Thursday, September 30, 2010

Meandering on the path . . .

Today is the birthday of Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel (September 30, 1928), writer, professor and political activist. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

"Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each other."
- Elie Wiesel

"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death."
- Elie Wiesel

"I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
- Elie Wiesel

"Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories."
- Elie Wiesel

"Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing."
- Elie Wiesel

"Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil."
- Elie Wiesel

Wiesel image source (1)

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Meandering around . . .

Today is the birthday of Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo (September 29, 1864 – December 31, 1936), essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher.

"It is sad not to be loved, but it is much sadder not to be able to love."
- Miguel de Unamuno

"I am dreaming ...? Let me dream, if this dream is my life. Do not awaken me from it. I believe in the immortal origin of this yearning for immortality, which is the very substance of my soul. But do I really believe in it ...? And wherefore do you want to be immortal? you ask me, wherefore? Frankly, I do not understand the question, for it is to ask the reason of the reason, the end of the end, the principle of the principle."
- Miguel de Unamuno

"All of this that is happening to me, and happening to others about me, is it reality or is it fiction? May not all of it perhaps be a dream of God, or of whomever it may be, which will vanish as soon as He wakes?"
- Miguel de Unamuno

"The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found."
- Miguel de Unamuno

"A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about."
- Miguel de Unamuno

"The devil is an angel too."
- Miguel de Unamuno

"Some people will believe anything if you whisper it to them."
- Miguel de Unamuno

Miguel de Unamuno image source (1)

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Meandering here and there . . .

Today is the birthday of Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (September 28, 1841 – November 24, 1929), statesman, physician, and journalist.

"It is far easier to make war than peace."
- Georges Clemenceau

"All the great pleasures in life are silent."
- Georges Clemenceau

"When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking."
- Georges Clemenceau

"Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more."
- Georges Clemenceau

"A man who waits to believe in action before acting is anything you like, but he's not a man of action. You must act as you breathe."
- Georges Clemenceau

*Trivia bit: On January 13, 1898 Georges Clemenceau, as owner and editor of the Paris daily L'Aurore, published Émile Zola's "J'accuse" on the front page of his paper. He decided that the controversial story that would become a famous part of the Dreyfus Affair would be in the form of an open letter to the President, Félix Faure. In all, Georges Clemenceau published 665 articles defending Captain Alfred Dreyfus during the affair. He published his Dreyfusard articles in five volumes.

Clemeneau image source (1)

Monday, September 27, 2010

Meandering to and fro . . .

Today is the birthday of Henri Frédéric Amiel (September 27, 1821 – May 11, 1881), philosopher, poet and critic. He is best known by the one book published after his death, the Journal Intime, which is considered a masterpiece of self-analysis.

"The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes."
- Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"Learn to limit yourself, to content yourself with some definite thing, and some definite work; dare to be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not and to believe in your own individuality."
- Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"Oh, do not let us wait to be just or pitiful or demonstrative toward those we love until they or we are struck down by illness or threatened with death! Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be kind!"
- Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains."
- Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not."
- Henri-Frédéric Amiel

"The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes."
- Henri-Frédéric Amiel

Amiel image source (1)

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Just meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Thomas Stearns Eliot (September 26, 1888 – January 4, 1965), poet, playwright, and literary critic. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.

"We shall not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
- T. S. Eliot

"We die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger."
- T. S. Eliot

"
Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
- T. S. Eliot

"Every experience is a paradox in that it means to be absolute, and yet is relative; in that it somehow always goes beyond itself and yet never escapes itself."
- T. S. Eliot

"
I don't believe one grows older. I think that what happens early on in life is that at a certain age one stands still and stagnates."
- T. S. Eliot

"
If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?"
- T. S. Eliot

"
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
- T. S. Eliot

"
Every moment is a fresh beginning."
- T. S. Eliot

Eliot image source (1)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Meandering forever . . .

Today is the birthday of William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962), novelist and short story writer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.

"The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."
- William Faulkner

"I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things."
- William Faulkner

"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."
- William Faulkner

"
The end of wisdom is to dream high enough to lose the dream in the seeking of it."
- William Faulkner

"
We have to start teaching ourselves not to be afraid."
- William Faulkner

Faulkner image source (1)

Friday, September 24, 2010

Meander with me . . .

Today is the birthday of Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940), short-story writer and novelist. He is best known for his novel, The Great Gatsby.

"First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"In a real dark night of the soul, it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"It is sadder to find the past again and find it inadequate to the present than it is to have it elude you and remain forever a harmonious conception of memory."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you're not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"It's not a slam at you when people are rude, it's a slam at the people they've met before."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Vitality shows in not only the ability to persist but the ability to start over."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Our lives are defined by opportunities, even the ones we miss."
- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald image source (1)

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Meandering along . . .

Today is the birthday of John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967), jazz saxophonist and composer.

“All a musician can do is to get closer to the sources of nature, and so feel that he is in communion with the natural laws.”
- John Coltrane

"There is never any end. There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that we can really see what we've discovered in its pure state. So that we can see more and more clearly what we are. In that way, we can give to those who listen the essence, the best of what we are. But to do that at each stage, we have to keep on cleaning the mirror."
- John Coltrane

“Over all, I think the main thing a musician would like to do is give a picture to the listener of the many wonderful things that he knows of and senses in the universe. . . That’s what I would like to do. I think that’s one of the greatest things you can do in life and we all try to do it in some way. The musician’s is through his music.”
- John Coltrane

“I never even thought about whether or not they understand what I'm doing . . . the emotional reaction is all that matters as long as there's some feeling of communication, it isn't necessary that it be understood.”
- John Coltrane

“Sometimes I wish I could walk up to my music for the first time, as if I had never heard it before. Being so inescapably a part of it, I’ll never know what the listener gets, what the listener feels, and that’s too bad.”
- John Coltrane

“I’ve found you’ve got to look back at the old things and see them in a new light.”
- John Coltrane

“You can play a shoestring if you're sincere”
- John Coltrane

Coltrane image source (1)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Meandering in a dream . . .

Today is the birthday of Michael Faraday (September 22, 1791 – August 25, 1867), chemist and physicist.

"ALL THIS IS A DREAM. Still examine it by a few experiments. Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature . . . "
- Michael Faraday

"
Electricity is often called wonderful, beautiful; but it is so only in common with the other forces of nature. The beauty of electricity or of any other force is not that the power is mysterious, and unexpected, touching every sense at unawares in turn, but that it is under law, and that the taught intellect can even govern it largely. The human mind is placed above, and not beneath it, and it is in such a point of view that the mental education afforded by science is rendered super-eminent in dignity, in practical application and utility; for by enabling the mind to apply the natural power through law, it conveys the gifts of God to man."
- Michael Faraday

"There’s nothing quite as frightening as someone who knows they are right."
- Michael Faraday

"The important thing is to know how to take all things quietly. "
- Michael Faraday

"
I have far more confidence in the one man who works mentally and bodily at a matter than in the six who merely talk about it . . ."
- Michael Faraday

"But still try, for who knows what is possible..."
- Michael Faraday

Faraday image source (1)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Meandering freely . . .

Today is the birthday of Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946), novelist, journalist, sociologist, and historian. H.G. Wells's best known works are The Time Machine (1895), one of the first modern science fiction stories, The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898).

"The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is or has been is but the twilight of the dawn."
- H. G. Wells

"The only true measure of success is the ratio between what we might have done and what we might have been on the one hand, and the thing we have made and the things we have made of ourselves on the other."
- H. G. Wells

"Sometimes, you have to step outside of the person you've been and remember the person you were meant to be. The person you want to be. The person you are."
- H. G. Wells

"What really matters is what you do with what you have."
- H. G. Wells

"After people have repeated a phrase a great number of times, they begin to realize it has meaning and may even be true."
- H. G. Wells

"Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature's inexorable imperative."
- H. G. Wells

"
If you fell down yesterday, stand up today."
- H. G. Wells

"There's truths you have to grow into."
- H. G. Wells

"If we don't end war, war will end us."
- H. G. Wells

Wells image source (1)

Monday, September 20, 2010

Meandering we go on and on . . .

Today is the birthday of Leo Strauss (September 20, 1899 – October 18, 1973), philosopher.

"The silence of a wise man is always meaningful."
- Leo Strauss

"Men are constantly attracted and deluded by two opposite charms: the charm of competence which is engendered by mathematics and everything akin to mathematics, and the charm of humble awe, which is engendered by meditation on the human soul and its experiences. Philosophy is characterized by the gentle, if firm, refusal to succumb to either charm. It is the highest form of the mating of courage and moderation. In spite of its highness or nobility, it could appear as Sisyphean or ugly, when one contrasts its achievement with its goal. Yet it is necessarily accompanied, sustained and elevated by eros. It is graced by nature’s grace."
- Leo Strauss

"It is safer to try to understand the low in the light of the high than the high in the light of the low. In doing the latter one necessarily distorts the high, whereas in doing the former one does not deprive the low of the freedom to reveal itself as fully as what it is."
- Leo Strauss

"All there is to thinking is seeing something noticeable, which makes you see something you weren't noticing, which makes you see something that isn't even visible."
- Leo Strauss

Strauss image source (1)

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Mika Toimi Waltari (September 19, 1908 – August 26, 1979), writer. He best known for his novel The Egyptian.

"
A decision once taken brings peace to a man's mind and eases his soul."
- Mika Waltari

“I have argued that even my guardian angel is as bound to me at least until I'll die. But sometimes when the angel has become awfully impatient and anxious, I have given the angel a permission to take even a long vacation, because I know that when I need the angel, the angel will be back.”
- Mika Waltari

"
So foolish is the heart of man that he ever puts his hope in the future, learning nothing from his past errors and fancying that tomorrow must be better than today."
- Mika Waltari

"
So much is man the slave of his heart that he will shut his eyes to what does not please him and believe all that he hopes."
- Mika Waltari

Waltari image source (1)

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Imagine we meander on . . .

Today is the birthday of Agnes George de Mille (September 18, 1905 – October 7, 1993), dancer and choreographer.

"To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking."
- Agnes de Mille

"Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark."
- Agnes de Mille

"The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate."
- Agnes de Mille

"No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently."
- Agnes de Mille

"
The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie."
- Agnes de Mille

"
Dance in the body you have."
- Agnes de Mille

Agnes de Mille image source (1)

Friday, September 17, 2010

Meandering in the looking-glass . . .

Today is the birthday of Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001), author. He is best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

"You can't really be strong until you can see a funny side things."
- Ken Kesey

"The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer. They think they have, so they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer."
- Ken Kesey

"Look...Reality is greater than the sum of its parts, also a damn sight holier. And the lives of such stuff as dreams are made of may be rounded with a sleep but they are not tied neatly with a red bow. Truth doesn't run on time like a commuter train, though time may run on truth. And the Scenes Gone By and the Scenes to Come flow blending together in the sea-green deep while Now spreads in circles on the surface. So don't sweat it. For focus simply move a few inches back or forward. And once more...look."
- Ken Kesey

"It isn't by getting out of the world that we become enlightened, but by getting into the world…by getting so tuned in that we can ride the waves of our existence and never get tossed because we become the waves."
- Ken Kesey

"We can count how many seeds are in the apple, but not how many apples are in the seed."
- Ken Kesey

Kesey image source (1)

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Meandering in theory . . .

Today is the birthday of Laurence Johnston Peter (September 16, 1919 - January 12, 1990), author, educator, psychologist, and management theorist . He is best known for the formulation of the Peter Principle.

"Real, constructive mental power lies in the creative thought that shapes your destiny, and your hour-by-hour mental conduct produces power for change in your life. Develop a train of thought on which to ride. The nobility of your life as well as your happiness depends upon the direction in which that train of thought is going."
- Laurence J. Peter

"The habitually punctual make all their mistakes right on time."
- Laurence J. Peter

"A man convinced against his will is not convinced."
- Laurence J. Peter

"A man doesn't know what he knows until he knows what he doesn't know. "
- Laurence J. Peter

"
An intelligence test sometimes shows a man how smart he would have been not to have taken it. "
- Laurence J. Peter

"Speak when you are angry - and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret."
- Laurence J. Peter

"
Lead, follow, or get out of the way. "
- Laurence J. Peter

Peter image source (1)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Meander with me . . .

Today is the birthday of François de La Rochefoucauld (September 15, 1613 – March 17, 1680), author of maxims and memoirs.

"Self-love is the greatest of all flatterers."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

"We should not be upset that others hide the truth from us, when we hide it so often from ourselves."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

"The reason that there are so few good conversationalists is that most people are thinking about what they are going to say and not about what the others are saying."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

"The truest way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

"We all have strength enough to endure the misfortunes of others."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

"If we had no faults, we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

"We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

"It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

"How can we expect others to keep our secrets if we cannot keep them ourselves?"
- François de La Rochefoucauld

François de La Rochefoucauld image source (1)

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Meandering here, there and all around . . .

Today is the birthday of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (September 14, 1486 – February 18, 1535) was a German magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist.

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa was fascinated by alchemy and magic and is alleged to have actually found the Philosopher's Stone. He is best known for his book Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

"I confess that Magic teacheth many superfluous things, and curious prodigies for ostentation; leave them as empty things, yet be not ignorant of their causes. But those things which are for the profit of men -- for the turning away of evil events, for the destroying of sorceries, for the curing of diseases, for the exterminating of phantasms, for the preserving of life, honor, or fortune -- may be done without offense to God or injury to religion, because they are, as profitable, so necessary."
- Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

"Magic is a faculty of wonderful virtue, full of most high mysteries, containing the most profound contemplation of most secret things, together with the nature, power, quality, substance and virtues thereof, as also the knowledge of whole Nature, and it doth instruct us concerning the differing and agreement of things amongst themselves, whence it produceth its wonderful effects, by uniting the virtues of things through the application of them one to the other."
- Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

"Nothing is concealed from the wise and sensible, while the unbelieving and unworthy cannot learn the secrets."
-Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

"All things which are similar and therefore connected, are drawn to each other's power."
- Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

Agrippa image source (1)

Monday, September 13, 2010

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941), novelist and short story writer.

"There is within every human being a deep well of thinking over which a heavy iron lid is kept clamped."
Sherwood Anderson

"I don’t want to frighten you, but I would like to make you understand the import of what you think of attempting. You must not become a mere peddler of words. The thing to learn is to know what people are thinking about, not what they say."
- Sherwood Anderson

"In the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as truth. Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts. All about in the world were truths and they were all beautiful."
- Sherwood Anderson

"If a man doesn't delight in himself and the force in him and feel that he and it are wonders, how is all life to become important to him?"
- Sherwood Anderson

"It may be life is only worthwhile at moments. Perhaps that is all we ought to expect."
- Sherwood Anderson

Anderson image source (1)

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Meandering on and on . . .

Today is the birthday of Henry Louis Mencken (September 12, 1880 – January 29, 1956), journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic, and freethinker. He was often referred to as the Sage of Baltimore and is best known as H. L. Mencken, author of the book The American Language.

"Truth would quickly cease to be stranger than fiction, once we got as used to it."
- H. L. Mencken

"The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos."
- H. L. Mencken

"I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant."
- H. L. Mencken

"The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom."
- H. L. Mencken

"Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking."
- H. L. Mencken

"It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place."
- H. L. Mencken

Mencken image source (1)

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Meandering along . . .

Today is the birthday of David Herbert Richards Lawrence (September 11, 1885 – March 2, 1930) , author, poet, playwright, essayist and literary critic. He is best known as D. H. Lawrence author of the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. Here, once again, is an author whose work has made the list of banned books.

"All people dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind, wake in the morning to find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous people, For they dream their dreams with open eyes, And make them come true."
- D. H. Lawrence

"Life is a travelling to the edge of knowledge, then a leap taken. "
- D. H. Lawrence

"Consciousness is an end in itself. We torture ourselves getting somewhere, and when we get there it is nowhere, for there is nowhere to get to."
- D. H. Lawrence

"I can never decide whether my dreams are the result of my thoughts, or my thoughts the result of my dreams. "
- D. H. Lawrence

"When I hear modern people complain of being lonely then I know what has happened. They have lost the cosmos."
- D. H. Lawrence

"I want to live my life so that my nights are not full of regrets. "
- D. H. Lawrence

"Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved."
- D. H. Lawrence

Lawrence image source (1)

Friday, September 10, 2010

Meandering in ideas . . .

Today is the birthday of Charles Sanders Peirce (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914), philosopher, mathematician, chemist and polymath. He is considered a pioneer of the field of semiotics and the founder of the philosophies of Pragmatism and Pragmaticism.

"It is a common observation that those who dwell continually upon their expectations are apt to become oblivious to the requirements of their actual situation."
- Charles Sanders Peirce

"It is the man of science, eager to have his every opinion regenerated, his every idea rationalized, by drinking at the fountain of fact, and devoting all the energies of his life to the cult of truth, not as he understands it, but as he does not yet understand it, that ought properly to be called a philosopher."
- Charles Sanders Peirce

"We should chiefly depend not upon that department of the soul which is most superficial and fallible (our reason), but upon that department that is deep and sure, which is instinct."
- Charles Sanders Peirce

"Bad reasoning as well as good reasoning is possible; and this fact is the foundation of the practical side of logic."
- Charles Sanders Peirce

"The pragmatist knows that doubt is an art which has to be acquired with difficulty."
- Charles Sanders Peirce

Peirce image source (1)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Cesare Pavese (September 9, 1908 – August 27, 1950), poet, novelist, literary critic and translator.

"The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies."
- Cesare Pavese

"If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears."
- Cesare Pavese

"A man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, and by and by a grown man - the one he used to be."
- Cesare Pavese

"He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity."
- Cesare Pavese

"All sins have their origin in a sense of inferiority otherwise called ambition."
- Cesare Pavese

"We do not remember days, we remember moments. The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten."
- Cesare Pavese

Pavese image source (1)

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Meandering around . . .

Today is the birthday of Grace Metalious (September 8, 1924 – February 25, 1964), author. She is best known for the novel Peyton Place.

"There can be neither beauty, nor trust, nor security between a man and a woman if there is not truth."
- Grace Metalious

"The public loves to create a hero....Sometimes I think they do it for the sheer joy of knocking him down from the highest peak. Like a child who builds a house of blocks and then destroys it with one vicious kick."
- Grace Metalious

"To talk about adults without talking about their sex drives is like talking about a window without glass."
- Grace Metalious

"She saw hopelessness as an old enemy, as persistent and inevitable as death."
- Grace Metalious

Metalious image source (1)

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Meandering, meandering, meandering we go . . .

Today is the birthday of Edith Louisa Sitwell (September 7, 1887 – December 9, 1964), poet and critic.

"The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth."
- Edith Sitwell

"I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty... but I am too busy thinking about myself."
- Edith Sitwell

"The aim of flattery is to soothe and encourage us by assuring us of the truth of an opinion we have already formed about ourselves."
- Edith Sitwell

"Poetry ennobles the heart and the eyes, and unveils the meaning of all things upon which the heart and the eyes dwell. It discovers the secret rays of the universe, and restores to us forgotten paradises."
- Edith Sitwell

"It is a part of the poet's work to show each man what he sees but does not know he sees."
- Edith Sitwell

"Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound, why try to look like a Pekingese?"
- Edith Sitwell

"The poet speaks to all men of that other life of theirs that they have smothered and forgotten."
- Edith Sitwell

Sitwell image source (1)

Monday, September 6, 2010

Imagine meandering so . . .

Today is the birthday of Robert Maynard Pirsig (born September 6, 1928), writer and philosopher.

He is is best known for his novel Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974). The book sold over 4 million copies in twenty-seven languages and was described by the press as the most widely read philosophy book, ever. It was originally rejected by 121 publishers, more than any other bestselling book, according to the Guinness Book of Records. source (1)

"Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20 - 20 hindsight. It's good for seeing where you've been. It's good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can't tell you where you ought to go."
- Robert M. Pirsig

"We keep passing unseen through little moments of other people's lives."
- Robert M. Pirsig

"To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain that sustain life, not the top."
- Robert M. Pirsig

"The solutions all are simple - after you have arrived at them. But they're simple only when you know already what they are."
- Robert M. Pirsig

"The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there."
- Robert M. Pirsig

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.
- Robert M. Pirsig

Pirsig image source (1)

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Meandering while we wander . . .

Today is the birthday of Arthur Koestler (September 5, 1905 – March 3, 1983), author of essays, novels and autobiographies. He is best known for his novel, Darkness At Noon (1940).

"Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears."
- Arthur Koestler

"The scientist's discoveries impose his own order on chaos, as the composer or painter imposes his; an order that always refers to limited aspects of reality, and is based on the observer's frame of reference, which differs from period to period as a Rembrant nude differs from a nude by Manet."
- Arthur Koestler

"Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual."
- Arthur Koestler

"“The progress of science is strewn, like an ancient desert trail, with the bleached skeleton of discarded theories which once seemed to possess eternal life."
- Arthur Koestler

"The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards."
- Arthur Koestler

"Nothing is more sad than the death of an illusion."
- Arthur Koestler

"Scientists are peeping toms at the keyhole of eternity."
- Arthur Koestler

Koestler image source (1)

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Meandering . . .

Today is birthday of Mary Renault (September 4, 1905 – December 13, 1983), writer. She is best known for her historical novels set in Ancient Greece.

"In hatred as in love, we grow like the thing we brood upon. What we loathe, we graft into our very soul."
- Mary Renault

"Man's immortality is not to live forever; for that wish is born of fear. Each moment free from fear makes a man immortal."
- Mary Renault

"A man is at his youngest when he thinks he is a man, not yet realizing that his actions must show it."
- Mary Renault

"You can make an audience see nearly anything, if you yourself believe in it."
- Mary Renault

"How can people trust the harvest, unless they see it sown?"
- Mary Renault

"Money buys many things… The best of which is freedom."
- Mary Renault

Renault image source (1)

Friday, September 3, 2010

Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of Sarah Orne Jewett (September 3, 1849 – June 24, 1909), author and poet.

"Love isn't blind; it's only love that sees!"
- Sarah Orne Jewett

"It is the people who can do nothing who find nothing to do, and the secret to happiness in this world is not only to be useful, but to be forever elevating one's uses."
- Sarah Orne Jewett

"It does seem so pleasant to talk with an old acquaintance who knows what you know. I see so many new folks nowadays who seem to have neither past nor future. Conversation has got to have some root in the past, or else you have got to explain every remark you make, and it wears a person out."
- Sarah Orne Jewett

"A harbor, even if it is a little harbor, is a good thing, since adventurers come into it as well as go out, and the life in it grows strong, because it takes something from the world, and has something to give in return."
- Sarah Orne Jewett

"The road was new to me, as roads always are, going back."
- Sarah Orne Jewett

"Tact is after all a kind of mind reading."
- Sarah Orne Jewett

Jewett image source (1)

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Meandering here and there . . .

Today is the birthday of Cleveland Amory (September 2, 1917 – October 14, 1998), author. He devoted his life to promoting animal rights and is best known for his books about his beloved cat, Polar Bear.

Cleveland Amory founded The Fund for Animals and co-founded the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

"A good family, it seems, is one that used to be better."
- Cleveland Amory

"As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind."
- Cleveland Amory

"Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression."
- Cleveland Amory

"I can't take a well-tanned person seriously."
- Cleveland Amory

"The facts of life are very stubborn things."
- Cleveland Amory

Amory image source (1)

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Meandering in motivation . . .

Today is the birthday of Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 1, 1875 – March 19, 1950), author. He is best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan.

"I have often been asked how I came to write. The best answer is that I needed the money. When I started I was 35 and had failed in every enterprise I had ever attempted."
- Edgar Rice Burroughs

"I had gone thoroughly through some of the all-fiction magazines and I made up my mind that if people were paid for writing such rot as I read I could write stories just as rotten. Although I had never written a story, I knew absolutely that I could write stories just as entertaining and probably a lot more so than any I chanced to read in those magazines.

I knew nothing about the technique of story writing, and now, after eighteen years of writing, I still know nothing about the technique, although with the publication of my new novel, Tarzan and the Lost Empire, there are 31 books on my list. I had never met an editor, or an author or a publisher. l had no idea of how to submit a story or what I could expect in payment. Had I known anything about it at all I would never have thought of submitting half a novel; but that is what I did.

Thomas Newell Metcalf, who was then editor of The All-Story magazine, published by Munsey, wrote me that he liked the first half of a story I had sent him, and if the second half was as good he thought he might use it. Had he not given me this encouragement, I would never have finished the story, and my writing career would have been at an end, since l was not writing because of any urge to write, nor for any particular love of writing. l was writing because I had a wife and two babies, a combination which does not work well without money."
- Edgar Rice Burroughs

"I have ever been prone to seek adventure and to investigate and experiment where wiser men would have left well enough alone."
- Edgar Rice Burroughs

Burroughs image source (1)