Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[dreams]

"When someone says How-do-you-do, just say you didn't."
~ Eeyore

Can you imagine what I would do if I could do all I can?

~ Sun Tzu

I thought this was interesting

Spoiler:

Wikipedia - "One of the more well-known stories about Sun Tzu, taken from the Shiji, illustrates Sun Tzu's temperament as follows: Before hiring Sun Tzu, the King of Wu tested Sun Tzu's skills by commanding him to train a harem of 180 concubines into soldiers. Sun Tzu divided them into two companies, appointing the two concubines most favored by the king as the company commanders. When Sun Tzu first ordered the concubines to face right, they giggled. In response, Sun Tzu said that the general, in this case himself, was responsible for ensuring that soldiers understood the commands given to them. Then, he reiterated the command, and again the concubines giggled. Sun Tzu then ordered the execution of the king's two favored concubines, to the king's protests. He explained that if the general's soldiers understood their commands but did not obey, it was the fault of the officers. Sun Tzu also said that once a general was appointed, it was their duty to carry out their mission, even if the king protested. After both concubines were killed, new officers were chosen to replace them. Afterwards, both companies performed their maneuvers flawlessly."

[TenaciousBadger]

What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.

--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

[orlok]

"I don't care what is written about me so long as it isn't true."

- Dorothy Parker

[WT Sharpe]

.....All failures—neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children, suicides, perverts, and prostitutes—are failures because they are lacking in social interest. They approach the problems of occupation, friendship, and sex without the confidence that they can be solved by cooperation. The meaning they give to life is a private meaning. No one else is benefitted by the achievement of their aims, and their interests stops short at their own persons.
..........— Alfred Adler (1870-1937). Austrian pioneer of individual psychology. The Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler: A Systematic Presentation in Selections From His Writings edited by Heinz L. Ansbacher and Rowena R. Ansbacher (1956), Page 156, "Social Interest and Adjustment."

[astrangerhere]

"Do not try to improve your neighborhood or neighbor by your reading. Self-improvement is a large enough project for your mind and spirit."

-Harold Bloom in How to Read and Why, preface

[purple_fishy]

"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming." Pablo Neruda

[TenaciousBadger]

Originally Posted by purple_fishy

"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming." Pablo Neruda

[TenaciousBadger]

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. it's already tomorrow in Australia

-- Charles Schultz

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by purple_fishy

"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming." Pablo Neruda

Originally Posted by TenaciousBadger

Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. it's already tomorrow in Australia

-- Charles Schultz

Nice ones, guys!


"Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water." William Shakespeare, Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.

[TenaciousBadger]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Nice ones, guys!


"Men’s evil manners live in brass; their virtues
We write in water." William Shakespeare, Henry VIII. Act iv. Sc. 2.

Nice one yourself!

'O gods, rob not the earth of the dim hush that hangs round all Your temples, bereave not all the world of old romance, take not the glamour from the moonlight nor tear the wonder out of the white mists in every land; for, O ye gods of the childhood of the world, when You have left the earth you shall have taken the mystery from the sea and all its glory from antiquity, and You shall have wrenched out hope from the dim future. . . .'

This is just part of an excellent paragraph from the story The Relenting of Sarnidac, this being just one of the stories from Time and Gods by Lord Dunsany. A number of excellent works by him available here at Mobile Read, thanks much Dr. Drib, et al.

Anyway don't get me wrong the progression of knowledge and science has been a wonderful thing for mankind. And those who still believe in all this religious nonsense, including denying the reality of evolution, in an otherwise literate and educated country are in my opinion a joke. Still the point of the passage in that book I understand. The human mind evolved in African savannah at a time when even the cycle of night and day were a mystery. There seems to be a hardwired need in our brains for belief in some unknowable, some power beyond ourselves.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

.....All failures—neurotics, psychotics, criminals, drunkards, problem children, suicides, perverts, and prostitutes—are failures because they are lacking in social interest. [...]

Am I the only one to find this statement ... curious? This is probably not the place to discuss it in detail, I'm just trying to work out just how thick I am. Does anyone know if Alfred Alder was making a serious claim that "neurotics, psychotics [... etc]" somehow make deliberate decisions "lacking in social interest"? It seems to me there may be a confusion of cause and effect here, or I am missing something (wouldn't be the first time).

[Falcao]

- What is the cause, said Gargantua, that Friar John hath such a fair nose?
- Because, said Grangousier, that God would have it so, who frameth us in such form and for such end as is most agreeable with his divine will, even as a potter fashioneth his vessels.
- Because, said Ponocrates, he came with the first to the fair of noses, and therefore made choice of the fairest and the greatest.
- Pish, said the monk, that is not the reason of it, but, according to the true monastical philosophy, it is because my nurse had soft teats, by virtue whereof, whilst she gave me suck, my nose did sink in as in so much butter. The hard breasts of nurses make children short-nosed.
-- François Rabelais, "Gargantua and Pantagruel"

[techmobby]

"With our thoughts, we create our world" - Buddha
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure to try to please everyone"

[poohbear_nc]

Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.

- Charles Kuralt