The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the following quote.
Sincerity
One who is sincere and wrong is very dangerous.
Sincerity 199 …a sincere man in the wrong is the most dangerous of opponents. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.
Size
People underestimate short people.
Size 187 Patty Murray on her run for the Senate against an incumbent: “Being short, four feet eleven…people underestimate you.” Bradley, Time Present, Time Past.
Skepticism
Skeptics require patience to persuade.
Skepticism 195 Skeptics can only be convinced at their own rate of speed, not that of the proselytizer’s. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
Skeptics don’t believe in cause and effect.
Skepticism 1065 Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect. Emerson, The Conduct of Life: Worship.
Nothing is new or true and it does not matter.
Skepticism 692 “Ah,” said my languid gentleman of Oxford, “There’s nothing new or true—and no matter.” Emerson, Representative Men: Montaigne, or The Skeptic.
Slave
A slave is defined as a breathing machine, animated property.
Slave 144 Aristotle: With no expressed or implied disapproval he defines a slave as ‘a machine which breathes, a piece of animated property.’ E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.
A slave is a living tool, a tool a lifeless slave.
Slavery 82 The slave is a tool with life in it, the tool is a lifeless slave. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Aristotle.
Sleep
Sleep 580 …for it was a sleep set with a hair-trigger. Twain, Roughing It
Nothing could wake us because we had earned that sleep and our consciences slept too.
Sleep 650 Nothing could disturb the sleep that fettered us, for it had been fairly earned, and if our consciences had any sins on them they had to adjourn court for that night, anyway. Twain, Roughing It
Plato disliked excess in sleep more than excess in drinking.
Sleep 576 Plato is more opposed to excess in sleeping than excess in drinking. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Sleep is a luxury.
Sleep 217 Priam: Make a bed for me, son of Thetis,/ and let us know the luxury of sleep. Homer, Iliad.
Small Town
A small town never grows up.
Small town 136 “Dear old Deephaven,” said Kate, gently, after we had been silent a little while… “makes me think of one of its own old ladies, with its clinging to the old fashions and its respect for what used to be respectable when it was young.” Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
People in small towns make neighbors unhappy for their own good.
Small town 705 …an ardent charity was at work setting the virtuous mind to make a neighbor unhappy for her good. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
A wife should not look happier than her husband’s character warranted.
Small town 705 …the love of truth—a wide phrase, but meaning in this relation, a lively objection to seeing a wife look happier than her husband’s character warranted. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
Small towns where it seems the clocks stopped long ago.
Small towns 42 It seemed as if all the clocks in Deephaven, and all the people with them, had stopped years ago, and the people had been doing over and over what they had been busy about during the last week of their unambitious progress. Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
Snooping
I couldn’t help hearing because the voices were very loud.
Snooping 476 The voices was very loud, sir, and forced themselves upon my ear. Dickens, Pickwick.
Snoring
Snoring 859 …snore like a steamboat…. Twain, Roughing It
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Monday, November 5, 2007
Quotes: Simplicity. Simulations and Virtual Reality. Sin.
Simplicity
The universe and machines have simplicity in their own way.
Simplicity 308 The simplicity of the universe is very different from the simplicity of a machine. Emerson, Spiritual Laws.
Simulations and Virtual Reality
Simulations that are very realistic become virtual reality.
Simulations virtual reality 200 When simulations get completely realistic, we enter the realm of virtual reality. Gates, The Road Ahead.
Sin
To err is human and only he who does not repent is cursed.
Sin 199 Tiresias: To err is human, true,/ And only he is cursed who having sinned/ Will not repent, will not repair. Sophocles. Antigone.
The unpardonable sin is to explore the human soul with cold, philosophical curiosity, the separation of intellect and heart.
Sin 284 “The Unpardonable Sin might consist in a want of love and reverence for the human soul; in consequence of which, the investigator pried into its dark depths, not with the hope or purpose of making it better, but from a cold philosophical curiosity…. Would not this, in other words, be the separation of the intellect from the heart?” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
The unpardonable sinner is coldly bent on the destruction of another human soul.
Sin 304 Roger Chillingworth exemplifies the unpardonable sinner, divorced from the warmth and disorder of human affection, coldly bent on the destruction of another human soul. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Sinners instinctively recognize others like them, secret sharers of hidden guilt.
Sin 305 Like Goodman Brown, Hester Prynne becomes a secret sharer of the hidden guilt and shames of others; instinctively, she knows when she has passed a fellow sinner, even if it is a blushing maid or a pious old woman. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Hawthorne’s “unpardonable sin” was the triumph of the intellect over the heart.
Sin 372 Melville on reading “The Unpardonable Sin”: “It is a frightful poetical creed that the cultivation of the brain eats out the heart…I stand for the heart. To the dogs with the head.” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Hawthorne looked for the sin that could symbolize his own deeply felt sense of human sinfulness.
Sin 547 Throughout his imaginative life, Hawthorne had found it difficult to define the precise nature of the sin that would correspond to his own deep-seated sense of human sinfulness. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Most people hide their sins, but I live in sin openly, scornful of your paradise.
Sin 158 For sin is sweet; all abuse it, but all men live in it, only others do it on the sly, and I openly…and your paradise is not to my taste. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
My sin is unpardonable, will never be forgiven by God.
Sin 439 "I have committed the unpardonable sin…I was in great wrath and trouble, and my thoughts was so wicked towards God that I can't expect ever to be forgiven." Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
The early Christians equated happiness with sin.
Sin 223 When [the early Christians] heard happiness mentioned they always put it down to sin. Mencken, Minority Report.
Every sins is joined with the great mass of human sinfulness, making each sinner guilty of the whole.
Sin 1000 It is a terrible thought, that an individual wrong-doing melts into the great mass of human crime, and makes us—who dreamed only of our own little separate sin—makes us guilty of the whole. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
The young and innocent are likely to find out about sin by the guilt of a friend.
Sin 1021 The young and pure are not apt to find out that miserable truth [the existence of sin], until it is brought home to them by the guiltiness of some trusted friend. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
The innocent learn about sin because one whom they revered becomes guilty.
Sin 1021 In due time, some mortal, whom they [the innocent] reverence too highly, is commissioned by Providence to teach them this direful lesson; he perpetrates a sin; and Adam falls anew, and, Paradise…is lost again…. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Through sin, are humans destined to rise to higher heights?
Sin 1215 Was that very sin—into which Adam precipitated himself and all his race—was it the destined means by which, over a long pathway of toil and sorrow, we are to attain a higher, brighter and profounder happiness, than our lost birthright gave? Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Sin is an instrument of education.
Sin 1215 Sin…has really become an instrument most effective in the education of intellect and soul. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
The Scarlet letter gave her a sympathy with others who had secret sin.
Sin 192 She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it [the scarlet letter] gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.
Obsession is a sin.
Sin, Guilt 76 Hippolytus, like Prometheus, is innocent; yet, in his intense concentration on one aspect of reality, he is also guilty…by failing to appreciate other forces which exist. Warner, Euripides, Hippolytus.
The universe and machines have simplicity in their own way.
Simplicity 308 The simplicity of the universe is very different from the simplicity of a machine. Emerson, Spiritual Laws.
Simulations and Virtual Reality
Simulations that are very realistic become virtual reality.
Simulations virtual reality 200 When simulations get completely realistic, we enter the realm of virtual reality. Gates, The Road Ahead.
Sin
To err is human and only he who does not repent is cursed.
Sin 199 Tiresias: To err is human, true,/ And only he is cursed who having sinned/ Will not repent, will not repair. Sophocles. Antigone.
The unpardonable sin is to explore the human soul with cold, philosophical curiosity, the separation of intellect and heart.
Sin 284 “The Unpardonable Sin might consist in a want of love and reverence for the human soul; in consequence of which, the investigator pried into its dark depths, not with the hope or purpose of making it better, but from a cold philosophical curiosity…. Would not this, in other words, be the separation of the intellect from the heart?” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
The unpardonable sinner is coldly bent on the destruction of another human soul.
Sin 304 Roger Chillingworth exemplifies the unpardonable sinner, divorced from the warmth and disorder of human affection, coldly bent on the destruction of another human soul. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Sinners instinctively recognize others like them, secret sharers of hidden guilt.
Sin 305 Like Goodman Brown, Hester Prynne becomes a secret sharer of the hidden guilt and shames of others; instinctively, she knows when she has passed a fellow sinner, even if it is a blushing maid or a pious old woman. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Hawthorne’s “unpardonable sin” was the triumph of the intellect over the heart.
Sin 372 Melville on reading “The Unpardonable Sin”: “It is a frightful poetical creed that the cultivation of the brain eats out the heart…I stand for the heart. To the dogs with the head.” Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Hawthorne looked for the sin that could symbolize his own deeply felt sense of human sinfulness.
Sin 547 Throughout his imaginative life, Hawthorne had found it difficult to define the precise nature of the sin that would correspond to his own deep-seated sense of human sinfulness. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Most people hide their sins, but I live in sin openly, scornful of your paradise.
Sin 158 For sin is sweet; all abuse it, but all men live in it, only others do it on the sly, and I openly…and your paradise is not to my taste. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
My sin is unpardonable, will never be forgiven by God.
Sin 439 "I have committed the unpardonable sin…I was in great wrath and trouble, and my thoughts was so wicked towards God that I can't expect ever to be forgiven." Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
The early Christians equated happiness with sin.
Sin 223 When [the early Christians] heard happiness mentioned they always put it down to sin. Mencken, Minority Report.
Every sins is joined with the great mass of human sinfulness, making each sinner guilty of the whole.
Sin 1000 It is a terrible thought, that an individual wrong-doing melts into the great mass of human crime, and makes us—who dreamed only of our own little separate sin—makes us guilty of the whole. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
The young and innocent are likely to find out about sin by the guilt of a friend.
Sin 1021 The young and pure are not apt to find out that miserable truth [the existence of sin], until it is brought home to them by the guiltiness of some trusted friend. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
The innocent learn about sin because one whom they revered becomes guilty.
Sin 1021 In due time, some mortal, whom they [the innocent] reverence too highly, is commissioned by Providence to teach them this direful lesson; he perpetrates a sin; and Adam falls anew, and, Paradise…is lost again…. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Through sin, are humans destined to rise to higher heights?
Sin 1215 Was that very sin—into which Adam precipitated himself and all his race—was it the destined means by which, over a long pathway of toil and sorrow, we are to attain a higher, brighter and profounder happiness, than our lost birthright gave? Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Sin is an instrument of education.
Sin 1215 Sin…has really become an instrument most effective in the education of intellect and soul. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
The Scarlet letter gave her a sympathy with others who had secret sin.
Sin 192 She shuddered to believe, yet could not help believing, that it [the scarlet letter] gave her a sympathetic knowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts. Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter.
Obsession is a sin.
Sin, Guilt 76 Hippolytus, like Prometheus, is innocent; yet, in his intense concentration on one aspect of reality, he is also guilty…by failing to appreciate other forces which exist. Warner, Euripides, Hippolytus.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Quotes: Servants. Sex. Shakespeare.
Servants
Control your servants or they will control you.
Servants 857 But a man must keep an eye on his servants, if he would not have them rule him. Emerson, English Traits.
Sex
The ecstasy of sex passes quickly leaving one unchanged.
Sex 68 [People] soon find by experience that the ecstasy of sex, like any other powerful emotion, is self-limiting, and that after it has passed off they are substantially unchanged. Mencken, Minority Report.
For Christian religions, sex is always sinful.
Sex 69 Every one of the Christian sects, however they may differ otherwise, starts out with the assumption that any act of sex is sinful, and most of them teach that it remains somewhat discreditable even after it becomes lawful. Mencken, Minority Report.
Sex is a delusion.
Sex 635 Johnson on sex [without mentioning the word]: …it is a delusion always beginning again. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
When the sexual urge is satisfied, a man seeks to escape being trapped.
Sex 284 For once man’s appetite is satisfied his greatest desire is to escape entrapment. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part One: 1605.
Sex obliterates identity; the space given to it in novels shows a lack of authentic characters.
Sex 212 Mary McCarthy: Sex annihilates identity, and the space given in contemporary novels is an avowal of the absence of character. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
The loins house the devil.
Sex 344 “The power of the devil is in the loins,” says Saint Jerome. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
You can maintain decorum in everything except sex.
Sex 364 In everything else [except sex] you may maintain some decorum. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Sex is either vicious or ridiculous.
Sex 364 All other activities come under rules of decency; this one [sex] cannot even be imagined other than vicious or ridiculous. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Nature appears to be divided in her attitude toward sex; on the one hand, Nature urges us to have sex to achieve a noble purpose, but on the other hand, she encourages us to condemn it, shun it, blush at it and recommend abstinence.
Sex 364 On the one hand Nature pushes us on in it [sex], having joined to this desire the most noble, useful and pleasant of all her operations; and on the other hand she lets us condemn and shun it as immoderate and indecent, blush at it, and recommend abstinence. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
There is a myth that at one time, humans were androgynous and not divided into sexes.
Sexes 338 Dr. Beatrice Hinkle: Also, there is a myth which tells of a time when human beings were physically androgynous and the sexes were not divided. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
The famous line by Mae West when she meets a man.
Sexual humor 118 Mae West: “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?” “Sextette.” Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “A Critic at Large: The Strong Woman.” The New Yorker (Nov. 11, 1996), pp. 106-118.
Shakespeare
Regardless of nationality, people feel that Shakespeare represents them on the stage.
Shakespeare 51 Students and friends have described for me Shakespeare as they have seen him in Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Indonesian, and Italian, and the general report has been that the audiences were as one in finding that Shakespeare represented them upon the stage. Bloom, Western Canon.
Shakespeare is disinterested in the attitudes of his characters or the issues in which they are involved.
Shakespeare 172 A miracle of disinterestedness, Shakespeare neither believes nor disbelieves, neither moralizes nor endorses nihilism. Bloom, Western Canon.
Shakespeare introduced “negative energy.”
Shakespeare 180 The representation of negative energy scarcely exists before Shakespeare. Bloom, Western Canon.
Shakespeare developed from comedy to history to tragedy to romance.
Shakespeare 188 Shakespeare’s development, essentially from comedy and history through tragedy to romance.... Bloom, Western Canon.
Goethe: Shakespeare did not write for the stage.
Shakespeare 221 Goethe had the odd notion that Shakespeare did not write for the stage. Bloom, Western Canon.
Many of Shakespeare’s plays are less effective when acted on the stage.
Shakespeare 368 Johnson: “Many of Shakespeare’s plays are the worse for being acted.” Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
Shakespeare is his biographer and even then he only reveals himself to the Shakespeare in all of us.
Shakespeare 720 Shakespeare is the only biographer of Shakespeare; and even he can tell nothing, except to the Shakespeare in us. Emerson, Representative Men: Shakespeare, or the Poet.
Shakespeare does not project his ego into his plays.
Shakespeare 724 Yet there is not a trace of egotism [in Shakespeare’s plays]. Emerson, Representative Men: Shakespeare, or the Poet.
Control your servants or they will control you.
Servants 857 But a man must keep an eye on his servants, if he would not have them rule him. Emerson, English Traits.
Sex
The ecstasy of sex passes quickly leaving one unchanged.
Sex 68 [People] soon find by experience that the ecstasy of sex, like any other powerful emotion, is self-limiting, and that after it has passed off they are substantially unchanged. Mencken, Minority Report.
For Christian religions, sex is always sinful.
Sex 69 Every one of the Christian sects, however they may differ otherwise, starts out with the assumption that any act of sex is sinful, and most of them teach that it remains somewhat discreditable even after it becomes lawful. Mencken, Minority Report.
Sex is a delusion.
Sex 635 Johnson on sex [without mentioning the word]: …it is a delusion always beginning again. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
When the sexual urge is satisfied, a man seeks to escape being trapped.
Sex 284 For once man’s appetite is satisfied his greatest desire is to escape entrapment. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part One: 1605.
Sex obliterates identity; the space given to it in novels shows a lack of authentic characters.
Sex 212 Mary McCarthy: Sex annihilates identity, and the space given in contemporary novels is an avowal of the absence of character. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
The loins house the devil.
Sex 344 “The power of the devil is in the loins,” says Saint Jerome. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
You can maintain decorum in everything except sex.
Sex 364 In everything else [except sex] you may maintain some decorum. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Sex is either vicious or ridiculous.
Sex 364 All other activities come under rules of decency; this one [sex] cannot even be imagined other than vicious or ridiculous. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Nature appears to be divided in her attitude toward sex; on the one hand, Nature urges us to have sex to achieve a noble purpose, but on the other hand, she encourages us to condemn it, shun it, blush at it and recommend abstinence.
Sex 364 On the one hand Nature pushes us on in it [sex], having joined to this desire the most noble, useful and pleasant of all her operations; and on the other hand she lets us condemn and shun it as immoderate and indecent, blush at it, and recommend abstinence. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
There is a myth that at one time, humans were androgynous and not divided into sexes.
Sexes 338 Dr. Beatrice Hinkle: Also, there is a myth which tells of a time when human beings were physically androgynous and the sexes were not divided. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
The famous line by Mae West when she meets a man.
Sexual humor 118 Mae West: “Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?” “Sextette.” Pierpont, Claudia Roth. “A Critic at Large: The Strong Woman.” The New Yorker (Nov. 11, 1996), pp. 106-118.
Shakespeare
Regardless of nationality, people feel that Shakespeare represents them on the stage.
Shakespeare 51 Students and friends have described for me Shakespeare as they have seen him in Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Indonesian, and Italian, and the general report has been that the audiences were as one in finding that Shakespeare represented them upon the stage. Bloom, Western Canon.
Shakespeare is disinterested in the attitudes of his characters or the issues in which they are involved.
Shakespeare 172 A miracle of disinterestedness, Shakespeare neither believes nor disbelieves, neither moralizes nor endorses nihilism. Bloom, Western Canon.
Shakespeare introduced “negative energy.”
Shakespeare 180 The representation of negative energy scarcely exists before Shakespeare. Bloom, Western Canon.
Shakespeare developed from comedy to history to tragedy to romance.
Shakespeare 188 Shakespeare’s development, essentially from comedy and history through tragedy to romance.... Bloom, Western Canon.
Goethe: Shakespeare did not write for the stage.
Shakespeare 221 Goethe had the odd notion that Shakespeare did not write for the stage. Bloom, Western Canon.
Many of Shakespeare’s plays are less effective when acted on the stage.
Shakespeare 368 Johnson: “Many of Shakespeare’s plays are the worse for being acted.” Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
Shakespeare is his biographer and even then he only reveals himself to the Shakespeare in all of us.
Shakespeare 720 Shakespeare is the only biographer of Shakespeare; and even he can tell nothing, except to the Shakespeare in us. Emerson, Representative Men: Shakespeare, or the Poet.
Shakespeare does not project his ego into his plays.
Shakespeare 724 Yet there is not a trace of egotism [in Shakespeare’s plays]. Emerson, Representative Men: Shakespeare, or the Poet.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Quotes: Sculpture. Sea. Seasons. Secrets. Security. Self-Control. Self-Criticism. Self-Denial. Self-Mastery. Self-Righteousness. Senses. Sermons.
The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Sculpture
The sculptor turns vibrant people into cool, quiet marble.
Sculpture 952 You [the sculptor] turn feverish men into cool, quiet marble. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Every sculptor thinks he has to create women with names that give propriety to lack of clothing.
Sculpture 955 Every young sculptor seems to think that he must give the world some specimen of indecorous womanhood, and call it Eve, Venus, a Nymph or any name that may apologize for a lack of decent clothing. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Sea
JFK loved the sea.
Sea 606 Of Kennedy: …one who loved ocean beaches, gulls wheeling in the sky, dunes baking in the sun, gleaming surf and salt spray…. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Seasons
Night is winter, morning is spring, afternoon is summer and evening is fall.
Seasons 562 The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer. Thoreau, Walden.
Life starts over on a crisp fall day.
Seasons 118 Jordan Baker: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Spring is summer waiting for the winter to pass.
Seasons 102 What could spring possibly be made out of but summer transformed and reassembled and held inside the earth all winter? Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Secrets
Everything is supposed to be a secret until we find out that everyone knows it.
Secrets 468 These matters are always a secret, till it is found out that everybody knows them. Austen, Emma
Security
The Shakers offered a “cold and passionless security.”
Security 68 ...that ideal associations such as the Shaker community offer only a “cold and passionless security” which is little better than the grave.... Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Self-Control
Since I can’t control events, I try to control myself.
Self-control 201 Not being able to govern events, I govern myself…. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Self-Criticism
If people paid attention to themselves, they would find that they, as well as I, consist of inanity and nonsense.
Self-criticism 508 If other men observed themselves attentively, as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of inanity and nonsense. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Self-Denial
Pride in self-denial justifies our being harsh toward everyone else.
Self-denial 103 The act of self denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others. Hoffer, The True Believer
Self-Mastery
Self-mastery makes us feel as if we have mastered the world.
Self-mastery 79 The self-mastery needed in overcoming the appetites gives them an illusion of strength…feel that in mastering themselves they have mastered the world. Hoffer, The True Believer
Self-Righteousness
Self-righteousness blinds the self.
Self-righteousness 108 Liddell Hart: Avoid self-righteousness...nothing is so self-blinding. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Senses
One remembers odors better than any of the other senses.
Senses 76 They say that of all senses the nose remembers best. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
When one smells the seaside air on a fresh day in June, one brings back many memories.
Senses 287 A vast inheritance of memories and associations was dimly brought to mind by that breath of the sea and freshness of the June day by the harbor side. Jewett, A Country Doctor.
Sermons
The stones of Rome are sermons.
Sermons 979 There are sermons in stones…and especially in the stones of Rome. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Sculpture
The sculptor turns vibrant people into cool, quiet marble.
Sculpture 952 You [the sculptor] turn feverish men into cool, quiet marble. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Every sculptor thinks he has to create women with names that give propriety to lack of clothing.
Sculpture 955 Every young sculptor seems to think that he must give the world some specimen of indecorous womanhood, and call it Eve, Venus, a Nymph or any name that may apologize for a lack of decent clothing. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Sea
JFK loved the sea.
Sea 606 Of Kennedy: …one who loved ocean beaches, gulls wheeling in the sky, dunes baking in the sun, gleaming surf and salt spray…. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Seasons
Night is winter, morning is spring, afternoon is summer and evening is fall.
Seasons 562 The night is the winter, the morning and evening are the spring and fall, and the noon is the summer. Thoreau, Walden.
Life starts over on a crisp fall day.
Seasons 118 Jordan Baker: “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby.
Spring is summer waiting for the winter to pass.
Seasons 102 What could spring possibly be made out of but summer transformed and reassembled and held inside the earth all winter? Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Secrets
Everything is supposed to be a secret until we find out that everyone knows it.
Secrets 468 These matters are always a secret, till it is found out that everybody knows them. Austen, Emma
Security
The Shakers offered a “cold and passionless security.”
Security 68 ...that ideal associations such as the Shaker community offer only a “cold and passionless security” which is little better than the grave.... Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
Self-Control
Since I can’t control events, I try to control myself.
Self-control 201 Not being able to govern events, I govern myself…. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Self-Criticism
If people paid attention to themselves, they would find that they, as well as I, consist of inanity and nonsense.
Self-criticism 508 If other men observed themselves attentively, as I do, they would find themselves, as I do, full of inanity and nonsense. Montaigne, Selected Essays.
Self-Denial
Pride in self-denial justifies our being harsh toward everyone else.
Self-denial 103 The act of self denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others. Hoffer, The True Believer
Self-Mastery
Self-mastery makes us feel as if we have mastered the world.
Self-mastery 79 The self-mastery needed in overcoming the appetites gives them an illusion of strength…feel that in mastering themselves they have mastered the world. Hoffer, The True Believer
Self-Righteousness
Self-righteousness blinds the self.
Self-righteousness 108 Liddell Hart: Avoid self-righteousness...nothing is so self-blinding. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days
Senses
One remembers odors better than any of the other senses.
Senses 76 They say that of all senses the nose remembers best. Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
When one smells the seaside air on a fresh day in June, one brings back many memories.
Senses 287 A vast inheritance of memories and associations was dimly brought to mind by that breath of the sea and freshness of the June day by the harbor side. Jewett, A Country Doctor.
Sermons
The stones of Rome are sermons.
Sermons 979 There are sermons in stones…and especially in the stones of Rome. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Quotes: Scholar. Science.
The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quotation that follows.
Scholar
He was a scholar who studied without any purpose.
Scholar 352 …a scholar, throughout life, though always an indolent one, because his studies had no definite object either of public advantage or personal ambition. Hawthorne, Tales and Sketches.
The scholar’s life is a peaceful life.
Scholar 132 …the fine quiet of the scholar which is nearest of all things to heavenly peace. Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night.
Characteristics of a scholar.
Scholar 63 ...the self-accusation, the faint heart, the frequent uncertainty and loss of time, which are the nettles and tangling vines in the way of the self-relying and self-directed; and the state of virtual hostility in which he seems to stand to society, and especially educated society. Emerson, The American Scholar.
Scholars soon learn that it is not what they study but what they do with what they study that counts.
Scholar 110 He [the scholar] will learn, that it is not much matter what he reads [but] what he does. Emerson, Literary Ethics.
In a world of despondent people, the scholar brings hope to the world.
Scholar 116 Whilst the multitude of men degrade each other, and give currency to desponding doctrines, the scholar must be a bringer of hope, and must reinforce man against himself. Emerson, Method of Nature.
Science
A medical man interested only in his experiments with people, not about the people themselves.
Science 124 [“Rappaccini’s Daughter”]: Giovanni’s mentor, Professor Baglioni, warns him about Rappaccini, describing his colleague as a man who ‘cares infinitely more for science than for mankind...his patients...[are] interesting to him only as subjects for some new experiment.’ Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
I have given a record of what one scientist thought as he pursued his research.
Science 310 “I have given the record of what one man has thought as he pursued research and pressed his hand against the confining walls of [the] scientific method.” Christianson, Fox at the Wood’s Edge: Loren Eiseley
We can’t even grasp the complexities of a single cell.
Science 149 German biologist von Bertalanffy: “To grasp in detail the physico-chemical organization of the simplest cell is far beyond our capacity.” Eiseley, The Immense Journey
Two types of scientists: one still sees the wonder and mystery in life.
Science 190 [Two types of practitioners in science]: One is the educated man who still has a controlled sense of wonder before the universal mystery, whether it hides in a snail’s eye or within the light that impinges on that delicate organ. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
The second type of scientist is the analyzer who takes all of the mystery and wonder out of life.
Science 190 The second kind of observer is the extreme reductionist who is so busy stripping things apart that the tremendous mystery has been reduced to a trifle…. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Einstein believed in the intelligibility of the world that is the object of scientific research.
Science 191 Einstein: “A conviction akin to religious feeling of the rationality or intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a high order.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Science is interested in the coherence of nature.
Science 229 Alfred North Whitehead: “Science is concerned not with the causes but the coherence of nature.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Scientific knowledge is verifiable and cumulative.
Science 273 From a single point his [the scientist’s] discovery is verifiable by other men who may then, on the basis of corresponding data, accept the innovation and elaborate upon it in the cumulative fashion which is one of the great triumphs of science. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
The effects of the study of science on the scientist.
Science 291 “The special value of science,” a perceptive philosopher once wrote, “lies not in what it makes of the world, but in what it makes of the knower.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
If we journey into space, we should do so with hopes of expanding the human spirit.
Science 298 I remain oppressed by the thought that the venture into space is meaningless unless it coincides with a certain interior expansion. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
The ingenuity of science and the inability of man to get along with his fellows makes this a particularly dangerous time for the human race.
Science 576 JFK: “Because of the ingenuity of science and man’s own inability to control his relationships with one another…we happen to live in the most dangerous time in the history of the human race.” Sorenson, Kennedy
Science now defines the world mathematically, not by sense perception.
Science 8 In accepting a mathematical description of nature, physicists have been forced to abandon the ordinary world of experience, the world of sense perception. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein.
Man’s perceptions of the world are limited by his visual sense.
Science 11 Man’s perceptions of the universe in which he dwells are thus restricted by the limitations of his visual sense. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein.
When man observes his world, he changes that world because of his observation.
Science 25 Whenever he [man] attempts to penetrate and spy on the “real” objective world, he changes and distorts its workings by the very process of his observation. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein.
Nothing can move faster than light.
Science 47 …nothing can ever move faster than light, no matter what forces are applied. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Matter and energy are the same thing, but in different states.
Science 54 In other words matter is energy and energy is matter, and the distinction is simply one of temporary state. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
In July 1945 man demonstrated the ability to change mass into energy and the atomic bomb.
Science 55 If matter sheds its mass and travels with the speed of light we call it radiation or energy; and conversely if energy congeals and takes on a different form we call it matter...since July 16,1945, man has been able to transform one into the other...on that night at Alamogordo, New Mexico, man for the first time transmuted a substantial quantity of matter into the light, heat, sound, and motion which we call energy. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
We can’t feel the motion of the earth.
Science 63 ...we can’t feel our motion through space; nor has any physical experiment ever proved that the earth actually is in motion. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
It’s not the magnet, but the magnet’s magnetic field that attracts pieces of iron.
Science 73 Today scientists no longer say that a magnet “attracts” a piece of iron by some kind of mysterious but instantaneous action-at-a-distance...say rather that the magnet creates a certain physical condition in the space around it, which they term a magnetic field; and that this magnetic field then acts upon the iron and makes it behave in a certain predictable fashion. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Like magnets, celestial objects create fields and determine the properties around them.
Science 74 Just as Maxwell and Faraday assumed that a magnet creates certain properties in surrounding space, so Einstein concluded that stars, moons and other celestial objects individually determine the properties of the space around them. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
We can’t physically visualize Einstein’s universe; it can only be described mathematically.
Science 86 Like most of the concepts of modern science, Einstein’s finite, spherical universe cannot be visualized...its properties can be described mathematically. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
A sunbeam traveling at the rate of 186,000 miles per second would take 200 billion terrestrial years to traverse the universe and return to its starting point.
Science 87 A sunbeam, setting out through space at the rate of 186,000 miles a second would, in this universe, describe a great cosmic circle and return to its source after little more than 200 billion terrestrial years. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Mathematical equations describe the fundamental phenomena beyond the range of vision; equations work, as the creation of the atomic bomb showed.
Science 25 …the equations of quantum physics define more accurately than any mechanical model the fundamental phenomena beyond the range of vision…[equations] work, as the calculations which hatched the atomic bomb spectacularly proved. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
The facts of the heat of the sun measured in centigrade.
Science 94 The temperature of the sun, which is an average star, ranges from 550 degrees centigrade at the surface up to 40,000,000 degrees in the interior. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Scientists try to construct theories that cover the greatest number of facts.
Science 104 A complete Unified Field Theory touches the “grand aim of all science,” which, as Einstein once defined it, is “to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.” Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Science tries to find the unity that underlies the immense variety of the natural world.
Science 105 The urge to consolidate premises, to unify concepts, to penetrate the variety and particularity of the manifest world to the undifferentiated unity that lies beyond is not only the leaven of science; it is the loftiest passion of the human intellect. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Man must worry that his attempt to discover changes what he is observing.
Science 107 In his descent into the microcosm [man] has encountered indeterminacy, duality, paradox--barriers that seem to admonish him he cannot pry too inquisitively into the heart of things without altering and vitiating the processes he seeks to observe. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Early Americans made discoveries because they were not limited by the rigid patterns of thought of their European counterparts.
Science 251 On a rare occasion, an American could discover something, even in physics, simply because he was less learned than his European colleagues [because] ignorance of the respectable paths of scientific thought might leave him freer to wander off whenever facts beckoned. Boorstin, The Americans: Colonial Experience
Franklin discovered the identity of lightning and electricity because his thinking was not locked into electrical machines, laboratory experiments and theoretical arguments.
Science 256 The identity of lightning and electricity had already been suspected by Europeans, but they had found no way to prove it; Franklin’s contribution was a simple device that, as he said, “might have occurred to any electrician,” but which somehow had not occurred to Europeans physicists preoccupied with their “electrical machines,” their laboratory experiments, and their theoretical arguments among themselves. Boorstin, The Americans: Colonial Experience
Problems of scientific research.
Science Cover …the boredom of tedious experiment, and the aggressive miscalculations resulting from wrong notions stubbornly held to or facts only half understood…hard competition between men and labs as well as theories…dull conferences to attend…. Watson, The Double Helix.
Science does not proceed logically as it is supposed to, but is affected by personalities and cultural traditions.
Science xi …science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders…its steps forward (and sometimes backward) are often very human events in which personalities and cultural traditions play major roles. Watson, The Double Helix.
People in general are ignorant of how science actually works.
Science xii …there remains general ignorance about how science is “done.” Watson, The Double Helix.
An idea so simple had to be right.
Science 114 The idea was so simple that it had to be right. Watson, The Double Helix.
Such a beautiful model suggested that the structure had to exist.
Science 205 …telling each other that a structure this pretty just had to exist. Watson, The Double Helix.
Cures are the work of hundreds of researchers, each of whom makes a small contribution.
Science 11 Most cures are based on the work of hundreds of researchers, all of whom make minute contributions. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
Writing about our failures is as important as writing about our successes.
Science 55 Professor Theodor Billroth…was…the first with the courage to publish reports on his operations; since surgeons lost more cases than they saved, the reports were macabre reading…”failures must be acknowledged, at once and publicly, without glossing over our mistakes; an unsuccessful case is more important to know about than a dozen successful operations.” Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
A scientist believes only what can be measured.
Science 225 He was a scientist…one [who] believed only what could be measured. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
Science replaced Divine authority with observation, experience and experiment.
Science 193 …the revolution that replaced Divine Authority by experience, experiment, and observation. Clark, Civilization.
We kill when we dissect or analyze.
Science 279 Wordsworth: We murder to dissect. Clark, Civilization.
With Einstein, science began to focus on science, not on human needs.
Science 344 But from the time of Einstein, Niels Bohr and the Cavendish Laboratory, science no longer existed to serve human needs, but in its own right. Clark, Civilization.
Alchemy became chemistry, astrology became astronomy and from fables of talking animals came zoology.
Science 105 Here and there, in universities and monasteries and hidden retreats, men ceased to dispute and began to search…alchemy was transmuted to chemistry; out of astrology, men groped their way…to astronomy; and out of the fables of speaking animals came the science of zoology. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
If we learn the laws of nature, we will be its master.
Science 120 F. Bacon: Let us learn the laws of nature, and we shall be her masters. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
The usefulness of alchemy was like people digging for gold but, while finding no gold, produce crops.
Science 123 F. Bacon: Alchemy may be compared to the man who told his sons he had left them gold buried somewhere in his vineyard; where they, by digging, found no gold, but by turning up the mold about the roots of the vines, procured a plentiful vintage...so the search and endeavors to make gold have brought many useful inventions and instructive experiments to light. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
The Greeks were always theorizing, not observing.
Science 128 F. Bacon: The great mistake of the Greek philosophers was that they spent so much time in theory, so little in observation. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
We must observe nature, not follow the dictates of authorities in books.
Science 133 F. Bacon: We must go to nature instead of to books, traditions and authorities. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
Philosophy should coordinate all the sciences for the benefit of human beings.
Science 353 Comte: Philosophy…was the coordination of all the sciences with a view to the improvement of human life…generalization of the result of all sciences. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.
The experimental attitude promotes detailed analysis, specific inquiries and facts.
Science 527 Dewey: The experimental attitude...substitutes detailed analysis for wholesale assertions, specific inquiries for temperamental convictions, small facts for opinions whose size is in precise ratio to their vagueness. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, John Dewey.
The essence of science is the willingness to abandon an idea for a better one.
Science 166 The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea, however fundamental it may seem to be, for a better one. Mencken, Minority Report.
Science rejects any experience that cannot be described in numbers.
Science 12 Ira Wolfert: Science rejects…experiences that cannot be described in numbers. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Modern science rests on the relativity and quantum theories, the one dealing with the universe at large and the other with the universe of the atom and smaller.
Science 240 W.L. Laurence: The two pillars on which modern science rests are the relativity and the quantum theories…[the] one [dealing] with the cosmic forces operating within the universe at large, while the other deals with the forces holding together the nuclei of the atoms of which the universe is constituted. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
The theory of relativity is the greatest synthesis of all time.
Science 241 Bertrand Russell on Einstein’s theory of relativity: …the greatest intellectual synthesis of all time. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
The greatest promise and threat of science is in contracting time through technology and expanding it through medicine.
Science 245 W.L. Laurence: The greatest promise, as well as the greatest threat, that…scientific achievements hold for [humanity] spring from the very fact that [man] has now gained for the first time a large measure of control…over the limitations of space and time…achieved, on the one hand, by contracting space, through the airplane, radio, television, and such, which enable him to crowd into any given time an infinity of experiences that would have taken several lifetimes in earlier generations, and, on the other hand, by stretching time through the lengthening of his life span as the result of new knowledge of fundamental life processes which is still snowballing. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
We have modified space and time and been modified by space and time and are now four-dimensional.
Science 246 W.L. Laurence: Having profoundly modified space and time, and become, in turn modified by them, we are gradually evolving from three-dimensional Euclidean beings into dwellers of the four-dimensional, non-Euclidean space-time universe of Dr. Einstein. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Science strives for unity and simplicity, but it seems to produce variety and complication.
Science 272 Babette Deutsch: Some years ago the mathematician, Henri Poincare, pointed out that science moves toward unity and simplicity: it seems to move toward variety and complication. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
50 years ago, inventions came from individual geniuses; today, most inventions are created by anonymous researchers.
Science 319 Rudolf Flesch on the changes in science and writing: Fifty years ago our inventions came from individual geniuses like Edison; today most great inventions are made by anonymous researchers, following a fixed procedure. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Science should produce the supplements and continuations of God’s creation.
Science 440 When science is learned in love, and its powers are wielded by love, they will appear the supplements and continuations of the material creation. Emerson, Art.
Engineering and science will ultimately destroy humanity.
Science 473 Speer: Nothing can prevent unfettered engineering and science from completing the work of destroying human beings, which it has begun in so dreadful a way in this war. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Science battles mistake.
Science 703 …but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake…. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
Scientific discovery is based on intuition.
Science vii They [physicists] recognize that the crucial step on the way to scientific discovery is not rational, but intuitive. Foreword: Cooper. A Random Walk in Science.
The purpose of pure science is to extend knowledge, not to apply it.
Science 3 By research in pure science I mean research made without any idea of application to industrial matters but solely with the view of extending our knowledge of the laws of nature. J.J. Thompson. A Random Walk in Science.
No one today can comprehend the whole field of science.
Science 4 Today no human brain is capable of comprehending the whole of science. Feleki. A Random Walk in Science.
Inferring the temperature of Hell.
Science 106 The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed but it must be less than 444.6 degrees centigrade, the temperature at which brimstone or sulfur changes from a liquid to a gas. Anon. A Random Walk in Science.
Science is filling our homes with appliances that are smarter than we are.
Science 172 One humiliating thing about science is that it is gradually filling our homes with appliances smarter than we are. Anon. A Random Walk in Science.
Scientific fact sets off an explosion of conjecture.
Science 173 There is something fascinating about science: One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi. A Random Walk in Science.
Science has affected our method of reasoning.
Science 202 What [people] usually do not consider is the effect of science upon their way of reasoning. Adolph Baker. A Random Walk in Science.
The field of science is like an anthill.
Science 101 An active field of science is like an immense intellectual anthill; the individual almost vanishes into the mass of minds rumbling over each other, carrying information from place to place, passing it around at the speed of light. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
Scientists are in a panic to grab the answer before anyone else does.
Science 101 To grab the answer, and grab it first, is for them [scientists] a more powerful drive than feeding or breeding, or protecting themselves against the elements. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
The typical science paper is a small piece in a large jig-saw.
Science 15 Ziman: A typical scientific paper has never pretended to be more than another little piece in a larger jigsaw--not significant in itself but as an element in a grander scheme. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
Science is like termites building a termite nest.
Science 15 Ziman: this technique of soliciting many modest contributions in the store of human knowledge has been the secret of Western science since the seventeenth century, for it achieves a corporate, collective power that is far greater than any one individual can exert: With some alternation of terms, some toning down, [this] passage could describe the building of a termite nest. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
Man stands between macrocosm and microcosm, and because the world was created by the word of God, its constituents are not available to us.
Science and God 109 Standing midway between macrocosm and microcosm, [Man] finds barriers on every side and can perhaps but marvel, as St. Paul did nineteen hundred years ago, that “the world was created by the word of God so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.” Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Will science and humor be able to keep in step?
Science and humor 4 It is decisive for the present and future of mankind whether humor and science can keep in step…. Felecki. A Random Walk in Science.
Much of science consists of metaphors for the reality beneath the surface of things.
Science and metaphor 106 And upon examination such concepts as gravitation, electromagnetism, energy, current, momentum, the atom, the neutron, all turn out to be theoretical substructures, inventions, metaphors which man’s intellect has contrived to help him picture the true, the objective reality he apprehends beneath the surface of things. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
A scientific view of the end of the world.
Science and the future 95 The sun is slowly but surely burning out, the stars are dying embers, and everywhere in the cosmos heat is turning to cold, matter is dissolving into radiation, and energy is being dissipated into empty space. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Science fiction is about what can be while fantasy is about what cannot be.
Science fiction and fantasy 297 Science fiction vs. fantasy: the distinction between what can be, as science fiction is often described, and what can’t be, as fantasy often is…. Silbersack, JW. Gross, ed. Editors on Editing.
The German Nazi scientist renounced international science and research and research for the sake of research. Sieg Heil!
Science scholars research 272 Historian Ulrich Kahrstedt in 1934: “We renounce international science, we renounce the international republic of scholars, we renounce research for the sake of research. Sieg Heil!” Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Science and poetry must be comprehended.
Science, poetry 221 Poetry is as necessary to comprehension as science. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
There are scientists who are narrow-minded, dull and stupid.
Scientists 14 …a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Watson, The Double Helix.
The process of science is not reflected in the format of scientific articles.
Scientists xv Much of the misunderstanding of scientists and how they work is due to the standard format of articles in scientific journals. Introduction. A Random Walk in Science.
We know a lot more about flatworms than about the people who study flatworms.
Scientists xv We know considerably more about flatworms than we do about people who study flatworms. Introduction. A Random Walk in Science.
Scholar
He was a scholar who studied without any purpose.
Scholar 352 …a scholar, throughout life, though always an indolent one, because his studies had no definite object either of public advantage or personal ambition. Hawthorne, Tales and Sketches.
The scholar’s life is a peaceful life.
Scholar 132 …the fine quiet of the scholar which is nearest of all things to heavenly peace. Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night.
Characteristics of a scholar.
Scholar 63 ...the self-accusation, the faint heart, the frequent uncertainty and loss of time, which are the nettles and tangling vines in the way of the self-relying and self-directed; and the state of virtual hostility in which he seems to stand to society, and especially educated society. Emerson, The American Scholar.
Scholars soon learn that it is not what they study but what they do with what they study that counts.
Scholar 110 He [the scholar] will learn, that it is not much matter what he reads [but] what he does. Emerson, Literary Ethics.
In a world of despondent people, the scholar brings hope to the world.
Scholar 116 Whilst the multitude of men degrade each other, and give currency to desponding doctrines, the scholar must be a bringer of hope, and must reinforce man against himself. Emerson, Method of Nature.
Science
A medical man interested only in his experiments with people, not about the people themselves.
Science 124 [“Rappaccini’s Daughter”]: Giovanni’s mentor, Professor Baglioni, warns him about Rappaccini, describing his colleague as a man who ‘cares infinitely more for science than for mankind...his patients...[are] interesting to him only as subjects for some new experiment.’ Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
I have given a record of what one scientist thought as he pursued his research.
Science 310 “I have given the record of what one man has thought as he pursued research and pressed his hand against the confining walls of [the] scientific method.” Christianson, Fox at the Wood’s Edge: Loren Eiseley
We can’t even grasp the complexities of a single cell.
Science 149 German biologist von Bertalanffy: “To grasp in detail the physico-chemical organization of the simplest cell is far beyond our capacity.” Eiseley, The Immense Journey
Two types of scientists: one still sees the wonder and mystery in life.
Science 190 [Two types of practitioners in science]: One is the educated man who still has a controlled sense of wonder before the universal mystery, whether it hides in a snail’s eye or within the light that impinges on that delicate organ. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
The second type of scientist is the analyzer who takes all of the mystery and wonder out of life.
Science 190 The second kind of observer is the extreme reductionist who is so busy stripping things apart that the tremendous mystery has been reduced to a trifle…. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Einstein believed in the intelligibility of the world that is the object of scientific research.
Science 191 Einstein: “A conviction akin to religious feeling of the rationality or intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a high order.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Science is interested in the coherence of nature.
Science 229 Alfred North Whitehead: “Science is concerned not with the causes but the coherence of nature.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Scientific knowledge is verifiable and cumulative.
Science 273 From a single point his [the scientist’s] discovery is verifiable by other men who may then, on the basis of corresponding data, accept the innovation and elaborate upon it in the cumulative fashion which is one of the great triumphs of science. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
The effects of the study of science on the scientist.
Science 291 “The special value of science,” a perceptive philosopher once wrote, “lies not in what it makes of the world, but in what it makes of the knower.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
If we journey into space, we should do so with hopes of expanding the human spirit.
Science 298 I remain oppressed by the thought that the venture into space is meaningless unless it coincides with a certain interior expansion. Eiseley, The Star Thrower
The ingenuity of science and the inability of man to get along with his fellows makes this a particularly dangerous time for the human race.
Science 576 JFK: “Because of the ingenuity of science and man’s own inability to control his relationships with one another…we happen to live in the most dangerous time in the history of the human race.” Sorenson, Kennedy
Science now defines the world mathematically, not by sense perception.
Science 8 In accepting a mathematical description of nature, physicists have been forced to abandon the ordinary world of experience, the world of sense perception. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein.
Man’s perceptions of the world are limited by his visual sense.
Science 11 Man’s perceptions of the universe in which he dwells are thus restricted by the limitations of his visual sense. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein.
When man observes his world, he changes that world because of his observation.
Science 25 Whenever he [man] attempts to penetrate and spy on the “real” objective world, he changes and distorts its workings by the very process of his observation. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein.
Nothing can move faster than light.
Science 47 …nothing can ever move faster than light, no matter what forces are applied. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Matter and energy are the same thing, but in different states.
Science 54 In other words matter is energy and energy is matter, and the distinction is simply one of temporary state. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
In July 1945 man demonstrated the ability to change mass into energy and the atomic bomb.
Science 55 If matter sheds its mass and travels with the speed of light we call it radiation or energy; and conversely if energy congeals and takes on a different form we call it matter...since July 16,1945, man has been able to transform one into the other...on that night at Alamogordo, New Mexico, man for the first time transmuted a substantial quantity of matter into the light, heat, sound, and motion which we call energy. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
We can’t feel the motion of the earth.
Science 63 ...we can’t feel our motion through space; nor has any physical experiment ever proved that the earth actually is in motion. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
It’s not the magnet, but the magnet’s magnetic field that attracts pieces of iron.
Science 73 Today scientists no longer say that a magnet “attracts” a piece of iron by some kind of mysterious but instantaneous action-at-a-distance...say rather that the magnet creates a certain physical condition in the space around it, which they term a magnetic field; and that this magnetic field then acts upon the iron and makes it behave in a certain predictable fashion. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Like magnets, celestial objects create fields and determine the properties around them.
Science 74 Just as Maxwell and Faraday assumed that a magnet creates certain properties in surrounding space, so Einstein concluded that stars, moons and other celestial objects individually determine the properties of the space around them. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
We can’t physically visualize Einstein’s universe; it can only be described mathematically.
Science 86 Like most of the concepts of modern science, Einstein’s finite, spherical universe cannot be visualized...its properties can be described mathematically. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
A sunbeam traveling at the rate of 186,000 miles per second would take 200 billion terrestrial years to traverse the universe and return to its starting point.
Science 87 A sunbeam, setting out through space at the rate of 186,000 miles a second would, in this universe, describe a great cosmic circle and return to its source after little more than 200 billion terrestrial years. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Mathematical equations describe the fundamental phenomena beyond the range of vision; equations work, as the creation of the atomic bomb showed.
Science 25 …the equations of quantum physics define more accurately than any mechanical model the fundamental phenomena beyond the range of vision…[equations] work, as the calculations which hatched the atomic bomb spectacularly proved. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
The facts of the heat of the sun measured in centigrade.
Science 94 The temperature of the sun, which is an average star, ranges from 550 degrees centigrade at the surface up to 40,000,000 degrees in the interior. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Scientists try to construct theories that cover the greatest number of facts.
Science 104 A complete Unified Field Theory touches the “grand aim of all science,” which, as Einstein once defined it, is “to cover the greatest number of empirical facts by logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms.” Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Science tries to find the unity that underlies the immense variety of the natural world.
Science 105 The urge to consolidate premises, to unify concepts, to penetrate the variety and particularity of the manifest world to the undifferentiated unity that lies beyond is not only the leaven of science; it is the loftiest passion of the human intellect. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Man must worry that his attempt to discover changes what he is observing.
Science 107 In his descent into the microcosm [man] has encountered indeterminacy, duality, paradox--barriers that seem to admonish him he cannot pry too inquisitively into the heart of things without altering and vitiating the processes he seeks to observe. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Early Americans made discoveries because they were not limited by the rigid patterns of thought of their European counterparts.
Science 251 On a rare occasion, an American could discover something, even in physics, simply because he was less learned than his European colleagues [because] ignorance of the respectable paths of scientific thought might leave him freer to wander off whenever facts beckoned. Boorstin, The Americans: Colonial Experience
Franklin discovered the identity of lightning and electricity because his thinking was not locked into electrical machines, laboratory experiments and theoretical arguments.
Science 256 The identity of lightning and electricity had already been suspected by Europeans, but they had found no way to prove it; Franklin’s contribution was a simple device that, as he said, “might have occurred to any electrician,” but which somehow had not occurred to Europeans physicists preoccupied with their “electrical machines,” their laboratory experiments, and their theoretical arguments among themselves. Boorstin, The Americans: Colonial Experience
Problems of scientific research.
Science Cover …the boredom of tedious experiment, and the aggressive miscalculations resulting from wrong notions stubbornly held to or facts only half understood…hard competition between men and labs as well as theories…dull conferences to attend…. Watson, The Double Helix.
Science does not proceed logically as it is supposed to, but is affected by personalities and cultural traditions.
Science xi …science seldom proceeds in the straightforward logical manner imagined by outsiders…its steps forward (and sometimes backward) are often very human events in which personalities and cultural traditions play major roles. Watson, The Double Helix.
People in general are ignorant of how science actually works.
Science xii …there remains general ignorance about how science is “done.” Watson, The Double Helix.
An idea so simple had to be right.
Science 114 The idea was so simple that it had to be right. Watson, The Double Helix.
Such a beautiful model suggested that the structure had to exist.
Science 205 …telling each other that a structure this pretty just had to exist. Watson, The Double Helix.
Cures are the work of hundreds of researchers, each of whom makes a small contribution.
Science 11 Most cures are based on the work of hundreds of researchers, all of whom make minute contributions. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
Writing about our failures is as important as writing about our successes.
Science 55 Professor Theodor Billroth…was…the first with the courage to publish reports on his operations; since surgeons lost more cases than they saved, the reports were macabre reading…”failures must be acknowledged, at once and publicly, without glossing over our mistakes; an unsuccessful case is more important to know about than a dozen successful operations.” Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
A scientist believes only what can be measured.
Science 225 He was a scientist…one [who] believed only what could be measured. Irving Stone, The Passions of the Mind (Life of Freud).
Science replaced Divine authority with observation, experience and experiment.
Science 193 …the revolution that replaced Divine Authority by experience, experiment, and observation. Clark, Civilization.
We kill when we dissect or analyze.
Science 279 Wordsworth: We murder to dissect. Clark, Civilization.
With Einstein, science began to focus on science, not on human needs.
Science 344 But from the time of Einstein, Niels Bohr and the Cavendish Laboratory, science no longer existed to serve human needs, but in its own right. Clark, Civilization.
Alchemy became chemistry, astrology became astronomy and from fables of talking animals came zoology.
Science 105 Here and there, in universities and monasteries and hidden retreats, men ceased to dispute and began to search…alchemy was transmuted to chemistry; out of astrology, men groped their way…to astronomy; and out of the fables of speaking animals came the science of zoology. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
If we learn the laws of nature, we will be its master.
Science 120 F. Bacon: Let us learn the laws of nature, and we shall be her masters. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
The usefulness of alchemy was like people digging for gold but, while finding no gold, produce crops.
Science 123 F. Bacon: Alchemy may be compared to the man who told his sons he had left them gold buried somewhere in his vineyard; where they, by digging, found no gold, but by turning up the mold about the roots of the vines, procured a plentiful vintage...so the search and endeavors to make gold have brought many useful inventions and instructive experiments to light. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
The Greeks were always theorizing, not observing.
Science 128 F. Bacon: The great mistake of the Greek philosophers was that they spent so much time in theory, so little in observation. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
We must observe nature, not follow the dictates of authorities in books.
Science 133 F. Bacon: We must go to nature instead of to books, traditions and authorities. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Francis Bacon.
Philosophy should coordinate all the sciences for the benefit of human beings.
Science 353 Comte: Philosophy…was the coordination of all the sciences with a view to the improvement of human life…generalization of the result of all sciences. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Herbert Spencer.
The experimental attitude promotes detailed analysis, specific inquiries and facts.
Science 527 Dewey: The experimental attitude...substitutes detailed analysis for wholesale assertions, specific inquiries for temperamental convictions, small facts for opinions whose size is in precise ratio to their vagueness. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, John Dewey.
The essence of science is the willingness to abandon an idea for a better one.
Science 166 The essence of science is that it is always willing to abandon a given idea, however fundamental it may seem to be, for a better one. Mencken, Minority Report.
Science rejects any experience that cannot be described in numbers.
Science 12 Ira Wolfert: Science rejects…experiences that cannot be described in numbers. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Modern science rests on the relativity and quantum theories, the one dealing with the universe at large and the other with the universe of the atom and smaller.
Science 240 W.L. Laurence: The two pillars on which modern science rests are the relativity and the quantum theories…[the] one [dealing] with the cosmic forces operating within the universe at large, while the other deals with the forces holding together the nuclei of the atoms of which the universe is constituted. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
The theory of relativity is the greatest synthesis of all time.
Science 241 Bertrand Russell on Einstein’s theory of relativity: …the greatest intellectual synthesis of all time. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
The greatest promise and threat of science is in contracting time through technology and expanding it through medicine.
Science 245 W.L. Laurence: The greatest promise, as well as the greatest threat, that…scientific achievements hold for [humanity] spring from the very fact that [man] has now gained for the first time a large measure of control…over the limitations of space and time…achieved, on the one hand, by contracting space, through the airplane, radio, television, and such, which enable him to crowd into any given time an infinity of experiences that would have taken several lifetimes in earlier generations, and, on the other hand, by stretching time through the lengthening of his life span as the result of new knowledge of fundamental life processes which is still snowballing. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
We have modified space and time and been modified by space and time and are now four-dimensional.
Science 246 W.L. Laurence: Having profoundly modified space and time, and become, in turn modified by them, we are gradually evolving from three-dimensional Euclidean beings into dwellers of the four-dimensional, non-Euclidean space-time universe of Dr. Einstein. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Science strives for unity and simplicity, but it seems to produce variety and complication.
Science 272 Babette Deutsch: Some years ago the mathematician, Henri Poincare, pointed out that science moves toward unity and simplicity: it seems to move toward variety and complication. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
50 years ago, inventions came from individual geniuses; today, most inventions are created by anonymous researchers.
Science 319 Rudolf Flesch on the changes in science and writing: Fifty years ago our inventions came from individual geniuses like Edison; today most great inventions are made by anonymous researchers, following a fixed procedure. Hull, ed. The Writer’s Book.
Science should produce the supplements and continuations of God’s creation.
Science 440 When science is learned in love, and its powers are wielded by love, they will appear the supplements and continuations of the material creation. Emerson, Art.
Engineering and science will ultimately destroy humanity.
Science 473 Speer: Nothing can prevent unfettered engineering and science from completing the work of destroying human beings, which it has begun in so dreadful a way in this war. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.
Science battles mistake.
Science 703 …but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake…. George Eliot, Middlemarch.
Scientific discovery is based on intuition.
Science vii They [physicists] recognize that the crucial step on the way to scientific discovery is not rational, but intuitive. Foreword: Cooper. A Random Walk in Science.
The purpose of pure science is to extend knowledge, not to apply it.
Science 3 By research in pure science I mean research made without any idea of application to industrial matters but solely with the view of extending our knowledge of the laws of nature. J.J. Thompson. A Random Walk in Science.
No one today can comprehend the whole field of science.
Science 4 Today no human brain is capable of comprehending the whole of science. Feleki. A Random Walk in Science.
Inferring the temperature of Hell.
Science 106 The exact temperature of Hell cannot be computed but it must be less than 444.6 degrees centigrade, the temperature at which brimstone or sulfur changes from a liquid to a gas. Anon. A Random Walk in Science.
Science is filling our homes with appliances that are smarter than we are.
Science 172 One humiliating thing about science is that it is gradually filling our homes with appliances smarter than we are. Anon. A Random Walk in Science.
Scientific fact sets off an explosion of conjecture.
Science 173 There is something fascinating about science: One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi. A Random Walk in Science.
Science has affected our method of reasoning.
Science 202 What [people] usually do not consider is the effect of science upon their way of reasoning. Adolph Baker. A Random Walk in Science.
The field of science is like an anthill.
Science 101 An active field of science is like an immense intellectual anthill; the individual almost vanishes into the mass of minds rumbling over each other, carrying information from place to place, passing it around at the speed of light. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
Scientists are in a panic to grab the answer before anyone else does.
Science 101 To grab the answer, and grab it first, is for them [scientists] a more powerful drive than feeding or breeding, or protecting themselves against the elements. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
The typical science paper is a small piece in a large jig-saw.
Science 15 Ziman: A typical scientific paper has never pretended to be more than another little piece in a larger jigsaw--not significant in itself but as an element in a grander scheme. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
Science is like termites building a termite nest.
Science 15 Ziman: this technique of soliciting many modest contributions in the store of human knowledge has been the secret of Western science since the seventeenth century, for it achieves a corporate, collective power that is far greater than any one individual can exert: With some alternation of terms, some toning down, [this] passage could describe the building of a termite nest. L. Thomas, Lives of a Cell.
Man stands between macrocosm and microcosm, and because the world was created by the word of God, its constituents are not available to us.
Science and God 109 Standing midway between macrocosm and microcosm, [Man] finds barriers on every side and can perhaps but marvel, as St. Paul did nineteen hundred years ago, that “the world was created by the word of God so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.” Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Will science and humor be able to keep in step?
Science and humor 4 It is decisive for the present and future of mankind whether humor and science can keep in step…. Felecki. A Random Walk in Science.
Much of science consists of metaphors for the reality beneath the surface of things.
Science and metaphor 106 And upon examination such concepts as gravitation, electromagnetism, energy, current, momentum, the atom, the neutron, all turn out to be theoretical substructures, inventions, metaphors which man’s intellect has contrived to help him picture the true, the objective reality he apprehends beneath the surface of things. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
A scientific view of the end of the world.
Science and the future 95 The sun is slowly but surely burning out, the stars are dying embers, and everywhere in the cosmos heat is turning to cold, matter is dissolving into radiation, and energy is being dissipated into empty space. Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein
Science fiction is about what can be while fantasy is about what cannot be.
Science fiction and fantasy 297 Science fiction vs. fantasy: the distinction between what can be, as science fiction is often described, and what can’t be, as fantasy often is…. Silbersack, JW. Gross, ed. Editors on Editing.
The German Nazi scientist renounced international science and research and research for the sake of research. Sieg Heil!
Science scholars research 272 Historian Ulrich Kahrstedt in 1934: “We renounce international science, we renounce the international republic of scholars, we renounce research for the sake of research. Sieg Heil!” Bracher, The German Dictatorship
Science and poetry must be comprehended.
Science, poetry 221 Poetry is as necessary to comprehension as science. Henry Beston, The Outermost House.
There are scientists who are narrow-minded, dull and stupid.
Scientists 14 …a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Watson, The Double Helix.
The process of science is not reflected in the format of scientific articles.
Scientists xv Much of the misunderstanding of scientists and how they work is due to the standard format of articles in scientific journals. Introduction. A Random Walk in Science.
We know a lot more about flatworms than about the people who study flatworms.
Scientists xv We know considerably more about flatworms than we do about people who study flatworms. Introduction. A Random Walk in Science.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Quotes: Sadness. Salvation. San Francisco. Sanity. Satire. Sayings. Scene.
Sadness
The best way to cure being sad is to learn something.
Sadness 173 Merlyn: the best thing for being sad…is to learn something. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Sadness is for men not beasts, but if they give in to sadness too much, they become beasts.
Sadness 597 Sancho: Master, sadness was made for men, not for beasts, but if men let themselves give way too much to it, they turn into beasts. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.
Salvation
There is only one way to be saved: to take the responsibility for all men’s sins.
Salvation 290 There is only one means of salvation, then take yourself and make yourself responsible for all men’s sins. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
San Francisco
The weather in San Francisco is eternal spring.
San Francisco 837 ..the eternal spring of San Francisco…. Twain, Roughing It
Sanity
My method is sane, but my motive and my purpose are mad.
Sanity 199 Ahab: “All my means are sane…. My motive and my object mad.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Satire
Successful satire must still be good at a later period.
Satire 77 Dorothy Parker: Successful satire has to be pretty good the day after tomorrow. Cowley, ed., Writers at Work.
Sayings
As they say in Turkey when they cut off the wrong man’s head, “It’s over and can’t be helped.”
Sayings 315 “It’s over, and can’t be helped, and that’s one consolation, as they always says in Turkey, ven they cuts the wrong man’s head off.” Dickens, Pickwick.
Some comforting reflections:
Sayings 677 …with a few comforting reflections, of which the chief were, that after all perhaps it was well it was no worse; the least said the soonest mended…what was over couldn’t be begun, and what couldn’t be cured must be endured…. Dickens, Pickwick.
Scene
Events on a small, rural town’s main street.
Scene 233 Harriet, tempted by everything and swayed by half a word, was always very long at a purchase; and while she was still hanging over muslims and changing her mind, Emma went to the door [of the shop] for amusement--much could not be hoped from the traffic of even the busiest part of Highbury; Mr. Perry walking hastily by, Mr. William Cox letting himself in at the office door, Mr. Cole’s carriage horses returning from exercise, or a stray letter-boy on an obstinate mule, were the liveliest objects she could presume to expect; and...her eyes fell...on the butcher with his tray, a tidy old woman traveling homewards from the shop with her full basket, two curs quarreling over a dirty bone, and a string of dawdling children round the baker’s little bow-window eyeing the gingerbread.... Austen, Emma
Change of color from June to August on some Maine islands.
Scene 443 The month was August, and I had seen the color of the islands change from the fresh green of June to a sunburnt brown that made them look like stone, except where the dark green of the spruces and fir balsam kept the tint that even winter storms might deepen, but not fade. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
From the point of view of the horse.
Scene 184 The horse knew as well as his master that nothing of particular importance was in hand, and however well he always caught the spirit of the occasion when there was need for hurry, he now jogged along the road, going slowly where the trees cast a pleasant shade, and paying more attention to the flies than to anything else. Jewett, A Country Doctor.
Rowing out into the water in twilight to a point where it seemed shoreless.
Scene 23 When we came down from the lighthouse and it grew late, we would beg for an hour or two longer on the water, and row away in the twilight far out from land, where, with our faces turned from the light, it seemed as if we were alone, and the sea shoreless; and as the darkness closed round us softly, we watched the stars come out, and were always glad to see
Kate’s star and my star, which we had chosen when we were children. Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
A deserted house in the snow.
Scene 124 I think today of that fireless, empty, forsaken house, where the winter sun shines in and creeps slowly along the floor; the bitter cold is in and around the house, and the snow has sifted in at every crack; outside it is untrodden by any living creature’s footsteps[;] the wind blows and rushes and shakes the loose window-sashes in their frames, while the padlock knocks—knocks against the door. Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
The sounds of a hotel.
Scene 760 I heard the stir of the hotel; the loud voices of the guests, landlord or barkeeper; steps echoing on the staircase; the ringing of a bell, announcing arrivals or departures; the porter lumbering past my door with baggage, which he thumped down upon the floors of neighboring chambers; the lighter feet of chamber-maids scudding along the passages…. Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance.
The best way to cure being sad is to learn something.
Sadness 173 Merlyn: the best thing for being sad…is to learn something. T. H. White, The Once and Future King.
Sadness is for men not beasts, but if they give in to sadness too much, they become beasts.
Sadness 597 Sancho: Master, sadness was made for men, not for beasts, but if men let themselves give way too much to it, they turn into beasts. Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote of La Mancha. Part Two: 1615.
Salvation
There is only one way to be saved: to take the responsibility for all men’s sins.
Salvation 290 There is only one means of salvation, then take yourself and make yourself responsible for all men’s sins. Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
San Francisco
The weather in San Francisco is eternal spring.
San Francisco 837 ..the eternal spring of San Francisco…. Twain, Roughing It
Sanity
My method is sane, but my motive and my purpose are mad.
Sanity 199 Ahab: “All my means are sane…. My motive and my object mad.” Eiseley, The Star Thrower
Satire
Successful satire must still be good at a later period.
Satire 77 Dorothy Parker: Successful satire has to be pretty good the day after tomorrow. Cowley, ed., Writers at Work.
Sayings
As they say in Turkey when they cut off the wrong man’s head, “It’s over and can’t be helped.”
Sayings 315 “It’s over, and can’t be helped, and that’s one consolation, as they always says in Turkey, ven they cuts the wrong man’s head off.” Dickens, Pickwick.
Some comforting reflections:
Sayings 677 …with a few comforting reflections, of which the chief were, that after all perhaps it was well it was no worse; the least said the soonest mended…what was over couldn’t be begun, and what couldn’t be cured must be endured…. Dickens, Pickwick.
Scene
Events on a small, rural town’s main street.
Scene 233 Harriet, tempted by everything and swayed by half a word, was always very long at a purchase; and while she was still hanging over muslims and changing her mind, Emma went to the door [of the shop] for amusement--much could not be hoped from the traffic of even the busiest part of Highbury; Mr. Perry walking hastily by, Mr. William Cox letting himself in at the office door, Mr. Cole’s carriage horses returning from exercise, or a stray letter-boy on an obstinate mule, were the liveliest objects she could presume to expect; and...her eyes fell...on the butcher with his tray, a tidy old woman traveling homewards from the shop with her full basket, two curs quarreling over a dirty bone, and a string of dawdling children round the baker’s little bow-window eyeing the gingerbread.... Austen, Emma
Change of color from June to August on some Maine islands.
Scene 443 The month was August, and I had seen the color of the islands change from the fresh green of June to a sunburnt brown that made them look like stone, except where the dark green of the spruces and fir balsam kept the tint that even winter storms might deepen, but not fade. Jewett, The country of the Pointed Firs.
From the point of view of the horse.
Scene 184 The horse knew as well as his master that nothing of particular importance was in hand, and however well he always caught the spirit of the occasion when there was need for hurry, he now jogged along the road, going slowly where the trees cast a pleasant shade, and paying more attention to the flies than to anything else. Jewett, A Country Doctor.
Rowing out into the water in twilight to a point where it seemed shoreless.
Scene 23 When we came down from the lighthouse and it grew late, we would beg for an hour or two longer on the water, and row away in the twilight far out from land, where, with our faces turned from the light, it seemed as if we were alone, and the sea shoreless; and as the darkness closed round us softly, we watched the stars come out, and were always glad to see
Kate’s star and my star, which we had chosen when we were children. Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
A deserted house in the snow.
Scene 124 I think today of that fireless, empty, forsaken house, where the winter sun shines in and creeps slowly along the floor; the bitter cold is in and around the house, and the snow has sifted in at every crack; outside it is untrodden by any living creature’s footsteps[;] the wind blows and rushes and shakes the loose window-sashes in their frames, while the padlock knocks—knocks against the door. Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven.
The sounds of a hotel.
Scene 760 I heard the stir of the hotel; the loud voices of the guests, landlord or barkeeper; steps echoing on the staircase; the ringing of a bell, announcing arrivals or departures; the porter lumbering past my door with baggage, which he thumped down upon the floors of neighboring chambers; the lighter feet of chamber-maids scudding along the passages…. Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Quotes: Rewards. Rhetoric. Right and Wrong. Roles. Roller Coaster. Romanticism. Rome. Routine. Ruins. Rules. Rural Life.
A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.
Rewards
Our only reward will be a good conscience, i.e., we feel good about what we did.
Reward 278 JFK: ...with a good conscience our only sure reward.... Sorenson, Kennedy
Rhetoric
Wilson engendered emotion through rhetoric and when his goals could not be achieved, the emotion was broken.
Rhetoric 8 …the emotions engendered by Wilson’s crusading rhetoric and the collapse of mood that accompanied the broken—indeed the unattainable—promises of that rhetoric. Blum, V Was for Victory
During WWII, The President was careful not to whip up emotion he could not control.
Rhetoric 8 During WWII the President tried to prevent his rhetoric from whipping up emotions he could not control. Blum, V Was for Victory
I thought he was a lord among wits, but found that he was only a wit among lords.
Rhetorical technique 159 Johnson on Lord Chesterfield: This man…I thought had been a lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among lords. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
Right and Wrong
Right and wrong can never compromise.
Right and Wrong 1172 Hilda: But there is, I believe, only one right and one wrong; and I do not understand…how two things so totally unlike can be mistaken for one another; nor how two mortal foes—as Right and Wrong surely are—can work together in the same deed. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Roles
We play roles in order, mainly, to protect ourselves.
Roles 104 We act out many roles…some because it’s fun, some because others want us to act out those roles…mostly because we want to protect ourselves. Bergman, Ingmar. Fiction: “Confession.” The New Yorker (Nov. 11, 1996), 92-104.
Roller Coaster
Impressions of riding a roller coaster.
Roller coaster 76 The roller coaster would click-clack its way to the top of that first big drop and as...your heart raced, suddenly the whole Lenape valley opened up before you, the river solidly in place way down there.... Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Romanticism
Romanticism explores emotion beyond the control of reason.
Romanticism 311 …the Romantic impulse to explore beyond the bounds of reason. Clark, Civilization.
Rome
The idealism and reality of Rome.
Rome 496 He had begun to sense the antitheses of Rome: a city of architectural splendors and sunless streets running with human filth; a city of the highest artistic aspirations and pestilential fleas. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
A crumbling stone pillar lying on the ground epitomizes Rome.
Rome 977 [An immense gray granite shaft lying in the piazza]: …was a great, solid fact of the past, making old Rome actually sensible to the touch and eye; and no study of history, nor force of thought, nor magic of song, could so vitally assure us that Rome once existed, as this sturdy specimen of what its rulers and people wrought. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
The blood of the Christian martyrs was swallowed by the greatest of beasts, the populace of Rome.
Rome 980 …where so much blood of Christian martyrs had been lapt up by that fiercest of wild beasts, the Roman populace of yore. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
So many hopes lie crushed in the soil of Rome.
Rome 1196 …the myriads of dead hopes that lie crushed into the soil of Rome. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Routine
Routine masks our deep sense of insecurity.
Routine 7 We counteract a deep feeling of insecurity by making of our existence a fixed routine. Hoffer, The True Believer
Ruins
The English ruin is overcome by the forces of nature.
Ruins 990 Nature takes an English ruin to her heart…strives to make it a part of herself, gradually obliterating the handiwork of man, and supplanting it with her own mosses and trailing verdure, till she has won the whole structure back. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
In Rome, Nature can never take back man’s accomplishments.
Ruins 990 But, in Italy, whenever man has once hewn a stone, Nature forthwith relinquishes her right to it, and never lays her finger on it again…bare and naked, in the barren sunshine…. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Rules
Observe the rules and then take the liberty of violating them—for a purpose.
Rules 216 T.S. Eliot: It’s not wise to violate the rules until you know how to observe them. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
Rural Life
Country cousins drop in unannounced.
Rural life 411 …and how like a country-cousin, to come down upon a poor body in this way, without so much as a day’s notice, or asking whether she would be welcome! Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.
The city person in the country has difficulty accepting unexpected guests.
Rural life 398 A man that is out of humor when an unexpected guest breaks in upon him, and does not care for sacrificing an afternoon to every chance-comer; that will be the master of his own time, and the pursuer of his own inclinations, makes but a very unsociable figure in this kind of [rural] life. Addison, 7/31/1711. The Spectator.
Rewards
Our only reward will be a good conscience, i.e., we feel good about what we did.
Reward 278 JFK: ...with a good conscience our only sure reward.... Sorenson, Kennedy
Rhetoric
Wilson engendered emotion through rhetoric and when his goals could not be achieved, the emotion was broken.
Rhetoric 8 …the emotions engendered by Wilson’s crusading rhetoric and the collapse of mood that accompanied the broken—indeed the unattainable—promises of that rhetoric. Blum, V Was for Victory
During WWII, The President was careful not to whip up emotion he could not control.
Rhetoric 8 During WWII the President tried to prevent his rhetoric from whipping up emotions he could not control. Blum, V Was for Victory
I thought he was a lord among wits, but found that he was only a wit among lords.
Rhetorical technique 159 Johnson on Lord Chesterfield: This man…I thought had been a lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among lords. Boswell, Life of Johnson, Vol. 1.
Right and Wrong
Right and wrong can never compromise.
Right and Wrong 1172 Hilda: But there is, I believe, only one right and one wrong; and I do not understand…how two things so totally unlike can be mistaken for one another; nor how two mortal foes—as Right and Wrong surely are—can work together in the same deed. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Roles
We play roles in order, mainly, to protect ourselves.
Roles 104 We act out many roles…some because it’s fun, some because others want us to act out those roles…mostly because we want to protect ourselves. Bergman, Ingmar. Fiction: “Confession.” The New Yorker (Nov. 11, 1996), 92-104.
Roller Coaster
Impressions of riding a roller coaster.
Roller coaster 76 The roller coaster would click-clack its way to the top of that first big drop and as...your heart raced, suddenly the whole Lenape valley opened up before you, the river solidly in place way down there.... Browning, Notes from Turtle Creek.
Romanticism
Romanticism explores emotion beyond the control of reason.
Romanticism 311 …the Romantic impulse to explore beyond the bounds of reason. Clark, Civilization.
Rome
The idealism and reality of Rome.
Rome 496 He had begun to sense the antitheses of Rome: a city of architectural splendors and sunless streets running with human filth; a city of the highest artistic aspirations and pestilential fleas. Mellow, Hawthorne in His Times.
A crumbling stone pillar lying on the ground epitomizes Rome.
Rome 977 [An immense gray granite shaft lying in the piazza]: …was a great, solid fact of the past, making old Rome actually sensible to the touch and eye; and no study of history, nor force of thought, nor magic of song, could so vitally assure us that Rome once existed, as this sturdy specimen of what its rulers and people wrought. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
The blood of the Christian martyrs was swallowed by the greatest of beasts, the populace of Rome.
Rome 980 …where so much blood of Christian martyrs had been lapt up by that fiercest of wild beasts, the Roman populace of yore. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
So many hopes lie crushed in the soil of Rome.
Rome 1196 …the myriads of dead hopes that lie crushed into the soil of Rome. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Routine
Routine masks our deep sense of insecurity.
Routine 7 We counteract a deep feeling of insecurity by making of our existence a fixed routine. Hoffer, The True Believer
Ruins
The English ruin is overcome by the forces of nature.
Ruins 990 Nature takes an English ruin to her heart…strives to make it a part of herself, gradually obliterating the handiwork of man, and supplanting it with her own mosses and trailing verdure, till she has won the whole structure back. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
In Rome, Nature can never take back man’s accomplishments.
Ruins 990 But, in Italy, whenever man has once hewn a stone, Nature forthwith relinquishes her right to it, and never lays her finger on it again…bare and naked, in the barren sunshine…. Hawthorne, The Marble Faun.
Rules
Observe the rules and then take the liberty of violating them—for a purpose.
Rules 216 T.S. Eliot: It’s not wise to violate the rules until you know how to observe them. Plimpton, ed. The Writer’s Chapbook
Rural Life
Country cousins drop in unannounced.
Rural life 411 …and how like a country-cousin, to come down upon a poor body in this way, without so much as a day’s notice, or asking whether she would be welcome! Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables.
The city person in the country has difficulty accepting unexpected guests.
Rural life 398 A man that is out of humor when an unexpected guest breaks in upon him, and does not care for sacrificing an afternoon to every chance-comer; that will be the master of his own time, and the pursuer of his own inclinations, makes but a very unsociable figure in this kind of [rural] life. Addison, 7/31/1711. The Spectator.
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