Friday, August 29, 2008

Quotes: Ice. Idealism. Ideas.

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.

Ice
Ice 20 "Ice, which split the mountains, carved the valleys, leveled the hills…." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Ice 341 "December. Each winter we see that ice can be glass-clear, iron hard, that it can cut and gouge and rend apart even the granite mountains...that it can be snowflakes, feather -soft, incredibly varied...." Borland, Twelve Moons of the Year

Idealism
Idealism 153 "Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem." John Galsworthy. Portable Curmudgeon.

Idealism 153 "I’m an idealist: I don’t know where I’m going but I’m on my way." Carl Sandburg. Portable Curmudgeon.

Ideas
Ideas 798 The genesis of today's ideas begins in the previous generation. "…the deep philosophers, who think the thought in one generation that is to revolutionize society in the next." Hawthorne: “The Procession of Life”

Ideas 1039 New ideas threaten. "…a gift that, thus terrible to its possessors, has ever been most hateful to all other men, since its very existence seems to threaten the overthrow of whatever else the toilsome ages have built up;--the gift of a new idea." Hawthorne: “Main-Street”

Ideas 231 Ideas are better developed in the mind of someone who did not originate it. "Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprang up." Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jun. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Ideas 232 Disparate ideas in my mind join and produce the greatest discoveries. "How many ideas hover dispersed in my head of which many a pair, if they should come together, could bring about the greatest of discoveries." Lichtenberg. 1764-99. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Ideas 255 Obsession with one idea is dangerous. "Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when a man has only one idea." Alain. 1938. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Ideas 153 Our ideas justify our evil and our speech hides our ideas. "We use ideas merely to justify our evil, and speech merely to conceal our ideas." Voltaire. Portable Curmudgeon.

Ideas 246 Ideas are the opposite of commonplaces. "Heine...the born lover of ideas, the born hater of commonplaces...." Matthew Arnold, “Heine and the Philistines.” 1863. Gross, ed. Essays.

Ideas 27 "…new ideas are put to work much more quickly than ever before." Toffler, Future Shock.

Ideas 177 "Ideas come and go at a frenetic rate." Toffler, Future Shock.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Quotes: Hunger. Hunting. Hustler. Hyperbole. Hypocrisy.

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.

Hunger
Hunger 236 "Hunger teaches us many things." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Hunting
Hunting 78 Hunting is the sport of butchers. The Utopians on hunting]: "But if you are held by the hope of slaughter and the expectation of seeing something torn to pieces before your eyes, it ought rather to move you to pity to see a little hare so weak, shy and harmless torn apart by a powerful, fierce and cruel dog…the Utopians delegate this practice of hunting, as something unworthy of free men, to butchers…." Sir Thomas More, Utopia.

Hunting and personality 78 Hunting evolves into cruelty. [Utopians and hunting]: "…the hunter seeks nothing but pleasure from the slaughter and dismembering of a poor little animal…the constant experience of so savage a pleasure turns into cruelty." Sir Thomas More, Utopia.

Hustler
Hustler 397 "Mr. James Blauser…was known as a Hustler…was attentive to all women." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Hyperbole
Hyperbole 863 "As the hoar-frost began to gather on him [Gervayse Hastings], his wife went to her grave, and was doubtless warmer there." Hawthorne: “The Christmas Banquet”

Hyperbole 485 Portrait of a barber. "Did they arrest the mass murderer who cuts your hair?" DeLillo, Underworld.

Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy 198 The critic is a symptom of hypocrisy. "Perhaps there is not a more effectual key to the discovery of hypocrisy than a censorious temper; the man possessed of real virtue knows the difficulty of attaining it; and is, of course, more inclined to pity others, who happen to fail in the pursuit." Shenstone. 1744. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Hypocrisy 220 Hypocrisy is a full-time job. "[Hypocrisy] cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practiced at spare moments; it is a whole-time job." Somerset Maugham. 1930. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Quotes: Humility. Humor.

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.

Humility
Humility 157 "I am a tedious old fool analyzing the obvious…." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Humility 419 Carol to Kennicott: "But I know it must have been pretty tiresome to have to live with anybody as perfect as I was." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Humor
Humor 1386 At dinner at Circe's Place: guest or dinner? "…if we got to yonder palace, there can be no question that we shall make our appearance at the dinner table; but whether seated as guests or served up as food is a point to be seriously considered…will be better than starvation; particularly if one could be sure of being well fattened beforehand…."“Circe’s Palace” Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales

Humor 1398 Turned to pigs, they wondered about the quality of bacon they would make. "If they had any human reason left, it was just enough to keep them wondering when they should be slaughtered, and what quality of bacon they should make." “Circe’s Palace” Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales

Humor 1402 Nymphs with odd characteristics. "And the nymph with the sea-green hair made a courtesy down to the ground, and likewise bade him welcome; so did her sister with the bodice of oaken bark, and she that sprinkled dew-drops from her fingers’ ends, and the fourth one, with some oddity which I cannot remember." “Circe’s Palace” Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales

Humor 1406 The trouble with changing humans into hogs is that they might corrupt other hogs. Ulysses: "They [the hogs] are hardly worth the trouble of changing them into the human form again; nevertheless, we will have done, lest their bad example should corrupt the other hogs." “Circe’s Palace” Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales

Humor 279 "Everything human is pathetic; the secret source of humor itself is not joy but sorrow; there is no humor in heaven." Mark Twain. 1897. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Humor 141 "Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." James Thurber. Portable Curmudgeon.

Humor 654 "Sometimes I think jokes are the only truly serious response to our absurd fates." P.J. Kavanagh. “Is It Alas, Yorick?” 1983. Gross, ed. Essays.

Humor 171 The severely bandaged soldier. "The soldier in white was constructed entirely of gauze, plaster and a thermometer, and the thermometer was merely an adornment left balanced in the empty dark hole in the bandages over his mouth early each morning and late each afternoon by Nurse Cramer and Nurse Duckett right up to the afternoon Nurse Cramer read the thermometer and discovered he was dead." Heller, Catch-22.

Humor 199 Officers, enlisted men, and God. Chaplain: "I just assumed you would want the enlisted men to be present since they would be going on the same mission.” Col. Cathcart: “Well, I don’t; they’ve got a God and a chaplain of their own, haven’t they?” Chaplain: “No, Sir.” Col. Cathcart: “You mean they pray to the same God we do?” Chaplain: “Yes, Sir.” Col. Cathcart: “And He listens?” Heller, Catch-22.

Humor 251 It's not whether you win or lose wars..... "You put so much stock in winning wars…the real trick lies in losing wars, in knowing which wars can be lost; Italy has been losing wars for centuries, and just see how splendidly we’ve done nonetheless; France wins wars and is in continual crisis; Germany loses and prospers." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 14 Contradiction. "One of the finest, least dedicated men in the whole world." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 22 "The dead man in Yossarian’s tent was simply not easy to live with." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 30 "Havermeyer was a lead bombardier who never missed; Yossarian was a lead bombardier who had been demoted because he no longer gave a damn whether he missed or not…had decided to live forever or die in the attempt." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 33 "I don’t want to make sacrifices; I want to make dough." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 37 "He had opposed his daughter’s marriage to Colonel Moodus because he disliked attending weddings." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 45 "Chief Halfoat: Racial prejudice is a terrible thing, Yossarian…really is…a terrible thing to treat a decent, loyal Indian like a nigger, kike, wop or spic." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 56 "He had lived innocuously for a little while and then had gone down in flame over Ferrara on the seventh day while God was resting." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 57 "His prowess on the Ping-Pong table was legendary, and Appleby won every game he started until the night Orr got tipsy on gin and juice and smashed open Appleby’s forehead with his paddle after Appleby had smashed back each of Orr’s first five serves." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 63 “Now I see,” said Milo, “Fruit is bad for your liver?” Yossarian: “No, fruit is good for my liver; that’s why I never eat any.” Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 73 "Like Olympic medals and tennis trophies, all they [pennants] signified was that the owner had done something of no benefit to anyone more capably than everyone else." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 85 "Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them; with Major Major it had been all three." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 85 The most unimpressive. "Even among men lacking all distinction he inevitably stood out as a man lacking more distinction than all the rest, and people who met him were always impressed by how unimpressive he was." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 86 Every one's misfortunes other than his own were expressions of God's will. "Major Major’s father had a Calvinist’s faith in predestination and could perceive distinctly how everyone’s misfortunes but his own were expressions of God’s will." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 88 "Since he had nothing better to do well in, he did well in school." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 106 "What could you do with a man who looked you squarely in the eye and said he would rather die than be killed in combat…?" Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 140 "…impulsively recommended Major Major for promotion…rejected at once at Twenty-Seventh Air Force Headquarters by ex-PFC Wintergreen who scribbled a brusque, unsigned reminder that the Army had only one Major Major, Major Major, and did not intend to lose him by promotion just to please Colonel Cathcart." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 164 "You won’t marry me because I’m crazy, and you say I’m crazy because I want to marry you." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 197 "Why can’t we all pray for something good, like a tighter bomb pattern, for example…General Peckem feels it makes a much nicer aerial photograph when the bombs explode close together." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 217 "Major _____ de Coverley was an ominous, incomprehensible presence…everyone was afraid of him, and no one knew why…no one even knew Major _____ de Coverley’s first name because no one ever had the temerity to ask him." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 232 “ 'I’m not shouting!' Dobbs shouted louder." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 255 "…he did not hate his mother and father, even though they had both been very good to him." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 255 "Nately’s mother, a descendant of the New England Thorntons, was a Daughter of the American Revolution; his father was a Son of a Bitch." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 274 "There was no way of really knowing anything, he knew, not even that there was no way of really knowing anything." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 280 "The chaplain was sincerely a very helpful person who was never able to help anyone…." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 332 "Gen. Peckem: Dreedle’s on our side, and Dreedle is the enemy." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 357 "They were the most depressing group of people Yossarian had ever been with; they were always in high spirits." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 368 "…Orr’s whore…." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 376 "It doesn’t make sense; it isn’t even good grammar." Heller, Catch-22.

Humorous technique 379 "We didn’t get the bridge, but we did have a beautiful bomb pattern." Heller, Catch-22.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Quotes: Humanism. Humanity.

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.

Humanism
Humanism viii "As the name [humanism] implies, the central reason for humanist activity was a passionate concern with the human condition, a passionate dedication to the improvement of human life and to the emancipation of man." Introd. John Anthony Scott. Sir Thomas More, Utopia.

Humanity
Humanity 1273 Their lives were not useful for softening the hard lot of of man. "There was neither use nor beauty in such a life as theirs; for they never softened or sweetened the hard lot of mortality by the exercise of kindly affections, between man and man." “The Miraculous Pitcher” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Humanity 742 Has the existence of man improved the universe? "Yet I could wish that the world might be permitted to endure, until some great moral shall have been evolved…now, if it should be burnt tomorrow morning, I am at a loss to know what purpose will have been accomplished, or how the universe will be wiser or better for our existence or destruction." Hawthorne: “The Hall of Fantasy”

Humanity 742 Maybe the existence of man is a drama for the instruction of some other spectators. "…the whole drama, in which we are involuntary actors, may have been performed for the instruction of another set of spectators…cannot perceive that our own comprehension of it is at all essential to the matter." Hawthorne: “The Hall of Fantasy”

Humanity 744 I doubt that man would want to do it [existence] over again. "But I doubt whether we shall be inclined to play such a poor scene [life and the world] over again." Hawthorne: “The Hall of Fantasy”

Humanity 765 The birthmark on her otherwise beautiful face was a symbol of human imperfection. "No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of nature, that this slightest possible defect [the birthmark on her cheek]—which we hesitate to term a defect or a beauty—shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection." Hawthorne: “The Birth Mark”

Humanity 766 "It [the birthmark was a symbol of…] the fatal flaw of humanity, which Nature, in one shape or another, stamps ineffaceably on all her productions, either to imply that they are temporary and finite, or that their perfection must be wrought by toil and pain." Hawthorne: “The Birth Mark”

Humanity 780 "As the last crimson tint of the birthmark—that sole token of human imperfection—faded from her cheek, the parting breath of the now perfect woman passed into the atmosphere…." Hawthorne: “The Birth Mark”

Humanity 780 Only a higher state will complete the perfection of human beings. Not on this earth. "Thus ever does the gross fatality of earth exult in its invariable triumph over the immortal essence, which, in this dim sphere of half-development, demands the completeness of a higher state." Hawthorne: “The Birth Mark”

Humanity 881 Humans would not give up the superficial habits which were important to nobody but themselves. "But it was remarkable, that what all were the least willing to give up, even on the most advantageous terms, were the habits, the oddities, the characteristic traits, the little ridiculous indulgences, somewhere between faults and follies, of which nobody but themselves could understand the fascination." Hawthorne: “The Intelligence Office”

Humanity 58 People may think they are individuals, but they are just like other people. "Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this: that you are dreadfully like other people." James Russell Lowell. 1871. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Humanity 106 "When a man is down, ‘down with him!’ " Cervantes. 1605-15. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Humanity 138 "Man is a social animal who dislikes his fellow men." Delacroix. 1852. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Humanity 139 "All men naturally hate each other." Pascal. 1670. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Humanity 134 "Man is either a brute or a god." Aristotle. Greek. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Humanity 174 "Man is to man either a god or a wolf." Erasmus. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Humanity 212 "Man is neither an angel nor a beast." Pascal. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Humanity 288 "Few men are missed." Spanish. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Humanity 327 People enjoy observing the perils of another. "How pleasant when, on the vast deep, the winds have lashed the waters into billows, to witness--from the land--the perils of another." Lucretius. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Humanity 19 La Rochefoucauld: "We all have strength enough to endure the troubles of others." Reflections or Moral Thoughts and Maxims, 1665.

Humanity 1 Without vain opinions, flattering hopes, misjudgments and illusions, most men would be hopelessly melancholic. "Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men’s minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations...it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposition...." F. Bacon, “Of Truth.” 1625. Gross, ed. Essays.

Humanity 505 "The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection...and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life…." George Orwell. “Reflections on Gandhi.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

Humanity 639 "But to deny the dark nature of human personality is not only fatuous but dangerous. "Gore Vidal. “Robert Graves and the Twelve Caesars.” 1959. Gross, ed. Essays.

Humanity 639 Sartre on Algeria: "Anybody, at any time, may equally find himself victim or executioner." Gore Vidal. “Robert Graves and the Twelve Caesars.” 1959. Gross, ed. Essays.

Humanity 640 "…half-tamed creatures, whose great moral task it is to hold in balance the angel and the monster within—for we are both, and to ignore this duality is to invite disaster." [RFS: One of the lessons that one learns from reading literature.] Gore Vidal. “Robert Graves and the Twelve Caesars.” 1959. Gross, ed. Essays.

Humanity 295 "Well, I am convinced that there is a vast deal of inconsistency in almost every human character." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Humanity 123 "Thus it was with the erring sons of men; they were lost before they knew it; they went astray without being aware; only others could see them as they were." Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Humanity 339 "And now had begun a seemingly endless struggle between man’s fortitude in adversity, on the one hand, and the powers of evil…on the other." Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Humanity 156 Now that we have conquered Nature, we raise other evils to keep us occupied--wars, politics, race-hatreds, labor disputes, etc. "We have nature beaten; we can make her grow wheat; we can keep warm when she sends blizzards; so we raise the devil just for pleasure—wars, politics, race-hatreds, labor disputes." Lewis, Main Street.

Humanity 156 We're civilized, so we have to make ourselves unhappy artificially. "Here in Gopher Prairie we’ve cleared the fields, and become soft, so we make ourselves unhappy artificially at great expense and exertion…." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Humanity 195 "Tell you Carrie: There’s just three classes of people: folks that haven’t got any ideas at all; and cranks that kick about everything; and Regular Guys, the fellows with stick-to-itiveness’, that boost and get the world’s work done." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Humanity 241 People migrate, maybe because it's their heritage, or their inner spirit lacks adventure. "The citizen of the prairie drifts always westward…may be because he is the heir of ancient migrations—and it may be because he finds within his own spirit so little adventure that he is driven to seek it by changing his horizon." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Humanity 254 "The greatest mystery about a human being is not his reaction to sex or praise, but the manner in which he contrives to put in twenty-four hours a day." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Humanity 358 "There are two insults which no human being will endure: the assertion that he hasn’t a sense of humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Humanity 163 Madmen think they can change the world in the seventy years allotted to them. "...the crown of thorns that madmen wear whose dream it is to change a world in the little seventy years they are allowed to live." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Humanity 288 Grassi: "Mankind is composed of those who work, those who pretend to work, and those who do neither." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Humanity 82 A book that changed man's view of the world. "…in 1543 Copernicus’s controversial treatise…Of the Movement of Heavenly Bodies was published, which placed the sun at the center of the universe--displacing Ptolemy’s Almagest, which had assured the world that the earth and human kind were at the center of all creation." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Humanity 393 "…just as an instinct for reproduction was attributed to humankind, so there must have been another one more definite and pressing, which was the instinct to kill cockroaches." Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Quotes: Human Nature

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.

Human Nature
Human nature 43 You cannot escape your personality on a trip. "The trip doesn’t exist that can set you beyond the reach of cravings, fits of temper, or fears." Seneca. 1st century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 25 Human nature needs to labor and cannot sit still. "We mistake human nature if we wish for a termination of labor, or a scene of repose." Adam Ferguson. 1767. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 26 "Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted." Aldous Huxley. 1950. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 27 People excuse their shortcomings by blaming life. "Each of us in his own person feels that a high-hearted indifference to life would expiate all his short-comings." William James. 1902. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 27 "How many natures lie in human nature!" Pascal. 1670. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 55 Human nature is defined by imperfections. "I cling to my imperfection, as the very essence of my being." Anatole France. 1894. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 55 We never do anything just once. "In anything it is a mistake to think one can perform an action or behave in a certain way once and no more; what one does, one will do again...." Cesare Pavese. 1935-50. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 57 People do not realize the lives that they actually live. "One’s real life is so often the life that one does not lead." Oscar Wilde. 1882. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 72 "…the deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated." Wm. James. 1896. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 172 People are necessarily miserable and think their misery is an accident. "Men are miserable by necessity, and determined to believe themselves miserable by accident." Leopardi. 1834-7. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 176 People will only improve when they are shown what they actually are. "Man will only become better when you make him see what he is like." Chekhov. 1892-1904. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 179 People are never surprised when they hear something bad about humanity. "Upon the whole I dislike mankind: whatever people on the other side of the question may advance, they cannot deny that they are always surprised at hearing of a good action and never a bad one." Keats. 1820. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 179 "Man is the only animal who causes pain to others with no other object than wanting to do so." Schopenhauer. 1851. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 184 People do things because they are forbidden. "Adam was but human—this explains it all; he did not want the apple for the apple’s sake; he wanted it only because it was forbidden; the mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent." Twain. 1894. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 200 "As I know more of mankind I expect less of them…." Sam. Johnson. 1783. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 229 Thought makes me an individual in the vastness of the universe. "Through space the universe grasps me and swallows me up like a speck; through thought I grasp it." Pascal. 1670. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 238 Man sees himself through individual perception; if he didn't, he would see the world as infinite. "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern." Blake 1790-3. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 241 Man, left to himself, lapses into the stupidity of childhood. "When the human mind is left to itself, it invariably lapses into the stupidity of childhood; men will always prefer toys…." Delacroix. 1847. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 327 People have to work to keep their inner madness shut down. "A man who is of ‘sound mind’ is one who keeps his inner madman under lock and key." Valery. 1942. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 339 "…how childish grown men really are." Leopardi. 1834-7. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Human nature 36 "It’s silly to go on pretending that under the skin we are all brothers; the truth is more likely that under the skin we are all cannibals, assassins, traitors, liars, hypocrites…." Henry Miller. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 123 People have a tendency toward evil. "On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good and not quite all the time." George Orwell. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 140 People are far more despicable than they appear. "The nature of men and women—their essential nature—is so vile and despicable that if you were to portray a person as he really is, no one would believe you." W. Somerset Maugham. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 141 "It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly." Anatole France. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 189 "I believe the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped." Dostoevsky. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 189 "Man…miserable little pile of secrets." Andre Malraux. Portable Curmudgeon.

Human nature 189 People are only dignified when they despise themselves. "Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself." Santayana. Portable Curmudgeon.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Quotes: Hitler. Honesty. Hope. Hospitality. Houses. Hubris.

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.

Hitler
Hitler 557 Hitler's fearlessness was based on a lunatic's vision. "Hitler, too, in a sense, showed no fear, but his assurance sprang from a lunatic’s violent and cunning vision, which distorted the facts too easily in his favor." Sir Isaiah Berlin. “Churchill and Roosevelt.” 1949. Gross, ed. Essays.

Honesty
Honesty 199 "He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave." Bishop Berkeley. 1740. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.


Hope
Hope 1229 Hope is the spirit of the world. "Hope spiritualizes the earth; Hope makes it always new; and, even in the earth’s best and brightest aspect, Hope shows it to be only the shadow of an infinite bliss, hereafter." “The Paradise of Children” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Hope 39 "Hope is a waking dream." Aristotle. 4th Century B.C. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Hope 168 Hope is happiness. "Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords." Sam. Johnson. 1762. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Hospitality
Hospitality 1144 "Others could give them pleasure and amusement; or instruction—these could be picked up anywhere—but it was for me to give them rest—rest, in a life of trouble." Hawthorne: Preface to “The Old Manse”

Houses
Houses 40 "Houses...large, comfortable, soundly uninteresting symbols of prosperity." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Houses 113 "Wherever as many as three houses are gathered there will be a slum of at least one house." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Hubris
Hubris 397 "Hans Olsa was aware, these days, how everything was arranging itself for his benefit, and he walked about in a state of blissful contentment…." Rölvaag, Giants in the Earth.

Hubris 87 "These successes made Pasteur drunk with confidence in his method of experiment...became...a new John the Baptist of the religion of the Germ Theory." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Quotes: History, Historian

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.

Historian, History
Historian 106 "The historian is a prophet looking backwards." Schlegel. German. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

History 320 History didn't get any worse than Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. They that say the world grows worse and worse are very much mistaken, for Adam who had but one commandment to keep broke that and Cain slew his brother Abel when there was but two of them to share the whole world. Samuel Butler I. 1660-80. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 321 "The certainties of one age are the problems of the next." R. H. Tawney. 1926. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 321 Fashions repeat themselves. "The novelties of one generation are only the resuscitated fashions of the generation before last." George Bernard Shaw. 1900. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 322 People do not remember the past, they think of it in terms of their own experience. They try to figure out the future by analogizing it with the past. They are imagining the past and remembering the future. "One would expect people to remember the past and to imagine the future; but in fact, when discoursing or writing about history, they imagine it in terms of their own experience, and when trying to gauge the future they cite supposed analogies from the past: till, by a double process of repetition, they imagine the past and remember the future." Sir Lewis Namier. 1942. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 322 "The further you get away from any period the better you can write about it; you are not subject to interruptions by people that were there." Finley Peter Dunne, Mr. Dooley. 1919. (Spelling corrected.) Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 322 We can't write history either because we have too few sources in the distant past or, in recent times, too many. "It is impossible to write ancient history because we do not have enough sources and impossible to write modern history because we have far too many." Charles Peguy. 1905-12. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 323 History is not fit to be read by children because it is too criminal and pathological; they should learn about heroes and villains from fiction. "Political history is far too criminal and pathological to be a fit subject of study for the young; children should acquire their heroes and villains from fiction." W. H. Auden. 1971. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 323 Whatever we can imagine, happened in the past or will happen in the future. "Imagination itself can scarcely feign any calamity so great that it has not been realized in the past or present history of the human race, or may not be realized in the future." Leopardi. 1824-32. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 323 Whatever has been imagined in the most disordered of imaginations has happened. "Everything which could possibly enter into the most disordered of imaginations might well be said of the history of the world." Dostoevsky. 1864. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 324 "…history is the study of other people’s mistakes." Philip Guedalla. 1920. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 324 What is funny today wasn't funny when it first happened. "What is amusing now had to be taken in desperate earnest once." Virginia Woolf. 1929. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 324 324 We can't measure a past age by our own. "We are not to measure the feelings of one age by those of another; had [Isaac] Walton lived in our day, he would have been the first to cry out against the cruelty of angling." Hazlitt. 1823. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 324 People died for causes that now are as dead as they are. "Throughout history the world has been laid waste to ensure the triumph of conceptions that are now as dead as the men that died for them." Henry De Motherlant. 1930-44. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 324 When we look at the politics of the past, we wonder that anyone would have any interest in them. But we're interested in the politics of today. "Reflect on things past, as wars, negotiations, factions, and the like; we enter so little into those interests, that we wonder how men could possibly be so busy and concerned for things so transitory: Look on the present times, we find the same humor, yet wonder not at all." Swift. 1711. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 324 Ideas take a long time to mature. "Countless things that humanity acquired in earlier stages, but so feebly and embryonically that no one could perceive this acquisition, suddenly emerge into the light much later—perhaps after centuries…strong and ripe." Nietzsche. 1882-7. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 325 History has no denouement. "History is a drama without a dénouement." Peter Geyl. 1963. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

History 136 "We learn from history that we do not learn from history." Hegel. Portable Curmudgeon.

History 59 Women are at the root of all history. "The labial interpretation of history." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Quotes: Heaven. Hell. Heredity. Heroes.

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.

Heaven
Heaven 135 Heaven as it is usually conceived is a painfully dull place. "Heaven, as conventionally conceived, is a place so inane, so dull, so useless…." George Bernard Shaw. Portable Curmudgeon.

Hell
Hell 135 "Hell is other people." Sartre. Portable Curmudgeon.

Hell 206 "All hope abandon ye who enter here." Dante. Inscription over Hell in the "Inferno." Italian. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Heredity
Heredity 50 Some of our most prominent personal characteristics come from relatives we hardly know. " A person may be indebted for a nose or an eye, for a graceful carriage or a voluble discourse, to a great-aunt or uncle, whose existence he has scarcely heard of." Hazlitt. 1821. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Heroes, Heroism
Heroes 607 " …we do not require our heroes to be subtle, just to be big." D.J. Enright. “The Marquis and the Madame.” 1953. Gross, ed. Essays.

Heroism 314 "You cannot be a hero without being a coward." George Bernard Shaw. 1907. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Heroism 314 People become heroes because they are disgusted with their meaningless lives. "…heroic actions are performed by such as are oppressed by the meanness of their lives." Thoreau. 1842. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Heroism 318 "Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy." F. Scott Fitzgerald. 1945. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Heroism 423 "Not a matter of heroism; matter of endurance." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Heroism 265 She was heroic because she had principle. "She [Fanny] had all the heroism of principle…." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Quotes: Hatred. Hawthorne. Health.

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.

Hatred
Hatred 180 "It is a sin peculiar to man to hate his victim." Tacitus. 2nd century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Hawthorne
Hawthorne 1153 His writing style represents the character of the author. "This kindly feeling [of readers for Twice-Told Tales]…extended to the author, who, on the internal evidence of his sketches, came to be regarded as a mild, shy, gentle, melancholic, exceedingly sensitive, and not very forcible man, hiding his blushes under an assumed name, the quaintness of which was supposed, somehow or other, to symbolize his personal and literary traits." Hawthorne: Preface to Twice-Told Tales

Health
Health 326 One's health represents one's view of the world and life. "Health is infinite and expansive in mode, and reaches out to be filled with the fullness of the world; whereas disease is finite and reductive in mode, and endeavors to reduce the world to itself." Oliver Sacks. 1973. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Health 327 Reducing life to concern for diet is tiresome. "To safeguard one’s health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed." La Rochefoucauld. 1665. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Health 134 Maintain your health by eating, drinking and doing what you don't want. "The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like and do what you’d rather not." Mark Twain. Portable Curmudgeon.

Health 315 Don't waste your health. "It is better to lose health like a spendthrift than to waste it like a miser." Robert Louis Stevenson, “Aes Triplex.” 1878. Gross, ed. Essays.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Quotes: Habit. Handwriting. Happiness.

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.

Habit
Habit 349 "Habit is overcome by habit." Thomas A Kempis. 1420. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Habit 347 "Once is not a habit." French. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Habit 381 Invective and charm lose their effectiveness if they are not spontaneous. "Again, invective which has become a habit is apt, like charm, to lose its virtue, for both depend for their effectiveness on spontaneity." Sir Desmond McCarthy. “Invective.” 1935. Gross, ed. Essays.

Handwriting
Handwriting 971 "…Southern gentlemen are more addicted to a flourish of the pen beneath their names, than those of the North." Hawthorne: “A Book of Autographs”

Happiness
Happiness 78 "To be happy, we must not be too concerned with others." Albert Camus. 1956. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Happiness 87 We seek happiness in the flattery of people who don't give a damn about us. "We seek our happiness outside ourselves, and in the opinion of men whom we know to be flatterers, insincere, unjust, full of envy, caprice and prejudice. How absurd!" La Bruyere. 1688. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Happiness 166 "The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular reason for being happy except that they are so." W. R. Inge. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Happiness 166 "The sense of existence is the greatest happiness." Disraeli. 1832. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Happiness 166 A sense of knowledge is the greatest happiness. "What is more wonderful than the delight which the mind feels when it knows? …the satisfaction of a primary instinct." Mark Rutherford. 1915. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Happiness 167 "Happiness is a mystery like religion, and should never be rationalized." Chesterton. 1905. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Happiness 171 "The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room." Pascal. 1670. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Happiness 133 Happiness: "An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another." Ambrose Bierce. Portable Curmudgeon.

Happiness 133 "Happiness is not something you experience, it’s something you remember." Oscar Levant. Portable Curmudgeon.

Happiness 133 "Happiness is an imaginary condition…now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults." Thomas Szasz. Portable Curmudgeon.

Happiness 133 "Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness." George Orwell. Portable Curmudgeon.

Happiness 134 "There is something curiously boring about somebody else’s happiness." Aldous Huxley. Portable Curmudgeon.

Happiness 437 We seek unhappiness in order to become happy as a result. "…there does exist a possibility for reconciliation between our desires for impossible satisfactions and the simple unalterable fact that we also desire to be unhappy and that we create our own sufferings; and out of these sufferings we salvage our fragments of happiness." Katherine Anne Porter. “The Necessary Enemy.” 1948. Gross, ed. Essays.

Happiness 91 Marianne: "What have wealth or grandeur to do with happiness?" Elinor: "Grandeur has but little…but wealth has much to do with it." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Happiness 18 Death and happiness occur when we become part of something that is entire and complete. "I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more...was entirely happy; perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge; at any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great; when it [the experience of being part of something complete] comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." Cather, My Ántonia