MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

kennyc · 02-04-2016, 09:40 PM

This one's a bit involved. I was watching an American Experience show Murder of a President tonight on President Garfield and his life/assasination/death. Excellent show and episode btw. And somewhere the phrase 'better angels of our natures' came up -- at his deathbed or somewhere near the end. Which immediately made me think of the Stephen Pinker book.

I began googling and low and behold it was the final phrase of Lincolns inaugural address.

".... I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
- Abraham Lincoln

but apparently the trigger/origin is Charles Dickens (Barnaby Rudge) from this:

"“The thoughts of worldly men are for ever regulated by a moral law of gravitation, which, like the physical one, holds them down to earth. The bright glory of day, and the silent wonders of a starlit night, appeal to their minds in vain. There are no signs in the sun, or in the moon, or in the stars, for their reading. They are like some wise men, who, learning to know each planet by its Latin name, have quite forgotten such small heavenly constellations as Charity, Forbearance, Universal Love, and Mercy, although they shine by night and day so brightly that the blind may see them; and who, looking upward at the spangled sky, see nothing there but the reflection of their own great wisdom and book-learning…

“It is curious to imagine these people of the world, busy in thought, turning their eyes towards the countless spheres that shine above us, and making them reflect the only images their minds contain…So do the shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed."
- Charles Dickens

you can read a bit about it here: http://www.whatyousay.com/a-quotatio...raham-lincoln/

and perhaps Pinker even explains it in his book, I don't know as I've not read it.

02-04-2016, 09:40 PM	#2945
kennyc The Dank Side of the Moon Posts: 35,922 Karma: 119747553 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Denver, CO Device: Kindle2 & PW, Onyx Boox Go6	This one's a bit involved. I was watching an American Experience show Murder of a President tonight on President Garfield and his life/assasination/death. Excellent show and episode btw. And somewhere the phrase 'better angels of our natures' came up -- at his deathbed or somewhere near the end. Which immediately made me think of the Stephen Pinker book. I began googling and low and behold it was the final phrase of Lincolns inaugural address. ".... I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." - Abraham Lincoln but apparently the trigger/origin is Charles Dickens (Barnaby Rudge) from this: "“The thoughts of worldly men are for ever regulated by a moral law of gravitation, which, like the physical one, holds them down to earth. The bright glory of day, and the silent wonders of a starlit night, appeal to their minds in vain. There are no signs in the sun, or in the moon, or in the stars, for their reading. They are like some wise men, who, learning to know each planet by its Latin name, have quite forgotten such small heavenly constellations as Charity, Forbearance, Universal Love, and Mercy, although they shine by night and day so brightly that the blind may see them; and who, looking upward at the spangled sky, see nothing there but the reflection of their own great wisdom and book-learning… “It is curious to imagine these people of the world, busy in thought, turning their eyes towards the countless spheres that shine above us, and making them reflect the only images their minds contain…So do the shadows of our own desires stand between us and our better angels, and thus their brightness is eclipsed." - Charles Dickens you can read a bit about it here: http://www.whatyousay.com/a-quotatio...raham-lincoln/ and perhaps Pinker even explains it in his book, I don't know as I've not read it. Last edited by kennyc; 02-04-2016 at 09:42 PM.