“I hate quotation” Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), [Journals, 1849]
When Emerson wrote that phrase, how amazed he would have been to think of his words being despatched all the way around the world to many thousands of people simultaneously. As an additional tribute to Anu’s work on the AWAD service I thought it might be worth calling attention to the quotation feature, which I believe adds significantly to AWAD’s popularity. Here are some thoughts culled from the archives, under rather arbitrary headings.
Quotation
I quote others only in order to better express myself Michel de Montaigne
A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. Cervantes
Politics
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing Edmund Burke
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has Margaret Mead
Fate
The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem Theodore Rubin
One often meets destiny in the road taken to avoid it French Proverb
Religion
Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a flea, yet he makes gods by the dozen Michel de Montaigne
Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it, anything but live for it Charles Caleb Cotton
History
History is an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
History is fables agreed upon Voltaire (1694-1778)
War
War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) [The New Dictionary of Thoughts]
No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come Victor Hugo, poet, novelist and dramatist (1802-1885)
Language
All language reflects the prejudices of the society in which it evolved. Casey Miller
Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes, and thanks to words, we have sunk to the level of the demons. Aldous Huxley
Parole
What we say is important... for in most cases the mouth speaks what the heart is full of Jim Beggs
Folks that blurt out just what they think wouldn't be so bad if they thought Kin Hubbard
Family
We should measure affection, not like youngsters by the ardour of its passion, but by its strength and constancy Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE)
If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Friendships
A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations. Bertrand Russell, philosopher, mathematician, author (1872-1970)
Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better Edgar W. Howe
Self-knowledge
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance Confucius (551-479 BC)
The highest reward for a man's toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it John Ruskin (1819-1900)
Conscience
Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking H.L. Mencken
He who sacrifices his conscience to ambition burns a picture to obtain the ashes. Chinese Proverb
And finally, a unique voice of America…
Mark Twain
I believe I have no prejudices whatsoever. All I need to know is that a man is a member of the human race. That's bad enough for me Mark Twain, U.S. Author (1835-1910)
The truth is a precious commodity. That's why I use it so sparingly Mark Twain, U.S. Author (1835-1910)
Do you have any particular favourites, on these or other topics? Put ‘em here as votive offerings
Dear Maverick, I have something to say to you and about you and of you, but that will be in another place and time. For now this is a gem I would like to offer on the altar of quotations:
The more I thought,.... the more I saw myself clearly, and the more I realized that I had no more control over being white than [he] had over being black. And I thought to myself: why am I so proud of something over which I have no control and was in no way a matter of achievement? It was all a matter of chance.
Red Barber
(Does this qualify as a quotation? Please let me know.)
Here's one that touches on most of the subject headings:
Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is the principle behind lotteries, dating, and religion. -- Scott Adams
Thank you, maverick, for doing this. In giving the following, from the W.A.D. from Aug. 28th, 2000, I salute our beloved Anu, for his inspiration--both for us and to us--and his true, human wisdom, as well as the person he quoted on that day.
I'll part with the words of Kabir, a medieval Indian mystic poet, who never set foot in a classroom. Here is one of his couplets, rendered in my less than poetic translation:
The world passes while reading tomes, none any wiser; Truly learned is the one who learns the meaning of love."
PJ O'Rourke is probably the ONLY author today who can have me laughing so hard that my sides hurt. His combination of wit and keen observation of the human condition is impossible to beat.
In honor of the day I"ll quote an Irishman. "One man with a dream, at pleasure, Shall go forth and conquer a crown; And three with a new song's measure Can trample an empire down." (A.W.E. O'Shaughnessy) -------------------------- And for all the English, many of whom became Anglo-Irish or "more Irish than the Irish" and helped their adopted land to become a Republic: "It is not enough to do good. One must do it in the right way." (John, Vicount Morley) ------------------------------ And one more, to show there are no hard feelings ... one of my favorites of all times - also by Morley : "You have not converted a man because you have silenced him."
Will Durant's "The Story of Civilization" is written so well that it is very enjoyable. And while I don't remember the epigram you quote, there are many equally worth quoting contained in that marvelous eleven volume set. I can't imagine how he was able to do so much research, organize the material, and still have time enough left to write it so superlatively well.
My failure to give proper credit to Ariel Durant was a grievous error. She too must have been something special, or otherwise it would be possible to tell her contributions from his, which I cannot.
In today's newspaper, the music reviewer, writing about a performance of Handel's Israel in Egypt, started off with George Bernard Shaw's definition of oratorio: 'Unstaged operettas on scriptural themes, written in a style in which solemnity and triviality are blended in the right proportion for boring an atheist out of his senses."
For those who are not too familiar with GBS' life, he wrote music reviews for a London newspaper in the 1880's under the nom de plume of Corno di Bassetto.
: 'Unstaged operettas on scriptural themes, written in a style in which solemnity and triviality are blended in the right proportion for boring an atheist out of his senses."
Dear Bobyoungbalt: I read the encyclopedia article on GBS and could not tell if he would have called himself an atheist or not. What's your guess?
GBS Well, Mav, Jeder hat seinem Geschmuck. I love GBS' plays; in fact, I have to agree with his own estimation that he was probably the greatest playwright (in English, anyway) since Shakespeare, a view he put forth in the short play Shakes vs. Shav.
To answer Bill's question, in various plays (and more, in the prefaces thereto) he advocated a view which he took from Nietzche, that there is an impersonal Life Force which animates (I guess that's the word but not sure) the universe. It's a sort of Deism but not as theistic. In fact, it's nonsense to anyone who has a religion, and equally nonsense to an atheist or thoroughgoing agnostic. You can get some of this from the prefaces to Man and Superman and, I think, Saint Joan.
S'what makes the world go round, Bob. Yes, the ideas are always of some interest to read - but the drama, the drama is spectacular in its absence. And the guy writes language that has all the poetry of a plastic duck.
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