HISTORY
Until lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter. - African Proverb
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. . . . Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." So/ren Kierkesgaard
"Recorded history is largely an account of the crimes and disasters committed by banal little men at the levers of imperial machines." [8] Edward Abbey, (1927-1989)
"I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past." [1] Patrick Henry 1736-1799
Nothing. -Louis XVI (entry in his diary for July 14, 1789, the day the mob stormed the Bastille)
WHAT IS REAL?
"Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world." Arthur Schopenhauer
The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. - Bertrand Russel
"Retreat Hell! We're just attacking in another direction." [7] Major General Oliver P. Smith, USMC, (Korea, December 1950)
Daniel Webster. 1782-1852. There is nothing so powerful as truth,--and often nothing so strange.[1]
Nothing. -Louis XVI (entry in his diary for July 14, 1789, the day the mob stormed the Bastille)
RELIGION AND LIMITS OF RATIONALITY
"The last function of reason is to recognize that there are only an infinity of things which surpass it." Blaise Pascal
"I shall never believe that God plays dice with the world." [1] Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
"A man sits with a pretty girl for an hour and it seems shorter than a minute. But tell that same man to sit on a hot stove for a minute, it is longer than any hour. That's relativity." [9] Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
There is something precious in our being mysteries to ourselves, in our being unable ever to see through even the person who is closest to our heart and to reckon with him as though he were a logical proposition or a problem in accounting. - Rudolf Bultmann
The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper. - Bertrand Russel
RELIGIOUS DYSFUNCTION
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. -Bishop Desmond Tutu
I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. -Galileo Galilei
THE INTELLECTUAL QUEST
"The unexamined life is not worth living." Socrates
"It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all of the answers." James Thurber
"The essential point in science is not a complicated mathematical formalism or a ritualized experimentation. Rather the heart of science is a kind of shrewd honesty that springs from really wanting to know what the hell is going on!" [9]Saul-Paul Sirag
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but "That's funny ..." [9] Isaac Asimov
"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it." [1] Speech in Virginia Convention, Richmond March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry 1736-1799
DANGERS OF THE INTELLECTUAL QUEST
"Rabbit's clever," said Pooh thoughtfully. "Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit's clever." "And he has Brain." "Yes," said Piglet, "Rabbit has Brain." There was a long silence. "I suppose," said Pooh, "that that's why he never understands anything." Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, (The House at Pooh Corner)
The true way to be deceived is to think oneself more knowing than others." [1] Francis, Duc de La Rochefoucauld. 1613-1680.
"We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us." [1] Francis, Duc de La Rochefoucauld. 1613-1680.
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. - Confucius
ETHICS
I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him. - Booker T. Washington
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. - Martin Luther King Jr.
To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing. - Elbert Hubbard
HUMOR
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll make an exception. -Groucho Marx
MISCELLANEOUS
A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. -Mark Twain
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. -Mark Twain
All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure. - Mark Twain
Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom. - Soren Kierkegaard
Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. - Aldous Huxley
I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward. - Thomas A. Edison
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." Sir Isaac Newton 1642-1727
"Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all." [1] ????? Locarno?
"The more is given the less people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase." [2] Leo Tolstoy, "Help for the Starving, Part II" [January, 1892]
"The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer (like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding), lies here, food for worms; but the work shall not be lost, for it will (as he believed) appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author." Epitaph on Himself (composed in 1728) [1] Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790