stresses the feminine virtues, considers all men to be equally precious, resists evil only by returning good, identifies virtue with love…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.
The ethics of Machiavelli and Nietzsche stress masculine virtues: inequality of men, relishes combat, conquest and rule and identifies virtue with power.
Values 179 Another [system of ethics] is that of Machiavelli and Nietzsche, which stresses the masculine virtues, accepts the inequality of men, relishes the risks of combat and conquest and rule, identifies virtue with power…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.
The ethics of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle defines virtue with intelligence to judge when to use the masculine or feminine values.
Values 180 A third [system of ethics], the ethic of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, denies the universal applicability of either the feminine or masculine virtues; considers that only the informed and mature mind can judge, according to diverse circumstances, when love should rule and when power; identifies virtue, therefore, with intelligence…. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Spinoza.
Men don’t want rights; they want privileges.
Values 25 …what men value in this world is not rights but privileges. Mencken, Minority Report.
The English value performance, not power and ideas only if they have concrete results.
Values 887 The English…do not respect power, but only performance, value ideas only for an economic result. Emerson, English Traits.
Values are taught, not inherited.
Values 89 “Values are not inherited; they’re taught.” Justice Anthony Kennedy. Jeffrey Rosen, “Annals of Law: The Agonizer.” The New Yorker, November 1996
Vanity
People are more vain of their deficiencies than of their gifts.
Vanity 418 …people are generally quite as vain, or even more so, of their deficiencies, than of their available gifts. Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.
Victory
JFK was magnanimous in victory and immediately concentrated on reconciliation with his adversary.
Victory 516 Magnanimous in victory, as always, the President turned his attention to the problem of reconciliation. Sorenson, Kennedy
JFK accepted Khrushchev’s statesmanlike action as a constructive contribution to peace.
Victory 809 Rejecting the temptation of a dramatic TV appearance, he [Kennedy] issued a brief three-paragraph statement welcoming Khrushchev’s ‘statesmanlike decision…an important and constructive contribution to peace.’ Sorenson, Kennedy
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Quotes: Understanding. Uniform. Unity and Multiplicity. Universe. Universities. Utilitarianism.
Understanding
Understanding 241 …seeing is not the same thing as understanding. [knowledge] Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Fanatical nationalism undermines belief in international understanding.
Understanding 160 “Fanatical nationalism”—the conscious and systematic undermining of faith in international understanding. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Uniform
A uniform sways the ladies.
Uniform 524 …a good uniform must work its way with the women sooner or later. Dickens, Pickwick.
Uniforms never seem to fit exactly.
Uniforms 18 …general postman’s coat—queer coats those—made by contract—no measuring—mysterious dispensations of Providence—all the short men get long coats—all the long men short ones. Dickens, Pickwick.
Unity and Multiplicity
The oldest problem in philosophy: bringing multiplicity into unity.
Unity and multiplicity 167 “The attempt to bridge the chasm between multiplicity and unity is the oldest problem of philosophy, religion, and science,” observed Henry Adams in Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (1905). Boorstin, The Americans: Colonial Experience
Multiplicity is different aspects of the same unity.
Unity, multiplicity 10 Ira Wolfert: Multiplicity is merely different aspects of the same unity. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Universe
Minute Earth and lonely man in a huge universe.
Universe 116 In a universe whose size is beyond human imagining, where our world floats like a dust mote in the void of night, men have grown inconceivably lonely. Eiseley, The Immense Journey
The universe has been widened by the telescope and the microscope.
Universe 218 Between the telescope and the microscope the Adamic universe has widened, that’s all. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Speeds of different bodies in the universe.
Universe 29 The entire solar system…is moving within the local star system at the rate of 13 miles a second; the local star system is moving within the Milky Way at the rate of 200 miles a second; and the whole Milky Way is drifting with respect to the remote external galaxies at the rate of 100 miles a second—and all in different directions! Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Universities
The Nazis closed the universities in Czechoslovakia and Poland and sent their professors to concentration camps.
Universities 272 The role accorded scholarship and universities in the “new order of Europe” was made clear in 1939, when the universities of occupied Czechoslovakia and Poland were closed and the majority of their professors sent to concentration camps. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
The Nazis destroyed the universities to destroy the intellectual centers that might resist the intended destiny of their countries as satellites and slaves for the Nazis.
Universities 272 …intended to decimate the universities of northern and western Europe, with the clearly stated purpose of depriving non-German countries of their intellectual center, of reducing their powers of resistance, and of making them amenable to their future roles as satellites (in the West) or slaves (in the East). Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Universities served the system, not the cause of truth.
Universities 56 …university authorities, who we thought were merely serving the system and not the cause of truth. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism was added to goodness, beauty and truth as the aims of man.
Utilitarianism 469 Croce’s...elevation of the concept of Utility to a parity of Goodness, Beauty, and Truth. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Benedetto Croce.
Understanding 241 …seeing is not the same thing as understanding. [knowledge] Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Fanatical nationalism undermines belief in international understanding.
Understanding 160 “Fanatical nationalism”—the conscious and systematic undermining of faith in international understanding. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Uniform
A uniform sways the ladies.
Uniform 524 …a good uniform must work its way with the women sooner or later. Dickens, Pickwick.
Uniforms never seem to fit exactly.
Uniforms 18 …general postman’s coat—queer coats those—made by contract—no measuring—mysterious dispensations of Providence—all the short men get long coats—all the long men short ones. Dickens, Pickwick.
Unity and Multiplicity
The oldest problem in philosophy: bringing multiplicity into unity.
Unity and multiplicity 167 “The attempt to bridge the chasm between multiplicity and unity is the oldest problem of philosophy, religion, and science,” observed Henry Adams in Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (1905). Boorstin, The Americans: Colonial Experience
Multiplicity is different aspects of the same unity.
Unity, multiplicity 10 Ira Wolfert: Multiplicity is merely different aspects of the same unity. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Universe
Minute Earth and lonely man in a huge universe.
Universe 116 In a universe whose size is beyond human imagining, where our world floats like a dust mote in the void of night, men have grown inconceivably lonely. Eiseley, The Immense Journey
The universe has been widened by the telescope and the microscope.
Universe 218 Between the telescope and the microscope the Adamic universe has widened, that’s all. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Speeds of different bodies in the universe.
Universe 29 The entire solar system…is moving within the local star system at the rate of 13 miles a second; the local star system is moving within the Milky Way at the rate of 200 miles a second; and the whole Milky Way is drifting with respect to the remote external galaxies at the rate of 100 miles a second—and all in different directions! Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Universities
The Nazis closed the universities in Czechoslovakia and Poland and sent their professors to concentration camps.
Universities 272 The role accorded scholarship and universities in the “new order of Europe” was made clear in 1939, when the universities of occupied Czechoslovakia and Poland were closed and the majority of their professors sent to concentration camps. Bracher, The German Dictatorship
The Nazis destroyed the universities to destroy the intellectual centers that might resist the intended destiny of their countries as satellites and slaves for the Nazis.
Universities 272 …intended to decimate the universities of northern and western Europe, with the clearly stated purpose of depriving non-German countries of their intellectual center, of reducing their powers of resistance, and of making them amenable to their future roles as satellites (in the West) or slaves (in the East). Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Universities served the system, not the cause of truth.
Universities 56 …university authorities, who we thought were merely serving the system and not the cause of truth. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Utilitarianism
Utilitarianism was added to goodness, beauty and truth as the aims of man.
Utilitarianism 469 Croce’s...elevation of the concept of Utility to a parity of Goodness, Beauty, and Truth. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Benedetto Croce.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Quotes: Truth. Tyranny.
Truth
Those who did not act on truth in their lives will lose this knowledge of truth when they die.
Truth 131 Emanuel Swedenborg: “That the spirits who knew truth in this life, but did it not, at death shall lose this knowledge.” Emerson, Method of Nature.
Truth is revealed only to disinterested seekers.
Truth 10 Truth is a jealous mistress and will reveal herself not a whit to any but a disinterested seeker.... E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
He suggests that nighttime fears and apprehensions are truer than reality as seen during the day.
Truth 125 Sometimes, he suggests, one’s nighttime fears and apprehensions are closer to the truth than the hard facts seen in mundane light. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
The Greeks recognized that truth was paradoxical and accepted both sides of the paradox.
Truth 318 They [the Greeks] saw both sides of the paradox of truth, giving predominance to neither, and in all Greek art there is an absence of struggle, a reconciling power, something of calm and serenity, the world has yet to see again. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
People are fearless who recognize and accept reality regardless that it does its worst to them.
Truth 370 Melville: “By visible truth we mean the apprehension of the absolute condition of present things as they strike the eye of the man who fears them not, though they do their worst to him….” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
The devout seek truth with their hearts, not their minds.
Truth 84 The devout are always urged to seek the absolute truth with their hearts and not their minds. Hoffer, The True Believer
People cannot be forced to accept truth.
Truth 190 Man cannot be forced to accept the truth. Pope John Paul II, Threshold
Every truth contains some error.
Truth 431 Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken. Austen, Emma
Can the devil speak the truth?
Truth 310 Waverley: What, can the devil speak truth? Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
No truth is ugly.
Truth 663 You are teaching people to understand that no truth is ugly, and no lie is beautiful. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
We accept lies as truth and demand the same lies from others.
Truth 272 …we consider the veriest lies as truth and demand the same lies from others. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
Different religions and philosophies are simply different manifestations of the same truth.
Truth 291 Carlyle: …diverse religions and philosophies are but the changing garments of one eternal truth. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
Truth is the unity of many opposed parts.
Truth 295 Truth…is an organic unity of opposed parts. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Hegel.
Truth lies in the coordination of antagonistic ideas.
Truth 365 Spencer: Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.
Imaginative literature gives the impression of truth.
Truth 25 John Hersey: …among all the means of communication now available, imaginative literature comes closer than any to being able to give an impression of the truth. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Truth is in the connection between cause and effect.
Truth 701 Truth, or the connection between cause and effect, alone interests us. Emerson, Representative Men: Montaigne, or The Skeptic.
Use truth.
Truth 761 …to honor every truth by use. Emerson, Representative Men, Goethe, or the Writer.
Focusing on only one aspect of truth distorts the whole truth and becomes falsehood.
Truth 424 Truth is our element of life, yet a man fasten his attention on a single aspect of truth, and apply himself to that alone for a long time, the truth becomes distorted and not itself but falsehood. Emerson, Intellect.
He wanted to know the blunt truth about the enemy in order to save lives.
Truth 184 …Stilwell wanted above all to be well informed, to know his own men’s and the enemy’s capabilities, and he knew that anything less than the blunt truth and blunt intelligence about the enemy might cost him lives, his boys. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
The worse the news the more he needed it—accurately.
Truth 184 [For Stilwell] it did not matter whether the news was good or bad; the worse the news, the more you needed it. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
Truth is what others can be persuaded to believe.
Truth 227 Our truth of today is not what is, but what others can be persuaded to believe…. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Truth can be learned from error more easily than from confusion.
Truth 89 Francis Bacon: Truth comes out of error more easily than out of confusion. A Random Walk in Science.
The Romans lie when they appear to be telling the truth and speak truth when they seem to be telling a lie, so much so that no one should believe them under any conditions.
Truth 1193 In short, they [the Romans] lie so much like truth, and speak truth so much as if they were telling a lie, that their auditor suspects himself in the wrong, whether he believes or disbelieves them. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
There are no new truths.
Truth 827 There are no new truths, much as we have prided ourselves on finding some.
The human mind is so varied that no truth appears the same to any two people.
Truth 512 At this meeting Pierre was for the first time struck by the endless variety of the human mind, preventing any truth from ever presenting itself in the same way to any two persons. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Truths from emotions are moral; truths from reason are the result of reflection.
Truth 153 Albert Schweitzer: I was always, even as a boy, engrossed in the philosophical problem of the relation between emotion and reason;...truths that we derive from the emotions are of a moral kind--compassion, kindness, forgiveness, love for our neighbor;...reason...teaches...truths that come from reflection. Anderson, The Schweitzer Album.
Seek the truth, not emotional satisfaction.
Truth xxi Careful always to seek for truth and not for our own emotional satisfaction…. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Truth will win in the end.
Truth 64 …believing with naïveté that the truth is strong by itself and cannot lose in the end. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Truth justifies itself.
Truth 143 “The truth is its own justification….” Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Making debating points rather than seeking the truth.
Truth 215 The Congress alternately dozed and shouted, and its members sought to make debating points rather than to find the truth. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Does suppressing the truth ever pay?
Truth 226 …does it ever pay to suppress the truth? Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
It takes a lot of negotiation to tell the truth.
Truth 352 It is rather extraordinary how men must plot and combine and negotiate merely to tell the truth. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
We believe that two and two are four and that black is black and white is white.
Truth 383 We whose names are hereunto subscribed do solemnly declare, that we do in our consciences believe two and two make four; and that we shall adjudge any man whatsoever to be our enemy who endeavors to persuade us to the contrary…that it is our resolution as long as we live to call black black, and white white. Addison, 7/25/1711. The Spectator.
Make the people laugh when you tell them the truth or they will kill you.
Truth 106 George Bernard Shaw once observed, “If you tell people the truth, make them laugh or they’ll kill you.” Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “A Critic at Large: The Strong Woman.”
The New Yorker (Nov. 11, 1996), pp. 106-118.
He told them the truth, but he transformed it into a lie.
Truth and falsehood 242 He had spoken the very truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.
The intellect needs the truth cloaked in rhetoric and the will needs it presented as illusion.
Truth and Will 1123 The intellect is stimulated by the statement of truth in a trope, and the will by clothing the laws of life in illusion. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Illusions.
The drama is not literal truth.
Truth drama 27 Literalness was not the truth, especially in drama. Blum, V Was for Victory
Ideology masquerades as truth.
Truth ideology 164 The world, tired of ideology, is opening itself to the truth. Pope John Paul II, Threshold
Truth in poetry and the truth of science are both true.
Truth poetry science 31 The truth of poetry and the truth of science were both true. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tyranny
Tyranny triumphs if the people are amused.
Tyranny 600 …the maxim of the tyrant, “If you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused.” Emerson, New England Reformers.
Those who did not act on truth in their lives will lose this knowledge of truth when they die.
Truth 131 Emanuel Swedenborg: “That the spirits who knew truth in this life, but did it not, at death shall lose this knowledge.” Emerson, Method of Nature.
Truth is revealed only to disinterested seekers.
Truth 10 Truth is a jealous mistress and will reveal herself not a whit to any but a disinterested seeker.... E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
He suggests that nighttime fears and apprehensions are truer than reality as seen during the day.
Truth 125 Sometimes, he suggests, one’s nighttime fears and apprehensions are closer to the truth than the hard facts seen in mundane light. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
The Greeks recognized that truth was paradoxical and accepted both sides of the paradox.
Truth 318 They [the Greeks] saw both sides of the paradox of truth, giving predominance to neither, and in all Greek art there is an absence of struggle, a reconciling power, something of calm and serenity, the world has yet to see again. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
People are fearless who recognize and accept reality regardless that it does its worst to them.
Truth 370 Melville: “By visible truth we mean the apprehension of the absolute condition of present things as they strike the eye of the man who fears them not, though they do their worst to him….” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
The devout seek truth with their hearts, not their minds.
Truth 84 The devout are always urged to seek the absolute truth with their hearts and not their minds. Hoffer, The True Believer
People cannot be forced to accept truth.
Truth 190 Man cannot be forced to accept the truth. Pope John Paul II, Threshold
Every truth contains some error.
Truth 431 Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure; seldom can it happen that something is not a little disguised, or a little mistaken. Austen, Emma
Can the devil speak the truth?
Truth 310 Waverley: What, can the devil speak truth? Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
No truth is ugly.
Truth 663 You are teaching people to understand that no truth is ugly, and no lie is beautiful. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
We accept lies as truth and demand the same lies from others.
Truth 272 …we consider the veriest lies as truth and demand the same lies from others. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
Different religions and philosophies are simply different manifestations of the same truth.
Truth 291 Carlyle: …diverse religions and philosophies are but the changing garments of one eternal truth. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Kant.
Truth is the unity of many opposed parts.
Truth 295 Truth…is an organic unity of opposed parts. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Hegel.
Truth lies in the coordination of antagonistic ideas.
Truth 365 Spencer: Truth generally lies in the coordination of antagonistic opinions. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.
Imaginative literature gives the impression of truth.
Truth 25 John Hersey: …among all the means of communication now available, imaginative literature comes closer than any to being able to give an impression of the truth. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Truth is in the connection between cause and effect.
Truth 701 Truth, or the connection between cause and effect, alone interests us. Emerson, Representative Men: Montaigne, or The Skeptic.
Use truth.
Truth 761 …to honor every truth by use. Emerson, Representative Men, Goethe, or the Writer.
Focusing on only one aspect of truth distorts the whole truth and becomes falsehood.
Truth 424 Truth is our element of life, yet a man fasten his attention on a single aspect of truth, and apply himself to that alone for a long time, the truth becomes distorted and not itself but falsehood. Emerson, Intellect.
He wanted to know the blunt truth about the enemy in order to save lives.
Truth 184 …Stilwell wanted above all to be well informed, to know his own men’s and the enemy’s capabilities, and he knew that anything less than the blunt truth and blunt intelligence about the enemy might cost him lives, his boys. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
The worse the news the more he needed it—accurately.
Truth 184 [For Stilwell] it did not matter whether the news was good or bad; the worse the news, the more you needed it. Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest.
Truth is what others can be persuaded to believe.
Truth 227 Our truth of today is not what is, but what others can be persuaded to believe…. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Truth can be learned from error more easily than from confusion.
Truth 89 Francis Bacon: Truth comes out of error more easily than out of confusion. A Random Walk in Science.
The Romans lie when they appear to be telling the truth and speak truth when they seem to be telling a lie, so much so that no one should believe them under any conditions.
Truth 1193 In short, they [the Romans] lie so much like truth, and speak truth so much as if they were telling a lie, that their auditor suspects himself in the wrong, whether he believes or disbelieves them. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
There are no new truths.
Truth 827 There are no new truths, much as we have prided ourselves on finding some.
The human mind is so varied that no truth appears the same to any two people.
Truth 512 At this meeting Pierre was for the first time struck by the endless variety of the human mind, preventing any truth from ever presenting itself in the same way to any two persons. Tolstoi, War and Peace.
Truths from emotions are moral; truths from reason are the result of reflection.
Truth 153 Albert Schweitzer: I was always, even as a boy, engrossed in the philosophical problem of the relation between emotion and reason;...truths that we derive from the emotions are of a moral kind--compassion, kindness, forgiveness, love for our neighbor;...reason...teaches...truths that come from reflection. Anderson, The Schweitzer Album.
Seek the truth, not emotional satisfaction.
Truth xxi Careful always to seek for truth and not for our own emotional satisfaction…. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Truth will win in the end.
Truth 64 …believing with naïveté that the truth is strong by itself and cannot lose in the end. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Truth justifies itself.
Truth 143 “The truth is its own justification….” Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Making debating points rather than seeking the truth.
Truth 215 The Congress alternately dozed and shouted, and its members sought to make debating points rather than to find the truth. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Does suppressing the truth ever pay?
Truth 226 …does it ever pay to suppress the truth? Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
It takes a lot of negotiation to tell the truth.
Truth 352 It is rather extraordinary how men must plot and combine and negotiate merely to tell the truth. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
We believe that two and two are four and that black is black and white is white.
Truth 383 We whose names are hereunto subscribed do solemnly declare, that we do in our consciences believe two and two make four; and that we shall adjudge any man whatsoever to be our enemy who endeavors to persuade us to the contrary…that it is our resolution as long as we live to call black black, and white white. Addison, 7/25/1711. The Spectator.
Make the people laugh when you tell them the truth or they will kill you.
Truth 106 George Bernard Shaw once observed, “If you tell people the truth, make them laugh or they’ll kill you.” Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “A Critic at Large: The Strong Woman.”
The New Yorker (Nov. 11, 1996), pp. 106-118.
He told them the truth, but he transformed it into a lie.
Truth and falsehood 242 He had spoken the very truth, and transformed it into the veriest falsehood. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.
The intellect needs the truth cloaked in rhetoric and the will needs it presented as illusion.
Truth and Will 1123 The intellect is stimulated by the statement of truth in a trope, and the will by clothing the laws of life in illusion. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Illusions.
The drama is not literal truth.
Truth drama 27 Literalness was not the truth, especially in drama. Blum, V Was for Victory
Ideology masquerades as truth.
Truth ideology 164 The world, tired of ideology, is opening itself to the truth. Pope John Paul II, Threshold
Truth in poetry and the truth of science are both true.
Truth poetry science 31 The truth of poetry and the truth of science were both true. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tyranny
Tyranny triumphs if the people are amused.
Tyranny 600 …the maxim of the tyrant, “If you would rule the world quietly, you must keep it amused.” Emerson, New England Reformers.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Quotes: Travel. Triage. True Believer.
Travel
Thoreau stayed at home, but traveled in his mind.
Travel 241 Thoreau was a stay-at-home who traveled much in his mind…. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
In traveling on a cruise ship you are both prince and prisoner.
Travel 273 [On being aboard pleasure ship]: You’re a prince but a prisoner, too: But this new absence of ability or need to decide is liberating...you give in to the deliciousness of being taken care of...spend hours in a deck chair, blanket tucked around you by a deck steward, your smile of thanks almost that of an invalid. Finney, From Time to Time.
Nazareth: a town precisely as it was when Jesus was there.
Travel 427 Nazareth is wonderfully interesting because the town has an air about it of being precisely as Jesus left it…. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Travel produces many annoyances and wonderful memories when the annoyances are forgotten.
Travel 467 Our experiences in Europe have taught us that in time this fatigue will be forgotten; the heat will be forgotten; the thirst, the tiresome volubility of the guide, the persecutions of the beggars—and then, all that will be left will be pleasant memories of Jerusalem, memories we shall call up with always increasing interest as the years go by, memories which some day will become all beautiful when the last annoyance that encumbers them shall have faded out of our minds never again to return. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Impressions of a train pulling away from the stations.
Travel 580 A moment afterwards, the train—with all the life of its interior…was gliding away in the distance, and rapidly lessening to a point, which, in another moment, vanished. Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.
To fly is not travel; it’s a translation from one place to another.
Travel 74 To go by airplane, of course, is not to travel at all—it is merely to be translated from one condition in space to another. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Triage
Does anyone have the right to decide who lives and who dies?
Triage 132 Brother, let me ask one thing more: has any man a right to look at other men and decide which is worthy to live? Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
True Believer
The true believer believes in complete and total solutions to problems.
True believer xxi The true believer is the believer in total solutions. Sidney Hook. Hoffer, The True Believer
The true believer feels exalted because he has been relieved of the burden of an autonomous existence.
True believer 131 The exaltation of the true believer does not flow from reserves of strength and wisdom but from a sense of deliverance: he has been delivered from the meaningless burdens of an autonomous existence. Hoffer, The True Believer
True believers are relieved to be rid of personal responsibility by losing their individuality and independence to become one with a whole group.
True believers 104 When we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are also rid of personal responsibility. Hoffer, The True Believer
Thoreau stayed at home, but traveled in his mind.
Travel 241 Thoreau was a stay-at-home who traveled much in his mind…. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
In traveling on a cruise ship you are both prince and prisoner.
Travel 273 [On being aboard pleasure ship]: You’re a prince but a prisoner, too: But this new absence of ability or need to decide is liberating...you give in to the deliciousness of being taken care of...spend hours in a deck chair, blanket tucked around you by a deck steward, your smile of thanks almost that of an invalid. Finney, From Time to Time.
Nazareth: a town precisely as it was when Jesus was there.
Travel 427 Nazareth is wonderfully interesting because the town has an air about it of being precisely as Jesus left it…. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Travel produces many annoyances and wonderful memories when the annoyances are forgotten.
Travel 467 Our experiences in Europe have taught us that in time this fatigue will be forgotten; the heat will be forgotten; the thirst, the tiresome volubility of the guide, the persecutions of the beggars—and then, all that will be left will be pleasant memories of Jerusalem, memories we shall call up with always increasing interest as the years go by, memories which some day will become all beautiful when the last annoyance that encumbers them shall have faded out of our minds never again to return. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Impressions of a train pulling away from the stations.
Travel 580 A moment afterwards, the train—with all the life of its interior…was gliding away in the distance, and rapidly lessening to a point, which, in another moment, vanished. Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.
To fly is not travel; it’s a translation from one place to another.
Travel 74 To go by airplane, of course, is not to travel at all—it is merely to be translated from one condition in space to another. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Triage
Does anyone have the right to decide who lives and who dies?
Triage 132 Brother, let me ask one thing more: has any man a right to look at other men and decide which is worthy to live? Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
True Believer
The true believer believes in complete and total solutions to problems.
True believer xxi The true believer is the believer in total solutions. Sidney Hook. Hoffer, The True Believer
The true believer feels exalted because he has been relieved of the burden of an autonomous existence.
True believer 131 The exaltation of the true believer does not flow from reserves of strength and wisdom but from a sense of deliverance: he has been delivered from the meaningless burdens of an autonomous existence. Hoffer, The True Believer
True believers are relieved to be rid of personal responsibility by losing their individuality and independence to become one with a whole group.
True believers 104 When we renounce the self and become part of a compact whole, we not only renounce personal advantage but are also rid of personal responsibility. Hoffer, The True Believer
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Quotes: Trains. Trait. Tranquility. Transcendental. Transportation.
Trains
Troop trains in WWII.
Trains 15 It [trip to Mass. From Colorado] meant another tedious cross-country train trip, long, mind-numbing days in the stuffy coaches, sleeping upright in the threadbare seats, drinking coffee in the dusty stations between trains…. Childers, Wings of Morning
Hobos riding the rails.
Trains hobos 88 Most were anxious for the next town but tired of it within a day and knew contentment only when the steel wheels were clicking beneath them, the fence posts hypnotically slipping by. Christianson, Fox at the Wood’s Edge: Loren Eiseley
Trait
When I don’t want you, you’re there; when I do want you, you’re never there.
Trait 153 Catherine to Edgar: You are one of those things that are ever found when least wanted, and when you are wanted, never! E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
Tranquility
Possession of things does not guarantee tranquility.
Tranquility 1292 A man should not commit his tranquility to things…. Emerson, Uncollected Prose.
Transcendental
Transcendental means intuitive thought.
Transcendental 199 ...whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought, is popularly called at the present day Transcendental. Emerson, The Transcendentalist.
Ideas are truth.
Transcendentalism 1196 Transcendentalism: An idea is the highest truth…. Emerson, Uncollected Prose.
Transcendentalists want to escape from themselves.
Transcendentalism 601 [Of transcendentals]: They want to get out of themselves and escape from the man. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Transportation
A coach could tell many stories of its inhabitants on trips.
Transportation 84 What an interesting book a hackney-coach might produce…how many stories might be related of the different people it had conveyed on matters of business or profit—pleasure or pain. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.
Troop trains in WWII.
Trains 15 It [trip to Mass. From Colorado] meant another tedious cross-country train trip, long, mind-numbing days in the stuffy coaches, sleeping upright in the threadbare seats, drinking coffee in the dusty stations between trains…. Childers, Wings of Morning
Hobos riding the rails.
Trains hobos 88 Most were anxious for the next town but tired of it within a day and knew contentment only when the steel wheels were clicking beneath them, the fence posts hypnotically slipping by. Christianson, Fox at the Wood’s Edge: Loren Eiseley
Trait
When I don’t want you, you’re there; when I do want you, you’re never there.
Trait 153 Catherine to Edgar: You are one of those things that are ever found when least wanted, and when you are wanted, never! E. Brontë, Wuthering Heights.
Tranquility
Possession of things does not guarantee tranquility.
Tranquility 1292 A man should not commit his tranquility to things…. Emerson, Uncollected Prose.
Transcendental
Transcendental means intuitive thought.
Transcendental 199 ...whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought, is popularly called at the present day Transcendental. Emerson, The Transcendentalist.
Ideas are truth.
Transcendentalism 1196 Transcendentalism: An idea is the highest truth…. Emerson, Uncollected Prose.
Transcendentalists want to escape from themselves.
Transcendentalism 601 [Of transcendentals]: They want to get out of themselves and escape from the man. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Transportation
A coach could tell many stories of its inhabitants on trips.
Transportation 84 What an interesting book a hackney-coach might produce…how many stories might be related of the different people it had conveyed on matters of business or profit—pleasure or pain. Dickens, Sketches by Boz.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Quotes: Tragedy
Tragedy
The Greeks were realists who still saw the world not as tragic, but as beautiful.
Tragedy 206 The special characteristic of the Greeks was their power to see the world clearly and at the same time as beautiful. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
A tragedy shows pain and gives pleasure.
Tragedy 207 A tragedy shows us pain and gives us pleasure thereby. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
A tragedy is pain exalted.
Tragedy 207 Tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tragedy 208 ...strange contradiction of pleasure through pain.... E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
In a tragedy, both sides claim our sympathy.
Tragedy 209 Hegel: ...the only tragic subject is a spiritual struggle in which each side has a claim upon our sympathy. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
True tragedy does not deal with people sunk in dreary hopelessness.
Tragedy 210 When humanity is seen as devoid of dignity and significance, trivial, mean, and sunk in dreary hopelessness, then the spirit of tragedy departs. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tragedy deals with suffering.
Tragedy 212 Tragedy’s preoccupation is with suffering. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Dramas with unhappy endings are not necessarily tragedies.
Tragedy 214 Ibsen’s plays are not tragedies...his plays are dramas with an unhappy ending. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tragedy has the power to present suffering and death to exalt and not depress.
Tragedy 218 The strange power tragedy has to present suffering and death in such a way as to exalt and not depress is to be felt in Aeschylus’s plays as in those of no other tragic poets. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
For Aeschylus, people meet disaster but remain undefeated.
Tragedy 223 ...Aeschylus sees mankind, meeting disaster grandly, forever undefeated. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Are the gods the authors of sorrow?
Tragedy 69 Medea: The gods know who was the author of this sorrow. Euripides, Medea.
Innocence does not forestall tragedy.
Tragedy 302 …it seems, in tragedy, that innocence is not enough. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
People are made perfect through suffering.
Tragedy 212 Johnson: …it is a part of the mysterious plan of Providence, that intellectual beings must “be made perfect through suffering.” Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
The author of her tragedy was her adversary, fate.
Tragedy fate 291 Clytemnestra’s tragedy was from without; her adversary was fate. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Joy and sorrow, exultation and tragedy are not contradictions in Greek literature.
Tragedy joy sorrow 18 Joy and sorrow, exultation and tragedy, stand hand in hand in Greek literature, but there is no contradiction involved thereby. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Pain and error are steps up the ladder of knowledge.
Tragedy knowledge 235 ...the men of his generation must have realized far beyond others, that pain and error have their purpose and their uses: they are steps of the ladder of knowledge. (tragedy) E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Pain can exalt.
Tragedy pain 215 Pain could exalt and in tragedy for a moment men could have sight of a meaning beyond their grasp. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tragedy is a soul suffering greatly.
Tragedy suffering 213 The suffering of a soul that can suffer greatly--that and only that, is tragedy. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
The Greeks were realists who still saw the world not as tragic, but as beautiful.
Tragedy 206 The special characteristic of the Greeks was their power to see the world clearly and at the same time as beautiful. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
A tragedy shows pain and gives pleasure.
Tragedy 207 A tragedy shows us pain and gives us pleasure thereby. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
A tragedy is pain exalted.
Tragedy 207 Tragedy is nothing less than pain transmuted into exaltation. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tragedy 208 ...strange contradiction of pleasure through pain.... E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
In a tragedy, both sides claim our sympathy.
Tragedy 209 Hegel: ...the only tragic subject is a spiritual struggle in which each side has a claim upon our sympathy. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
True tragedy does not deal with people sunk in dreary hopelessness.
Tragedy 210 When humanity is seen as devoid of dignity and significance, trivial, mean, and sunk in dreary hopelessness, then the spirit of tragedy departs. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tragedy deals with suffering.
Tragedy 212 Tragedy’s preoccupation is with suffering. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Dramas with unhappy endings are not necessarily tragedies.
Tragedy 214 Ibsen’s plays are not tragedies...his plays are dramas with an unhappy ending. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tragedy has the power to present suffering and death to exalt and not depress.
Tragedy 218 The strange power tragedy has to present suffering and death in such a way as to exalt and not depress is to be felt in Aeschylus’s plays as in those of no other tragic poets. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
For Aeschylus, people meet disaster but remain undefeated.
Tragedy 223 ...Aeschylus sees mankind, meeting disaster grandly, forever undefeated. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Are the gods the authors of sorrow?
Tragedy 69 Medea: The gods know who was the author of this sorrow. Euripides, Medea.
Innocence does not forestall tragedy.
Tragedy 302 …it seems, in tragedy, that innocence is not enough. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
People are made perfect through suffering.
Tragedy 212 Johnson: …it is a part of the mysterious plan of Providence, that intellectual beings must “be made perfect through suffering.” Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
The author of her tragedy was her adversary, fate.
Tragedy fate 291 Clytemnestra’s tragedy was from without; her adversary was fate. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Joy and sorrow, exultation and tragedy are not contradictions in Greek literature.
Tragedy joy sorrow 18 Joy and sorrow, exultation and tragedy, stand hand in hand in Greek literature, but there is no contradiction involved thereby. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Pain and error are steps up the ladder of knowledge.
Tragedy knowledge 235 ...the men of his generation must have realized far beyond others, that pain and error have their purpose and their uses: they are steps of the ladder of knowledge. (tragedy) E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Pain can exalt.
Tragedy pain 215 Pain could exalt and in tragedy for a moment men could have sight of a meaning beyond their grasp. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Tragedy is a soul suffering greatly.
Tragedy suffering 213 The suffering of a soul that can suffer greatly--that and only that, is tragedy. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Quotes: Thrift. Time. Toast. Tolerance. Tools. Tornado.
Thrift
True thrift is expending more and more energy in spiritual creation.
Thrift 1010 The true thrift is always to spend on the higher plane; to invest and invest, with keener avarice, that he may spend in spiritual creation, and not in augmenting animal existence. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Wealth.
Time
A recluse measures time by the progress of sunlight through his room.
Time 57 “A reclusive, like myself, or a prisoner, to measure time by the progress of sunshine through his chamber.” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
One will be inevitably caught by time.
Time 71 Chorus: Caught in the end by Time. Sophocles. Oedipus the King.
For geologists “a little while ago” is a hundred million years.
Time 45 A little while ago--about one hundred million years, as the geologist estimates time in the history of our four-billion-year-old planet.... Eiseley, The Immense Journey.
Time was JFK’s enemy.
Time 623 …time was his [Kennedy’s] enemy, and he fought it to the end. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Time has seen cities grow from villages and decline to desolation.
Time 361 [Damascus] saw the foundations of Baalbec, and Thebes, and Ephesus laid; she saw these villages grow into mighty cities, and amaze the world with their grandeur—and she has lived to see them desolate, deserted, and given over to the owls and the bats. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Time is measured by empires that rise, prosper and crumble.
Time 361 Damascus measures time, not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise, and prosper and crumble to ruin. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Schweitzer’s enemy was time.
Time 64 Albert Schweitzer: Time is my enemy. Anderson, The Schweitzer Album.
Toast
A toast against his enemies.
Toast 54 “And I tell you…that I’ll make a moor-cock of the man that refuses my toast, whether it be a crop-eared English Whig…or ane wha deserts his ain friends to claw favor wi’ the rats of Hanover.” Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
A toast to courage.
Toast 110 Toast: To him that will not turn his back on friend or foe. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
A toast to loyalty.
Toast 110 Toast: To him that never forsook a comrade. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
A toast to the just.
Toast 110 Toast: To him that never bought or sold justice. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
A toast to hospitality and against tyranny.
Toast 110 Toast: Hospitality to the exile, and broken bones to the tyrant. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
Tolerance
The most intolerant are those who promote tolerance.
Tolerance 103 Even when men league themselves mightily together to promote tolerance and peace on earth, they are likely to be violently intolerant toward those not of a like mind. Hoffer, The True Believer
The love of God, Christ, nation and the oppressed produce bloodshed, terror and destruction.
Tolerance 104 When we see the bloodshed, terror and destruction born of such generous enthusiasms as the love of God, love of Christ, love of a nation, compassion for the oppressed…. Hoffer, The True Believer
Tools
Tools eventually revenge themselves against their creators.
Tools 178 …tools increasingly revenged themselves upon their creators…. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Tornado
Formation of a tornado.
Tornado 180 Some unknown constellation of events in the upper air had started turbulence whirling in a gigantic circle, and unaccountably this whirling suddenly tightened, pulling itself into a funnel of air that screamed so loudly it drowned the noise of thunder. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.
True thrift is expending more and more energy in spiritual creation.
Thrift 1010 The true thrift is always to spend on the higher plane; to invest and invest, with keener avarice, that he may spend in spiritual creation, and not in augmenting animal existence. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Wealth.
Time
A recluse measures time by the progress of sunlight through his room.
Time 57 “A reclusive, like myself, or a prisoner, to measure time by the progress of sunshine through his chamber.” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
One will be inevitably caught by time.
Time 71 Chorus: Caught in the end by Time. Sophocles. Oedipus the King.
For geologists “a little while ago” is a hundred million years.
Time 45 A little while ago--about one hundred million years, as the geologist estimates time in the history of our four-billion-year-old planet.... Eiseley, The Immense Journey.
Time was JFK’s enemy.
Time 623 …time was his [Kennedy’s] enemy, and he fought it to the end. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Time has seen cities grow from villages and decline to desolation.
Time 361 [Damascus] saw the foundations of Baalbec, and Thebes, and Ephesus laid; she saw these villages grow into mighty cities, and amaze the world with their grandeur—and she has lived to see them desolate, deserted, and given over to the owls and the bats. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Time is measured by empires that rise, prosper and crumble.
Time 361 Damascus measures time, not by days and months and years, but by the empires she has seen rise, and prosper and crumble to ruin. Twain, Innocents Abroad.
Schweitzer’s enemy was time.
Time 64 Albert Schweitzer: Time is my enemy. Anderson, The Schweitzer Album.
Toast
A toast against his enemies.
Toast 54 “And I tell you…that I’ll make a moor-cock of the man that refuses my toast, whether it be a crop-eared English Whig…or ane wha deserts his ain friends to claw favor wi’ the rats of Hanover.” Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
A toast to courage.
Toast 110 Toast: To him that will not turn his back on friend or foe. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
A toast to loyalty.
Toast 110 Toast: To him that never forsook a comrade. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
A toast to the just.
Toast 110 Toast: To him that never bought or sold justice. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
A toast to hospitality and against tyranny.
Toast 110 Toast: Hospitality to the exile, and broken bones to the tyrant. Sir Walter Scott, Waverley.
Tolerance
The most intolerant are those who promote tolerance.
Tolerance 103 Even when men league themselves mightily together to promote tolerance and peace on earth, they are likely to be violently intolerant toward those not of a like mind. Hoffer, The True Believer
The love of God, Christ, nation and the oppressed produce bloodshed, terror and destruction.
Tolerance 104 When we see the bloodshed, terror and destruction born of such generous enthusiasms as the love of God, love of Christ, love of a nation, compassion for the oppressed…. Hoffer, The True Believer
Tools
Tools eventually revenge themselves against their creators.
Tools 178 …tools increasingly revenged themselves upon their creators…. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Tornado
Formation of a tornado.
Tornado 180 Some unknown constellation of events in the upper air had started turbulence whirling in a gigantic circle, and unaccountably this whirling suddenly tightened, pulling itself into a funnel of air that screamed so loudly it drowned the noise of thunder. Russell, Watchers at the Pond.
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