No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.
--Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
10.05.2024
11.22.2022
3.19.2022
12.22.2021
from "This is how you lose the time war", Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
"Adventure works in any strand - it calls to those who care more for living than for their lives."
"'Brinks,' said Garden, with casual fondness, 'are traditionally stepped back from.'
'They are also fine places over which to tip one's enemies,' says Blue, 'Traditionally.'"
From Economic Consequences of the Peace by Keynes
What We believed to be the limits of possibility have
been so enormously exceeded, and those who founded
their expectations on the past have been so often wrong, that the man
in the street is now prepared to believe anything which is told him
with some show of authority, and the larger the figure
the more readily he swallows it.
The statistics of the economic interdependence of Germany and
her neighbors are overwhelming. Germany was the best customer of
Russia, Norway, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland. Italy, and Austria-
Hungary; she was the second best customer of Great Britain, Sweden,
and Denmark; and the third best customer of France. She was the
largest source of supply to Russia, Norway, Sweden. Denmark,
Holland Switzerland.Italy, Austria-Hungary, Romania, and
Bulgaria; and the second largest source of supply to Great Britain,
Belgium, and France.
In the great events of man's history, in the unwinding of the complex fates of nations Justice
is not so simple. And if it were, nations are not authorized.by religion or by natural morals, to
visit on the children of their enemies the misdoings of parents or of rulers.
6.29.2021
8.03.2019
7.23.2019
from "On War", books 1 and 2, by Von Clausewitz
"War, therefore, is an act of violence intended to compel our opponent to fulfill our will."
Desi: Note that Von Clausewitz narrows the role of war quite a bit in his works.
"In such dangerous things as War, the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are the worst... [the combatant] who uses force unsparingly, without reference to the bloodshed involved, must obtain a superiority if his adversary uses less vigor in its application. The former then dictates the law to the latter... it is to no purpose, it is even against one's own interest, to turn away from the consideration of the real nature of the affair because the horror of its elements excites repugnance."
"War is... a wonderful trinity, composed of the original violence of its elements, hatred and animosity, which may be looked upon as blind instinct; of the play of probabilities and chance, which make it a free activity of the soul; and of the subordinate nature of a political instrument, by which it belongs purely to the reason."
"...War... cannot be considered as at an end as long as the will of the enemy is not subdued also..."
when to sue for peace: "The first is the improbability, the second is the excessive price, of success."
"War must always set itself free from the strict law of logical necessity, and seek aid from the calculation of probabilities..." AB: Clausewitz goes on - at length - to say that low levels of national intensity or passion (i.e. support for the war) increase the importance of chance in determining whether to start or continue a contest.
"Every activity in War, therefore, necessarily relates to the combat either directly or indirectly. The soldier is levied, clothed, armed, exercised, he sleeps, eats, drinks, and marches, all MERELY TO FIGHT AT THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE." AB: the original "begin with the end in mind."
"Every special calling in life, if it is to be followed with success, requires peculiar qualifications of understanding and soul. Where these are of a high order, and manifest themselves by extraordinary achievements, the mind to which they belong is termed Genius."
"As the forces in one individual after another become prostrated, and can no longer be excited and supported by an efforts of his own will, the whole inertia of the mass gradually rests its weight on the Will of the Commander...As long as his men full of good courage fight with zeal and spirit, it is seldom necessary for the Chief to show great energy of purpose in the pursuit of his object. But as soon as difficulties arise - and that must always happen when great results are at stake - then things no longer move on of themselves like a well-oiled machine..." AB: Clausewitz goes on to say - at length - that this is when the Will of the Commander becomes paramount
"Truth alone is but a weak motive of action with men, and hence there is always a great difference between knowing and action..."
The kind of personality that excels at Generalship: "...searching rather than inventive minds, comprehensive minds rather than such as have a special bent, cool rather than fiery heads, are to which.... we should prefer to trust our welfare..."
"In a few words, most reports are false, and the timidity of men acts as a multiplier of lies and untruths."
"War is a constant state of reciprocal action, the effects of which are mutual."
"Courage... is a feeling, like fear; the latter looks to the physical preservation, courage to the moral preservation."
"...between theory and practice there shall no longer be that absurd difference which an unreasonable theory, in defiance of common sense, has often produced, but which, just as often, narrow-mindedness and ignorance have used as a pretext for giving way to their natural incapacity."
"The critical consideration.... which are the effects peculiar to the means applied, and whether these effects were comprehended in the plans of the person directing?"
Desi: Note that Von Clausewitz narrows the role of war quite a bit in his works.
"In such dangerous things as War, the errors which proceed from a spirit of benevolence are the worst... [the combatant] who uses force unsparingly, without reference to the bloodshed involved, must obtain a superiority if his adversary uses less vigor in its application. The former then dictates the law to the latter... it is to no purpose, it is even against one's own interest, to turn away from the consideration of the real nature of the affair because the horror of its elements excites repugnance."
"War is... a wonderful trinity, composed of the original violence of its elements, hatred and animosity, which may be looked upon as blind instinct; of the play of probabilities and chance, which make it a free activity of the soul; and of the subordinate nature of a political instrument, by which it belongs purely to the reason."
"...War... cannot be considered as at an end as long as the will of the enemy is not subdued also..."
when to sue for peace: "The first is the improbability, the second is the excessive price, of success."
"War must always set itself free from the strict law of logical necessity, and seek aid from the calculation of probabilities..." AB: Clausewitz goes on - at length - to say that low levels of national intensity or passion (i.e. support for the war) increase the importance of chance in determining whether to start or continue a contest.
"Every activity in War, therefore, necessarily relates to the combat either directly or indirectly. The soldier is levied, clothed, armed, exercised, he sleeps, eats, drinks, and marches, all MERELY TO FIGHT AT THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE." AB: the original "begin with the end in mind."
"Every special calling in life, if it is to be followed with success, requires peculiar qualifications of understanding and soul. Where these are of a high order, and manifest themselves by extraordinary achievements, the mind to which they belong is termed Genius."
"As the forces in one individual after another become prostrated, and can no longer be excited and supported by an efforts of his own will, the whole inertia of the mass gradually rests its weight on the Will of the Commander...As long as his men full of good courage fight with zeal and spirit, it is seldom necessary for the Chief to show great energy of purpose in the pursuit of his object. But as soon as difficulties arise - and that must always happen when great results are at stake - then things no longer move on of themselves like a well-oiled machine..." AB: Clausewitz goes on to say - at length - that this is when the Will of the Commander becomes paramount
"Truth alone is but a weak motive of action with men, and hence there is always a great difference between knowing and action..."
The kind of personality that excels at Generalship: "...searching rather than inventive minds, comprehensive minds rather than such as have a special bent, cool rather than fiery heads, are to which.... we should prefer to trust our welfare..."
"In a few words, most reports are false, and the timidity of men acts as a multiplier of lies and untruths."
"War is a constant state of reciprocal action, the effects of which are mutual."
"Courage... is a feeling, like fear; the latter looks to the physical preservation, courage to the moral preservation."
"...between theory and practice there shall no longer be that absurd difference which an unreasonable theory, in defiance of common sense, has often produced, but which, just as often, narrow-mindedness and ignorance have used as a pretext for giving way to their natural incapacity."
"The critical consideration.... which are the effects peculiar to the means applied, and whether these effects were comprehended in the plans of the person directing?"
1.01.2019
from Walter Bagehot, Lombard Street
"We are living amid the vestiges of old controversies, and we speak their language, though we are dealing with different thoughts and different facts."
"...it assumes that what works most easily when established is that which it would be the most easy to establish, and that which seems simplest when familiar would be most easily appreciated by the mind though unfamiliar. But exactly the contrary is true."
"Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone;"
"Credit in business is like loyalty in government. You must take what you can find of it, and work with it if possible."
"The distinctive function of the banker, says Ricardo, 'begins as soon as he uses the money of others;' as long as he uses his own money he is only a capitalist."
"...it assumes that what works most easily when established is that which it would be the most easy to establish, and that which seems simplest when familiar would be most easily appreciated by the mind though unfamiliar. But exactly the contrary is true."
"Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone;"
"Credit in business is like loyalty in government. You must take what you can find of it, and work with it if possible."
"The distinctive function of the banker, says Ricardo, 'begins as soon as he uses the money of others;' as long as he uses his own money he is only a capitalist."
The pleasantries were just ritual, but ritual was important. In Amos' experience the more dangerous any two people were, the more carefully polite their social interactions tended to be. The loud, blustering ones were trying to get the other guy to back down. They wanted to stay out of a fight. The quiet ones were figuring out how to win it.
==The Expanse, James S.A. Corey
==The Expanse, James S.A. Corey
10.02.2018
1.15.2018
1.14.2018
2.02.2017
New York at Night
Elsewhere, midnight is the end of the night, but in New York, it's the middle, if not the beginning. For some of us, the possibility junkies, the city is far more welcoming after dark, vivid and electric, inexhaustible in its store of potential pleasures. The night is egalitarian in a way that the day is not.
11.28.2014
9.13.2014
Polone: In Hollywood, A Paid Friend Is the Most Dependable, Least Trustworthy Friend There Is By Gavin Polone
http://www.vulture.com/2014/05/polone-on-paid-friends-in-hollywood.html
9.06.2014
7.23.2014
7.03.2014
5.27.2014
From the everything store by brad stone
"I understand what you are aayibg, [jeff bezos] said, but you are completely wrong. Communication is a sign of dysfunction. It means people aren't working together in a close, organic way. We should be trying to figure out a way for teams to communicate less with each other, not more. "******************
"Soon after thanksgiving, predictably, amazon was failing to keep the most popular toys in stock. Kerry Morris, the buyer who joined amazon from Walmart .... Cleaned out the inventory of Pokemon products on the brand newtoysrus.com website and had everything shipped to {amazons warehouse}, exploiting a rivals free-shipping promotion. "Because they were so new to the e-commerce space that year, they really did not have the tools to alert them to us wiping out their inventory until it was too late," Morris says."
True Detective, HBO quote
Rust Cohle: Look. I consider myself a realist, all right,
but in philosophical terms, I'm what's called a pessimist.
Martin Hart: What's that mean?
Rust Cohle: Means I'm bad at parties.
Martin Hart: Let me tell you. You ain't great outside of parties either.
but in philosophical terms, I'm what's called a pessimist.
Martin Hart: What's that mean?
Rust Cohle: Means I'm bad at parties.
Martin Hart: Let me tell you. You ain't great outside of parties either.
5.02.2014
from lords of strategy
Bain: “We don’t sell advice by the hour; we sell profits at a discount.”
"For a firm of impact junkies, it doesn’t get any better than that"
"For a firm of impact junkies, it doesn’t get any better than that"
9.17.2013
7.30.2013
5.03.2013
"conspiracy theories have an aesthetic appeal: they make us feel more important in the grand scheme of things than we are. If someone is going to all this trouble to con us into believing in something, then we have to be worth conning; and the impotence we all feel in the face of massive impersonal bureaucracies and economies driven not by democratic institutions so much as multinational corporations is not really the result of our intrinsic smallness and insignificance so much of our potential power which needs to be smothered. Such views play to our vanity; and, to be brutally frank, the kind of virtual solitary vice which so much sollipsistic internet activity reprersents.
Conspiracy theories don't hold up, though. Nobody is that competent and powerful to pull them off. Even giant bureaucracies are made up of lots of small, incompetent units fighting petty turf wars, a fragmentation which undermine the possibility of the kind of co-ordinated efforts required to pull off, say, the fabrication of the Holocaust. History, humanly speaking, is a tale of incompetence and thoughtlessness, not of elaborate and sophisticated cabals. Evil, catastrophic evil, is not exceptional and brilliant; it is humdrum and banal; it does not involve thinking too much; it involves thinking too little."
Conspiracy theories don't hold up, though. Nobody is that competent and powerful to pull them off. Even giant bureaucracies are made up of lots of small, incompetent units fighting petty turf wars, a fragmentation which undermine the possibility of the kind of co-ordinated efforts required to pull off, say, the fabrication of the Holocaust. History, humanly speaking, is a tale of incompetence and thoughtlessness, not of elaborate and sophisticated cabals. Evil, catastrophic evil, is not exceptional and brilliant; it is humdrum and banal; it does not involve thinking too much; it involves thinking too little."
4.17.2013
From Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini
"Blind only where it would have been presumption to have seen."
"And yet," she answered him with a flash of the Aline he had known of old, "I have never found you lack presumption."
"He was suffering from the loss of an illusion."
"If the windmill should prove too formidable," said he, from the threshold, "I may see what can be done with the wind."
"...for he had learnt by experience that it was a face not often to be trusted for an indication of the real thoughts that moved behind it."
"The pity was begotten of the love she had lately inspired in him. It might be likened to the dregs of love, all that remained after the potent wine of it had been drained off."
"You see, I am not sure that hell hereafter is a certainty, whilst I am quite sure that it can be a certainty in this life; and I desire you to continue to live yet awhile that you may taste something of its bitterness."
"Regret of neglected opportunity is the worst hell that a living soul can inhabit."
"Essentially a theorist, Andre-Louis perceived the theory suggested, which Danet himself in suggesting it had not perceived."
"What a man dares to do, he should dare to confess -- unless he is a coward."
"I have been detained by an engagement of a pressing nature. I bring you also the excuses of M. de Chabrillane. He, unfortunately, will be permanently absent from this Assembly in future."
"Nobody laughed now at his flippancy. He did not intend that anybody should. He intended to be terrible; and he knew that the more flippant and casual his tone, the more terrible would be its effect. He produced exactly the effect he desired."
"...he had, you must remember, that rarely level vision which sees thing in their just proportions, and never either magnifies or reduces them by sentimental considerations."
"And yet," she answered him with a flash of the Aline he had known of old, "I have never found you lack presumption."
"He was suffering from the loss of an illusion."
"If the windmill should prove too formidable," said he, from the threshold, "I may see what can be done with the wind."
"...for he had learnt by experience that it was a face not often to be trusted for an indication of the real thoughts that moved behind it."
"The pity was begotten of the love she had lately inspired in him. It might be likened to the dregs of love, all that remained after the potent wine of it had been drained off."
"You see, I am not sure that hell hereafter is a certainty, whilst I am quite sure that it can be a certainty in this life; and I desire you to continue to live yet awhile that you may taste something of its bitterness."
"Regret of neglected opportunity is the worst hell that a living soul can inhabit."
"Essentially a theorist, Andre-Louis perceived the theory suggested, which Danet himself in suggesting it had not perceived."
"What a man dares to do, he should dare to confess -- unless he is a coward."
"I have been detained by an engagement of a pressing nature. I bring you also the excuses of M. de Chabrillane. He, unfortunately, will be permanently absent from this Assembly in future."
"Nobody laughed now at his flippancy. He did not intend that anybody should. He intended to be terrible; and he knew that the more flippant and casual his tone, the more terrible would be its effect. He produced exactly the effect he desired."
"...he had, you must remember, that rarely level vision which sees thing in their just proportions, and never either magnifies or reduces them by sentimental considerations."
"There was not a speck of dust to be seen in the whole flat. "It's in the houses of spiteful old widows that one finds such cleanliness," Raskolnikov thought."
"And I am glad, I am glad that, though only in imagination, she should think of herself as having once been happy...."
"To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's."
--from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
"And I am glad, I am glad that, though only in imagination, she should think of herself as having once been happy...."
"To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's."
--from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
From Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini
"There remained the sea, which is free to all, and particularly alluring to those who feel themselves at war with humanity."
"Fata viam invenerunt"
"The love that is never to be realized will often remain a man's guiding ideal."
"He enjoyed also a reputation of another sort. There was about his gaudy, swaggering raffishness something that the women found singularly alluring. That he should boast openly of his bonnes fortunes did not seem strange to Captain Blood; what he might have found strange was that there appeared to be some measure of justification for these boasts."
"...[while] Captain Blood languished in his lady's smile within the cabin..."
"He might have said more but that Levasseur struck him across the mouth. Levasseur, you see, cared as little as another to hear the truth about himself."
"Lord Julian was sententious, as I gather that he often was. "Life can be infernally complex," he sighed."
"There was a great historian lost in Wolverstone. He had the right imagination that knows just how far it is safe to stray from the truth and just how far to colour it so as to change its shape for his own purposes."
When Blood gives up Ms Bishop to Lord Julian
Lord Julian: "I wonder whether you are right," said his lordship, "and whether you are not the better man."
Blood: "Where she is concerned see that you make sure that I am right."
"Fata viam invenerunt"
"The love that is never to be realized will often remain a man's guiding ideal."
"He enjoyed also a reputation of another sort. There was about his gaudy, swaggering raffishness something that the women found singularly alluring. That he should boast openly of his bonnes fortunes did not seem strange to Captain Blood; what he might have found strange was that there appeared to be some measure of justification for these boasts."
"...[while] Captain Blood languished in his lady's smile within the cabin..."
"He might have said more but that Levasseur struck him across the mouth. Levasseur, you see, cared as little as another to hear the truth about himself."
"Lord Julian was sententious, as I gather that he often was. "Life can be infernally complex," he sighed."
"There was a great historian lost in Wolverstone. He had the right imagination that knows just how far it is safe to stray from the truth and just how far to colour it so as to change its shape for his own purposes."
When Blood gives up Ms Bishop to Lord Julian
Lord Julian: "I wonder whether you are right," said his lordship, "and whether you are not the better man."
Blood: "Where she is concerned see that you make sure that I am right."
From the table talk of Martin Luther
Of the Archbishop of Mentz
"Anno 1530, at the Imperial Assembly at Augburg, Albertus, Bishop of Mentz, by chance had got into his hands the Bible, and for the space of four hours he continued reading therein; at last, one of his Council on a sudden came into his bed-chamber unto him, who, seeing the Bible in the Bishop's hand, was much amazed thereat, and said unto him, "what doth your Highness with that book?" The Archbishop thereupon answered him, and said, "I know not what this book is, but sure I am, all that is written therein is quite against us."
The World's opinion of the Bible
"... as he saw that I diligently read and affected the Bible, "Brother Martin, what is the Bible? Let us read the ancient Teachers and Fathers, for they have sucked the juice and truth out of the Bible. The Bible is the cause of all dissension and rebellion."
Luther On learning the Bible
"I did not learn my divinity at one only time, but as I was constrained to search deeper and deeper, to which my temptations brought me; for no man, without trials and temptations, can attain to the true understanding of the Holy Scriptures."
Luther on Fearing God
"Whoso can earnestly humble himself from his heart before God, he had gained. For God can do nothing but to be merciful towards them that humble themselves. For if God should always be stern and angry, so should I be afraid of him as of the executioner. And seeing that I must stand in fear of the Pope, of the Emperor, of the Papistical Bishops, and of other tyrants, to whom then should I fly and take my refuge, if I should also be afraid of God?"
Luther on Free will and Sin
"I oftentimes have been directly resolved to live uprightly, and to lead a true godly life, and to set everything aside that would let or hinder; but it was far from being put in execution, even as it was with Peter, when he swore he would lay down his life for Christ.
I will not lie nor dissemble before my God, but will freely confess I am not able to effect that good which I do intend, but must expect the happy hour when God shall be pleased to meet me with his grace."
"Anno 1530, at the Imperial Assembly at Augburg, Albertus, Bishop of Mentz, by chance had got into his hands the Bible, and for the space of four hours he continued reading therein; at last, one of his Council on a sudden came into his bed-chamber unto him, who, seeing the Bible in the Bishop's hand, was much amazed thereat, and said unto him, "what doth your Highness with that book?" The Archbishop thereupon answered him, and said, "I know not what this book is, but sure I am, all that is written therein is quite against us."
The World's opinion of the Bible
"... as he saw that I diligently read and affected the Bible, "Brother Martin, what is the Bible? Let us read the ancient Teachers and Fathers, for they have sucked the juice and truth out of the Bible. The Bible is the cause of all dissension and rebellion."
Luther On learning the Bible
"I did not learn my divinity at one only time, but as I was constrained to search deeper and deeper, to which my temptations brought me; for no man, without trials and temptations, can attain to the true understanding of the Holy Scriptures."
Luther on Fearing God
"Whoso can earnestly humble himself from his heart before God, he had gained. For God can do nothing but to be merciful towards them that humble themselves. For if God should always be stern and angry, so should I be afraid of him as of the executioner. And seeing that I must stand in fear of the Pope, of the Emperor, of the Papistical Bishops, and of other tyrants, to whom then should I fly and take my refuge, if I should also be afraid of God?"
Luther on Free will and Sin
"I oftentimes have been directly resolved to live uprightly, and to lead a true godly life, and to set everything aside that would let or hinder; but it was far from being put in execution, even as it was with Peter, when he swore he would lay down his life for Christ.
I will not lie nor dissemble before my God, but will freely confess I am not able to effect that good which I do intend, but must expect the happy hour when God shall be pleased to meet me with his grace."
2.07.2013
From The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
"You don't understand what friendship is, Harry... or what enmity is, for that matter. You like every one; that is to say, you are indifferent to every one."
" A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. I have not one who is a fool. They are all men of some intellectual power, and consequently they all appreciate me."
"Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love; it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."
"To get back one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies."
"A delightful theory!" she exclaimed. "I must put it into practice."
"Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed."
"When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance."
"There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution."
" A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies. I have not one who is a fool. They are all men of some intellectual power, and consequently they all appreciate me."
"Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love; it is the faithless who know love's tragedies."
"To get back one's youth, one has merely to repeat one's follies."
"A delightful theory!" she exclaimed. "I must put it into practice."
"Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed."
"When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance."
"There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel that no one else has a right to blame us. It is the confession, not the priest, that gives us absolution."
1.16.2012
A painter referencing people
“Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss...." He turned to me. "But every once in a while, you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare.”
― Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped
― Wendelin Van Draanen, Flipped
10.04.2011
10.03.2011
"Speaking decades before the debates over Twitter or the wonders of Google, Malcolm Muggeridge seemed to foresee the possibilities of too much information. “Accumulating knowledge is a form of avarice and lends itself to another version of the Midas story,” he wrote. “Man is so avid for knowledge that everything he touches turns to facts; his faith becomes theology, his love becomes lechery, his wisdom becomes science. Pursuing meaning, he ignores truth.”
--Ravi Zacharias
--Ravi Zacharias
In the early morning darkness they migrate like lemmings from neighborhoods in which they don’t know their neighbors down impersonal expressways to catacombs of commerce where they scurry about like rats in a maze. At lunch they leave jobs in which they hardly know their co-workers to work out at a health club with other overweight men they’ve never met. After working late and forgetting to call home, they leave customers whose names they easily forget to arrive home after dark for a warmed over dinner with a wife they barely know. On Sunday they arise and travel to a church with kids they never spend much time with to hear a sermon with a bunch of people whose names they have long since forgotten from a pastor to whom they’ve only said hello. They rush out the door to watch football games for which they will never remember the score. Their lives look as thing as cardboard. They are the generation of cardboard men who live, eat, and sleep cardboard lives.
--unknown author, quoted from Pat
--unknown author, quoted from Pat
We are countercultural when we live as people aware of the entire picture, when we counter the pervasive individualism that bids us to look no further than our own homes or schedules or priorities. We are countercultural when we testify to the radical work of the Cross in the world and in our hearts, which exchanges our guilt for grace, our ashes for beauty, and sorrow for joy. We are countercultural when we see the startling colors of his sovereign work in our own stories and know that it is only a small glimpse of the magnificent work God is weaving through all of time.
Jill Carattini, “Slice of Infinity”, June 4th, 2007, RZIM
Jill Carattini, “Slice of Infinity”, June 4th, 2007, RZIM
10.02.2011
Almost all the virtues that can be named are enwrapt in one virtue of charity and love:--for "it suffereth long," and so it is longanimity; it "is kind," and so it is courtesy; it "vaunteth not itself," and so it is modesty; it "is not puffed up," and so it is humility; it "is not easily provoked," and so it is lenity; it "thinketh no evil," and so it is simplicity; it "rejoiceth in the truth," and so it is verity; it "beareth all things," and so it is fortitude; it "believeth all things," and so it is faith; it "hopeth all things," and so it is confidence; it "endureth all things," and so it is patience; it "never faileth," and so it is perseverance.--CHILLINGWORTH
I think one may be quite rid of the old haunting suspicion—which raises its head in every temptation—that there is something else than God, some other country into which he forbids us to trespass, some kind of delight which he ‘doesn’t appreciate’ or just chooses to forbid, but which would be real delight if only we were allowed to get it.
The thing just isn’t there. Whatever we desire is either what God is trying to give us as quickly as he can, or else a false picture of what he is trying to give us, a false picture which would not attract us for a moment if we saw the real thing. . . . He knows what we want, even in our vilest acts. He is longing to give it to us. . . .
The truth is that evil is not a real thing at all, like God. It is simply good spoiled. . . . You know what the biologists mean by a parasite—an animal that lives on another animal. Evil is a parasite. It is there only because good is there for it to spoil and confuse.
—C. S. Lewis, They Stand Together: The Letters of C. S. Lewis to Arthur Greeves (1914-1963), ed. Walter Hooper (New York, 1979), p. 465. Italics original
What do academics do?
Theory
Data
Policy
When you run out of ideas and data, you become an administrator
Data
Policy
When you run out of ideas and data, you become an administrator
9.25.2011
7.05.2011
Selections from "The Devil's Dictionary" by Ambrose Bierce
Absurdity: a statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion.
Acquaintance: a person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.
Admiration: our polite recognition of another man's resemblance to ourselves.
Consult: to seek another's approval of a course already decided on.
Cynic: a blackguard who sees things as they are, and not as they ought to be.
History: an account mostly false, of events unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves and soldiers mostly fools.
Politeness: the most acceptable form of hypocrisy.
Acquaintance: a person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.
Admiration: our polite recognition of another man's resemblance to ourselves.
Consult: to seek another's approval of a course already decided on.
Cynic: a blackguard who sees things as they are, and not as they ought to be.
History: an account mostly false, of events unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves and soldiers mostly fools.
Politeness: the most acceptable form of hypocrisy.
6.30.2011
Quotes from Shakespeare
Heaven truly knows thou are as false as hell
--"Othello"
You taught me language, and my profit on't is, I know how to curse.
--"The Tempest"
Great customs curtsy before Kings
--Henry V
Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it
--"Macbeth"
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
--Hamlet
I 'gin to be a'weary of the sun.
--Macbeth
1) Sweet are the uses of adversity.
2) Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?
3) If thou remembrest not the slightest folly that ever love did make thee run into, thou hast not loved
--"As You Like It"
--"Othello"
You taught me language, and my profit on't is, I know how to curse.
--"The Tempest"
Great customs curtsy before Kings
--Henry V
Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it
--"Macbeth"
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
--Hamlet
I 'gin to be a'weary of the sun.
--Macbeth
1) Sweet are the uses of adversity.
2) Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?
3) If thou remembrest not the slightest folly that ever love did make thee run into, thou hast not loved
--"As You Like It"
6.23.2011
Selections from Goethe
"What will not mix don't let us press together
I leave you free to choose your when and whether
In turn leave me at peace; we'll never mix, we two
I who was born antique, and you, so new!"
"If i could fit into their measure
I would not be the man I am."
"We peer so eagerly into the future because we should like so much by force of our unexpressed wishes to direct in our favor the uncertain probabilities that hover in it."
"No one would speak much in company if he realized how often he misunderstands others."
"In truth, it is man's mistakes which make him amiable."
"In the work of destruction all false arguments prevail..."
I leave you free to choose your when and whether
In turn leave me at peace; we'll never mix, we two
I who was born antique, and you, so new!"
"If i could fit into their measure
I would not be the man I am."
"We peer so eagerly into the future because we should like so much by force of our unexpressed wishes to direct in our favor the uncertain probabilities that hover in it."
"No one would speak much in company if he realized how often he misunderstands others."
"In truth, it is man's mistakes which make him amiable."
"In the work of destruction all false arguments prevail..."
Phrases from Robert Jordan (not quotes per se)
Shadar logoth - where the shadow waits
Machin Shin - the black wind
Mahdi - Seeker
Djevik K'Shar - the dying ground
'Sa souvraya niende misain ye' - I am lost in my own mind
'Dovie'andi se tovya sagain' - It's time to toss the dice
Machin Shin - the black wind
Mahdi - Seeker
Djevik K'Shar - the dying ground
'Sa souvraya niende misain ye' - I am lost in my own mind
'Dovie'andi se tovya sagain' - It's time to toss the dice
Selections from "Security Analysis" by Benjamin Graham
"It is always good to know the truth, but [on Wall Street] it may not always be wise to act on it."
--pg 404
"When an enterprise pursues questionable accounting, _all_ of its securities must be shunned. You cannot make a qualitative deduction to allow for unscrupulous management." --pg 433
"The fact that people will be full of greed, fear or folly is predictable; the sequence is not." --pg 1491
"Kinds of information: 1) things you can know, and 2) things important to know." [The intersection of 1 and 2 is extremely rare, constituting a] "small percentage of the total known."
--pg 404
"When an enterprise pursues questionable accounting, _all_ of its securities must be shunned. You cannot make a qualitative deduction to allow for unscrupulous management." --pg 433
"The fact that people will be full of greed, fear or folly is predictable; the sequence is not." --pg 1491
"Kinds of information: 1) things you can know, and 2) things important to know." [The intersection of 1 and 2 is extremely rare, constituting a] "small percentage of the total known."
4.04.2011
3.21.2011
2.28.2011
CS Lewis, the four loves
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.…The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.
When we lose hope in ourselves, when the present becomes dark and the future black before us, when effort after effort has issued only in disheartening failure, and our sin looms big before our despairing eyes; when our hearts hate and despise themselves, and we remember that God is greater than our hearts and cannot abide the least iniquity; the Spirit whom He has sent to bring us to Him still labors with us, not in indifference or hatred, but in pitying love.
Yea, His love burns all the stronger because we so deeply need His help: He is yearning after us with jealous envy.
“The Love of the Holy Ghost”, BB Warfield
2.17.2011
from "The Fortunes of Indigo Skye" by Deb Caletti
"The way most people feel on Sunday nights is how I think he feels a lot of the time."
"Why do you feel like your heart could break when the hills turn pink and the trees turn yellow? Why do you feel every joy and sorrow and goodness and beauty and past and present and every perfect thing?"
"This time, right now - it's the instrumental before the vocals, the love before love's been admitted, the Christmas eve before Christmas. Some things need a delicious before...."
"The willingness to embrace the idea of 'a surprise' is dependent on our past surprises being good ones."
"Usually that kiss woudl have acted like some tingling, hypnotic spell, but this time, i feel something else. A small internal stepping back. A slight shove to the chest with my palm that I see only in my mind. Just, this little echo of away."
"...the misplaced dreamer-academic, the human equivalent of a soul walking an empty beach."
"...I understand now. Nick has reached the point when a person stops fighting for themselves. When a sense of powerlessness seems larger than any ability you have to fight back. He has gotten to the place where the words "destiny" and "fate" are not used as expressions of possibility, but as the words for forces that always win."
"Hope is not something that fate bestows, like Willy Wonka and the golden ticket... Hope is a decision."
"I said I love you and didn't mean love. I meant Please don't leave me. I meant Please don't inflict change on me. I meant Let's just ignore this. I'm not ready for this right now. I'm embarrassed at my own self for using Love and Cling interchangeably."
"Everything has changed, Indigo. You can do that, you know, with one action. You should know that."
"Maybe because we most successfully lie to the people who we don't care (never cared, no longer care) if we disappoint."
"The loneliness you feel with another person, the wrong person, is the loneliest of all."
"I'd been had. I'd worshiped something that wasn't even real. I'd wasted my time and my belief on a lie."
"...I have the ability to end things I don't like and to say something isn't okay when it isn't okay. I have the power to insist on good and real things for myself. Most of all, I have the right to change my mind."
"When you are waiting and wanting to be with someone again it is not one disappointment you feel, but thousands of disappointments."
"And right then I learn something very simple and fundamental about love. That it is there or it is not there. That some of our biggest troubles probably come when we try to convince ourselves it is there when it isn't, or that it isn't there when it is."
"Why do you feel like your heart could break when the hills turn pink and the trees turn yellow? Why do you feel every joy and sorrow and goodness and beauty and past and present and every perfect thing?"
"This time, right now - it's the instrumental before the vocals, the love before love's been admitted, the Christmas eve before Christmas. Some things need a delicious before...."
"The willingness to embrace the idea of 'a surprise' is dependent on our past surprises being good ones."
"Usually that kiss woudl have acted like some tingling, hypnotic spell, but this time, i feel something else. A small internal stepping back. A slight shove to the chest with my palm that I see only in my mind. Just, this little echo of away."
"...the misplaced dreamer-academic, the human equivalent of a soul walking an empty beach."
"...I understand now. Nick has reached the point when a person stops fighting for themselves. When a sense of powerlessness seems larger than any ability you have to fight back. He has gotten to the place where the words "destiny" and "fate" are not used as expressions of possibility, but as the words for forces that always win."
"Hope is not something that fate bestows, like Willy Wonka and the golden ticket... Hope is a decision."
"I said I love you and didn't mean love. I meant Please don't leave me. I meant Please don't inflict change on me. I meant Let's just ignore this. I'm not ready for this right now. I'm embarrassed at my own self for using Love and Cling interchangeably."
"Everything has changed, Indigo. You can do that, you know, with one action. You should know that."
"Maybe because we most successfully lie to the people who we don't care (never cared, no longer care) if we disappoint."
"The loneliness you feel with another person, the wrong person, is the loneliest of all."
"I'd been had. I'd worshiped something that wasn't even real. I'd wasted my time and my belief on a lie."
"...I have the ability to end things I don't like and to say something isn't okay when it isn't okay. I have the power to insist on good and real things for myself. Most of all, I have the right to change my mind."
"When you are waiting and wanting to be with someone again it is not one disappointment you feel, but thousands of disappointments."
"And right then I learn something very simple and fundamental about love. That it is there or it is not there. That some of our biggest troubles probably come when we try to convince ourselves it is there when it isn't, or that it isn't there when it is."
from "Honey, Baby, Sweetheart" by Deb Caletti
"I hate that, I really do, when people use honesty as a cover for cruelty.... and if we're sensitive, we believe those insults. We forget that just because something is honest it is not necessarily the truth."
"...It made me wonder how many times we forgive just because we don't want to lose someone...."
"To an untrained eye, need and love were as easily mistaken for each other as the real master's painting and a forgery."
"...Jeez, these people you were supposed to want to be like could really be disappointing."
"It occurred to me then that a lot of life was either about wanting and not having, or having and not wanting."
"'You fall in love and you think you're finding yourself. But too often you're looking inside him for you, and that's a fact. There's only one place you can find yourself.' She patted her chest."
"Love can come when you're already who you are, when you are filled with you. Not when you look to someone else to fill the empty space. Not when it's your definition."
"....help me remember that this was just one chapter in a long life..."
"We held on to each other, wrapped up in... the quilt of guilt and innocence, good intentions and failings, full but imperfect hearts."
"Sometimes our minds just make us go on clutching something. Sometimes we get so used to holding that we forget to let go."
"I wondered if there were some pieces of your life that would always be too monumental to ever leave you. Some events in life that were fossils embedded in rock, the wrinkles etched on an old person's face, words imprinted in a book. Permanent, permeating. I told Mom what I was thinking. 'You're right,' she said. 'Yes. Words imprinted in a book. But Ruby, then you turn the page."
"Because what is more like love than the ocean? You can play in it, drown in it. It can be clear and bright enough to hurt your eyes, or covered in fog; hidden behind a curve of road, and then suddenly there in full glory. Its waves come like breaths, in and out, in and out, body stretched to forever in its possibilities, and yet its heart lies deep, not fully knowable, inconceivably majestic."
"The first definition of the word relative is 'relevant,' after all."
"This is what I know: We are all a volume on the shelf of the library, a story unto ourselves, never possibly described with one word or even very accurately with thousands. A person is never as quiet or unrestrained as they seem, or as bad or good, as vulnerable or as strong, as sweet or as feisty; we are thickly layered, page lying upon page, behind simple covers. And love -- it is not the book itself, but the binding. It can rip us apart or hold us together."
"...It made me wonder how many times we forgive just because we don't want to lose someone...."
"To an untrained eye, need and love were as easily mistaken for each other as the real master's painting and a forgery."
"...Jeez, these people you were supposed to want to be like could really be disappointing."
"It occurred to me then that a lot of life was either about wanting and not having, or having and not wanting."
"'You fall in love and you think you're finding yourself. But too often you're looking inside him for you, and that's a fact. There's only one place you can find yourself.' She patted her chest."
"Love can come when you're already who you are, when you are filled with you. Not when you look to someone else to fill the empty space. Not when it's your definition."
"....help me remember that this was just one chapter in a long life..."
"We held on to each other, wrapped up in... the quilt of guilt and innocence, good intentions and failings, full but imperfect hearts."
"Sometimes our minds just make us go on clutching something. Sometimes we get so used to holding that we forget to let go."
"I wondered if there were some pieces of your life that would always be too monumental to ever leave you. Some events in life that were fossils embedded in rock, the wrinkles etched on an old person's face, words imprinted in a book. Permanent, permeating. I told Mom what I was thinking. 'You're right,' she said. 'Yes. Words imprinted in a book. But Ruby, then you turn the page."
"Because what is more like love than the ocean? You can play in it, drown in it. It can be clear and bright enough to hurt your eyes, or covered in fog; hidden behind a curve of road, and then suddenly there in full glory. Its waves come like breaths, in and out, in and out, body stretched to forever in its possibilities, and yet its heart lies deep, not fully knowable, inconceivably majestic."
"The first definition of the word relative is 'relevant,' after all."
"This is what I know: We are all a volume on the shelf of the library, a story unto ourselves, never possibly described with one word or even very accurately with thousands. A person is never as quiet or unrestrained as they seem, or as bad or good, as vulnerable or as strong, as sweet or as feisty; we are thickly layered, page lying upon page, behind simple covers. And love -- it is not the book itself, but the binding. It can rip us apart or hold us together."
1.28.2011
| Who is the third who walks always beside you? | |
| When I count, there are only you and I together | 360 |
| But when I look ahead up the white road | |
| There is always another one walking beside you | |
| Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded | |
| I do not know whether a man or a woman | |
| —But who is that on the other side of you? | 365 |
TS Eliot, selection from the Waste Land
1.13.2011
Benevolence is not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth. It is a business with men as they are, and with human life as drawn by the rough hand of experience. It is a duty which you must perform at the call of principle; though there be no voice of eloquence to give splendor to your exertions, and no music of poetry to lead your willing footsteps through the bowers of enchantment. It is not the impulse of high and ecstatic emotion. It is an exertion of principle. You must go to the poor man's cottage, though no verdure flourish around it, and no rivulet be nigh to delight you by the gentleness of its murmurs. If you look for the romantic simplicity of fiction you will be disappointed; but it is your duty to persevere, in spite of every discouragement. Benevolence is not merely a feeling but a principle; not a dream of rapture for the fancy to indulge in, but a business for the hand to execute.--CHALMERS
11.14.2010
"The Six Rules of Maybe", by Deb Caletti
1. Respect the power of hope and possibilities. Begin with belief. Hold on to it.
2. If you know where you want to go, you're already halfway there. Know what you desire but, more importantly, why you desire it. Then go.
3. Hopes and dreams and heart's desires require a clear path - get out of your own way.
4. Place hope carefully in your own hands and in the hands of others.
5. Persist, if necessary.
6. That said, most importantly - know when you've reached an end. Quit, give up, do it with courage. Giving up is not failing - it's the chance to being again.
2. If you know where you want to go, you're already halfway there. Know what you desire but, more importantly, why you desire it. Then go.
3. Hopes and dreams and heart's desires require a clear path - get out of your own way.
4. Place hope carefully in your own hands and in the hands of others.
5. Persist, if necessary.
6. That said, most importantly - know when you've reached an end. Quit, give up, do it with courage. Giving up is not failing - it's the chance to being again.
Quotes from "The Six Rules of Maybe" by Deb Caletti
"[Burnt] toast was plain old good intentions gone awry."
"And a ring, anyway - a ring was a declaration of hope, not a mission accomplished."
"I always thought telling the truth other people was hard, but maybe that was a snap compared to telling the truth to yourself. Sometimes we just refused to know what we knew."
"If I did that... ...I'd be acting more out of fear than love, wouldn't I? Fear would make me a liar. I shouldn't have to be a liar to make someone love me. I shouldn't be so afraid of losing someone that I'll do anything to make them stay."
"The sky was beautiful and we were both looking at it. Deep, dark, intense white speckles spread out like the grandest present ever. 'That's it, probably,' he said upward, to the night. 'See there? Those people we want to save? They're the intense flashes of fire across our otherwise empty black sky.'"
"Right then, I realized that other people's 'needs' were sometimes only big nasty demands, in a soft disguise."
"Optimism can get you into a lot of trouble. You can put your belief in places it doesn't belong. You can work hard to fix thing that you can't fix. I'm not sure that kind of optimism is always the best thing. Positive thinking, hope - it needs better guidelines. It needs rules."
"There was an equation - the degree to which you hoped and wished for a good outcome multiplied by how wrong it all went equaled the amount of despair."
"Truth was funny, because it was an insistent thing, maybe as powerful and insistent as some force of nature, the push of water or wind. You could keep it out only so long, but it had its own will and its own needs, and maybe you could keep it at bay with lies, but not for long, not for always."
"Hope could be the most powerful thing or the most useless."
"I stayed silent. I didn't feel like giving anything anymore, even words. That's what happens when you give too much. Suddenly you reach a point of over."
"My heart felt so big and wide. You could give and give until it hurt you, give without boundaries or self-protection or reciprocation, give out of fear, and it could leave you empty and depleted and even used. But you could also give out of something very simple - a pure desire - to be kind, and it could double and triple your own joy."
"And a ring, anyway - a ring was a declaration of hope, not a mission accomplished."
"I always thought telling the truth other people was hard, but maybe that was a snap compared to telling the truth to yourself. Sometimes we just refused to know what we knew."
"If I did that... ...I'd be acting more out of fear than love, wouldn't I? Fear would make me a liar. I shouldn't have to be a liar to make someone love me. I shouldn't be so afraid of losing someone that I'll do anything to make them stay."
"The sky was beautiful and we were both looking at it. Deep, dark, intense white speckles spread out like the grandest present ever. 'That's it, probably,' he said upward, to the night. 'See there? Those people we want to save? They're the intense flashes of fire across our otherwise empty black sky.'"
"Right then, I realized that other people's 'needs' were sometimes only big nasty demands, in a soft disguise."
"Optimism can get you into a lot of trouble. You can put your belief in places it doesn't belong. You can work hard to fix thing that you can't fix. I'm not sure that kind of optimism is always the best thing. Positive thinking, hope - it needs better guidelines. It needs rules."
"There was an equation - the degree to which you hoped and wished for a good outcome multiplied by how wrong it all went equaled the amount of despair."
"Truth was funny, because it was an insistent thing, maybe as powerful and insistent as some force of nature, the push of water or wind. You could keep it out only so long, but it had its own will and its own needs, and maybe you could keep it at bay with lies, but not for long, not for always."
"Hope could be the most powerful thing or the most useless."
"I stayed silent. I didn't feel like giving anything anymore, even words. That's what happens when you give too much. Suddenly you reach a point of over."
"My heart felt so big and wide. You could give and give until it hurt you, give without boundaries or self-protection or reciprocation, give out of fear, and it could leave you empty and depleted and even used. But you could also give out of something very simple - a pure desire - to be kind, and it could double and triple your own joy."
10.27.2010
10.02.2010
B.S. Johnson, "All this Sunday long"
All this Sunday long it has snowed,
and I weighted with the old grief
struggling to unseat her from my mind.
Yet winnowing our past I cannot find
a snow-gilded scene however brief:
thus do I wilfully increase my load.
Walter Savage Landor, "On Death"
Death stands above me, whispering low
I know not what into my ear:
Of his strange language all I know
Is, there is not a word of fear.
I know not what into my ear:
Of his strange language all I know
Is, there is not a word of fear.
Selection from Shakespeare's Hamlet
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
"Separation" by W.S. Merwin
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
"Magna Est Veritas" by Coventry Patmore
Magna Est Veritas
Here, in this little Bay,
Full of tumultuous life and great repose,
Where, twice a day,
The purposeless, glad ocean comes and goes,
Under high cliffs, and far from the huge town,
I sit me down.
For want of me the world's course will not fail:
When all its work is done, the lie shall rot;
The truth is great, and shall prevail,
When none cares whether it prevail or not.
Here, in this little Bay,
Full of tumultuous life and great repose,
Where, twice a day,
The purposeless, glad ocean comes and goes,
Under high cliffs, and far from the huge town,
I sit me down.
For want of me the world's course will not fail:
When all its work is done, the lie shall rot;
The truth is great, and shall prevail,
When none cares whether it prevail or not.
Siegfried Sasoon - "Alone"
...
I thought of age, and loneliness, and change.
I thought how strange we grow when we're alone,
And how unlike the selves that meet and talk,
And blow the candles out, and say good night.
Alone... The word is life endured and known.
It is the stillness where our spirits walk
And all but inmost faith is overthrown.
Selected Quatrains from Emerson
"Orator"
He who has no hands
Perforce must use his tongue;
Foxes are so cunning
Because they are not strong.
"Poet"
To clothe the fiery thought
In simple words succeeds,
For still the craft of genius is
To mask a king in weeds.
He who has no hands
Perforce must use his tongue;
Foxes are so cunning
Because they are not strong.
"Poet"
To clothe the fiery thought
In simple words succeeds,
For still the craft of genius is
To mask a king in weeds.
"Though thou loved her as thyself,
As a self of purer clay,
Though her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive;
Heartily know,
When half-gods go,
The gods arrive."
Selection from "give all to love" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
As a self of purer clay,
Though her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive;
Heartily know,
When half-gods go,
The gods arrive."
Selection from "give all to love" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Selections from "Inspiration" by Henry David Thoreau
"I hearing get, who had but ears,
And sight, who had but eyes before,
I moments live, who lived but years,
And truth discern, who knew but learning's lore.
...
More swift its bolt than lightning is,
Its voice than thunder is more loud,
It doth expand my privacies
To all, and leave me single in the crowd."
And sight, who had but eyes before,
I moments live, who lived but years,
And truth discern, who knew but learning's lore.
...
More swift its bolt than lightning is,
Its voice than thunder is more loud,
It doth expand my privacies
To all, and leave me single in the crowd."
Music is not ornamented poetry, and poetry is not ornamented prose. Poetry is fallen music, and prose is fallen poetry. Prose is not the original language; it is poetry made practical. Even poetry is not the original language; it is music made speakable, it is the words of music separated from their music. In the beginning... was music.
Kreeft, The Philosophy of Tolkien, p. 162
Quotes from "The Secret Life of Prince Charming" by Deb Caletti
"Love with Roy is peaceful. I thought something was wrong, it was so peaceful. Then I realized that what was wrong was that for the first time, it was right. No big scenes, no crying, no clinging and plotting and scheming to keep him. It just is"
"I want to rewrite that part of the Bible... Corinthians something... the one that goes, 'Love is patient, love is kind,' etc.... So: Love is ease, love is comfort, love is support and respect. Love is not punishing or controlling. Love lets you grow and breathe. Love's passion is only good passion - swirling leaves on a fall day passion, a sky full of magnificent stars passion - not angst and anxiety. Love is not hurt and harm. Love is never unsafe. Love is sleeping like puzzle pieces..."
"I found out that a healthy relationship isn't so much about a sense of humor or intelligence or attraction... it's about being with a good person. A good person on his own and a good person with you. Where the space between you feels uncomplicated and happy. A good relationship is where things just work. The work because, whatever the list of qualities, whatever the reason, you happen to be really, really good together."
"I want to rewrite that part of the Bible... Corinthians something... the one that goes, 'Love is patient, love is kind,' etc.... So: Love is ease, love is comfort, love is support and respect. Love is not punishing or controlling. Love lets you grow and breathe. Love's passion is only good passion - swirling leaves on a fall day passion, a sky full of magnificent stars passion - not angst and anxiety. Love is not hurt and harm. Love is never unsafe. Love is sleeping like puzzle pieces..."
"I found out that a healthy relationship isn't so much about a sense of humor or intelligence or attraction... it's about being with a good person. A good person on his own and a good person with you. Where the space between you feels uncomplicated and happy. A good relationship is where things just work. The work because, whatever the list of qualities, whatever the reason, you happen to be really, really good together."
7.31.2010
7.17.2010
Reflection on a Warm Summer's Evening
The scratch of my pen disturbs the reverie of the night
The stars brilliant glow whispering the promise of magic and redemption
As I recline in the warm summers eve
The warm glow of scotch filters through my veins
The smooth scent of jasmine lingering on the air
A slight breeze, a rocking swing, and I dream
The full page of words melts before my eyes
The ink dripping off, running together, flowing into form and substance
A living poem floats off the page, beckons with a black hand, and we dance
Her inky hands slip over mine, her touch staining my skin
The ink blots slowly across my body
Every drip leaving a little less of her to hold…
But where I become ink, she becomes flesh
Faster now we whirl, bodies incorporeal pressing together
Merging, shifting, changing… balancing
The music of the stars stops and before me she stands
The pale beautiful goddess of my heart
I stretch out a hand to her, mottled with ink
Together, we turn and walk into the heavens
7.13.2010
7.12.2010
"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
--selection from Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."
--selection from Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson
6.13.2010
Throwaway lines III
The Will to Be
"Who, finding one very valuable pearl, went away and sold all that he had and bought it."
--Matthew 13:46
The music's siren bands wrap around my heart
Bonding and binding me within its ecstatic embrace
I sacrifice all to its insatiable beat
Knowing nothing but the pleasure of its grace
Odysseus I am not
Immortal paragon of the iron will
I rip the fetters from my hands
Throw aside the mast to kneel
Between my soul and the artists enraptured visage
Bondage and penury await perhaps
A lifetime's cold absence my only reward
But the pleasure of smile and sparkling eyes
Sustains my fiery soul and bids the hounds of hell course on
"Who, finding one very valuable pearl, went away and sold all that he had and bought it."
--Matthew 13:46
The music's siren bands wrap around my heart
Bonding and binding me within its ecstatic embrace
I sacrifice all to its insatiable beat
Knowing nothing but the pleasure of its grace
Odysseus I am not
Immortal paragon of the iron will
I rip the fetters from my hands
Throw aside the mast to kneel
Between my soul and the artists enraptured visage
Bondage and penury await perhaps
A lifetime's cold absence my only reward
But the pleasure of smile and sparkling eyes
Sustains my fiery soul and bids the hounds of hell course on
6.04.2010
From Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
This is a difficult book to read, but has some excellent material.
"He had room in his heart for only two idols - his lady and himself: he doted on both and adored one, and I couldn't conceive how he would bear her loss."
The following paragraphs spoken by Catherine:
"whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbean from lightning, or frost from fire."
"Who is to separate us, pray? ... Not as long as I live, Ellen: for no mortal creature. Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing before I could consent to forsake Heathcliff."
"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Healthcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being..."
"He had room in his heart for only two idols - his lady and himself: he doted on both and adored one, and I couldn't conceive how he would bear her loss."
The following paragraphs spoken by Catherine:
"whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbean from lightning, or frost from fire."
"Who is to separate us, pray? ... Not as long as I live, Ellen: for no mortal creature. Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing before I could consent to forsake Heathcliff."
"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Healthcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being..."
5.21.2010
More throwaway lines
Night
Nights are the best
When the silver dust of moonlight
Draws forth the magic of a still eve
Memories of a cool touch and warm eyes
Envelope me in lost passion
Nights are the worst
When the distance between the shadows
And cold stars reminds me
Of the distance between my chest and your cheek
No fire in the universe can warm my soul
But yet for the days
Passing hours of quiet
Precious moments of sound or sight
The universe is inverse
And I am undone
"Chaotic Evil means never having to say you're sorry"
Walk through life a raging blaze of fire
The earth rolls beneath pounding fists
Raised arms to the sky
Lighting crashes
Destruction reigns supreme
The only one I ever cared for lies shattered
Her twisted body and broken heart tokens of my affection
I only ever loved you
But I've always known
I only ever destroyed you
I don't know how to tell you to run
I don't know how to tell you to run
I don't know how to tell you to run
Run
Spiritual son of the Marquis de Sade
I make Caligula look compassionate
Vlad was my brother yet I staked him
The rumors are true
I am the devil's spawn
Freedom
Don't you think I know
If you ever find your freedom
I'm one of those chains
You long to be free from?
5.02.2010
Leonard Cohen selections
Intro
...I didn't kill myself
When things went wrong
I didn't turn
To drugs or teaching
I tried to sleep
But when I couldn't sleep
I learned to write
I learned to write
What might be read
On nights like this
By one like me
I Left
I left a woman waiting
I met her sometime later
She said, your eyes are dead
What happened to you, lover?
And since she spoke the truth to me
I tried to answer truthfully
Whatever happened to my eyes
Happened to your beauty
There are some men
There are some men
who should have mountains
to bear their names through time
Grave markers are not high enough
or green
and sons go far away
to lose the fist
their father’s hand will always be
I had a friend
he lived and died in mighty silence
and with dignity
left no book son or lover to mourn.
Nor is this a mourning song
but only a naming of this mountain
on which I walk
fragrant, dark and softly white
under the pale of mist
I name this mountain after him.
Your eyes
Your eyes are very strong
They try to cripple me
You put all your strength
into your eyes
because you do not know
how to be a hero
You have mistaken your ideal
It is not a hero
but a tyrant
you long to become
Therefore weakness
is your most attractive quality
I have no plans for you
Your dangerous black eyes
fasten on the nearest girl
or the nearest mirror
as you go hopefully
from profession to profession.
...I didn't kill myself
When things went wrong
I didn't turn
To drugs or teaching
I tried to sleep
But when I couldn't sleep
I learned to write
I learned to write
What might be read
On nights like this
By one like me
I Left
I left a woman waiting
I met her sometime later
She said, your eyes are dead
What happened to you, lover?
And since she spoke the truth to me
I tried to answer truthfully
Whatever happened to my eyes
Happened to your beauty
There are some men
There are some men
who should have mountains
to bear their names through time
Grave markers are not high enough
or green
and sons go far away
to lose the fist
their father’s hand will always be
I had a friend
he lived and died in mighty silence
and with dignity
left no book son or lover to mourn.
Nor is this a mourning song
but only a naming of this mountain
on which I walk
fragrant, dark and softly white
under the pale of mist
I name this mountain after him.
Your eyes
Your eyes are very strong
They try to cripple me
You put all your strength
into your eyes
because you do not know
how to be a hero
You have mistaken your ideal
It is not a hero
but a tyrant
you long to become
Therefore weakness
is your most attractive quality
I have no plans for you
Your dangerous black eyes
fasten on the nearest girl
or the nearest mirror
as you go hopefully
from profession to profession.
5.01.2010
Selections from Edwin Arlington Robinson
"Eros Turanos"
...Meanwhile we do no harm; for they
That with a god have striven,
Not hearing much of what we say,
Take what the god hath given;
Though like waves breaking it may be
Or like a changed familiar tree
Or like a stairway to the sea
Where down the blind are driven."
"Ballad by the fire" -- Envoy
Life is a game that must be played
This truth at least, good friends, we know;
So live and laugh, nor be dismayed
As one by one the phantoms go
"Sonnet"
OH for a poet — for a beacon bright
To rift this changeless glimmer of dead gray;
To spirit back the Muses, long astray,
And flush Parnassus with a newer light;
To put these little sonnet-men to flight
Who fashion, in a shrewd, mechanic way,
Songs without souls, that flicker for a day,
To vanish in irrevocable night.
What does it mean, this barren age of ours?
Here are the men, the women, and the flowers,
The seasons, and the sunset, as before.
What does it mean? Shall not one bard arise
To wrench one banner from the western skies,
And mark it with his name forevermore?
...Meanwhile we do no harm; for they
That with a god have striven,
Not hearing much of what we say,
Take what the god hath given;
Though like waves breaking it may be
Or like a changed familiar tree
Or like a stairway to the sea
Where down the blind are driven."
"Ballad by the fire" -- Envoy
Life is a game that must be played
This truth at least, good friends, we know;
So live and laugh, nor be dismayed
As one by one the phantoms go
"Sonnet"
OH for a poet — for a beacon bright
To rift this changeless glimmer of dead gray;
To spirit back the Muses, long astray,
And flush Parnassus with a newer light;
To put these little sonnet-men to flight
Who fashion, in a shrewd, mechanic way,
Songs without souls, that flicker for a day,
To vanish in irrevocable night.
What does it mean, this barren age of ours?
Here are the men, the women, and the flowers,
The seasons, and the sunset, as before.
What does it mean? Shall not one bard arise
To wrench one banner from the western skies,
And mark it with his name forevermore?
4.14.2010
4.07.2010
Excertps from CS Lewis book of poetry
These are from his pre-Christianity days, written in the trenches of World War I.
XXXIX. World's Desire
Love, there is a castle built in a country desolate,
On a rock above a forest where the trees are grim and great,
Blasted with the lightning sharp-giant boulders strewn between,
And the mountains rise above, and the cold ravine
Echoes to the crushing roar and thunder of a mighty river
Raging down a cataract. Very tower and forest quiver
And the grey wolves are afraid and the call of birds is drowned,
And the thought and speech of man in the boiling water's sound.
But upon the further side of the barren, sharp ravine
With the sunlight on its turrets is the castle seen,
Calm and very wonderful, white above the green
Of the wet and waving forest, slanted all away,
Because the driving Northern wind will not rest by night or day.
Yet the towers are sure above, very mighty is the stead,
The gates are made of ivory, the roofs of copper red.
Round and round the warders grave walk upon the walls for ever
And the wakeful dragons couch in the ports of ivory,
Nothing is can trouble it, hate of the gods nor man's endeavour,
And it shall be a resting-place, dear heart, for you and me.
Through the wet and waving forest with an age-old sorrow laden
Singing of the world's regret wanders wild the faerie maiden,
Through the thistle and the brier, through the tangles of the thorn,
Till her eyes be dim with weeping and her homeless feet are torn.
Often to the castle gate up she looks with vain endeavour,
For her soulless loveliness to the castle winneth never.
But within the sacred court, hidden high upon the mountain,
Wandering in the castle gardens lovely folk enough there be,
Breathing in another air, drinking of a purer fountain
And among that folk, beloved, there's a place for you and me.
...
How should I sing of them? Can it be good
To think of glory now, when all is done,
And all our labour underneath the sun
Has brought us this-and not the thing we would?
All these were rosy visions of the night,
The loveliness and wisdom feigned of old.
But now we wake. The East is pale and cold,
No hope is in the dawn, and no delight.
French Nocturne (Monchy-Le-Preux), C.S. Lewis, Spirits in Bondage
False mocking fancy! Once I too could dream,
Who now can only see with vulgar eye
That he's no nearer to the moon than I
And she's a stone that catches the sun's beam.
What call have I to dream of anything?
I am a wolf. Back to the world again,
And speech of fellow-brutes that once were men
Our throats can bark for slaughter: cannot sing.
"To trace something unknown back to something known is alleviating, soothing, gratifying and gives moreover a feeling of power. Danger, disquiet, anxiety attend the unknown - the first instinct is to eliminate these distressing states. First principle: any explanation is better than none... The cause-creating drive is thus conditioned and excited by the feeling of fear..." Friedrich Nietzsche
Excerpt
"We would rather be ruined than changed;
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die"
W.H. Auden, Collected Poems (New York: Random House, 2007), 530.
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die"
W.H. Auden, Collected Poems (New York: Random House, 2007), 530.
2.23.2010
from Vicktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning"
"Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in her spiritual being, her inner self. Whether or not she is actually present, whether or not she is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance."
--pg 38
"...being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself -- be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself -- by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love -- the more human he is...
Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of her personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves her. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in her..."
--pg 110-111
"And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, you inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical..."
--pg 66
"Fundamentally, therefore, any man.... may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. Dostoevski said once, 'There is only one thing I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.'"
--pg 66
quoting Nietzsche: "He who has a why to life for can bear with almost any how."
--pg 76
"I think it was Lessing who once said, 'There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose.' An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior."
--pg 20
2006 beacon press edition
--pg 38
"...being human always points, and is directed, to something, or someone, other than oneself -- be it a meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself -- by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love -- the more human he is...
Love is the only way to grasp another human being in the innermost core of her personality. No one can become fully aware of the very essence of another human being unless he loves her. By his love he is enabled to see the essential traits and features in the beloved person; and even more, he sees that which is potential in her..."
--pg 110-111
"And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, you inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical..."
--pg 66
"Fundamentally, therefore, any man.... may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp. Dostoevski said once, 'There is only one thing I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.'"
--pg 66
quoting Nietzsche: "He who has a why to life for can bear with almost any how."
--pg 76
"I think it was Lessing who once said, 'There are things which must cause you to lose your reason or you have none to lose.' An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior."
--pg 20
2006 beacon press edition
1.11.2010
"There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness. We must have felt what it is to die, Morrel, that we may appreciate the enjoyments of living."
"Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words, -- `Wait and hope.' Your friend,
"Edmond Dantes, Count of Monte Cristo.
--The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
"Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words, -- `Wait and hope.' Your friend,
"Edmond Dantes, Count of Monte Cristo.
--The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
"Alas," said Monte Cristo, "it is the infirmity of our nature always to believe ourselves much more unhappy than those who groan by our sides!"
"What can be more wretched than the man who has lost all he loved and desired in the world?"
...
"And has he found consolation?"
"He has at least found peace."
"And does he ever expect to be happy?"
"He hopes so, Maximilian."
--The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
"What can be more wretched than the man who has lost all he loved and desired in the world?"
...
"And has he found consolation?"
"He has at least found peace."
"And does he ever expect to be happy?"
"He hopes so, Maximilian."
--The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
9.04.2009
8.24.2009
"Mercedes uttered a cry which made the tears start from Monte Cristo's eyes; but these tears disappeared almost instantaneously, for, doubtless, God had sent some angel to collect them -- far more precious were they in his eyes than the richest pearls of Guzerat and Ophir."
--The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
--The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
2.28.2009
"Approval, though, is not the goal of investing. In fact, approval is often counter-productive because it
sedates the brain and makes it less receptive to new facts or a re-examination of conclusions formed earlier.
Beware the investment activity that produces applause; the great moves are usually greeted by yawns."
--Warren Buffett, 2008 Annual Letter
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