Monday, December 29, 2008

Quotes: Mankind (1)

Mankind 20 "It is easier to know man in general than to understand one man in particular." La Rochefoucauld. 1665. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Mankind 20 We are both similar to and different from everyone else. "In each of us there is a little of all of us." Lichtenberg. 1764-99. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Mankind 21 What makes a man distinct is his control of his instincts. "What is peculiar in the life of a man consists not in his obedience, but in his opposition, to his instincts." Thoreau. 1850. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Mankind 22 Man believes he is free. "Man is a masterpiece of creation, if only because…[nothing] can prevent him from believing that he acts as a free being." Lichtenberg. 1764-99. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Mankind 23 There is a world of difference in the meaning of a smile and a laugh. "The world loved man when he smiled; the world became afraid of him when he laughed." Rabindranath Tagore. 1916. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Quote: Management

Management 48 "The monitoring of progress—which I still consider a bedrock principle of good management—was very poorly handled in Vietnam." McNamara’s In Retrospect

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Quotes: Man (2)

Man 255 Hearn: "Man’s deepest urge is omnipotence?" Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Man 308 The General: "Man had to destroy God in order to achieve Him, equal Him." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Man and god 273 "Man in fact created gods in his own likeness…." Frazer, The New Golden Bough.

Man’s view of women 227 Illness destroys the good looks of young women. Her brother on Marianne: "At her [Marianne’s] time of life, anything of an illness destroys the bloom forever!" Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Man’s view of women 237 On the loss of a woman's good looks. Her brother on Marianne: "…one must allow that there is something very trying to a young woman who has been a beauty, in the loss of her personal attractions; you would not think it perhaps, but Marianne was remarkably handsome a few months ago; quite as handsome as Elinor—now you see it is all gone." Austen, Sense and Sensibility.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Quotes: Man (1)

Man 23 "Man--two-legged animal without feathers." Plato. Gr. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Man 227 "To become a man is an art." German. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Man 39 Man is destined to be a failure; all that remains of him is to be used by others. "Surely mortal man is a broomstick! ...till the axe of intemperance has lopped off his green boughs, and left him a withered trunk...raises a mighty dust where there was none before; sharing deeply all the while in the very same pollutions he pretends to sweep away...last days are spent in slavery to women...till, worn out to the stumps...he is either kicked out of doors, or made use of to kindle flames for others to warm themselves by. Jonathan Swift. “A Meditation upon a Broomstick.” 1701. Gross, ed. Essays.

Man 140 The General: "The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Man 255 What is man? The General: "There’s that popular misconception of man as something between a brute and an angel; actually man is in transit between brute and God." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Quotes: Magic

Magic xvii Basic principle of magic. "In postulating ‘homeopathy’--that is, the principle that ‘like produces like’--as one of the primary bases of magic, Frazer cites in proof the numerous rites in which something desired is simulated in advance, e.g., rainfall by pouring water, or sunlight by kindling fire." Gaster, Editor’s Foreword. Frazer, The New Golden Bough.

Magic 340 "…for it is a familiar tenet of magic that you can produce any desired effect by merely imitating it." Frazer, The New Golden Bough.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Quote: Madness

Madness 246 "The first step toward madness is to think oneself wise." Fernando De Rojas. 1499-1500. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

[What do I think it means? If one thinks oneself wise, one might begin to obsess over one's favorite ideas, and obsession is the beginning of madness. RayS.]

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Quotes: Lying

Lying 226 "A liar should have a good memory." Quintilian. Latin.

Lying 100 People who lie are resourceful, ambitious and successful. "Major Major had lied, and it was good…for he had observed that people who did lie were, on the whole, more resourceful and ambitious and successful than people who did not lie." Heller, Catch-22.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Quotes: Luck

Luck 523 …for Brown never reckoned upon luck, yet always had it; while Peter made luck the main condition of his projects, and always missed it. Hawthorne: "Peter Goldthwaite's Treasure"

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Quotes: Love (9)

Love and marriage 437 Romantic love defined. "But Romantic Love crept into the marriage bed, very stealthily by centuries, bringing its absurd notions about love as eternal springtime and marriage as a personal adventure meant to provide personal happiness." Katherine Anne Porter. “The Necessary Enemy.” 1948. Gross, ed. Essays.

Love and money 21 Love vs. money. "Love is powerful, but money is all-powerful." French. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Lovers 19 Break up to make up. "The falling out of lovers is the renewal of love." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Monday, December 15, 2008

Quotes: Love (8)

Love p. 420 An expression of love. Kennicott to Carol: "Every mail I look for a letter, and when I get one I’m kind of scared to open it, I’m hoping so much that you’re coming back…you know, I didn’t open the cottage down at the lake at all, this past summer…couldn’t stand all the others laughing and swimming, and you not there…used to sit on the porch in town, and I—I couldn’t get over the feeling that you’d simply run up to the drug store and would be right back, and till after it got dark I’d catch myself watching, looking up the street, and you never came, and the house was so empty and still that I didn’t like to go in…sometimes I fell asleep there, in my chair, and didn’t wake up till after midnight…." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Love p. 429 First love. "He glows with the intoxicating esteem of first love." Mailer, The Naked and the Dead.

Love p. 231 Expression of a man's view of love. Henry Crawford on his intentions concerning Fanny: "I only want her to look kindly on me, to give me smiles as well as blushes, to keep a chair for me by herself wherever we are, and be all animation when I take it and talk to her; to think as I think, be interested in all my possessions and pleasures, try to keep me longer at Mansfield, and feel when I go away that she shall be never happy again." Austen: Mansfield Park

Love p. 458 The object of love is in the lover's imagination. Edmund: "…it had been the creature of my own imagination, not Miss Crawford, that I had been too apt to dwell on for many months past." Austen, Mansfield Park.

Love and hatred p. 438 Hatred is natural. Romantic love is not natural. "Hatred is natural in a sense that love, as she conceived it, a young person brought up in the tradition of romantic Love, is not natural at all." Katherine Anne Porter. “The Necessary Enemy.” 1948. Gross, ed. Essays.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Quotes: Love (7)

Love 270 The gods laugh at lovers' lies. "Jove laughs at lovers' perjuries." Tibullius. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love 299 "Love is full of anxious fears." Ovid. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love 436 Love must be learned, and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Katherine Anne Porter. “The Necessary Enemy.” 1948. Gross, ed. Essays.

Love 436 Romantic love defined. "Romantic Love, more especially in America, where we are all brought up on it, whether we know it or not…is changeless, faithful, passionate, and its sole end is to render the two lovers happy." Katherine Anne Porter. “The Necessary Enemy.” 1948. Gross, ed. Essays.

Love 20 Impressions of love. "Of the love-making of Carol and Will Kennicott there is nothing to be told which may not be heard on every summery evening, on every shadowy block...biology and mystery...speech...slang phrases and flares of poetry...silences...contentment or shaky crises...all the beauty of youth, first discovered when it is passing--and all the commonplaceness of a well-to-do unmarried man encountering a pretty girl at the time when she is slightly weary of her employment and sees no glory ahead nor any man she is glad to serve." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Quotes: Love (6)

Love p. 92 Lovers believe anything. "A credulous thing is love." Ovid. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love p. 99 "Life is love." Goethe. German. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love p. 106 "The illusion (of love) is brief, the repentance long." Schiller. German. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love p. 111 "The happy days of early love." Schiller. German. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love p. 255 "Every lover is demented." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Quotes: Love (5)

Love p. 19 "Love and prudence cannot go together." Spanish. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love p. 21 A boy's love does not last very long. "A boy's love is water in a basket." Spanish. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love p. 21 There are no rules for love. "Love rules without rules." Italian. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love p. 75 Don't talk; just love. "He who loves much says little." Italian. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Love p. 75 "He who loves, trusts." Italian. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Quotes: Love (4)

Love 178 "To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia." H. L. Mencken. Portable Curmudgeon.

Love 179 "Love is what happens to a man and a woman who don’t know each other." W. Somerset Maugham. Portable Curmudgeon.

Love 179 "When we want to read of the deeds that are done for love, [where] do we turn? To the murder column." George Bernard Shaw Portable Curmudgeon.

Love 180 "Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence." H. L. Mencken. Portable Curmudgeon.

Love 180 The definition of love changes with age. "Love is the word used to label the sexual excitement of the young, the habituation of the middle-aged, and the mutual dependence of the old." John Ciardi. Portable Curmudgeon.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Quotes: Love (3)

Love 157 "If love is judged by its visible effects it looks more like hatred than friendship." La Rochfoucauld. 1665. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 157 "Love is a kind of warfare." Ovid. 1 BC. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 159 "Coquettes know how to please, not how to love, which is why men love them so much." Pierre Marivaux. 1717-18. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 163 "A grand passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do." Oscar Wilde. 1891. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 163 "Christianity has done a great deal for love by making a sin of it." Anatole France. 1894. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 196 "I cannot love anyone if I hate myself." Jung. 1953. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

17. Love 176 “ 'Love': a temporary insanity curable by marriage." Ambrose Bierce. Portable Curmudgeon.

Love 176 “ 'Love': the delusion that one woman differs from another." H. L. Mencken. Portable Curmudgeon.

Love 177 "It’s possible to love a human being if you don’t know them too well." Charles Bukowski. Portable Curmudgeon.

Love 178 "Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve the continuation of the species." W. Somerset Maugham. Portable Curmudgeon.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Quotes: Love (2)

Love 154 Love begins by imagining the woman we would like to have--a deception we will always have with us. "It is the terrible deception of love that it begins by engaging us in play not with a woman of the external world but with a doll fashioned in our brain—the only woman moreover that we have always at our disposal, the only one we shall ever possess." Proust. 1920-21. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 155 "It is a certain sign of love to want to know, to relive, the childhood of the other." Cesare Pavese. 1935-50. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 155 When one falls in love, one needs to study the people who are around her--on that your happiness depends. "When one feels oneself smitten by love for a woman, one should say to oneself, ‘Who are the people around her, What kind of life has she led?’ …one’s future happiness lies in the answer." Alfrred De Vigny. Mid 19th century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 156 Love, however short in length of time, creates a past which envelops us. "Love makes up for the lack of long memories…all other affections need a past: love creates a past which envelops us, as if by enchantment." Benjamin Constant. 1816. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Love 156 The lover sees the loved one as a solitary individual. "To the lover the loved one appears always as solitary." Walter Benjamin. 1925-6. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Quotes: Love (1)

Love 921 Love is an illusion. "Of course he had deceived himself; there were no such attributes in Annie Hovenden as his imagination had endowed her with…had he become convinced of his mistake through the medium of successful love; had he won Annie to his bosom, and there beheld her fade from angel into ordinary woman, the disappointment might have driven him back, with concentrated energy, upon his sole remaining object." Hawthorne: “The Artist of the Beautiful”

Love 989 Love is a maelstrom. "It mattered not whether she were angel or demon; he was irrevocably within her sphere, and must obey the law that whirled him onward, in ever lessening circles, towards a result which he did not attempt to foreshadow." Hawthorne: “Rappaccini’s Daughter”

Love 995 Love is in the eyes. "By all appreciable signs, they loved; they had looked love, with eyes that conveyed the holy secret from the depths of one soul into the depths of the other…." Hawthorne: “Rappaccini’s Daughter”

Love 1005 "I would fain have been loved, not feared, murmured Beatrice." Hawthorne: “Rappaccini’s Daughter”

Love 153 Love is an idle mind's occupation. "Love is the affection of a mind that has nothing better to engage it." Theophrastus. 3rd century. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Quotes: Literature (2)

Literature 70 "He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it." Heller, Catch-22.

Literature and society 327 Sinclair Lewis's novels told us where our culture was headed. Mark Shorer, Afterword: "The drift of our commercial culture in the forty years since Babbitt suggests that Lewis did little to alter it, perhaps, but he was the first novelist to tell us explicitly into what stupid, and finally devastating, social damnation we were drifting." Lewis, Babbitt.

Literature and society 290 The future of society? " …Robert Sheckley has gone so far as to propose in a terrifying short story called 'The Seventh Victim,' the possibility that society might legalize murder among certain specified 'players' who hunt one another and are, in turn, hunted. [RFS: “Most Dangerous Game.”] Toffler, Future Shock.

Literature, Joyce 412 Insights into the composition of Finnegans Wake: prose vs. speech. "And then there is a curious fact about Finnegans Wake; every other prose book is written in prose; this book is written in speech; speech and prose are not the same thing...have different wave-lengths, for speech moves at the speed of light, where prose moves at the speed of the alphabet, and must be consecutive and grammatical and word perfect...Finnegans Wake is all speech...soliloquy...dialogue...at times oration...but it is always speech." James Stephens. “Finnegans Wake.” 1947. Gross, ed. Essays.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Quotes: Literature (1)

Literature 721 Literature: thought, fancy, feeling and ideas. "Edward, in the dearth of clients, was accustomed to employ his much leisure in assisting the growth of American literature; to which good cause he had contributed not a few quires of the finest letter paper, containing some thought, some fancy, some depth of feeling, together with a young writer’s abundance of conceits." Hawthorne: "The Antique Ring"

Literature 1020 The slow growth of American literature. "How slowly our literature grows up!" Hawthorne: "P's Correspondence"

Literature 299 Realism distorts reality. "Realism is a corruption of reality." Wallace Stevens. 1957. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Literature 301 Characters in fiction are unified in their acts; people in reality act uncharacteristically. "The main difference between living people and fictitious characters is that the writer takes great pains to give the characters coherence and inner unity, whereas the living people may go to extremes of incoherence because their physical existence holds them together." Hugo Von Hofmannsthal. 1922. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Literature 302 Literature demonstrates the self against society. "The function of literature…has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture…in that sense subversive." Lionel Trilling. 1966. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Literature 103 Literature: pleasure and instruction. " …by giving pleasure and at the same time instructing." Horace. Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Literature 33 The universality of human character. "We have our forefathers and great-grand-dames all before us, as they were in Chaucer’s days: Their general characters are still remaining in mankind, and even in England, though they are called by other names than those of Monks and Friars, and Canons, and Lady Abbesses, and Nuns; for mankind is ever the same, and nothing lost out of nature...." John Dryden. “Chaucer.” 1700. Gross, ed. Essays.

Literature 151 What is a writer? "Small-town philosophy: Harold Bell Wright is a lovely writer, and he teaches such good morals in his novels, and folks say he’s made prett’ near a million dollars out of ‘em." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Literature 168 Highbrows talk about literature; lowbrows talk about the weather. "Every time he speaks of the weather you jump him because he ain’t talking about poetry or Gertie [Goethe] or some other highbrow junk." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Literature 327 Writers diagnose; they do not supply solutions. Mark Shorer, Afterword: "Are we justified that a writer is not only diagnostician, but the healer too?" Lewis, Babbitt.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Quotes: Literary Criticism (2)

Literary criticism 57 "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly; it should be thrown with great force." Dorothy Parker. Portable Curmudgeon.

Literary criticism 57 "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original; and the part that is original is not good." Samuel Johnson. Portable Curmudgeon.

Literary criticism 73 Criticism is prejudice made credible. "Criticism is prejudice made plausible." H. L. Mencken. Portable Curmudgeon.

Literary criticism 318 The critic should not detract from the art because of the behavior of the artist. "...the critic should be able to recognize that the sphere of art and the sphere of ethics are absolutely distinct and separate." Oscar Wilde, “ ‘The True Critic’.” 1891. Gross, ed. Essays.

Literary criticism 338 The critic focuses on what is bad. "...criticism...acknowledges only varying shades of badness in everything." John Jay Chapman. “William James.” 1915. Gross, ed. Essays.

Literary criticism 70 You can't even enjoy a movie without his highfalutin' discussion on topics that are unrelated to the movie. "It was impossible to go to a movie with him without getting involved afterward in a discussion on empathy, Aristotle, universals, messages, and the obligation of the cinema as an art form in a materialistic society." Heller, Catch-22.

Literary criticism 286 If I read a book I have to review, I am influenced by my prejudices. "…Oscar Wilde’s facetious advice: I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Literary critics 72 Critics criticize artists for doing what they themselves cannot do. "Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it’s done, they’ve seen it done everyday, but they’re unable to do it themselves." Brendan Behan. Portable Curmudgeon.