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George Steiner

Francis George Steiner (April 23, 1929 – February 3, 2020) was a French-born American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, translator, and educator, who wrote extensively about the relationship between language, literature and society, and the impact of the Holocaust.

Quotes

 * The ordinary man casts a shadow. In a way we do not quite understand, the man of genius casts light.  Instinctively, we flinch from this light. We assure ourselves that genius must pay a terrible price. Often history bears us out: the creator, the supreme artist, the master of politics carries the scars of his greatness.
 * "Not a Preface, but a Word of Thanks," foreword to Unfinished Journey by Yehudi Menuhin (1977).

 * The age of the book is almost gone.
 * Quoted in The Daily Mail (London, 1988-06-27).

 * There is something terribly wrong with a culture inebriated by noise and gregariousness.
 * Quoted in The Daily Telegraph (London, 1989-05-23).

Tolstoy or Dostoevsky (1960)

 * Literary criticism should arise out of a debt of love. In a manner evident and yet mysterious, the poem or the drama or the novel seizes upon our imaginings.  We are not the same when we put down the work as we were when we took it up.  To borrow an image from another domain: he who has truly apprehended a painting by Cézanne will thereafter see an apple or a chair as he had not seen them before.  Great works of art pass through us like storm-winds, flinging open the doors of perception, pressing upon the architecture of our beliefs with their transforming powers.  We seek to record their impact, to put our shaken house in its new order.  Through some primary instinct of communion we seek to convey to others the quality and force of our experience.  We would persuade them to lay themselves open to it.  In this attempt at persuasion originate the truest insights criticism can afford.
 * Ch. 1.

The Death of Tragedy (1961)
Yale University Press, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06916-2

 * We are still waging Peloponnesian wars. Our control of the material world and our positive science have grown fantastically.  But our very achievements turn against us, making politics more random and wars more bestial.
 * Ch. I (p. 6).

 * Nothing in a language is less translatable than its modes of understatement.
 * Ch. III (p. 104).

 * Tragedy springs from outrage; it protests at the conditions of life. It carries in it the possibilities of disorder, for all tragic poets have something of the rebelliousness of Antigone.  Goethe, on the contrary, loathed disorder.  He once said that he preferred injustice, signifying by that cruel assertion not his support for reactionary political ideals, but his conviction that injustice is temporary and reparable whereas disorder destroys the very possibilities of human progress.  Again, this is an anti-tragic view; in tragedy it is the individual instance of injustice that infirms the general pretence of order.  One Hamlet is enough to convict a state of rottenness.
 * Ch. V (p. 167).

 * Increasingly unable to create for itself a relevant body of myth, the modern imagination will ransack the treasure house of the classic.
 * Ch. VI (p. 228).

 * Tragedy speaks not of secular dilemmas which may be resolved by rational innovation, but of the unalterable bias toward inhumanity and destruction in the drift of the world.
 * Ch. VIII (p. 291).

 * The Socratic demonstration of the ultimate unity of tragic and comic drama is forever lost. But the proof is in the art of Chekhov.
 * Ch. VIII (p. 302).

 * Verse no longer stands at the centre of communicative discourse. It is no longer, as it was from Homer to Milton, the natural repository of knowledge and traditional sentiment.  It no longer gives to society its main record of past grandeur or its natural setting for prophecy, as it did in Virgil and Dante.  Verse has grown private.  It is a special language which the individual poet insinuates, by force of personal genius, into the awareness of his contemporaries, persuading to learn and perhaps hand on his own uses of words.  Poetry has become essentially lyric — that is to say, it is the poetry of private vision rather than of public or of national occasion.
 * Ch. IX (p. 309).

 * When the modern scholar cites from a classic text, the quotation seems to burn a hole in his own drab page.
 * Ch. IX: (p. 314).

 * Literary criticism has about it neither rigour nor proof. Where it is honest, it is passionate, private experience seeking to persuade.
 * Ch. X (p. 351).

Language and Silence: Essays 1958-1966 (1967)

 * We come after. We know now that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day's work at Auschwitz in the morning.  To say that he has read them without understanding or that his ear is gross, is cant.  In what way does this knowledge bear on literature and society, on the hope, grown almost axiomatic from the time of Plato to that of Matthew Arnold, that culture is a humanizing force, that the energies of spirit are transferable to those of conduct?
 * Preface.

 * When he looks back, the critic sees a eunuch's shadow. Who would be a critic if he could be a writer?  Who would hammer out the subtlest insight into Dostoevsky if he could weld an inch of the Karamazovs, or argue the poise of Lawrence if he could shape the free gust of life in The Rainbow?
 * "Humane Literacy" (1963).

 * The critic lives at second hand. He writes about.  The poem, the novel, or the play must be given to him; criticism exists by the grace of other men's genius.
 * "Humane Literacy".

 * Language can only deal meaningfully with a special, restricted segment of reality. The rest, and it is presumably the much larger part, is silence.
 * "The Retreat from the Word," Kenyon Review (Spring 1961).

 * What lies beyond man's word is eloquent of God. That is the joyously defeated recognition expressed in the poems of St. John of the Cross and of the mystic tradition.

When the word of the poet ceases, a great light begins.
 * "Silence and the Poet" (1966).

 * The capacity for imaginative reflex, for moral risk in any human being is not limitless; on the contrary, it can be rapidly absorbed by fictions, and thus the cry in the poem may come to sound louder, more urgent, more real than the cry in the street outside. The death in the novel may move us more potently than the death in the next room.
 * "To Civilize our Gentlemen" (1965).

 * The new pornographers subvert this last, vital privacy; they do our imagining for us. They take away the words that were of the night and shout them over the roof-tops, making them hollow.
 * "Night Words," Encounter (October 1965).

 * It was a brilliant, mutinous period. Brecht gave back to German prose its Lutheran simplicity and Thomas Mann brought into his style the supple, luminous elegance of the classic and Mediterranean tradition.  These years, 1920-33, were the anni mirabiles of the modern German spirit.
 * "The Hollow Miracle" (1959).

 * For let us keep one fact clearly in mind: the German  language was not innocent of the horrors of Nazism.  It is not merely that a Hitler, a Goebbels, and a Himmler happened to speak German.  Nazism found in the language precisely what it needed to give voice to its savagery.  Hitler heard inside his native tongue the latent hysteria, the confusion, the quality of hypnotic trance.
 * "The Hollow Miracle".

 * Words that are saturated with lies or atrocity do not easily resume life.
 * "K" (1963), introduction to The Trial by Franz Kafka

 * Often the children went alone, or held the hands of strangers. Sometimes parents saw them pass and did not dare call out their names.  And they went, of course, not for anything they had done or said.  But because their parents existed before them.  The crime of being one's children.
 * "A Kind of Survivor" (1965).

 * Men are accomplices to that which leaves them indifferent.
 * "A Kind of Survivor".

 * To shoot a man because one disagrees with his interpretation of Darwin or Hegel is a sinister tribute to the supremacy of ideas in human affairs — but a tribute nevertheless.
 * "Marxism and the Literary Critic," Encounter, XI (November 1958).

 * If future society assumes the contours foretold by Marxism, if the jungle of our cities turns to the polis of man and the dreams of anger are made real, the representative art will be high comedy. Art will be the laughter of intelligence, as it is in Plato, in Mozart, in Stendhal.
 * "Literature and Post-History" (1965).

Extraterritorial (1971)

 * There are three intellectual pursuits, and, so far as I am aware, only three, in which human beings have performed major feats before the age of puberty. They are music, mathematics, and chess.
 * "A Death of Kings"

In Bluebeard's Castle (1971)

 * It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past.  These are often as highly structured and selective as myths.  Images and symbolic constructs of the past are imprinted, almost in the manner of genetic information, on our sensibility. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past.
 * "The Great Ennui".

 * Monotheism at Sinai, primitive Christianity, messianic socialism: these are the three supreme moments in which Western culture is presented with what Ibsen termed "the claims of the ideal."  These are the three stages, profoundly interrelated, through which Western consciousness is forced to experience the blackmail of transcendence.
 * "A Season in Hell".

 * When it turned on the Jew, Christianity and European civilization turned on the incarnation — albeit an incarnation often wayward and unaware — of its own best hopes.
 * "A Season in Hell".

 * Nothing in the next-door world of Dachau impinged on the great winter cycle of Beethoven chamber music played in Munich. No canvases came off museum walls as the butchers strolled reverently past, guide-books in hand.
 * "In a Post-Culture".

 * The immense majority of human biographies are a gray transit between domestic spasm and oblivion.
 * "In a Post-Culture".

 * As the glossaries lengthen, as the footnotes become more elementary and didactic, the poem, the epic, the drama, move out of balance on the actual page. As even the more rudimentary of mythological, religious or historical references, which form the grammar of Western literature, have to be elucidated, the lines of Spenser, of Pope, of Shelley or of Sweeney Among the Nightingales, blur away from immediacy.  Where it is necessary to annotate every proper name and classical allusion in the dialogue between Jessica and Lorenzo in the garden at Belmont, or in Iachimo's stealthy rhetoric when he emerges in Imogen's bedchamber, these marvellous spontaneities of enacted feeling become "literary" and twice-removed.
 * "Tomorrow".

 * Creation of absolutely the first rank — in philosophy, in music, in much of literature, in mathematics — continues to occur outside the American milieu. It is at once taken up and intelligently exploited, but the "motion of the spirit" has taken place elsewhere, amid the enervation of Europe, in the oppressive climate of Russia.  There is, in a good deal of American intellectual, artistic production (recent paining may be a challenging exception) a characteristic near-greatness, a strength just below the best.  Could it be that the United States is destined to be the "museum culture"?
 * "Tomorrow".

 * A good deal of classical music is, today, the opium of the good citizen.
 * "Tomorrow".

 * The really deep divergence between the humanistic and scientific sensibilities is one of temporality. Very nearly by definition, the scientist knows that tomorrow will be in advance of today.  A twentieth-century schoolboy can manipulate mathematical and experimental concepts inaccessible to a Galileo or a Gauss.  For a scientist the curve of the future is positive.  Inevitably, the humanist looks back.
 * "Tomorrow".

 * We cannot turn back. We cannot choose the dreams of unknowing.  We shall, I expect, open the last door in the castle, even if it leads, perhaps because it leads, on to realities which are beyond the reach of human comprehension and control.  And we shall do so with that desolate clairvoyance, so marvellously rendered in Bartok's music, because opening doors is the tragic merit of our identity.
 * "Tomorrow"

Fields of Force (1974)
US title. UK title: The Sporting Scene: White Knights of Rekjavik. Essay originally published in The New Yorker

 * Chess may be the deepest, least exhaustible of pastimes, but it is nothing more. As for a chess genius, he is a human being who focuses vast, little-understood mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial human enterprise.

George Steiner: A Reader (1984)

 * But I would like to think for a moment about a man who in the morning teaches his students that a false attribution of a Watteau drawing or an inaccurate transcription of a fourteenth-century epigraph is a sin against the spirit and in the afternoon or evening transmits to the agents of Soviet intelligence classified, perhaps vital information given to him in sworn trust by his countrymen and intimate colleagues. What are the sources of such scission?  How does the spirit mask itself?
 * "The Cleric of Treason," The New Yorker (1980-12-08).

 * The private ownership of great art, its seclusion from the general view of men and women, let alone from that of interested amateurs and scholars, is a curious business. The literal disappearance of a Turner or a Van Gogh into some Middle Eastern or Latin-American bank vault to be kept as investment and collateral, the sardonic decision of a Greek shipping tycoon to put an incomparable El Greco on his yacht, where it hangs at persistent risk — these are phenomena that verge on vandalism.
 * "The Cleric of Treason".

 * In the Soviet Union, he knew, great art hangs in public galleries. No scholars, no men and women waiting to mend their souls before a Raphael or a Matisse need wait, cap in hand at the mansion door.
 * "The Cleric of Treason".

 * The absolute scholar is in fact a rather uncanny being. He is instinct with Nietzsche's finding that to be interested in something, to be totally interested in it, is a libidinal thrust more powerful than love or hatred, more tenacious than faith or friendship — not infrequently, indeed, more compelling than personal life itself.  Archimedes does not flee from his killers, he does not even turn his head to acknowledge their rush into his garden when he is immersed in the algebra of conic sections.
 * "The Cleric of Treason".

 * Fantasizing about action out there in the 'real' world, spinning dreams abut the secret centrality, about the occult importance of the labours in which he has interred his existence — labours that the vast majority of his fellow men would deem wholly marginal and socially wasteful if they knew of them at all — the pure scholar, the master of catalogues, can sup on hatred. At the ordinary level, he will exorcize his spleen in the ad-hominem nastiness of a book review, in the arsenic of a footnote.  He will vent his resentments in the soft betrayals of an ambiguous recommendation or examination report and in the scorpion's round of a committee on tenure.  The violence stays formal.  Not, one supposes, in Professor Blunt.
 * "The Cleric of Treason"

Real Presences (1989)
The University of Chicago Press, 1989, ISBN 0-226-77234-9

I: A Secondary City

 * We speak still of "sunrise" and "sunset." We do so as if the Copernican model of the solar system had not replaced, ineradicably, the Ptolemaic.  Vacant metaphors, eroded figures of speech, inhabit our vocabulary and grammar.  They are caught, tenaciously, in the scaffolding and recesses of our common parlance.  There they rattle about like old rags or ghosts in the attic.
 * Ch. 1 (p. 3).

 * Where God clings to our culture, to our routines of discourse, He is a phantom of grammar, a fossil embedded in the childhood of rational speech. So Nietzsche (and many after him).

This essay argues the reverse.

It proposes that any coherent understanding of what language is and how language performs, that any coherent account of the capacity of human speech to communicate meaning and feeling is, in the final analysis, underwritten by the assumption of God's presence.
 * Ch. 1 (p. 3).

 * The private reader of listener can become an executant of felt meaning when he learns the poem or the musical passage by heart. To learn by heart is to afford the text or music an indwelling clarity and life-force.
 * Ch. 3 (p. 9).

 * All serious art, music, literature is a critical act. It is so, firstly, in the sense of Matthew Arnold's phrase: "a criticism of life."  Be it realistic, fantastic, Utopian or satiric, the construct of the artist is a counter-statement to the world.
 * Ch. 4 (p. 11).

 * Literature and the arts are also criticism in a more particular and practical sense. They embody an expository reflection on, a value judgement of, the inheritance and context to which they pertain.
 * Ch. 4 (p. 11).

 * The journalistic vision sharpens to the point of maximum impact every event, every individual and social configuration; but the honing is uniform.
 * Ch. 6 (p. 27).

 * What worthwhile book after the Pentateuch has been written by a committee?
 * Ch. 6 (p. 36).

 * To a degree which is difficult to determine, the esoteric impulse in twentieth-century music, literature and the arts reflects calculation. It looks to the flattery of academic and hermeneutic notice.  Reciprocally, the academy turns towards that which appears to require its exegetic, cryptographic skills.
 * Ch. 6 (p. 38).

II: The Broken Contract

 * Anything can be said and, in consequence, written about anything.
 * Ch. 1 (p. 53).

 * Talk can neither be verified nor falsified in any rigorous sense. This is an open secret which hermeneutics and aesthetics, from Aristotle to Croce, have laboured to exorcise or to conceal from themselves and their clients.  This ontological, which is to say both primordial and essential axiom (or platitude) of ineradicable undecidability needs, none the less, to be closely argued.
 * Ch. 2 (p. 61).

 * Those who proclaim and apply to poetic works a "theory of criticism," a "theoretical hermeneutic" are, today, the masters of the academy and the exemplars in the high gossip of arts and letters. Indeed, they have clarioned "the triumph of the theoretical."  They are, in truth, either deceiving themselves or purloining from the immense prestige and confidence of science and technology an instrument ontologically inapplicable to their own material.  They would enclose water in a sieve.

Two indispensable criteria must be satisfied by theory; verifiability or falsifiability by means of experiment and predictive application. There are in art and poetics no crucial experiments, no litmus-paper tests. There can be no verifiable deductions entailing predictable consequences in the very concrete sense in which a scientific theory carries predictive force.
 * Ch. 3 (p. 75).

 * In aesthetic discourse, no interpretative-critical analysis, doctrine or programme is superseded, is erased, by any later construction. The Copernican theory did correct and supersede that of Ptolemy.  The chemistry of Lavoisier makes untenable the early phlogiston  theory.  Aristotle on mimesis and pathos is not superseded by Lessing or Bergson.  The Surrealist manifestos of Breton do not cancel out Pope's Essay on Criticism though they may well be antithetical to it.
 * Ch. 3 (p. 76).

 * A sentence always means more. Even a single word, within the weave of incommensurable connotation, can, and usually does.
 * Ch. 4 (p. 82).

 * Almost alone among cognitive-aesthetic movements and strategies of interpretation, deconstruction neither champions any body of past literature or art, nor does it act as vanguard or advocate for any contemporary or incipient school. The New Criticism and T. S. Eliot strove for the revaluation of Metaphysical poetry so as to underwrite, in turn, certain tactics of modenity.  Aristotle was advocate for Sophocles.  Deconstruction is, intentionally, marginal (a key trope) to all histories of taste and manifestos for innovation.
 * Ch. 7 (p. 117).

 * Even where it is manipulated by major talents, deconstruction tends to bear either on marginal texts (Sade, Lautréamont), or on secondary work by a great writer (Barthes on Balzac's Sarrazine). The classics of deconstruction, in Jacques Derrida or Paul De Man, are "misreadings" not of literature but of philosophy; they address themselves to philosophical linguistics and the theory of language.  The masks they seek to strip off are those worn by Plato, by Hegel, by Rousseau, by  Nietszche or Saussure. Deconstruction has nothing to tell us of Aeschylus or Dante, of Shakespeare or Tolstoy.
 * Ch. 8 (p. 128).

III: Presences

 * Do the identifications with fictions, the inner, tidal motions of pathos and libido which the novel, the film, the painting, the symphony unleash within us somehow immunize us against the humbler, less formed, but actual claims of suffering and of need in our surroundings? Does the cry in the tragic play muffle, even blot out, the cry in the street?
 * Ch. 1 (p. 144).

 * Self-projection is, more often than not, the move of the minor craftsman, of the tactics of the hour whose inherent weakness is, precisely, that of originality.
 * Ch. 3 (p. 170).

 * Though acts of reception and of understanding are in some measure fictions of ordered intuition, myths of reason, this truth does not justify the denial of intentional conduct.  It is as absurd to discard as mendacious, as anarchically opaque, the bearing of contextual probability and suggestion, as it is to invest in such probability any blind trust.  The negations of post-structuralism and of certain varieties of deconstruction are precisely as dogmatic, as political as were the positivist equations of archival historicism.  The "emptiness of meaning" postulate is no less a priori, no less a case of despotic reductionism than were, say, the axioms of  economic and psycho-sociological causality in regard to the generation of meaning in literature and the arts in turn-of-the-century pragmatism and scientism.
 * Ch. 3 (pp. 174-175).

 * Cheap music, childish images, the vulgate in language, in its crassest sense, can penetrate to the deeps of our necessities and dreams. It can assert irrevocable tenure there.  The opening bars, the hammer-beat accelerando of Edith Piaf's Je ne regrette rien — the text is infantile, the tune stentorian, and the politics which enlisted the song unattractive — tempt every nerve in me, touch the bone with a cold burn and draw me into God knows what infidelities to reason, each time I hear the song, and hear it, uncalled for, recurrent inside me.
 * Ch. 4 (p. 183).

 * To starve a child of the spell of the story, of the canter of the poem, oral or written, is a kind of living burial. It is to immure him in emptiness.
 * Ch. 4 (pp. 190-191).

 * For many human beings, religion has been the music which they believe in.
 * Ch. 6 (p. 218).

 * For it is a plain fact that, most certainly in the West, the writings, works of art, musical compositions which are of central reference, comport that which is "grave and constant" (Joyce's epithets) in the mystery of our condition.
 * Ch. 6 (p. 224).

 * The Oresteia, King Lear, Dostoevsky's The Devils no less than the art of Giotto or the Passions of Bach, inquire into, dramatize, the relations of man and woman to the existence of the gods or of God.
 * Ch. 6 (p. 225).

 * What I affirm is the intuition that where God's presence is no longer a tenable supposition and where His absence is no longer a felt, indeed overwhelming weight, certain dimensions of thought and creativity are no longer attainable. And I would vary Yeats's axiom so as to say:  no man can read fully, can answer answeringly to the aesthetic, whose "nerve and blood" are at peace in sceptical rationality, are now at home in immanence and verification.  We must read as if.
 * Ch. 7 (p. 229).

Proofs (1992)

 * I am and remain a Marxist. Because otherwise I could not be a proofreader… If California triumphs, there will be no need of proofreaders. Machines will do it better. Or all texts will be audiovisual, with self-correctors built in. Night after night after night, Carlo, I work till my brain aches. So as to get it absolutely right… Getting it right. The holiness of it. The self-respect. Gran Dio, Carlo, you must see what I'm driving at. Utopia simply means getting it right! Communism means taking the errata out of history. Out of man. Reading proofs.
 * Chapter VIII

Do Books Matter?

 * Women began their inner emancipation by their access to literature, by access to the world through books; an access they could not have socially or politically, or of course economically, in the world at large.
 * Do Books Matter? (ed. Brian Baumfield), ISBN 0705700143, p. 19
 * In the United States dramatically, here fortunately much less so, the book store as we have known it is dying. In the United States it is now largely an emporium, featuring music, records, Christmas cards, a large range fo semi-cultural and kitsch products with books fighting for their actual spatial lives. In some of the great university towns such as New Haven, or Princeton, within the past decade, the last good book stores have had to close, and what we have now are text book emporia which are not book stores, but store-houses bracketed according to set reading lists: in other words—where there is none of the genius of waste which a great book store has, where you cannot find what you are not looking for, which is the very essence of a book store.
 * Do Books Matter? (ed. Brian Baumfield), ISBN 0705700143, p. 27.

 * That is to say that every single book will be magnetized, will be ordered under complicated mathematical clusters, by related subjects, and semantic markers. You will state your questions, or the subject you are interested in, and the computer will find the books for you. Instataneous retrieval brings with it enormous changes in our relation to the history of a subject, because there is a cut-off point in all these systems beond which the previous books are no longer relevant. They have been adequately subsumed in the later ones. You have a completely different way of organsing knowledge—an immensely efficient and in many ways powerfully logical way, but which blocks the essential motion of the hand reaching along a shelf and stumbling on what it did not know was there. When these great knowledge and data-banks, as they are called, are operative there will come a whole change in the way the human mind and eye live with books.
 * Do Books Matter? (ed. Brian Baumfield), ISBN 0705700143, p. 28.

Quotes about

 * George Steiner, speaking of writing under totalitarian rule, calls for the writer to stop writing 'a few miles down the road from the death camp... when the words in the city are full of savagery and lies, nothing speaks louder than the unwritten poem'.
 * Nadine Gordimer "When Art Meets Politics" (1999)

title: George Steiner


text:
Talk:Charles Darwin

Small Inaccuracy

 * There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
 * Close of the First edition. After the controversies generated by his book, the sixth edition here included the phrase "by the Creator" to read:
 * There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.

I have the fifth edition (1869) in front of me, and this edition already has the addition of the phrase "by the creator". In the table of additions and corrections (pp. xi - xiii), there is no mention of the addition of this phrase subsequent to the fourth edition.

--- I've checked Darwin Online. In fact the phrase "by the Creator" is in editions 2 through 6. I've changed the page to reflect this. DanStyer (talk) 00:55, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

The Strongest Of The Species
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but rather the one most responsive to change."

This quote appears to be dicey and despite being all over the internet is not found in a primary source. Ryz 17:32, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I have just found an earlier source than was previously found [Improving the Quality of Life for the Black Elderly: Challenges and Opportunities : Hearing before the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, One Hundredth Congress, first session, September 25, 1987 (1988)] attributing it to Clarence Darrow, who seems a more likely author, as it seems a paraphrase of some of Darwin's ideas, and have moved it to the misattributed section. ~ Kalki 17:47, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Lost quote
I'm looking for a quote that I read several months ago, but can no longer find. I think it was on Wikiquote, most likely this page, although I can't be sure. The quote was by Charles Darwin, stating roughly that natural selection is a scientific theory, while evolution is conjecture. Can anyone help me find the quote? –Cúthalion (talk) 14:32, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Proposed merge from The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms
I am reinstating the tag suggesting that "Worms" be merged into this article. Below is a copy of comments from various user_talk pages, assembled in chronological order, to facilitate coherent discussion of the proposal in one place:

[start of copied discussion]
I confess I have an ulterior motive for preferring this approach: I often feel the desire to "cover the thesis" myself. Working within the context of an author page helps one to focus on selecting the most widely quoted, most remarkably quotable passages, and to resist the temptation to create a condensed edition of a whole work. ~ Ningauble 14:07, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * [To User talk:Ningauble.] Why did you merge this page without notifying me or giving any explanation on any talk page or in any edit summary? Do you have any particular reason why I shouldn't unmerge it? Please reply on my talk page. Richard001 07:45, 10 February 2009 (UTC)
 * [To User talk: Richard001.] Sorry if I was a bit hasty, I should have dropped you a note. The merge was originally proposed by UDScott (dif) and I thought it was a good idea. We typically collect quotes from an author in a single article, and break out the works if the main article becomes too large. For a major influential figure like Darwin, a single article showing the range and depth of his ideas is a very good thing. That said, the practice at Wikiquote is by no means consistent.
 * [To User talk:Ningauble.] In this case the page I started was fairly clearly incomplete, yet it was still too long for a merge. Imagine what would happen if every book of his had such a section. Now, maybe I misunderstand what Wikiquote is for, but why do you say "and to resist the temptation to create a condensed edition of a whole work."? What's wrong with doing that? It's exactly what I was trying to do (along with, ideally, some quotes from reviews etc about the book, though I'm doubtful if I'll add any myself). Unless the quotes added have to be widely quoted in independent sources, it seems enough that the book itself is notable. Perhaps you could point me to a guideline if this isn't the case. Richard001 06:14, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * [To User talk: UDScott.] If you'd like to give your reasons for adding a merge tag to this article please edit my talk page. For now I have undone the merge you suggested, for failure of anyone to provide a good reason for it. Judging by the way both of you acted it seems like you felt the merge was obviously necessary, so perhaps I have missed something. Richard001 06:19, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * [To User talk:Ningauble.] Also, regarding formatting, isn't adding a whole new line just to say which page the quote came from a bit excessive? If Wikiquote is really pedantic about that sort of thing I guess I'll have to format it this way, but it seems especially unnecessary in this case. Richard001 06:27, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * [To User talk: Richard001.] Re. your response at my talk page: I think there is a qualitative difference to be recognized between Wikiquote's objective of a "collection of notable quotations" and your stated intention for a "condensed edition of a whole work." Don't you agree? ~ Ningauble 03:19, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
 * [To User talk: UDScott.] Note the discussion started previously on my talk page and Richard001's talk page. I believe I am at fault for acting on your merge proposal without preliminary discussion, but it also appears that my explanation or my thinking is unclear. Would you care to share your thoughts? ~ Ningauble 03:23, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
 * [To User talk:Ningauble.] I don't agree because you're misquoting the page. It says "We limit ourselves to quotations which are notable. A quotation can be notable either because it has achieved fame by itself, but more usually because it was said by someone notable, or appeared in a notable work." It doesn't say anywhere that the quotations themselves have to be notable. Richard001 07:15, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
 * [To User talk: UDScott.] Actually I believe that you have properly stated the reasons for the merge proposal. My original intent in placing the tag was that, as you stated, we usually try to capture quotes from a literary work on the author's page (unless the work itself is so notable and has so many notable quotes that it deserves its own page - think Charles Dickens. But in this case, I highly doubt that there are that many notable quotes from this work. Many of the quotes shown here do not meet what I would call a threshold of notability, but instead are more technical in nature and it is dubious that they would be considered memorable by most. Ultimately, I feel that it would be better to have these quotes on Darwin's page, and that they be pared down to a smaller set that are truly memorable. ~ UDScott 13:37, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

[end of copied discussion]
Well none of this is clear from WQ:WQ. I guess WQ:N is a bit clearer on the matter. If you just want quotes that other people have quoted from the book, some could be obtained from Desmond and Moore and other sources; I can probably do this myself if you like. If this is the case then the book, despite being notable enough for Wikipedia, will have to be largely ignored here and two or three quotes from it placed in a small section on this page. What we really need is a wiki where synopses, extensive quotes etc from a work are appropriate, though I doubt one will ever exist. Richard001 00:54, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE/EXISTENCE
I added a quote from Chapter III, p 61, about the metaphorical meaning Darwin gave to this expression. It should be a notable quote if it isn't already.

Size of page
I think we're trying to do too much with one page. There doesn't seem to be any use of summary style. We probably need four or more 'subpages' to cover the subject well. Books like Origin and Descent of Man should have their own page, and perhaps others could be somewhat arbitrarily grouped together like the subarticles on Darwin at WP. That's what I think should be the goal anyway. Might be a while before anyone does anything. Richard001 01:09, 4 October 2009 (UTC
 * deleted info on survival of species, all was correct, is there one person who can control these vandals?

real quotes?
"The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology, and biology is thus in the peculiar position of being a science founded on an improved theory, is it then a science or faith?"

“I was a young man with uninformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.”

Explain a change
This page used to have a quote that "I feel most deeply that this whole question of Creation is too profound for human intellect. A dog might as well speculate on the mind of Newton! Let each man hope and believe what he can." attributed to London Illustrated News (21 April 1862).

This is a suspicious quote: (1) Darwin wrote a very similar thing in a letter to Asa Gray, quoted later in this page. (2) The journal name is actually "Illustrated London News", not "London Illustrated News". (3) Darwin rarely spoke of "Creation". But for me, the kicker is (4) The Illustrated London News was published on Saturdays, (see http://www.iln.org.uk/iln_years/year/1862.htm ), but 21 April 1862 was a Monday.

For these reasons, I have deleted that quote. But I have bolded the corresponding sentence in the letter to Asa Gray.

DanStyer (talk) 00:41, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

 * The given source "London Illustrated News (21 April 1862)" was probably taken from Famous Quotes from 100 Great People (2011). Otherwise, I could find that quote as far back as 1906, but your concerns seem valid. ~ DanielTom (talk) 00:50, 18 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I put the apparently paraphrased version into a comment below that more well documented quote, simply to clarify its probable origin as a paraphrase. ~ ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 01:24, 18 April 2013 (UTC)

 * I have searched the Historical Archive of the Illustrated London News (1842-2003). (Thanks to Gale Digital Collections for the free trial!)  There were six articles that contained all three words "darwin" and "dog" and "newton".  None of them contained the quote in question. DanStyer (talk) 01:14, 19 April 2013 (UTC)

Personal Opinions and Personal Interpretations added to the article
I was wondering, are we allowed to add our own opinions, or own interpretations or own perceptions on Darwin's book?? There is a quote by Mahatma Ghandi stating:
 * "A seeker after Truth cannot afford to indulge in generalisation.Darwin for the greater part of his book Origin of the Species [sic] has simply massed fact upon fact without any theorising, and only towards the end has formulated his conclusion which, because of the sheer weight of testimony behind it, becomes almost irresistible. Yes I have criticised even Darwin's generalisation as being unwarranted."~ Mahatma Ghandi

Then, there is a comment added by a user which wrote a comment right under the quote by Mahatma Ghandi. The user added: "Anyone reading On the Origin of Species will realize that Ghandi was mistaken in more than the book's title. Darwin amasses fact in each of the book's 14 chapters, but the theorizing begins in chapter 3 and continues, mixed with fact presentation, for the rest of the book" Obviously, this is by no means a neutral comment, and by no means encyclopedic insofar as it is not saying what people believe, but saying "what is so." It is implying that "anyone" disagreeing with Darwin's view has not read his book, or that anyone who has read the Origin, must agree with the user and disagree with Ghandi. Yet, I've known of a number of people and figures who have read Darwin's book and had the same impression Ghandi had. But, then, are we allowed, as WikiUsers, to add our own interpretations or views or opinions? Are we allowed to dismiss the quotes of someone with whom we diseagree and defend those with whom we agree? Wasn't this supposed to be a repository of quotes without our personal remarks of those quotes? Because if we are not allowed (as I am sure Wikiquote guidelines state), that comment should be removed and we should let each person decide.abr>Yet, that is not the only comment there. There are many others like these, which completely break the policy of Neutral point of view. There are similar remarks in the article (all in favor of Darwin, and all dismissing Darwin's critics as mistaken fools): Wikiquote is not a place for essays, it it? All those remarks are Value judgment and I wonder what they are doing in an article that is meant to be encyclopedic and neutral. Wikiquote is meant to be neutral in everything, but those statements are prejudicedly, a priori, in favor of those who praise Darwin, and against all critics.--Goose friend (talk) 21:49, 11 January 2015 (UTC)
 * "An example of the misconception countered in three quotes above" under a quote by Michael Behe
 * "Another example of misconceptions countered above" in another quote of the same author.
 * "(If it were true that "a theory of historical reconstruction … is impossible to verify", then this truth would invalidate not only evolution, but also all of forensic science.) (It took Darwin twenty-one years (from 1838 to 1859) to develop the core of the theory of evolution, and the theory keeps developing even to the present day. No one considers it "self-evident".)"
 * (Note that Denton's objections, made in 1986, had already been answered by Huxley in 1860!
 * Though "absolute neutrality" or "absolute objectivity" are things I tend to regard as convenient fictions or delusions of rather casual thought processes, many of the comments you have pointed out were clearly highly prejudicial editorializing, rather than the simple provision of relevant information. I was attending to your concerns by removing many of these, and ran into an unfortunate edit conflict with you on the page. I believe I preserved your additions as well as my alterations in the subsequent edit. I probably won't be around much longer, but had just been browsing around on a few things to do before leaving, and decided to attend to the problem before doing so. ~ ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 22:30, 11 January 2015 (UTC)

Clearing up Quotes about Darwin
Should we further categorize the quotes about Darwin? The section is full of both attacks and exaltations on his work, on his character, and on the science that has developed from his work. Maybe subcategorizing the quotes into "Quotes about On the Origin of Species" and "Quotes about Charles Darwin" would be best, cutting out commentary on evolution without reference to Darwin. We could also split into Quotes Critical of X" and another category, with X=either Darwin or Origin. --184.59.93.172 17:51, 12 February 2016 (UTC)

Netflix series quote 'idea that would outrage society'
I started watching a new Netflix series about genetic engineering called 'Unnatural Selection'. I noticed that near the beginning it prominently featured a quote attributed to Charles Darwin: "If you had an idea that would outrage society would you keep it to yourself?" I doubt whether this is a genuine quote from Darwin, because: a) on searching Google for the text I didn't find any examples with an actual reference to Darwin's works, letters, etc. b)  I am fairly familiar with Darwin's work, but I don't recall this quotation c) the language of the quote doesn't seem right for the period, or for Darwin.  The word 'outrage' was sometimes used as a verb in Victorian England, e.g. to 'outrage decency' or to 'outrage public morality' (examples given in Murray's New English Dictionary), but to 'outrage society' sounds more like a 20th century phrase.  Also, the use of 'you' instead of 'one' is surprising. I suspect that like some other bogus quotes this one originates in a work about (not by) Darwin, and has got mistakenly attributed to him.  But I can't be sure of this.  Can anyone here confirm or refute it?2A00:23C8:7907:4B01:9110:CA24:87BC:6FB9 10:54, 22 August 2021 (UTC) [Added:  I think I've found a likely source for the 'quote'.  It was used in publicity material for an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London in 2009 on 'Darwin's Big Idea'. See an image here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)61796-1/fulltext  But it is not actually described as a quote from Darwin himself. Note also that the photo of Darwin accompanying it is clearly a mock-up. ] 2A00:23C8:7907:4B01:E4F0:CB7C:16B1:1763 11:51, 22 August 2021 (UTC)

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

title: Talk:Charles Darwin


text:
Joseph Fourier

Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (March 21, 1768 – May 16, 1830) was a French mathematician and physicist who is best known for initiating the investigation of Fourier series and their application to problems of heat flow. The Fourier transform is also named in his honor.

 * See also: The Analytic Theory of Heat

The Analytical Theory of Heat (1822, Tr. 1878)

 * Tr. Alexander Freeman, of Fourier's Théorie Analytique de la Chaleur (1822) Full text online

Considered from this point of view, mathematical analysis is as extensive as nature itself; it defines all perceptible relations, measures times, spaces, forces, temperatures; this difficult science is formed slowly, but it preserves every principle which it has once acquired; it grows and strengthens itself incessantly in the midst of the many variations and errors of the human mind. Its chief attribute is clearness; it has no marks to express confused notions. It brings together phenomena the most diverse, and discovers the hidden analogies which unite them.
 * The analytical equations, unknown to the ancient geometers, which Descartes was the first to introduce into the study of curves and surfaces, are not restricted to the properties of figures, and to those properties which are the object of rational mechanics; they extend to all general phenomena. There cannot be a language more universal and more simple, more free from errors and from obscurities, that is to say more worthy to express the invariable relations of natural things.
 * Preliminary Discourse, p.7 Note: often quoted as Mathematics [or mathematical analysis] compares the most diverse phenomena and discovers the secret analogies that unite them.

 * Primary causes are unknown to us; but are subject to simple and constant laws, which may be discovered by observation, the study of them being the object of natural philosophy. Heat, like gravity, penetrates every substance of the universe, its rays occupy all parts of space. The object of our work is to set forth the mathematical laws which this element obeys. The theory of heat will hereafter form one of the most important branches of general physics.
 * Ch. 1, p. 1

 * If we consider further the manifold relations of this mathematical theory to civil uses and the technical arts, we shall recognize completely the extent of its applications. It is evident that it includes an entire series of distinct phenomena, and that the study of it cannot be omitted without losing a notable part of the science of nature. The principles of the theory are derived, as are those of rational mechanics, from a very small number of primary facts, the causes of which are not considered by geometers, but which they admit as the results of common observations confirmed by all experiment.
 * Ch. 1, p. 6

 * Profound study of nature is the most fertile source of mathematical discoveries.
 * Ch. 1, p. 7

"On the Temperatures of the Terrestrial Sphere and the Planetary Spaces" (1827, Tr. 1837)

 * American Journal of Science, &c., Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 1-20. Tr. of Fourier's paper "M´emoire sur les Temp´eratures du Globe Terrestre et des Espaces Plan´etaires" (1827) Full text online.

 * The question of terrestrial temperature, one of the most remarkable and difficult in natural philosophy... I have... condensed in a single essay... the results of this theory. The analytical details... I have already published. I was specially desirous of presenting... a complete view of the phenomena and the mathematical relations... between them.

1. ...[S]olar rays; the unequal distribution of which causes diversities of climate. 2. ...[T]he common temperature of the planetary spaces; being exposed to the radiation from the innumerable stars which surround the solar system. 3. The earth preserves in its interior that primitive heat which it had at the time of the first formation of the planets. ...We will show ...the principle features of these phenomena.
 * The heat of the earth is derived from three sources...

 * The solar system is situated in a region of the universe, every point of which has a common and constant temperature, determined by the rays of light and heat which proceed from the surrounding stars. This low temperature is a little below that of the polar regions of the earth.

 * The earth would have only the same temperature as the heavens, were it not for two causes... One is the internal heat... possessed at its formation... only dissipated through the surface; the other is the continued action of the solar rays... which produce at the surface, the diversities of climate.

 * Liquids are very poor conductors of heat; but they have, like aeriform media, the property of carrying it rapidly in certain directions. This is the same property which, combining with, combining with the centrifugal force, displaces and mingles all parts of the atmosphere... [and] ocean, and maintains in them, regular and immense currents.

 * The interposition of the air very much modifies the effects of the heat upon the surface of the globe. The solar rays traversing the atmospheric strata, which are condensed by their own weight [at decreasing altitudes], heat them very unequally; those which are rarest are likewise coldest, because they... absorb a smaller part of the rays. The heat of the sun... in the form of light, possesses the property of penetrating transparent solids or liquids, and loses this property... when by... terrestrial bodies, it is turned into heat radiating without light.

 * This distinction of luminous and non-luminous heat, explains the elevation of temperature caused by transparent bodies.

Thus the solar heat has accumulated in the interior of the globe and is... continually renewed.
 * We shall describe... the principal results of the prolonged action of the solar rays upon the terrestrial globe. ...[T]he state of the mass has varied continually in proportion to the heat received. This variable... internal temperature... has approached... nearer to a final state... subject to no change. Then each point of the solid sphere has acquired, and preserves... a fixed temperature, which depends only on the situation of the point... The final state of the mass, the heat of which has penetrated all... parts, can... be compared to... a vessel which receives by openings at the top, liquid from some constant source, and permits exactly an equal quantity to escape by orifices.

In this hypothesis of the absolute cold of space, all the effects of heat... at the surface of the earth, should be attributed to... the sun. The least variance in... [its] distance... from the earth, would occassion... considerable changes in temperature. The interruption of day and night would produce effects sudden... [B]odies, would be exposed... at commencement of night, to a cold of infinite intensity. Animals and vegetables could not resist... the sudden and powerful change... produced at the rising of the sun.
 * We... now consider the second cause of terrestrial heat, which... resides in the planetary spaces. ...[A]scertain what would be the thermometrical state of the terrestrial mass, if it received only the heat of the sun. To facilitate... first leave the atmosphere out of the account. ...[I]f the earth and all the bodies of the solar system, were placed in space deprived of all heat ...The polar regions would be subject to intense cold and the decrease of temperature from... equator to... poles would be incomparably more rapid and extended.

 * The primitive heat... in the interior of the earth would not increase the external temperature of space... for... the effect of this central heat has long since become insensible at the surface, although it may be very great at a moderate depth.

 * We conclude... that there exists a physical cause always present which modifies the temperature at the surface of the earth, and gives this planet a fundamental heat, which is... independent of the action of the sun and that internal heat preserved... It is to be attributed to the radiation from all the bodies in the universe, whose light and heat can reach us... rays which penetrate every part of the planetary regions... [A]ny point of space whatever which contains these bodies acquires a fixed temperature.

 * This temperature of space is not the same in different regions of the universe; but it does not vary in the regions... [of] planetary bodies... [T]he planets of our system... equally participate in the common temperature... augmented for each... by the rays of the sun, according to the distance of the planet from... [it]. ...The intensity and distribution of heat on the surface of these bodies results from the distance from the sun, the inclination of the axes of rotation to the orbit, and the state of the surface...

 * From the constitution of the solar system it is... probable that the temperature of the poles... are a little less than that of space... the same for all... although the distances from the sun may be unequal.

 * It is difficult to know how far the atmosphere influences the mean temperature of the globe... It is to... M. de Saussure that we are indebted for a capital experiment which appears to throw... light on this... The theory of the instrument is... 1st... the acquired heat is concentrated, because it is not dissipated immediately by renewing the air; 2d, that the heat of the sun, has properties different from those of [invisible] heat... The rays... are transmitted in considerable quantity through the glass plates... They heat the air and the partitions which contain it. Their heat thus communicated ceased to be luminous, and preserves only the properties of non-luminous radiating heat. In this state it cannot pass through the plate of glass covering the vessel. ...It is necessary to consider attentively this order of facts, and the results of the calculus when we would ascertain the influence of the atmosphere and waters upon the thermometrical state of our globe.

 * [I]f all the strata of air of... the atmosphere... preserved their density with their transparency, and lost only the mobility... peculiar to them, this mass of air, thus become solid, on being exposed to the rays of the sun, would produce an effect the same in kind... [as] just described.

 * The mobility of the air, which is rapidly displaced... and... rises when heated... diminish the intensity of the effects... [of] a transparent and solid atmosphere, but do not entirely change their character.

 * We shall now consider that peculiar heat which our globe had at the time of the formation of the planets, and which continues to be dissipated at the surface under the influence of the low temperature of the planetary space.

Quotes about Fourier

 * In a military school directed by monks, the minds of the pupils necessarily waver only between two careers in life—the church and the sword. Like Descartes, Fourier wished to be a soldier; like that philosopher he would doubtless have found the life of a garrison very wearisome. But he was not permitted to make the experiment. His demand to undergo the examination for the artillery, although strongly supported by our illustrious colleague Legendre, was rejected with a severity of expression of which you may judge yourselves: "Fourier," replied the minister, "not being noble, could not enter the artillery, although he were a second Newton."
 * François Arago, Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men (1857) Tr. William Henry Smyth, Baden Powell & Robert Grant

 * Fourier's analytical theory of heat (final form, 1822), devised in the Galileo-Newton tradition of controlled observation plus mathematics, is the ultimate source of much modern work in the theory of functions of a real variable and in the critical examination of the foundation of mathematics.
 * Eric Temple Bell, The Development of Mathematics (1940) p. 165

 * At the age of twenty-one he went to Paris to read before the Academy of Sciences a memoir on the resolution of numerical equations, which was an improvement on Newton's method of approximation. This investigation of his early youth he never lost sight of. He lectured upon it... he developed it... it constituted a part of a work entitled Analyse des equations determines (1831), which was in press when death overtook him. This work contained "Fourier's theorem" on the number of real roots between two chosen limits. Budan had published this result as early as 1807, but there is evidence to show that Fourier had established it before Budan's publication. These brilliant results were eclipsed by the theorem of Sturm, published in 1835.
 * Florian Cajori, A History of Mathematics (1893)

 * Fourier took a prominent part at his home in promoting the Revolution. Under the French Revolution the arts and sciences seemed for a time to flourish. ...The Normal School was created in 1795, of which Fourier became at first pupil, then lecturer. His brilliant success secured him a chair in the Polytechnic School, the duties of which he afterwards quitted, along with Monge and Berthollet, to accompany Napoleon on his campaign to Egypt. Napoleon founded the Institute of Egypt, of which Fourier became secretary. In Egypt he engaged not only in scientific work, but discharged important political functions. ...In 1827 Fourier succeeded Laplace as president of the council of the Polytechnic School.
 * Florian Cajori, A History of Mathematics (1893)

 * He carried on his elaborate investigations on the propagation of heat in solid bodies, published in 1822 in his work entitled La Theorie Analytique de la Chaleur. This work marks an epoch in the history of mathematical physics. "Fourier's series" constitutes its gem. By this research a long controversy was brought to a close, and the fact established that any arbitrary function can be represented by a trigonometric series. The first announcement of this great discovery was made by Fourier in 1807 before the French Academy. The trigonometric series $$\sum_{n=0}^{n=\infty} (a_n\sin nx+b_n\cos nx)$$ represents the function $$\phi(x)$$ for every value of $$x$$ if the coefficients $$a_n = \frac{1}{\pi}\int_{-\pi}^{\pi}\phi(x) \sin nx\,dx$$, and $$b_n$$ be equal to a similar integral. The weak point in Fourier's analysis lies in his failure to prove generally that the trigonometric series actually converges to the value of the function.
 * Florian Cajori, A History of Mathematics (1893)

 * It is true that M. Fourier had the opinion that the principal end of mathematics was the public utility and the explanation of natural phenomena; but such a philosopher as he is should have known that the unique end of science is the honor of the human mind, and that from this point of view a question of number is as important as a question of the system of the world.
 * Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, Letter to Legendre (July 2, 1830) in response to Fourier's report to the Paris Academy Science that mathematics should be applied to the natural sciences, as quoted in Science (March 10, 1911) Vol. 33, p.359, with additional citations and dates from H. Pieper, "Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi," Mathematics in Berlin (2012) p.46

title: Joseph Fourier


text:
User talk:149.152.23.25

~ MosheZadka (Talk) 04:26, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:149.152.23.25


text:
User:Blaite

de:Benutzer:Blaite fr:Utilisateur:Blaite

title: User:Blaite


text:
Eben Moglen

Eben Moglen (né le 13 juillet 1959) is a professor of law and history of law at Columbia University, serves pro bono as General Counsel for the Free Software Foundation, and is the Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center.

Sourced

 * The great moral question of the twenty-first century is this: if all knowledge, all culture, all art, all useful information can be costlessly given to everyone at the same price that it is given to anyone; if everyone can have everything, anywhere, all the time, why is it ever moral to exclude anyone?
 * The DotCommunist Manifesto, UNC-Chapel Hill, Howard W. Odum Institute, November 8, 2001.

The crucial operating premise of the Free Software Movement as a revolutionary politic is: Proof of Concept plus Running code. Here. We did it already. It's sort of working. If you take a copy and help us fix it, it could really be something. Here. You want it? Take it. We like it. It's Free.
 * We are a non-utopian political movement. We are not interested in going nowhere. We are not interested in going to some place we have never been, which we will get to after the revolution because people will be different.
 * Talk at Seattle University, March 13 2009

 * I think Larry is right to notice that the contradictions are catching the allies up already. It's one of those cases where even before you begin bombing the children, the coalition is falling apart. And that's good news. And I'm very much in favor of it. Some Powell or other is messing up the war.
 * Panel on Public Domain at Duke University Law School, November 10, 2001.

 * The Entertainment Industry on Planet Earth had decided that in order to acquire Layer 7 Data Security, it was necessary to lock up layers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 so that no technological progress could occur without their permission. This was known by the IT Industry and the Consumer Electronics Industry on the planet to be offensive nonsense, but there was no counterweight to it, and there was no organised consumer dissent sufficient to require them to stand up for technical merit and their own right to run their own businesses without dictation from companies a tenth their size. Not surprisingly, since it is part of the role we play in this political power concentrated in poverty, humility, and sanctity, we brought them to a consensus they were unable to bring themselves to - which is represented in the license by a rule which fundamentally says "If you want to experiment with locking down layer below 7 in the pursuit of data networks inside businesses that keep the business's data at home, you may do so freely, we have no objection - not only do we have no objection to you doing it, we've no objection to your using our parts to do it with. But when you use our parts to build machines which control peoples' daily lives - which provide them with education and culture, build devices which are modifiable by them to the same extent that they're modifiable by you. That's all we want. If you can modify the device after you give it to them, then they must be able to modify the device after you give it to them - that's a price for using our parts. That's a deal which has been accepted.
 * Talk titled The Global Software Industry in Transformation: After GPLv3, Edinburgh, Scotland, June 26, 2007.

 * You could make a good case that the history of social life is about the history of the technology of memory. That social order and control, structure of governance, social cohesion in states or organizations larger than face-to- face society depends on the nature of the technology of memory--both how it works and what it remembers...  In short, what societies value is what they memorize, and how they memorize it, and who has access to its memorized form determines the structure of power that the society represents and acts from.
 * Talk titled "Freedom Business" @ The O'Reilly Media MySQL Conference, 2007-04-25.

 * The difference is, this time, we win.
 * Varied closing line in many speeches

title: Eben Moglen


text:
King Kong (1933 film)

King Kong is a 1933 film about a gigantic prehistoric gorilla named Kong, brought from remote Skull Island to New York City to be exhibited as a natural wonder, who escapes and causes massive destruction.
 * Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack. Written by James Ashmore Creelman and Ruth Rose, based on a story by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace.

The Most Awesome Thriller Of All Time! · Taglines
 * See also: King Kong, King Kong (1976 film) & King Kong (2005 film)

Carl Denham

 * It's money and adventure and fame. It's the thrill of a lifetime and a long sea voyage that starts at six o'clock tomorrow morning.
 * You won't find that island on any chart. That was made by the skipper of a Norwegian barque...A canoe full of natives from this island was blown out to sea. When the barque picked them up, there was only one alive. He died before they reached port, but not before the skipper had pieced together a description of the island and got a fairly good idea of where it lies.
 * I'd have got a swell picture of a charging rhino but the cameraman got scared. The darned fool, I was right there with a rifle. Seems he didn't trust me to get the rhino before it got him. I haven't fooled with cameramen since, I do it myself.
 * Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here tonight to tell you a very strange story — a story so strange that no one will believe it — but, ladies and gentlemen, seeing is believing. And we — my partners and I — have brought back the living proof of our adventure, an adventure in which twelve of our party met horrible death. And now, ladies and gentlemen, before I tell you any more, I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a king and a god in the world he knew, but now he comes to civilization merely a captive — a show to gratify your curiosity. Ladies and gentlemen, look at Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World.
 * I want to introduce Miss Ann Darrow; the bravest girl I have ever known...There the Beast. And here the Beauty. She has lived through an experience no other woman ever dreamed of. And she was saved from the very grasp of Kong by her future husband. I want you to meet a very brave gentleman, Mr. John Driscoll.
 * Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. Those chains are made of chrome steel.
 * Wait a minute! Hold on! He thinks you're attacking the girl!
 * To the photographers taking Ann's pictures
 * Oh, no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the beast!
 * Note: Ranked #84 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

Others

 * And the Prophet said, "And lo, the beast looked upon the face of beauty. And it stayed its hand from killing. And from that day, it was as one dead".
 * Old Arabian Proverb in the opening scenes of the film.
 * Dock night watchman: ...that crazy fella that's a runnin' it....They say he ain't scared of nothing. If he wants a picture of a lion, he just goes up to him and tells him to look pleasant.
 * Jack Driscoll: [to Ann] I think Denham's off his nut taking you ashore today...Denham's such a fool for risks, there's no telling what he might ask you to do for this picture....He's crazy enough to try anything. When I think what might have happened today. If anything had happened to you...I'm scared for you. I'm sort of, well I'm scared of you too. Ann, uh, I, uh, uh, say, I guess I love you...Say, Ann, I don't suppose, uh, I mean, well you don't feel anything like that about me, do you?
 * Charlie: [after finding a native bracelet on the deck of the ship] All hands on deck! Everybody on deck! Everybody on deck! All hands on deck! Everybody on deck! Everybody on deck!
 * Captain Englehorn: Serve out the rifles! Man the boats!

Dialogue

 * Weston: I can't send a young pretty girl such as you ask on a job like this without telling her what to expect...To go off on a trip for no one knows how long, to some spot you don't even hint at, the only woman on the ship with the toughest mugs I ever looked at.
 * Denham: Listen, there are dozens of girls in this town tonight that are in more danger than they'll ever see with me.
 * Driscoll: Yeah, but they know that kind of danger.
 * Denham: Holy Mackerel. Do you think I want to haul a woman around?...Because the Public, bless 'em, must have a pretty face to look at...Well, isn't there any romance or adventure in the world without having a flapper in it?...Makes me sore. I go out and sweat blood to make a swell picture and then the critics and the exhibitors all say, 'If this picture had love interest it would gross twice as much'. All right. The Public Wants a Girl, and this time, I'm gonna give 'em what they want. I'm gonna make the greatest picture in the world, something that nobody's ever seen or heard of. They'll have to think up a lot of new adjectives when I come back. Now I'm going to find a girl...even if I have to marry one.

 * Denham: Oh, you have gone soft on her, eh? I've got enough troubles without a love affair to complicate things. Better cut it out, Jack.
 * Driscoll: Love affair! You think I'm gonna fall for any dame?
 * Denham: I've never known it to fail: some big, hard-boiled egg gets a look at a pretty face and bang, he cracks up and goes sappy.
 * Driscoll: Now who's goin' sappy? Listen, I haven't run out on ya, have I?
 * Denham: No, you're a pretty tough guy, but if Beauty gets you, ya...Huh, I'm going right into a theme song here.
 * Driscoll: Say, what are you talkin' about?
 * Denham: It's the idea of my picture. The Beast was a tough guy too. He could lick the world. But when he saw Beauty, she got him. He went soft. He forgot his wisdom and the little fellas licked him. Think it over, Jack.

 * Denham: A wall...built so long ago that the people who live there have slipped back, forgotten the higher civilization that built it. That wall is as strong today as it was centuries ago. The natives keep that wall in repair. They need it.
 * Driscoll: Why?
 * Denham: There's something on the other side of it, something they fear.
 * Captain: A hostile tribe.
 * Denham: Did you ever hear of...Kong?
 * Captain: Why, yes. Some native superstition isn't it? A god or a spirit or something?
 * Denham: Well anyway, neither Beast nor man. Something monstrous. All powerful. Still living. Still holding that island in a grip of deadly fear. Well, every legend has a basis of truth. I tell you, there's something on that island that no white man has ever seen.
 * Captain: And you expect to photograph it?
 * Denham: If it's there, you bet I'll photograph it.
 * Driscoll: Suppose it doesn't like having its picture taken?
 * Denham: Well, now you know why I brought along those cases of gas bombs.

 * Denham: Now Ann, in this one, you're looking down. When I start to crank, you look up slowly. You're quite calm. You don't expect to see a thing. Then you just follow my directions. All right? Camera. [Denham starts cranking.] Look up slowly, Ann. That's it. You don't see anything. Now look higher. Still higher. Now you see it. You're amazed. You can't believe it. Your eyes open wider. It's horrible, Ann, but you can't look away. There's no chance for you, Ann. No escape. You're helpless, Ann, helpless. There's just one chance, if you can scream. But your throat's paralyzed. Try to scream, Ann. Try. Perhaps if you didn't see it, you could scream. Throw your arms across your eyes and scream Ann, scream for your life!!!
 * [Ann lets loose a blood-curdling, ear-piercing shrieking scream into the wind.]
 * Driscoll: What's he think she's really gonna see?

 * Denham: Wait a minute. What about Kong?
 * Driscoll: Well, what about him?
 * Denham: We came here to get a moving picture, and we've found something worth more than all the movies in the world.
 * Captain: What?!
 * Denham: We've got those gas bombs. If we can capture him alive.
 * Driscoll: Why, you're crazy! Besides that, he's on a cliff where a whole army couldn't get at him.
 * Denham: Yeah, if he stays there. But we've got something he wants [looking at Ann].
 * Driscoll: Yep, something he won't get again.

 * Denham: Well, the whole world will pay to see this.
 * Captain: No chains will ever hold that.
 * Denham: We'll give him more than chains. He's always been King of his world. But we'll teach him fear! We're millionaires, boys, I'll share it with all of you. Why, in a few months, it'll be up in lights on Broadway: 'Kong — the Eighth Wonder of the World!'

 * Theatre Patron #1: Hey, what's this show about, anyway?
 * Theatre Patron #2: I don't know — they say it's some big gorilla.
 * Theatre Patron #1: Oh, geez — ain't we got enough of them in New York?

 * Denham: Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here tonight to tell you a very strange story — a story so strange that no one will believe it — but, ladies and gentlemen, seeing is believing. And we — my partners and I — have brought back the living proof of our adventure, an adventure in which twelve of our party met horrible death. And now, ladies and gentlemen, before I tell you any more, I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a king and a god in the world he knew, but now he comes to civilization merely a captive — a show to gratify your curiosity. Ladies and gentlemen, look at Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World.
 * [The curtain rises to reveal Kong, miserable and enslaved in chains, tied to a metal post. The audience is shocked and amazed]
 * Denham: And now I want to introduce Miss Ann Darrow; the bravest girl I have ever known
 * [Ann comes on stage as the audience applauds wildly]
 * Denham: There the Beast. And here the Beauty. She has lived through an experience no other woman ever dreamed of. And she was saved from the very grasp of Kong by her future husband. I want you to meet a very brave gentleman, Mr. John Driscoll.
 * [Jack comes on stage, receiving cheers from the audience too.]
 * Denham: And now before I tell you the full story of our voyage, I'm going to ask the gentlemen of the press to come forward, so the audience can have the privilege of seeing them take the first photographs of Kong and his captors. [to the reporters] All right boys.
 * [The reporters join on stage and prepare their cameras. Kong watches and begins to grow more alert]
 * Denham: [To the reporters] Mrs. Darrow first alone. [To Ann] Please stand in front of Kong.
 * [Ann poses for the picture in front of Kong]
 * Reporter: All set, Jack. Okay boys, make it a good one!
 * [The reporters begin to take pictures. Kong roars angrily as the flashbulbs blind his eyes, frightening and enraging the mighty ape. Ann and the audience watch nervously]
 * Denham: Don't be alarmed, ladies and gentlemen. Those chains are made of chrome steel.
 * Driscoll: It's alright, Ann.
 * Denham: Get them together, boys! They're going to be married tomorrow!
 * Reporter: Put your arm around her Driscoll!
 * [The reporters resume to take pictures again. Kong roars furiously again, thinking that the flashbulbs are guns being fired at Ann]
 * Denham: Hey wait a minute! Wait a minute! Hold on! He thinks your attacking the girl!
 * Reporter: Ah, let him roar! It's a swell picture!
 * [The reporters carelessly begins taking pictures again. Kong again roars enraged, reaching his breaking point after all that had happened to him since he was captured. He tugs at full strength until one of the chains snaps clean in half!! The audience screams and starts to run out of theater in panic as Kong breaks his other cuffs with his free arm]
 * Reporter: IT'S LOOSE!!!
 * [The terrified reporters, Ann, Jack, and Carl all flee from the stage as Kong breaks the last remaining cuffs and throws one into the panicking crowd. Within seconds, he is completely free. He smashes out of the theater's backstage door and into the city.]

 * Denham: [while Kong climbs the Empire State Building] That licks us.
 * Driscoll: There's one thing we haven't thought of.
 * Police Officer: What?
 * Driscoll: Airplanes. If he should put Ann down, and they could fly close enough to pick him off without hitting her...
 * Police Officer: You're right, planes...

 * Denham: Let me through, officer, my name's Denham...Lieutenant, I'm Carl Denham.
 * Passerby: Denham? He's the one that captured the monster!
 * Police Lieutenant: Well, Denham, the airplanes got him.
 * Denham: Oh no, it wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.

Taglines

 * The Most Awesome Thriller Of All Time!
 * Out-leaping the maddest imaginings! Out-thrilling the wildest thrills!
 * The strangest story ever conceived by man.

Cast

 * Fay Wray - Ann Darrow
 * Robert Armstrong - Carl Denham
 * Bruce Cabot - John 'Jack' Driscoll
 * Frank Reicher - Capt. Englehorn
 * Sam Hardy - Charles Weston
 * Noble Johnson - Skull Island nation leader

title: King Kong (1933 film)


text:
King Kong

King Kong is a fictional monster resembling a gorilla that has appeared in several films since 1933.

Quotes about Kong

 * All three "King Kongs"--the classic 1933 version starring Fay Wray, the campy 1976 version starring Jessica Lange and the current epic by "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson--feature a big, black ape who falls in love with a willowy white woman. The unspoken fear about black-white sexual relations has been remarked on by film historians and cultural critics ever since. The 1933 original stoked anxieties about black male hypersexuality. Kong snatches Ann Darrow up and makes off with her as she screams in horror. And the film's supposedly African natives--who offer the heroine up to the giant ape--came from what some critics called the ooga-booga(ph) school of thespian arts. Newsday columnist Jim Pinkerton says the 2005 "Kong", starring a dewy, blond Naomi Watts, shows the story line hasn't evolved all that much.
 * Karen Grisby Bates, "Race and 'King Kong'", NPR, (December 22, 2005).

 * Intellectuals have attempted to read certain symbolisms into King Kong. Kong represents a Depression-stricken people lashing out against society; Kong is a Christ figure crucified on a stage before an audience of spectators; Kong symbolizes the black man and his conflict against his white oppressors; Kong on the Empire State Building depicts the most spectacular phallic symbol ever captured by film; and so on. Cooper has disavowed these "insights" into his film; he was not the kind of person to consider injecting messages into his productions. … Whatever messages might lurk beneath the film's surface were entirely coincidental on Cooper's part or, at best, subliminal.
 * Donald F. Glut, in Classic Movie Monsters (1978), p. 314; also quoted in King Kong Cometh! (2005) by Paul A. Woods, p. 67
 * The Ymir and Kong before him are both creatures wrenched from their natural environment against their will and finally killed by man. Although these creatures must always die, they should go out with a touch of pathos.
 * Ray Harryhausen (2003), An Animated Life, Aurum Press, p. 98
 * Remember: KING KONG Died for your Sins.
 * Principia Discordia, "Principia Discordia - Page 25"

Filmography

 * King Kong (1933 film)
 * Son of Kong
 * King Kong vs. Godzilla
 * King Kong Escapes
 * King Kong (1976 film)
 * King Kong Lives
 * The Mighty Kong
 * King Kong (2005 film)
 * Kong: Skull Island
 * Godzilla vs. Kong

title: King Kong


text:
Talk:Muhammad al-Baqir

A lot of the glowing language needs to be trimmed from the intro. ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 13:51, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Trimmed language, did a cleanup and added link to Wikipedia. Kerowyn 09:17, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Unsourced

 * Our followers are of three kinds: one who follows us but depends on others; one who is like a glass involved in his own reflections; but the best are those who are like gold, the more they suffer the more they shine.

 * There is no drop more loved by God than a teardrop that falls in the dark of the night from fear of God, meant solely for Him and no one else.

title: Talk:Muhammad al-Baqir


text:
User talk:STEPHEN THOMAS

. I have deleted Early Doors, since it had no content except for the TV boilerplate. ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 14:45, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

title: User talk:STEPHEN THOMAS


text:
User:Goncalves67~enwikiquote

Is full name is Álvaro João Gonçalves Correia de Lemos, but he is better known as Álvaro Gonçalves, he was born on Setember 16, 1967, in Mozambique, he is the son of Maria Augusta da Conceição Gonçalves (born in 1933) and Álvaro Arnaldo Almeida Correia de Lemos (born in 1929), he as a sister, Maria Cecília Gonçalves Correia de Lemos (born in 1975) who married in 1996 to José Francisco Machado Matos from who she as a son, André Gonçalves Correia Machado Matos (born in 2000), who is the family treasure. He usually calls himsell in the internet as goncalves67 like here in the Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. To know him just a litle better you can also now that he is a Bahá'i, see the External Link.

title: User:Goncalves67~enwikiquote