text:
Robinson Jeffers

John Robinson Jeffers (10 January 1887 – 20 January 1962) was an American poet, whose poetry often presented monist perspectives, transcending personal and particular concerns of human beings, which he eventually labelled as stances of a naturalistic "inhumanism" that he believed was necessary to transcend and diminish many forms of social strife and corruption.

Quotes

A mighty mountain swept o'er by the bleak Keen winds of heaven'''; and, standing on that peak Above the blinding clouds of prejudice, '''Would we could see all truly as it is; The calm eternal truth would keep us meek.'''
 * '''O that our souls could scale a height like this,
 * A Hill-Top View (1904); This is one of his earliest poems, printed in the Aurora, a student publication of Occidental College.

The ocean swelled for a far storm and beat its boundary, the ground-swell shook the beds of granite. I gazing at the boundaries of granite and spray, the established sea-marks, felt behind me Mountain and plain, the immense breadth of the continent, before me the mass and double stretch of water.
 * At the equinox when the earth was veiled in a late rain, wreathed with wet poppies, waiting spring
 * "Continent's End" in Tamar and Other Poems (1924)

You were much younger when we crawled out of the womb and lay in the sun’s eye on the tideline. It was long and long ago; we have grown proud since then and you have grown bitter'''; life retains Your mobile soft unquiet strength; and envies hardness, the insolent quietness of stone.
 * '''The long migrations meet across you and it is nothing to you, you have forgotten us, mother.
 * "Continent's End" in Tamar and Other Poems (1924)

Older and harder than life and more impartial, the eye that watched before there was an ocean.'''
 * '''The tides are in our veins, we still mirror the stars, life is your child, but there is in me
 * "Continent's End" in Tamar and Other Poems (1924)

Before there was any water there were tides of fire, both our tones flow from the older fountain.
 * Mother, though my song's measure is like your surf-beat's ancient rhythm I never learned it of you.
 * "Continent's End" in Tamar and Other Poems (1924)

Challengers of oblivion Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock splits, records fall down, The square-limbed Roman letters Scale in the thaws, wear in the rain.
 * Stone-cutters fighting time with marble, you fore-defeated
 * "To The Stone-Cutters" in Tamar and Other Poems (1924)

they have had what they wanted
 * Happy people die whole, they are all dissolved in a moment,
 * "Post Mortem" in The Women at Point Sur (1927)

Cries to the power that moves the stars, "I have come home to myself, behold me. I bruised myself in the flint mortar and burnt me In the red shell, I tortured myself, I flew forth, Stood naked of myself and broke me in fragments, And here am I moving the stars that are me." '''I have seen these ways of God: I know of no reason For fire and change and torture and the old returnings.'''
 * He takes it in the naked ecstasy; it breaks in his hand, the atom is broken, the power that massed it
 * "Apology for Bad Dreams" in The Women at Point Sur (1927)

I think it is our privilege and felicity to love God for his beauty, without claiming or expecting love from him. We are not important to him, but he to us.
 * I believe that the Universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. (This is physics, I believe, as well as religion.) The parts change and pass, or die, people and races and rocks and stars, none of them seems to me important in itself, but only the whole. This whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine. It seems to me that this whole alone is worthy of the deeper sort of love and there is peace, freedom, I might say a kind of salvation, in turning one's affections outward toward this one God, rather than inwards on one's self, or on humanity, or on human imaginations and abstractions — the world of spirits.
 * Letter to Sister Mary James Power (1 October 1934); published in The Wild God of the World : An Anthology of Robinson Jeffers (2003), edited by Albert Gelpi, p. 189; also partly quoted in the essay "Robinson Jeffers, Pantheist Poet" by John Courtney

(An office of tragic poetry is to show that there is beauty in pain and failure as much as in success and happiness.)
 * I think that one may contribute (ever so slightly) to the beauty of things by making one's own life and environment beautiful, as far as one's power reaches.This includes moral beauty, one of the qualities of humanity, though it seems not to appear elsewhere in the universe. But I would have each person realize that his contribution is not important, its success not really a matter for exultation nor its failure for mourning; the beauty of things is sufficient without him.
 * Letter to Sister Mary James Power (1 October 1934); published in The Wild God of the World : An Anthology of Robinson Jeffers (2003), edited by Albert Gelpi, p. 189 - 190

'''Oh pale and brittle pencils ever to try One grass-blade's curve, or the throat of one bird That clings to twig, ruffled against white sky.''' Oh cracked and twilight mirrors ever to catch One color, one glinting flash, of the splendor of things.
 * I hate my verses, every line, every word.
 * "Love the Wild Swan" (1935)

Better bullets than yours would miss the white breast Better mirrors than yours would crack in the flame. Does it matter whether you hate your. . . self? '''At least Love your eyes that can see, your mind that can Hear the music, the thunder of the wings. Love the wild swan. '''
 * This wild swan of a world is no hunter's game.
 * "Love the Wild Swan" (1935)

Many high tragic thoughts Watch their own eyes.
 * Here is a symbol in which
 * "Rock and Hawk" in Solstice and Other Poems (1935)

To hang in the future sky;''' Not the cross, not the hive, But this; bright power, dark peace; '''Fierce consciousness joined with final Disinterestedness; Life with calm death; the falcon’s Realist eyes and act Married to the massive Mysticism of stone, Which failure cannot cast down Nor success make proud.'''
 * '''I think, here is your emblem
 * "Rock and Hawk" in Solstice and Other Poems (1935)

To know that great civilizations have broken down into violence, and their tyrants come, many times before. '''When open violence appears, to avoid it with honor or choose the least ugly faction; these evils are essential. To keep one's own integrity, be merciful and uncorrupted and not wish for evil; and not be duped By dreams of universal justice or happiness. These dreams will not be fulfilled. '''
 * Then what is the answer? — Not to be deluded by dreams.
 * "The Answer" (1936)

the whole remains beautiful.''' A severed hand Is an ugly thing and man dissevered from the earth and stars and his history... for contemplation or in fact... Often appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness, the greatest beauty is Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe. '''Love that, not man Apart from that, or else you will share man's pitiful confusions, or drown in despair when his days darken.'''
 * '''Know that however ugly the parts appear
 * "The Answer" (1936)

 * There is no reason for amazement: surely one always knew that cultures decay, and life's end is death.
 * "The Purse-Seine" (1937)

 * You ask what I am for and what I am against in Spain. I would give my right hand of course to prevent the agony; I would not give a flick of my little finger to help either side win.
 * Response in a pamphlet Writers Take Sides : Letters About the War in Spain from 418 American Authors  (1938) by the American Writers League, which asked various authors: "Are you for or are you against Franco and fascism?".

The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel, formerly used to kill men, but here In the sense of a symbol.'''
 * '''Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
 * "Contemplation of The Sword" (1938)

stars, but also the cruelty and greed, the treacheries And vileness, insanities and filth and anguish: now that this thing comes near us again I am finding it hard To praise you with a whole heart.
 * Dear God, who are the whole splendor of things and the sacred
 * "Contemplation of The Sword" (1938)

to make earth.
 * I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots
 * "Shine, Perishing Republic" (1939)

shine, perishing republic.'''
 * '''Meteors are not needed less than mountains:
 * "Shine, Perishing Republic" (1939)

 * Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.
 * "Shine, Perishing Republic" (1939)

insufferable master. There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught — they say — God, when he walked on earth.'''
 * '''And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant,
 * "Shine, Perishing Republic" (1939)

And bound to be worse before it mends'''; Better lie up in the mountain here Four or five centuries, While the stars go over the lonely ocean...
 * '''The world's in a bad way, my man,
 * "The Stars Go Over The Lonely Ocean" (1940)

And the dogs that talk revolution''', Drunk with talk, liars and believers. ''' I believe in my tusks. Long live freedom and damn the ideologies.'''
 * '''Keep clear of the dupes that talk democracy
 * "The Stars Go Over The Lonely Ocean" (1940)

Is nothing new. That America must accept Like the historical republics corruption and empire Has been known for years. '''Be angry at the sun for setting If these things anger you.'''
 * That public men publish falsehoods
 * "Be Angry At The Sun" (1941)

Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth Hunts in no pack.'''
 * '''The gang serves lies, the passionate
 * "Be Angry At The Sun" (1941)

 * The first part of "The Double Axe" was written during the war and finished a year before the war ended, and it bears the scars; but the poem is not primarily concerned with that grim folly. Its burden, as of some previous work of mine, is to present a philosophical attitude, which might be called Inhumanism, a shifting of emphasis and significance from man to not-man; the rejection of human solipsism and recognition of the transhuman magnificence. It seems time that our race began to think as an adult does, rather than like an egocentric baby or insane person. This manner of thought and feeling is neither misanthropic nor pessimist, though two or three people have said so and may again. It involves no falsehoods, and is a means of maintaining sanity in slippery times; it has objective truth and human value. It offers a reasonable detachment as rule of conduct, instead of love, hate and envy. It neutralizes fanaticism and wild hopes; but it provides magnificence for the religious instinct, and satisfies our need to admire greatness and rejoice in beauty.
 * Preface to The Double Axe and Other Poems (1948)

I was continually writing verses in those days. Nobody, not even I myself, thought they were good verses; but Aurora's editor accepted many of them and it gave me pleasure to see my rhymes in print. They did rhyme, if that is any value, and were usually metrical, but why was I so eager to publish what hardly anyone would read and no one would remember? '''I suppose the desire for publication is a normal part of the instinct for writing... the writer sits at home, and the mere fact of being printed provides his verses with a kind of audience... So, having his vanity partially satisfied, he can go ahead and try better work.'''
 * When I first went to Occidental College... there was a literary magazine...called the Aurora, and I remember thinking it odd that Occidental — the west, the setting sun — should be represented by a magazine called Aurora, the dawn. At least it gave us a wide range, the whole daylight sky.
 * Letter to a group of Occidental College students (1955)

Tall dreary men lying on the hills all night Watching the stars, let their dogs watch the sheep.''' And I'll have lunatics For my poets, strolling from farm to farm, wild liars distorting The country news into supernaturalism — For all men to such minds are devils or gods — and that increases Man's dignity, man's importance, necessary lies Best told by fools.
 * '''I will have shepherds for my philosophers,
 * "The Silent Shepherds" (1958)

Run parallel to reality, they symbolize it, they squint at it, They never touch it''': consider what an explosion Would rock the bones of men into little white fragments and unsky the world If any mind for a moment touch truth.'''
 * '''Science and mathematics
 * "The Silent Shepherds" (1958)

Dante's Florence, no anthropoid God Making commandments: this is the God who does not care and will never cease.''' Look at the seas there Flashing against this rock in the darkness — look at the tide-stream stars — and the fall of nations — and dawn Wandering with wet white feet down the Carmel Valley to meet the sea. These are real and we see their beauty. The great explosion is probably only a metaphor — I know not — of faceless violence, the root of all things.
 * '''He is no God of love, no justice of a little city like
 * "The Great Explosion" in the posthumous publication The Beginning and the End (1973)

 * Come little ones, You are worth no more than the foxes and yellow wolfkins, yet I will give you wisdom. O future children: Trouble is coming; the world as of the present time Sails on its rocks; but you will be born and live Afterwards. Also a day will come when the earth Will scratch herself and smile and rub off humanity: But you will be born before that. Time will come, no doubt, When the sun too shall die; the planets will freeze, and the air on them; frozen gases, white flasks of air Will be dust: which no wind ever will stir: this very dust in dim starlight glistening Is dead wind, the white corpse of wind. Also the galaxy will die; the glitter of the Milky Way, our universe, all the stars that have names are dead. Vast is the night. How you have grown, dear night, walking your empty halls, how tall!
 * The Double Axe and Other Poems, including eleven suppressed poems (1977) II.The Inhumanist XLV

 * Poetry is bound to concern itself chiefly with permanent aspects of life.
 * As quoted in Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century (1981) edited by Leonard S. Klein, Vol. 2, p. 504

 *  I decided not to tell lies in verse. Not to feign any emotions that I did not feel.
 * The Selected Poems of Robinson Jeffers, Stanford University Press (2001) ISBN 978-0804738903

One thinks there were the ages of stone and the age of bronze And the iron age; iron the unstable metal; Steel made of iron, unstable as his mother; the towered-up cities Will be stains of rust on mounds of plaster. Roots will not pierce the heaps for a time, kind rains will cure them, Then nothing will remain of the iron age And all these people but a thigh-bone or so, a poem Stuck in the world's thought, splinters of glass In the rubbish dumps, a concrete dam far off in the mountain...
 * When the sun shouts and people abound
 * "Summer Holiday"

This beautiful place defaced with a crop of suburban houses — How beautiful when we first beheld it, Unbroken field of poppy and lupin walled with clean cliffs; No intrusion but two or three horses pasturing...
 * The extraordinary patience of things!
 * "Carmel Point"

Not faintly. It has all time. It knows the people are a tide That swells and in time will ebb, and all Their works dissolve.''' Meanwhile the image of the pristine beauty Lives in the very grain of the granite, Safe as the endless ocean that climbs our cliff. — As for us: '''We must uncenter our minds from ourselves; We must unhumanize our views a little, and become confident As the rock and ocean that we were made from.'''
 * '''Now the spoiler has come: does it care?
 * "Carmel Point"

We built our house when I and my love were young.'''
 * '''Against the outcrop boulders of a raised beach
 * "The Last Conservative"

But the place was maiden, no previous Building, no neighbors, nothing but the elements, Rock, wind, and sea; in moon-struck nights the mountain Coyotes howled in our dooryard; or doe and fawn Stared in the lamplit window, We raised two boys here '''All that we saw or heard was beautiful And hardly human.''' Oh heavy change. The world deteriorates like a rotting apple, worms and a skin. They have built streets around us, new houses Line them and cars obsess them — and my dearest has died. The ocean at least is not changed at all, Cold, grim, and faithful; and I still keep a hard edge of forest Haunted by long gray squirrels and hoarse herons.
 * The rock-cheeks have red fire-stains.
 * "The Last Conservative"

Perhaps of my planted forest a few May stand yet''', dark-leaved Australians or the coast cypress, haggard With storm-drift; but fire and the axe are devils. '''Look for foundations of sea-worn granite, my fingers had the art To make stone love stone, you will find some remnant.''' But if you should look in your idleness after ten thousand years: It is the granite knoll on the granite And lava tongue in the midst of the bay, by the mouth of the Carmel River Valley; these four will remain In the changes of names. You will know it by the wild sea-fragrance of the wind.
 * '''If you should look for this place after a handful of lifetimes:
 * "Tor House"

plunging like dolphins through the blue sea-smoke Into pale sea — look west at the hill of water: it is half the planet: this dome, this half-globe, this bulging Eyeball of water, arched over to Asia, Australia and white Antarctica: those are the eyelids that never close; ''' this is the staring unsleeping Eye of the earth; and what it watches is not our wars.'''
 * Here from this mountain shore, headland beyond stormy headland
 * "The Eye"

Quotes about Jeffers

 * Alphabetized by author

 * His spiritual insights were in three major areas: First, he has inspired mankind to see the world anew as the ultimate reality. Second, he perceived and described the physical universe itself as immanently divine. And finally, he challenged us to accept the ultimate demands of modern science which assign humanity no real or ultimate importance in the universe while also aspiring us to lives of spiritual celebration attuned to the awe, beauty and wonder about us.
 * John Courtney, Vice-President, of the Tor House Foundation, in "Robinson Jeffers - Pantheist poet"

 * Robinson Jeffers was no scientist, but he expressed better than any other poet the scientist's vision. Ironic, detached, contemptuous like Einstein of national pride and cultural taboos, he stood in awe of nature alone.
 * Freeman Dyson, The Scientist As Rebel (2006)

I felt in his presence almost as if I stood before another and nobler species of man whose moods and ways would remain as inscrutable to me as the ways of the invading Cro-Magnon man would have seemed dark to the vanishing Neanderthals. In later and more mature years I have met cleverer vocalizers and more ingenious intellects, but I have never again encountered a man who, in one brief meeting, left me with so strong an impression that I had been speaking with someone out of time, an oracle who would presently withdraw among the nearby stones and pinewood. Jeffers had always been different from others, but in Carmel something happened that exaggerated the differences. What was the source of the lightning that struck him? Whatever it was, it came from a cloud that settled over him soon after he moved to Carmel. … Something utterly wild had crept into his mind and marked his features. I cannot imagine him as having arisen unchanged in another countryside. '''The sea-beaten coast, the fierce freedom of its hunting hawks, possessed and spoke through him. It was one of the most uncanny and compete relationships between a man and his natural background that I know in literature.'''
 * I met and spoke with Robinson Jeffers on the road beyond his door. The circumstances have long faded from my mind except for the haunting presence of his features, lined and immobile as a Greek mask. I have also a rough memory that he spoke casually and without heat, of being called for jury duty in a homicide case, and having been rejected by the defense because of the cruelty of his countenance. The eyes looked at me as he spoke, not with amusement, but with the remote, almost inhuman animal contemplation that marks his work and that very obviously had aroused the mistaken animus of the defense counsel.
 * Loren Eiseley, in an essay in the Sierra Club Bulletin (1965) as quoted in Not Man Apart : Lines from Robinson Jeffers (1974) by David Ross Brower, p. 146; also in Robinson Jeffers : Poet of California (1995), p. 32, and Yuga : An Anatomy of Our Fate (2005) by Marty Glass, p. 239

 * Jeffers was a very strange man and poet, with an enormous component of cruelty and violence in his work. He had incredible sympathy with animals. He could give you an animal in a word or two like very few poets can. I think he honestly felt them, even though he often perceives them through violence. I can't explain Jeffers, he has always awed and annoyed me. I'm grateful to him as one of my predecessors writing about California. Even as a teenager, I knew he had California right. The poem that most reveals Jeffers's self-hatred is the one about the cavemen who torment a mammoth to death. They trap it and roast it alive. He's full of this kind of disgust for humanity. Yet he soars out into a great vision; never a happy vision, but a great vision. He's a difficult case when you're talking about animals.
 * 1994 interview in Conversations with Ursula Le Guin

 * The sheer magnificence and vastness of the coastal environment — an epitome of the true wilderness of the world — stood as a reminder that all human life is a mere flicker within something unimaginably greater. Jeffer's western wilderness was a key to perceiving the essential wildness of the universe as a whole, in which human personality is only something like a lichen on a rock. No tall heroics for Jeffers.
 * Thomas J. Lyon, as quoted in The Oxbow Man : A Biography of Walter Van Tilburg Clark (2006) by Jackson J. Benson, p. 77

 * I knew all the poets-their poems-when I was quite young. (Who were your favorites?) G.P.: I loved Robinson Jeffers. I loved Auden, I loved H.D.
 * 1981 interview in Conversations with Grace Paley edited by Gerhard Bach & Blaine Hall (2013)

 * Perhaps the earliest one that I remember is Robinson Jeffers, who of course was not an Indian poet. But some of the first published poetry I was ever exposed to was his and that was important to me, and I think it was my first sense of being able to think in terms of putting a poet in a landscape that's familiar, because the area that he was writing about was where I grew up-the northern California and central California coast. That was an early influence.
 * Wendy Rose interview in Survival This Way: Interviews with American Indian Poets by Joseph Bruchac (1987)

 * To Robinson Jeffers the earth was hopelessly prostrate.
 * Louis Untermeyer, in A Concise Treasury of Great Poems p. 476

title: Robinson Jeffers


text:
Spiro Agnew

Spiro Theodore Agnew (9 November 1918 – 17 September 1996) was the thirty-ninth vice president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1973. He is the second of two vice presidents to resign the position, the first being John C. Calhoun in 1832. He served with President Richard Nixon.

Quotes

 * Perhaps the place to start looking for a credibility gap is not in the offices of the Government in Washington but in the studios of the networks in New York!
 * From speech delivered November 13, 1969 in Des Moines, Iowa

 * A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.
 * Denouncing Moratorium Day protest against Vietnam War; in The New York Times (October 20, 1969)

 * In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism.
 * Speech in San Diego (September 11, 1970).
 * Agnew's signature quip against everything perceived to be liberal, particularly the media at that time.

 * This is the criminal left that belongs not in a dormitory, but in a penitentiary. The criminal left is not a problem to be solved by the Department of Philosophy or the Department of English—it is a problem for the Department of Justice…. Black or white, the criminal left is interested in power. It is not interested in promoting the renewal and reforms that make democracy work; it is interested in promoting those collisions and conflict that tear democracy apart.
 * Speech at a Florida Republican dinner, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (April 28, 1970); reported in Collected Speeches of Spiro Agnew (1971), p. 135.

 * Your highness is already familiar with the unrelenting Zionist efforts to destroy me.
 * Zionists in the United States knew that I would never agree to the continuance of the unfair and disastrous favoring of Israel and they had to get me out of office there so that I would not succeed Nixon.
 * The Zionists have orchestrated a well-organized attack on me ... to bleed me of my resources to continue my effort to inform the American people of their control of the media and other influential sectors of American society
 * 1980 letter to Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, crown prince of Saudi Arabia, later revealed February 22, 2019

Quotes about Agnew

 * It seems that Spiro Agnew was speaking tonight at a fund-raising dinner in Maryland, where he said, "Republicans should work for adoption of environmental programs, welfare and revenue-sharing and most importantly, we have to keep Bella Abzug from showing up in Congress in hot pants." The UPI reporter asked me to comment. "I have no intention of wearing hot pants in Congress," I said, "because they are not my style-any more than Mr. Agnew is. Besides, before long-and at least by 1972-I expect hot pants will disappear from the national scene, along with Mr. Agnew and Mr. Nixon"...Everybody's kidding me about Agnew's remark, which I guess is funny in a stupid way. I really can't get angry. Some guys would like to dismiss me with silly comments about my hats or my four-letter words or my figure. Maybe they think that by dwelling on aspects of my flamboyant character...., they can divert attention from the things I really dwell on such as child care, repeal of the draft and an end to the war.
 * Bella Abzug Bella!: Ms. Abzug Goes to Washington (1972)

 * Boy! They're (MAD Magazine) really sockin' it to that Spiro Agnew guy again, he must work there or something.
 * Milhouse Van Houten, The Simpsons.
 * As a veteran, and one who feels this anger, I’d like to talk about it. We’re angry because we feel we have been used in the worst fashion by the Administration of this country. In 1970 at West Point, Vice President Agnew said: "Some glamorize the criminal misfits of society while our best men die in Asian rice paddies to preserve the freedoms which those misfits abuse." And this was used as a rallying point for our effort in Vietnam. But for us, his boys in Asia whom the country was supposed to support, his statement is a terrible distortion from which we can only draw a very deep sense of revulsion; and hence the anger of some of the men who are here in Washington today.
 * John Kerry, Statement Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered 22 April 1971, Washington, D.C.
 * Given Rockefeller's popularity, Nixon-Rockefeller would have been a dream ticket. Even if Rockefeller wouldn't accept the number-two spot, New York major John Lindsay, a handsome, well-liked liberal who had helped right the Kerner Commission report on racial violence, had made it clear that he was eager to run as Nixon's vice president. Conservative Nixon with liberal Lindsay would have brought to the Republican Party the full spectrum of American politics. Instead Nixon turned to the Right, picking a little-known and not much loved archconservative, with views, especially on race and law and order, that were so reactionary that to many he seemed an outright bigot.
 * Mark Kurlansky, 1968: The Year that Rocked the World (2004), ISBN 0-345-45581-9

 * None of this, of course, was as damaging to the Greek-American political self-image as Spiro Agnew's resignation from the vice presidency in 1973 amid charges of illegal financial dealings while in office in Maryland. Although Agnew's ties to the Greek community were tenuous at best, he did represent the cultural conservatism of most Greek Americans. Agnew's fall from grace was a particular shame to the Greek-American community.
 * Peter C. Moskos, Greek Americans: Struggle and Success (2013)

 * Sing a song of Spiro Agnew and all the things he has done. (No other lyrics)
 * Tom Paxton

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

title: Spiro Agnew


text:
Charles Colson

Charles Wendell "Chuck" Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012) was the chief counsel for President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973, during which he organized the burglary of a psychiatrist's office that developed into the Watergate scandal. After being convicted of obstruction of justice he went on to serve a seven-month prison term. While in prison he converted to Christianity and he emerged as a public speaker, author, founder of Prison Fellowship, and chairman of the Wilberforce Forum.

Quotes about

 * " You know Colson had that sign on the wall in his office saying ONCE YOU HAVE THEM BY THE BALLS, THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS WILL FOLLOW.", a quote by Teddy Roosevelt
 * Hunter S. Thompson, The Great Shark Hunt, Fear and Loathing at the Watergate: Mr Nixon Has Cashed His Check, p. 260

title: Charles Colson


text:
Dag Hammarskjöld

Dag Hammarskjöld (29 July 1905 – 18 September 1961) was a Swedish diplomat, the second United Nations Secretary-General, and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. He oversaw U.N. responses to Cold War crises, the decolonization of Africa, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He was killed in a plane crash while attempting to mediate the Congo Crisis.

Quotes

 * Our work for peace must begin within the private world of each one of us. To build for man a world without fear, we must be without fear. To build a world of justice, we must be just. And how can we fight for liberty if we are not free in our own minds? How can we ask others to sacrifice if we are not ready to do so?... Only in true surrender to the interest of all can we reach that strength and independence, that unity of purpose, that equity of judgment which are necessary if we are to measure up to our duty to the future, as men of a generation to whom the chance was given to build in time a world of peace.
 * UN Press Release SG/360 (22 December 1953)

 * The pursuit of peace and progress cannot end in a few years in either victory or defeat. The pursuit of peace and progress, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned.
 * United Nations Bulletin Vol. XVI, No. 4 (15 February 1954)

 * A man of firm convictions does not ask, and does not receive, understanding from those with whom he comes into conflict. … A mature man is his own judge. In the end, his only firm support is being faithful to his own convictions. The advice of others may be welcome and valuable, but it does not free him from responsibility. Therefore, he may become very lonely.
 * Address to the Swedish Academy (20 December 1954)

 * The UN is not just a product of do-gooders. It is harshly real. The day will come when men will see the UN and what it means clearly. Everything will be all right — you know when? When people, just people, stop thinking of the United Nations as a weird Picasso abstraction, and see it as a drawing they made themselves.
 * As quoted in The Times [London] (27 June 1955)

 * Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.
 * As quoted in news reports (18 March 1956) and Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1988) by James Beasley Simpson

 * I never discuss discussions.
 * Statement after diplomatic talks, as quoted in Look (19 September 1956)

 * In a political context of the utmost significance, ["freedom from fear"] recognizes a human right which, in a broad sense, may be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.
 * Speech at the celebration of the 180th anniversary of the Virginia Declaration of Rights (16 May 1956)

 * Do we refer to the purposes of the Charter? They are expressions of universally shared ideals which cannot fail us, though we, alas, often fail them. Or do we think of the institutions of the United Nations? They are our tools. We fashioned them. We use them. It is our responsibility to remedy any flaws there may be in them.... This is a difficult lesson for both idealists and realists, though for different reasons. I suppose that, just as the first temptation of the realist is the illusion of cynicism, so the first temptation of the idealist is the illusion of Utopia.
 * "An International Administrative Service", From an Address to the International Law Association at McGill University, Montreal, 30 May, 1956. Wilder Foote (Ed.), The Servant of Peace, A Selection of the Speeches and Statements of Dag Hammarskjöld, The Bodley Head, London 1962, p. 116.

 * It is not the Soviet Union or indeed any other big Powers who need the United Nations for their protection. It is all the others. In this sense, the Organization is first of all their Organization and I deeply believe in the wisdom with which they will be able to use it and guide it. I shall remain in my post during the term of my office as a servant of the Organization in the interests of all those other nations, as long as they wish me to do so. In this context the representative of the Soviet Union spoke of courage. It is very easy to resign; it is not so easy to stay on. It is very easy to bow to the wish of a big power. It is another matter to resist. As is well known to all Members of this Assembly, I have done so before on many occasions and in many directions. If it is the wish of those nations who see in the Organization their best protection in the present world, I shall now do so again.
 * Statement to the General Assembly of the United Nations (3 October 1960)

 * You try to save a drowning man without prior authorization.
 * Statement on UN Operations in Congo before the General Assembly, 17 October 1960.

 * Those who invoke history will certainly be heard by history. And they will have to accept its verdict.
 * On Nikita Khrushchev as quoted in The Times [London] (4 October 1960)

 * The Assembly has witnessed over the last weeks how historical truth is established; once an allegation has been repeated a few times, it is no longer an allegation, it is an established fact, even if no evidence has been brought out in order to support it.
 * On accusations by Nikita Khrushchev, as quoted in The Times [London] (4 October 1960)

 * Setbacks in trying to realize the ideal do not prove that the ideal is at fault.
 * As quoted by Rolf Edberg, Swedish Ambassador to Norway, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Hammarskjöld in Oslo, Norway (10 December 1961)

 * It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity. It is when we all play safe that fatality will lead us to our doom. It is in the "dark shade of courage" alone that the spell can be broken.
 * Servant of Peace : A Selection of the Speeches and Statements of Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary General of the United Nations (1962), p. 107; this has sometimes been paraphrased: It is in playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.

 * The breaking wave and the muscle as it contracts obey the same law. Delicate line gathers the body's total strength in a bold balance. Shall my soul meet so severe a curve, journeying on its way to form?
 * Statement inspired by the work of British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, quoted in The Christian Science Monitor  (18 Jun 1964)

 * It is a little bit humiliating when I have to say that Chou En-lai to me appears as the most superior brain I have so far met in the field of foreign politics... so much more dangerous than you imagine because he is so much better a man than you have ever admitted.
 * In a letter to a friend, as quoted in Hammarskjöld (1972) by Brian Urquhart

 * The big, shoe-thumping fellow continues as a dark thunderhead to threaten all unrepentant non-Communists with hail and thunder.
 * On Nikita Kruschev, in a letter to a friend, as quoted in Hammarskjöld (1972) by Brian Urquhart

 * Is life so wretched? Isn't it rather your hands which are too small, your vision which is muddled? You are the one who must grow up.
 * As quoted in Know Your Limits — Then Ignore Them (2000) by John Mason

 * If even dying is to be made a social function, then, grant me the favor of sneaking out on tiptoe without disturbing the party.
 * As quoted in As I Journey On : Meditations for Those Facing Death (2000) by Sharon Dardis and Cindy Rogers

 * It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses.
 * As quoted in Living in Grace : The Shift to Spiritual Perception (2002) by Beca Lewis, p. 158

 * The more faithfully you listen to the voices within you, the better you will hear what is sounding outside.
 * As quoted in Sacred Seasonings (2003) by Sherri Purdom

Markings (1964)

 * Journal entries by Hammarskjöld, published in 1964 · Excerpts online

A humble heart that I may hear Thee, A heart of love that I may serve Thee, A heart of faith that I may abide in Thee.
 * Give me a pure heart that I may see Thee.

 * A task becomes a duty from the moment you suspect it to be an essential part of that integrity which alone entitles a man to assume responsibility.

 * Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided. A mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning.

 * Friendship needs no words — it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.
 * Variant translation: Friendship needs no words — it is a loneliness relieved of the anguish of loneliness.

 * For all that has been — Thanks. For all that shall be — Yes.
 * Variant translation: For all that has been — thanks. For all that will be — yes.

 * Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is again made clean.

 * God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

 * He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross — even when it is leading him through the jubilation of Gennesaret or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.

 * I believe that we should die with decency so that at least decency will survive.

 * I don't know Who — or what — put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone — or Something — and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.

 * In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.

 * In the faith which is "God's marriage to the soul", you are one in God, and God is wholly in you, just as, for you, He is wholly in all you meet. With this faith, in prayer you descend into yourself to meet the other.

 * In the last analysis it is our conception of death which decides our answers to all the questions life puts to us … Hence too the necessity of preparing for it.

 * Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible — not to have run away.

 * "1925-1930"

 * Life yields only to the conqueror. Never accept what can be gained by giving in. You will be living off stolen goods, and your muscles will atrophy.

 * The myths have always condemned those who "looked back." Condemned them, whatever the paradise may have been which they were leaving. Hence this shadow over each departure from your decision

 * Maturity: among other things, the unclouded happiness of the child at play, who takes it for granted that he is at one with his play-mates.

 * Never, "for the sake of peace and quiet," deny your own experience or convictions.

 * Never look down to test the ground before taking your next step; only he who keeps his eye fixed on the far horizon will find his right road.

 * Never measure the height of a mountain until you have reached the top. Then you will see how low it was.
 * "1925-1930"

 * Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for.

 * Respect for the word is the first commandment in the discipline by which a man can be educated to maturity — intellectual, emotional, and moral. Respect for the word — to employ it with scrupulous care and in incorruptible heartfelt love of truth — is essential if there is to be any growth in a society or in the human race. To misuse the word is to show contempt for man. It undermines the bridges and poisons the wells. It causes Man to regress down the long path of his evolution. "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men speak..."

 * The longest journey Is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started upon his quest For the source of his being.
 * Variant translation: The longest journey is the journey inward, for he who has chosen his destiny has started upon his quest for the source of his being.

 * The only kind of dignity which is genuine is that which is not diminished by the indifference of others.

 * There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life's point of no return.

 * Time goes by, reputation increases, ability declines.

 * "To forgive oneself"—? No, that doesn't work: we have to be forgiven. But we can only believe this is possible if we ourselves can forgive.

 * To love life and men as God loves them — for the sake of their infinite possibilities, to wait like Him, to judge like Him, without passing judgment, to obey the order when it is given and never look back.

 * We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours.

 * What makes loneliness an anguish Is not that I have no one to share my burden, But this:
 * I have only my own burden to bear.

 * You are not the oil, you are not the air — merely the point of combustion, the flash-point where the light is born. You are merely the lens in the beam. You can only receive, give, and possess the light as the lens does. If you seek yourself, you rob the lens of its transparency. You will know life and be acknowledged by it according to your degree of transparency — your capacity, that is, to vanish as an end and remain purely as a means.

 * Your body must become familiar with its death — in all its possible forms and degrees — as a self-evident, imminent, and emotionally neutral step on the way towards the goal you have found worthy of your life.

 * Your cravings as a human animal do not become a prayer just because it is God whom you ask to attend to them.

 * It is easy to be nice, even to an enemy — from lack of character.

Misattributed

 * Creative people have to be fed from the divine source.
 * Johnny Cash, in an interview for The Academy of Achievement (25 June 1993)

 * The more we do, the more we can do; the more busy we are, the more leisure we have.
 * William Hazlitt, in The Spirit of the Age (1825)

Quotes about Hammarskjöld

 * It will not surprise you to hear that Dag Hammarskjöld is a figure of great importance for me — as he must be for any Secretary-General. His life and his death, his words and his action, have done more to shape public expectations of the office, and indeed of the Organisation, than those of any other man or woman in its history. His wisdom and his modesty, his unimpeachable integrity and single-minded devotion to duty, have set a standard for all servants of the international community — and especially, of course for his successors — which is simply impossible to live up to. There can be no better rule of thumb for a Secretary-General, as he approaches each new challenge or crisis, than to ask himself, “how would Hammarskjöld have handled this?”
 * Kofi Annan, in "Dag Hammarskjöld and the 21st century" (6 September 2001)

 * I humbly accept the Centennial Nobel Peace Prize. Forty years ago today, the Prize for 1961 was awarded for the first time to a Secretary-General of the United Nations — posthumously, because Dag Hammarskjöld had already given his life for peace in Central Africa. And on the same day, the Prize for 1960 was awarded for the first time to an African — Albert Luthuli, one of the earliest leaders of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. For me, as a young African beginning his career in the United Nations a few months later, those two men set a standard that I have sought to follow throughout my working life.
 * Kofi Annan, Nobel lecture, Oslo, Norway, (10 December 2001)

 * He would remind us how man once organized himself in families, how families joined together in tribes and villages, and how tribes and villages developed into peoples and nations. But the nation could not be the end of such development. In the Charter of the United Nations he saw a guide to what he called an organized international community. With an intensity that grew stronger each year, he stressed in his annual reports to the General Assembly that the United Nations had to be shaped into a dynamic instrument in the service of development. In his last report, in a tone of voice penetrating because of its very restraint, he confronted those member states which were clinging to "the time-honored philosophy of sovereign national states in armed competition, of which the most that may be expected is that they achieve a peaceful coexistence". This philosophy did not meet the needs of a world of ever increasing interdependence, where nations have at their disposal armaments of hitherto unknown destructive strength. The United Nations must open up ways to more developed forms of international cooperation.
 * Rolf Edberg, Swedish Ambassador to Norway, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Hammarskjöld in Oslo, Norway (10 December 1961)

 * He has a physical stamina unique in the world, a man who night after night has gone with one or two hours of sleep and worked all day intelligently and devotedly.
 * Dwight D. Eisenhower, as quoted in Studia Mystica Vol. XVI, No. 1 (1995)

 * We meet in an hour of grief and challenge. Dag Hammarskjold is dead. But the United Nations lives. His tragedy is deep in our hearts, but the task for which he died is at the top of our agenda. A noble servant of peace is gone. But the quest for peace lies before us. The problem is not the death of one man — the problem is the life of this organization. It will either grow to meet the challenges of our age, or it will be gone with the wind, without influence, without force, without respect. Were we to let it die, to enfeeble its vigor, to cripple its powers, we would condemn our future. For in the development of this organization rests the only true alternative to war — and war appeals no longer as a rational alternative. Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes. It can no longer concern the great powers alone. For a nuclear disaster, spread by wind and water and fear, could well engulf the great and the small, the rich and the poor, the committed and the uncommitted alike. Mankind must put an end to war — or war will put an end to mankind. So let us here resolve that Dag Hammarskjold did not live, or die, in vain. Let us call a truce to terror. Let us invoke the blessings of peace. And as we build an international capacity to keep peace, let us join in dismantling the national capacity to wage war.
 * John F. Kennedy, in a Speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations (25 September 1961) · (downloadable public domain MP3 audio recording)

 * I realise now that in comparison to him, I am a small man. He was the greatest statesman of our century.
 * John F. Kennedy, during a meeting with an associate of Hammarskjöld, quoted in the Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture given by Sture Linnér (15 October 2007)

 * It was in the cause of his activities in the interest of peace that the late Dag Hammarskjöld lost his life. Of his work a great deal has been written, but I wish to take this opportunity to say how much I regret that he is not with us to receive the encouragement of this service he has rendered mankind. … How many times his decisions helped to avert a world catastrophe will never be known. But there are many of such occasions, I am sure. But there can be no doubt that he steered the United Nations through one of the most difficult phases in its history. His absence from our midst today should be an enduring lesson for all peace-lovers, and a challenge to the nations of the world to eliminate those conditions in Africa, nay, anywhere, which brought about the tragic and untimely end to his life. This, the devoted Chief Executive of the world.
 * Albert Lutuli, in his Acceptance Speech of the Nobel Peace Prize (December 10, 1961)

title: Dag Hammarskjöld


text: User:NEO

title: User:NEO


text: User:Frazzydee~enwikiquote

title: User:Frazzydee~enwikiquote


text:
Francis Crick

Francis Harry Compton Crick (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004) was a British physicist, molecular biologist and neuroscientist, most noted for being one of the co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953.
 * See also: The Astonishing Hypothesis

Of Molecules and Men (1966)

 * The ultimate aim of the modern movement in biology is in fact to explain all biology in terms of physics and chemistry.
 * Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1966, p. 10.

 * And so to those of you who may be vitalists I would make this prophecy: what everyone believed yesterday, and you believe today, only cranks will believe tomorrow.

Life Itself: Its Origin and Nature (1981)

 * An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going. But this should not be taken to imply that there are good reasons to believe that it could not have started on the earth by a perfectly reasonable sequence of fairly ordinary chemical reactions. The plain fact is that the time available was too long, the many microenvironments on the earth's surface too diverse, the various chemical possibilities too numerous and our own knowledge and imagination too feeble to allow us to be able to unravel exactly how it might or might not have happened such a long time ago, especially as we have no experimental evidence from that era to check our ideas against.
 * New York NY: Simon & Schuster, 1981, p. 88.

The Prizewinners (11 December 1962, BBC)

 * If for example I had some idea, which as it turned out would be quite wrong, was going off of the tangent, Watson would tell me in no uncertain terms this was nonsense, and vice-versa. If he would have some idea I didn't like, and I would say so, this would shake his thinking about, and draw him back again. And in fact it is one of the requirements for collaborations of this sort, is you must be perfectly candid, one might almost say rude, to the person you're working with. It's useless working with somebody who is either much too junior than yourself or much too senior because then politeness creeps in. And this is the end of all real collaboration in science (giggles).

The DNA Story (1973, film, VSM Productions)

 * I wasn't aware of Chargaff's rules when he said them, but the effect on me was quite electric because I realized immediately that if you had this sort of scheme that John Griffith was proposing, of adenine being paired with thymine, and guanine being paired with cytosine, then you should get Chargaff's rules.I was very excited, but I didn't actually tell Chargaff because it was something I was doing with John Griffith. ... This was very exciting, and we thought "ah ha!" and we realized - I mean what anyone who is familiar with the history of science ought to realize - that when you have one-to-one ratios, it means things go to together. And how on Earth no one pointed out this simple fact in those years, I don't know.

Life Story (1987, BBC)

 * Big questions get big answers.

What Mad Pursuit (1988)

 * I argued that it was important not to place too much reliance on any single piece of experimental evidence. It might turn out to be misleading, as the 5.1 Å reflection undoubtedly was. Jim was a little more brash, stating that no good model ever accounted for all the facts, since some data was bound to be misleading if not plain wrong. A theory that did fit all the data would have been "carpentered" to do so and would thus be open to suspicion. (pp. 59-60)

 * Rather than believe that Watson and Crick made the DNA structure, I would rather stress that the structure made Watson and Crick.

 * Both of us had decided, quite independently of each other, that the central problem in molecular biology was the chemical structure of the gene.

 * What is found in biology is mechanisms, mechanisms built with chemical components and that are often modified by other, later, mechanisms added to the earlier ones. While Occam's razor is a useful tool in the physical sciences, it can be a very dangerous implement in biology. It is thus very rash to use simplicity and elegance as a guide in biological research. While DNA could be claimed to be both simple and elegant, it must be remembered that DNA almost certainly originated fairly close to the origin of life when things were necessarily simple or they would not have got going. Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved. It might be thought, therefore, that evolutionary arguments would play a large part in guiding biological research, but this is far from the case. It is difficult enough to study what is happening now. To figure out exactly what happened in evolution is even more difficult. Thus evolutionary achievements can be used as hints to suggest possible lines of research, but it is highly dangerous to trust them too much. It is all too easy to make mistaken inferences unless the process involved is already very well understood.

 * The job of theorists, especially in biology, is to suggest new experiments. A good theory makes not only predictions, but surprising predictions that then turn out to be true. (If its predictions appear obvious to experimentalists, why would they need a theory?)

 * My own prejudices are exactly the opposite of the functionalists’: “If you want to understand function, study structure,” I was supposed to have said in my molecular biology days. (I believe I was sailing at the time.) I think that one should approach these problems at all levels, as was done in molecular biology. Classical genetics is, after all, a black-box subject. The important thing was to combine it with biochemistry. In nature hybrid species are usually sterile, but in science the reverse is often true. Hybrid subjects are often astonishingly fertile, whereas if a scientific discipline remains too pure it usually wilts.

The Astonishing Hypothesis (1994)

 * Philosophers have been especially concerned with the problem of consciousness—for example, how to explain the redness of red or the painfulness of pain. This is a very thorny issue. The problem springs from the fact that the redness of red that I perceive so vividly cannot be precisely communicated to another human being, at least in the ordinary course of events. If you cannot describe the properties of a thing unambiguously, you are likely to have some difficulty trying to explain these properties in reductionist terms.

 * Our brains have evolved mainly to deal with our body and its interactions with the world it senses to be around us. Is this world real? This is a venerable philosophical issue and I do not wish to be embroiled in the finely honed squabbles to which it has led. I merely state my own working hypothesis: that there is indeed an outside world, and that it is largely independent of our observing it. We can never fully know this outside world, but we can obtain approximate information about some aspects of its properties by using our senses and our brain.

 * Before I describe in more detail exactly what is involved in seeing, let me make three general remarks.
 * 1) You are easily deceived by your visual system.
 * 2) The visual information provided by our eyes can be ambiguous.
 * 3) Seeing is a constructive process.

Quotes about Crick

 * When he discovered the structure of DNA, Francis Crick immediately understood how genetic inheritance works, announcing in the Pub that evening that he understood the secret of life.
 * Nick Lane, Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life (2005) p. 10.

 * It was not until May of 1986 that I met Francis Crick, at a conference in San Diego. There was a big crowd, full of neuroscientists, but when it was time to sit down for dinner, Crick singled me out, seized me by the shoulders, sat me down next to him, and said, “Tell me stories!” I have no memory of what we ate, or anything else about the dinner, only that I told him stories about many of my patients, and that each one set off bursts of hypotheses, theories, suggestions for investigation in his mind. Writing to Crick a few days later, I said that the experience was “a little like sitting next to an intellectual nuclear reactor…. I never had a feeling of such incandescence.”
 * Oliver Sacks:

 * Conversations with Crick frequently upset Sir Lawrence Bragg, and the sound of his voice was often sufficient to make Bragg move to a safer room. Only infrequently would he come to tea in the Cavendish, since it meant enduring Crick's booming over the tea room.
 * James D. Watson:

title: Francis Crick


text:
J. Michael Straczynski

Joseph Michael Straczynski (born 17 July 1954) is an award-winning American writer/producer of television series, novels, short stories, comic books, and radio dramas.
 * See also:
 * Babylon 5 (1993–1998)
 * Crusade (1999)
 * Changeling (2008)

Quotes

 * We have an obligation to one another, responsibilities and trusts. That does not mean we must be pigeons, that we must be exploited. But it does mean that we should look out for one another when and as much as we can; and that we have a personal responsibility for our behavior; and that our behavior has consequences of a very real and profound nature. We are not powerless. We have tremendous potential for good or ill. How we choose to use that power is up to us; but first we must choose to use it. We're told every day, "You can't change the world." But the world is changing every day. Only question is … who's doing it? You or somebody else?

 * I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks the use of an angelic (or seemingly angelic character), whose likes have been written about for, oh, about 4,000 years, is ripping off Star Trek, has his head so thoroughly up his ass as to have blipped into an entirely new intestinally-based reality and desperately needs to get a wider frame of reference.

 * Even Zathras say, Braves suck.
 * Posted on Compuserve, (1997)

 * They told us not to wish in the first place, not to aspire, not to try; to be quiet, to play nice, to shoot low and aspire not at all. They are always wrong. Follow your dreams. Make your wishes. Create the future. And above all, believe in yourself. That is the lesson of Babylon 5.
 * From the Babylon 5 Calendar (1998)

 * I think it behooves us to treat our characters' beliefs with some measure of respect, whatever he believes in. I mean I'm an atheist myself, but I don't have to believe in Minbari to write about Minbari. I think if that person is a religious character, then you have to treat them with integrity and deal with them properly. As a result, this show is very popular with a lot of religious folks.
 * Discussion held at MIT on (4 May 1998).

 * I like to consider my mind an open door. It's just not a revolving door.

 * Your assumption, and the truth, dine at totally separate tables.

 * As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because it’s only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it’s gone forever. No afterlives, no second chances, no backsies. So there can be nothing crueler than the abuse, destruction or wanton taking of a life. It is a crime no less than burning the Mona Lisa, for there is always just one of each. So I cannot forgive.
 * Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5 : "Passing Through Gethsemane : jms speaks" (13 July (2004)

Demons: RIP its SKIN. Wear it for HIDE. Its EYES for me. Tear its FLESH from its BONES. Doctor Doom: Yes, come, and let us make an end of it — there is DOOM enough for ALL!
 * : Bereft of my technology... mystic armor damaged... offensive and defensive capabilities minimal. Enemy forces... [a horde of demons closes in] substantial. It matters not. Even cornered, to my last breath I remain who and what I am. I will not hide, nor tremble, nor beg. Let them come and reckon with fury that is DOOM defiant. Here I stand, hell-horde! Unbowed! But understand: If it is my destiny that I should perish this day, I shall not go down easily... and I shall NOT go down ALONE.

 * The more important the emotion is, the fewer words required to express it: Will you go out with me? I think I like you. I care for you. I love you. Marry me. Goodbye.
 * JMSNews (31 January 2008)

 * You can't let the outside world, or your perception of yourself in it, affect the work; that way madness lies. The only correct approach is to ensure that whatever you write, whenever you write it, you strive to make it better than the last thing you wrote.
 * J. Michael Straczynski, Twitter post (March 2023)

Disputed

 * Stun settings are for people who can't commit.
 * Frequently attributed to jms, but earliest Google Groups post with that quote is by Bill Capeheart. May not originally be from Usenet.

title: J. Michael Straczynski


text:
Subramanya Bharathi

Subramanya Bharathi (11 December 1882 – 11 September 1921) was a Tamil poet from Tamil Nadu, India, an independence activist and iconoclastic reformer. Also known as Bharathy, and Mahakavi Bharathi (the laudatory epithet Maha Kavi meaning Great Poet in many Indian languages), he is celebrated as one of India's greatest poets.

Quotes

Snake, says the father. The son says, Nay, it's a Six-headed one.''' And then their hearts burn with hate for each others — and they live apart for many years.
 * '''The Devil is a Five-headed
 * "When I Think Of My People Broken Down", as translated in "The Poetry of Sri Lanka" Journal of South Asian Literature, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Fall-Winter 1976), published by Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University, p. 11

When I think of my people, broken down, broken by disease in mind and limb.''' On the edge of life they always linger; For countless are the diseases Of Ignorance and Hunger. And on treacherous paths to Slavery like children blind, they would walk behind strangers from over the sea. O, divine Land, blessed by the gods! O, ancient Mother of Culture and Art! Thy children today are spineless hordes.
 * '''Unbearable becomes the pain in my heart —
 * "When I Think Of My People Broken Down", as translated in "The Poetry of Sri Lanka", in Journal of South Asian Literature, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Fall-Winter 1976), published by Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University, p. 11

 * Fools! Do you argue, that things ancient ought, on that account, to be true and noble! Fallacies and Falsehoods there were from time immemorial, and dare you argue that because these are ancient these should prevail? In ancient times, do you think that there was not the ignorant, and the shallow minded? And why after all should you embrace so fondly a carcass of dead thoughts. Live in the present and shape the future, do not be casting lingering looks to the distant past for the past has passed away, never again to return.
 * As quoted in Bharathiar's 125th anniversary tribute "The People's Poet" by N. Nandhivarman in TamilSydney (7 January 2008)

 * யாமறிந்த மொழிகளிலே தமிழ்மொழி போல் இனிதாவது எங்கும் காணோம்po
 * Among all the languages we know, we do not see anywhere, any as sweet as Tamil.
 * As quoted in Freedom Fighters of India, Vol. 3, Lion M. G. Agrawal (2008), "Subramaniya Bharathi",  p. 235

 * ஜாதி மதங்களைப் பாரோம் - உயர் ஜன்மம்இத் தேசத்தில் எய்தின ராயின் வேதிய ராயினும் ஒன்றே - அன்றி வேறு குலத்தின ராயினும் ஒன்றே
 * We shall not look at caste or religion. All human beings in this land — whether they be those who preach the vedas or who belong to other castes — are one.
 * As quoted in Freedom Fighters of India, Vol. 3, Lion M. G. Agrawal (2008), "Subramaniya Bharathi", p. 235

 * கவிதை எழுதுபவன் கவியன்று. கவிதையே வாழ்க்கையாக உடையோன், வாழ்க்கையே கவிதையாகச் செய்தோன், அவனே கவி
 * He who writes poetry is not a poet. He whose poetry has become his life, and who has made his life his poetry — it is he who is a poet.
 * English translation originally from "Subramaniya Bharathi" at Tamilnation.org, also quoted in "Colliding worlds of tradition and revolution" in The Hindu (13 December 2009)

Quotes about Bharathi

 * Bharathi was a Hindu. But his spirituality was not limited. He sang to the Hindu deities, and at the same time he wrote songs of devotion to Jesus Christ and Allah.
 * Lion M. G. Agrawal, in Freedom Fighters of India, Vol. 3, (2008), p. 235

 * Driving away fear, breaking the bonds of servitude, Rooting out ignoble thoughts raised the nation, That it may reach lofty heights in the world, The immortal poet who conquered Time! “All are one caste” proclaimed he, Defiling discriminations driving away, Arrived the immortal poet — the cascade of words, And a flame burst of fiery heroism!
 * Shuddhananda Bharati, in Poet Nightingale : Subramaniya Bharathiyar (1955)

 * Bharati's passion for social causes and his wilful disregard for what others thought or said of him made him a perfect lightning rod for controversy. In 1913, in one of the most debated acts of his life, he performed the sacred thread ceremony for a Dalit, Kanakalingam.
 * Arroon Raman, in "All too human at the core" in The Hindu ((20 December 2009)

 * Though Bharathi died so young, he cannot be reckoned with Chatterton and Keats among the inheritors of "unfulfilled renown". His was a name to conjure with, at any rate in South India, while he was still alive. But his fame was not so much as a poet as of a patriot and a writer of patriotic songs. His loudly expressed admiration for Tilak, his fiery denunciations in the Swadesamitran, and the fact that he had to seek refuge in French territory to escape the probing attentions of the Government of Madras, made him a hero and a "freedom fighter". His lilting songs were on numerous lips, and no procession or public meeting in a Tamil district in the days of "non-cooperation" could begin, carry on or end without singing a few of them... Bharathi's love of Tamil, both the language as it was in his own day and the rich literature left as a heritage, was no less than his love of India... When he claims for Valluvan, Ilango and Kamban, Bharathy does so not as an ignorant chauvinist but as one who has savoured both the sweetness of these writers and the strength and richness of others in Sanskrit and English...
 * P. S. Sundaram, in Poems of Subramania Bharathy - A Selection (1982)

 * He loved Thamizh and India with a passion and was proud of his cultural heritage. At the same time he was fully cognizant of the social repercussions of caste differences and how superstitions and blind faith in the old traditions have lead to stagnation. More important is the fact that he had the courage and tenacity to stand up before a ruthless imperial power and was prepared to face all the personal consequences. The only weapon he had at his disposal to achieve his cherished goal was not wealth or physical ability but only his literary skill.
 * Nadesan Satyendra, in "Some Reflections", at TamilNation.org

title: Subramanya Bharathi


text:
Lalu Prasad Yadav

Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician from the state of Bihar.

Quotes

 * Wagon is the bread-earning horse of the Railways. Load it adequately. Make it run and don't stable it.
 * When some of the Railway Board members expressed apprehensions in increasing wagon loads, a decision which alone generated Rs 7,200 crore (Rs 72 billion) (Source: Lalu to teach management at IIM-A).

 * I've not given them (the poor people of Bihar) heaven, but I've given them a voice.
 * Original: Swarg nahin, swar diya hai.

 * Indian Railways is the responsibility of Lord Vishwakarma. So is the safety of passengers... It is His duty, not mine. I have been forced to don His mantle.
 * Reacting to increasing number of train mishaps, Patna.

 * I work so much. If I don't get all the comforts, I will turn mad.
 * Responding to the criticism of his adversaries that he always travelled in a salon. (July 3, 2004 The Times of India).

 * If we increase freight rates, the goods will move through the roads and the condition of the roads will become worse.
 * While presenting the Union Railway Budget.

 * Why should I tell you where I am going to get funds from? If I were to do that then all the vested interests would get alerted. You must be aware that railways are full of such elements and my fight is against them.
 * When an interviewer asked him from where is he going to get resources to implement the tall promises that he made in the railway budget of 2004..

 * What does dating mean?
 * Original: Dating Mane?
 * When a news reporter asked his opinion about a new dating website called www.laloorabri.com which was recently launched, and the name was inspired by the matrimonial bond between Lalu Yadav & his wife. (Feb 2005, Times Now news Channel).

 * You think that the poor and oppressed people of Bihar will ever forget Lalu Yadav? I am the only one who has done something for them. The people know that. They also know that the rest (of the political class) are useless.
 * In an interview, when asked "But is it not true that Bihar is lacking in development? That despite all your proclamations on social justice the poor and oppressed of the state are still suffering?".

 * Robbery is common.
 * Original: Daketi to hota rahta hai.
 * Answering to the issue of railway security".

 * I know some people say I can be funny. But there is always a deeper meaning to what I say. I am a socialist at heart and have the interests of the poor in mind. When people see how I manage to work my way out of tough situations, it gives them hope in their own life
 * In an interview to Siddharth Srivastava.

 * I do not rule out the possibility of being prime minister of India one day, but there is still time.
 * In an interview to Siddharth Srivastava.

 * Why not? We will definitely give them and charge rent.
 * When asked Asked if ICL would be able to use Railway stadiums ".

 * Indian Railways is the responsibility of Lord Vishwakarma. So safety of passengers is His duty, not mine.
 * "Samosa and Laloo", Hindustan Times, 30 September 2013

 * I will make Bihar's roads as smooth as Hema Malini's cheeks.
 * Samosa and Laloo", Hindustan Times, 30 September 2013

2024

 * Muslims should get reservations in full.
 * Former Bihar CM advocates full reservations for Muslims; PM Modi vindicated May 2024

Quotes about Yadav

 * For Bihar, the 90s is synonymous with the meteoric rise of Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is credited to have created the MY (Muslim–Yadav) vote bank. The Yadavs were obviously his own caste people, who led the rise of the OBCs, or the intermediary castes, against the political hegemony of the upper castes, while Muslims rallied behind the Janata Dal after ditching the Congress due to the Rajiv Gandhi government opening the locks of Ayodhya. Additionally, the fact that many Muslim groups were enumerated as OBCs, who too would benefit from the recommendations of the Mandal Commission, made a large section of the Muslim community support the Janata Dal and Lalu Yadav. The Mandal Commission had recommended reservations in government jobs and educational institutes for the OBCs.
 * Sanghi Who Never Went To A Shakha. Rahul Roushan. Rupa Publications India. 2021.

 * Lalu Yadav ordering the arrest of Advani, and Mulayam Singh Yadav ordering the firing on kar sevaks in Ayodhya, where dozens—some claims put the number in hundreds—of ordinary Ram bhakts were killed, were the events that ignited Hindutva sentiments among a larger chunk of the masses. The talking point no longer remained ‘Muslim appeasement’. Now, people could sense ‘persecution of Hindus’ with such actions—something that was not too obvious under the Congress governments, as I had mentioned earlier. This is the reason why the BJP saw a huge jump in vote share in the ensuing 1991 Lok Sabha elections.
 * Sanghi Who Never Went To A Shakha. Rahul Roushan. Rupa Publications India. 2021.

 * Lalu is not guilty in people's court.
 * Lalu's son Tejashwi Yadav on his father's conviction in Fodder scam, Times of India , 15 February 2022

 * Congress is silent but today, one of its allies confirmed the intentions of INDI Alliance. Their leader, who is in jail in connection with the fodder scam and has been punished by the court…He has just come out on bail…He said that Muslims should get reservations and not just reservations, he says that Muslims should get complete reservations. What does this mean? These people want to snatch away all the reservations that SC, ST, and OBC communities have and give complete reservations to Muslims….” “They can’t see anything beyond appeasement now, he said at the rally, adding “If they come to themselves, they will also take your breath right away.
 * Narendra Modi, May 2024 Former Bihar CM advocates full reservations for Muslims; PM Modi vindicated

 * Lalu Prasad Yadav said that full reservation should be provided to Muslims. This word, 'pura ka pura' (full), used by him in his statement, is very serious. This makes it clear that they (INDIA bloc) want to provide reservation to Muslims from the share of SCs, STs and OBCs.
 * BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi INDIA bloc will give quota to Muslims by changing Constitution: BJP over Lalu Prasad's remarks May 2024

 * The apprehensions expressed by BJP and PM Modi are now proving to be completely true. The genie of Muslim reservation has come out of the lamp of the INDI alliance and is visible in the sky from the South to the plains of Ganga. The thing worth noticing in the statement given by Lalu Prasad is that the most serious word he was asked about the Muslim community, he said yes Muslims should get reservation ‘poora ka poora’. It became clear that they want to give reservation to the Muslim community by snatching the share of SC, ST and OBC…
 * Rajya Sabha MP and BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi Former Bihar CM advocates full reservations for Muslims; PM Modi vindicated May 2024

title: Lalu Prasad Yadav


text:
Talk:Robert Louis Stevenson

Wasn't 'Old Mortality' written by Walter Scott rather than by R. L. Stevenson?

 * This is correct, first published in 1816; from what information I have been able to find there does seem to have been an edition of this which Stevenson published in 1884 which may have had the line quoted in an introductory note. I must confess that I am have not read any version of the work, but searching the text of the Project Gutenberg edition the quote does not appear to have been a statement by Scott. ~ Kalki 03:52, 31 Jul 2004 (UTC)

 * 'Old Mortality' is the title of an essay by Robert Louis Stevenson about graves and graveyards followed by an elegy for the friend of his youth, James Ferrier.

Quote question
Can anyone attribute the following quote to Robert Louis Stevenson? "It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect." Thank you for your help
 * I have seen it on two different quote sites, attributed to RLS and stated as "The mark of a good action is that it appears inevitable in retrospect." The sites were www giga-usa.com/quotes/ and www quotationspage.com/ UDScott 16:26, 23 September 2005 (UTC)

Unsourced
Wikiquote no longer allows unsourced quotations, and they are in process of being removed from our pages (see Wikiquote:Limits on quotations); but if you can provide a reliable and precise source for any quote on this list please move it to Robert Louis Stevenson. --Antiquary 18:36, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
 * The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.

 * Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.
 * I didn't read it, but isn't the title itself an authorized source? http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Louis-Stevensons-Admiral-Guinea/dp/1780004850
 * At archive.org, I searched within Admiral Guinea (actually all three plays) and there is nothing about seeds or harvest. Also, this quote doesn't sound like Stevenson.

 * The duty of a Christian is not to succeed, but to fail cheerfully.

 * A man must not deny his manifest abilities, for that is to evade his obligations.

 * To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying "Amen" to what the world tells you you ought to prefer is to have kept your soul alive.

 * You cannot run away from a weakness; you must sometimes fight it out or perish. And if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?

 * Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.

 * Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others. Peterklevy (talk) 23:02, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

title: Talk:Robert Louis Stevenson


text:
Potter Stewart

Potter Stewart (January 23, 1915–December 7, 1985) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, serving on the Court from 1958 to 1981.

Quotes

 * The Fourth Amendment and the personal rights it secures have a long history. At the very core stands the right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable governmental intrusion.
 * Silverman v. United States, 365 U.S. 511 (1961).

 * I think that the court has misapplied a great constitutional principle. I cannot see how 'official religion' is established by letting those who want to say a prayer say it. On the contrary, I think that to deny the wish of these school children to join in reciting this prayer is to deny them the opportunity of sharing in the spiritual heritage of the nation.
 * Dissenting, Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962).

 * I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description [hard-core pornography]; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that.
 * Concurring, Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964).

 * Censorship reflects a society's lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime.
 * Dissenting, United States v. Ginzburg, 383 U.S. 463 (1965).

 * In the governmental structure created by our Constitution, the Executive is endowed with enormous power in the two related areas of national defense and international relations. This power, largely unchecked by the Legislative [1] and Judicial [2] branches, has been pressed to the very hilt since the advent of the nuclear missile age. For better or for worse, the simple fact is that a President of the United States possesses vastly greater constitutional independence in these two vital areas of power than does, say, a prime minister of a country with a parliamentary form of government. In the absence of the governmental checks and balances present in other areas of our national life, the only effective restraint upon executive policy and power in the areas of national defense and international affairs may lie in an enlightened citizenry — in an informed and critical public opinion which alone can here protect the values of democratic government. For this reason, it is perhaps here that a press that is alert, aware, and free most vitally serves the basic purpose of the First Amendment. For, without an informed and free press, there cannot be an enlightened people.
 * Potter Stewart, (, 1971).

 * Several decisions of this Court make clear that freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. . . . That right necessarily includes the right of a woman to decide whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.
 * Concurring, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113, 169-170 (1973).

 * The Executive must have the largely unshared duty to determine and preserve the degree of internal security necessary to exercise that power successfully. It is an awesome responsibility requiring judgment and wisdom of a high order. A very first principle of that wisdom would be an insistence upon avoiding secrecy for its own sake. For when everything is classified, then nothing is classified and the system becomes one to be disregarded by the cynical or the careless and to be manipulated by those intent on self-protection or self-promotion.
 * Security Classification Reform Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives. Ninetythird Congress. Second Session. 1974

 * But just because you have a right to do something doesn’t mean it’s right to do it.
 * The Law And Potter Stewart: An Interview With Justice Potter Stewart (1983) American Heritage, Volume 35, Issue 1

title: Potter Stewart