Monday, January 31, 2011

Meandering still . . .

Today is the birthday of Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939), author.

"The difficulty, the ordeal, is to start."
Zane Grey

"At the end of the day faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it. Its like one day you realize that the fairy tale may be slightly different than you dreamed. The castle, well, it may not be a castle. And its not so important happy ever after, just that its happy right now. See once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you, and once in a while people may even take your breath away."
Zane Grey

“People live for the dream in their hearts. And I have yet to know anyone who has not some secret dream, some hope, however dim, some storied wall to look at in the dusk, some painted window leading to the soul.”
Zane Grey

Grey image source (1)

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Meander with me . . .

Today is the birthday of Lloyd Chudley Alexander (January 30, 1924 – May 17, 2007), author. He is best known for his Chronicles of Prydain novels.

"For each of us comes a time when we must be more than what we are."
Lloyd Alexander

"Long ago I yearned to be a hero without knowing, in truth, what a hero was. Now, perhaps, I understand it a little better. A grower of turnips or a shaper of clay, a Commot farmer or a king--every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone . . . Once you told me that the seeking counts more than the finding. So, too, must the striving count more than the gain."
Lloyd Alexander

"Dealing with the impossible, fantasy can show us what may be really possible. If there is grief, there is the possibility of consolation; if hurt, the possibility of healing; and above all, the curative power of hope. If fantasy speaks to us as we are, it also speaks to us as we might be"
Lloyd Alexander

"We learn more by looking for the answer to a question and not finding it than we do from learning the answer itself."
Lloyd Alexander

"Keep reading. It's one of the most marvelous adventures that anyone can have."
Lloyd Alexander

"The journey is the treasure."
Lloyd Alexander

Alexander image source (1)

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Meandering in the wilderness . . .

Today is the birthday of Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989), author and essayist.

"Society is like a stew. If you don't stir it up every once in a while then a layer of scum floats to the top."
Edward Abbey

"There are some good things to be said about walking. Not many, but some. Walking takes longer, for example, than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed. I have a friend who's always in a hurry; he never gets anywhere. Walking makes the world much bigger and thus more interesting. You have time to observe the details. The utopian technologists foresee a future for us in which distance is annihilated. . . . To be everywhere at once is to be nowhere forever, if you ask me."
Edward Abbey

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds."
Edward Abbey

"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."
Edward Abbey

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
Edward Abbey

"Heaven is home. Utopia is here. Nirvana is now."
Edward Abbey

Abbey image source (1)

Friday, January 28, 2011

Meandering freely . . .

Today is the birthday of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (January 28, 1873 – August 3, 1954), novelist. She is best known only by her surname, Colette and for her novel Gigi.

"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm."
Colette

"It's so curious: one can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief. But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer... and everything collapses."
Colette

"Dogs believe they are human. Cats believe they are God. "
Colette

"Our perfect companions never have fewer than four feet."
Colette

"Time spent with a cat is never wasted."
Colette

"There are no ordinary cats."
Colette

Colette image source (1)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (January 27, 1832 – 14 January 14, 1898), author, mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer. He is best known by his pen name Lewis Carroll and for his books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass.

"If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there."
Lewis Carroll

"Be what you would seem to be - or, if you'd like it put more simply - never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."
Lewis Carroll

"If you set to work to believe everything, you will tire out the believing-muscles of your mind, and then you'll be so weak you won't be able to believe the simplest true things."
Lewis Carroll

"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth the doing is what we do for others"
Lewis Carroll

"I know who I WAS when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then."
Lewis Carroll

"If you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?"
Lewis Carroll

Carroll image source (1)


Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of Philip José Farmer (January 26, 1918 – February 25, 2009), science fiction writer.

"Imagination is like a muscle. I found out that the more I wrote, the bigger it got."
Philip José Farmer

"It was the essence of life to disbelieve in death for one's self, to act as if life would continue forever. And life had to act also as if little issues were big ones. To take a realistic attitude toward life and death meant that one lapsed into unreality. Into insanity. It was ironic that the only way to keep one's sanity was to ignore that one was in an insane world or to act as if the world were sane."
Philip José Farmer

"The real superhuman, man or woman, is the person who's rid himself of all prejudices, neuroses, and psychoses, who realizes his full potential as a human being, who acts naturally on the basis of gentleness, compassion, and love, who thinks for himself and refuses to follow the herd."
Philip José Farmer

"Everybody should fear only one person, and that person should be himself."
Philip José Farmer

Farmer image source (1)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Just meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Adeline Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941), author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories.

"You cannot find peace by avoiding life."
Virginia Woolf

"We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep. It's as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out windows, or drown themselves, or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us are slowly devoured by some disease, or, if we're very fortunate, by time itself. There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds & expectations, to burst open & give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) know these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning, we hope, more than anything for more. Heaven only knows why we love it so."
Virginia Woolf

"Lock up your libraries if you like, but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."
Virginia Woolf

"When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they?"
Virginia Woolf

"If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people"
Virginia Woolf

"Growing up is loosing some illusions, in order to acquire others."
Virginia Woolf

Woolf image source (1)

Monday, January 24, 2011

Meandering we go . . .

Today is the birthday of William Congreve (January 24, 1670 – January 19, 1729), playwright and poet.

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
- William Congreve

"Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness, speak cheering words while their ears can hear, and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier by them."
- William Congreve

"Music has charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."
- William Congreve

"Defer not till tomorrow to be wise, Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise."
- William Congreve

"A hungry wolf at all the herd will run, In hopes, through many, to make sure of one."
- William Congreve

"He who closes his ears to the views of others shows little confidence in the integrity of his own views."
- William Congreve

Congreve image source (1)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Meandering here and there . . .

Today is the birthday of Marie-Henri Beyle (January 23, 1783 – March 23, 1842), writer. He best known by his pen name Stendhal and for the psychosomatic illness, Stendhal syndrome (rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion and even hallucinations when an individual is exposed to art).

"Pleasure is often spoiled by describing it."
Stendhal

"Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men thoroughly, to judge events sanely, is, therefore, a great step towards happiness."
— Stendhal

"The pleasures and the cares of the luckiest ambition, even of limitless power, are nothing next to the intimate happiness that tenderness and love give."
Stendhal

"The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same."
Stendhal

"One can acquire everything in solitude except character."
Stendhal

Stendhal images source (1)

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Meander with me . . .

Today is the birthday of Francis Bacon (January 22, 1561 – April 9, 1626) , philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist and author.

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties."
Francis Bacon

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."
Francis Bacon

"Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand--and melting like a snowflake..."
Francis Bacon

"It is a sad fate for a man to die too well known to everybody else, and still unknown to himself."
Francis Bacon

"There are two ways of spreading light..to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it."
Francis Bacon

"If we are to achieve things never before accomplished we must employ methods never before attempted"
Francis Bacon

"The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery."
Francis Bacon

"Wonder is the seed of knowledge"
Francis Bacon

"Ipsa scientia potestas est.
(Knowledge itself is power.)"
Francis Bacon

Bacon image source (1)

Friday, January 21, 2011

Meandering in style . . .

Today is the birthday of Christian Dior (January 21, 1905 – October 23, 1957), fashion designer. He is best known as the founder of Christian Dior, considered one of the world's top fashion houses.

"Zest is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without zest."
- Christian Dior

"Women are most fascinating between the ages of 35 and 40 after they have won a few races and know how to pace themselves. Since few women ever pass 40, maximum fascination can continue indefinitely."
- Christian Dior

"Happiness is the secret to all beauty. There is no beauty without happiness."
Christian Dior

"By being natural and sincere, one often can create revolutions without having sought them."
Christian Dior

"It is unforgivable to do what one doesn't love, especially if one succeeds."
Christian Dior

"I think we have to be aware that people are allowed to make mistakes in their life."
Christian Dior

"A woman's perfume tells more about her than her handwriting."
- Christian Dior

Dior image source (1)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Meandering freely . . .

Today is the birthday of Federico Fellini (January 20, 1920 – October 31, 1993), film director and writer.

"A different language is a different vision of life."
- Federico Fellini

"I discovered that what's really important for a creator isn't what we vaguely define as inspiration or even what it is we want to say, recall, regret, or rebel against. No, what's important is the way we say it. Art is all about craftsmanship. Others can interpret craftsmanship as style if they wish. Style is what unites memory or recollection, ideology, sentiment, nostalgia, presentiment, to the way we express all that. It's not what we say but how we say it that matters."
- Federico Fellini

"Realism is a bad word. In a sense everything is realistic. I see no line between the imaginary and the real."
- Federico Fellini

"All art is autobiographical. The pearl is the oyster's autobiography."
- Federico Fellini

"Experience is what you get while looking for something else."
- Federico Fellini

"You exist only in what you do."
- Federico Fellini

Fellini image source (1)

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Meandering in a dream . . .

Today is the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849), writer, poet, editor and literary critic.

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."
Edgar Allan Poe

"Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence– whether much that is glorious– whether all that is profound– does not spring from disease of thought– from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect."
Edgar Allan Poe

"It is by no means an irrational fancy that, in a future existence, we shall look upon what we think our present existence, as a dream."
Edgar Allan Poe

"There are some secrets which do not permit themselves to be told."
Edgar Allan Poe

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream."
Edgar Allan Poe

"Invisible things are the only realities."
Edgar Allan Poe

Poe image source (1)

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Robert Anton Wilson (January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007), author and philosopher.

"I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions."
Robert Anton Wilson

"...an optimistic mind-set finds dozens of possible solutions for every problem that the pessimist regards as incurable."
Robert Anton Wilson

"Is", "is." "is" — the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment"
Robert Anton Wilson

"The future is up for grabs. It belongs to any and all who will take the risk and accept the responsibility of consciously creating the future they want."
Robert Anton Wilson

"It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea."
Robert Anton Wilson

"Human beings live in their myths. They only endure their realities."
Robert Anton Wilson

Wilson image source (1)

Monday, January 17, 2011

Meandering while we wander . . .

Today is the birthday of William Edgar Stafford (January 17, 1914 – August 28, 1993), poet.

"I have woven a parachute out of everything broken."
- William Edgar Stafford

"Wisdom is having things right in your life and knowing why."
William Edgar Stafford

"The more you let yourself be distracted from where you are going, the more you are the person that you are. It's not so much like getting lost as it is like getting found."
- William Stafford

"A writer is not so much someone who has something to say as he is someone who has found a process that will bring about new things he would not have thought of if he had not started to say them."
William Edgar Stafford

"Everyone is born a poet - a person discovering the way words sound and work, caring and delighting in words. I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is: Why did other people stop?"
William Edgar Stafford

"Between roars the lion purrs."
William Edgar Stafford

Stafford image source (1)

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Meandering we go on and on . . .

Today is the birthday of Susan Sontag (January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004), author and political activist.

"The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions."
Susan Sontag

"I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them."
Susan Sontag

"Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It's all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager."
Susan Sontag

"All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt."
Susan Sontag

"The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no speaking or writing, there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is."
Susan Sontag

"Time exists in order that everything doesn’t happen all at once…and space exists so that it doesn’t all happen to you."
Susan Sontag

"Interpretation is the revenge of the intellectual upon art."
Susan Sontag

Sontag image source (1)

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Meandering in the spheres . . .

Today is the birthday of Edward Teller (January 15, 1908 – September 9, 2003), theoretical physicist. He has oft been referred to as the father of the hydrogen bomb.

"Two paradoxes are better than one; they may even suggest a solution."
- Edward Teller

"When you get to the end of all the light you know and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: either you will be given something solid to stand on, or you will be taught how to fly."
Edward Teller

"There is no case where ignorance should be preferred to knowledge—especially if the knowledge is terrible."
Edward Teller

"No endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect."
- Edward Teller

"Physics is, hopefully, simple. Physicists are not."
- Edward Teller

Teller image source (1)

Friday, January 14, 2011

Meandering along . . .

Today is the birthday of Albert Schweitzer (January 14, 1875 – September 4, 1965), theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. In 1952 he received the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter -- to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way, as if we were sitting by a mountain lake and contemplating hills and woods and clouds in the tranquil and fathomless water."
Albert Schweitzer

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."
Albert Schweitzer

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."
Albert Schweitzer

"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."
Albert Schweitzer

"Eventually all things fall into place. Until then, laugh at the confusion, live for the moments, and know EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON."
Albert Schweitzer

"The only thing of importance, when we depart, will be the traces of love we have left behind."
Albert Schweitzer

Schweitzer stamp image source (1)

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Paul Karl Feyerabend (January 13, 1924 – February 11, 1994), philosopher of science.

"One can show the following: given any rule, however "fundamental" or "necessary" for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite."
- Paul Feyerabend

"It is clear, then, that the idea of a fixed method, or of a fixed theory or rationality, rests on too naive a view of man and his social surroundings. To those who look at the rich material provided by history, and who are not intent on impoverishing it in order to please their lower instincts, their craving for intellectual security in the for of clarity, precision, "objectivity", "truth", it will become clear that there is only one principle that can be defended under all circumstances and in all stages of human development. It is the principle: anything goes."
- Paul Feyerabend

"A scientist, an artist, a citizen is not like a child who needs papa methodology and mama rationality to give him security and direction, he can take care of himself, for he is the inventor not only of laws, theories, pictures, plays, forms of music, ways of dealing with his fellow man, institutions, but also entire world view, he is the inventor of entire forms of like."
- Paul Feyerabend

"My intention is not to replace one set of general rules by another such set: my intention is, rather, to convince the reader that all methodologies, even the most obvious ones, have their limits."
- Paul Feyerabend

Feyerabend image source (1)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Meandering on the path . . .

Today is the birthday of Narendranath Dutta (January 12, 1863–July 4, 1902), Hindu mystic and reformer. He is best known as Swami Vivekananda, the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission. He became the leading interpreter of Yoga and Hinduism in the West.

"We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act."
-Swami Vivekananda

"We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far."
- Swami Vivekananda

"The powers of the mind are like the rays of the sun when they are concentrated they illumine."
- Swami Vivekananda

"All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark."
- Swami Vivekananda

"The whole life is a succession of dreams. My ambition is to be a conscious dreamer, that is all."
- Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda image source (1)

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Meandering, meandering, meandering we go . . .

Today is the birthday of William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910), psychologist and philosopher.

"The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook."
William James

"Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task."
William James

"Actions seem to follow feeling, but really actions and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not. Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully and to act and speak as if cheerfulness were already there."
William James

"Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact."
- William James

"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude."
William James

"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. "
William James

"The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another."
William James

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."
William James

James image source (1)


Today is the birthday of Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972), rabbi and philosopher.

"When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people."
Abraham Joshua Heschel

"Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge."
Abraham Joshua Heschel

"Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. ....get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed."
Abraham Joshua Heschel

"Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows
with the ability to say no to oneself."
Abraham Joshua Heschel

"The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living."
Abraham Joshua Heschel

Heschel image source (1)

Monday, January 10, 2011

Meandering we go . . .

Today is the birthday of John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (January 10, 1834 – June 19, 1902), historian, moralist, politician, and writer. He was best known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Bt from 1837 to 1869 and was usually referred to simply as Lord Acton.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
- Lord Acton

"There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion."
- Lord Acton

"Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity."
- Lord Acton

"A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times."
- Lord Acton

"I'm not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money."
- Lord Acton

"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks."
- Lord Acton

"There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye."
- Lord Acton

"To be able to look back upon one's past life with satisfaction is to live twice."
- Lord Acton

Lord Acton image source (1)

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Simone de Beauvoir (January 9, 1908 – April 14, 1986), existentialist philosopher, novelist, and essayist. She is best known for her two volume treatise Le deuxième sexe (The Second Sex, 1949), which the Vatican placed on the Index of Forbidden Books.

"One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others."
- Simone de Beauvoir

"Society cares about the individual only in so far as he is profitable. The young know this. Their anxiety as they enter in upon social life matches the anguish of the old as they are excluded from it."
- Simone de Beauvoir

"That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing."
- Simone de Beauvoir

"There is only one solution if old age is not to be an absurd parody of our former life, and that is to go on pursuing ends that give our existence a meaning."
- Simone de Beauvoir

"Self-consciousness is not knowledge but a story one tells about oneself."
Simone de Beauvoir

"Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay."
- Simone de Beauvoir

Beauvoir image source (1)

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Meandering in the matrix . . .

Today is the birthday of Stephen William Hawking (born 8 January 1942), theoretical physicist and cosmologist.

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."
- Stephen W. Hawking

"Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?"
- Stephen W. Hawking

"One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don't throw it away."
- Stephen W. Hawking

"I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road."
- Stephen W. Hawking

"One is always a long way from solving a problem until one actually has the answer."
- Stephen W. Hawking

Hawking image source (1)

Friday, January 7, 2011

Meander with me . . .

Today is the birthday of Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda (January 7, 1858 – December 16, 1922), lexicographer and newspaper editor. He was principally responsible for the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language, whereas it had previously been a ceremonial language. He is oft referred to as the father of modern Hebrew.

". . . it was as if the heavens had suddenly opened, and a clear incandescent light flashed before my eyes, and a mighty inner voice sounded in my ears: the renascence of Israel on its ancestral soil.... the more the nationalist concept grew in me, the more I realized what a common language is to a nation . . ."
- Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda

"For everything there is needed only one wise, clever and active man, with the initiative to devote all his energies to it, and the matter will progress, all obstacles in the way notwithstanding . . . In every new event, every step, even the smallest in the path of progress, it is necessary that there be one pioneer who will lead the way without leaving any possibility of turning back."
-Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda

Eliezer Ben‑Yehuda image source (1)

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Meandering while we wander . . .

Today is the birthday of Khalil Gibran (January 6, 1883 - April 10, 1931), artist, poet, and writer.

"Perplexity is the beginning of knowledge."
- Khalil Gibran

"To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but what he aspires to."
- Khalil Gibran

"Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself. Love possesses not nor would it be possessed; For love is sufficient unto love."
- Khalil Gibran

"A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?"
- Khalil Gibran

"Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens."
- Khalil Gibran

"The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind."
- Khalil Gibran

"If you love somebody, let them go, for if they return, they were always yours. And if they don't, they never were."
- Khalil Gibran

"If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees."
- Khalil Gibran

Gibran image source (1)

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Meandering to and fro . . .

Today is the birthday of Umberto Eco (Born 5 January 1932) is an Italian philosopher and novelist. He is best known for his novel The Name of the Rose.

"Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them."
- Umberto Eco

"A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion."
- Umberto Eco

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth."
- Umberto Eco

"Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and every story tells a story that has already been told."
- Umberto Eco

"What is life if not the shadow of a fleeting dream?"
- Umberto Eco

"We live for books."
- Umberto Eco

Eco image source (1)

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Meandering along . . .

Today is the birthday of Gao Xingjian (born January 4, 1940), novelist, playwright, critic, and painter. In 2000, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. Here is another author whose work has been banned.

"Walk where your heart leads you, there are no restrictions and no burdens."
- Gao Xingjian

"The human species does not necessarily move in stages from progress to progress ... history and civilization do not advance in tandem. From the stagnation of Medieval Europe to the decline and chaos in recent times on the mainland of Asia and to the catastrophes of two world wars in the twentieth century, the methods of killing people became increasingly sophisticated. Scientific and technological progress certainly does not imply that humankind as a result becomes more civilized."
- Gao Xingjian

"When you use words, you're able to keep your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence."
- Gao Xingjian

"Everyone has to have either this or that problem, if he can't find any problem, he loses all reason for living."
- Gao Xingjian

"Dreams are more real than reality itself, they're closer to the self."
- Gao Xingjian

Gao Xingjian image source (1)

Monday, January 3, 2011

Meandering on the path . . .

Today is the birthday of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (January 3, 1892 – September 2, 1973), writer, poet, philologist, and university professor. He is best known as J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.

"A man that flies from his fear may find that he has only taken a short cut to meet it."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renenwed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king.”
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"You can only come to the morning through the shadows."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish."
- J.R.R. Tolkien

"Never laugh at live dragons"
- J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien image source (1)

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Meandering . . .

Today is the birthday of Isaac Asimov (c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992), science fiction author and professor of biochemistry.

"Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
- Isaac Asimov

"Even as a youngster, though, I could not bring myself to believe that if knowledge presented danger, the solution was ignorance. To me, it always seemed that the solution had to be wisdom. You did not refuse to look at danger, rather you learned how to handle it safely."
- Isaac Asimov

"The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom."
- Isaac Asimov

"If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them."
- Isaac Asimov

"We're forever teetering on the brink of the unknowable, and trying to understand what can't be understood."
- Isaac Asimov

Asimov image source (1)

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Edward Morgan Forster (January 1, 1879 – June 7, 1970), novelist, short story writer, essayist and librettist.

"Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice."
- E.M. Forster

"We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm--yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine."
- E.M. Forster

"We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."
- E.M. Forster

"Let yourself go. Pull out from the depths those thoughts that you do not understand, and spread them out in the sunlight and know the meaning of them."
- E.M. Forster

"I cannot help thinking that there is something to admire in everyone, even if you do not approve of them."
- E.M. Forster

"Mistrust all enterprises that require new clothes."
- E.M. Forster

Forster image source (1)

Happy New Year!