Meandering on and on . . .

Today is the birthday of Alexander Pope (May 21, 1688 – May 30, 1744), essayist, critic, satirist, and poet. He is best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer.

Alexander Pope was a master of the heroic couplet and is generally regarded as the greatest English poet of the eighteenth century.

"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday." - Alexander Pope

"And, after all, what is a lie? 'Tis but the truth in a masquerade." - Alexander Pope

"Many men have been capable of doing a wise thing, more a cunning thing, but very few a generous thing." - Alexander Pope

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." - Alexander Pope

"A little learning is a dangerous thing." - Alexander Pope

"Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me die;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lie."
- Alexander Pope

"The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole
Can never be a mouse of any soul."
- Alexander Pope

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Meandering about . . .

Today is the birthday of John Stuart Mill (May 20, 1806 – May 8, 1873), philosopher. He was a radical empiricist who held that all human knowledge, including even mathematics and logic, is derived by generalization from sensory experience. 

The overall aim of his philosophy was to develop a positive view of the universe and the place of humans in it, a view which would contribute to the progress of human knowledge, individual freedom and human well-being. John Stuart Mill was a strong believer in freedom, especially of speech and of thought.

"Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called." - John Stuart Mill

"The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time." - John Stuart Mill

"A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury." - John Stuart Mill

"No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought." - John Stuart Mill

"That which seems the height of absurdity in one generation often becomes the height of wisdom in the next." - John Stuart Mill

"One person with a belief is equal to a force of 99 who have only interests." - John Stuart Mill

"Over one's mind and over one's body the individual is sovereign." - John Stuart Mill

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Meandering on . . .

Today is the birthday of Max Ferdinand Perutz, (May 19, 1914 – February 6, 2002), molecular biologist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962, which he shared with John Kendrew for their studies of the structures of hemoglobin and globular proteins.

Max Perutz is oft referred to as the father of molecular biology. He founded the small research group in which Francis Crick and James Watson discovered the structure of DNA and under his leadership it became the world-famous Laboratory for Molecular Biology.

"Science is part of culture. Culture isn't only art and music and literature, it's also understanding what the world is made of and how it functions. People should know something about stars, matter and chemistry. People often say that they don't like chemistry but we deal with chemistry all the time. People don't know what heat is, they hardly know what water is. I'm always surprised how little people know about anything. I'm puzzled by it." — Max Perutz

‘"There is a real world independent of our senses: the laws of nature were not invented by man, but forced upon him by that natural world. They are the expression of a rational order." - Max Perutz

"True science thrives best in glass houses where everyone can look in. When the windows are blacked out, as in war, the weeds take over; when secrecy muffles criticism, charlatans and cranks flourish." - Max Perutz

"In Science Truth Always Wins" — Max Perutz

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How and why do we know what we know?

Today is the birthday of Bertrand Arthur William Russell (May 18, 1872 –February 2, 1970), philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, social reformist, and pacifist. He was devoted to the philosophy of knowledge and is regarded as one of the founders of analytic philosophy.

In 1950, Bertrand Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

"There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death." - Bertrand Russell

"Unless a man has been taught what to do with success after getting it, the achievement of it must inevitably leave him a prey to boredom." - Bertrand Russell

"In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted." - Bertrand Russell

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." - Bertrand Russell

"Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot ensure our own prosperity except by ensuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy." - Bertrand Russell

"To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true." - Bertrand Russell

"What hunger is in relation to food, zest is in relation to life." - Bertrand Russell

"It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly." - Bertrand Russell

"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time." - Bertrand Russell

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To eight glasses a day . . .

Today is the birthday of Sebastian Kneipp (May 17, 1821 – June 17, 1897), priest and one of the founders of the Naturopathic medicine movement. He is oft referred to as the Father of Hydrotherapy. He believed that disease could be cured by using water to eliminate waste from the body.

A naturopath, Sebastian Kneipp developed water cures and massage with essential oils. In 1886, he published My Water Cure, which was translated into several languages and became popular throughout Europe. His health products are still in use in the world market today.

"... for the healthy individual it is an excellent means to maintain his health and energy, but also in times of illness it is the prime remedy; it is the most natural, the simplest and, when used properly, the safest means. Water is my best friend and will remain so until I die." - Sebastian Kneipp

"Nature has provided us generously with everything we need to remain in good health."- Sebastian Kneipp

"There is hardly any other circumstance that is more damaging to our health than the way we live our days. A equilibrium must be found to strengthen overstrained nerves, to maintain their strength: we must create a balance." - Sebastian Kneipp

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Let's talk . . .

Today is the birthday of Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008), author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. In 1985, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his book, The Good War: An Oral History of World War II (1984).

“Perhaps it is this specter that most haunts working men and women: the planned obsolescence of people that is of a piece with the planned obsolescence of the things they make. Or sell. It is perhaps this fear of no longer being needed in a world of needless things that most clearly spells out the unnaturalness, the surreality of much that is called work today.” - "Studs" Terkel

"That`s what we`re missing. We`re missing argument. We`re missing debate. We`re missing colloquy. We`re missing all sorts of things. Instead, we`re accepting." - "Studs" Terkel

"I'm not up on the Internet, but I hear that is a democratic possibility. People can connect with each other. I think people are ready for something, but there is no leadership to offer it to them. People are ready to say, Yes, we are part of a world. " - "Studs" Terkel

"I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be." - "Studs" Terkel

"But once you become active in something, something happens to you. You get excited and suddenly you realize you count. " - "Studs" Terkel

“Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirits.” - "Studs" Terkel

Trivia bit: Louis "Studs" Terkel never learned to drive.

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I'm off to see the Wizard . . .

Today is the birthday of Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919), author, poet, playwright, actor and independent filmmaker. He is best known as, L. Frank Baum,  the creator, along with illustrator William Wallace Denslow, of the popular children's tale, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

"I believe that dreams — day dreams, you know, with your eyes wide open and your brain machinery whizzing — are likely to lead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become the imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent, and therefore to foster civilization." - L. Frank Baum

"It is a callous age; we have seen so many marvels that we are ashamed to marvel more; the seven wonders of the world have become seven thousand wonders." - L. Frank Baum

"I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward." - L. Frank Baum

"Mortals seldom know how greatly they are influenced by fairies, knooks and ryls, who often put thoughts into their heads that only the wise little immortals could have conceived." - L. Frank Baum

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