Topic: Insights, Snippets, Quotes, Epiphanies & All That Sort of Things

[Gordo]

“The secret of a full life is to live and relate to others as if they might not be there tomorrow, as if you might not be there tomorrow. ... This thought has made me more and more attentive to all encounters, meetings, introductions, which might contain the seed of depth that might be carelessly overlooked.

“This feeling has become a rarity, and rarer every day now that we have reached a hastier and more superficial rhythm, now that we believe we are in touch with a greater amount of people, more people, more countries. This is the illusion which might cheat us of being in touch deeply with the one breathing next to us. The dangerous time when mechanical voices, radios, telephones, take the place of human intimacies, and the concept of being in touch with millions brings a greater and greater poverty in intimacy and human vision.”

 — The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 4, May 1946

[Gordo]

Cynthia: "... You know, I'd like to quit thinking of the present, like right now, as some minor insignificant preamble to something else".

-- Dazed and Confused (1993)

[mc ukrneal]

I've always rather liked this one....

No matter how the wind howls, the mountain cannot bow to it.

- Emperor from Mulan (though perhaps they stole it from someone else)

[Gordo]

I've always rather liked this one....

- Emperor from Mulan (though perhaps they stole it from someone else)

Oh, nice! I'm not alone here. Thanks, Neal. 

As a commemorative snippet, I will post this one:

A woman is sitting in her old, shuttered house. She knows that she is alone in the whole world; every other thing is dead. The doorbell rings.

-- THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH: Works, vol. 9, p. 341 (1912)

[Gordo]

Actors

Young netters won't remember actor Raymond Massey, Canadian actor who played the part of Abraham Lincoln in Robert Sherwood's  classic and very successful Broadway play about that great president. Massey was almost a double of Abraham Lincoln in looks even without any makeup. He seemed to grow into the part even off-stage in words, looks, and actions. Someone said he was trying to grow a face wart to make the Lincoln look even more authentic.

"Uncanny, isn't it?" someone remarked to George S. Kaufman, famous
playwright.

"Uncanny indeed!" replied Kaufman; "Massey won't be satisfied until he is assasinated!"

-- Charles Tidwell, http://archive.thehumorlist.com/Site0/Txt/9608280.txt

[snyprrr]

"I gotta go... NOW!!"

[Geo Dude]

I've always been fond of this quote by Thomas Jefferson:

"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent."

[Gordo]

I like it, too.

Heard last night in TV series Criminal Minds (recited by Mandy Patinkin):

Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

― W.H. Auden

[DavidRoss]

Evil is unspectacular and always human,
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

And believes itself righteous, morally and intellectually superior, thus entitled to FORCE others to do its bidding. And thus willfully blinds itself to its own embodiment of the essence of evil, which is FORCING another to do your bidding.

[Gordo]

And believes itself righteous, morally and intellectually superior, thus entitled to FORCE others to do its bidding. And thus willfully blinds itself to its own embodiment of the essence of evil, which is FORCING another to do your bidding.

Coincidentally, these days I'm reading a book by Lorenzo Infantino titled Ignorance and Freedom (I’m really reading the Spanish translation of the original in Italian), which sustains this interesting idea: ignorance (= the conscience of our fallibility) is the true foundation of democracy, free market and scientific thought. Right now, I'm thinking this is probably one of the real foundations of the whole life (we are always exposed to be wrong), being our worst enemy any position which claims any kind of “privileged knowledge about the world”.

P.S.: That said, I'll need to explain my avatar some day. 

[DavidRoss]

Coincidentally, these days I'm reading a book by Lorenzo Infantino titled Ignorance and Freedom (I’m really reading the Spanish translation of the original in Italian), which sustains this interesting idea: ignorance (= the conscience of our fallibility) is the true foundation of democracy, free market and scientific thought. Right now, I'm thinking this is probably one of the real foundations of the whole life (we are always exposed to be wrong), being our worst enemy any position which claims any kind of “privileged knowledge about the world”.

P.S.: That said, I'll need to explain my avatar some day. 

Yes. Awareness of our own ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.  True democracy, with the power of individuals constrained by the rule of law, is the political expression of that awareness. Free trade is the economic expression of it. Science is the intellectual expression of it.

The delusion that we know what's best for ourselves -- let alone for other people -- causes much needless suffering in our world ... especially when our arrogance is so great that we believe we're entitled to violate others' rights and force them to do our will, "for their own good."

Sadly, history shows that not only are we slow learners, but we quickly forget what we've learned, and thus take for granted what's been hard-won by the blood of our forebears.

[Geo Dude]

Yes. Awareness of our own ignorance is the beginning of wisdom.  True democracy, with the power of individuals constrained by the rule of law, is the political expression of that awareness. Free trade is the economic expression of it. Science is the intellectual expression of it.

The delusion that we know what's best for ourselves -- let alone for other people -- causes much needless suffering in our world ... especially when our arrogance is so great that we believe we're entitled to violate others' rights and force them to do our will, "for their own good."

Sadly, history shows that not only are we slow learners, but we quickly forget what we've learned, and thus take for granted what's been hard-won by the blood of our forebears.

Reading this discussion reminds me of a Nietzsche quote:

"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."

I first read that as a teenager and found it bizarre, but now in my ripe old age (mid 20s ) I take his point.  A lie can generally be disproved.  Good luck disproving a conviction.  Never mind the fact that a strong enough conviction can make one believe that telling lies is fine if it's for the cause....

[k a rl h e nn i ng]

Aye, the sound of a mind snapping shut.

[Mirror Image]

Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

[Mirror Image]

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Geo Dude]

This one is particularly relevant now:

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."

-- H.L. Mencken

[North Star]

Some from Albert Einstein:


"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex... It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. "
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
"Information is not knowledge."
"If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."
"No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"
"A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. "
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
"One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

[Gordo]

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

After university, I worked almost 15 years at the same legal office, until 2 years ago.

My boss was a curious guy.

He was simply unbearable, a pain in the ass, when, for instance, he lost the car's keys. You could hear his cries at the whole office. But when it had a great problem, a really important problem, he was a gentleman, totally serene and cold... I liked this feature of his personality. 

 

[Florestan]

Reading this discussion reminds me of a Nietzsche quote:

"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."

I first read that as a teenager and found it bizarre, but now in my ripe old age (mid 20s ) I take his point.  A lie can generally be disproved.  Good luck disproving a conviction.  Never mind the fact that a strong enough conviction can make one believe that telling lies is fine if it's for the cause....

People in those old times had convictions; we moderns only have opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a Gothic cathedral. - Heinrich Heine

 

[Geo Dude]

People in those old times had convictions; we moderns only have opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a Gothic cathedral. - Heinrich Heine

 

Touché.

Another Mencken quote:

"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And even if he is not romantic personally he is very apt to spread discontent among those who are.”

I'm pretty sure he classified himself quite firmly in group number two.