Friday, July 31, 2009

Meandering on . . .

Today is the birthday of Primo Michele Levi (July 31, 1919 - April 11, 1987), chemist, poet and author. He is best known for his works If This Is Man and The Truce.

"The butterfly's attractiveness derives not only from colors and symmetry: deeper motives contribute to it. We would not think them so beautiful if they did not fly, or if they flew straight and briskly like bees, or if they stung, or above all if they did not enact the perturbing mystery of metamorphosis: the latter assumes in our eyes the value of a badly decoded message, a symbol, a sign." - Primo Levi

"Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone; not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by, but often they change, or even increase by incorporating extraneous features." - Primo Levi

"For me chemistry represented an indefinite cloud of future potentialities which enveloped my life to come in black volutes torn by fiery flashes, like those which had hidden Mount Sinai. Like Moses, from that cloud I expected my law, the principle of order in me, around me, and in the world. I would watch the buds swell in spring, the mica glint in the granite, my own hands, and I would say to myself: ''I will understand this, too, I will understand everything." - Primo Levi

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of Cyril Northcote Parkinson (July 30, 1909 - March 9, 1993), historian and author of some sixty books. He is best known for his ridicule of bureaucratic institutions, especially his Parkinson's Law and Other Studies, which is a collection of short essays explaining the inevitability of bureaucratic expansion.

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. General recognition of this fact is shown in the proverbial phrase, It is the busiest man who has time to spare." (Parkinson's Law) - C. Northcote Parkinson

"The chief product of an automated society is a widespread and deepening sense of boredom." - C. Northcote Parkinson

"It is better to be a has-been than a never-was." - C. Northcote Parkinson

"Expenditure rises to meet income." - C. Northcote Parkinson

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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Meandering forever . . .

Today is the birthday of Isidor Isaac Rabi (July 29, 1898 – January 11, 1988), physicist. He is known for his work in magnetism, molecular beams, and quantum mechanics. Isidor I. Rabi received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1944.

"My mother made me a scientist without ever intending to. Every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask her child after school: So? Did you learn anything today? But not my mother. Izzy, she would say, did you ask a good question today? That difference—asking good questions—made me become a scientist." - Isidor I. Rabi

"Physics filled me with awe, put me in touch with a sense of original causes. Physics brought me closer to God. That feeling stayed with me throughout my years in science. Whenever one of my students came to me with a scientific project, I asked one question, Will it bring you closer to God?" - Isidor I. Rabi

"I think physicists are the Peter Pans of the human race. They never grow up, and they keep their curiosity." - Isidor I. Rabi

"Science is a great game. It is inspiring and refreshing. The playing field is the universe itself." - Isidor I. Rabi

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Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Meandering in circles . . .

Today is the birthday of Karl Raimund Popper (July 28, 1902 – September 17, 1994), philosopher. He is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century.

"I believe it is worthwhile trying to discover more about the world, even if this only teaches us how little we know." - Karl Popper

"Our knowledge can be only finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite." - Karl Popper

"Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you." - Karl Popper

"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." - Karl Popper

"No matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white." - Karl Popper

"True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it." - Karl Popper

"All things living are in search of a better world." - Karl Popper

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Monday, July 27, 2009

Meandering to and fro . . .

Today is the birthday of Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (July 27, 1870 – July 16, 1953), writer and historian, best known simply as Hillaire Belloc. He wrote 153 books of essays, fiction, history, biography, poetry and light verse as well as a vast amount of periodical literature.

"I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment." - Hillaire Belloc

"When friendship disappears then there is a space left open to that awful loneliness of the outside world which is like the cold space between the planets. It is an air in which men perish utterly." - Hillaire Belloc

"Loss and possession, death and life are one, There falls no shadow where there shines no sun." - Hillaire Belloc

"Any subject can be made interesting, and therefore any subject can be made boring." - Hillaire Belloc

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Sunday, July 26, 2009

Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of George Bernard Shaw (July 26, 1856 – November 2, 1950), writer.

"People are always blaming circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." - George Bernard Shaw

"The liar's punishment is, not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe any one else."- George Bernard Shaw

"I hear you say Why? Always Why? You see things; and you say Why? But I dream things that never were; and I say Why not?" - George Bernard Shaw

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity." - George Bernard Shaw

"There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it." - George Bernard Shaw

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw

"You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul." - George Bernard Shaw

"Do not try to live for ever. You will not succeed." - George Bernard Shaw

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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Meandering in circles . . .

Today is the birthday of Elias Canetti (July 25, 1905 - August 14, 1994), author. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1981, "for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power". Elias Canetti is best-known for his work, Crowds and Power (1960), an imaginative study of mass movements, death and disordered society.

"There is no such thing as an ugly language. Today I hear every language as if it were the only one, and when I hear of one that is dying, it overwhelms me as though it were the death of the earth." - Elias Canetti

"Justice requires that everyone should have enough to eat. But it also requires that everyone should contribute to the production of food." - Elias Canetti

"When you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about." - Elias Canetti

"There is no doubt: the study of man is just beginning, at the same time that his end is in sight." - Elias Canetti

"All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams." - Elias Canetti

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Friday, July 24, 2009

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (July 24, 1802 – December 5, 1870, writer. He is best known as Alexandre Dumas, père author of the novels The Three Musketeers (1844) and The Count of Monte Cristo (1844).

"A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it." - Alexandre Dumas

"Pure love and suspicion cannot dwell together: at the door where the latter enters, the former makes its exit." - Alexandre Dumas

"One's work may be finished some day, but one's education never." - Alexandre Dumas

"Men's minds are raised to the level of the women with whom they associate." - Alexandre Dumas


"True love always makes a man better, no matter what woman inspires it." - Alexandre Dumas

"All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope." - Alexandre Dumas

"All for one, one for all." - Alexandre Dumas

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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Meandering we go . . .

Today is the birthday of Carl Louis von Grasshoff (July 23, 1865 - January 6, 1919), occultist, astrologer, and mystic. He is best known by his pen name, Max Heindel.

"In our civilization the chasm that stretches between mind and heart yawns deep and wide and, as the mind flies on from discovery to discovery in the realms of science, the gulf becomes ever deeper and wider and the heart is left further and further behind." - Max Heindel

"Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul." - Max Heindel

"The man who realizes his ignorance has taken the first step toward knowledge." - Max Heindel

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Max Heindel

"Music is the soul of language." - Max Heindel

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of Karl Augustus Menninger (July 22, 1893 - July 18, 1990), author and psychiatrist. He is best known as a member of the famous Menninger family of psychiatrists who founded the Menninger Foundation and the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas. The Menninger Clinic achieved national and international recognition for clinical excellence in the treatment and research of mental illness.

"Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand." - Karl Menninger

"The voice of the intelligence is drowned out by the roar of fear. It is ignored by the voice of desire. It is contradicted by the voice of shame. It is biased by hate and extinguished by anger. Most of all it is silenced by ignorance. " - Karl Menninger

"Money-giving is a very good criterion of a person's mental health. Generous people are rarely mentally ill people." - Karl Menninger

"It is hard for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one." - Karl Menninger

"Love cures people - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it." - Karl Menninger

Menninger image source (1)

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Meandering forever . . .

Today is the birthday of Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 — July 2, 1961), writer and journalist.

Ernest Hemingway received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for The Old Man and the Sea, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin." - Ernest Hemingway

"There are some things which cannot be learned quickly, and time, which is all we have, must be paid heavily for their acquiring." - Ernest Hemingway

"The great artist goes beyond what has been done or known and makes something of his own." - Ernest Hemingway

"Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today." - Ernest Hemingway

"We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master." - Ernest Hemingway

"All my life I've looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time." - Ernest Hemingway

Trivia bit: Ernest Hemingway had a favorite expression: il faut d'abord durer (translation: first one must endure), which he used in his private letters and an sometimes inscribed in books he signed for friends.

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Monday, July 20, 2009

Meandering on and on . . .

Today is the birthday of Francesco Petrarca (July 20, 1304 – July 19, 1374), scholar, poet and humanist. He is known simply as Petrarch and is often referred to as the Father of Renaissance Humanism.

During his lifetime the literary phenomenon known as Petrarchism sprang up and it continued to grow during the following three centuries, greatly influencing the literatures of Italy, Spain, France and England.

"Five enemies of peace inhabit with us - avarice, ambition, envy, anger, and pride; if these were to be banished, we should infallibly enjoy perpetual peace." - Petrarch

"Books have led some to learning and others to madness, when they swallow more than they can digest." - Petrarch

"Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure." - Petrarch

"Man has no greater enemy than himself." - Petrarch

"Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart of life, and is prophetic of eternal good." - Petrarch

"Suspicion is the cancer of friendship." - Petrarch

"All pleasure in the world is a passing dream." - Petrarch

"Who naught suspects is easily deceived." - Petrarch

"Believe me, many things are attributed to gravity and wisdom which are really due to incapacity and sloth. Men often despise what they despair of obtaining. It is in the very nature of ignorance to scorn what it cannot understand, and to desire to keep others from attaining what it cannot reach. Hence the false judgments upon matters of which we know nothing, by which we evince our envy quite as clearly as our stupidity." - Petrarch


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Sunday, July 19, 2009

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Archibald Joseph Cronin (July 19, 1896 – January 6, 1981), novelist, dramatist and writer of non-fiction. A. J. Cronin is oft referred to as one of the most renowned storytellers of the twentieth century. He is best remembered as the author of The Citadel and The Keys of the Kingdom, both of which were translated into Oscar-nominated films.

"Nothing is more limiting than a closed circle of acquaintanceship where every avenue of conversation has been explored and social exchanges are fixed in a known routine." - A. J. Cronin

"The virtue of all achievement is victory over oneself. Those who know this can never know defeat." - A. J. Cronin

"Hell is the place where one has ceased to hope." - A. J. Cronin

"Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, but only saps today of its strength." - A. J. Cronin

Trivia bit: A. J. Cronin was trained as a surgeon, but he ceased because of ill health and used his leisure to write.

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Saturday, July 18, 2009

Meandering in circles . . .

Today is the birthday of Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) journalist and author. He is best known as the creator of Gonzo journalism and for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

"No man is so foolish but he may sometimes give another good counsel, and no man so wise that he may not easily err if he takes no other counsel than his own. He that is taught only by himself has a fool for a master." - Hunter S. Thompson

"The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." - Hunter S. Thompson

"If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up." - Hunter S. Thompson

"Fear is just another word for ignorance." - Hunter S. Thompson

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson

"Freedom is something that dies unless it's used." - Hunter S. Thompson

"Buy the ticket, take the ride." - Hunter S. Thompson

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Friday, July 17, 2009

Meandering we go . . .

Today is the birthday of Alexius Meinong (July 17, 1853 - November 27, 1920), philosopher and psychologist. Alexius Meinong is best known for his belief in nonexistent objects and his Theory of Abstract Objects (Gegenstandstheorie, 1904).

"He distinguished several levels of reality among objects and facts about them. Thus, existent objects participate in actual (true) facts about the world; subsistent (real but non-existent) objects appear in possible (but false) facts; and objects that neither exist nor subsist can only belong to impossible facts." direct quote source (1)

"Meinong drew a strict distinction between the content of a mental act and its object. Protesting what he called the "prejudice in favor of the actual" by traditional ontology, Meinong posited many levels of reality, including not only existence but also being, subsistence, and "being-so." In Meinong's fully developed theory of objects, it is possible not only to think about the golden mountain—even though it does not exist and may even be impossible—but also to know of it that it most certainly is made of gold." direct quote source (1)

Trivia bit: Meinong's jungles is the name given to the location of non-existent entities in his ontology.

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Thursday, July 16, 2009

Quietly meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Callen Radcliffe Tjader, Jr. better known as Cal Tjader (July 16, 1925–May 5, 1982), jazz musician.


Cal Tjader primarily played the vibraphone, however, he was also an accomplished musician on the drums, bongos, congas, timpani, and the piano.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Forever meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Rudolf Arnheim (July 15, 1904 – June 9, 2007), author, psychologist, philosopher and critic. He is best known for his work Art and Visual Perception, which has been translated into 14 languages, and is one of the most widely read and influential art books of the twentieth century.

"Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with the same care and imagination as a zebra. Appparently it does not matter to nature whether or not a creature is within our range of vision, and the suspicion arises that even the zebra was not designed for our benefit." - Rudolf Arnheim

"Good art theory must smell of the studio, although its language should differ from the household talk of painters and sculptors." - Rudolf Arnheim

"Any line drawn on a sheet of paper, the simplest form modeled from a piece of clay, is like a rock thrown into a pond. It upsets repose, it mobilizes space. Seeing is the perception of action." - Rudolf Arnheim

"As one gets older, it happens that in the morning one fails to remember the airplane trip to be taken in a few hours or the lecture scheduled for the afternoon. Memory does return in time, but the suspicion remains that in the end dying will consist in simply forgetting to live." - Rudolf Arnheim

Trivia bit: Rudolf Arnheim lived to be 102.

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of Irving Tennenbanm (July 14, 1903 – August 26, 1989), writer, better known as Irving Stone.

He is best known for his biographical novels of famous historical personalities, especially his two works: Lust for Life a biographical novel about the life of Vincent van Gogh and The Agony and the Ecstasy a biographical novel about Michelangelo.

"Art is a staple, like bread or wine or a warm coat in winter. Man's spirit grows hungry for art in the same way his stomach growls for food." - Irving Stone

"He had been standing still; for an artist, one of the more painful forms of death." - Irving Stone

"The most perfect guide is nature. Continue without fail to draw something every day." - Irving Stone

"To try to understand another human being, to grapple for his ultimate depths, that is the most dangerous of human endeavors." - Irving Stone

"In order to paint life one must understand not only anatomy, but what people feel and thing about the world they live in. The painter who knows his own craft and nothing else will turn out to be a very superficial artist." - Irving Stone

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Meandering in circles . . .

Today is the birthday of John Dee (July 13, 1527 – 1608/09), renowned intellectual, a true "Renaissance Man", a polymath.

"Before we raise our eyes to heaven, kabbalistically illuminated by the contemplation of these mysteries, we could perceive very exactly the constitution of our Monad as it is shown to us not only in the LIGHT but also in life and nature, for it discloses explicitly, by its inner movement, the most secret mysteries of this physical analysis." - John Dee, Theorem XVIII

"There is (gentle reader) nothing (the works of God only set apart) which so much beautifies and adorns the soul and mind of man as does knowledge of the good arts and sciences. ... Many ... arts there are which beautify the mind of man; but of all none do more garnish and beautify it than those arts which are called mathematical, unto the knowledge of which no man can attain, without perfect knowledge and instruction of the principles, grounds, and Elements of Geometry." - John Dee, The Mathematical Preface

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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Meandering we go . . .

Today is the birthday of George Eastman (July 12, 1854 – March 14, 1932) founder of the Eastman Kodak Company and inventor of roll film.

"Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography." - George Eastman

"There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are." - George Eastman

"To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them." - George Eastman

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything." - George Eastman

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." - George Eastman

"What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are." - George Eastman

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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Meandering on . . .

Today is the birthday of Elwyn Brooks White (July 11, 1899 - October 1, 1985), writer. He is best known as the author of children's books Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little and as the co-author of the writing guide The Elements of Style. In 1978, E. B. White received an honorary Pulitzer Prize for his work.

"I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially." - E. B. White

"As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the one thing left to us in a bad time." - E. B. White

"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." - E. B. White

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day." - E. B. White

"Once in everyone's life there is apt to be a period when he is fully awake, instead of half asleep." - E. B. White

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Friday, July 10, 2009

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (July 10, 1871 – November 18, 1922), author. He is best known as the author of In Search of Lost Time (in French À la recherche du temps perdu, also titled Remembrance of Things Past in its original edition), a monumental work of twentieth-century fiction published in seven volumes from 1913 to 1927.

"Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces." - Marcel Proust

"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes." - Marcel Proust

"If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time." - Marcel Proust

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom." - Marcel Proust


"Only through art can we emerge from ourselves and know what another person sees." - Marcel Proust

"A change in the weather is sufficient to recreate the world and ourselves." - Marcel Proust

Trivia bit: Marcel Proust is another author that stood up for the truth in the Dreyfus Affair.

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Thursday, July 9, 2009

Meandering we go . . .

Today is the birthday of John Archibald Wheeler (July 9, 1911 – April 13, 2008), theoretical physicist. He gave us the terms black hole, wormhole and the phrase "it from bit". He argued about the nature of reality with Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, while at the same time trying to achieve Albert Einstein's vision of a unified field theory. He has been referred to as the father of modern general relativity.

"The universe does not exist 'out there,' independent of us. We are inescapably involved in bringing about that which appears to be happening. We are not only observers. We are participators. In some strange sense, this is a participatory universe. Physics is no longer satisfied with insights only into particles, fields of force, into geometry, or even into time and space. Today we demand of physics some understanding of existence itself." - John Archibald Wheeler

"It is my opinion that everything must be based on a simple idea. And it is my opinion that this idea, once we have finally discovered it, will be so compelling, so beautiful, that we will say to one another, yes, how could it have been any different." - John Archibald Wheeler

"We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance." - John Archibald Wheeler

"No phenomenon is a real phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon." - John Archibald Wheeler

"Time is what prevents everything from happening at once." - John Archibald Wheeler

Trivia bit: "John Archibald Wheeler was also the son, brother, father and uncle of librarians. In 1984, he gave the graduation address to the University of Texas library school. The theme of his speech, which focused on his father’s work as a public library director, was on Selling Library Service. It is well worth reading." direct quote source (1)

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*****

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Meandering around . . .

Today is the birthday of Jean de La Fontaine (July 8, 1621 – April 13, 1695) fabulist and poet.

"Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable." - Jean de La Fontaine

"One should oblige everyone to the extent of one's ability. One often needs someone smaller than oneself." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Never sell the bear's skin before one has killed the beast." - Jean de La Fontaine

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Kindness effects more than severity." - Jean de La Fontaine

"People must help one another; it is nature's law." - Jean de La Fontaine

"We must laugh before we are happy, for fear we die before we laugh at all." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear or desire." - Jean de La Fontaine

"By the work one knows the workman." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish." - Jean de La Fontaine

"Beware so long as you live, of judging men by their outward appearance" - Jean de La Fontaine

"People who make no noise are dangerous." - Jean de La Fontaine

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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988), writer. He is considered one of the grand masters of science fiction with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.

"Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done. One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen." - Robert A. Heinlein

"I will accept the rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Progress doesn't come from early risers — progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Early rising may not be a vice ... but it is certainly no virtue. The old saw about the early bird just goes to show that the worm should have stayed in bed." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Never appeal to a man's better nature. He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage." - Robert A. Heinlein

"How can I possibly put a new idea into your heads, if I do not first remove your delusions?" - Robert A. Heinlein

"Life is short, but the years are long." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Once you can honestly say, I don't know, then it becomes possible to get at the truth." - Robert A. Heinlein

"If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people." - Robert A. Heinlein

"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity." - Robert A. Heinlein

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Monday, July 6, 2009

Meandering on and on . . .

Today is the birthday of Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (born Lhamo Döndrub (July 6, 1935), the 14th Dalai Lama. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, Honorary Canadian citizenship in 2006, and the United States Congressional Gold Medal on October 17, 2007

"Because we all share this small planet earth, we have to learn to live in harmony and peace with each other and with nature. That is not just a dream, but a necessity. We are dependent on each other in so many ways, that we can no longer live in isolated communities and ignore what is happening outside those communities, and we must share the good fortune that we enjoy." - Dalai Lama XVI

"The essence of spiritual practice is your attitude toward others. When you have a pure, sincere motivation, then you have right attitude toward others based on kindness, compassion, love and respect." - Dalai Lama XVI

"It is very important to generate a good attitude, a good heart, as much as possible. From this, happiness in both the short term and the long term for both yourself and others will come." - Dalai Lama XVI

"Human happiness and human satisfaction must ultimately come from within oneself." - Dalai Lama XVI

"When you engage in fulfilling the needs of others, your own needs are fulfilled as a by-product." - Dalai Lama XVI

"The root of happiness is altruism — the wish to be of service to others." - Dalai Lama XVI

"We need a little more compassion, and if we cannot have it then no politician or even a magician can save the planet." - Dalai Lama XVI

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Sunday, July 5, 2009

Meandering on . . .

Today is the birthday of Hazrat Inayat Khan (July 5, 1882 – February 5, 1927), founder of Universal Sufism and the Sufi Order International.

"Tolerance does not come by learning but by insight. By understanding that each one should be allowed to travel along the path which is suited to their temperament." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

"A person however learned and qualified in his life's work in whom gratitude is absent, is devoid of that beauty of character which makes personality fragrant." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Joy and sorrow are the light and shade of life; without light and shade no picture is clear." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

"We start our lives trying to be teachers; it is very hard to learn to be a pupil." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Whoever knows the mystery of vibrations indeed knows all things." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

"The words that enlighten the soul are more precious than jewels." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

"Everything in life is speaking in spite of it's apparent silence." - Hazrat Inayat Khan

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Saturday, July 4, 2009

Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864), novelist and short story writer. He is best known for The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850.

"Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"There is so much wretchedness in the world, that we may safely take the word of any mortal professing to need our assistance; and, even should we be deceived, still the good to ourselves resulting from a kind act is worth more than the trifle by which we purchase it." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Words — so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Time flies over us, but leaves it shadow behind." - Nathaniel Hawthorne

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Friday, July 3, 2009

Meandering in circles . . .

Today is the birthday of Franz Kafka (July 3, 1883 – June 3, 1924), author. He is considered one of the major fiction writers of the 20th century.

"A stair not worn hollow by footsteps is, regarded from its own point of view, only a boring something made of wood." - Franz Kafka

"Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old." - Franz Kafka

"The relationship to one's fellow man is the relationship of prayer, the relationship to oneself is the relationship of striving; it is from prayer that one draws the strength for one's striving." - Franz Kafka

"One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die." - Franz Kafka

"The mediation by the serpent was necessary. Evil can seduce man, but cannot become man." - Franz Kafka


"You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet." - Franz Kafka

"He who seeks does not find, but he who does not seek will be found." - Franz Kafka


"By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired." - Franz Kafka

Trivia bit: "As his dying wish, writer Franz Kafka asked that all his manuscripts be burned. If he were alive today, Kafka would be sorely disappointed. Not only is he widely regarded as one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, but his name has become a part of standard English; the adjective 'Kafkaesque' is used to describe situations and people that are surreal, disorienting, and often menacing." direct quote source (1)

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Thursday, July 2, 2009

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Hermann Hesse (July 2, 1877 – August 9, 1962), poet, novelist, and painter. He is best-known for his novels, Steppenwolf and Siddhartha. In 1946, Hermann Hesse received the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work The Glass Bead Game.

Here is another author whose books were banned. In 1939, Hermann Hesse's books were banned in Germany.

"Man's life seems to me like a long, weary night that would be intolerable if there were not occasionally flashes of light, the sudden brightness of which is so comforting and wonderful, that the moments of their appearance cancel out and justify the years of darkness." - Hermann Hesse

"It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other's opposite and complement." - Hermann Hesse

"It matters little that you suffer, so long as you feel alive with a sense of the close bond that connects all living things, so long as love does not die!" - Hermann Hesse


"Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again." - Hermann Hesse

"I do not consider myself less ignorant than most people. I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books; I have begun to listen to the teachings my blood whispers to me." - Hermann Hesse

"I realize today that nothing in the world is more distasteful to a man than to take the path that leads to himself." - Hermann Hesse

"The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world." - Hermann Hesse

"The world, as it is now, wants to die, wants to perish — and it will." - Hermann Hesse

Hesse stamp images source (1)

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Meandering on and on . . .

Today is the birthday of Amandine Aurore Lucile Dupin (July 1, 1804 – June 8, 1876), novelist. She best known by her pseudonym George Sand.

"In the stormy days of our youth, we imagine that solitude is a sure refuge from the assaults of life, a certain balm for the wounds of battle. This is a serious mistake, and experience teaches us that, if we cannot live in peace with our fellow-men, neither romantic raptures nor aesthetic enjoyment will ever fill the abyss gaping at the bottom of our hearts." - George Sand

"No one makes a revolution by himself; and there are some revolutions which humanity accomplishes without quite knowing how, because it is everybody who takes them in hand." - George Sand

"Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness." - George Sand

"The beauty that addresses itself to the eyes is only the spell of the moment; the eye of the body is not always that of the soul." - George Sand

"The artist vocation is to send light into the human heart." - George Sand

"Admiration and familiarity are strangers." - George Sand

"The truth is too simple: one must always get there by a complicated route." - George Sand

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