Monday, June 30, 2008

Quotes: Fear. February.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Fear
Fear 33 "Great fear is often concealed by a show of daring." Lucan. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Fear 102 "Fear betrays ignoble souls." Vergil. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Fear 322 "Fears are greater than the evils feared." Italian. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Fear 336 "Fear has many eyes." Spanish. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Fear 337 "The fear of death is worse than death." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Fear 258 "Fright is often prior to an object; that is to say, the fright comes first...." Mark Rutherford. “Talking about Our Troubles.” 1900. Gross, ed. Essays.

Fear 258 Reason puts a stop to fear. "It is perhaps not too much to say that any calamity the moment it is apprehended by the reason alone loses nearly all its power to disturb and unfix us." Mark Rutherford. “Talking about Our Troubles.” 1900. Gross, ed. Essays.

Fear 46 Because he was no longer in the fight, his fear of what was occurring was magnified. "Since he had turned his back upon the fight his fears had been wonderfully magnified." Crane, The Red Badge of Courage.

February
February 37 "February probably will be capricious…usually is…the traditional battleground of warring weather systems." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 37 "…February, a whimsical month that can smother us in snow or set the sap to flowing, paralyze us with sleet or brim the brooks." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 38 February. "…it comforted a man to see and sense that the big maples also expected spring to come." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 39 "…but when February relaxes for a day or two it is a promise." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 40 February. "Then he hears a twitter, a tree sparrow singing instead of chirping, and that really lifts his heart." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 42 February. "…when the sun shines it prompts greener thoughts than were possible a month ago." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 42 February. "…hear the trickle of melt underneath the snow." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 42 February. "…the woodsy smell of violets." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 49 "…mostly a matter of learning patience again, as a man must learn every February." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 54 "The buds on the lilacs, like those on the dogwoods, always look impatient by late February…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

February 376 "Fanny proceeded in her journey, safely and cheerfully, and as expeditiously as could rationally be hoped in the dirty month of February." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Quotes: Fate. Fathers and Sons. FDR.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Fate
Fate 1021 To disappoint the world, Fate takes away the most hopeful mortals in their youth; when it wants to destroy all hope, it lets them live. "The sad truth is, that when Fate would greatly disappoint the world, it takes away the hopefulest mortals in their youth; --when it would laugh the world’s hopes to scorn, it lets them live." Hawthorne: “P’s Correspondence”

Fate 143 "The fates lead the willing and drag the reluctant." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Fathers and Sons
Fathers and sons 334 When the father was silent, his son speaks revealing the secret of the father. "What was silent in the father speaks in the son; and often I found the son the unveiled secret of the father." Nietzsche. 1883-5. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Fathers and sons 336 The father's greatness overwhelms the son. "Greatness of name, in the father, oftentimes helps not forth, but overwhelms the son…". Ben Jonson. 1640. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Fathers and sons 654 Sons must cross their fathers. "…a son must react against his father in some fashion." P.J. Kavanagh. “Is It Alas, Yorick?” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

FDR
FDR 557 FDR's leading characteristics were his love of life and lack of fear for the future. "FDR stands out principally by his astonishing appetite for life and by his apparently complete freedom from fear for the future." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

FDR 557 FDR had no fear for navigating a violent future. Of FDR: "…this avid anticipation of the future, the lack of nervous fear that the wave might prove too big or violent to navigate…." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

FDR 557 Untroubled confidence, realistic appraisal in facing the future. Of FDR: "…so passionate a faith in the future, so untroubled a confidence in one’s power to mold it, when it is allied to a capacity for realistic appraisal…conscious or half-conscious, of the tendencies of one’s milieu, of the desires, hopes, fears, loves, hatreds, of the human beings who compose it…social and individual ‘trends.’ " Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

FDR 557 Sensed the tendencies of his time into the future. Of FDR: "…he sensed the tendencies of his time and their projections into the future to a most uncommon degree." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

FDR 558 At home in the present with people, regardless of point of view, who were active in life. Of FDR: "…the feeling of being at home not merely in the present but in the future, of knowing where he was going and by what means and why, made him, until his health was finally undermined, buoyant and gay: made him delight in the company of the most varied and opposed individuals, provided that they embodied some specific aspect of the turbulent stream of life, stood actively for the forward movement in their particular world, whatever it might be." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

FDR 559 FDR was spontaneous, pursued incompatible policies, threw off the cares of office in the darkest times. Of FDR: "Roosevelt, as a public personality, was a spontaneous, optimistic, pleasure-loving ruler who dismayed his assistants by the gay and apparently heedless abandon with which he seemed to delight in pursuing two or more totally incompatible policies, and astonished them even more by the swiftness and ease with which he managed to throw off the cares of office during the darkest and most dangerous moments." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

FDR and Churchill 559 The personalities of FDR and Churchill were different; FDR, effortless skill; Churchill dark, brooding and slow to recover. "FDR played the game of politics with virtuosity, and both his successes and his failures were carried off in splendid style; his performance seemed to flow with effortless skill; …Churchill is acquainted with darkness as well as light…gives evidence of agonized brooding and slow recovery." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Quotes: Fanaticism. Fantasy. Farm. Fashion.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Fanaticism
Fanaticism 250 It takes intelligence to defeat fanaticism. "One defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one’s intelligence." Orwell. 1949. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Fanaticism 259 Fanatics redouble their effort when they have forgotten their purpose. "Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim." Santayana. 1950-6. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Fanaticism 245 In itself the subject of fanaticism is good, but in its outward behavior it is evil. "Viewed from within, each religion or national fanaticism stands for a good; but in its outward operation it produces and becomes an evil." George Santayana. “Intuitive Morality.” 1905. Gross, ed. Essays.

Fantasy
Fantasy 740 Fantasies become the realities of the future. "But the fantasies of one day are the deepest realities of a future one." Hawthorne: “The Hall of Fantasy.”

Fantasy 555 Fantasy creates ideal models that some times transform whole peoples. "…fantasy, which is less frightened by the facts and creates ideal models in terms of which the facts are ordered in the mind—sometimes transform[s] the outlook of an entire people and generation." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

Farm, Farming, Farmers
Farmer 106. April. "The earth belongs to him [the farmer] again, but he also belongs to the earth." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Farming 137 "It seemed as if we could hear the corn growing in the night." Cather, My Ántonia

Farming 84 "The ability to turn a smooth, straight furrow was and still is, a gauge of the farmer’s skills." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Farming 105 April. "He [the farmer] turns the clean, straight furrows and something of the soil is plowed into him, the smell of it, the look and feel." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year.

Fashion
Fashion 88 Fools invent fashions and wise men follow them. "Fools invent fashions, and wise men are fain to follow them." Samuel Butler (I). 1660-80. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Quotes: Fame. Family.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Fame
Fame 87 Celebrated people are prostitutes because they have to sell themselves in order to be famous. "Most celebrated men live in a condition of prostitution." Saint-Beuve. 1876. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Fame 87 Seeking fame is a vice; fame is a virtue only when you have it whether you want it or not. "Popularity is a crime from the moment it is sought; it is only a virtue where men have it whether they will or no." Marquess of Halifax. Late 17th century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Fame 346 The longest fame is short because it ends in death and oblivion. "…and little, too, is the longest fame to come—dependent as it is on a succession of fast-perishing little men who have no knowledge even of their own selves, much less of one dead and gone." Marcus Aurelius. 2nd century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Fame 97 "Fame is a vapor; popularity an accident; the only earthly certainty is oblivion." Mark twain. Portable Curmudgeon.

Family
Family 63 "By the time the youngest children have learned to keep the house tidy, the oldest grandchildren are on hand to tear it to pieces." Christopher Morley. Portable Curmudgeon.

Family 377 Domestic harmony comes at the price of petty jealousies and ill-will. "They [Robert and Lucy] settled in town, received very liberal assistance from Mrs. Ferrars, were on the best terms imaginable with the Dashwoods; and setting aside the jealousies and ill-will continually subsisting between Fanny and Lucy, in which their husbands of course took part, as well as the frequent domestic disagreement between Robert and Lucy themselves, nothing could exceed the harmony in which they all lived together." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Family 219 Houses full of jealousy, envy, unhappiness, evasions and negations. "Yet for all their [the houses’] frailness, how much jealousy and envy and unhappiness some of them managed to contain...life that went on in them seemed to me made up of evasions and negations...." Cather, My Ántonia

Family 428 The ties of blood are nothing. "So long divided, and so differently situated, the ties of blood were little more than nothing…three or four Prices might have been swept away, any or all, except Fanny and William, and Lady Bertram [Mrs. Price’s sister] would have thought little about it." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Monday, June 23, 2008

Quotes: Fall (Autumn)

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Fall (Autumn)
Fall 306 "Fallen leaves…the gutters and roadsides are, for a little while, almost as brilliant as were the trees themselves." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year.

Fall 306 "The leaves…the expandable leaves, the reds and yellows and russets and purples that have no meaning to the trees themselves." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year.

Fall 162 "In October they are briefly golden before the brittle leaves skip and rustle down the country roads." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 245 "Harvests are reaped, farms are snugged, fireplace smoke scents the evenings." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 248 "…the Harvest Moon is not a hasty moon…comes early and stays late…was a time when the Harvest Moon gave the busy farmer the equivalent of an extra day or two…could return to the fields after supper and evening milking and continue his harvest by moonlight…when corn was cut by hand and husked by hand, when shocks tepeed the fields…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 250 September. "Hickories, still bountiful with ripening nuts, look almost as tired as the elms; their leaves droop and seem to be rusting out like old tin cans." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 251 September. "Some talk of Indian summer and some merely say it’s a good time to be alive." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 256 "You may hear it [loss of energy] in the evening, in the slow tempo of the stridulant ones, the katydids and the crickets that were so insistent only a few weeks ago." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 256 "…the grasshopper has no hop in him till almost noon." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 256 "But the cold-blooded children of summer, the insect hordes, have had their day in the sun." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 257 "The urgency of growth is ended for another year, but life itself is hoarded, in root and bulb and seed and egg." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 258 September. "One wonders why the legend-makers never gave [sumac] credit for lighting the autumn flame in the forest." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 259 "Autumn needs no clock or calendar." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 265 September. "It is the maples that make the spectacular flame of color that comes swooping down through the northeastern woodland." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 265 September. "The sumacs are early color, embers that ignite the big blaze." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 266 September. "And the color laps up the hillsides to the sugar maples and they turn scarlet and orange and gold, so golden that they seem to radiate their own sunlight." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 272 October. "And often the sugar maple’s leaves turn golden yellow, sun-yellow, so that even on a clouded day in October one seems to walk in sunshine in a sugar maple grove." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 273 October. "Maple seeds go whirling away on single-bladed helicopters." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 277 October. "If technology, with its practical laws of efficiency, were in charge of everything we would have to dispense with the autumn color in our woodlands…it isn’t needed for the trees’ health, growth, or fruitfulness…in technical terms, the color is waste, sheer excess and leftover…created…when the tiring tree seals off the sap circulation and no longer replenishes the chlorophyll in the leaves." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 280 October. "…penciled flight of departing geese scrawled against the sky." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 282 "…the look and smell and sound of the autumn woodland." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 282 October. "Dogwood berries…in lacquer-red clusters, bright as holly at Christmas." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 285 October. "Indian summer. There is agreement, however, that the season is characterized by clear, calm, mild days, a hazy horizon, and clear, chill nights." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 287 "The sky is clean, clear, and the sun itself is benevolent, the autumn sun making an autumn day a special moment in time." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 288 "…nostalgic people sniff the evening air and remember forgotten autumns when leaf smoke was the incense of October evenings." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 288 "If you are middle-aged, don’t allow yourself to smell [leaf smoke] or you will wonder what happened to those years." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 291 "…the starlit immensity of the autumn night." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 294 October. "…the color comes swirling down from the tree tops." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 294 October. "Day before yesterday the rising sun lit a vast bonfire in the maples, and at noon the light beneath them was…golden…it rained…the maples stand half naked against the clearing sky and the incredible wealth of beaten gold is on the ground beneath them." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 294 October. "On the ground the fallen leaves are restless, skittering at the roadsides, drifting into the fence corners…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Fall 294 October. "Now the jays take over, the jays and the crows." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Friday, June 20, 2008

Quotes: Fact. Failure. Faith.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Fact
Fact 4 Facts are perishable. "…the perishability of fact." Toffler, Future Shock.

Failure
Failure 585 "…failure is a kind of death." Robert Warshow. “The Gangster as Tragic Hero.” 1948. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faith
Faith 14 Reason and faith are incompatible. "If reason was bestowed on us by Heaven and the same can be said of faith, then Heaven has presented us with two incompatible and contradictory gifts." Diderot. 1762. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Faith 256 Faith creates many of the problems that have to be resolved by Faith. "Faith makes many of the mountains which it has to remove." W. R. Inge. 1931. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Faith 97 "Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable." H. L. Mencken. Portable Curmudgeon.

Faith 147 We have to accept on Faith before we can comprehend. "Faith before comprehension." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Faith 391 When he needed faith, he could not find it. "His face looked pale and tired; now he felt the need of a strong faith—and when he sought it he sought in vain." Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Faith and action 169 "Why we are so constituted that faith, not knowledge or argument, is our principle of action, is a question with which I have nothing to do; but I think it is a fact, and if it be such, we must resign ourselves to it as best we may, unless we take refuge in the intolerable paradox, that the mass of men are created for nothing and are meant to leave life as they entered it." John Henry Newman. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faith, doubt 253 "I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education." Wilson Mizner. Gross, ed. Essays.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Quotes: Faces.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Faces
Faces 666 One never really knows one's face and what it reveals. "To have stared at the damned thing [his face] so long and yet still not to know what it reveals is a true tribute to the difficulties of self analysis." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces 668 One must read the faces of others for a rough estimate of what to expect. "Yet read faces one must, for however unreliable a method it may be, none other exists for taking at least a rough measure of others." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces 669 Faces are most striking when they are animated. "Except in the hands of a photographer who is himself an artist, the camera generally misses what is most interesting in the human face…faces are almost always most striking in animation." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces 669 I need to see into eyes and resent sunglasses. "I know I need to look at, if not deeply into, the eyes of someone with whom I am talking…find myself slightly resentful—perhaps irritated comes closer to it—at having to talk to someone wearing sunglasses." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces 671 We have always seen that face before. "With only rare exceptions, almost every face one sees one has seen before, if not in life, then in the work of the great painters." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces 672 "Love of one’s work tends to make one’s face interesting." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces e72 Suffering that one has thought about makes a face interesting. "Suffering, too, confers interest on a face, but only suffering that, if not necessarily understood, has been thought about at length." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces 672 "Uninterested people have uninteresting faces." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed., Essays.

Faces 672 "Intelligence is more readily gauged in a face than is stupidity." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces 672 We read the faces and the emotions they reveal of the people we know. We read [the faces] most subtly of course [of] those people we know most closely: our friends, our known enemies, our families; in the faces of such people we can recognize shifting moods, hurt and pride, all the delicate shades of feeling. Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces 672 I cannot read or describe my own face. "But of that person we supposedly know most intimately, ourself, the project [of reading the face] remains hopeless; study photographs of ourselves though we may, stare at our selves in mirrors though we do, our self-scrutiny comes to naught; if you don’t believe me, stop a moment and attempt to describe yourself to someone who has never seen you." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Faces670 We read and infer potentialities in the faces of others. "What one reads in the face are potentialities, from which further inferences can be drawn—from conversation, observation, and experience with the person over a period of time." Joseph Epstein. “About Face.” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Quotes: Examinations. Experience. Exploration.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Examinations
Examinations 269 "In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer." Oscar Wilde. 1894. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Experience
Experience 92 "We learn from experience that men never learn anything from experience." George Bernard Shaw. Portable Curmudgeon.

Experience 125 Painful experience teaches effectively. "Experience bought with pain teaches effectually." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Experience 275 Deja Vu? "Have you ever…been in a situation which you felt you had been in before, even though you knew you were experiencing it for the first time?" Heller, Catch-22.

Experience 237 America will be the first culture to use technology to manufacture human experience--virtual experience? "…we shall become the first culture in history to employ high technology to manufacture that most transient, yet lasting of products: the human experience." Toffler, Future Shock.

Exploration
Exploration 49 In exploring what others have seen, we must find the unknown element. "In everything there is an unexplored element because we are prone by habit to use our eyes only in combination with the memory of what others before us have thought about the thing we are looking at; the most insignificant thing contains some little unknown element; we must find it." Maupassant. 1887. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Quotes: Evil. Evolution.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Evil
Evil 180 You don't have to believe in the devil as a source of wickedness; men do well enough as the source of wickedness. "The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. Joseph Conrad." 1911. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Evil 181 People who do evil to others say they do it for the victim's own good. "The common excuse of those who bring misfortune on others is that they desire their good." Vauvenargues. 1746. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Evil 181 Few people recognize all the evil they do. "Few men are sufficiently discerning to appreciate all the evil they do." La Rochefoucauld. 1665. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Evil 182 Criminals are like other men in many respects. "A wonder is often expressed that the greatest criminals look like other men; the reason is that they are like other men in many respects." Hazlitt. 1822. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Evil 182 "Bad men do what good men only dream." Gavin Ewart. 1968. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Evil 100 "One evil always succeeds another." Homer. Greek. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Evil 3 People do wrong in order to gain something for themselves. "There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong’s sake; but thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or honor, or the like." F. Bacon, “Of Revenge.” 1625.

Evil thoughts 175 We are not responsible for our evil thoughts so long as we don't carry them out. "We are no more responsible for the evil thoughts which pass through our minds, than a scarecrow for the birds which fly over the seed plot he has to guard; the sole responsibility in each case is to prevent them from settling." Churton Collins. 1914. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.


Evolution
Evolution 540 Species capable of adaptation cause evolution. "I think it was the great nineteenth-century paleontologist Cope who first clearly enunciated what he called the ‘law of the unspecialized,’ the contention that it was not from the most highly organized and dominant forms of a given geological era that the master type of a succeeding period evolved, but that instead the dominant forms tended to arise from more lowly and generalized animals which are capable of making new adaptations, and which were not narrowly restricted to a given environment." Loren Eiseley. ‘The Snout.” 1957. Gross, ed. Essays.

Evolution 74 From a formless blob to man, that's the course of evolution. "Evolution: the majestic poem that tells of life, starting as a formless stuff stirring in a steamy ooze of a million years ago, unfolding through a stately procession of living beings until it gets to monkeys and at last—triumphantly—to men." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Quotes: Essay. Ethics. Eulogy. Euphemisms.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Essay
Essay xix No strict definition of the essay. "Even more than most literary forms, the essay defies strict definition." Introduction. Gross, ed. Essays.

Essay xx "Essayists...masters of the art of talking on paper...." Introduction. Gross, ed. Essays.

Ethics
Ethics 198 To enjoy yourself and not harm others is the essence of ethics. "To enjoy yourself and make others enjoy themselves, without harming yourself or any other; that, to my mind, is the whole of ethics." Champfort. 1805. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Ethics 202 "Ultimately, the problems [with technology] are not scientific or technical, but ethical and political." Toffler, Future Shock.

Eulogy
Eulogy 135 I'll say all kinds of nice things about him--if he is really dead. "There is a report that Piso is dead; it a great loss; he was an honest man, who deserved to live longer; he was intelligent and agreeable, resolute and courageous, to be depended upon, generous and faithful—provided he is really dead." La Bruyere. 1688. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Euphemisms
Euphemisms 196 Euphemisms are attractive because they avoid facts and sound pompous. "The middle [classes] cleave to euphemisms not just because they’re an aid in avoiding facts; they like them also because they assist their social yearnings toward pomposity…because most euphemisms permit the speaker to multiply syllables, and the middle class confuses sheer numerousness with weight and value." Paul Fussell. Portable Curmudgeon.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Quotes: Employment. Enemies. England. Entertainment. Envy. Equaltiy.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Employment
Employment 113 People should reach the peak in their performance early in their careers and then move into less stressful jobs as they grow older. "Perhaps a man should reach his peak of responsibility very early in his career and then expect to be moved downward or outward into simpler, more relaxing kinds of jobs." Toffler, Future Shock.

Enemies
Enemies 137 "Pay attention to your enemies, for they are the first to discover your mistakes." Antisthenes. 5th – 4th centuries BC. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Enemies 101 "Always forgive your enemies—nothing annoys them so much." Oscar Wilde. Portable Curmudgeon.

England
England 90 "England is the most class-ridden country under the sun…a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly." George Orwell. Portable Curmudgeon.

Entertainment
Entertainment 478 Professional entertainment is based on audience reaction. "Organized entertainment rests on a pseudo-science of audience-reaction…." Robert Graves. “The Case for Xanthippe [Plato’s shrewish wife].” 1960. Gross, ed. Essays.

Envy
Envy 143 "We spend our time envying people whom we wouldn’t wish to be." Jean Rostand. 1931. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Equality
1. Equality 118 We want equality only with our superiors. "What makes equality such a difficult business is that we only want it with our superiors." Henry Becque. 1890. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Quotes: Egoism, Egotism. Emotion.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Egoism, Egotism
Egoism 793 The inner "disease" fostered by concern for oneself. "Could I, for one instant, forget myself, the serpent might not abide within me; it is my diseased self-contemplation that has engendered and nourished him." Hawthorne: “Egotism; or, the Bosom-Serpent”

Egoism 794 Egotism steals the human heart. "A tremendous egotism…is as fearful a fiend as ever stole into the human heart." Hawthorne: “Egotism; or, the Bosom-Serpent”

Egotism 210 "The word 'I' is hateful; egoism is odious." Pascal. French. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Egotism 405 Where I have found happiness, others will find it also; this assumption was questionable. "The urge within drove me on and on, and never would I stop; for I reasoned like this, that where I found happiness others must find it as well." Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Emotion
Emotion 185 One cannot witness unresisted grief without responding. "Elinor could no longer witness this torrent of unresisted grief in silence." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Emotions 38 Our emotions are most strongly moved by trivial things; in our greatest events, we remain calm. "In every one of us the deepest emotions are constantly caused by some absurdly trivial thing, or by nothing at all; conversely, the great things in our lives--the true occasions for wrath, anguish, rapture...very often leave us quite calm." Max Beerbohm. 1905. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Emotions 40 With emotions, the middle road is best. " ...we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with too much dejection." Sam. Johnson. 1750-2. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Emotions 144 Pride and hatred invigorate; love and humility enfeeble. "Pride and hatred invigorate the soul; and love and humility enfeeble it." Hume. 1739. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Emotions 302 She experienced a range of emotions. "Fanny’s reaction to Henry Crawford’s courting her, after he has told her of her brother’s promotion through his efforts: She was feeling, thinking, trembling, about everything; --agitated, happy, miserable, infinitely obliged, absolutely angry." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Quotes: Education.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. the number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Education
Education 1437 Education in the Middle Ages vs. education today. "…how to play upon the harp, and how to cure diseases, and how to use the sword and shield, together with various other branches of education, in which the lads of those days used to be instructed, instead of writing and arithmetic." “The Golden Fleece” Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales

Education 818 Lectures make learning easy. [Lectures]: "...thought and study are done to every person’s hand, without his putting himself to the slightest inconvenience in the matter." Hawthorne: “The Celestial Rail-Road”

Education 835 Nature and the outdoors vs. the prison of the schoolroom. "Daffydowndilly was delighted with the sweet smell of the new-mown grass, and thought how much pleasanter it must be to make hay in the sunshine, under the blue sky, and with the birds singing sweetly in the neighboring trees and bushes, than to be shut up in a dismal schoolroom learning lessons all day long, and continually scolded by old Mr. Toil…." Hawthorne: “Little Daffydowndilly

Education 269 "We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our schoolmasters, and one from the world; the third contradicts all that the first two teach us." Montesquieu. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Education 89 Education consists of incompetent teachers teaching what cannot be understood to students who couldn't care less about what they are being taught. "Education: The inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent." John Maynard Keynes. Portable Curmudgeon.

Education 89 The wise use education to learn what they do not know; the foolish use education to flaunt what they do not understand. "Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding." Ambrose Bierce. Portable Curmudgeon.

Education 112 You learn a subject best through teaching it. "To learn through teaching." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Education 143 One can learn from everybody. "It is allowable to learn even from an enemy." Ovid. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Education 286 Learn from what hurts. "Things which injure instruct." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Education 239 The highest aim in education is not to achieve results, but to develop the ability to achieve results and not solutions but how to achieve many different types of solutions. "It has been well said that the highest aim in education is analogous to the highest aim in mathematics, namely to obtain not results but powers, not particular solutions, but the means by which endless solutions may be wrought." George Eliot, “Thomas Carlyle.” 1855. Gross, ed. Essays.

Education 287 PhD's are only advertisements for universities. "...the PhD degree is in point of fact already looked upon as a mere advertising resource [by colleges], a manner of throwing dust in the public’s eye." William James. “The Ph.D. Octopus.” 1903. Gross, ed. Essays.

Education 287 People are not considered respectable in a field unless they have a badge, diploma or degree that says they know the field. "America is thus as a nation rapidly drifting towards a state of things in which no man of science or letters will be accounted respectable unless some kind of badge or diploma is stamped upon him." William James. “The Ph.D. Octopus.” 1903. Gross, ed. Essays. [But do they know the field or do they know only one specialized part of it? RayS.]

Education 288 There is something wrong with assuming knowledge has been gained from passing examinations. "To interfere with the free development of talent...to foster academic snobbery by the prestige of certain privileged institutions, to transfer accredited value from essential manhood to an outward badge, to blight hopes...to divert the attention of aspiring youth from direct dealings with truth to the passing of examinations...." William James. “The Ph.D. Octopus.” 1903. Gross, ed. Essays.

Education 288 Does earning a PhD assure that the possessor will be a successful teacher in the classroom? "Will any one pretend for a moment that the doctor’s degree is a guarantee that its possessor will be successful as a teacher? ...notoriously his moral, social and personal characteristics may utterly disqualify him for success in the classroom; and of these characteristics his doctor’s examination is unable to take any account whatever." William James. “The Ph.D. Octopus.” 1903. Gross, ed. Essays.

Education 289 "[The PhD is] ...but a sham, a bauble, a dodge, whereby to decorate the catalogs of schools and colleges." William James. “The Ph.D. Octopus.” 1903. Gross, ed. Essays.

Education 290 If they don't complete the PhD they see themselves as failures. "...if they are less heroic morally, they will accept the failure [to achieve a PhD] as a sentence of doom that they are not fit, and are broken-spirited men thereafter." William James. “The Ph.D. Octopus.” 1903. Gross, ed. Essays.

Education 250 He blamed his inability to mix socially on his attending a private school while his brother who attended a public school could mix socially with everyone. "Robert on his brother Edward: …for, talking of his brother, and lamenting the extreme gaucherie which he really believed kept him [Edward] from mixing in proper society, he candidly and generously attributed it much less to any natural deficiency, that to the misfortune of a private education; while he himself [Robert], though probably without any particular, any material superiority by nature, merely from the advantage of a public school, was as well fitted to mix in the world as any other man." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Education 123 I don't have time to go to school; I have to make this farm a good one. "Ántonia stood up, lifting and dropping her shoulders as if they were stiff: ‘I ain’t got time to learn; I can work like mans now; my mother can’t say no more how Ambrosch do all and nobody to help him; I can work as much as him; school is all right for little boys; I can make this land one good farm.' " Cather, My Ántonia

Education 124 "Ántonia took my hand: ‘Some time you will tell me all those nice things you learn at the school, won’t you, Jimmy?’ " Cather, My Ántonia

Education 257 "I shall always look back on the time of mental awakening as one of the happiest in my life." Cather, My Ántonia

Education 11 One view of schooling: dreary teachers and unwilling children. "Thus she triumphed through the class, which was a typical...contest between a dreary teacher and unwilling children of twenty, won by the teacher because his opponents had to answer his questions, while their treacherous queries he could counter by demanding, 'Have you looked that up in the library? Well then, suppose you do!' ” Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Education 72 "…there's a whole lot of valuable time lost even at the U[niversity], studying poetry and French and subjects that never brought in anybody a cent." Lewis, Babbitt.


Education 323 One view of medical school. "Out of the gymnasium, he went to medical school, or rather, to two or three or four medical schools—Ehrlich was that kind of medical student…[it] was the opinion of the distinguished medical faculties of Breslau and Strasbourg and Freiburg and Leipsic that he was no ordinary student…was also their opinion he was an abominably bad student, which meant that Paul Ehrlich refused to memorize the ten thousand and fifty long words supposed to be needed for the cure of sick patients." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Education 88 "The Jesuits taught me to examine things for second meanings and deeper connections." DeLillo, Underworld.

Education 227 "What’s the use of all that education when you can’t remember it?" Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Education 444 "Not since he had been a young man had he hungered so for knowledge." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Education 6 Attending school meant becoming over-wise compared to your neighbors who learned from their five senses and the parson. "...and that was how folks got over-wise, for they went to school...to those who could teach them more than their neighbors could learn with their five senses and the parson." George Eliot, Silas Marner.

Education 218 Education was the result and cause of curiosity. "In Saint Bernadine’s view, education was the dangerous result of, and the cause of more, curiosity." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Education 18 One view of education: memorization, rote knowledge. "Fanny could read, work, and write, but she had been taught nothing more; and as her cousins found her ignorant of many things with which they had been long familiar, they thought her prodigiously stupid… “My cousin cannot put the map of Europe together—or my cousin cannot tell the principal rivers in Russia—or she never heard of Asia Minor—or she does not know the difference between water-colors and crayons…did you ever hear anything so stupid…we used to repeat the chronological order of the kings of England, with the dates of their accession, and most of the principal events of their reigns!” Austen, Mansfield Park.

Education 10 Teachers more readily beat students than taught them. "…a good part of this world…seem to copy bad teachers, who more readily beat their students than educate them." Sir Thomas More, Utopia.

Education 112 After earning an engineering degree, the engineer's knowledge will be outdated in ten years. "At Westinghouse, for example, it is believed that the so-called “half-life” of a graduate engineer is only ten years—meaning that fully one-half of what he has learned will be outdated within a decade." Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 234 Education will change by using simulated experiences. "Education, already exploding in size, will become one of the key experience industries as it begins to employ experiential [simulation?] techniques to convey both knowledge and values to students." Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 274 "Failure to diversify education within the system will simply lead to the growth of alternative educational opportunities outside the system." Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 401 To what degree does the educational process mirror the world outside? "Young people passing through this [past] educational machine emerged into an adult society whose structure of jobs, roles and institutions resembled that of the school itself…school child did not simply learn facts that he could use later on; he lived, as well as learned, a way of life modeled after the one he would lead in the future." Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 403 Education must teach children how to adapt and change. "For education the lesson is clear: its prime objective must be to increase the individual’s 'cope-ability'—the speed and economy with which he can adapt to continual change…must…learn to make repeated, probabilistic, increasingly long-range assumptions about the future." Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 406 A part of education must occur as part of the outside world. "…mobile education that takes the student out of the classroom not merely to observe but to participate in significant community activity." Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 407 "…make use of 'mentors' drawn from the adult population…would not only transmit skills, but would show how the abstractions of the textbook are applied in life." Toffler, Future Shock. [Really? RayS.]

Education 407 "…factory-model school." Toffler, Future Shock. [What does this term mean? standardized results? That's a half-truth. RayS.]

Education 411 If education became too diverse, people would not be able to communicate with each other. "…alter the balance between the standardization and variety in the curriculum; [however] diversity carried to its extreme could produce a non-society in which the lack of common frames of reference would make communication between people even more difficult than it is today." Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 411 " …distinguish in education between 'data'…and 'skills.' ” Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 414 "Tomorrow’s schools must…teach not merely data, but ways to manipulate it." [Isn't manipulating data what we mean by skills? RayS.] Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 424 Focus on the unfinished challenges in various fields. "…at least one-third of all lectures and exercises ought to be concerned with scientific, technical, artistic and philosophical work in progress, anticipated crises, and possible future answers to these challenges." Toffler, Future Shock.

Education 425 Help students define their goals by having them write "future biographies." "To sharpen the individual’s future-focused role image, students can be asked to write their own “future autobiographies,” in which they picture themselves five, ten, or twenty years in the future." Toffler, Future Shock.

Education and government 14 "When the president-elect [JFK] asked if I would serve as his secretary of defense, I told him… “I am not qualified.” “Who is?” he asked [rhetorically] ... pointing out dryly that there were no schools for defense secretaries, as far as he knew, and no schools for presidents either." McNamara’s In Retrospect

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Quotes: Early America. Eden.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Early America
Early America 1048 A lifetime of walking along Main Street. "And here he is, old Goodman Massey, taking his last walk…we saw him, first as the baby in Goodwife Massey’s arms, when the primeval trees were flinging their shadow over Roger Conant’s cabin; we have seen him as the boy, the youth, the man, bearing his humble part in all the successive scenes…often pausing,--often leaning over his staff,--and calling to mind whose dwelling stood at such and such a spot, and whose field or garden occupied the site of those more recent houses…can render a reason for all the bends and deviations of the thoroughfare…." Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Early America 1024 If an early American Indian could see the changes the white man was to bring about. "But greater would be the affright of the Indian necromancer, if, mirrored in the pool of water at his feet, he could catch a prophetic glimpse of the noon-day marvels which the white man is destined to achieve; if he could see, as in a dream, the stone-front of the stately hall, which will cast its shadow over this very spot; if he could be aware that the future edifice will contain a noble museum, where, among countless curiosities of earth and sea, a few Indian arrowheads shall be treasured up as memorials of a vanished race." Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Early America 1025 Will the thronged city ever be returned to nature? "Can it be that the thronged street of a city will ever pass into this twilight solitude,--over those soft heaps of the decaying tree-trunks,--and through the swampy places, green with water-moss,--and penetrate that hopeless entanglement of great trees, which have been uprooted and tossed together by a whirlwind!" Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Early America 1028 "The pavements of the Main-street must be laid over the red man’s grave." Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Early America 1029 "…what was then the woodland pathway, but has long since grown into a busy street…." Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Early America 1031 Private, fenced-in gardens on Main Street. "Gardens are fenced in, and display pumpkin-beds and rows of cabbages and beans; and, though the governor and the minister both view them with disapproving eye, plants of broad-leaved tobacco, which the cultivators are enjoined to use privily or not at all." Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Early America 1038 Night sounds on Main Street. "…dusk, and then the starless night, to brood over the street; and summon forth again the bellman, with his lantern casting a gleam abut his footsteps, to pace wearily from corner to corner, and shout drowsily the hour to drowsy or dreaming ears." Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Early America 1045 Witch hunt on Main Street and the Devil's time to laugh. "Now, in the sunny noontide, as they [the accused witches and wizards] go tottering to the gallows, it is the devil’s turn to laugh." Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Eden
Eden 828 There were no seasons in Eden and no old age, either. "Sweet must have been the springtime of Eden, when no earlier year had strewn its decay upon the virgin turf, and no former experience had ripened into summer, and faded into autumn, in the heart of its inhabitants." Hawthorne: “Buds and Bird-Voices”

Monday, June 2, 2008

Quotes: Drinking. Drugs. Duty.

The idea in bold-face print is a summary of the quote. The number after the topic is the page on which the quote was found.

Drinking
Drinking 756 Drinking champagne restores momentarily the experience of Paradise. "Had they quaffed it [champagne], they would have experienced that brief delirium, whereby…man sought to recompense himself for the calm, lifelong joys which he had lost by his revolt from nature." Hawthorne: “The New Adam and Eve”

Drinking 106 An evening's drinking produces humanity; morning produces humans who are animals and conflict. "Drinking together in the evening we are human;/ When dawn comes, animals/ We rise up against each other." Antimedon. 1st century BC. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Drinking 88 I drink to make other people interesting. "I only drink to make other people seem more interesting." George Jean Nathan. Portable Curmudgeon.

Drinking 53 Drink to rejoice. "Good wine rejoiceth the heart of man." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Drinking 58 Good wine enriches the blood. "Good wine makes good blood." Italian. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Drinking 127 When one drinks, one tells the truth. "In wine there is truth." Greek. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Drinking 272 On the frontier, he had brought barley to make beer for a fall celebration. "Tönseten had even bought half a sack of barley, a fact which he carefully concealed from his comrades…would be soon enough to tell them when the time came…the Trönders knew how to make good beer from barley, and he had received careful instruction from Tommaas…just wait till fall came around." Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Drinking 96 The virtues of Prohibition. Vergil Gunch: "…you don’t want to forget Prohibition is a mighty good thing for the working classes; keeps ‘em from wasting their money and lowering their productiveness." Lewis, Babbitt.

Drinking 473 "...a dead afternoon in a dark bar was not the worst of fates." DeLillo, Underworld.

Drugs
Drugs 384 "…Tomb of the Unknown Junkie…." DeLillo, Underworld.

Duty
Duty 88 "When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty." George Bernard Shaw. Portable Curmudgeon.