Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[kennyc]

The Grapes of Wrath (one of my top favorite books) was published on this date in 1939.

"I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this [the
Great Depression and its effects."
- John Steinbeck about The Grapes of Wrath

No, You're wrong there--quite wrong there. The bank is something else than men. It
happens that every man in a bank hates what the bank does, and yet the bank does it.
The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it,
but they can't control it."
-- John Steinbeck from The Grapes of Wrath

[bfisher]

Great quotes, kennyc

I currently reading Barry Eichengreen's "Hall of Mirrors" which compares what was happening in banking and finance during the run-up to the Great Depression and the current Great Recession. The second Steinbeck quote is an all-too-apt description of the Frankenstein financial system that was built before the crash started in 2007.

"plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose" - Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

[bfisher]

"Certainement qui est en droit de vous rendre absurde est en droit de vous rendre injuste." (Certainly any one who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.)
- Voltaire

[covingtoncat73]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Remorse for Intemperate Speech

I RANTED to the knave and fool,
But outgrew that school,
Would transform the part,
Fit audience found, but cannot rule
My fanatic heart.
I sought my betters: though in each
Fine manners, liberal speech,
Turn hatred into sport,
Nothing said or done can reach
My fanatic heart

W.B.Yeats, "From The Winding Stair and Other Poems"

Love Yeats! I would K you but I need to find another person or two to K before I can K you again, apparently.

[covingtoncat73]

"Whenever a knight of the Grail tried to follow a path made by someone else, he went altogether astray. Where there is a way or path, it is someone else's footsteps. Each of us has to find his own way, and this is what gives our Occidental world its initiative and creative quality. Nobody can give you a mythology. The images that mean something to you, you'll find in your dreams, in your visions, in your actions — and you'll find out what they are after you've passed them."
Joseph Campbell, interviewed by Joan Marler in Yoga Journal
(courtesy of the Joseph Campbell Foundation)

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Love Yeats!

Yeats is one of the immortals - as long as English is spoken, anyway . In my freshman English Lit course, the Lecturer, who was a writer and a radio broadcaster from the pioneering era, used to read Yeats aloud to us. I'll never forget hearing him read The Wild Swans At Coole.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

"I will not struggle against the whole universe by struggling against this moment. My acceptance is total and complete. I accept things as they are this moment, not as I wish they were." ~D-Chop

This evokes for me the exchange where Margaret Fuller, American Transcendentalist, said, "I accept the universe."

And Thomas Carlyle, hearing of this, said, "Gad, she'd better!"

[doubleshuffle]

Is it already time to bring up the Chopranator again?

[covingtoncat73]

These guys have to be ancestors of my Grandfather Fallon...

"Malachy Fallon fonght a duel with Mr. James Dillon of Ouleen, and killed that gentleman. Patrick Fallon the son of Malachy, challenged and fought the late Lord French. Previous to that duel, Malachy is said to have instructed his son how to handle the pistol. In the encounter, Pat had the first fire, and shot away a button from his adversarie's coat, but Lord French did not fire, and so the affair ended much to the disgust of the sanguinary Malachy, who as I was in formed by one of his descendants, was very indignant with his son for not shooting his Lordship. The family proclivity for duelling was more unfortunately evinced by Malachy's grandson, James Fallon, who fought and shot Mr. Bellew, uncle to the present Sir Michael Dillon Bellew. I have a vivid recollection of Malachy Fallon's eldest son, Edward, at my father's house astonishing his guests, and sober-minded kinsman, Edward Madden, with comic songs, not remarkable for their propriety, and extraordinary narratives of desperate duels, celebrated races, and famous sporting or shooting exploits. One of this mad-cap young Galway gentleman's favourite songs, when my father had left the table, began with the words 'My wife she is the Queen of all sluts.' From his sporting propensities and patriotic spoutings after dinner particularly, he was complimented by his companions, by the soubriquet of 'Grattan.'"
~The Memoirs (chiefly Autobiographical) from 1798 to 1886 of Richard Robert Madden, Richard Robert Madden

[WT Sharpe]

The human understanding, from its particular nature, easily supposes a greater degree of order and regularity in things than it really finds.

— Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, statesman, essayist. The Novum Organum.

[covingtoncat73]

“The heart of an Irishman is nothing but his imagination”
― George Bernard Shaw

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

“The heart of an Irishman is nothing but his imagination”
― George Bernard Shaw

[AlexBell]

"Lasting! what's lasting?

The earth that swims so well, must drown in fire,
And Time be last to perish at the stake.
The heavens must parch; the universe must smoulder.
Nothing but thoughts can live, and such thoughts only
As god-like are, making God's recreation."

From Life in the Sick-Room, published anonymously by Harriet Martineau in 1874. The poem was attributed to I. Knowe.

[covingtoncat73]

"The battle between good and evil is fought within the individual human heart. Between all of us, every day and every year. People who do noble and heroic things on Tuesday may do some vile and selfish things on Wednesday." G.R.R. Martin

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

"The battle between good and evil is fought within the individual human heart. Between all of us, every day and every year. People who do noble and heroic things on Tuesday may do some vile and selfish things on Wednesday." G.R.R. Martin

Good one! I owe you karma, but have to karma someone else first.