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Bigotry

Bigotry is the characteristic of a prejudiced person who is intolerant of opinions, lifestyles, or identities differing from their own.

A – B – C – D – E – F – G – H – I – J – K – L – M – N – O – P – Q – R – S – T – U – V – W – X – Y – Z – See also

Quotes

 * Sorted alphabetically by author or source

A

 * A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes there is no virtue but on his own side.
 * Joseph Addison, The Spectator 243, (8 December 1711).

 * Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
 * Maya Angelou, Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993), p. 12.

 * Every bigot was once a child without prejudice.
 * Elliott Ashby, as quoted in "Korea's Black Racism Epidemic" (11 February 2014), by Dave Hazzan, Groove Korea.

B

 * Georgia has prospered because we have refused to be divided. We have worked together, and the nation and the world have taken notice. We are where we are today, the envy of other states, because decades ago our leaders accepted change while others defied it. In the long run, it has paid us handsome dividends. Today, the eyes of the nation and the world are on us again to see whether Georgia is still a leader or whether we will slip into the morass of past recriminations. I have heard all the reasons not to change the flag and adopt this compromise: "it will hurt me politically"; "this is how we can become a majority"; "this is our wedge issue"; "this is the way we use race to win." Using race to win leaves ashes in the mouths of the victors. If there is anything we should have learned from our history, it is that using racial bigotry for political advantage always backfires. Sometimes in the short run, sometimes in the long run. Often both. And if you allow yourself to be dragged along in its raging current even if only briefly, you will live the rest of your life regretting your mistake. I know.
 * Roy Barnes, as quoted in speech to the Georgian House of Representatives (24 January 2001).

 * BIGOT, n. One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain.
 * Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

 * I believe very strongly that every person in the world is important and should not be treated differently based on race, gender, orientation, religious beliefs or otherwise.
 * Terry Gene Bollea, as quoted in "Wrestler Hulk Hogan apologizes" (24 July 2015), by Wyatt Massey, CNN, Georgia: Cable News Network.

 * Some say it is unfair to hold disadvantaged children to rigorous standards. I say it is discrimination to require anything less–-the soft bigotry of low expectations.
 * George W. Bush, campaign speech before the NAACP (2000)

 * Let us teach our children, and all Americans, to rise above brutality and bigotry and to be champions of liberty, human dignity, and equality.
 * George W. Bush, Proclamation 7404 (2001)

 * I ask you to uphold the values of America, and remember why so many have come here. We are in a fight for our principles, and our first responsibility is to live by them. No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith.
 * George W. Bush, Freedom and Fear Are at War: Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People (20 September 2001)

 * The exercise of rights is ennobled by service and mercy and a heart for the weak. Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another. Our nation relies on men and women who look after a neighbor and surround the lost with love. Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth. And our country must abandon all the habits of racism because we cannot carry the message of freedom and the baggage of bigotry at the same time.
 * George W. Bush, second inaugural address (20 January 2005)

C

 * God deliver us all from prejudice and unkindness, and fill us with the love of truth and virtue.
 * William Ellery Channing, "Unitarian Christianity", an address to The First Independent Church of Baltimore (5 May 1819)

 * I know a good many people, I think, who are bigots, and who know they are bigots, and are sorry for it, but they dare not be anything else.
 * Edwin Hubbell Chapin, Living Words (1869) p. 125.

 * There is no tariff so injurious as that with which sectarian bigotry guards its commodities. It dwarfs the soul by shutting out truths from other continents of thought, and checks the circulation of its own.
 * Edwin Hubbell Chapin, Living Words (1869) p. 231.

 * The difference between de jure and de facto segregation is the difference between open, forthright bigotry and the shamefaced kind that works through unwritten agreements between real estate dealers, school officials, and local politicians.
 * Shirley Chisholm, Unbought and Unbossed (1970).

 * The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.
 * Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice (1968), Part I: "Becoming".

 * Racism tends to attract attention when it's flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping - positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry; they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want to be left in peace; they actually are plotting world take-over. And the blacks are not actually victims of American power, but beneficiaries of the war against hard-working whites. This is a respectable, more sensible, bigotry, one that does not seek to name-call, preferring instead change the subject and straw man. Thus segregation wasn't necessary to keep the niggers in line; it was necessary to protect the honor of white women.
 * Ta-Nehisi Coates, "The NAACP is Right" (15 July 2010), The Atlantic.

E

 * A man may die by a fever as well as by consumption, and religion is as effectually destroyed by bigotry as by indifference.
 * Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal entry (20 June 1831); reported in the Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson (1909), p. 386.

G

 * We do not even inquire whether a black man is a rebel in arms or not; if he is black, be he friend or foe, he is thought best kept at a distance. It is hardly possible God will let us succeed while such enormities are practiced.
 * James A. Garfield, regarding slavery (1862), as quoted in Garfield: A Biography (1978), by Allan Peskin, p. 145.

 * I have no prejudice against sect or race, but want each individual to be judged by his own merit.
 * Ulysses S. Grant, Letter to Isaac N. Morris (14 September 1868), Galena, Illinois.

H

 * τήν τε οἴησιν ἱερὰν νόσον ἔλεγε καὶ τὴν ὅρασιν ψεύδεσθαι. (Original: Greek)
 * Translation: Bigotry is the sacred disease, and self-conceit tells lies.
 * Heraclitus, The fragments of Heraclitus, no. 47 (c. 500 BC).

 * κύνες γὰρ καὶ βαΰζουσιν ὃν, ἂν µὴ γινώσκωσι. (Original: Greek)
 * Translation: Dogs bark at every one they do not know.
 * Heraclitus, The fragments of Heraclitus, no. 97 (c. 500 BC).

 * I made a comparison at table some time since, which has often been quoted, and received many compliments. It was that of the mind of a bigot to the pupil of the eye; the more light you pour on it, the more it contracts.
 * Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858) p. 128.
 * Note: This quote is frequently attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., who did use it from time to time, but was not its author.

J

 * Acceptance is right. Kindness is right. Love is right. I pray, right now, that we're moving into a kinder time when prejudice is overcome by understanding; when narrow-mindedness, and narrow-minded bigotry is overwhelmed by open-hearted empathy; when the pain of judgmentalism is replaced by the purity of love.
 * Janet Jackson, Acceptance speech of a humanitarian award from the Human Rights Campaign (June 2005).

 * Knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than law, I expect little from old judges.
 * Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Cooper (1810).

 * Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. Education & free discussion are the antidotes of both.
 * Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams (1 August 1816).

K

 * When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered. We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force.
 * Robert F. Kennedy, speech given the day after the Martin Luther King, Jr. assassination. Delivered at the City Club of Cleveland, Cleveland, Ohio, 5 April 1968.

 * Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood. This sets the stage for further repression and violence that spread all too easily to victimize the next minority group.
 * Coretta Scott King, as quoted in the Chicago Defender (1 April 1998), also in a tribute page at Wesleyan University

 * The great danger facing us today is not so much the atomic bomb that was created by physical science. Not so much that atomic bomb that you can put in an aeroplane and drop on the heads of hundreds and thousands of people—as dangerous as that is. But the real danger confronting civilization today is that atomic bomb which lies in the hearts and souls of men, capable of exploding into the vilest of hate and into the most damaging selfishness—that's the atomic bomb that we've got to fear today.
 * Martin Luther King, Jr., Rediscovering Lost Values, Sermon delivered at Detroit's Second Baptist Church (28 February 1954).

 * Some things are right and some things are wrong. Eternally so, absolutely so. It's wrong to hate. It always has been wrong and it always will be wrong. It's wrong in America, it's wrong in Germany, it's wrong in Russia, it's wrong in China. It was wrong in 2000 B.C., and it's wrong in 1954 A.D. It always has been wrong, and it always will be wrong. It's wrong to throw our lives away in riotous living. No matter if everybody in Detroit is doing it, it's wrong. It always will be wrong, and it always has been wrong. It's wrong in every age and it's wrong in every nation. Some things are right and some things are wrong, no matter if everybody is doing the contrary. Some things in this universe are absolute. The God of the universe has made it so. And so long as we adopt this relative attitude toward right and wrong, we're revolting against the very laws of God himself... My friends, that attitude is destroying the soul of our culture! It's destroying our nation! The thing that we need in the world today is a group of men and women who will stand up for right and to be opposed to wrong, wherever it is. A group of people who have come to see that some things are wrong, whether they're never caught up with. And some things are right, whether nobody sees you doing them or not.'''
 * Martin Luther King, Jr., Rediscovering Lost Values, Sermon delivered at Detroit's Second Baptist Church (28 February 1954).

M

 * The doctrine which, from the very first origin of religious dissensions, has been held by bigots of all sects, when condensed into a few words and stripped of rhetorical disguise, is simply this: I am in the right, and you are in the wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me, for it is your duty to tolerate truth; but when I am the stronger, I shall persecute you, for it is my duty to persecute error.
 * Thomas Babington Macaulay, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1843) p. 60.

I am coming to the belief that conservatism merged with philosophy breeds bigotry.
 * Michael Matogo, The Burden of a Great Legacy (4 October 2001).

N

 * Ian: They're afraid of you because you're different from them. So whatever you do, it doesn't matter.
 * Doctor Who, The Daleks part 4, "The Abush", (11 January 1964), written by Terry Nation.

P

 * There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
 * Paul of Tarsus, Galatians 3:28, The Holy Bible.

 * All seems Infected that th' Infected spy, As all looks yellow to the Jaundic'd Eye.
 * Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711), Part II, line 358.

R

 * Since its inception, the Republican Party has stood for the worth of every person. On that ground, we support the pluralism and diversity that have been part of our country's greatness. Deep in our hearts, we do believe that bigotry has no place in American life. We denounce those persons, organizations, publications, and movements which practice or promote racism, antisemitism or religious intolerance.
 * Republican Party Platform of 1988 (16 August 1988), Republican National Convention.

 * The protection of individual rights is the foundation for opportunity and security. The Republican Party is unique in this regard. Since its inception, it has respected every person, even when that proposition was not universally popular. Today, as in the day of Lincoln, we insist that no American's rights are negotiable. That is why we declare that bigotry and prejudice have no place in American life. We denounce all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, or religious intolerance.
 * Republican Party Platform of 1992 (17 August 1992), Republican National Convention.

 * We are the party of individual Americans, whose rights we protect and defend as the foundation for opportunity and security for all. Today, as at our founding in the day of Lincoln, we insist no one's rights are negotiable. As we strive to forge a national consensus on the divisive issues of our time, we call on all Republicans and all Americans to reject the forces of hatred and bigotry. Accordingly, we denounce all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, ethnic prejudice, and religious intolerance.
 * Republican Party Platform of 1996 (12 August 1996), Republican National Convention, San Diego, California.

 * Equality of individuals before the law has always been a cornerstone of our party. We therefore oppose discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin and will vigorously enforce anti-discrimination statutes. As we strive to forge a national consensus on the crucial issues of our time, we call on all Americans to reject the forces of hatred and bigotry. Accordingly, we denounce all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, ethnic prejudice, and religious intolerance. Our country was founded in faith and upon the truth that self-government is rooted.
 * Republican Party Platform of 2000 (31 July 2000), Republican National Convention, United States of America.

 * Individual rights, and the responsibilities that go with them, are the foundation of a free society. From the time of Lincoln, equality of individuals has been a cornerstone of the Republican Party. Our commitment to equal opportunity extends from landmark school-choice legislation for the students of Washington, D.C. to historic appointments at the highest levels of government. We consider discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin to be immoral, and we will strongly enforce anti-discrimination statutes. We ask all to join us in rejecting the forces of hatred and bigotry and in denouncing all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, ethnic prejudice, or religious intolerance. As a matter of principle, Republicans oppose any attempts to create race-based governments within the United States, as well as any domestic governments not bound by the constitution or the Bill of Rights. Precisely because we oppose discrimination, we reject preferences, quotas, and set-asides, whether in education or in corporate boardrooms. The government should not make contracts on this basis, and neither should corporations.
 * Republican Party Platform of 2008 (1 September 2008), Republican National Convention, United States of America.

 * All Americans stand equal before the law. We embrace the principle that all Americans should be treated with respect and dignity. In the spirit of the constitution, we consider discrimination based on sex, race, age, religion, creed, disability, or national origin unacceptable and immoral. We will strongly enforce anti-discrimination statutes and ask all to join us in rejecting the forces of hatred and bigotry and in denouncing all who practice or promote racism, antisemitism, ethnic prejudice, or religious intolerance.
 * Republican Party Platform of 2012 (27 August 2012), Republican National Convention, United States of America.

 * We are a nation of many nationalities, many races, many religions—bound together by a single unity, the unity of freedom and equality. Whoever seeks to set one nationality against another, seeks to degrade all nationalities. Whoever seeks to set one race against another seeks to enslave all races. Whoever seeks to set one religion against another, seeks to destroy all religion.
 * Franklin D. Roosevelt, campaign address, Brooklyn, New York (November 1, 1940); The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1940 (1941), p. 53.

 * Bigotry is probably the thing I detest most. All forms of intolerance, the whole idea of “that which is different from me is necessary evil.” I really like to explore the idea that difference is equal and good. But there's another idea that I like to explore, too. Oppressed groups are not, generally speaking, people who stand firmly together – no, sadly, they kind of subdivide among themselves and fight like hell. That's human nature, so that's what you see here. This world of wizards and witches, they're already ostracized, and then within themselves, they've formed a loathsome pecking order.
 * J. K. Rowling [Entertainment Weekly September 7th 2000].

S

 * The medieval ecclesiastics, either through ignorance or bigotry, painted Muhammadanism in the darkest colours. They were in fact trained both to hate the man Muhammad and his religion. To them Muhammad was Anti-Christ. I have studied him — the wonderful man, and in my opinion far from being an Anti-Christ he must be called the Saviour of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much-needed peace and happiness.
 * George Bernard Shaw, as quoted in The Genuine Islam, Singapore, Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936

 * Hatred can never be good. … Here, and in what follows, I mean by hatred only hatred towards men. … Envy, derision, contempt, anger, revenge, and other emotions attributable to hatred, or arising therefrom, are bad … Whatsoever we desire from motives of hatred is base, and in a State unjust.
 * Baruch Spinoza, Ethics Geometrically Demonstrated.

T

 * Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand With a grip that kills it.
 * Rabindranath Tagore, "Fireflies" (1928).

 * Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.
 * Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad (1869), Ch. LXII (Conclusion).

 * I have no race prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can't be any worse.
 * Mark Twain, Concerning the Jews (September 1899), Harper's Magazine.

W

 * The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.
 * George Washington, letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island (1790)

 * We have abundant reason to rejoice, that, in this land, the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened age, and in this land of equal liberty, it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining & holding the highest offices that are known in the United States.
 * George Washington, letter to The New Church (22 January 1793)

 * [N]othing is more essential than that permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated.
 * George Washington, farewell address (1796)

 * All men feel something of an honorable bigotry for the objects which have long continued to please them.
 * William Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Second Edition (1800).

 * The church has stood, a rock colossus of bigotry, in the path of ten thousand proposed reforms. Sane efforts to legalize birth control information, the manufacture of proper birth control appliances, appliances for the inhibition of the spread of venereal disease, public instruction in sex hygiene, free clinics for the treatment of venereal disease, the inspection and treatment of prostitutes, controlled prostitution itself, the publication of psychological and physical sex information, aid for unwed mothers—myriad attempts by sane men acting sanely on real problems—have been fought down by church-frightened legislatures and church-dominated courts.
 * Philip Gordon Wylie, Generation of Vipers (1942), p. 74.

X

 * I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither white, black, brown nor red. When you are dealing with humanity as one family, there's no question of integration or intermarriage. It's just one human being marrying another human being, or one human being living around and with another human being.
 * Malcolm X, Interview for the Pierre Berton Show. Toronto, Ontario, (19 January 1965)

 * In the past, yes, I have made sweeping indictments of all white people. I will never be guilty of that again — as I know now that some white people are truly sincere, that some truly are capable of being brotherly toward a black man. The true Islam has shown me that a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks.
 * Malcolm X, as quoted in Malcolm X: The Seeker of Justice (2003); also quoted at "Malcolm X - An Islamic Perspective"

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Biography

Biography (from the Greek words bios meaning "life" (βίος), and graphein meaning "write" (γράφω)) is a genre of literature and other forms of media such as film, based on the written accounts of individual lives. While a biography may focus on a subject of fiction or non-fiction, the term is usually in reference to non-fiction.

Quotes

 * ... We talked of biography.—JOHNSON. 'It is rarely well executed. They only who live with a man can write his life with any genuine exactness and discrimination ; and few people who have lived with a man know what to remark about him. The chaplain of a late Bishop, whom I was to assist in writing some memoirs of his Lordship, could tell me scarcely any thing ...'
 * James Boswell,

 * Talking of biography, I said, in writing a life, a man's peculiarities should be mentioned, because they mark his character. JOHNSON. 'Sir, there is no doubt as to peculiarities : the question is, whether a man's vices should be mentioned ...' ... 'If a man is to write A Panegyrick, he may keep vices out of sight ; but if he professes to write A Life, he must represent it really as it was ...'
 * James Boswell,

 * There is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a biography, the life of a man; also it may be said, there is no life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed.
 * Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter Scott. London and Westminster Review, 1838.

 * I am a biography nut myself, and I think when you're trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie them into the lives and personalities of the people who developed them.
 * Charlie Munger, as quoted by Janet Lowe in:

 * Though just biographic record will touch the failings of the good and the eminent with tenderness, it ought not to spread over them the veil of suppression.
 * Anna Seward, Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Darwin (Philadelphia: Wm Poyntell & Co., 1804), p. ix.

 * When I read the book, the biography famous, And is this then (said I) what the author calls a man's life? And so will some one when I am dead and gone write my life? (As if any man really knew aught of my life, Why even I myself I often think know little or nothing of my real life, Only a few hints, a few diffused faint clews and indirections I seek for my own use to trace out here.)
 * Walt Whitman in "When I Read the Book" (1867; 1871) in Leaves of Grass.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Censure

Censure is an expression of strong disapproval or harsh criticism. Among the forms that it can take are a stern rebuke by a legislature, a spiritual penalty imposed by a church, and a negative judgment pronounced on a theological proposition.

Quotes

 * "Censure," says a late ingenious author, "is the tax a man plays for being eminent." It is a folly for an eminent man to think of escaping it, and a weakness to be affected with it. All the illustrious persons of antiquity, and indeed of every age in the world, have passed through this fiery persecution. There is no defense against reproach but obscurity; it is a kind of comitant to greatness, as satires and invectives were an essential part of a Roman triumph.
 * Joseph Addison, The Spectator, No. 101 (26 June 1711).

 * A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart; his next to escape the censures of the world: if the last interferes with the former, it ought to be entirely neglected; but otherwise there cannot be a greater satisfaction to an honest mind, than to see those approbations which it gives itself seconded by the applauses of the public: a man is more sure of his conduct, when the verdict which he passes upon his own behaviour is thus warranted and confirmed by the opinion of all that know him.
 * Joseph Addison, On "Sir Roger", in The Spectator No. 122 (20 July 1711).

 * No man can justly censure or condemn another, because indeed no man truly knows another.
 * Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Part II, Section 4 (1642).

 * A man must serve his time to every trade Save censure — critics are ready-made.
 * Lord Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, line 63 (1809).

 * The readiest and surest way to get rid of censure, is to correct ourselves.
 * Demosthenes, as quoted in The World's Laconics: Or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors (1853) by Everard Berkeley, p. 34.

 * The thing done avails, and not what is said about it. An original sentence, a step forward, is worth more than all the censures.
 * Ralph Waldo Emerson, "First Visit to England" in English Traits (1856).

 * When you have decided that a thing ought to be done, and are doing it, never shun being seen doing it, even though the multitude should be likely to judge the matter amiss. For if you are not acting rightly, shun the act itself; if rightly, however, why fear misplaced censure?
 * Epictetus, Golden Sayings of Epictetus, 172, as translated by Hastings Crossley.

 * Praise from a friend, or censure from a foe, Are lost on hearers that our merits know.
 * Homer, The Iliad, Book X, line 293. Pope's translation.

 * Be more careful in guarding against censure than against danger; for the wicked may well dread the end of life, but good men should dread ignominy during life. Strive by all means to live in security, but if ever it falls to your lot to face the dangers of battle, seek to preserve your life, but with honour and not with disgrace; for death is the sentence which fate has passed on all mankind, but to die nobly is the special honour with nature has reserved for the good.
 * Isocrates, To Demonicus, Verse 43.

 * Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.
 * Censure pardons the raven, but is visited upon the dove.
 * Juvenal, Satires (early 2nd century), II, line 63.

 * It is common also to censure some one class of men — the rich or the educated, the manufacturers, the merchants, or the politicians, for example — as if the sin rested solely with them, while it belongs to society at large.
 * Theodore Parker, "Thoughts on Labour" in The Dial (April 1841).

 * The Triumph of Wit is to make your good Nature subdue your Censure; to be quick in seeing Faults, and slow in exposing them. You are to consider, that the invisible thing called a Good Name, is made up of the Breath of Numbers that speak well of you; so that if by a disobliging Word you silence the meanest, the Gale will be less strong which is to bear up your Esteem.
 * George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, The Lady's New Year's Gift: or Advice to a Daughter (1688).

 * No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong, Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
 * William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act III, scene 2, line 146 (1603).

 * We must not stint Our necessary actions, in the fear To cope malicious censurers.
 * William Shakespeare, Henry VIII (c. 1613), Act I, scene 2, line 76 (1613).

 * Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being eminent.
 * Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies (1711-1726).

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Company

Company may refer to:

 * Companionship, the state of having or being a companion, or having an association or a fellowship with another
 * Companies, business organizations formed from an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies
 * Hospitality

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User talk:Buckfifty

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Cunning

Cunning, in most modern usage, indicates cleverness and skills at sly, crafty, and surreptitious behavior.

Quotes

 * At the same time that I think discretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Discretion points out the noblest ends to us, and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them: cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon: cunning is a kind of short-sightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance. Discretion the more it is discovered, gives a greater authority to the person who possesses it: cunning, when it is once detected, loses its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even those events which he might have done had he passed only for a plain man. Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life: cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interest and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understandings, cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them.
 * Joseph Addison, The Tatler, No. 225 (1711–1714).

 * Cunning is only the mimic of discretion, and may pass upon weak men in the same manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom.
 * Joseph Addison, The Tatler, No. 225 (1711–1714).

 * Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
 * Francis Bacon. ‘Of Cunning’, Essays (1625).

 * We take cunning for a sinister or crooked wisdom. And certainly there is a great difference, between a cunning man, and a wise man; not only in point of honesty, but in point of ability.
 * Francis Bacon. ‘Of Cunning’, Essays (1625).

 * And because these cunning men, are like haberdashers of small wares, it is not amiss to set forth their shop.
 * Francis Bacon. ‘Of Cunning’, Essays (1625).

 * CUNNING, n. The faculty that distinguishes a weak animal or person from a strong one. It brings its possessor much mental satisfaction and great material adversity. An Italian proverb says: "The furrier gets the skins of more foxes than asses."
 * Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

 * The weak in courage is strong in cunning.
 * William Blake, “Proverbs of Hell,” The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, line 49.

 * the cunning the craven … they live for until though the sun in his heaven says Now
 * E. E. Cummings, 73 poems, 29 (1963).

 * Cold & cunning come from the north: But cunning sans wisdom is nothing worth.
 * Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1743).

 * Wisdom and truth, the offspring of the sky, are immortal; while cunning and deception, the meteors of the earth, after glittering for a moment, must pass away.
 * Robert Hall, as reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 241.

 * Cunning is the art of concealing our own defects, and discovering other people's weaknesses.
 * William Hazlitt, Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims, No. 101 (1823).

 * Vor neuer nis wit so kene so þane red him is a-wene. þanne erest kumeþ his yhephede wone hit is alre-mest on drede.
 * For human wit is never so keen As when the problem's unforeseen. It's when the mind is most in fear That guile and cunning first appear.
 * The Owl and the Nightingale (author unknown), Line 681.

 * Nothing is so silly as cunning.
 * Lord Mansfield, Anonymous (1772), Lofft. 54.

 * Knowledge, when separated from justice and virtue, is seen to be cunning and not wisdom.
 * Plato, speech of Aspasia, recounted by Socrates, Menexenus 246e, Plato: The Collected Dialogues (1961), p. 196.

 * Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides: Who cover faults, at last shame them derides.
 * William Shakespeare, King Lear, Cordelia, Act I, Scene I (1608).

title: Cunning


text:
Delicacy

Delicacy is the quality of being delicate. A delicacy is a food item that is considered highly desirable in various cultures. Often this is because of unusual flavors or characteristics, or because it is rare compared to the availability of other foodstuffs.

Quotes

 * Too great refinement is false delicacy, and true delicacy is solid refinement.
 * François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678), No. 131.

title: Delicacy


text:
Delusion

A delusion is a belief held with strong conviction despite superior evidence to the contrary.

Quotes

 * DELUSION, n. The father of a most respectable family, comprising Enthusiasm, Affection, Self-denial, Faith, Hope, Charity and many other goodly sons and daughters.
 * Ambrose Bierce, The Cynic's Dictionary (1906); republished as The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

 * No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.
 * Christian Nestell Bovee, Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (1862), Volume I, p. 143.

 * The easiest thing in the world is self-deceit; for every man believes what he wishes, though the reality is often different.
 * Demosthenes, Third Olynthiac (349 BC), as translated by Charles Rann Kennedy (1852).
 * Variant: There is nothing easier than self-delusion. Since what man desires, is the first thing he believes.

 * A delusion, a mockery, and a snare.
 * Thomas Denman, 1st Baron Denman, O'Connell v. The Queen (1841), 11 Clark and Finnelly Reports.

 * “Everybody, and I mean everybody, myself included, operates not out of a knowledge of what is, but out of a delusion of what they wish. It might be the most powerfully destructive force in the world.” “I follow you,” said Susan. “Think of all the players—the oil companies, the fracking outfits, the politicians, the voters, the farmers, the dreamers, oh, and the religious, definitely.”
 * Jeffrey Ford, What Is (2016), in Jonathan Strahan (ed.) Drowned Worlds (e-book edition, ISBN 978-1-84997-930-6)

 * If a man lives under the delusion that he can do anything that he likes, and that the effect of his actions will never recoil upon himself, he will most certainly find that some of these actions eventually involve him in unhappiness and suffering. If, again, he does not understand that the object of his life is progress, that God’s Will for him is that he shall grow to be something better and nobler than he is now, then also he will bring unhappiness and suffering upon himself
 * C.W. Leadbeater, (Speaking about the Four Noble Truths in The Masters and the Path (1925)     p. 306

 * What the Buddhists teach is to free yourself from the three great evils in life: greed — which means all kinds of craving — hatred, and delusion. But delusion is really the cause of the other two. We crave that which we delude ourselves into thinking will bring happiness; we hate those whom we delude ourselves into thinking stand to stop us from getting it.
 * James P. Hogan, Paths to Otherwhere, Ch. 18 (1996).

 * It is not by delusion, however exalted, that mankind can prosper, but only by unswerving courage in the pursuit of truth.
 * Bertrand Russell, "The Pursuit of Truth" in The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell (1993).

 * Delusion will vanish as the light becomes more and more effulgent, load after load of ignorance will vanish, and then will come a time when all else has disappeared and the sun alone shines
 * Swami Vivekananda, Pearls of Wisdom.

 * We all have our little solipsistic delusions, ghastly intuitions of utter singularity: that we are the only one in the house who ever fills the ice-cube tray, who unloads the clean dishwasher, who occasionally pees in the shower, whose eyelid twitches on first dates; that only we take casualness terribly seriously; that only we fashion supplication into courtesy; that only we hear the whiny pathos in a dog's yawn, the timeless sigh in the opening of the hermetically-sealed jar, the splattered laugh in the frying egg, the minor-D lament in the vacuum's scream; that only we feel the panic at sunset the rookie kindergartner feels at his mother's retreat. That only we love the only-we. That only we need the only-we. Solipsism binds us together, J.D. knows. That we feel lonely in a crowd; stop not to dwell on what's brought the crowd into being. That we are, always, faces in a crowd.
 * David Foster Wallace, "Westward The Course Of Empire Takes Its Way," Girl With Curious Hair (1989).

 * Delusions are, by definition, fixed, irrational beliefs or convictions which are not amenable to rational disputation and at odds with consensual reality.
 * Stephen A. Diamond Ph.D. "The Savior, the Devil, and Donald Trump",psychologytoday.com/ Jan 15, 2021

title: Delusion


text:
Diet

Diet is defined as the usual food and drink of an organism. It can also mean a regulated selection of foods, as for medical reasons or cosmetic weight loss.

Quotes

 * Because of their remote location, the Fiji islands did not access to television until 1995, when a single station was introduced. It broadcasts programs from the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. Until that time, Fiji had no reported cases of eating disorders, and a study conducted by anthropologist Anne Becker showed that most Fijian girls and women, no matter how large, were comfortable with their bodies. In 1998, just three years after the station began broadcasting, 11 percent of girls reported vomiting to control weight, and 62 percent of girls surveyed reported dieting during the previous months.
 * Susan Bordo, “Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body”, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2003 p.xv-xvi

 * In their world, there is a size zero, and it’s a status symbol. The chronic dieters have been as it since they were eight and nine years old.
 * Susan Bordo, “Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body”, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2003, p.xxvii

 * Many medical professionals, too, were trapped in what I’d call the “anorexic paradigm.” They hadn’t yet understood that eating problems take many different forms and inhabit bodies of many different sizes and shapes. Binge eating-a chronic problem among many African American women-is no less a disordered relation to food than habitual purging, and large women who don’t or won’t diet are not necessarily comfortable with their bodies.
 * Susan Bordo, “Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body”, Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2003, p.xviii

 * 君子食無求飽.
 * When the Superior Man eats he does not try to stuff himself.
 * Confucius, , Chapter I.

 * While diets high in protein and low in carbohydrates were shown to be beneficial for reproductive function, they had detrimental effects for health in mid-late life and also led to a shortened lifespan.
 * Samantha M. Solon-Biet, Victoria C. Cogger, Stephen J. Simpson, "Branched-chain amino acids impact health and lifespan indirectly via amino acid balance and appetite control", Nature Metabolism (29, April 2019); as qtd. in Maria Cohut, "Muscle-building protein shakes may threaten health", Medical News Today, (5/2/2019).

 * Obesity and diabetes are the two major metabolic complications linked with bad eating habits and the sedentary (lazy) lifestyle. In the worst-case situation, metabolic problems are a causative factor for numerous other conditions. There is also an increased demand to control the emergence of such diseases. Dietary and lifestyle improvements contribute to their leadership at an elevated level. The present review, therefore, recommends the use of the ketogenic diet (KD) in obesity and diabetes treatment. The KD involves a diet that replaces glucose sugar with ketone bodies and is effective in numerous diseases, such as metabolic disorders, epileptic seizures, autosomal dominant polycystic disease of the kidney, cancers, peripheral neuropathy, and skeletal muscle atrophy.
 * Sachin Kumar, Tapan Behl, Monika Sachdeva, Aayush Sehgal, Shilpa Kumari, Arun Kumar, Gagandeep Kaur, Harlokesh Narayan Yadav, and Simona Bungau,

 * Men are so imprudent that they take up a diet which, though it tastes sweet, is poisonous.
 * Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, (1532)

 * I was put on a diet when I was 10. My mother said that women with smaller mouths are attractive, so keep my mouth small, don't talk or laugh so loud. I was taught to observe and listen. I burnt time burning calories when I could have been thinking about other things.
 * MILCK, as quoted in

 * A new study of Marquette University freshmen who had been randomly assigned to rooms found that women with heavier roommates actually gained less weight on average than those with thinner roommates — a half-pound versus two and a half pounds. The reason? Four of five overweight roommates were dieting and exercising, and those habits often rubbed off on a roommate, regardless of her size, says Olga Yakusheva, an assistant professor in economics at Marquette and a co-author of the study. Even thin women were weight watching, Dr. Yakusheva says, pointing to cultural pressures. Margo D. Maine, a psychologist and specialist in eating disorders, warns that young women age 17 to 19 are at risk of developing some form of eating disorder, and some may be particularly susceptible to a calorie-counting roommate. Why one student wields more influence over another isn’t always clear. But when students first arrive on campus, some may lose confidence, Dr. Maine suggests, and follow the lead of a more self-assured roommate.
 * Abigail Sullivan Moore, “The Science of Roommates”, The New York Times, (July 23, 2010)

 * When you think about a better tomorrow, you think about veganism in the world. I don’t need a dead animal or dead piece of flesh to go into my live body. There’s nothing on this planet that doesn’t want to live. I had animals as friends, they were happy to see me in their own animal way. I’m quite sure they did not want to be on my plate. I think hip-hop has become more conscious about diet… You are what you eat, so if this cow who is stressed, dumbfounded, sick becomes your meal, when you eat it, you are eating that stress and sickness. You are eating that fear. My peers and people that are related to me appreciate the vegan lifestyle, it’s really spreading.
 * RZA in a PETA video (24 November 2014). Quoted in "Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA says he refuses to put ‘dead animals’ in his ‘live body’ in PETA advert", in NME.com (24 November 2014).

 * To eat modestly doesn't kill a man, but to covet will murder you. To eat a little is to live splendidly.
 * Sumerian proverb, Collection III at,.

 * The earliest documented examples of micronutrients’ influencing immunity date from the nineteenth century. Such work indicated previously unappreciated links with immunity and made a strong case that infections did not cause observed disorders and pathologies but were secondary to deficiency in micronutrients. Supported by clinical and epidemiological studies, which show a substantial negative correlation of nutritional deficiencies with immunocompetence and the reverse correlation with the risk of infection and related pathologies, is the idea that nutrition is an important determinant of immunity is now generally well accepted (Fig. 1). Nevertheless, the impact of dietary elements in immune system–related processes is still often dismissed, even when substantial amounts of data correlate diet with immune system–related related disorders.
 * Marc Veldhoen and Henrique Veiga-Fernandes, “Feeding immunity: skepticism, delicacies and delights”, Nat Immunol. 2015 Mar; 16(3): 215–219.

 * There is an emergent interest in understanding how the ‘Western diet’ affects immunity. Many people across the globe have adopted this diet, and epidemiological studies have revealed that it correlates with a high incidence of chronic inflammatory disorders, including diabetes, multiple sclerosis and asthma. Nevertheless, because the Western diet includes a large proportion of red meat, sugars, fats and refined carbohydrates and relatively small amounts of vegetables, fruits and fish, it is likely that the causative component of its associated pathologies is not a single entity but a complex array of unbalanced abundance of micronutrients in the diet. However, epidemiological studies have highlighted roles for specific micronutrients in immunity. For example, mounting evidence correlates vitamin A deficiency, which is still highly prevalent among children and pregnant women in several African and Asian countries with a high risk of intestinal and respiratory infections. These observations were substantiated by experimental data as early as 1925, when rats on a diet deficient in vitamin A were found to develop thymic atrophy. It is now understood that different processes require different amounts of micronutrients, with the immune system generally the largest consumer. In view of this, the World Health Organization established a vitamin A–supplementation program, which had a positive effect on morbidity and mortality rates of infectious diseases in deprived children. Interestingly, low vitamin A levels are also associated with reduced efficacy of vaccination protocols, but the benefits of vitamin A supplementation during vaccination are still a matter of controversy.
 * Marc Veldhoen and Henrique Veiga-Fernandes, “Feeding immunity: skepticism, delicacies and delights”, Nat Immunol. 2015 Mar; 16(3): 215–219.

title: Diet


text:
Discipline

Discipline is systematic instruction intended to train a person, sometimes literally called a disciple, in a craft, trade or other activity, or to follow a particular code of conduct or "order." The phrase "to discipline" has a negative connotation involving notions of order maintained largely or primarily through punishment. Discipline involves the assertion of willpower over more base desires, and is usually understood to be related to self control.

B

 * The discipline of piety nourishes the soul with divine thoughts.
 * Basil of Caesarea, Letter to Gregory, Saint Basil: The Letters, R. Deferrari, trans. (1926), vol. 1, p. 13

 * Every age and degree of understanding should have its proper measure of discipline. With regard to boys and adolescents, therefore, or those who cannot understand the seriousness of the penalty of excommunication, whenever such as these are delinquent let them be subjected to severe fasts or brought to terms by harsh beatings, that they may be cured.
 * Benedict of Nursia, Rule of St. Benedict: Chapter 30: How Boys Are to Be Corrected

 * The Ancients … subjected themselves to a fierce discipline of detachment from public opinion. Although they inevitably had to try to influence political life in their favor, they never seriously thought of themselves as founders or lawgivers. The mixture of unwise power and powerless wisdom, in the ancients’ view, would always end up with power strengthened and wisdom compromised. He who flirts with power, Socrates said, will be compelled to lie with it.
 * Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (New York: 1988), pp. 284-285

 * The ascetic Gotama … avoids watching dancing, singing, music and shows. He abstains from using garlands, perfumes, cosmetics, ornaments and adornments. … He refrains from running errands, from buying and selling.
 * Gautama Buddha, Digha Nikaya, M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 1, verse 1.10, p. 69

C

 * Whoever desires that his intellect may grow up to soundness, to healthy vigor, must begin with moral discipline. Reading and study are not enough to perfect the power of thought. One thing above all is needful, and that is, the disinterestedness which is the very soul of virtue. To gain truth, which is the great object of the understanding, I must seek it disinterestedly. Here is the first and grand condition of intellectual progress. I must choose to receive the truth, no matter how it bears on myself. I must follow it, no matter where it leads, what interests it opposes, to what persecution or loss it lays me open, from what party it severs me, or to what party it allies. Without this fairness of mind, which is only another phrase for disinterested love of truth, great native powers of understanding are perverted and led astray.
 * William Ellery Channing, “Self-Culture” (1838)

 * Ah, you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
 * Leonard Cohen, in "First We Take Manhattan" (1986), also on the album I'm Your Man (1988)

D

 * My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in general, to accustom myself to the persuasion that, except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power. ... This single principle seemed to me sufficient to prevent me from desiring for the future anything which I could not obtain, and thus render me contented. ... But I confess there is need of prolonged discipline and frequently repeated meditation to accustom the mind to view all objects in this light; and I believe that in this chiefly consisted the secret of the power of such philosophers as in former times were enabled to rise superior to the influence of fortune, and, amid suffering and poverty, enjoy a happiness which their gods might have envied.
 * Descartes, Discourse on Method (1637), J. Veitch, trans. (1899), part 3

 * I believe, as I always have, in freedom. The freedom which rests on the sense of responsibility. I consider discipline indispensable, but it must be inner discipline, motivated by a common purpose and a strong feeling of comradeship.
 * Buenaventura Durruti, on his military leadership against fascist troops in Spain, as quoted in "Durruti Is Dead, Yet Living" (1936), by Emma Goldman

 * I consider discipline indispensable, but it must be inner discipline, motivated by a common purpose and a strong feeling of comradeship.
 * Buenaventura Durruti, on his military leadership against fascist troops in the Spanish Civil War, as quoted in "Durruti Is Dead, Yet Living" (1936), by Emma Goldman

 * Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many common features. They share these features also with other enterprises such as art, literature and music. The most salient features of all these enterprises are discipline and diversity. Discipline to submerge the individual fantasy in a greater whole. Diversity to give scope to the infinite variety of human souls and temperaments. Without discipline there can be no greatness. Without diversity there can be no freedom. Greatness for the enterprise, freedom for the individual—these are the two themes, contrasting but not incompatible, that make up the history of science and the history of religion.
 * Freeman Dyson, Infinite in All Directions (1988) pp. 5-6 (paperback, 1989).

F

 * To be disciplined does not mean being silent, abstaining, or doing only what one thinks one may undertake without risk; it is not the art of eluding responsibility; it means acting in compliance with orders received, and therefore finding in one's own mind, by effort and reflection, the possibility to carry out such orders. It also means finding in one's own will the energy to face the risks involved in execution.
 * Ferdinand Foch, Precepts and Judgments (1919)

H

 * Discipline is, in a manner, nothing else but the art of inspiring the soldiers with greater fear of their officers than of the enemy. This fear has often the effect of courage: but it cannot prevail against the fierce and obstinate valor of people animated by fanaticism, or warm love of their country.
 * Claude Adrien Helvetius, De l'esprit or, Essays on the Mind, and Its Several Faculties (1758)

L

 * In formal battle, discipline is more important than courage.
 * , in George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings Chapter Tyrion (XII)

 * There is something which unites magic and applied science while separating both from the wisdom of earlier ages. For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. For magic and applied science alike the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of men.
 * C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man (1943)

 * A person must take care to exercise moderate discipline over the body and subject it to the Spirit by means of fasting, vigils, and labor. The goal is to have the body obey and conform—and not hinder—the inner person and faith. Unless it is held in check, we know it is the nature of the body to undermine faith and the inner person.
 * Martin Luther, The Freedom of a Christian (1520), M. Tranvik, trans. (Minneapolis: 2008), pp. 71-72

M

 * One must manifest discipline of spirit; without it one cannot become free. To the slave discipline of spirit will be a prison; to the liberated one it will be a wondrous healing garden. So long as the discipline of spirit is as fetters the doors are closed, for in fetters one cannot ascend the steps. One may understand the discipline of spirit as wings.
 * Morya, Leaves Of Morya's Garden, Book II: Illumination, Introduction (1925)

N

 * If you desire ease, forsake learning.
 * If you desire learning, forsake ease.
 * How can the man at his ease acquire knowledge,
 * And how can the earnest student enjoy ease?
 * Nagarjuna, The Tree of Wisdom

 * The church combats passion by means of excision of all kinds. Its practice, its remedy is castration. It never inquires, “How can a desire be spiritualized, beautified, deified.” In all ages it has laid the weight of discipline in the process of extirpation. The extirpation of sensuality, pride, lust of dominion, lust of property, and revenge.  But to attack the passions at the roots means attacking life itself at its source. The method of the church is hostile to life.
 * Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, Ch. 5 “Morality as Anti-Nature” § 5.1, A. Ludovici trans.

O

 * I believe that through discipline, though not through discipline alone, we can achieve serenity, and a certain small but precious measure of the freedom from the accidents of incarnation, and charity, and that detachment which preserves the world which it renounces. I believe that through discipline we can learn to preserve what is essential to our happiness in more and more adverse circumstances, and to abandon with simplicity what would else have seemed to us indispensable; that we come a little to see the world without the gross distortion of personal desire, and in seeing it so, accept more easily our earthly privation and its earthly horror — But because I believe that the reward of discipline is greater than its immediate objective, I would not have you think that discipline without objective is possible: in its nature discipline involves the subjection of the soul to some perhaps minor end; and that end must be real, if the discipline is not to be factitious. Therefore I think that all things which evoke discipline: study, and our duties to men and to the commonwealth, war, and personal hardship, and even the need for subsistence, ought to be greeted by us with profound gratitude, for only through them can we attain to the least detachment; and only so can we know peace.
 * Robert Oppenheimer, Letter to his brother Frank (12 March 1932), published in Robert Oppenheimer : Letters and Recollections (1995) edited by Alice Kimball Smith, p. 155

P

 * No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.
 * William Penn, No Cross, No Crown (1682)

 * Moses … takes one form of desire, that one whose field of activity is the belly, and admonishes and disciplines it as the first step, holding that the other forms will cease to run riot as before and will be restrained by having learnt that their senior and as it were the leader of their company is obedient to the laws of temperance.
 * Philo, On The Special Laws, Part IV, p. 77

S

 * My son, do not reject the discipline of Jehovah, and do not loathe his reproof, for those whom Jehovah loves he reproves, Just as a father does a son in whom he delights.
 * Solomon, Proverbs 3:11-12, New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures

 * Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge.
 * Solomon, Proverbs 12:1

T

 * Laborare est orare. [To work is to pray.] By the Puritan moralist the ancient maxim is repeated with a new and intenser significance. The labor which he idealizes is not simply a requirement imposed by nature, or a punishment for the sin of Adam. It is itself a kind of ascetic discipline, more rigorous than that demanded of any order of mendicants—a discipline imposed by the will of God, and to be undergone, not in solitude, but in the punctual discharge of secular duties. It is not merely an economic means, to be laid aside when physical needs have been satisfied. It is a spiritual end, for in it alone can the soul find health, and it must be continued as an ethical duty long after it has ceased to be a material necessity.
 * R. H. Tawney, Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (1926), p. 242

V

 * Knowledge must grow or perish; and it can grow only in a free mind, that is to say a mind which is sufficiently strong to create its own discipline.
 * Paul Valéry, Reflections on the World Today, F. Scarfe, trans. (1948), p. 198

W

 * Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.
 * George Washington, in Letter of Instructions to the Captains of the Virginia Regiments (29 July 1759)

 * Nothing can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the superiority over another.
 * George Washington, general orders, (6 July 1777), published in The Writings of George Washington (1933), edited by John C. Fitzpatrick, vol. 8, p. 359

title: Discipline


text:
Menace II Society

Menace II Society is the directorial debut film of twin brothers Allen and Albert Hughes. A theatrical release hit theaters (nationwide) May 28, 1993, with the movie making an appearance before that, at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Its release at that period was well timed, as the early 1990s were the peak era for the then-popular hood movies. This is the truth. This is what's real. (taglines)

Caine

 * Went into the store just to get a beer. Came out an accessory to murder and armed robbery. It's funny like that in the hood sometimes. You never knew what was gonna happen, or when. After that I knew it was gonna be a long summer.
 * Now O-Dog was the craziest nigga alive. America's nightmare: Young, black, and didn't give a fuck.
 * For all the bullshit they try to teach you in high school, I graduated with about half of it. But then, I didn't go to school but half the time. The other half, I was out selling dope. Growing up out here, there was shit that couldn't be learned in no classroom.
 * My father sold dope and my mother was a heroin addict. Moms and Pops were real popular in the neighborhood. They would always be giving parties for friends of theirs who just got out of jail or was on their way to jail. They only got married 'cause I was born. My pop sometimes worked as an electrician or a cab driver or a plumber, but his main job was selling drugs. Sometimes Mom would use 'em all up before he could even sell 'em. Then he'd have to beat her up. Growing up with parents like that, I heard a lot and I saw a lot. I caught on to the criminal life real quick. Instead of keeping me out of trouble, they turned me on to it.
 * I thought killing those fools would make me feel good, but it really didn't make me feel anything. I just knew that I could kill somebody, and if I had to, I could do it again.
 * [as he dies in the street] After stomping on Ilena's cousin like that, I knew I was gonna have to deal with that fool someday, but damn. I never thought he'd come back like this—blasting. Like I said, it was funny like that in the hood sometimes. I mean, you never knew what was gonna happen or when. I'd done too much to turn back, and I'd done too much to go on. I guess in the end, it all catches up with you. My grandpa asked me one time if I care whether I live or die. Yeah, I do—and now it's too late.

Ronnie

 * You need to be glad that you graduated from high school, and that you're alive at eighteen, and you need to do something with yourself before you end up like he (Pernell) did.

Grandpa

 * Now what I want to talk to you two about is the trouble that you've been getting into. Boys, the Lord didn't put you here to be shooting and killing each other. It's right there in the Bible, Exodus 20:13: '"Thou shall not kill.'
 * You don't have any belief, boy. The Lord don't care about who's got the biggest house
 * Do you care whether you live or die?

Dialogue

 * Storekeeper: You not drink beer in store!
 * Caine: Hey, man, I'm a pay you!
 * O-Dog: [to storekeeper's wife] Hey, look, bitch, stop following me around this motherfucker! You getting on my nerves!
 * Storekeeper's wife: Hurry up and buy.
 * O-Dog: [mutters] Shut the fuck up.
 * Storekeeper: [as Caine and O-Dog get ready to pay for their beers] Just pay and leave!
 * Caine: Hey, man, I said I'ma pay you. Why don't you calm your motherfuckin' nerves? Damn.
 * Storekeeper: Hurry up and go.
 * [The storekeepers watch Caine and O-Dog as they pay, with O-Dog looking at them in disbelief]
 * O-Dog: Why don't you give my homeboy his change?
 * Storekeeper: [gives O-Dog Caine's change] I don't want any trouble. Just get out.
 * O-Dog: [disgusted as he walks out] Can't stand y'all.
 * Storekeeper: I feel sorry for your mother.
 * O-Dog: [stops and turns back] What you say about my mama? You feel sorry for who?
 * Storekeeper: I don't want any trouble! Just get out!
 * O-Dog: Huh? (throws change to ground and advances towards the storekeeper) The fuck you say about my mama?
 * Storekeeper: I don't want any trouble! Just get out!
 * [The argument between O-Dog and the storekeeper continues. O-Dog shoots and kills him, then his wife. Then O-Dog and Caine rob the store, take the surveillance tape and leave]

 * Sharif: What's up, black man?
 * Caine: Coolin'. Man, why you got that goddamn hood on your head, lookin' like the Grim Reaper?
 * Sharif: It's cold out here, my brother. You know us black folks not used to this cold air. We a tropical people, you understand? Let them Europeans deal with this madness.
 * Caine: Then why your tropical ass sittin' on the goddamn cooler?
 * Sharif: To keep you fools from drinking this poison. That's why.
 * Caine: Man, you better get your Shelenkem-Shilom ass up off this box and pass me a motherfuckin' brew.

 * O-Dog: You got some money or not?
 * Basehead: Come on, man. You know I'm a little short. Hook me up, man.
 * O-Dog: Nigga, hook you up? Get the fuck outta here.
 * Basehead: Hey, check this out, man. I got these cheeseburgers! They some double cheeseburgers.
 * O-Dog: Nigga, I just ate. Man, I just ate fool. I don't want no motherfuckin' cheeseburgers. If you ain't got no money, you just assed out.
 * Basehead: ''[as O-Dog was Leaving] Man, man, I'll suck your dick. Come on, man, just hook me up.
 * O-Dog: The fuck you just say, nigga?
 * Basehead: I said I'll suck your dick, man! Come on now.
 * O-Dog: [shoots basehead] Suck on that, you bitch-ass trick!
 * A-Wax: O-Dog, what the fuck you doing?!
 * Jackee: Yo, Dog, hurry up!
 * O-Dog: [Kicks basehead's corpse and steals his hamburgers, then says to A-Wax and Jackee] Any of y'all want a hamburger? What's wrong? Y'all don't want a hamburger?
 * A-Wax: I don't want no motherfucking hamburger. Nigga, you stupid, man!
 * O-Dog: I got it from that basehead.
 * A-Wax: You stupid!

 * Tat Lawson: [playing cards at a table] Look here, man. Now that you been out the joint two weeks, don't you think it's about time you gave me my money?
 * Man: Told you I ain't got your money yet, man.
 * Tat Lawson: The fuck you mean you ain't got my money yet? Motherfuckin' everybody know about that money you hid from that robbery!
 * Man: Motherfucker, I told you I ain't got your money yet, man.
 * Tat Lawson: [tilts head to the left] The fuck you mean you ain't got my money yet? Motherfucker, you best be comin' up with my cash or else, you know what I'm sayin'?
 * Man: Fuck you, Tat! Fuck you think you is, motherfuckin' Ron O'Neill or somethin'? Talkin' about I better pay or else. I ain't your bitch, nigga! [shrugs] Well, whatcha gon' do?
 * Tat Lawson: Oh, what I'm gon' do? [pulls out revolver and points it at the man]
 * Man: What? I'm supposed to be scared now that you pull out a pistol, motherfucker? I just spent five motherfuckin' years in the joint. I told ya I pay your monkey-ass when I feel like it. Better suck my dick.
 * Tat Lawson: [while he shoots the man 8 times] Suck on this, motherfucker!

''
 * [A-Wax and lady have brought a wounded Caine into the emergency room]''
 * A-Wax: [to nurse] Give us a motherfuckin' doctor!
 * Nurse: You'll have to fill out these forms first.
 * Lady: Bitch, fuck the forms! We need a doctor! He's bleeding to death over there!

 * Caine: [after O-Dog and A-Wax discuss the store surveillance tape] Look, nigga, I told you to stop showing the fuckin' tape.
 * O-Dog: Man, why do you keep on bitchin' about my tape, man? Damn, man ain't shit gonna happen, all right? All right? Damn! We're just gonna find these little marks and smoke 'em. Shit ain't that hard.
 * Caine: As long as there ain't no crowds. Look, I'm not killing no kids or old folks, all right?
 * O-Dog: [laughing] Hey, man, who the fuck gonna be old out there at 12:00 at night, bitch? Shit, I'll smoke anybody, I just don't give a fuck. Shit. Hit this shit! [hands Caine a joint]
 * Caine: Look, not me, all right? I'm not killin' no kids.
 * O-Dog: [getting angry with Caine's attitude] Hey, you know what, nigga? You actin' like a little bitch right now. You actin' real paranoid and shit. Now these motherfuckers smoked your goddamn cousin in front of you, nigga. Blew his head off in front of your face and you ain't gonna do shit? You actin' like a little bitch right now, nigga. Man, fuck that, I ain't lettin' that shit ride.  We gonna go ahead and smoke all these motherfuckers, I don't care who the fuck out there.  Goddamn it, is you down, nigga?
 * A-Wax: Man, both y'all shut the fuck up! Both y'all actin' like some motherfuckin' bitches. Shit! Scared to peel these punk-ass nigga's cap.  Man, give me my motherfuckin' joint, nigga! [takes joint from O-Dog]

 * Caine: [bursts into a car at a fast-food drive-thru lane and points a gun at the man in the car] I want your motherfuckin' Daytons and your motherfuckin' stereo. And I'll take a double burger with cheese.
 * Car-jack victim: What?
 * Caine: Motherfucker, order my motherfuckin' food!
 * Fast-food employee: [through intercom] Hi, may I take your order, please?
 * Car-jack victim: Yeah, uh, let me have a double burger, uh, some fries--
 * Caine: Motherfucker, I said with cheese, nigga!
 * Car-jack victim: Shit! [into intercom] Yo, uh, make that a double burger with cheese.
 * Caine: See, y'all would've made me shoot your stupid ass over nothing.
 * Car-jack victim: Hey, come on, man, we supposed to be brothers.

 * Ilena: I'm pregnant.
 * Caine: Well, what the fuck you tellin' me for?
 * Ilena: What? So you just gonna dog me?
 * Caine: It ain't mine.
 * Ilena: Look, you the only one I was with!
 * Caine: Stop lying, alright? Besides, I had the jimmy on extra tight.

 * Ilena's cousin: [approaches Caine and O-Dog at Caine's house] Hey, which one of y'all is Caine?
 * O-Dog: Who's this fool, man?
 * Caine: Who wanna know?
 * Ilena's cousin: A friend, homie.
 * Caine: Oh, homie, hey, I don't think you know me.
 * Ilena's cousin: Check this out, I'm Ilena's cousin, partna'. She don't like the way you've been doggin' her and I don't either.
 * Caine: [stunned] We supposed to fight over a bitch?
 * Ilena's cousin: I think you need to watch who you're callin' a bitch, partna'.
 * Caine: Yeah, and I think you better watch who the fuck you-- [Caine punches, shoves then stomps on Ilena's cousin as neighbors react and gather to watch]
 * O-Dog: Go ahead strap that fool! Rush him, nigga! Rush him!
 * Caine: [continues stomping] Tryin' to come to my hood and start all that shit! I ain't no punk!
 * O-Dog: Stomp! Stomp!
 * Grandpa: [comes outside and sees Caine stomping] Kaydee? KAYDEE!
 * O-Dog: [sees Caine's grandpa and stops Caine] Caine! Caine! Chill, homie!
 * Grandpa: [pulls Caine aside] Get your ass in the house!
 * O-Dog: [stomps Ilena's cousin once before walking away] Punk motherfucker!

 * Caine: You going to Kansas with this fool?
 * Sharif: Yeah, Caine. You should come too, man. I mean, you're not doing nothing out here but getting yourself in a lot of trouble. I know your grandmother would be happy.
 * Caine: Shit, I ain't going no place.

 * Pernell: [during a visit to the penitentiary] It's been a long time, Caine. How you doin', man? How come you never come see me?
 * Caine: [looking down] Man, I don't want to see you all caged up like some animal.
 * Pernell: Is that what you think? I'm a animal?
 * Caine: Nah. [looks up, almost in tears] When I was growin' up, you was like my dad, man.
 * Pernell: [takes the phone away from his ear in disbelief, only to return it] Your letters, in the beginning, it got me through, young brah. Away from my girl, away from my baby, away from you. Go with Ronnie, Caine.
 * Caine: Man, I ain't--it ain't even--
 * Pernell: I know the way she feels about you and that's cool. She's a good girl, you know? And take care of my son. I can't do shit for him in here. You teach him better than I taught you, man. Teach him the way we grew up was bullshit. A'ight? [puts his knuckles to the glass] Gimme some.

 * Grandpa: Proverbs 22:10. Cast out the scorner, and the contention shall go out.  Yea Strife, and reproach shall cease.
 * Caine: So what you tryin' to say, Grandpa?
 * Grandpa: Son, you've got to go. I don't want you to remain in our house another night.
 * Caine: What y'all want me to do?
 * Grandpa: [firmly] I want you out of here tonight!
 * Grandma: We're sorry, Caine.
 * Caine: [shocked] Y'all not too sorry. I mean, y'all kicking me out?
 * Grandpa: I've done all I can do for you. We tried our best to raise you, but you're bad.
 * Caine: I wasn't gonna tell y'all 'til later, but in a couple weeks, I'm gonna be moving to Atlanta with Ronnie. I mean, can't I just stay until then?
 * Grandma: [angrily] I hope you're not gonna mess up that girl's life, Caine.
 * Caine: But Grandma, I--
 * Grandpa: [interrupts while standing firm on his decision] Caine! Now, I sincerely hope you get your life together.  Lord knows it. I do, too.  But I cannot have you in my home one more night.
 * Caine: Grandma! [Grandma turns away]
 * Caine: Fine! [gets up and starts walking out, but briefly stops and glares at his grandpa before leaving]

Taglines

 * This is the truth. This is what's real.

Cast

 * Tyrin Turner - Kaydee (Caine) Lawson
 * Jada Pinkett - Ronnie
 * Larenz Tate - Kevin (O-Dog) Anderson
 * Samuel L. Jackson - Tat Lawson
 * MC Eiht - A-Wax
 * Glenn Plummer - James "Pernell" Richards
 * Clifton Powell - Chauncy
 * Marilyn Coleman - Mrs. Lawson
 * Arnold Johnson - Thomas Lawson
 * Pooh-Man - Doc
 * Julian Roy Doster - Anthony
 * Too Short - Lew-Loc
 * Jermaine "Huggy" Hopkins - Tyrone
 * Khandi Alexander - Karen Lawson
 * Vonte Sweet - Sharif Butler
 * Ryan Williams - Stacy
 * Bill Duke - Detective
 * Dwayne L. Barnes - Basehead
 * Charles S. Dutton - Mr. Butler
 * Martin Davis - Carjacking Victim
 * Garen Holoman - Junior
 * Brandon Hammond - Five Year Old Caine
 * Saafir - Harold Lawson
 * Cynthia Calhoun - Jackee
 * Erin Leshawn Wiley - Ilena
 * Samuel Monroe Jr. - Ilena's Cousin
 * Clifton Collins, Jr. - Vato #2

title: Menace II Society


text:
Earnestness

Earnestness refers to the quality of being earnest; sincerity; seriousness.

Quotes

 * Without earnestness no man is ever great, or does really great things. He may be the cleverest of men; he may be brilliant, entertaining, popular; but he will want weight. No soul-moving picture was ever painted that had not in it depth of shadow.
 * Peter Bayne, Lessons from My Masters: Carlyle, Tennyson and Ruskin (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1879), p. 17.

 * Up, then, with speed, and work; Fling ease and self away; This is no time for thee to sleep, Up, watch and work and pray!
 * Horatius Bonar, Hymns of Faith and Hope (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1857), "Live", p. 242.

 * Patience is only one faculty; earnestness the devotion of all the faculties. Earnestness is the cause of patience; it gives endurance, overcomes pain, strengthens weakness, braves dangers, sustains hope, makes light of difficulties, and lessens the sense of weariness in overcoming them.
 * Christian Nestell Bovee, Intuitions and Summaries of Thought (Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1862), Volume I, p. 161.

 * There is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnestness.
 * Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (London: Bradbury & Evans, 1850), Ch. XLII: "Mischief", p.429.

 * A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace.
 * Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance", in Essays: First Series (Boston: James Munroe and Company, 1850), p. 41.

 * He who would do some great thing in this short life, must apply himself to the work with such a concentration of his forces, as, to idle spectators who live only to amuse themselves, looks like insanity.
 * John Foster, Essays in a Series of Letters to a Friend (Hartford: Lincoln and Gleason, 1807), Essay II: "On Decision of Character", Letter III, p. 111.

 * Child of earth and earthly sorrows—child of God and immortal hopes—arise from thy sadness, gird up the loins of thy mind, and with unfaltering energy press toward thy rest and reward on high.
 * Elias Lyman Magoon, Proverbs for the People (Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1849), Ch. XIV: "Perseverance (Continued)", p. 208.

 * This world is given as the prize for the men in earnest; and that which is true of this world is truer still of the world to come.
 * Frederick William Robertson,Sermons Preached at Brighton (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1899), First Series, Sermon II: "Parable of the Sower" (preached June 6, 1849), p. 42.

 * My God, help me always resolutely to strive, and, through life and death, to force my way unto Thee.
 * Christian Scriver, Gotthold's Emblems, translated by Robert Menzies (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1857), p. 145.

 * Rouse to some work of high and holy love, And thou an angel's happiness shalt know.
 * Carlos Wilcox, "The Religion of Taste", Stanza CVII, in Remains of the Rev. Carlos Wilcox (Hartford: Edward Hopkins, 1828), p. 208.

title: Earnestness


text:
Egotism

Egotism is the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself, and generally features an inflated opinion of one's personal qualities and intellectual, physical, or social importance. Extreme egotism involves little or no concern for others, including those loved or considered as "close," in any other terms except those set by the egotist.

Quotes

 * We are, the great spiritual writers insist, most fully ourselves when we give ourselves away, and it is egotism that holds us back from that transcendent experience that has been called God, Nirvana, Brahman, or the Tao.
 * Karen Armstrong, in The Spiral Staircase : My Climb Out of Darkness (2004)

 * Egoist: a person of low taste, more interested in himself than me.
 * Ambrose Bierce, in The Cynic's Word Book (1906). Retitled The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

 * “No, monsieur,” returned Monte Cristo, “upon the simple condition that they should respect myself and my friends. Perhaps what I am about to say may seem strange to you, who are socialists, and vaunt humanity and your duty to your neighbor, but I never seek to protect a society which does not protect me, and which I will even say, generally occupies itself about me only to injure me; and thus by giving them a low place in my esteem, and preserving a neutrality towards them, it is society and my neighbor who are indebted to me.” “Bravo,” cried Chateau–Renaud; “you are the first man I ever met sufficiently courageous to preach egotism. Bravo, count, bravo!”
 * Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), Ch. 40

 * There are two Americas...One is generous and humane, the other narrowly egotistical; one is self-critical, the other self-righteous; one is sensible, the other romantic; one is good-humored, the other solemn; one is inquiring, the other pontificating; one is moderate, the other filled with passionate intensity; one is judicious and the other arrogant in the use of great power.
 * J. William Fulbright, in The Arrogance of Power (1966)

 * I now know all the people worth knowing in America, and I find no intellect comparable to my own.
 * Margaret Fuller, as quoted in Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (1884, reprinted 1972), vol. 1, part 4, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, p. 234. Perry Miller, in "I Find No Intellect Comparable to My Own," American Heritage (February 1957), p. 22, says she made the remark at Emerson's table and adds, "she was speaking the truth".

 * Conceit, arrogance and egotism are the essentials of patriotism. Let me illustrate. Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate. Those who have had the fortune of being born on some particular spot consider themselves nobler, better, grander, more intelligent than those living beings inhabiting any other spot. It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all the others. We Americans claim to be a peace-loving people. We hate bloodshed; we are opposed to violence. Yet we go into spasms of joy over the possibility of projecting dynamite bombs from flying machines upon helpless citizens.  Such is the logic of patriotism.
 * Emma Goldman, in What is Patriotism? (1908), Patriotism: A Menace to Liberty Address given in San Francisco  (1908)
 * The compulsion to take ourselves seriously is in inverse proportion to our creative capacity. When the creative flow dries up, all we have left is our importance.
 * Eric Hoffer, "Thoughts of Eric Hoffer, Including: 'Absolute Faith Corrupts Absolutely'", The New York Times Magazine (April 25, 1971), p. 52

 * The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel.
 * W. Somerset Maugham, in The Summing Up (1938)

 * It is never permissible to say, I say.
 * Madame Necker; reported in Louis Klopsch, ed., Many Thoughts of Many Minds: A Treasury of Quotations From the Literature of Every Land and Every Age (1896), p. 80

 * Because of the grave times, one should speak about the need for joy and of the terrible harm of any and all depression. Therefore I am quoting here a Discourse, useful for the entire group. "Even during the difficult days you know that strength issues from joy. I said long ago that 'joy is a special wisdom.' Verily so, because joy must be observed, discerned, and realized. Depressed people carry a cloud of miseries and woes. In this dark covering they cannot perceive joy. Because of this pall of sorrow people become blind and lose strength. They cannot help themselves. They do not admit Our Help, because depression and irritation are impenetrable. As if no one ever told people about the harm of depression!Depressed people are said to be deprived of their share. Ponder these words. Who has deprived them of their inherent share? First of all they deprived themselves of any possibilities. They began their own destruction long ago. Discontent, malice, irritation cut off the path to joy. Dark thoughts deprived them of the source of strength. Selfhood prevented the discernment of joy. Egoism whispered, Joy lies only in personal gain. Thus the most fruitful joy was hidden behind ugly piles of depression. Those blinded by depression are the most pitiful of bipeds. (7 May 1938)
 * Helena Roerich, Letters II, (7 May 1938)

 * Most humans are still in the grip of the egoic mode of consciousness: identified with their mind and run by their mind. If they do not free themselves from their mind in time, they will be destroyed by it. They will experience increasing confusion, conflict, violence, illness, despair, madness. Egoic mind has become like a sinking ship. If you don't get off, you will go down with it. The collective egoic mind is the most dangerously insane and destructive entity ever to inhabit this planet.
 * Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment (1997) p.67

 * Things are changing rapidly now. With many people becoming more conscious, the ego is losing its hold on the human mind.
 * Eckhart Tolle, in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (2005)

 * Because the ego was never as deeply rooted in woman, it is losing its hold on women more quickly than on men.
 * Eckhart Tolle, in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (2005)

 * That sense of pride, of needing to stand out, the apparent enhancement of one’s self through “more than” and diminishment through “less than” is neither right nor wrong – it is the ego. The ego isn’t wrong; it’s just unconscious. When you observe the ego in yourself, you are beginning to go beyond it. Don’t take the ego too seriously. When you detect egoic behavior in yourself, smile. At times you may even laugh. How could humanity have been taken in by this for so long? Above all, know that the ego isn’t personal. It isn’t who you are. If you consider the ego to be your personal problem, that’s just more ego. p. 28
 * Eckhart Tolle, in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose (2005)

 * Franco was much flattered by the controlled press, radio and television. It was not unusual for him to be ranked above Augustus, Charles V and Napoleon. About 50 towns caught the spirit of this sycophancy and added his name. He also had constructed a Pharaonic tomb, in which he wanted to be buried. Called the Valley of the Fallen and dedicated to the Civil War dead, it is situated close to the Escorial, near Madrid. Carved out of living rock, the interior is a basilica, one of the world's largest, and is surmounted by a cross 500 feet tall. Franco took a detailed interest in its construction, which covered 15 years and cost millions. Irreverent Spaniards called it "Franco's folly," but it became a major tourist attraction.
 * Alden Whitman,

 * Above any ego and any political adversity, there is the interest of Romanians.
 * Nicolae Ciucă (2021) cited in: "Romanian parliament elects Nicolae Ciucă as prime minister" in Politico, 25 November 2021.

title: Egotism


text:
Employment

Employment is a relationship between two parties, usually based on a contract, one being the employer and the other being the employee.

Quotes

 * One of the best maxims in determining our course in life is, to select, at the outset, that in which virtue and principle will be least likely to be put to a test, and in which, from the nature of the calling, a man may bring around him such associations and influences as will be an auxiliary in keeping him in the path of virtue.
 * Albert Barnes, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 437.

 * ... If I had a one-line employment form, I'd almost say, "Are you passionate about what you do?"
 * Warren Buffett, (quote at 4:03 of 56:25)

 * The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.
 * Arthur C. Clarke, interview with Los Angeles Free Press, pp. 42–43, 47 (25 April 1969)

 * In 1970 Clarke addressed a conference based on the futuristic theme of life in the year 2000, and he envisioned a society of full unemployment: The world is heading toward “full unemployment,” Clarke said, as 99 per cent of the current human activity will be eliminated through machines, the “slaves of tomorrow.”
 * 2001 Author Tells 2000 Conferees: ‘The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be’ by Janos Gereben, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, (6 August 1970)

 * I heard my mother remark occasionally: 'A man who accepts a job under anyone is a slave.' That impression became so indelibly fixed that even after my marriage I refused all positions. I met expenses by investing my family endowment in land. Moral: Good and positive suggestions should instruct the sensitive ears of children. Their early ideas long remain sharply etched.
 * Yukteswar Giri Autobiography of a Yogi (1946)

 * In the interests of the ideal of maximum output, [our society] judges men by their fitness for jobs, not jobs by their fitness for men.
 * John Passmore, The Perfectibility of Man, p. 280

 * Randal Graves: 'I'm not even supposed to be here today.' You sound like an asshole! Jesus, nobody twisted your arm to be here. You're here of your own volition. You like to think the weight of the world rests on your shoulders, like this place would fall apart if Dante wasn't here. Jesus, you over-compensate for havin' what's basically a monkey's job. You push fuckin' buttons! Anybody could waltz in here and do our jobs. You, you're so obsessed with making it seem so much more epic, so much more important than it really is. Christ, you work in a convenience store, Dante, and badly, I might add. I work in a shitty video store, badly as well. You know, that guy Jay's got it right, man, he has no delusions about what he does, what he is. Us? We like to make ourselves seem so much more important than the people that come in here to buy a paper or God forbid, cigarettes. We look down on them as if we're so advanced. Well, if we're so fuckin' advanced, what are we doin' working here?
 * Randal Graves as interpreted by Jeff Anderson in Clerks, (1994); written by Kevin Smith

 * There is no intermediate state between ice and water but there is one between life and death: employment.
 * Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (2010) Preludes, p.8.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

 * Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 565-66.

 * I hold every man a debtor to his profession; from the which as men of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to endeavor themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and ornament thereunto.
 * Bacon, Maxims of the Law, Preface.

 * Quam quisque novit artem, in hac se exerceat.
 * Translation: Let a man practise the profession which he best knows.
 * Cicero, Tusculanarum Disputationum, I. 18.

 * The ugliest of trades have their moments of pleasure. Now, if I were a grave-digger, or even a hangman, there are some people I could work for with a great deal of enjoyment.
 * Douglas Jerrold, Jerrold's Wit, "Ugly Trades".

 * And sure the Eternal Master found The single talent well employ'd.
 * Samuel Johnson, On the Death of Robert Levet, Stanza 7.

 * The hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.
 * William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act V, Scene 1, line 77.

 * Thus Nero went up and down Greece and challenged the fiddlers at their trade. Æropus, a Macedonian king, made lanterns; Harcatius, the king of Parthia, was a mole-catcher; and Biantes, the Lydian, filed needles.
 * Jeremy Taylor, Holy Living, Chapter I, Secion I, "Rides far Employing Our Time".

title: Employment


text:
Frugality

Frugality (also known as thrift or thriftiness) is the practice of minimizing waste. Frugality can be related to the idea of being conservative or conserving money.

Quotes

 * Anyone whose needs are small seems threatening to the rich, because he’s always ready to escape their control.
 * Nicolas Chamfort, Reflections, D. Parmée, trans. (London: 2003) #169

 * A true cultivation of the mind is fitted to forward you in your worldly concerns, and you ought to use it for this end. Only, beware lest this end master you; lest your motives sink as your condition improves; lest you fall victims to the miserable passion of vying with those around you in show, luxury, and expense. Cherish a true respect for yourselves. Feel that your nature is worth more than every thing which is foreign to you.
 * William Ellery Channing, “Self-Culture” (1838)

 * Economy, in the estimation of common minds, often means the absence of all taste and comfort.
 * Lady Saba Holland, A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1855), Vol. I, ch. 8, p. 263
 * Often misattributed to Lady Holland's father, Sydney Smith.

 * Since those who rule in the city do so because they own a lot, I suppose they're unwilling to enact laws to prevent young people who've had no discipline from spending and wasting their wealth, so that by making loans to them, secured by the young people's property, and then calling those loans in, they themselves become even richer and more honored.
 * Plato, The Republic, 555c, G. Grube and C. Reeve, trans., Plato: Complete Works (1997), p. 1166.

 * I worship freedom; I abhor restraint, trouble, dependence. As long as the money in my purse lasts, it assures my independence; it relieves me of the trouble of finding expedients to replenish it, a necessity which has always inspired me with dread; but the fear of seeing it exhausted makes me hoard it carefully. The money which a man possesses is the instrument of freedom; that which we eagerly pursue is the instrument of slavery. Therefore I hold fast to that which I have, and desire nothing.
 * Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions (Wordsworth: 1996), p. 35

 * People who originally have no means but are ultimately able to earn a great deal, through whatever talents they may possess, almost always come to think that these are permanent capital and that what they gain through them is interest. Accordingly, they do not put aside part of their earnings to form a permanent capital, but spend their money as fast as they earn it. But they are then often reduced to poverty because their earnings decrease or come to an end after their talent, which was of a transitory nature, is exhausted, as happens, for example, in the case of almost all the fine arts; or because it could be brought to bear only under a particular set of circumstances that has ceased to exist.
 * Schopenhauer, “Aphorisms on the Wisdom of Life,” Parerga und Paralipomena, E. Payne, trans. (1974) Vol. 1, p. 348

 * But as they all say if we sell our home what will we have for it, money, and what is the use of that money, money goes and after it is gone then where are we, beside we have all we want, what can we do with money except lose it, money to spend is not very welcome, if you have it and you try to spend it, well spending money is an anxiety, saving money is a comfort and a pleasure, economy is not a duty it is a comfort, avarice is an excitement, but spending money is nothing, money spent is money non-existent, money saved is money realised...
 * Gertrude Stein. Paris France. New York: Liveright, 1970. (p. 103)

 * Many people pay lip service to the ideals of frugality and simplicity, but you still don't see many politicians trying to get elected on a platform of policies shaped by the principle that the good life is the simple life. On the contrary, politicians promise and governments strive to raise their society's levels of production and consumption. The value of continual economic growth is a given. The majority of individuals everywhere...seem to associate happiness more with extravagance than with frugality.
 * Emrys Westacott, The Wisdom of Frugality: Why Less Is More - More or Less (2016), p. 3

title: Frugality