Quotes: Cause and Effect. Celebrity. Censorship.

The bold-face print is an interpretation of the quote that follows.

Cause and Effect
Cause and effect 44 Great events can be caused by trivial events. "It is not always that there is a strong reason for a great event. Sam. Johnson." 1771. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Cause and effect 45 Need can be named the cause of what has already occurred. "Need is considered the cause why something came to be; but in truth it is often merely an effect of what has come to be." Nietzsche. 1882-7. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Cause and effect 46 The goal often comes after the event. "Is the ‘goal,’ the ‘purpose’ not often enough a beautifying pretext, a self-deception of vanity after the event that does not want to acknowledge that the ship is following the current into which it has entered accidentally?" Nietzsche. 1882-7. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Cause and effect 17 Tangled causes rather then just one cause often complicate effects. "He [Leeuwenhoek] had a sound instinct—about the infinite complicatedness of everything—that told him the danger of trying to pick out one cause from the tangled maze of causes which control life." DeKruif, Microbe Hunters.

Celebrity
Celebrity 61 "A sign of celebrity is that his name is worth more than his services." Daniel J. Boorstin. Portable Curmudgeon.

Celebrity 353 Celebrity subordinates the celebrity's judgment to the general opinion. "To be pointed out, admired, mentioned constantly in the press, and offered easy ways of earning much money is highly agreeable; and when all this is open to a man, he finds it difficult to go on doing the work that he himself thinks is best and is inclined to subordinate his judgment to the general opinion." Bertrand Russell. “On Being Modern-Minded.” 1950. Gross, ed. Essays.

Celebrity 24 People defer to celebrities to see how they react to something. "And the way they use him as a reference for everything that happens…somebody makes a nice play, they look at Frank [Sinatra] to see how he reacts." DeLillo, Underworld.

Celebrity 720 She knew everything about the everyday lives, cosmetic surgeries and tragic marriages of movie stars. "She knew a lot about the [movie] stars…their favorite flavors and worst insect bites and their wallflower nights in high school…their basic everydayness inside the cosmetic surgeries and tragic marriages. DeLillo, Underworld.

Censorship
Censorship 1310 How did Hawthorne make suitable the detestable in the ancient myths? "…how he could have obviated all the difficulties in the way of rendering them [the classic myths] presentable to children…old legends, so brimming over with everything that is most abhorrent to our Christianized moral sense—some of them so hideous—others so melancholy and miserable, amid which the Greek tragedians sought their themes, and molded them into the sternest forms of grief that ever the world saw;--was such material the stuff that children’s playthings should be made of?…how was the blessed sunshine to be thrown into them?" “The Wayside: Introductory” Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales.

Censorship 1310 Hawthorne overcame the moral objections to the ancient myths. "…he does really appear to have overcome the moral objections against these fables. “The Wayside: Introductory” ” Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales.

Censorship 1234 Better let an adult hear these stories of ancient myths to determine if they are objectionable in any way. "The children have talked so much about your stories, that my father wishes to hear one of them in order to judge whether they are likely to do any mischief." “Tanglewood Fireside. Introductory to ‘The Three golden Apples’” Hawthorne’s The Wonder Book for Boys and Girls

Censorship 285 Burn books? They will eventually burn humans. "Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings." Heine. 1823. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Censorship 411 Anything that exists should be acknowledged. "…they saw no reason why anything which exists cannot also be acknowledged." Sinclair Lewis, Main Street.

Censorship 51 Books are a private experience that cannot be censored. "A book that can be read privately, reflected upon as the eye unravels the sense of the words, is no longer subject to immediate clarification or guidance, condemnation or censorship…." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Censorship 286 Censors will study a text with excruciating care in search of buried messages. "[Comstock] lacked the perception and patience of more sophisticated censors, who will mine a text with excruciating care in search of buried messages." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Censorship 287 Credo of the censor. "[Comstock]: Art is not above morals; morals stand first." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Censorship 289 Terrorist don't just use bombs and guns, but also spread ideas contrary to civilization. "…as General Videla defined it, “a terrorist is not just someone with a gun or bomb, but also someone who spreads ideas that are contrary to Western and Christian civilization." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Censorship 289 Mandate a doctrine and welcome a censor. "…declaring the text subservient to a doctrine." Manguel, A History of Reading.