I believe in an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. It’s members are to be found in all nations and classes and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding when they meed. They represent the true human traiditon, the one permanent victory over cruelty and chaos.
– E. M. Forster
Category: quotes
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.
– Albert Einstein
It would be prejudicial to the national interest and the conduct of the government’s foreign policy if the English courts were to express opinions on questions of international law concerning the use of force by the United Kingdom and other states which might differ from those expressed by the government and advanced by it in the conduct of international relations.
– Permanent Undersecretary of State Sir Michael Jay, July 1st
As James said, “Come again? Government accountability? Separation of judiciary and executive? Wishy-washy liberal nonsense…”
Or as Michael Jay might have said “The government does what it likes and we do what we’re told”
Will chips in
If there’s any hope for America, it lies in a revolution, and if there’s any hope for a revolution in America, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara
Phil Ochs, musician, 1940-76
When the Tao is lost, there is virtue.
When virtue is lost, there is morality.
When morality is lost, there is the law.
The law is the husk of true faith,
the beginning of chaos.– Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, 38
Be the change you wish to see in the world
– Gandhi
Extending the war into Iraq would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Exceeding the U.N.’s mandate would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land.
From “Why We Didn’t Remove Saddam” by George Bush [Sr.] and Brent Scowcroft, Time Magazine, 1998
Via IraqBodyCount.com. Let the record show: 10,000 civilian casualties so far.
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Quotes #39 + #40
Two bits of classic Kerouac, the first from the beginning of ‘On the Road’
the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace things, but burn like
fabulous roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.
and
What is the feeling when you’re driving away from people, and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? -it’s the too
huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the
next crazy venture beneath the skies.
Some thoughts from a speech by Neil Gaiman:
Ignore all advice.
In my experience, most interesting art gets made by people who don’t know the rules, and have no idea that certain things simply aren’t done: so they do them. Transgress. Break things. Have too much fun.
Another piece of advice:
I’ve learned over the years that everything is more or less the same amount of work, so you may as well set your sights high and try and do something really cool.
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Quote #37
Given what we know about the human brain, two facts stand out as astonishing: (1) We know very little about what distinguishes the human brain from that of other species; and (2) apparently, few neuroscientists regard fact 1 as much of a problem.
–Todd Preuss (2000). What’s human about the human brain? In The New Cognitive Neurosciences (M.S. Gazzaniga, Ed.), Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Via Jody Culham
As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life – so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so that you can meet girls.
Matt Cartmill – Professor of Biology, Duke University.
Via Don’t Dance with DNA
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950), from Man and Superman (1903) “Maxims for Revolutionists”
I think the great lesson of the 20th century is that you have to separate the ethics from the aesthetics… The great lesson there is that you don’t have to agree with what the Nazis did, but, yes, be honest about it, they did have the best uniforms. A lot of people can’t come to terms with something as banal as that.
Andrew Eldritch
Nothing I’ve ever written was anti-market. Being against the market is like being against conversation. It’s a form of exchange. But I was just as hostile in the past to giving any privileges to the market as I am now. Besides, those who are great advocates of the market don’t always make it easier for people to have access to the market through basic education, credit or whatever. (my emphasis).
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Quote #32 – open secrets
There’s no secrets, just things I haven’t told you yet
Roger Grant, Aikido Instructor
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We love sheffo
(Quoting andy) This is from ‘we love sheffo’ a new fanzine type thing about how great sheffield is…most of it is kind of about urban design / town planning, but it has a hip hop flavour too:
yo yo peeps this is real life and I’m a tell you about it. So me and my homes is chilling in the ponder rosa and hubs (he’s 2nd in command) is all ‘yo we need more 40s’. they all turns to me, you know, being il duce of the beats, so I hit my pops on the 2way – ‘urgent 40 call ponder rosa’ and he’s all like ‘i’ll pick you up when I drive by’. Got kind of excited at that part. Anyhoo, he rolls by in the mondeo and chaffeurs the don of rhymes (i.e. me) to Jacksons. I look but hey, I don’t know this stock, so I give Janice a heads-up. ‘where the 40s at ?’ and janice gets on the mike, spitting out ‘shelly, this young man’s looking for some 40s. do you know where they are ?’. I’m like yo, are we freestyling ? is this a battle ? D-stroy V Janice who’s hotter ? Holler back. But she’s all like ‘if you don’t stop grabbing that microphone I’ll fetch security’.
A brother can’t find no peace in Crookes.
genius !
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Maybe self-improvement isn’t the answer.
I say, never be complete. I say, never be perfect…I just don’t want to die without a few scars.
Fight Club
Sometimes it seems like we’re all living in some kind of prison, and the crime is how much we hate ourselves. It’s good to get really dressed up once in a while and admit the truth — that when you look really closely, people are so strange and so complicated that they’re actually beautiful. Possibly even me.
– Henry Miller
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tired of london
In 1777, Samuel Johnson wrote Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford. (link).
In 1777, the population of London was approximately 800,000 people, a tenth it’s current size and a little larger than modern-day Leeds but smaller than Birmingham. (link)
You don’t need to leave your room.
Remain sitting at your table and listen.
Don’t even listen, simply wait.
Don’t even wait.
Be quite still and solitary.
The world will freely offer itself to you.
To be unmasked, it has no choice.
It will roll in ecstasy at your feet.Franz Kafka
Just found some transcriptions of Utah Philips’ Stories, from which this, a favourite of mine:
That’s when [Fry Pan Jack] told me – you know, he’d been tramping since 1927 -he said, “I told myself in ’27, if I cannot dictate the conditions of my labor, I will henceforth cease to work.” Hah! You don’t have to go to college to figure these things out, no sir! He said, “I learned when I was young that the only true life I had was the life of my brain. But if it’s true the only real life I have is the life of my brain, what sense does it make to hand that brain to somebody for eight hours a day for their particular use on the presumption that at the end of the day they will give it back in an unmutilated condition?” Fat chance!
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Quote #25, Neoteny
Reading Tom Robbin’s Still Life With Woodpecker on the tube this morning i was pleasently surprised by this:
“Neoteny” is “remaining young”, and it may be ironic that it is so little known, because human evolution has been dominated by it. Humans have evolved to their relatively high state by retaining the immature characteristics of their ancestors. Humans are the most advanced of mammals — although a case could be made for the dolphins — because they seldom grow up. Behavioral traits such as curiosity about the world, flexibility of response, and playfulness are common to practically all young mammals but are usually rapidly lost with the onset of maturity in all but humans. Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature
Ha! And with that, I’m off to the Hay Festival.
Ain’t no money in poetry
That’s what sets the poet free
Now I’ve had all the freedom I can stand– Guy Clark, Cold Dog Soup
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show it like it is
The story is told of Picasso that a stranger in a railway carriage accosted him with the challenge, ?Why don?t you paint things as they really are.?
Picasso demurred, saying that he did not quite understand what the gentleman meant, and the stranger then produced from his wallet a photograph of his wife. ?I mean,? he said, ?like that. That?s how she is.?
Picasso coughed hesitantly and said, ?She is rather small, isn?t she. And somewhat flat??
? Angels Fear, by Gregory and Mary Catherine Bateson
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Quotes #21 and #22
Taking about the transition from naive ignorance to profound ignorance in the pub last night, this quote came up :
Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and waters as waters. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and waters are not waters. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it’s just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and waters once again as waters.
– Ch’ing-y?an
The quote reminded me of a Chinese poem which touches upon the same distinction
Mount Lu in misty rain; the River Che at high tide.
When I had not been there, no rest from the pain of longing!
I went there and returned…. It was nothing special:
Mount Lu in misty rain; the River Che at high tide.
Both are in Alan Watts’ book The Way of Zen
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Quote #21: On the road
It’s just the only place a man can go, When he don’t know where he’s travelin’ to
– Steve Earle on the road, and Townes Van Zandt
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Quote #20: Erdos on publishing
“Non numerantur, sed ponderantur”
(They are not counted, but weighed)
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quote #19 : die knowing something
Stare. It’s the way to educate your eyes. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.
– Walker Evans
Do not ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. For what the world needs is more people who have come alive.
– Howard Thurman or Harold Whitman, depending on which bit of the web you look for the source.
“Love! Shall I tell you what love is? Love is suffering!
– Fyodor Dostoyevsky in The Gambler
The availability of good coffee has become more important than the availability of democracy.
– Michael Leunig