text:
X-Men: The Last Stand

X-Men: The Last Stand is a 2006 film and the third in a series of films based on the Marvel Comics series X-Men following X-Men and X2. It focuses on two storylines: A mutant antigen is created, which the government exploits and uses against the mutant population, resulting in a war between humanity and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The X-Men become the third side of this war. The story behind Jean Grey's powers as the Phoenix and her effects on the X-Men and humanity.
 * Directed by: Brett Ratner, Written by Simon Kinberg and Zak Penn

Take a Stand(taglines)

Professor Charles Xavier

 * [deleted scene] Mutants and humans. They have long struggled to coexist. While some try to unite the world, others try to dominate it. Neither strategy has prevailed. But when conflicts reach an impasse, inevitably something happens to shift the balance forever.
 * You have more power than you can imagine, Jean. The question is, will you control that power... or let it control you?
 * [Post-credit scene] Hello, Moira.

Erik Lehnsherr / Magneto

 * I have been marked once, my dear, and let me assure you... no needle shall ever touch my skin again.
 * Charles Xavier did more for mutants than you'll ever know. My single greatest regret is that he had to die for our dream to live.
 * In chess, the pawns go first.

Logan / Wolverine

 * Yeah. We're outnumbered. I'm not gonna lie to you. But we lost Scott. We lost the Professor. If we don't fight now, everything we stood for will fight with them. I'm not gonna let that happen. Are you? [Bobby shakes his head.] Then we stand together... X-Men, all of us.
 * [After kicking a mutant in the groin] Grow those back.

Bobby Drake / Iceman

 * [After headbutting Pyro] You never should've left.

Cain Marko / Juggernaut

 * [to Wolverine, in a deleted scene] I heard your claws can cut through anything. Wanna take a shot?
 * Don't you know who I am? I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!

Dialogue

 * Erik: I still don't know why I'm here. Couldn't you just make them say yes?
 * Charles: Yes, I could, but it's not my way. And I would expect you, of all people, would understand all my feelings about the misuse of power.
 * Erik: Ah, "power corrupts" and all that. Yes, I know, Charles. When are you going to stop lecturing me?
 * Charles: When you start listening.

 * Storm: What the hell was that?
 * Wolverine: Danger room session.
 * Storm: You know what I mean.
 * Wolverine: I'll lighten up Storm–
 * Storm: Look, you can't just change the rules when you feel like it and I'm trying to teach 'em something.
 * Wolverine: Well, I taught 'em something.
 * Storm: It was a defensive exercise.
 * Wolverine: Yeah, best defense is a good offense or is it the other way around?
 * Storm: This isn't a game, Logan.
 * Wolverine: Well alright. You sure fooled me.

 * Wolverine: Hey, Scott, we were looking for you downstairs and you didn't show.
 * Cyclops: What do you care?
 * Wolverine: Well for starters, I had to cover your ass.
 * Cyclops: I didn't ask you to.
 * Wolverine: No, you didn't. The Professor did. I was just passing through.
 * Cyclops: So pass through, Logan.
 * [He turns away. Logan grabs his arm]
 * Wolverine: Hey, look. I know how you feel.
 * Cyclops: Don't.
 * Wolverine: When Jean died–
 * Cyclops: I said don't.
 * Wolverine: Maybe it's time for us to move on.
 * Cyclops: [walks away, then turns back to Logan] Not everybody heals as fast as you, Logan.

 * Mutant Theatre Organizer: How should we, as mutants, respond? Here's what I think. This is about getting organized. Bringing our complaints to the right people. We need to put together a committee and talk to the government.
 * [The mutant crowd began to complain.]
 * Mutant Theatre Organizer: They don't understand. They don't know what it means to be a mutant. We need to show them, educate them, let them know that we're here to stay.
 * [The mutants complain further.]
 * Mutant Theatre Organizer: People, you must listen. They won't take us seriously–
 * Psylocke: They want to exterminate us!
 * Mutant Theatre Organizer: This cure is voluntary. Nobody's talking about extermination.–
 * Magneto: No one ever talks about it.
 * [The mutant group turns to Magneto and Pyro. They stood up and stumble.]
 * Magneto: They just do it. And you go on with your lives, ignoring the signs all around you. [both walk to the stage] And then one day, when the air is still and the night is fallen, they come for you.
 * Mutant Theatre Organizer: [interrupting] Excuse me–
 * Magneto: Only then do you realize that while you're talking about organizing and committees, the extermination has already begun. Make no mistake, my brothers, they will draw first blood. They will force their cure upon us. The only question is, will you join my brotherhood and fight or await the inevitable genocide. Who will you stand with, the humans or us? [walks away with Pyro following]

 * [Storm and Professor X talk about the aftermath of Jean's transformation]
 * Storm: I don't understand. Magneto's a fugitive, we have a mutant in the cabinet, a President who understands us; why are we still hiding?
 * Professor: We're not hiding. But we still have enemies out there, and I must protect my students. You know that.
 * Storm: Yes, but we can't be students forever.
 * Professor: [chuckles] Storm, I hadn't thought of you as my student for years. In fact, I thought that perhaps you might take my place some day.
 * Storm: [astonished] But Scott–
 * Professor: Scott's a changed man. He took Jean's death so hard. Yes, things are better out there, but you of all people know how fast the weather can change.

 * Magneto: Do you remember when we first met? Do you know what I saw when I looked at you? I saw the next stage of evolution both Charles and I dreamt of finding. And I thought to myself "Why would Charles want to turn this goddess into a mortal?" [he shows the cure gun to Jean] I can manipulate the metal in this, but you, you can do anything. Anything you can think of.
 * [At this, Jean uses her telekinesis to break the gun into pieces, then directs the cure darts towards Magneto and moves them towards him]
 * Magneto: [afraid] Jean, enough. ENOUGH! [At the last moment, Jean stops, then turns to face Magneto with a sneer]
 * Jean Grey: [coldly] You sound just like him.
 * Magneto: Jean, he wanted to hold you back.
 * Jean Grey: What do you want?
 * Magneto: I want you to be what you are. As nature intended.

 * [The Brotherhood of Mutants continues to liberate mutants, checking people on their list but Mystique loses her powers]
 * Pyro: [reads the list] "Cain Marko. Solitary confinement." and check this out: "Prisoner must be confined at all times. If he builds any momentum, no object can stop him."
 * Magneto: How fascinating. [opens his cell where Cain's limbs were bounded in the cell.] What do they call you?
 * Juggernaut: "Juggernaut".
 * Magneto: I can't imagine why?
 * Juggernaut: You gonna let me out of here? I need a pee. [Magneto removes his restraints and the Juggernaut jumps out of his cell. Cain's force of his jump awakens one of the prison truck guards, who was unconscious earlier.]
 * Pyro: Nice helmet.
 * Juggernaut: Keeps my face pretty.
 * Magneto: [about Juggernaut] I think he'll make a fine addition to our army.
 * Pyro: Yeah.
 * [Mystique sees light from the gun aimed at Magneto.]
 * Mystique: NO!
 * [Mystique steps in the way and is struck in the chest with the Cure; falls; Magneto grabs the dart gun; Pyro incinerates the guard; Mystique begins to seizure; hair turns black and blue skin disappears; turns completely human, lays naked in shock and devastation]
 * Magneto: You saved me. [begins to turn away]
 * Mystique: [to Magneto; pleadingly] Erik.
 * Magneto: I'm sorry, my dear. You're not one of us anymore. [walks away; to Pyro] Such a shame. She was so beautiful.

 * [Everyone regroups at the school after Professor X dies]
 * Iceman: So what now? What do we do?
 * Beast: Professor Xavier started this school. Perhaps it's best that it end with him. We have to tell the students that they're going home.
 * Iceman: Most of us don't have anywhere to go. I can't believe this. I can't believe we're not gonna fight for this school.
 * [Warren arrives at Xavier's office with his luggage. They all turn to him]
 * Angel: I'm sorry. I know this is a bad time. I was told that this was a safe place for mutants.
 * Beast: It was, son.
 * Storm: [stands up] And it still is. We'll find you a room. [turns to Beast] Hank, tell all the students the school stays open.

 * Wolverine: I thought you were a diplomat.
 * Beast: As Churchill said, "There comes a time when all men must"-- Oh, you get the point!

 * Wolverine: [to Colossus] This is it! Hey make it a strike.
 * [Colossus throws Wolverine at Magneto but he stops him with his powers]
 * Magneto: You never learn, do you?
 * Wolverine: Actually, I do.
 * [Beast approaches from behind and plunges four doses of "the cure" into Magneto]
 * Magneto: I'm–
 * Wolverine: [gets up after Magneto's power releases him] One of them?

 * The Dark Phoenix: You would die for them?
 * Wolverine: No, not for them. For you. For you.
 * (Jean's consciousness manages to resurface)
 * Jean Grey: Save me.
 * Wolverine: I love you.
 * [stabs Jean through the chest and kills her, then cries out.]

About X-Men: The Last Stand

 * But what if mutants don't want to be "cured"? What if they're happy the way they are, and cherish their differences? Xavier has always tried to encourage that kind of thinking, but Magneto (Ian McKellen), his archenemy in X-Man land, takes a more direct approach. He wages war against Worthington and all those who would foist a "cure" on the mutants. Although Magneto has always been the villain of the series, this time he makes a good point. So strong is Leech's anti-mutant power that a mutant need only stand near him to lose his or her abilities; maybe the antibody works through pheromones. Meanwhile, Mutant Cure Clinics spring up around the country and are picketed by pro-Mutant militants. Extremists arm themselves with guns that can fire the antibody, and go out to shoot themselves some mutants. Beast, as the administration's Cabinet minister in charge of mutant affairs, is caught in the middle. There are so many parallels here with current political and social issues that to list them is to define the next presidential campaign. Just writing the previous paragraph, I thought of abortion, gun control, stem cell research, the "gay gene" and the Minutemen. "Curing" mutants is obviously a form of genetic engineering and stirs thoughts of "cures" for many other conditions humans are born with, which could be loosely defined as anything that prevents you from being just like George or Georgette Clooney. The fact is, most people grow accustomed to the hands they've been dealt and rather resent the opportunity to become "normal." (Normal in this context is whatever makes you more like them and less like yourself.) "X-Men: The Last Stand" raises all of these questions in embryonic form, but doesn't engage them in much detail, because it is often distracted by the need to be an action movie. Consider, for example, the lengths Magneto goes to in order to neutralize young Leech. The kid is being held on Alcatraz? Very well then, Magneto will stand on the Golden Gate Bridge and use his powers of industrial-strength levitation to rip loose a whole span of the bridge and rotate it so that it joins Alcatraz with the mainland and his forces can march on Worthington's fortress.
 * One of the distractions in all the "X-Men" movies is that the X-Men are always getting involved in local incidents that have little to do with the big picture. They demonstrate their powers during disagreements and courtships, neighborhood emergencies, psychological problems or while showing off. After three movies you'd think they would have learned to coordinate their efforts, so that Storm (Halle Berry), for example, is not suddenly needed to brew up a last-minute storm and save the neighborhood/city/state/world. My guess is there are just plain too many mutants, and their powers are so various and ill-matched that it's hard to keep them all on the same canvas. The addition of Beast, Angel and Leech, not to mention Multiple Man, Juggernaut and the revived Dr. Jean Grey (reborn as Dark Phoenix) causes a Mutant Jam, because there are too many X-Men with too many powers for a 104-minute movie. There are times when the director, Brett Ratner, seems to be scurrying from one plot line to another like that guy who had to keep all of his plates spinning on top of their poles.
 * Roger Ebert, "X-Men: The Last Stand", Rogerebert.com, (May 25, 2006).
 * The cure is really the villain of the movie. Every single character is going to have an opinion of it. I really understand the point of view of Magneto and of Xavier. I understand why someone like Storm would definitely not take the cure. If you know the comic book, the backstory of Storm is that she was worshipped in her village of Africa and she changed the weather. So, why would she ever take the cure? It didn't make sense. And then there's Rogue, who can't have contact with humans, you would understand why she would consider taking it. I think it has a lot of contemporary relevance. I think it's something that is an issue that a lot of people deal with. Alienation, prejudice and I think that each person is going to feel differently about it. If you offered gays an opportunity to get a shot and they won't be gay anymore, some gays will be like, "Oh, I'm happy being gay. I wanna be gay." Some people would be like, "I suffered my whole life... okay, make me straight." If they could.
 * Brett Ratner in "Director Brett Ratner Breaks Down X-Men: The Last Stand" by Evan Jacobs, Movie Web, 05.23.2006.
 * I was really looking forward to Singer doing the third one because it wound be an out and out gay fantasia-I was hoping the dude would go for a kind of Brokeback Mutant kind of movie, but he opted to do Superman.
 * Kevin Smith, A Complete History of American Comic Books by Shirrel Rhoades p. 66

Taglines

 * Take a Stand
 * Whose Side Will You Be On?

Cast

 * Hugh Jackman – Logan/Wolverine
 * Halle Berry – Ororo Munroe/Storm
 * Ian McKellen – Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto
 * Patrick Stewart – Professor Charles Xavier
 * Famke Janssen – Jean Grey/Phoenix
 * Anna Paquin – Marie/Rouge
 * Kelsey Grammer – Dr. Henry "Hank" McCoy/Beast
 * James Marsden – Scott Summers/Cyclops
 * Rebecca Romijn – Raven Darkholme/Mystique
 * Shawn Ashmore – Bobby Drake/Iceman
 * Aaron Stanford – John Allerdyce/Pyro
 * Vinnie Jones – Cain Marko/Juggernaut
 * Ellen Page – Kitty Pryde
 * Daniel Cudmore – Peter Rasputin/Colossus
 * Ben Foster – Warren Worthington III/Angel
 * Michael Murphy – Warren Worthington II
 * Dania Ramirez – Callisto
 * Shohreh Aghdashloo – Dr. Kavita Rao
 * Josef Sommer – The President
 * Bill Duke – Secretary Bolivar Trask
 * Eric Dane – Multiple Man

title: X-Men: The Last Stand


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Parkour

(Le) Parkour (sometimes abbreviated to PK) or l'art du déplacement (English: the art of movement) is a physical art, the aim of which is to move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible, principally using the abilities of the human body. It was founded by David Belle and is of French origin. It is meant to help one overcome obstacles, which can be anything in the surrounding environment — from branches and rocks to rails and concrete walls — =meaning it can be practiced in both rural and urban areas. Male parkour practitioners are called traceurs and females traceuses.

On the philosophy of Parkour

 * "At the physical end, Parkour is getting over all the obstacles in your path as you would in an emergency situation. You want to move in such a way, with any movement, that will help you gain the most ground on someone/something as if escaping from someone/something or chasing toward someone/something. Also, wherever you go, you must be able to get back. If you go from A to B, you need to be able to get back from B to A. You don't need to do the same "move," but just get back."
 * http://parkour.net/modules/articles/item.php?itemid=16.

 * "It's about what you can do at that particular moment. If someone is stuck in a fire and you say, "Well, two years ago I could have done something that would have saved you" then you are useless. Parkour is not what you could have done for whatever excuse. If you aren't able to help someone, what use are you?"
 * http://parkour.net/modules/articles/item.php?itemid=16.

 * "My thing from the beginning is to have it be useful, and be able to help others. It's about being efficient and getting there as fast as you can. If people want to do it more artistically or in a freestyle way, I have absolutely no problem with it — that's the way it's going to evolve. It's not my style, but if it's other people's [style], that's perfect."
 * http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/680/243/

 * The link below leads to a video of David Belle falling on a saut-de-chat. His arm misses or slips off of the wall. It it important piece to view for all traceurs, his attitude and the way he views this accident should be noted.
 * http://parkour-videos.com/david-fall-and-message/

 * "All these people here, they come and they want me to do big things, expect me to do big drops so they can sell pictures, put it on their websites, whatever. But what is my motivation then? I could do this jump once and maybe get hurt, but even if I don't get hurt what is the point right here, right now? To make these people happy? If my family was over there and needed me, I wouldn't even hesitate. I would do it for them and that's who I train and do these things for. I'm not a monkey, I can't be treated like one. I don't understand how people want to put themselves into great risk for money. I've trained so long and hard for myself, to save people, to protect my family... People get into Parkour now just train in order to do risks for media, I just can't understand why they would do so. That was never the goal of Parkour. Money changes people, but that money cannot change my goal, my motivation or why I do this. I'm on tour now for you, I'm here talking to you so you can help others and that's how things work, never think its the other way around. Im doing this for you guys, to inspire you, that's it."
 * http://p202.ezboard.com/furbanfreeflowfrm11.showMessage?topicID=12676.topic.

 * "Parkour belongs to the ones who live it, not the ones who want to live thanks to it"
 * David Belle Communique, Paris July 25th 2006

Other David Belle quotations

 * "If someone puts you in front of a 30m high wall, tells you to get over it, and then comes back two years later and you're still there, you've made no progress. You should find another wall.”
 * http://parkour.net/modules/articles/item.php?itemid=16.

 * "If you are in front of a wall that you cannot get past, would you just keep banging your head into the wall?... No, you would find a new wall."
 * http://parkour.net/modules/articles/item.php?itemid=16.

 * “There's no substitute for a regular, smart trainning. No shortcuts, no secrets. Practice well and often, and you'll get there.”
 * http://musclerig.com/parkour-strength-training.

 * "A little backflip (backflips), but it's not part of Parkour, but i like doing this since i did gym."
 * TFI - French TV

 * "Obstacles are found everywhere, and in overcoming them we nourish ourselves."
 * TFI - French TV

 * "Down there we know, the streets we know, but up here? Nobody's been here."
 * TFI - French TV

 * "First, do it. Second, do it well. Third, do it well and fast — that means you're a professional."
 * http://www.americanparkour.com/content/view/680/243/

Sebastien Foucan

 * "No violence, No competition, No Groups, No Chiefs.”
 * http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm.

 * "Nobody ever invents anything You're inspired and sometimes you can improve.”
 * http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm.

 * "Without philosophy, action has no meaning.”
 * http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm.

 * "No, big is not important!”
 * http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm.

 * "Parkour was never invented by anyone, it's always been here.”
 * http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm.

 * "I don't like caricature. I don't like extreme, I don't like that.”
 * http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm.

 * "Everything was invented when somebody was alone.”
 * http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm.

 * "Practice with the obstacle, always with the obstacle, and seek combinations.”
 * http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm.

 * "The way of the parkour is to continue, not to stay here.”
 * http://www.foucan.com/philosophy.htm.

 * "You can find the way by yourself naturally, you just need a guide to tell you to be careful, to not do this to impress people, just follow your instincts."
 * Jump Britain

Cyril Raffaeli

 * "I check my site sometimes. I look at the first couple things and try to respond but that's all I have the time for. People don't understand that we just don't have the time! We could come online and talk to each person and make sure they know flips aren't Parkour (he laughed) but then we would not be in the place we are now. I had two choices, I could sit at home and eat pizza and pepsi infront of the computer all day, or I could train, I chose to train."
 * http://p202.ezboard.com/furbanfreeflowfrm11.showMessage?topicID=12676.topic

Yamakasi

 * "Strong Body, Strong Mind, Strong Spirit."
 * http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?progdate=14:03:2006 - Hot Docs - Yamakasi.

 * "I saw an exhibition of Miro once. Miro the painter. His very last painting was a dot. I was wondering why everyone says hes a great painter. I can make dots. Yet he is a great painter. I looked at his evolution. First I thought he couldn't draw. Then I saw his early drawings, and they're works of art. His figures are full of detail, his landscapes. Its like looking at a photograph. So I looked at his evolution, and saw that gradually there were fewer details. He was paying less attention to the external, and more to the internal. I thought about it, that little dot, and I understood. Everything else was false, he had just retained the truth."
 * http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?progdate=14:03:2006 - Hot Docs - Yamakasi.

 * "Instinctively, we tend to prefer simplicity and containment. But with time we tend to think that real happiness is outside. That it is external... in money, success, in popularity. But that's not true. Its right here, so close we can't see it. When you move, an important thing to remember is to be serene, simple. Whether you jump or not, you have to feel good."
 * http://www.sbs.com.au/whatson/index.php3?progdate=14:03:2006 - Hot Docs - Yamakasi.

Other

 * "Imagine someone who wakes up in a cosy home, who eats a good and healthy meal, who goes out to do some jumping around until supper time and then watches tv in his couch for the rest of the evening, eating candy. This could describe most of us, even me, but this is not doing Parkour, this is not being strong. Being strong would be waking up after a short, cold night's sleep, with nothing to eat, in a remote area, with bruises all over your body, and having to do the biggest saut de bras in your life if you want to survive." - Thomas-des-bois
 * http://parkour.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=5158&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&start=0.

 * "Impossible is a word for other people to use when life scares them." - Chris Hayes-Kossmann
 * http://www.pkaus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=476.

 * "What you cannot conquer, circumvent but do not compromise yourself for the sake of the urban jungle, because concrete does not sympathise." - Chris Hayes-Kossmann
 * http://www.pkaus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=551.

 * "There's no real organised body, … so through the internet people have spread their videos, spread photos, and spread word of a new urban movement." - Chris Hayes-Kossmann
 * http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/act/content/2006/s1627257.htm.

 * "One of the main points of the philosophy behind parkour is being able to help people... To teach them they way themselves, to gain confidence in themselves, building up from simple moves to more complex things, to teach them that they are worthwhile people." - Chris Hayes-Kossmann
 * http://www.abc.net.au/stateline/act/content/2006/s1627257.htm

title: Parkour


text:
John Bunyan

John Bunyan (28 November 1628 – 3 August 1688) was a Christian writer and preacher, born at Harrowden, in the Parish of Elstow, England, most famous for the allegorical work The Pilgrim's Progress.

Quotes

 * See that your cause be good, else Christ will not undertake it.
 * The Work of Jesus Christ as an Advocate

 * When a man's cause is good, it will sufficiently plead for itself, yea, and for its master too.
 * The Work of Jesus Christ as and Advocate

(1666)

 * As quoted from Grace Abounding (1910 edition), edited with introduction by Edward Chauncey Baldwin, unless otherwise indicated.

 * Now, therefore, they began to praise, to commend and to speak well of me, both to my face, and behind my back. Now, I was, as they said, become godly; now I was become a right honest man. But, oh! when I understood that these were their words and opinions of me, it pleased me mighty well. For though, as yet, I was nothing but a poor painted Hypocrite, yet I loved to be talked of as one that was truly godly. I was proud of my Godliness, and, indeed, I did all I did, ether to be seen of, or to be well spoken of, by Man.

 * [I]n one of the streets of [Bedford], I came where there were three or four poor Women sitting at a door in the Sun, and talking about the things of God; and being now willing to hear them discourse I drew near... for I was now a brisk Talker also myself in the matters of Religion. But... I heard, but I understood not; for they were far above, out of my reach. Their talk was about a new Birth, the work of God on their hearts... They talked how God had visited their souls with his love in the Lord Jesus, and with what words and promises they had been refreshed, comforted, and supported against the temptations... And methought they spake as if Joy did make them speak, they spake with such pleasantness of Scripture Language, and with such appearance of grace in all they said, that they were to me as if they had found a new World...

 * By these things my Mind was now so turned that it lay like a Horse-leech at the Vein, still crying out, Give give, yea, it was so fixed on Eternity, and on the things about the Kingdom of Heaven (that is, so far as I knew, though as yet... I knew but little); that neither Pleasures, nor Profits, nor Persuasions, nor Threats, could loosen it, or make it let go his Hold. ...it is in very deed a certain Truth, it would then have been as difficult for me to have taken my mind from Heaven to Earth, as I have found it often since to get it again from Earth to Heaven.

 * [T]he Tempter came in with his delusion, That there was no way for me to know I had faith, but by trying to work some Miracle; urging those Scriptures that seem to look that way, for the enforcing and strengthening his Temptation. Nay, one day as I was betwixt Elstow and Bedford, the temptation was hot upon me, to try if I had Faith, by doing of some Miracle: which Miracle at that time was this, I must say to the Puddles that were in the horse-pads, Be dry; and to the dry places, Be you the Puddles. ...but just as I was about to speak, this thought came into my mind, But go under yonder Hedge and pray first, that God would make you able. But when I had concluded to pray, this came hot upon me, That if I prayed, and came again and tried to do it, and yet did nothing notwithstanding, then be sure I had no Faith, but was a Cast-away and lost. Nay, thought I, if it be so, I will never try... Thus I was tossed betwixt the Devil and my own Ignorance, and so perplexed... that I could not tell what to do.

 * About this time... in a Dream or Vision, presented to me. I saw, as if they were set on The Sunny side of some high Mountain, there refreshing themselves with the pleasant beams of the Sun, while I was shivering and shrinking in the Cold, afflicted with Frost, Snow, and dark Clouds. Methought, also, betwixt me and them, I saw a wall that did compass about this mountain; now, through this wall my soul did greatly desire to pass; concluding, that if I could, I would go even into the very midst of them, and there also comfort myself with the heat of their Sun. ...At the last, I saw... a narrow gap, like a little doorway in the Wall, through which I attempted to pass. Now the passage being very strait and narrow... I was well nigh quite beat out, by striving to get in ...Then was I exceeding glad, and went and sat down in the midst of them, and so was comforted with the light and heat of their Sun.

 * Now, this... Mountain signified the Church of the living God; the Sun that shone thereon, the comfortable shining of his merciful Face on them that were therein; the Wall, I thought, was the Word, that did make separation between the Christians and the World; and the Gap which was in this Wall, I thought was Jesus Christ, who is the way to God the Father. But forasmuch as the Passage was wonderful narrow... it showed me that none could enter into Life, but those that were in downright earnest, and unless also they left this wicked World behind them; for here was only room for Body and Soul, but not for Body and Soul, and Sin.

The Pilgrim's Progress (1678)

 * Pilgrim's Progress (1847 edition), edited by George Offor; also in The Works of John Bunyan, Volume 3 (1855) edited by George Offor The original work was not divided into chapters; chapter titles used here are from later editions, for convenience in keeping quotes and passages in sequential order.

Part I

 * And so I penned It down, until at last it came to be, For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.
 * Apology for his Book

 * Some said, "John, print it;" others said, "Not so." Some said, "It might do good;" others said, "No."
 * Apology for his Book

 * The name of the slough was Despond.
 * Part I, Ch. II : The Slough of Despond

 * Then it came burning hot into my mind, whatever he said, and however he flattered, when he got me home to his House, he would sell me for a slave. So I bid him forbear to talk, for I would not come near the door of his House. Then he reviled me, and told me that he would send such a one after me, that should make my way bitter to my Soul.
 * Part I, Ch. IV

 * Now I saw in my dream, that the highway, up which Christian was to go, was fenced on either side with a wall, and that wall was called salvation. Up this way, therefore, did burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty, because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending; and upon that place stood a cross, and a little below, in the bottom, a sepulchre. So I saw in my dream, that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back, and began to tumble, and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more.
 * Part I, Ch. VI : The Cross and the Contrast

 * Every fat must stand upon its own bottom.
 * Part I, Ch. VI : The Cross and the Contrast; comparable to: "Every tub must stand upon its bottom", Charles Macklin, The Man of the World, act i. sc. 2

 * The palace Beautiful.
 * Part I, Ch. VII : The Palace Beautiful

So he went on, and Apollyon met him. Now the Monster was hideous to behold, he was cloathed with scales like a Fish (and they are his pride) he had Wings like a Dragon, feet like a Bear, and out of his belly came Fire and Smoke, and his mouth was as the mouth of a Lion. When he was come up to Christian, he beheld him with a disdainful countenance, and thus began to question with him. Then Apollyon espying his opportunity, began to gather up close to Christian, and wrestling with him, gave him a dreadful fall; and with that, Christian's Sword flew out of his hand. Then said Apollyon, I am sure of thee now, and with that, he had almost prest him to death, so that Christian began to despair of life. But as God would have it, while Apollyon was fetching of his last blow, thereby to make a full end of this good Man, Christian nimbly reached out his hand for his Sword, and caught it, saying, ''Rejoice not against me, O mine Enemy! when I fall, I shall arise; and with that, gave him a deadly thrust, which made him give back, as one that had received his mortal wound: Christian perceiving that, made at him again, saying, Nay, in all these things we are more than Conquerors, through him that loved us. And with that, Apollyon spread forth his Dragon's wings, and sped him away, that Christian'' saw him no more....
 * But now in this Valley of Humiliation poor Christian was hard put to it, for he had gone but a little way before he espied a foul Fiend coming over the field to meet him; his name is Apollyon. Then did Christian begin to be afraid, and to cast in his mind whether to go back, or to stand his ground. But he considered again, that he had no Armor for his back, and therefore thought that to turn the back to him might give him greater advantage with ease to pierce him with his Darts; therefore he resolved to venture, and stand his ground. For thought he, had I no more in mine eye than the saving of my life, 'twould be the best way to stand.
 * Apollyon: Whence come you, and whither are you bound?
 * Christian: I am come from the City of Destruction, which is the place of all evil, and am going to the City of Zion.
 * Apollyon: By this I perceive thou art one of my Subjects, for all that Country is mine; and I am the Prince and God of it. How is it then that thou hast run away from thy King? Were it not that I hope thou mayest do me more service, I would strike thee now at one blow to the ground.
 * Christian: I was born indeed in your Dominions, but your service was hard, and your wages such as a man could not live on, for the wages of Sin is death; therefore when I was come to years, I did as other considerate persons do, look out if perhaps I might mend my self.
 * Apollyon: There is no Prince that will thus lightly lose his Subjects, neither will I as yet lose thee. But since thou complainest of thy service and wages be content to go back; what our Country will afford, I do here promise to give thee.
 * Christian: But I have let myself to another, even to the King of Princes, and how can I with fairness go back with thee?
 * Apollyon: Thou hast done in this, according to the Proverb, Changed a bad for a worse: but it is ordinary for those that have professed themselves his Servants, after a while to give him the slip, and return again to me: do thou so to, and all shall be well.
 * Christian: I have given him my faith, and sworn my Allegiance to him; how then can I go back from this, and not be hanged as a Traitor?
 * Apollyon: Thou didst the same to me, and yet I am willing to pass by all, if now thou wilt yet turn again, and go back.
 * Christian: What I promised thee was in my nonage; and besides, I count that the Prince under whose Banner now I stand, is able to absolve me; yea, and to pardon also what I did as to my compliance with thee: and besides, (O thou destroying Apollyon) to speak truth, I like his Service, his Wages, his Servants, his Government, his Company, and Country better than thine: and, therefore, leave off to perswade me further, I am his Servant, and I will follow him.
 * Apollyon: Consider again when thou art in cool blood, what thou art like to meet with in the way that thou goest. Thou knowest that for the most part, his Servants come to an ill end, because they are transgressors against me, and my ways. How many of them have been put to shameful deaths! and besides, thou countest his service better than mine, whereas he never came yet from the place where he is, to deliver any that served him out of our hands; but as for me, how many times, as all the World very well knows, have I delivered, either by power or fraud, those that have faithfully served me, from him and his, though taken by them, and so I will deliver thee.
 * Christian: His forbearing at present to deliver them, is on purpose to try their love, whether they will cleave to him to the end: and as for the ill end thou sayest they come to, that is most glorious in their account. For for present deliverance, they do not much expect it; for they stay for their Glory, and then they shall have it, when their Prince comes in his, and the Glory of the Angels.
 * Apollyon: Thou hast already been unfaithful in thy service to him, and how doest thou think to receive wages of him?
 * Christian: Wherein, O Apollyon, have I been unfaithful to him?
 * Apollyon: Thou didst faint at first setting out, when thou wast almost choked in the Gulf of Dispond; thou didst attempt wrong ways to be rid of thy burden, whereas thou shouldest have stayed till thy Prince had taken it off: thou didst sinfully sleep and lose thy choice thing: thou wast also almost perswaded to go back, at the sight of the Lions; and when thou talkest of thy Journey, and of what thou hast heard, and seen, thou art inwardly desirous of vain-glory in all that thou sayest or doest.
 * Christian:All this is true, and much more, which thou hast left out; but the Prince whom I serve and honour, is merciful, and ready to forgive: but besides, these infirmities possessed me in thy Country, for there I suckt them in, and I have groaned under them, been sorry for them, and have obtained pardon of my Prince.
 * Apollyon: Then Apollyon broke out into a grievous rage, saying, I am an enemy to this Prince: I hate his Person, his Laws, and People: I am come out on purpose to withstand thee.
 * Christian: Apollyon beware what you do, for I am in the King's Highway, the way of Holiness, therefore take heed to your self.
 * Apollyon: Then Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way, and said, I am void of fear in this matter, prepare thy self to die, for I swear by my Infernal Den, that thou shalt go no further, here will I spill thy soul; and with that, he threw a flaming Dart at his breast, but Christian had a Shield in his hand, with which he caught it, and so prevented the danger of that. Then did Christian draw, for he saw 'twas time to bestir him; and Apollyon as fast made at him, throwing Darts as thick as Hail; by the which, notwithstanding all that Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his head, his hand and foot; this made Christian give a little back: Apollyon therefore followed his work amain, and Christian again took courage, and resisted as manfully as he could. This sore combat lasted for above half a day, even till Christian was almost quite spent. For you must know that Christian by reason of his wounds, must needs grow weaker and weaker.
 * Ch. IX : Apollyon

 * Dark as pitch.
 * Part I, Ch. X : The Valley of the Shadow of Death

 * It beareth the name of Vanity Fair, because the town where 't is kept is lighter than vanity.
 * Part I, Ch XIII : Vanity Fair

 * They came to the Delectable Mountains.
 * Part I, Ch. XVI : The Delectable Mountains

Part II

 * Some things are of that nature as to make One's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache.
 * ''The Author's Way of sending forth his Second Part of the Pilgrim

He that is low, no pride; He that is humble, ever shall Have God to be his guide.''' I am content with what I have, Little be it or much: And, Lord, contentment still I crave, Because thou savest such. Fulness to such a burthen is, That go on pilgrimage; HERE little, and HEREAFTER bliss, Is best from age to age.
 * Now as they were going along and talking, they espied a Boy feeding his Father’s Sheep. The Boy was in very mean Cloaths, but of a very fresh and well-favoured Countenance, and as he sate by himself he sung. Hark, said Mr Greatheart, to what the Shepherd’s boy saith. So they hearkened, and he said—
 * '''He that is down needs fear no fall;
 * "The Shepherd Boy’s Song", in Part II, Ch. VI : The Valley of Humiliation; comparable to: "I am not now in fortune's power: He that is down can fall no lower", Samuel Butler, Hudibras (1663), Part i, Canto iii, Line 877

 * Gaius also proceeded, and said, I will now speak on the behalf of women, to take away their reproach. For as death and the curse came into the world by a woman, Gen. 3, so also did life and health: God sent forth his Son, made of a woman. Gal. 4:4. Yea, to show how much they that came after did abhor the act of the mother, this sex in the Old Testament coveted children, if happily this or that woman might be the mother of the Saviour of the world. I will say again, that when the Saviour was come, women rejoiced in him, before either man or angel. Luke 1:42-46. I read not that ever any man did give unto Christ so much as one groat; but the women followed him, and ministered to him of their substance. Luke 8:2,3. ‘Twas a woman that washed his feet with tears, Luke 7:37-50, and a woman that anointed his body at the burial. John 11:2; 12:3. They were women who wept when he was going to the cross, Luke 23:27, and women that followed him from the cross, Matt. 27:55,56; Luke 23:55, and sat over against his sepulchre when he was buried. Matt. 27:61. They were women that were first with him at his resurrection-morn, Luke 24:1, and women that brought tidings first to his disciples that he was risen from the dead. Luke 24:22,23. Women therefore are highly favored, and show by these things that they are sharers with us in the grace of life.
 * Part II, Ch. VIII : The Guests of Gaius

 * There stood a man with his sword drawn, and his face all over with blood. Then said Mr. Great-Heart, Who art thou? The man made answer, saying, I am one whose name is Valiant-for-truth. I am a pilgrim, and am going to the Celestial City.
 * Part II, Ch. XI : Mr. Valiant-For-Truth

 * I fought till my sword did cleave to my hand; and then they were joined together as if a sword grew out of my arm; and when the blood ran through my fingers, then I fought with most courage.
 * Part II, Ch. XI : Mr. Valiant-For-Truth

Let him come hither; One here will constant be, Come wind, come weather There’s no discouragement Shall make him once relent His first avow’d intent To be a pilgrim. Whoso beset him round With dismal stories, Do but themselves confound; His strength the more is. No lion can him fright, He’ll with a giant fight, But he will have a right To be a pilgrim. Hobgoblin nor foul fiend Can daunt his spirit; He knows he at the end Shall life inherit. Then, fancies, fly away, He’ll not fear what men say; He’ll labour night and day To be a pilgrim.''
 * ''He who would valiant be,
 * Part II, Ch. XI : Mr. Valiant-For-Truth

 * Then Mr. Honest called for his friends, and said unto them, I die, but shall make no will. As for my honesty, it shall go with me; let him that comes after be told of this. When the day that he was to be gone was come, he addressed himself to go over the river. Now the river at that time over-flowed its banks in some places; but Mr. Honest, in his lifetime, had spoken to one Good-conscience to meet him there, the which he also did, and lent him his hand, and so helped him over. The last words of Mr. Honest were, Grace reigns! So he left the world. After this it was noised abroad that Mr. Valiant-for-truth was taken with a summons by the same post as the other, and had this for a token that the summons was true, "That his pitcher was broken at the fountain." When he understood it, he called for his friends, and told them of it. Then said he, I am going to my Father’s; and though with great difficulty I have got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought His battles who will now be my rewarder. When the day that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him to the river-side, into which as he went, he said, "Death, where is thy sting?" And as he went down deeper, he said, "Grave, where is thy victory?" So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.
 * Part II, Ch. XIII

Quotes about John Bunyan

 * Bunyan... set about the composition of a book, which, under the title of "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners," gives, as he only could give it, the story of his life. This proved to be one of his most memorable compositions, and associates itself in one's mind with Augustine's confessions and the heart-utterances of Luther. ...This book, which in parts is weird and terrible as his own picture of the valley of the shadow of death, is yet in its alternations a faithful transcript of the writer's soul, and must be read in order to a right understanding of the man as he was, both in strength and weakness.
 * John Brown, John Bunyan His Life Times and Work (1885) p. 179-181.

 * What hath the devil, or his agents, gotten by putting our great gospel minister Bunyan in prison? For in prison he wrote many excellent books, that have published to the world his great grace, and great truth, and great judgment, and great ingenuity; and to instance in one, the "Pilgrim's Progress," he hath suited to the life of a traveller so exactly and pleasantly, and to the life of a Christian, that this very book, besides the rest, hath done the superstitious sort of men more good than if he had been let alone at his meeting at Bedford, to preach the gospel to his own auditory.
 * Charles Doe, The Struggler Life and Actions of John Bunyan (1692)

 * Bunyan was a true artist, though he knew nothing of the rules, and was not aware that he was an artist at all.
 * James Anthony Froude, "Bunyan" English Men of Letters (1880) Vol. VII, Ch. VII, p. 94.

Circumstances I should say, qualified Bunyan perfectly well for the work which he had to do. If he had gone to school, as he said, with Aristotle and Plato; if he had been broken in at a university and been turned into a bishop; if he had been in any one of the learned professions, he might easily have lost, or might have never known, the secret of his powers. He was born to be the Poet-apostle of the English middle classes, imperfectly educated like himself; and, being one of themselves, he had the key of their thoughts and feelings in his own heart. Like nine out of ten of his countrymen, he came into the world with no fortune but his industry. He had to work with his hands for his bread, and to advance by the side of his neighbours along the road of common business. His knowledge was scanty, though of rare quality. He knew his Bible probably by heart. He had studied history in Foxe's Martyrs, but nowhere else that we can trace. The rest of his mental furniture was gathered at first hand from his conscience, his life, and his occupations. Thus, every idea which he received falling into a soil naturally fertile, sprouted up fresh, vigorous, and original.
 * It has been the fashion to dwell on the disadvantages of his education, and to regret the carelessness of nature which brought into existence a man of genius in a tinker's but at . Nature is less partial than she appears, and all situations in life have their compensations along with them.
 * James Anthony Froude, "Bunyan" English Men of Letters (1880) Vol. VII, Ch. X, pp. 172-173.

 * Those who project total responsibility for their actions on heredity circumstances fail to see that numerous individuals rise above such circumstances. There is a John Bunyan, deprived of his physical sight, and yet he wrote a Pilgrim's Progress that generations will cherish so long as the cords of memory shall lengthen.
 * Martin Luther King Jr., in his sermon "Accepting responsibility for your actions" (26 July 1953)

 * Was not John Bunyan an extremist? — "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience". . . So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime — the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
 * Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)

 * When Bunyan entered upon ministerial duties, it was with the deepest anxiety; in proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ, his first effort was to fix upon his hearers the all-important truth, 'Ye must be born again.' This soon led him into controversy, in which he made marvellous discoveries of the state of society... Strangely absurd errors were promulgated, to conquer which, all the mighty energies of Bunyan's mind... were brought into active exercise. Limited in preaching to the few who were within the sound of his voice, and knowing that poisonous errors had extended throughout the kingdom, he sought the all-powerful aid of the press, and published several searching treatises before his imprisonment. Soon after this, he was called to suffer persecution as a Christian confessor, and then his voice was limited to the walls of his prison, excepting when, by the singular favour of his jailers, he was permitted to make stolen visits to his fellow-Christians. From the den in this jail issued works which have embalmed his memory in the richest fragrance in the churches of Christ, not only in his native land, but in nearly all the kingdoms of the world. Thus was the folly of persecution demonstrated, while the mad wrath of man promoted the very object which it intended to destroy.
 * George Offer, Preface, The Works of John Bunyan (1858) ed., George Offer, Vol. 1, Experimental, Doctrinal, and Practical, pp. v-vi.

 * Bunyan's name is now as much identified with British literature as that of Milton or of Shakespeare.
 * George Offer, Preface, The Works of John Bunyan (1858) ed., George Offer, Vol. 1, p. vi.

 * [I]n nearly all his works water-baptism is swallowed up in his earnest desire to win souls to Christ. All his effort is to fix attention upon that spiritual baptism which is essential to salvation, by which the soul passeth from death unto life, and from which springs good will to man, and glory to God.
 * George Offer, Preface, The Works of John Bunyan (1858) ed., George Offer, Vol. 1, p. vi.

 * Bunyan, although unlearned as to the arts and sciences of this world, was deeply versed in the mysteries of godliness, and the glories of the world to come. He was a most truthful, ingenious, persuasive, and invaluable writer upon the essentials of human happiness. To refuse his Scriptural instruction, because he was not versed in chemistry, mathematics, Greek, or Latin, would be to proclaim ourselves void of understanding.
 * George Offer, Preface, The Works of John Bunyan (1858) ed., George Offer, Vol. 1, Experimental, Doctrinal, and Practical, p. vii.

 * The case to which I wish to call attention is... that of the author of the Pilgrim's Progress. The principal document concerned is John Bunyan's remarkable confession, entitled Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, an autobiographical statement which Bunyan wrote... "for the support of the weak and tempted people of God." This little book... ranking... second only to the great Pilgrim's Progress itself. As a record of human experience, the Grace Abounding will never lose its charm, both for lovers of religious biography, and for admirers of honesty, of sincerity, and of simple pathos. Nothing that can be said as to the psychological significance... will ever detract from the worth of the book, even when viewed... as a "support" for the "weak and tempted."
 * Josiah Royce, "The Case of John Bunyan" in Studies of Good and Evil (1898) p. 30.

 * Bunyan... had at one time a decidedly heavy and morbid burden to bear. But, like many another nervous sufferer of the "strong type" (Koch's starker Typus), Bunyan carried this burden with heroic perseverance, and in the end won the mastery over it by a most instructive kind of self-discipline. In view of this fact, a clearer recognition of the nature of the burden, from the psychological point of view, rather helps than hinders our admiration for the author's genius, and our respect for his unconquerable manhood. It is this sort of case, in fact, that renders the study of the nervous disorders so frequently associated with genius, a pursuit adapted, in very many instances, not to cheapen our sense of the dignity of genius, but to heighten our reverence for the strength that could contend, as some men of genius have done, with their disorders, and that could conquer the nervous "Apollyon" on his own chosen battle-ground.
 * Josiah Royce, "The Case of John Bunyan" in Studies of Good and Evil (1898) pp. 30-31.

 * This is unquestionably a fairly typical case of a now often described mental disorder. The peculiarities of this special case lie largely in the powers of the genius who here suffered from the malady. A man of sensitive and probably somewhat burdened nervous constitution... is beset in childhood with frequent nocturnal and even diurnal terrors of a well-known sort. In youth, after an early marriage, under the strain of a life of poverty and of many religious anxieties, he develops elementary insistent dreads of a conscientious sort, and later a collection of habits of questioning and of doubt which... pass the limits of the normal. His general physical condition meanwhile failing, in a fashion that... appears to be of some neurasthenic type, there now appears a highly systematized mass of [painful] insistent motor-speech functions... accompanied with still more of the same fears, doubts, and questions. After [an] extended period, after one remission, and also after a decided change in the... insistent elements, the malady... rapidly approaches a dramatic crisis, which leaves the sufferer... in [an extended, but somewhat benign] condition of secondary melancholic depression... a depression from which, owing to a deep change of... mental habits, and [improved] physical condition, he... emerges cured, although with... his greatest enemy—systematized insistent impulses. This entire morbid experience has lasted some four years. Henceforth, under a skillful self-imposed mental regimen, this man, although always a prey to elementary insistent temptations and to fits of deep depression of mood, has no return of his more systematized disorders, and endures heavy burdens of work and of fortune with excellent success. Such is the psychological aspect of a story whose human and spiritual interest is and remains of the very highest.
 * Josiah Royce, "The Case of John Bunyan" in Studies of Good and Evil (1898) pp. 74-75.

 * The author of the Pilgrim's Progress has also left an autobiography... Grace Abounding, which is as remarkable from a psychological as from an historical point of view. This book is the best study for the origin and essence of Puritanism. It is a work which... has the significance for the seventeenth century that the Confessiones of St. Augustin have for the fifth, and the Confessions of Rousseau for the eighteenth. In these three books beats the full and living pulse of the times in which they were composed.
 * , A History of English Literature (1874) footnote, p. 126.

 * Some gentlemen abounding in their university erudition are apt to fill their sermons with philosophical terms and notions of the metaphysical or abstracted kind... I have been better entertained, and more informed, by a few pages in the Pilgrim's Progress, than by a long discourse upon the will and the intellect, and simple or complex ideas.
 * Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Young Clergyman, (Jan. 9, 1719-1720) as quoted in The works of Dr. Jonathan Swift (1768) p. 376.

 * The value of the "Grace Abounding,"... as a work of experimental religion may be easily overestimated. It is not many who can study Bunyan's minute history of the various stages of his spiritual life with real profit. To some temperaments, especially among the young, the book is more likely to prove injurious than beneficial; it is calculated rather to nourish morbid imaginations, and a dangerous habit of introspection, than to foster the quiet growth of the inner life. ...Only those... who have known by experience the force of Bunyan's spiritual combat, can fully appreciate and profit by Bunyan's narrative. He tells us... that it was written "for the support of the weak and tempted people of God." For such the "Grace Abounding to the chief of sinners" will ever prove most valuable. Those for whom it was intended will find in it a message of comfort and strength.
 * , Life of John Bunyan (1888) p. 130. Great Writers series.

title: John Bunyan


text:
Talk:David Lee Roth

/Archive 1

Deletion debate
This article was nominated for deletion, and the decision was keep following substantial revision by Cirt. The discussion can be seen here. BD2412 T 23:01, 26 December 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:David Lee Roth


text:
Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond (born 10 September 1937) is an American evolutionary biologist, physiologist, bio-geographer and nonfiction author. He is best known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Guns, Germs, and Steel (1997) and for Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005).

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (1991)

 * Put another way, the chimpanzees' closest relative is not the gorilla but humans.
 * The Third Chimpanzee (1991)

 * We have already discovered two species that are very intelligent but technically less advanced than us — the common chimpanzee and pygmy chimpanzee. Has our response been to sit down and try to communicate with them? Of course not. Instead we shoot them, stuff them, dissect them, cut off their hands for trophies, put them on exhibit in cages, inject them with AIDS virus as a medical experiment, and destroy or take over their habitat. That response was predictable, because human explorers who discovered technically less advanced humans also regularly responded by shooting them, decimating their populations with new diseases, and destroying or taking over their habitat. Any advanced extraterrestrials who discovered us would surely treat us in the same way...If there really are any radio civilizations within listening distance of us, then for heaven's sake let's turn off our own transmitters and try to escape detection, or we are doomed.
 * The Third Chimpanzee (1991)

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997)

 * Just as strawberries are adapted to birds, so acorns are adapted to squirrels, mangos to bats, and some sedges to ants. That fulfills part of our definition of plant domestication, as the genetic modification of an ancestral plant in ways that make it more useful to consumers. But no one would seriously describe this evolutionary process as domestication, because birds and bats and other animal consumers don't fulfill the other part of the definition: they don't consciously grow plants.
 * Chap. 7 : How to Make an Almond

 * White blood cells and other cells of ours actively seek out and kill foreign microbes. The specific antibodies that we gradually build up against a particular microbe infecting us make us less likely to get reinfected once we become cured. As we all know from experience, there are some illnesses, such as flu and the common cold, to which our resistance is only temporary; we can eventually contract the illness again. Against other illnesses, though—including measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, and the now defeated smallpox — our antibodies stimulated by one infection confer lifelong immunity. That's the principle of vaccination: to stimulate our antibody production without our having to go through the actual experience of the disease, by inoculating us with a dead or weakened strain of microbe.
 * Chap. 11 : Lethal Gift of Livestock

 * Technological advances seem to come disproportionately from a few very rare geniuses, such as Johannes Gutenberg, James Watt, Thomas Edison, and the Wright brothers. They were Europeans, or descendants of European emigrants to America. So were Archimedes and other rare geniuses of ancient times. Could such geniuses have equally well been born in Tasmania or Namibia? Does the history of technology depend on nothing more than accidents of the birthplaces of a few inventors?
 * Chap. 13 : Necessity's Mother

 * The infectious diseases that regularly visited crowded Eurasian societies, and to which many Eurasians consequently developed immune or genetic resistance, included all of history's most lethal killers: smallpox, measles, influenza, plague, tuberculosis, typhus, cholera, malaria, and others.
 * Chap. 18 : Hemispheres Colliding

 * Compressing 13,000 years of history on all continents into a 400-page book works out to an average of about one page per continent per 150 years, making brevity and simplification inevitable. Yet the compression brings a compensating benefit: long-term comparisons of regions yield insights that cannot be won from short-term studies of single societies.
 * Epilogue: The Future of Human History As a Science

 * The details of which candidate said what during a single televised debate in October 1960 could have given the electoral victory to Nixon instead of to Kennedy, but no details of who said what could have blocked the European conquest of Native Americans.
 * Epilogue: The Future of Human History As a Science

Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (1997)

 * All page numbers are from the trade paperback edition, ISBN 978-0-465-03126-9, 32nd printing

 * How can we explain simultaneously this general pattern of female parental care and also its numerous exceptions? The answer comes from the realization that genes for behavior, as well as for malaria resistance and teeth, are subject to natural selection.
 * Chapter 2, “The Battle of the Sexes” (p. 16)

 * In particular, while natural selection favors both males and females that leave many offspring, the best strategy for doing so may be different for fathers and mothers. That generates a built-in conflict between the parents, a conclusion that all too many humans don’t need scientists to reveal to them. We make jokes about the battle of the sexes, but the battle is neither a joke nor an aberrant accident of how individual fathers or mothers behave on particular occasions. It is indeed perfectly true that behavior that is in a male’s genetic interests may not necessarily be in the interests of his female co-parent, and vice versa. That cruel fact is one of the fundamental causes of human misery.
 * Chapter 2, “The Battle of the Sexes” (pp. 18-19)

 * Though seemingly remote from human sexuality, shorebird sexuality is instructive because it illustrates the main message of this book: a species’ sexuality is molded by other aspects of the species’ biology. It’s easier for us to acknowledge this conclusion about shorebirds, to which we don’t apply moral standards, than about ourselves.
 * Chapter 2, “The Battle of the Sexes” (p. 29)

 * Our sex is ultimately laid down by our genes.
 * Chapter 3, “Why Don’t Men Breast-feed Their Babies?” (p. 43)

 * Perhaps our greatest distinction as a species is our capacity, unique among animals, to make counter-evolutionary choices.
 * Chapter 3, “Why Don’t Men Breast-feed Their Babies?” (p. 62)

 * Behavior evolves through natural selection, just as anatomy does. Hence if sex is enjoyable, natural selection must have been responsible for that outcome.
 * Chapter 4, “Wrong Time for Love” (p. 66)

 * Physiologists and molecular biologists regularly fall into the trap of overlooking this distinction, which is fundamental to biology, history, and human behavior. Physiology and molecular biology can do no more than identify proximate mechanisms; only evolutionary biology can provide ultimate causal explanations.
 * Chapter 6, “Making More by Making Less” (pp. 108-109)

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)

 * History, as well as life itself, is complicated; neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency.
 * Page 349

 * People often ask, "What is the single most important environmental/population problem facing the world today?" A flip answer would be, "The single most important problem is our misguided focus on identifying the single most important problem!"
 * Page 498

 * Two types of choices seem to me to have been crucial in tipping their outcomes towards success or failure: long-term planning, and willingness to reconsider core values. On reflection, we can also recognize the crucial role of these same two choices for the outcomes of our individual lives.
 * On the fates of past societies facing problems of sustainability, page 522

 * [..] the values to which people cling most stubbornly under inappropriate conditions are those values that were previously the source of their greatest triumphs.
 * Cited by Tim Flannery, "Learning from the past to change our future", Science, volume 307, 7 January 2005, page 45.

 * Religious values tend to be especially deeply held and hence frequent cause of disastrous behaviour. [...] The modern world provides us with abundant secular examples of admirable values to which we cling under conditions where those values no longer make sense [...] It appears to me that much of the rigid opposition to environmental concerns in the First World nowadays involves values acquired early in life and never again reexamined [...].
 * Chapter "Why do some societies make disastrous decisions", section "Disastrous values" (Penguin Books, 2011, pages 432-433, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * My views may seem to ignore a moral imperative that businesses should follow virtuous principles, whether or not it is most profitable for them to do so. Instead I prefer to recognize that, throughout human history, [...] government regulation has arisen precisely because it was found to be necessary for the enforcement of moral principles. Invocation of moral principles is a necessary first step for eliciting virtuous behavior, but that alone is not a sufficient step.
 * Chapter "Big businesses and the environment: different conditions, different outcomes", section "Businesses and the public" (Penguin Books, 2011, pages 484-485, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * Businesses have changed when the public came to expect and require different behavior, to reward businesses for behavior that the public wanted, and to make things difficult for businesses practising behaviors that the public didn't want. I predict that in the future, just as in the past, changes in public attitudes will be essential for changes in businesses' environmental practices.
 * Chapter "Big businesses and the environment: different conditions, different outcomes", section "Businesses and the public" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 485, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * Those numbers may not sound like a big deal until one reflects that average global temperatures were "only" 5 degrees cooler at the height of the last Ice Age.
 * About global warming. Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "The most serious problems" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 493, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * Thus, because we are rapidly advancing along this non-sustainable course, the world's environmental problems will get resolved, in one way or another, within the lifetimes of the children and young adults alive today The only question is whether they will become resolved in pleasant ways of our own choice, or in unpleasant ways not of our choice, such as warfare, genocide, starvation, disease epidemics, and collapses of societies. While all of those grim phenomena have been endemic to humanity throughout our history, their frequency increases with environmental degradation, population pressure, and the resulting poverty and political instability.
 * Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "If we don't solve them..." (Penguin Books, 2011, page 498, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * "The environment has to be balanced against the economy." This quote portrays environmental concerns as a luxury, views measures to solve environmental problems as incurring a net cost, and considers leaving environmental problems unsolved to be a money-saving device. This one-liner puts the truth exactly backwards. Environmental messes cost us huge sums of money both in the short run and in the long run; cleaning up or preventing those messes saves us huge sums in the long run, and often in the short run as well. In caring for the health of our surroundings, just as of our bodies, it is cheaper and preferable to avoid getting sick than to try to cure illnesses after they have developed.
 * Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "One-liner objections" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 503, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * In fact, one of the main lesson to be learned from the collapses of the Maya, Anasazi, Easter Islanders, and those other past societies (as well as from the recent collapse of the Soviet Union) is that a society's steep decline may begin only a decade or two after the society reaches its peak numbers, wealth, and power. [...] The reason is simple: maximum population, wealth, resource consumption, and waste production mean maximum environmental impact, approaching the limit where impact outstrips resources. On reflection, it's no surprise that declines of societies tend to follow swiftly on their peaks.
 * Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "One-liner objections" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 509, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * If the Easter Islanders couldn't solve their milder local problems in the past, how can the modern world hope to solve its big global problems? People who get depressed at such thoughts often then ask me, “Jared, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the world’s future?” I answer, “I am a cautious optimist.” By that, I mean that, on the one hand, I acknowledge the seriousness of the problems facing us. If we don’t make a determined effort to solve them, and if we don’t succeed at that effort, the world as a whole within the next few decades will face a declining standard of living, or perhaps something worse. That’s the reason why I decided to devote most of my career efforts at this stage of my life to convincing people that our problems have to be taken seriously and won’t go away otherwise. On the other hand, we shall be able to solve our problems – if we choose to do so.
 * Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "Reasons for hope" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 521, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * Because we are the cause of our environmental problems, we are the ones in control of them, and we can choose or not choose to stop causing them and start solving them. The future is up for grabs, lying in our own hands. We don’t need new technologies to solve our problems; while new technologies can make some contribution, for the most part we "just" need the political will to apply solutions already available.
 * Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "Reasons for hope" (Penguin Books, 2011, pages 521-522, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * What are the choices that we must make if we are now to succeed, and not to fail? [...] Two types of choices seem to me to have been crucial to tipping their outcomes towards success or failure: long-term planning, and willingness to reconsider core values. On reflection, we can also recognize the crucial role of these same two choices for the outcomes of our individual lives. One of those choices has depended on the courage to practice long-term thinking, and to make bold, courageous, anticipatory decisions at a time when problems have become perceptible but before they have reached crisis proportions. [...] The other crucial choice illuminated by the past involves the courage to make painful decisions about values. Which of the values that formerly served a society well can continue to be maintained under new changed circumstances? Which of these treasured values must instead be jettisoned and replaced with different approaches?
 * Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "Reasons for hope" (Penguin Books, 2011, pages 522-523, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * Remember that impact is the product of two factors: population multiplied times impact per person.
 * Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "Reasons for hope" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 524, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

 * My hope in writing this book has been that enough people will choose to profit from that opportunity to make a difference.
 * Chapter "The world as a polder: what does it all mean to us today?", section "Reasons for hope" (Penguin Books, 2011, page 525, ISBN 978-0-241-95868-1.

The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? (2012)

 * As we shall see in this book's chapters, traditional societies are far more diverse in many of their cultural practices than are modern industrial societies. [...] Yet psychologists base most of their generalizations about human nature on studies of our own narrow and atypical slice of human diversity. [...] That is, as social scientists Joseph Henrich, Steven Heine, and Ara Norenzayan express it, most of our understanding of human psychology is based on subjects who may be described by the acronym WEIRD: from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic societies. [...] Hence if we wish to generalize about human nature, we need to broaden greatly our study sample from the usual WEIRD subjects [...] to the whole range of traditional societies.
 * Prologue, section "Why study traditional societies?"

 * Perhaps we could benefit by selectively adopting some of those traditional practices. Some of us already do so, with demonstrated benefits to our health and happiness. In some respects we moderns are misfits; our bodies and our practices now face conditions different from those under which they evolved, and to which they became adapted. But we should also not go to the opposite extreme of romanticizing the past and longing for simpler times. Many traditional practices are ones that we can consider ourselves blessed to have discarded — such as infanticide, abandoning or killing elderly people, facing periodic risk of starvation, being at heightened risk from environmental dangers and infectious diseases, often seeing one’s children die, and living in constant fear of being attacked. Traditional societies may not only suggest to us some better living practices, but may also help us appreciate some advantages of our own society that we take for granted.
 * Prologue, section "Why study traditional societies?"

 * The societies to which most readers of this book belong represent a narrow slice of human cultural diversity. Societies from that slice achieved world dominance not because of a general superiority, but for specific reasons: their technological, political, and military advantages derived from their early origins of agriculture, due in turn to their productive local wild domesticable plant and animal species. Despite those particular advantages, modern industrial societies didn’t also develop superior approaches to raising children, treating the elderly, settling disputes, avoiding non-communicable diseases, and other societal problems. Thousands of traditional societies developed a wide array of different approaches to those problems.
 * Epilogue

Upheaval: How Nations Cope with Crisis and Change (2019)

 * The central principle of Fritz Bauer's career was that Germans should hold judgement upon themselves. That meant prosecuting ordinary Germans, not just the leaders whom the Allies had prosecuted. [...] The Nazi defendants being prosecuted by Bauer all tended to offer the same set of excuses [...]. Bauer's response, which he formulated again and again at the trials and in public, was as follows. Those Germans whom he was prosecuting were committing crimes against humanity. The laws of the Nazi state were illegitimate. One cannot defend one's actions by saying that one was obeying those laws. There is no law that can justify a crime against humanity. Everybody must have his own sense of right and wrong and must obey it, independently of what a state government says. Anyone who takes part in what Bauer called a murder machine [...] thereby becomes guilty of a crime.
 * Jared Diamond, , 2019, page 226-228 (ISBN 978-0-141-97778-2).

Quotes about Jared Diamond

 * Guns, Germs, and Steel pushed geography as an academic discipline into the debates of economic historians in much the same way that Graeber intends for anthropology.

title: Jared Diamond