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Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Some quotes that touch on the concept of nihilism.
"Life's but a walking shadow... a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
-Shakespeare
“I can't go on, I'll go on.”
― Samuel Beckett
“Do you know what punishments I've endured for my crimes, my sins? None. I am proof of the absurdity of men's most treasured abstractions. A just universe wouldn't tolerate my existence.”
― Brent Weeks
“If we believe in nothing, if nothing has any meaning and if we can affirm no values whatsoever, then everything is possible and nothing has any importance.”
― Albert Camus
“Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window, and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all.”
― Joseph Heller
“There must be somebody there, because somebody must have said "Nobody.”
― A.A. Milne
“The point is there ain't no point.”
― Cormac McCarthy
“Why do we argue? Life's so fragile, a successful virus clinging to a speck of mud, suspended in endless nothing.”
― Alan Moore
“I think we are just insects, we live a bit and then die and that’s the lot. There’s no mercy in things. There’s not even a Great Beyond. There’s nothing.”
― John Fowles
“That's how we stay young these days: murder and suicide.”
― Eugène Ionesco
"Life's but a walking shadow... a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
-Shakespeare
“I can't go on, I'll go on.”
― Samuel Beckett
“Do you know what punishments I've endured for my crimes, my sins? None. I am proof of the absurdity of men's most treasured abstractions. A just universe wouldn't tolerate my existence.”
― Brent Weeks
“If we believe in nothing, if nothing has any meaning and if we can affirm no values whatsoever, then everything is possible and nothing has any importance.”
― Albert Camus
“Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window, and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all.”
― Joseph Heller
“There must be somebody there, because somebody must have said "Nobody.”
― A.A. Milne
“The point is there ain't no point.”
― Cormac McCarthy
“Why do we argue? Life's so fragile, a successful virus clinging to a speck of mud, suspended in endless nothing.”
― Alan Moore
“I think we are just insects, we live a bit and then die and that’s the lot. There’s no mercy in things. There’s not even a Great Beyond. There’s nothing.”
― John Fowles
“That's how we stay young these days: murder and suicide.”
― Eugène Ionesco
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Pleasure makes us human
- Lavazza TV commercial
- Lavazza TV commercial
Sudacafan
Bionic Poster
Pleasure can also make us beasts.
(I’d be very surprised if I was the first one to say this)
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Stéphane Mallarmé quotes
"Everything in the world exists in order to end up in a book."
“A roll of the dice will never abolish chance.”
“It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things.”
“Everything that is sacred and that wishes to remain so must envelop itself in mystery.”
“I have made a long enough descent into the void to speak with certainty. There is nothing but beauty--and beauty has only one perfect expression, Poetry. All the rest is a lie.”
“Poetry is the language of a state of crisis.”
“To define is to kill. To suggest is to create.”
“The flesh is sad, alas, and I have read all the books.”
“It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things.”
“Everything that is sacred and that wishes to remain so must envelop itself in mystery.”
“In reading, a lonely quiet concert is given to our minds; all our mental faculties will be present in this symphonic exaltation. ”
“It is in front of the the paper that the artist creates himself.”
“I have made a long enough descent into the void to speak with certainty. There is nothing but beauty--and beauty has only one perfect expression, Poetry. All the rest is a lie.
“There is only beauty / and it has only one perfect expression / poetry. All the rest is a lie /except for those who live by the body, love, and, that love of the mind, friendship. For me, Poetry takes the place of love, because it is enamored of itself, and because its sensual delight falls back deliciously in my soul.”
“Poetry is the language of a state of crisis.”
"Everything in the world exists in order to end up in a book."
“A roll of the dice will never abolish chance.”
“It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things.”
“Everything that is sacred and that wishes to remain so must envelop itself in mystery.”
“I have made a long enough descent into the void to speak with certainty. There is nothing but beauty--and beauty has only one perfect expression, Poetry. All the rest is a lie.”
“Poetry is the language of a state of crisis.”
“To define is to kill. To suggest is to create.”
“The flesh is sad, alas, and I have read all the books.”
“It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things.”
“Everything that is sacred and that wishes to remain so must envelop itself in mystery.”
“In reading, a lonely quiet concert is given to our minds; all our mental faculties will be present in this symphonic exaltation. ”
“It is in front of the the paper that the artist creates himself.”
“I have made a long enough descent into the void to speak with certainty. There is nothing but beauty--and beauty has only one perfect expression, Poetry. All the rest is a lie.
“There is only beauty / and it has only one perfect expression / poetry. All the rest is a lie /except for those who live by the body, love, and, that love of the mind, friendship. For me, Poetry takes the place of love, because it is enamored of itself, and because its sensual delight falls back deliciously in my soul.”
“Poetry is the language of a state of crisis.”
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Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Assorted Quotes
Aging seems to be the only available way to live a long time.
-Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber
My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.
-Fiona Macleod (William Sharp)
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
-Mother Teresa
Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.
T S Eliot
Aging seems to be the only available way to live a long time.
-Daniel-Francois-Esprit Auber
My heart is a lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.
-Fiona Macleod (William Sharp)
Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.
-Mother Teresa
Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair.
T S Eliot
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
“There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in."
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
― Leonard Cohen
“The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world.”
― Leonard Cohen
“How can I begin anything new with all of yesterday in me?”
― Leonard Cohen
“Children show scars like medals. Lovers use them as a secrets to reveal. A scar is what happens when the word is made flesh.”
― Leonard Cohen
“I don't remember
lighting this cigarette
and I don't remember
if I'm here alone
or waiting for someone.”
― Leonard Cohen
“I don't consider myself a pessimist. I think of a pessimist as someone who is waiting for it to rain. And I feel soaked to the skin.”
― Leonard Cohen
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
T E Lawrence
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream at night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for
they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible."
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream at night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for
they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible."
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
James Thurber
It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers".
"Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness".
"All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why".
"Progress was all right. Only it went on too long".
"Love is what you've been through with somebody".
"One martini is alright. Two are too many, and three are not enough".
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility".
"Don't get it right, just get it written. Black on white".
"The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself,
but in so doing, he identifies himself with people".
It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers".
"Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness".
"All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why".
"Progress was all right. Only it went on too long".
"Love is what you've been through with somebody".
"One martini is alright. Two are too many, and three are not enough".
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility".
"Don't get it right, just get it written. Black on white".
"The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself,
but in so doing, he identifies himself with people".
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Bhagi Katbamna
Legend
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Alfred Russel Wallace
(Naturalist who co-discovered theory of evolution-
seems kind of a cranky guy)
“It is indisputably the mediocre, if not the low, both as regards morality and intelligence, who succeed in life and multiply the fastest.”
― Alfred Russel Wallace
“Truth is born into this world only with pangs and tribulations, and every fresh truth is received unwillingly.”
― Alfred Russel Wallace
“Our mastery over the forces of nature has led to a rapid growth of population, and a vast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them such an amount of poverty and crime, and have fostered the growth of so much sordid feeling and so many fierce passions, that it may well be questioned, whether the mental and moral status of our population has not on the average been lowered, and whether the evil has not overbalanced the good.”
― Alfred Russel Wallace
“I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head”
― Alfred Russel Wallace
(Naturalist who co-discovered theory of evolution-
seems kind of a cranky guy)
“It is indisputably the mediocre, if not the low, both as regards morality and intelligence, who succeed in life and multiply the fastest.”
― Alfred Russel Wallace
“Truth is born into this world only with pangs and tribulations, and every fresh truth is received unwillingly.”
― Alfred Russel Wallace
“Our mastery over the forces of nature has led to a rapid growth of population, and a vast accumulation of wealth; but these have brought with them such an amount of poverty and crime, and have fostered the growth of so much sordid feeling and so many fierce passions, that it may well be questioned, whether the mental and moral status of our population has not on the average been lowered, and whether the evil has not overbalanced the good.”
― Alfred Russel Wallace
“I slept very comfortably with half a dozen smoke-dried human skulls suspended over my head”
― Alfred Russel Wallace
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”
― H.P. Lovecraft
― H.P. Lovecraft
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
A cause is like champagne and high heels- one must be prepared to suffer for it.
-Arnold Benet
A true believer is in a high degree protected against the danger of certain neurotic
afflictions; by accepting the universal neurosis he is spared the task of forming
a personal neurosis.
-Sigmund Freud
Have it your way- you heard a seal bark
-James Thurber
-Arnold Benet
A true believer is in a high degree protected against the danger of certain neurotic
afflictions; by accepting the universal neurosis he is spared the task of forming
a personal neurosis.
-Sigmund Freud
Have it your way- you heard a seal bark
-James Thurber
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Douglas Hofstadter
(I left in the names of the sources because they are worth looking up and reading)
“It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of order - and yet, deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
“Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law”
― Douglas Hofstadter
“Meaning lies as much
in the mind of the reader
as in the Haiku.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“Sometimes it seems as though each new step towards AI, rather than producing something which everyone agrees is real intelligence, merely reveals what real intelligence is not. ”
― Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“How gullible are you? Is your gullibility located in some "gullibility center" in your brain? Could a neurosurgeon reach in and perform some delicate operation to lower your gullibility, otherwise leaving you alone? If you believe this, you are pretty gullible, and should perhaps consider such an operation.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference.”
― Douglas Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop
“A mirror mirroring a mirror”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop
tags: mirror, self-referential, strange-loop
“The key question is, no matter how much you absorb of another person, can you have absorbed so much of them that when that primary brain perishes, you can feel that that person did not totally perish from the earth... because they live on in a 'second neural home'?... In the wake of a human being's death, what survives is a set of afterglows, some brighter and some dimmer, in the collective brains of those who were dearest to them... Though the primary brain has been eclipsed, there is, in those who remain... a collective corona that still glows.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter
“The paraphrase of Gödel's Theorem says that for any record player, there are records which it cannot play because they will cause its indirect self-destruction.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“What is an "I", and why are such things found (at least so far) only in association with, as poet Russell Edson once wonderfully phrased it, "teetering bulbs of dread and dream" -- that is, only in association with certain kinds of gooey lumps encased in hard protective shells mounted atop mobile pedestals that roam the world on pairs of slightly fuzzy, jointed stilts?”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“Saying that studying the brain is limited to the study of physical entities would be like saying that literary criticism must focus on paper and bookbinding, ink and its chemistry, page sizes and margin widths, typefaces and paragraph lengths, and so forth.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop
“This idea that there is generality in the specific is of far-reaching importance.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“I would like to understand things better, but I don’t want to understand them perfectly.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
(I left in the names of the sources because they are worth looking up and reading)
“It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a facade of order - and yet, deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
“Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law”
― Douglas Hofstadter
“Meaning lies as much
in the mind of the reader
as in the Haiku.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“Sometimes it seems as though each new step towards AI, rather than producing something which everyone agrees is real intelligence, merely reveals what real intelligence is not. ”
― Douglas Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“How gullible are you? Is your gullibility located in some "gullibility center" in your brain? Could a neurosurgeon reach in and perform some delicate operation to lower your gullibility, otherwise leaving you alone? If you believe this, you are pretty gullible, and should perhaps consider such an operation.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference.”
― Douglas Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop
“A mirror mirroring a mirror”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop
tags: mirror, self-referential, strange-loop
“The key question is, no matter how much you absorb of another person, can you have absorbed so much of them that when that primary brain perishes, you can feel that that person did not totally perish from the earth... because they live on in a 'second neural home'?... In the wake of a human being's death, what survives is a set of afterglows, some brighter and some dimmer, in the collective brains of those who were dearest to them... Though the primary brain has been eclipsed, there is, in those who remain... a collective corona that still glows.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter
“The paraphrase of Gödel's Theorem says that for any record player, there are records which it cannot play because they will cause its indirect self-destruction.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“What is an "I", and why are such things found (at least so far) only in association with, as poet Russell Edson once wonderfully phrased it, "teetering bulbs of dread and dream" -- that is, only in association with certain kinds of gooey lumps encased in hard protective shells mounted atop mobile pedestals that roam the world on pairs of slightly fuzzy, jointed stilts?”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“Saying that studying the brain is limited to the study of physical entities would be like saying that literary criticism must focus on paper and bookbinding, ink and its chemistry, page sizes and margin widths, typefaces and paragraph lengths, and so forth.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, I Am a Strange Loop
“This idea that there is generality in the specific is of far-reaching importance.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
“I would like to understand things better, but I don’t want to understand them perfectly.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
William James Sidis
"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action".
"Act as if what you do makes a difference".
"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook".
"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude".
"I want to live the perfect life. The only way to live the perfect life is through seclusion. I have always hated crowds".
"Before a baby can talk, his mind is there... Minds are built with use... Encourage this baby of ours to think... Answer all his questions".
"In order to effect any sweeping change in society, it is absolutely essential to produce a discontinuity—that is, a break in continuity".
"There is no way of telling whether we are living organisms in a positive universe, or pseudo-living organisms in a negative universe".
"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook".
"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action".
"Act as if what you do makes a difference".
"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook".
"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude".
"I want to live the perfect life. The only way to live the perfect life is through seclusion. I have always hated crowds".
"Before a baby can talk, his mind is there... Minds are built with use... Encourage this baby of ours to think... Answer all his questions".
"In order to effect any sweeping change in society, it is absolutely essential to produce a discontinuity—that is, a break in continuity".
"There is no way of telling whether we are living organisms in a positive universe, or pseudo-living organisms in a negative universe".
"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook".
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Some Charles Lamb quotes
Nothing is to me more distasteful than that entire complacency and satisfaction
which beam in the countenances of a new-married couple.
Borrowers of books- those mutilators of collections, spoilers of symmetry of shelves,
and creators of odd volumes.
A poor relation- is the most irrelevant thing in nature.
The human species, according to the best, according to the best theory I can form of it,
is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow and the men who lend.
Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better of something or other.
And a quote about Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb I believe to be in some considerable degree insane. A more pitiful, rickety,
gasping, staggering, stammering tomfool I do not know.
-Thomas Carlyle
Nothing is to me more distasteful than that entire complacency and satisfaction
which beam in the countenances of a new-married couple.
Borrowers of books- those mutilators of collections, spoilers of symmetry of shelves,
and creators of odd volumes.
A poor relation- is the most irrelevant thing in nature.
The human species, according to the best, according to the best theory I can form of it,
is composed of two distinct races, the men who borrow and the men who lend.
Man is a gaming animal. He must always be trying to get the better of something or other.
And a quote about Charles Lamb
Charles Lamb I believe to be in some considerable degree insane. A more pitiful, rickety,
gasping, staggering, stammering tomfool I do not know.
-Thomas Carlyle
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Pecksniffian- comes from a character in Dickens novel, Martin Chuzzlewit, who
pretended to be (outwardly) virtuous and moralistic, but in reality was conniving and selfish.
So, we might say Pecksniffian is an eponym that describes a person who is
sanctimoniousness and hypocritical.
Pollyanna- comes out of a 1913 book by Elenore H Porter. I have never read, or even come across this
book, but, I assume the main character was the sort of person that was almost irritatingly optimistic,
never failing to see the bright side of things or the good in people.
The Pollyanna personality disorder refers to a person who is almost stubbornly optimistic and upbeat
regardless of the external circumstances- even in situations where grief or sadness may be the more
appropriate emotion. In a horror movie, very often the first one to die is the one with a "Pollyanna
personality". A similar "name-word", Micawber, is from Dicken's novel, David Copperfield. A Micawber
tends to be idle, yet optimistic and rely on luck or chance to meet his financial needs- thinking in terms like,
"Never Despair, something will turn up".
Goody Two-Shoes- Calling someone a goody two-shoes is considered to be derogatory. and goes back to
a book published in 1765 by an anonymous author (possible Oliver Goldsmith) and is considered one of the first works
of children's literature. The term refers to a person excessively well-behaved and rule-following- to the point
of being annoying. Generally it is considered a negative expression used to suggest that someone's facade of
"goodness" is not genuine.
Kummerspeck- comes from German. A literal translation means something like "grief bacon" and refers to
extra weight gained by a person during a period of sadness or loss. In almost every situation comedy
on TV when a women is "dumped" the next scene usually shows her eating a whole container of ice cream
It's the same concept, except the Germans have a word for it. It was an "answer on Jeopardy recently.
Peck's Bad Boy- is a pretty much self-explanatory term for a kid that invariably stirs up mischief and
gets into trouble. It comes from a series of stories from the 1880s by a guy named Wilber Peck.
I have been watching The Gilmore Girls reruns and there is one character, Jess Mariano (Luke's nephew)
who is the sort of "bad boy" character and tends to be irreverent and antisocial- stealing all the baseballs
from the high school and crashing a car and fracturing Rory's wrist. I suppose if all the characters were
Pollyannas or Goody Two-shoes, it might be a very boring world. I have not heard "Peck's bad boy" used
very often- maybe just once. There was a TV sitcom Peck's Bad girl in the late 1960s- early1970s based on the
same concept.
pretended to be (outwardly) virtuous and moralistic, but in reality was conniving and selfish.
So, we might say Pecksniffian is an eponym that describes a person who is
sanctimoniousness and hypocritical.
Pollyanna- comes out of a 1913 book by Elenore H Porter. I have never read, or even come across this
book, but, I assume the main character was the sort of person that was almost irritatingly optimistic,
never failing to see the bright side of things or the good in people.
The Pollyanna personality disorder refers to a person who is almost stubbornly optimistic and upbeat
regardless of the external circumstances- even in situations where grief or sadness may be the more
appropriate emotion. In a horror movie, very often the first one to die is the one with a "Pollyanna
personality". A similar "name-word", Micawber, is from Dicken's novel, David Copperfield. A Micawber
tends to be idle, yet optimistic and rely on luck or chance to meet his financial needs- thinking in terms like,
"Never Despair, something will turn up".
Goody Two-Shoes- Calling someone a goody two-shoes is considered to be derogatory. and goes back to
a book published in 1765 by an anonymous author (possible Oliver Goldsmith) and is considered one of the first works
of children's literature. The term refers to a person excessively well-behaved and rule-following- to the point
of being annoying. Generally it is considered a negative expression used to suggest that someone's facade of
"goodness" is not genuine.
Kummerspeck- comes from German. A literal translation means something like "grief bacon" and refers to
extra weight gained by a person during a period of sadness or loss. In almost every situation comedy
on TV when a women is "dumped" the next scene usually shows her eating a whole container of ice cream
It's the same concept, except the Germans have a word for it. It was an "answer on Jeopardy recently.
Peck's Bad Boy- is a pretty much self-explanatory term for a kid that invariably stirs up mischief and
gets into trouble. It comes from a series of stories from the 1880s by a guy named Wilber Peck.
I have been watching The Gilmore Girls reruns and there is one character, Jess Mariano (Luke's nephew)
who is the sort of "bad boy" character and tends to be irreverent and antisocial- stealing all the baseballs
from the high school and crashing a car and fracturing Rory's wrist. I suppose if all the characters were
Pollyannas or Goody Two-shoes, it might be a very boring world. I have not heard "Peck's bad boy" used
very often- maybe just once. There was a TV sitcom Peck's Bad girl in the late 1960s- early1970s based on the
same concept.
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Bagumbawalla quotes he just made up
There are two kinds of people- you and everyone else.
If you believe you can- you're halfway to fooling yourself.
An unexamined life is not worth examining.
The universe is not against you, it just seems that way.
Giving up is not failing, it's just putting off failing til later.
Every day is an opportunity to be missed.
There are two kinds of people- you and everyone else.
If you believe you can- you're halfway to fooling yourself.
An unexamined life is not worth examining.
The universe is not against you, it just seems that way.
Giving up is not failing, it's just putting off failing til later.
Every day is an opportunity to be missed.
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
Well, what do you know?
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance,
it is the illusion of knowledge.
-Stephen Hawking
There goes a woman who knows all the things that can be
taught and none of the things that cannot be taught.
-Coco Chanel
There never was an age in which useless knowledge
was more important than our own.
-Cyril Joad (1951)
Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance
must necessarily be infinite.
-Carl Popper
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance,
it is the illusion of knowledge.
-Stephen Hawking
There goes a woman who knows all the things that can be
taught and none of the things that cannot be taught.
-Coco Chanel
There never was an age in which useless knowledge
was more important than our own.
-Cyril Joad (1951)
Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance
must necessarily be infinite.
-Carl Popper
Bagumbawalla
Talk Tennis Guru
The Sheltering Sky Quotes (a good book- worth reading)
“Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
― Paul Bowles
“Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.”
― Paul Bowles
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Here are some quotes about writing from some random authors and sources
2. “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly—they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” — Aldous Huxley
3. “Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.” — Stephen King
4. “What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you.” — Anne Lamott
5. “Stories aren't made of language: they're made of something else... perhaps they're made of life.” — Philip Pullman
"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don't care who's listening". Allen Ginsberg
- Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass." – Anton Chekhov
- "The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter — it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." – Mark Twain
- "A professional writer is an amateur who didn't quit." – JamesClear (often attributed)
- "You can make anything by writing." – C.S. Lewis
- "Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go." – EB White (paraphrased)
2. “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly—they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” — Aldous Huxley
3. “Writing isn't about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it's about enriching the lives of those who will read your work, and enriching your own life, as well. It's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.” — Stephen King
4. “What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you.” — Anne Lamott
5. “Stories aren't made of language: they're made of something else... perhaps they're made of life.” — Philip Pullman
- "When I write I am trying to express my way of being in the world. This is primarily a process of elimination: once you have removed all the dead language, the second-hand dogma, the truths that are not your own but other people's... what you are left with is something approximating the truth of your own conception".-Zadie Smith
- "Reading is like breathing in, and writing is like breathing out".-ZS
- "Writing at every point is a leap into a complete unknown [...] At every point, you have the possibility of not being able to do it at all. You restart at every blank piece of paper. That's really exhilarating for me". ZS
"Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness. You say what you want to say when you don't care who's listening". Allen Ginsberg
- "The artist works by locating the world in himself."- Gertrude Stein
- "An artist puts down what he knows and at every moment it is what he knows at that moment."- GS
- "If the communication is perfect, the words have life, and that is all there is to good writing, putting down on the paper words which dance..." -GS
- "Writing is nothing more than a guided dream."
- "Writing long books is a laborious and impoverishing act of foolishness: expanding in five hundred pages an idea that could be perfectly explained in a few minutes."
- "A better procedure is to pretend that those books already exist and to offer a summary, a commentary."
- "Every novel is an ideal plane inserted into the realm of reality."
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Virginia Woolf
Why are women ...so much more interesting to men
than men are to women?
Why are women ...so much more interesting to men
than men are to women?
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Heisenberg
What we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Not only is the universe stranger than you think, it is stranger than we can think.
There are things that are so serious that you can only joke about them.
The reality we can put into words is never reality itself.
Only a few know how much one must know, to know how little one knows.
What we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
Not only is the universe stranger than you think, it is stranger than we can think.
There are things that are so serious that you can only joke about them.
The reality we can put into words is never reality itself.
Only a few know how much one must know, to know how little one knows.
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“I know there is no straight road
No straight road in this world
Only a giant labyrinth
Of intersecting crossroads”
― Federico García Lorca
“The artist, and particularly the poet, is always an anarchist in the best sense of the word. He must heed only the call that arises within him from three strong voices: the voice of death, with all its foreboding, the voice of love and the voice of art.”
― Federico García-Lorca
“Never let me lose the marvel
of your statue-like eyes, or the accent
the solitary rose of your breath
places on my cheek at night.
“I am the immense shadow of my tears”
― Federico Garcia Lorca
“At the heart of all great art is an essential melancholy.”
― Federico García Lorca
“Today in my heart
a vague trembling of stars
and all roses are
as white as my pain.”
― Federico García Lorca
“Only mystery allows us to live, only mystery.”
― Federico García-Lorca
No straight road in this world
Only a giant labyrinth
Of intersecting crossroads”
― Federico García Lorca
“The artist, and particularly the poet, is always an anarchist in the best sense of the word. He must heed only the call that arises within him from three strong voices: the voice of death, with all its foreboding, the voice of love and the voice of art.”
― Federico García-Lorca
“Never let me lose the marvel
of your statue-like eyes, or the accent
the solitary rose of your breath
places on my cheek at night.
“I am the immense shadow of my tears”
― Federico Garcia Lorca
“At the heart of all great art is an essential melancholy.”
― Federico García Lorca
“Today in my heart
a vague trembling of stars
and all roses are
as white as my pain.”
― Federico García Lorca
“Only mystery allows us to live, only mystery.”
― Federico García-Lorca
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A random smattering
True genius is a mind of large general powers, accidently
determined to some particular direction.
-Samuel Johnson
God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is
as indefensible as infanticide.
-Rebecca West
Change is not made without inconvenience, even from
worse to better.
-Richard Hooker
Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.
Cervantes
The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun
and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from
which it rises.
-Sigmund Freud
True genius is a mind of large general powers, accidently
determined to some particular direction.
-Samuel Johnson
God forbid that any book should be banned. The practice is
as indefensible as infanticide.
-Rebecca West
Change is not made without inconvenience, even from
worse to better.
-Richard Hooker
Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.
Cervantes
The conscious mind may be compared to a fountain playing in the sun
and falling back into the great subterranean pool of subconscious from
which it rises.
-Sigmund Freud
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Ben Hecht
I discovered early in my movie work that a movie is no better
than the stupidest man connected with it.
Bad writing is not easier than good writing, It's just as hard to
make a toilet seat as a castle window. Only the view is different.
Love is the magician that pulls man out of his own hat.
I discovered early in my movie work that a movie is no better
than the stupidest man connected with it.
Bad writing is not easier than good writing, It's just as hard to
make a toilet seat as a castle window. Only the view is different.
Love is the magician that pulls man out of his own hat.
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Boethius- random quotes
“Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it.
“Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.”
(The now that passes produces time, the now that remains produces eternity.)”
“Indeed, the condition of human nature is just this; man towers above the rest of creation so long as he realizes his own nature, and when he forgets it, he sinks lower than the beasts. For other living things to be ignorant of themselves, is natural; but for man it is a defect.”
“Balance out the good things and the bad that have happened in your life and you will have to acknowledge that you are still way ahead. You are unhappy because you have lost those things in which you took pleasure? But you can also take comfort in the likelihood that what is now making you miserable will also pass away.”
“All fortune is good fortune; for it either rewards, disciplines, amends, or punishes, and so is either useful or just.”
“Nothing is miserable unless you think it so; and on the other hand, nothing brings happiness unless you are content with it.
“Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law.”
(The now that passes produces time, the now that remains produces eternity.)”
“Indeed, the condition of human nature is just this; man towers above the rest of creation so long as he realizes his own nature, and when he forgets it, he sinks lower than the beasts. For other living things to be ignorant of themselves, is natural; but for man it is a defect.”
“Balance out the good things and the bad that have happened in your life and you will have to acknowledge that you are still way ahead. You are unhappy because you have lost those things in which you took pleasure? But you can also take comfort in the likelihood that what is now making you miserable will also pass away.”
“All fortune is good fortune; for it either rewards, disciplines, amends, or punishes, and so is either useful or just.”
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Herman Melville
All moral greatness is but disease.
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.
No philosophers so thoroughly understand us as dogs and horses
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
All my means are sane, my motive and my object mad.
... there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not outdone by the madness of men.
All moral greatness is but disease.
To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.
No philosophers so thoroughly understand us as dogs and horses
We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
All my means are sane, my motive and my object mad.
... there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not outdone by the madness of men.
Bartelby
Bionic Poster
The famous nunc stans:
Nunc stans is a Latin phrase meaning "standing now," used in philosophy and theology to describe an eternal, timeless present, especially as an attribute of God, contrasting with the "flowing now" of temporal experience where past, present, and future exist sequentially. It represents an eternal moment where time's flow stops, a concept found in medieval thought and used in art, literature, and discussions about consciousness and timelessness.
Key Concepts:
Nunc stans is a Latin phrase meaning "standing now," used in philosophy and theology to describe an eternal, timeless present, especially as an attribute of God, contrasting with the "flowing now" of temporal experience where past, present, and future exist sequentially. It represents an eternal moment where time's flow stops, a concept found in medieval thought and used in art, literature, and discussions about consciousness and timelessness.
Key Concepts:
- Meaning: "Standing now" or "abiding now".
- Philosophical/Theological: The concept of eternity as a single, unchanging present, rather than an endless duration, often attributed to the divine consciousness.
- Contrast: Opposes nunc fluens ("flowing now"), which is our everyday experience of time passing.
- Usage: Appears in discussions of metaphysics, religious experience, and consciousness, describing moments of timeless awareness.
Better_Call_Raul
Legend
RSJfan
Legend
"We get paid fine." -- Peter Criss
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If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get
him the votes he so sorely needs, he would begin fattening a missionary
on the White house backyard come Wednesday.
-HL Menken (referring at the time to Franklin Roosevelt)
him the votes he so sorely needs, he would begin fattening a missionary
on the White house backyard come Wednesday.
-HL Menken (referring at the time to Franklin Roosevelt)
Sudacafan
Bionic Poster
Gastric acidity?''Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.''
— Dr. Johnson
Better_Call_Raul
Legend
Better_Call_Raul
Legend
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It is difficult to be humble. Even if you aim at humility, there is no
guarantee that when you have attained that state you will not be
proud of the feat.
-Bonamy Dobree
guarantee that when you have attained that state you will not be
proud of the feat.
-Bonamy Dobree
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David Riesman quotes
Men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual
autonomy in seeking to become like each other.
Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them.
...Isn't it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic fraud, presenting
an image of America taken seriously by no one, least of all by the advertising
men who create it.
Words not only affect us temporarily, they change us, they socialize or un-socialize us
Men are created different; they lose their social freedom and their individual
autonomy in seeking to become like each other.
Look at all the sentences which seem true and question them.
...Isn't it possible that advertising as a whole is a fantastic fraud, presenting
an image of America taken seriously by no one, least of all by the advertising
men who create it.
Words not only affect us temporarily, they change us, they socialize or un-socialize us
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David Bohm
- Then there is the further question of what is the relationship of thinking to reality. As careful attention shows, thought itself is in an actual process of movement. That is to say, one can feel a sense of flow in the stream of consciousness not dissimilar to the sense of flow in the movement of matter in general. May not thought itself thus be a part of reality as a whole? But then, what could it mean for one part of reality to 'know' another, and to what extent would this be possible?
- Man's general way of thinking of the totality, i.e. his general world view, is crucial for overall order of the human mind itself. If he thinks of the totality as constituted of independent fragments, then that is how his mind will tend to operate, but if he can include everything coherently and harmoniously in an overall whole that is undivided, unbroken and without border (for every border is a division or break) then his mind will tend to move in a similar way, and from this will flow an orderly action within the whole.
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We are all made of the same stuff, remember, we of the jungle, you of the city.
The same stuff composes us- the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird,
the beast, the star- we are all one, all moving to the same end...
- P L Travers
The same stuff composes us- the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird,
the beast, the star- we are all one, all moving to the same end...
- P L Travers
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(almost) random quotes
I have known uncertainty: a state unknown to the Greeks.
-Jorge Luis Borges
Only one man understood me.........And he didn't understand me.
-Hegel
He is an ordinary human being, after all!.... now he will put himself above
everyone and become a tyrant.
-Beethoven
Of course not. After all I may be wrong.
-Bertrand Russell (when asked if he would die for his beliefs)
I have known uncertainty: a state unknown to the Greeks.
-Jorge Luis Borges
Only one man understood me.........And he didn't understand me.
-Hegel
He is an ordinary human being, after all!.... now he will put himself above
everyone and become a tyrant.
-Beethoven
Of course not. After all I may be wrong.
-Bertrand Russell (when asked if he would die for his beliefs)
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I started a book about a meeting between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper-
Here are some Popper quotes.
“The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any constraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek. The idea is, in a slightly different form, and with very different tendency, clearly expressed in Plato.
Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them...
“No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.”
― Karl Popper
“Science may be described as the art of systematic oversimplification.”
― Karl Popper
“Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.”
― Karl Popper
“True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.”
― Karl R. Popper
“Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.”
― Karl R. Popper
“All life is problem solving”
― Karl Popper
“Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.”
― Karl Popper
“A theory that explains everything, explains nothing”
― Karl Popper
Here are some Popper quotes.
“The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any constraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek. The idea is, in a slightly different form, and with very different tendency, clearly expressed in Plato.
Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them...
“No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.”
― Karl Popper
“Science may be described as the art of systematic oversimplification.”
― Karl Popper
“Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.”
― Karl Popper
“True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.”
― Karl R. Popper
“Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.”
― Karl R. Popper
“All life is problem solving”
― Karl Popper
“Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.”
― Karl Popper
“A theory that explains everything, explains nothing”
― Karl Popper
tconderoga
New User
Simple and powerful quote. I’ve always liked Gandhi's philosophy on leading by example rather than just talking. It's a good reminder to stay consistent with your values.
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Cyril Connolly
A great writer creates a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it.
A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon will watch then filing out.
A author arrives at good style when his language performs what is required of it
without shyness.
I have always disliked myself at any given moment; the total of such moments is my life.
Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turning before we have learnt to walk.
There is no fury like an ex-wife searching for a new lover.
A great writer creates a world of his own and his readers are proud to live in it.
A lesser writer may entice them in for a moment, but soon will watch then filing out.
A author arrives at good style when his language performs what is required of it
without shyness.
I have always disliked myself at any given moment; the total of such moments is my life.
Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turning before we have learnt to walk.
There is no fury like an ex-wife searching for a new lover.
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Some Quotes by some people
Everyone like a kidder, but no one lends him money.
-Arthur Miller
An ally has to be watched just like an enemy.
Leon Trotsky
Nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.
- Francis Beaumont
Memory is the thing you forget with.
- Alexander Chase
and speaking of memory---
Everyone like a kidder, but no one lends him money.
-Arthur Miller
An ally has to be watched just like an enemy.
Leon Trotsky
Nothing's so dainty sweet as lovely melancholy.
- Francis Beaumont
Memory is the thing you forget with.
- Alexander Chase
and speaking of memory---
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Saintliness is also a temptation.
-Jean Anouilh
Some television programs are
chewing gum for the eyes.
-John Mason Brown
There are two kinds of statistics, the
kind you look up and the kind you make up.
-Rex Stout
A child of five would understand this.
Send somebody to fetch a child of five.
-Groucho Marx
What we must decide is perhaps how we are valuable,
rather than how valuable we are.
-F Scott Fitzgerald
-Jean Anouilh
Some television programs are
chewing gum for the eyes.
-John Mason Brown
There are two kinds of statistics, the
kind you look up and the kind you make up.
-Rex Stout
A child of five would understand this.
Send somebody to fetch a child of five.
-Groucho Marx
What we must decide is perhaps how we are valuable,
rather than how valuable we are.
-F Scott Fitzgerald
