Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[WT Sharpe]

.....But to measure cause and effect, you must sift through what is and is not variable, and you must ensure that a simple correlation, however tempting it may be, is not mistaken for a cause. In the 1990s the stork population of Germany increased and the German at-home birth rate rose as well. Shall we credit storks for airlifting the babies? I don't think so.
..........—Neil deGrasse Tyson (October 5, 1958 - ), American astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, Host of NOVA scienceNOW. Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (2007).

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I've had Sharon Old's latest book of poetry in my to-read pile for a week or so now....just picked it up and randomly flipped to page 36 and was blown away by the first two lines of this poem:

Freezer

When I think of people who kill and eat people,
I think of how lonely my mother was.
....


killer Sharon Olds! Wow!

Excerpts of the book including this poem are available on google books here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=V9U...page&q&f=false

Interesting it says "no preview" ...

Those two lines are rather disturbing, and out of context make it difficult for me to relate to exactly what she means .... mmmm

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Interesting it says "no preview" ...

Those two lines are rather disturbing, and out of context make it difficult for me to relate to exactly what she means .... mmmm

Hmmm, must be "geographic restriction".......

You are right the isolated lines are disturbing, but the poem as a whole is perhaps even more disturbing.

......

PM'd.... but found it posted in a blog here:

http://www.kier-cs.com/2009/05/freezer.html


The book, btw is "One Secret Thing" by Sharon Olds
http://www.amazon.com/One-Secret-Thi.../dp/0307269922

[WT Sharpe]

.....The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
..........— Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), American novelist. The House of Seven Gables (1851), Chapter XX: "The Flower of Eden."

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

.....The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.
..........— Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), American novelist. The House of Seven Gables (1851), Chapter XX: "The Flower of Eden."

Reminds me a bit of the opening of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. "

Here's a fun page I found looking for that:

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Opening_lines

[WT Sharpe]

.....[W]hat nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?
..........—Neil deGrasse Tyson (October 5, 1958 - ), American astrophysicist, Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, Host of NOVA scienceNOW. Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries (2007).

[kennyc]

"You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, burning bushes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?"

~Mark Twain - "Letters from the Earth"

[WT Sharpe]

.....Now this is where we all should be patriots and embrace our rights as Americans. Yep, we should all join the NRA. If you want gun control, get Crips and Bloods, the Nation of Islam, the JDL, the Mexicans, Arab Americans, any minority group, and let’s all go join the NRA. If all of us were card-carrying members who legally owned handguns it would scare the shit out of those boys. At the next meeting they would be like, “Look, Mohammed has a gun, José has a gun, Dante has a gun, Saul has a gun, Chang has a gun, and the Queer Eye guys have guns. We need some goddamn gun control around here. This is ridiculous.”
..........— Wanda Sykes (1964- ), American writer, stand-up comedian, actress. Yeah, I Said It (2005).

[WT Sharpe]

.....It was either under Persian influence or by a parallel development of thought that the later Judaism came to believe in a future life, a resurrection, a last judgment, heaven and hell, a cosmic duel between right and darkness, and a divine Saviour. A cynic might even say that we owe more to Zarathustra than to Moses.
..........— William R(alph) Inge (1860-1954), English clergyman, theologian, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Sermon, Modern Church Union, Cambridge (1950). Quoted in The Great Thoughts (1985) by George Seldes.

[WT Sharpe]

.....LABOR, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property for B.
..........— Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914?), American editorialist, journalist, writer, and satirist. The Devil's Dictionary (1911, first published in book form as The Cynic's Wordbook, 1906).

[BenG]

“Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself.”
- the Irish poet James Stephens

So here’s a few that come to my mind today, feeling a little annoyed at much in the news lately:

Let’s start with a real modern classic not mentioned yet . . .

“We have met the enemy and he is us,” Pogo [Walt Kelly]

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” Samuel Johnson

The prior quoted for its own merits and to explain the source for my personal variation thereof.

“Ethnic pride is the last refuge of the loser” Directed at all those who think being born ___ is an accomplishment or makes them in anyway superior to any other.


“Don't tax me; don't tax thee; tax that fellow behind the tree.” Russell Long Directed towards ‘Tea Partyists’ who imagine we can have a modern society and government sans taxes.

Finally on God and religion.

“entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem” (entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity) Occam’s razor

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by BenG

“Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself.”
- the Irish poet James Stephens

That reminds me of two quotations:

.....Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.
..........— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), US essayist & poet. Journal (May 1849). NOTE: 10,000 websites to the contrary, Emerson, to my knowledge, never said, "I hate quotations," or "I hate quotes." He was speaking on the topic of immortality. Personally, I love quotations, especially about immortality; since I know nothing about it.

The other is from possible my favorite book of the Bible, Ecclesiastes.

.....Only that shall happen Which has happened, Only that occur Which has occurred; There is nothing new Beneath the sun!
..........— Ecclesiastes chapter 1 verse 9, TaNaKh, Jewish Publication Society, 1985.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Hamlet53

.... (entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity) Occam’s razor

This made me think of:

"Everything should be as simple as possible, no simpler"
- Albert Einstein


(sorry I don't have a specific book or writing source for this )

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by kennyc

This made me think of:

"Everything should be as simple as possible, no simpler"
- Albert Einstein


(sorry I don't have a specific book or writing source for this )

Here you go, from Wikiquote:

* It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.
o "On the Method of Theoretical Physics" The Herbert Spencer Lecture, delivered at Oxford (10 June 1933); also published in Philosophy of Science, Vol. 1, No. 2 (April 1934), pp. 163-169., p. 165. [thanks to Dr. Techie @ www.wordorigins.org and JSTOR]
o Variants: Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler.
o This may seem very similar to Occam's razor which advocates the simplest solution. However, it is normally taken to be a warning against too much simplicity. Dubbed 'Einstein's razor', it is used when an appeal to Occam's razor results in an over-simplified explanation that leads to a false conclusion. It is also similar to what has become known as the KISS Principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid! Note that the naming of the KISS principle obeys Einstein's razor, ending with a redundant letter S, which is needed to add power to the idea!

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein