_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE ETERNAL RIDDLE ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Curated by Robert J. Schneck, Jr. November 2008 New York City
If there is life after the earth-life, will you come with me? Even then? Since we’re bound to be something, why not together. Imagine! Two little stones, two fleas under the wing of a gull, flying along through the fog! Or, ten blades of grass. Ten loops of honeysuckle, all flung against each other, at the edge of Race Road! Beach plums! Snowflakes, coasting into the winter woods, making a very small sound, like this sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo as they marry the dusty bodies of the pitch-pines.
- WHO WE ARE - 1 - ON PURPOSE - 6 - HOW TO BE - 11 - HOW TO THINK - 16 - HOW THINGS ARE - 21 - POLITICS - 26 - ON BUSINESS - 32 - TRADITION - 39 - THE EXISTENTIAL - 44 - OUR IDEALS - 49 - WHIMSY - 54
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- WHO WE ARE -
In this country, we rise or fall as one nation, as one people … B A R A C K ( H U S S E I N ) O B A M A , J R . , A M E R I C A N S E N A T O R F R O M I L L I N O I S A N D P R E S I D E N T E L E C T ( A U G U S T 4 , 1 9 6 1 - ) V I C T O R Y S P E E C H , C H I C A G O I L L I N O I S , N O V E M B E R 4 , 2 0 0 8
In Exodus 3:14, though God also gives himself a name, he defines himself as “I am that I am,” which according to scholars is more accurately rendered “I will be what I will be.”
L U C I N D A V A R D E Y , B R I T I S H - C A N A D I A N W R I T E R G O D I N A L L W O R L D S : A N A N T H O L O G Y O F C O N T E M P O R A R Y S P I R I T U A L W R I T I N G , 1 9 9 5
Wherever I go I meet him He is no other than myself yet I am not he.
A N C H A N G - H O ( P E N N A M E : D O S A N ) K O R E A N I N D E P E N D E N C E A C T I V I S T ( N O V E M B E R 9 , 1 8 7 8 - M A R C H 1 0 , 1 9 3 8 )
F R E D E R I C F R A N C K , D U T C H - A M E R I C A N P A I N T E R , S C U L P T O R A N D A U T H O R ( A P R I L 1 2 , 1 9 0 9 - J U N E 5 , 2 0 0 6 ) Z E N S E E I N G , Z E N D R A W I N G : M E D I T A T I O N I N A C T I O N , 1 9 9 3
There is only one man in the world and his name is All Men. There is only one woman in the world and her name is All Women. There is only one child in the world and the child’s name is All Children.
C A R L S A N D B U R G , A M E R I C A N P O E T A N D W R I T E R ( J A N U A R Y 6 , 1 8 7 8 - J U L Y 2 2 , 1 9 6 7 )
Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhnattan the son, Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking and breeding, No sentamentalist, no stander above men and women or apart from them, More modest than immodest. Unscrew the locks from the doors! Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!
( W A L T E R ) W A L T W H I T M A N ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 8 1 9 - M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 9 2 ) “ S O N G O F M Y S E L F ”
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Only remember that the spirit of the snake, of the lion, is your spirit. For it is only from yourself that you are acquainted with spirit at all.
L U D W I G ( J O S E F J O H A N N ) W I T T G E N S T E I N , A U S T R I A N P H I L O S O P H E R ( A P R I L 2 6 , 1 8 8 9 - A P R I L 2 9 , 1 9 5 1 ) N O T E B O O K , R U S S I A N F R O N T , O C T O B E R 1 5 , 1 9 1 6
The wealth of the universe is for me. Every thing is explicable and practical for me .... I am defeated all the time; yet to victory I am born.
R A L P H W A L D O E M E R S O N , A M E R I C A N E S S A Y I S T A N D P O E T ( M A Y 2 5 , 1 8 0 3 -A P R I L 2 7 , 1 8 8 2 ) T H E A M E R I C A N S C H O L A R , A S P E E C H A T H A R V A R D U N I V E R S I T Y , 1 8 3 7
The individual finds within himself kartavya, literally ‘what is to be done’. His inmost nature contains this, like a seed. It is unique to each person, and may be understood as the reason for his embodiment.
B R I A N H O D G K I N S O N , B R I T I S H W R I T E R A N D S C H O L A R ( 1 9 3 8 - ) T H E E S S E N C E O F V E D A N T A : T H E A N C I E N T W I S D O M O F I N D I A N P H I L O S O P H Y , 2 0 0 6
It feels much richer to me to imagine that a cold, empty cosmos collapses with stars, and stars burn and shine, and they make carbon in their cores, and then they throw them out again. And that carbon collects and forms another planet and another star and then human beings arise. I mean, that’s, to me, a really beautiful narrative.
J A N N A L E V I N , A M E R I C A N A S T R O P H Y S I C I S T A N D A U T H O R
K R I S T A T I P P E T T , P R O D U C E R “ 1 . M A T H E M A T I C S + T R U T H 2 . P U R P O S E , ” S P E A K I N G O F F A I T H , N A T I O N A L P U B L I C R A D I O , J A N U A R Y 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
There are no conditions of life to which a man cannot get accustomed, especially if he sees them accepted by everyone around him.
C O U N T L E O ( L E V ) ( N I K O L A Y E V I C H ) T O L S T O Y , R U S S I A N M A N O F L E T T E R S ( S E P T E M B E R 9 , 1 8 2 8 - N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 1 9 1 0 ) A N N A K A R E N I N A , 1 8 7 5 - 7 7
What is this person doing? What’s the activity that defines this person? If I were doing that activity that person would be me. If I were wandering the other way, rather than this way, that person could be me. That could be me. That could be me. What is it that separates any of us?
( W A L T E R ) W A L T W H I T M A N ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 8 1 9 - M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 9 2 ) N O T E B O O K S
People all smile in the same language. C H I N E S E P R O V E R B
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Each man carries the entire form of the human condition. M I C H E L E Y Q U E M D E M O N T A I G N E , F R E N C H E S S A Y I S T ( F E B R U A R Y 2 8 , 1 5 5 3 -S E P T E M B E R 1 3 , 1 5 9 2 )
I am the thread that runs through the pearls as in a necklace. Each religion is one of the pearls.
N I K H I L A N A N D A , I N D I A N - A M E R I C A N S W A M I ( 1 8 9 5 - 1 9 7 3 )
I dote on myself There is that lot of me and all so luscious.
( W A L T E R ) W A L T W H I T M A N ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 8 1 9 - M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 9 2 ) “ S O N G O F M Y S E L F , ” 1 8 8 2
Sensitive inhabitants of the forests of ourselves. J U L E S S U P E R V I E L L E , U R U G U A Y A N - F R E N C H P O E T ( 1 8 8 4 - 1 9 6 0 ) L E S A M I S I N C O N N U S
G A S T O N B A C H E L A R D , F R E N C H P H I L O S O P H E R ( 1 8 8 4 - 1 9 6 2 )
there is God-energy in all of us. R J S
In the manner of men of the past We build within ourselves stone On stone a vast haunted castle.
V I N C E N T M O N T E I R O V E R S S U R V E R R E
G A S T O N B A C H E L A R D , F R E N C H P H I L O S O P H E R ( 1 8 8 4 - 1 9 6 2 ) T H E P O E T I C S O F S P A C E , 1 9 5 8 ( M A R I A J O L A S T R A N S L A T I O N , 1 9 6 4 )
There’s no such thing as a saint without a past and a sinner without a future. C H R I S T O P H E R D O D D , A M E R I C A N L A W Y E R A N D U . S . S E N A T O R F R O M C O N N E C T I C U T ( M A Y 2 7 , 1 9 4 4 - )
Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.
That your sex are naturally tyrannical is a truth so thoroughly established as to admit of no dispute; but such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up –– the harsh tide of master for the more tender and endearing one of friend.
A B I G A I L S M I T H A D A M S , W I F E O F J O H N A D A M S , S E C O N D P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( N O V E M B E R 1 1 , 1 7 4 4 - O C T O B E R 2 8 , 1 8 1 8 ) L E T T E R T O J O H N A D A M S , M A R C H 3 1 , 1 7 7 6
I’m not funny, what I am is brave.
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L U C I L L E D É S I R É E B A L L , A M E R I C A N A C T R E S S A N D C O M E D I A N ( A U G U S T 6 , 1 9 1 1 - A P R I L 2 6 , 1 9 8 9 )
My life is a river, and I am a boat being borne along the current. I cannot relate to my life as a story, as a sequence of events, because I cannot get off the boat in order to see where I am. I do not see myself as moving forward or going backward.
A R V O P Ä R T , E S T O N I A N C O M P O S E R ( S E P T E M B E R 1 1 , 1 9 3 5 - )
All things want to fly. Only we are weighed down by desire and enthralled with our heaviness.
R A I N E R M A R I A R I L K E , A U S T R O - G E R M A N P O E T ( D E C E M B E R 4 , 1 8 7 5 -D E C E M B E R 2 9 , 1 9 2 6 )
I see a man notching a cedar post with a double-blade axe, rolling the post under his foot in the grass: quick strokes and there is a ringed groove one inch across, as clean as if it cut with the router blade down at the mill. I see a man who drags a dead calf or watches a barn roaring with fire and thirteen heifers inside, I see his helpless eyes. He has stood helpless often, of course: when his wife died from congenital heart disease a few months before open-heart surgery came to Vermont, when his sons departed, caring little for the farm because he had educated them …
H A Y D E N C A R R U T H , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( A U G U S T 3 , 1 9 2 1 - ) “ M A R S H A L L W A S H E R , ” T O W A R D T H E D I S T A N T I S L A N D S : N E W A N D S E L C T E D P O E M S B Y H A Y D E N C A R R U T H , 2 0 0 6
What I’ve seen Is all I’ve found: myself.
G E O R G E O P P E N , A M E R I C A N P O E T
the tin man has a brain–– but needs a heart
R J S
A friend is another self. A R I S T O T L E , G R E E K P H I L O S O P H E R ( 3 8 4 - 3 2 2 B C )
But do your own thing and I shall know you.
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R A L P H W A L D O E M E R S O N , A M E R I C A N E S S A Y I S T A N D P O E T ( M A Y 2 5 , 1 8 0 3 -A P R I L 2 7 , 1 8 8 2 )
Let all Men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly. B E N J A M I N F R A N K L I N , A M E R I C A N S T A T E S M A N A N D I N V E N T O R ( J A N U A R Y 1 7 , 1 7 0 6 - A P R I L 1 7 , 1 7 9 0 )
The characteristic of the biography of famous men is that they wanted to be famous. The characteristic of the biography of all men is that they did not want to be, or never thought of being famous men. … A famous man is disgusting.
E U G É N E I O N E S C O , R O M A N I A N P L A Y W R I G H T ( N O V E M B E R 2 6 , 1 9 0 9 - M A R C H 2 9 , 1 9 9 4 ) T H E H U G O L I A D , 1 9 3 5
the more normal you are the easier it is to follow the rules
R J S
Just as you feel when you look on the river and sky so I felt. Just as any of you is one of a living crowd I was one of a crowd. Just as you are refreshed by the gladness of the river, and the bright flow, I was refreshed. Just as you stand and lean on the rail, yet hurry with the swift current, I stood, yet was hurried.
( W A L T E R ) W A L T W H I T M A N ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 8 1 9 - M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 9 2 )
The most glorious exploits do not always furnish us with the clearest discoveries of virtues or vice in men; sometimes a matter of less moment, an expression or a jest, informs us better of their character and inclinations.
P L U T A R C H , G R E E K B I O G R A P H E R A N D E S S A Y I S T ( 4 6 ? - 1 2 0 A D )
Having pried through the strata, analyzed to a hair, counsel’d with doctors and calculated close, I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones.
( W A L T E R ) W A L T W H I T M A N ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 8 1 9 - M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 9 2 )
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- ON PURPOSE -
I see a good in such emphatic and universal calamity as the times bring, that they dissatisfy me with society. Under common burdens we say there is much virtue in the world, and what evil co-exists is inevitable. I am not aroused to say, “I have sinned: I am in a gall of bitterness, and a bond of iniquity”; but when these full measures come, it then stands confessed — society has played out its last stake; it is checkmated. Young men have no hope. Adults stand like day laborers, idle on the streets. None calleth us to labor. The old wear no crown of warm life on their gray hairs. The present generation is bankrupt of principles and hope, as of property. I see man is not what man should be. He is the treadle of a wheel. He is a tassel at the apron string of society. He is a money chest. He is the servant of his belly. This is the causal bankruptcy, this is the cruel oppression, that the ideal should serve the actual, that the head should serve the feet. Then first, I am forced to inquire if the ideal might not also be tried. Is it to be taken for granted that it is impracticable? Behold the boasted world has come to nothing. Prudence itself is at her wits’ end.
Pride, and Thrift, and Expediency, who jeered and chirped and were so well pleased with themselves, and made merry with the dream, as they termed it, of Philosophy and Love, — behold they are all flat, and here is the Soul erect and unconquered still. What answer is it now to say, “It has always been so?” I acknowledge that, as far back as I can see the widening procession of humanity, the marchers are lame and blind and deaf; but to the soul that whole past is but one finite series in its infinite scope. Deteriorating ever and now desperate. Let me begin anew. Let me teach the finite to know its master. Let me ascend above my fate and work down upon my world. [Response to the financial panic of 1837]
R A L P H W A L D O E M E R S O N , A M E R I C A N E S S A Y I S T A N D P O E T ( M A Y 2 5 , 1 8 0 3 -A P R I L 2 7 , 1 8 8 2 )
Instead of engaging in cutthroat competition, we should strive to create value. In economic terms, this means a transition from a consumer economy –– the mad rush for ownership and consumption –– to a constructive economy where all human beings can participate in the act of creating lasting worth.
D A I S A K U I K E D A , P R E S I D E N T O F S O K A G A K K A I I N T E R N A T I O N A L ( J A N U A R Y 2 , 1 9 2 8 - ) F O R T H E S A K E O F P E A C E : S E V E N P A T H S T O G L O B A L H A R M O N Y : A B U D D H I S T P E R S P E C T I V E , 2 0 0 1
You can have neither a greater nor a lesser dominion than that over yourself. L E O N A R D O D A V I N C I , F L O R E N T I N E P A I N T E R , S C U L P T O R , A R C H I T E C T A N D S C I E N T I S T ( A P R I L 1 5 , 1 4 5 2 - M A Y 2 , 1 5 1 9 )
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Each day is like a work of art to him. [Annie Allix, girlfriend of Philippe Petit] P H I L I P P E P E T I T , F R E N C H H I G H W I R E A R T I S T W H O W A L K E D B E T W E E N T H E W O R L D T R A D E C E N T E R T O W E R S I N 1 9 7 4 , ( A U G U S T 1 3 , 1 9 4 9 - )
D A V I D E D E L S T E I N “ F O L I E Á D E U X : A H E I S T P I C T U R E A B O U T O N E O F T H E G R E A T E S T S T U N T S I N N E W Y O R K H I S T O R Y , ” T H E N E W Y O R K M A G A Z I N E , J U L Y 2 8 - A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 0 8
Could anyone else be your master? When you have gained control over yourself, you have found a master of rare value.
B U D D H I S T S C R I P T U R E
Who overcomes himself his freedom finds. J O H A N N G O T T F R I E D V O N G O E T H E , G E R M A N M A N O F L E T T E R S A N D S C I E N T I S T ( 1 7 4 9 - 1 8 3 2 )
… Only after knowing the goal of perfection where one should dwell, can one have a definite purpose in life. Only after having a definite purpose in life can one achieve calmness of mind. Only after having achieved calmness of mind, can one have peaceful repose. Only after having peaceful repose can one begin to think. Only after one has learned to think, can one achieve knowledge. There is a foundation and a superstructure in the constitution of things, and a beginning and an end in the course of events. Therefore to know the proper sequence of relative order of things is the beginning of wisdom. (Arthur Waley translation)
C O N F U C I U S , C H I N E S E P H I L O S O P H E R ( S E P T E M B E R 2 8 , 5 5 1 B . C . - 4 7 9 B . C . )
The most important thing is to be able to enjoy your life without being fooled by things.
S H U N R Y U S U Z U K I , J A P A N E S E Z E N P R I E S T ( M A Y 1 8 , 1 9 0 4 - D E C E M B E R 4 , 1 9 7 1 ) N O T A L W A Y S S O , 2 0 0 2
by acts of will or forgetfulness–– the sacred is profaned
R J S
If I did not work, these worlds would perish …
B H A G A V A D - G I T A , S O N G O F G O D , S A N S K R I T S A C R E D T E X T , 5 T H T O 2 N D C E N T U R Y B . C .
... The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are
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there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.
R A N D Y P A U S C H , A M E R I C A N C O M P U T E R S C I E N C E I N N O V A T O R R A N D Y P A U S C H ’ S L A S T L E C T U R E , C A R N E G I E M E L L O N , 2 0 0 7
During the Middle Ages, two stone masons were in Paris working on what would become the Notre Dame Cathedral. When asked by a traveler what they were doing, one answered, “Squaring a stone,” while the other replied, “I am building a cathedral.”
A N E C D O T E F R O M T H E E U R O P E A N M I D D L E A G E S
As a medieval historian once said of Chartes Cathedral, it is best appreciated as a spiritual rather than a religious building.
B R I A N H O D G K I N S O N , B R I T I S H W R I T E R A N D S C H O L A R ( 1 9 3 8 - ) T H E E S S E N C E O F V E D A N T A : T H E A N C I E N T W I S D O M O F I N D I A N P H I L O S O P H Y , 2 0 0 6
Bless thee in all the work of thy hand which thou doest. D E U T E R O N O M Y 1 4 : 2 9
Life only avails, not the having lived. Power ceases in the instant of repose; it resides in the moment of transition from a past to a new state, in the shooting of the gulf, in the darting to an aim .... Why then do we prate of self-reliance? Inasmuch as the soul is present there will be power not confident but agent. To talk of reliance is a poor external way of speaking. Speak rather of that which relies because it works and it is. Who has more obedience than I masters me, though he should not raise his finger. Round him I must revolve by the gravitation of spirits. We fancy it rhetoric when we speak of eminent value. We do not yet see that virtue is height, and that a man or a company of men, plastic and permeable to principles, by the law of nature must overpower and ride all cities, nations, kings, rich men, poets, who are not.
R A L P H W A L D O E M E R S O N , A M E R I C A N E S S A Y I S T A N D P O E T ( M A Y 2 5 , 1 8 0 3 -A P R I L 2 7 , 1 8 8 2 ) S E L F - R E L I A N C E , E S S A Y , 1 8 3 9 - 1 8 4 0
Wunder kommen zu denen, die an sie glauben.
Wonder will come to help you, if you believe. G E R M A N P R O V E R B
The effect of the most perfect system of transportation is to reduce the distance not only between different places but between different classes.
M I C H E L C H E V A L I E R , F R E N C H E N G I N E E R , 1 8 3 3
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The time has come to effect a revolution in female manners –– time to restore them to their lost dignity and make them as a part of the human species.
M A R Y W O L L S T O N E C R A F T , E N G L I S H W R I T E R A N D S O C I A L A C T I V I S T ( A P R I L 2 7 , 1 7 5 9 - S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 1 7 9 7 ) A V I N D I C A T I O N O F T H E R I G H T S O F W O M A N , 1 7 9 2
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
S I R W I N S T O N L E O N A R D S P E N C E R - C H U R C H I L L , B R I T I S H S T A T E S M A N ( N O V E M B E R 1 8 7 4 - J A N U A R Y 2 4 , 1 9 6 5 )
The greatest wealth is health. R A L P H W A L D O E M E R S O N , A M E R I C A N E S S A Y I S T A N D P O E T ( M A Y 2 5 , 1 8 0 3 -A P R I L 2 7 , 1 8 8 2 )
From all eternity, God lies on a maternity bed giving birth. … What does God do all day long? God gives birth.
M E C H T H I L D O F M A D E B U R G , G E R M A N M E D I E V A L M Y S T I C , A B E G U I N E A N D C I S T E R C I A N N U N ( 1 2 1 0 - C . 1 2 8 5 )
Through these games, the world learned more about China, and China learned more about the world. [close of Beijing Olympic games, August 24, 2008]
J A C Q U E S R O G G E , P R E S I D E N T O F T H E I N T E R N A T I O N A L O L Y M P I C C O M M I T T E E
The time to repair the roof is when the sun is still shining. J O H N F I T Z G E R A L D K E N N E D Y , 3 5 T H P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( M A Y 2 9 , 1 9 1 7 - N O V E M B E R 2 2 , 1 9 6 3 )
Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide. N A P O L E O N B O N A P A R T E , F R E N C H G E N E R A L A N D E M P E R O R ( A U G U S T 1 5 , 1 7 6 9 - M A Y 5 , 1 8 2 1 )
Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. T ( H O M A S ) S ( T E A R N S ) E L I O T , B R I T I S H A M E R I C A N P O E T A N D C R I T I C ( S E P T E M B E R 2 6 , 1 8 8 8 - J A N U A R Y 4 , 1 9 6 5 )
… what [were the] people in all the so-called primitive societies doing when they built their buildings. Most of these buildings were, at their best, beautiful, and at the very least, harmless. They were building in a way that helped what I call unfolding –– that was almost a given. People wanted to revere the earth, revere God, and maintain the Whole. And that is not the motive now.
C H R I S T O P O H E R A L E X A N D E R , A M E R I C A N A R C H I T E C T
K A Y B U T L E R , E D I T O R “ N A T U R E U N F O L D I N G , ” T R I C Y C L E , S P R I N G 2 0 0 8
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A human being is a human being, and we can enjoy our life only with our limited body. This limitation is vital. Without limitation nothing exists, so we should enjoy it; weak body, strong body; man or woman. The only way to enjoy our life is to enjoy the limitation that is given to us.
S H U N R Y U S U Z U K I , J A P A N E S E Z E N P R I E S T ( M A Y 1 8 , 1 9 0 4 - D E C E M B E R 4 , 1 9 7 1 ) N O T A L W A Y S S O , 2 0 0 2
I will build a motor car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be priced so that no man making a good salary will be unable to afford one and to enjoy with his family the blessings of hours of pleasure in God’s open spaces. [Introducing the Model T in 1909]
H E N R Y F O R D , A M E R I C A N A U T O M O T I V E E N T R E P R E N E U R ( J U L Y 3 0 , 1 8 6 3 -A P R I L 7 , 1 9 4 7 )
Whether they [English majors or any determined humanists] know it or not, ––and whatever they eventually decide to do … they see developing moral imagination as more important than securing economic self-justification.
M A R K D A N N E R , A M E R I C A N R E P O R T E R A N D F O R E I G N A F F A I R S W R I T E R ( N O V E M B E R 1 0 , 1 9 5 8 - ) “ W H A T A R E Y O U G O I N G T O D O W I T H T H A T ? , ” T H E N E W Y O R K R E V I E W O F B O O K S , J U N E 2 3 , 2 0 0 5
Difficult means doable. L O K S U M
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- HOW TO BE -
If there is a wind outside the window, then I have a reason to fly!
S U N - H O O F O O , C H I N E S E - A M E R I C A N P H Y S I C I A N ( 1 9 4 8 - )
Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. S I R W I N S T O N L E O N A R D S P E N C E R - C H U R C H I L L , B R I T I S H S T A T E S M A N ( N O V E M B E R 1 8 7 4 - J A N U A R Y 2 4 , 1 9 6 5 )
Resist much, obey less. L A W R E N C E F E R L I N G H E T T I ( B O R N L A W R E N C E F E R L I N G ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A R C H 2 4 , 1 9 1 9 - ) P O E T R Y A S I N S U R G E N T A R T , 1 9 7 5 - 2 0 0 7
Don’t part with your illusions; when they are gone, you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.
M A R K T W A I N ( S A M U E L L A N G H O R N E C L E M E N S ) , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T , L E C T U R E R A N D A U T H O R ( N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 1 8 3 5 - A P R I L 2 1 , 1 9 1 0 )
Lester Bangs: The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you are uncool.
A L M O S T F A M O U S , A M E R I C A N M O V I E , 2 0 0 0
As life is action and passion, it is required of man that he should share the passion and action of his time, at peril of being judged not to have lived.
O L I V E R W E N D E L L H O L M E S , J R . , A M E R I C A N A M E R I C A N J U R I S T A N D S U P R E M E C O U R T J U S T I C E ( M A R C H 8 , 1 8 4 1 - M A R C H 6 , 1 9 3 5 )
What advice would you give to people who are looking to be happy? For starters, learn how to cook.
C H A R L E S S I M I C , Y U G O S L A V I A N - A M E R I C A N P O E T A N D C R I T I C – P O E T L A U R E A T E O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( M A Y 9 , 1 9 3 8 - )
D E B O R A H S O L O M O N , A M E R I C A N C O L U M N I S T F O R T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S ( A U G U S T 9 , 1 9 5 7 - ) “ I N - V E R S E T H I N K I N G , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S M A G A Z I N E , F E B R U A R Y 3 , 2 0 0 8
When it comes to food, the ethical choice is the delightful choice. B A R B A R A K I N G S O L V E R , A M E R I C A N W R I T E R ( A P R I L 8 , 1 9 5 5 - )
Let food be your medicine. H I P P O C R A T E S , G R E E K P H Y S I C I A N ( 4 6 0 - 3 7 7 B . C . )
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At the Kitchen we put it another way. We say, “It ain’t what you got, it’s what you do with what you got.”
R O B E R T E G G E R , A M E R I C A N S O C I A L N O T F O R P R O F I T E N T R E P R E N E U R B E G G I N G F O R C H A N G E , 2 0 0 2
If you can find a reason to be depressed, definitely, you can also find a good reason not to be depressed.
S U N - H O O F O O , C H I N E S E - A M E R I C A N P H Y S I C I A N ( 1 9 4 8 - )
God helps them that help themselves. B E N J A M I N F R A N K L I N , A M E R I C A N S T A T E S M A N A N D I N V E N T O R ( J A N U A R Y 1 7 , 1 7 0 6 - A P R I L 1 7 , 1 7 9 0 )
When you learn, teach. When you get, give.
M A Y A A N G E L O U ( M A R G U E R I T E A N N J O H N S O N ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( A P R I L 4 , 1 9 2 8 - )
Life’s follies stem from the attempt to emulate that which we do not resemble. S A M U E L J O H N S O N , E N G L I S H M A N O F L E T T E R S ( S E P T E M B E R 1 8 , 1 7 0 9 -D E C E M B E R 1 3 , 1 7 8 4 )
You never enjoy the world aright till the sea itself floweth in your veins, till you are clothed with the heavens and crowned with the stars: and perceive yourself to be the sole heir of the whole world, and more than so, because men are in it who are every one sole heirs as well as you. Till you can sing and rejoice and delight in God, as misers do in gold, and kings in sceptres, you never enjoy the world.
T H O M A S T R A H E R N E , E N G L I S H P O E T A N D R E L I G I O U S W R I T E R ( 1 6 3 6 O R 1 6 3 7 - S E P T E M B E R 2 7 , 1 6 7 4 ) C E N T U R I E S , 1 9 6 3
What fun to inhabit a little dog and chase around not for money, or blood, or abracadabra, just a good romp up and down the cyclone fence, not asking why it’s named for a disaster, just dashing and brushing the grass with the ease of a shadow.
B A R B A R A R A S , A M E R I C A N P O E T O N E H I D D E N S T U F F , 2 0 0 6
It is not easy being a human being. Unlike other species, we are not born with enough programmed DNA to see us through our survival. The best choices we make must come from intuition, cooperation and learning.
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M A T T H E W F O X , A M E R I C A N P R I S E T A N D T H E O L O G I A N ( 1 9 4 0 - ) O N E R I V E R , M A N Y W E L L S : W I S D O M S P R I N G I N G F R O M G L O B A L F A I T H S , 2 0 0 0
Rabbis say that the first word you should think of when you wake up in the morning should be the word God. Not even thank you should precede it.
H U S T O N C U M M I N G S S M I T H , A M E R I C A N S C H O L A R O F R E L I G I O N A N D A U T H O R ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 9 1 9 - ) A N D P H I L C O U S I N E A U , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R T H E W A Y T H I N G S A R E : C O N V E R S A T I O N S W I T H H U S T O N S M I T H , 2 0 0 3
I learned early to value honest arrogance over hypocritical humility. F R A N K L L O Y D W R I G H T , A M E R I C A N A R C H I T E C T ( J U N E 8 , 1 8 6 9 - A P R I L 9 , 1 9 5 9 )
The harder you work, the luckier you are. I worked like hell. G E R A L D ( R U D O L P H ) F O R D , 3 8 T H P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( J U L Y 1 4 , 1 9 1 3 - D E C E M B E R 2 6 , 2 0 0 6 )
Acceptance is the key to happiness. W I L L J O H N S O N , C A N A D I A N S P I R I T U A L T E A C H E R R U M I , G A Z N I G A T T H E B E L O V E D : T H E R A D I C A L P R A C T I C E O F B E H O L D I N G T H E D I V I N E , 2 0 0 3
The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. W A L T ( W A L T E R E L I A S ) D I S N E Y , A M E R I C A N P R O D U C E R , D I R E C T O R , S C R E E N W R I T E R A N D A N I M A T O R ( D E C E M B E R 5 , 1 9 0 1 - D E C E M B E R 1 5 , 1 9 6 6 )
And so, while wishing to do right, We’ve ended in a tragic plight. How to escape the web we’ve spun Correct our faults, love everyone.
J E S S M I N H O W A R T H F R O M “ A L A S , ” F O R J I M A N D L O U I S E W E L C H
D U S H K A H O W A R T H , A M E R I C A N E N T R E P R E N E U R , D A N C E R A N D W R I T E R I T ’ S U P T O O U R S E L V E S , M S . , 2 0 0 6
Being starts with well-being. G A S T O N B A C H E L A R D , F R E N C H P H I L O S O P H E R ( 1 8 8 4 - 1 9 6 2 ) T H E P O E T I C S O F S P A C E , 1 9 5 8 ( M A R I A J O L A S T R A N S L A T I O N , 1 9 6 4 )
Simply trust–– Do not the petals flutter down, Just like that?
( K O B A Y A S H I ) I S S A , J A P A N E S E P O E T ( J U N E 1 5 , 1 7 6 3 - J A N U A R Y 5 , 1 8 2 8 )
It is gratefulness that makes the soul great.
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A B R A H A M J O S H U A H E S C H E L , W A R S A W - B O R N A M E R I C A N R A B B I ( J A N U A R Y 1 1 , 1 9 0 7 – D E C E M B E R 2 3 , 1 9 7 2 )
You are what you think; maybe that’s why some people need attitude adjustments. Y O G I ( L A W R E N C E P E T E R ) B E R R A , A M E R I C A N B A S E B A L L P L A Y E R ( M A Y 1 2 , 1 9 2 5 - ) W H A T T I M E I S I T ? Y O U M E A N N O W ? 2 0 0 2
If man cannot live by bread alone, still less can he live by disinfectant. A L F R E D N O R T H W H I T E H E A D , B R I T I S H P H I L O S O P H E R A N D M A T H E M A T I C I A N ( F E B R U A R Y 1 5 , 1 8 6 1 - D E C E M B E R 3 0 , 1 9 4 7 )
… whether a man loves a woman or another man, or a woman loves a man or another woman, to God it is all love, and God smiles whenever we recognize our need for one another.
D E S M O N D T U T U , A R C H B I S H O P O F S O U T H A F R I C A A N D 1 9 8 4 N O B E L P E A C E L A U R E A T E ( O C T O B E R 7 , 1 9 3 1 - ) G O D H A S A D R E A M , 2 0 0 4
It is a day of joy: it is good to be joyful –– it is wrong to be otherwise. Let us seek the grace of a cheerful heart, and even temper, sweetness, gentleness and brightness of mind, as walking in His light and in His grace.
T H E V E N E R A B L E J O H N H E N R Y C A R D I N A L N E W M A N , F E B R U A R Y 2 1 , 1 8 0 1 -A U G U S T 1 1 , 1 8 9 0 S T , C L E M E N T ’ S C H U R C H , O X F O R D
enebriated, we share the sky with gods.
R J S
Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right. H E N R Y F O R D , A M E R I C A N A U T O M O T I V E E N T R E P R E N E U R ( J U L Y 3 0 , 1 8 6 3 -A P R I L 7 , 1 9 4 7 )
It’s good to leave each day behind, Like flowing water, free of sadness, Yesterday is gone and its tale told. Today new seeds are growing.
M E V L A N A J E L A L U D D I N R U M I , S U F I P O E T A N D S A I N T ( S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 1 2 0 7 - D E C E M B E R 1 7 , 1 2 7 3 )
He spent his life best who enjoyed it most. S A M U E L B U T L E R , B R I T I S H N O V E L I S T ( D E C E M B E R 4 , 1 8 3 5 - J U N E 1 8 , 1 9 0 2 )
Spirituality means to me living the ordinary life extraordinarily well.
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As the old church father said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” W I L L I A M S L O A N E C O F F I N , A M E R I C A N C L E R G Y M A N A N D P E A C E A C T I V I S T ( J U N E 1 , 1 9 2 4 - ) C R E D O , 2 0 0 4
It is through comparing ourselves and our situation, and then competing with others, that we create most of the stresses and problems that make us confused and unhappy.
J I D D U K R I S H N A M U R T I , I N D I A N S A G E ( M A Y 1 2 , 1 8 9 5 - F E B R U A R Y 1 7 , 1 9 8 6 )
Ah, yes Krishnamurti, very interesting man. Good man. I have coversations with him before. Very interesting. Yes. Ah, yes. But he likes to live thirty-ninth floor, no elevator.
J I D D U K R I S H N A M U R T I , I N D I A N S A G E ( M A Y 1 2 , 1 8 9 5 - F E B R U A R Y 1 7 , 1 9 8 6 )
D U S H K A H O W A R T H , A M E R I C A N E N T R E P R E N E U R , D A N C E R A N D W R I T E R I T ’ S U P T O O U R S E L V E S , M S . , 2 0 0 6
I was hungry and you gave me food ... I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me. ...
M A T T H E W 2 5 : 3 5 - 3 6
Our work is based on these words of Jesus. M O T H E R T E R E S A ( A G N E S G O N X H A B O J A X H I U ) , A L B A N I A N - B O R N R O M A N C A T H O L I C N U N ( A U G U S T 2 7 , 1 9 1 0 - S E P T E M B E R 5 , 1 9 9 7 ) I N M Y O W N W O R D S , 1 9 9 6
Life is long if you know how to use it. ( L U C I U S A N N A E U S ) S E N E C A , R O M A N P H I L O S O P H E R , S T A T E S M A N A N D W R I T E R ( C . 5 B . C . - 6 5 A . D . )
If we go into ourselves, we find that we possess exactly what we desire. S I M O N E W E I L , F R E N C H T H E O L O G I A N A N D E S S A Y I S T ( F E B R U A R Y 3 , 1 9 0 9 -1 9 4 3 )
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- HOW TO THINK -
In August 1837, Charles Darwin opened his notebook and wrote, “I think.” Underneath these words he sketched a crude –– but momentus –– tree of life. Inking the thin lines, Darwin postulated that all life forms on earth are related through common ancestry. Over millions of years, new species evolved from old.
C H A R L E S ( R O B E R T ) D A R W I N , E N G L I S H N A T U R A L I S T ( 1 8 0 9 - 1 8 8 2 )
Even though you say ‘water is water,’ it is not quite right. ( E I H E I ) D O G E N ( K I G E N ) , J A P A N E S E Z E N M A S T E R , P O E T , P A I N T E R ( J A N U A R Y 1 9 , 1 2 0 0 - S E P T E M B E R 2 2 , 1 2 5 3 )
We learn like leaking pails–– & water our minds
R J S
None of us are as smart as all of us. J A P A N E S E P R O V E R B
There is nothing difficult under the sun. C H I N E S E P R O V E R B
There are some truths that can never be proven to be true. K U R T G Ö D E L , A U S T R I A N - A M E R I C A N M A T H E M A T I C I A N ( A P R I L 2 8 , 1 9 0 6 – J A N U A R Y 1 4 , 1 9 7 8 )
Every truth has an answering truth. E ( D G A R ) L ( A W R E N C E ) D O C T O R O W , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R ( J A N U A R Y 6 , 1 9 3 1 -)
They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.
S I R W I N S T O N L E O N A R D S P E N C E R - C H U R C H I L L , B R I T I S H S T A T E S M A N ( N O V E M B E R 1 8 7 4 - J A N U A R Y 2 4 , 1 9 6 5 )
My philosophy is that everything is more complicated than you think. K W A M E A N T H O N Y A P P I A H , G H A N A N I A N - A M E R I C A N P H I L O S O P H E R , E S S A Y I S T A N D N O V E L I S T ( 1 9 5 4 - )
Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned. O L I V E R W E N D E L L H O L M E S , A M E R I C A N W R I T E R A N D P H Y S I C I A N ( A U G U S T 2 9 , 1 8 0 9 - O C T O B E R 7 , 1 8 9 4 )
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The bend in the road is not the end of the road unless you refuse to take the turn. A N O N Y M O U S
It is through science that we prove, but through intuition that we discover. L U D W I G ( J O S E F J O H A N N ) W I T T G E N S T E I N , A U S T R I A N P H I L O S O P H E R ( A P R I L 2 6 , 1 8 8 9 - A P R I L 2 9 , 1 9 5 1 )
To imagine a doubt is not to doubt. J U L E S H E N R I P O I N C A R É , F R E N C H M A T H E M A T I C I A N A N D P H I L O S O P H E R O F S C I E N C E ( A P R I L 2 9 , 1 8 5 4 - J U L Y 1 7 , 1 9 1 2 )
Not to know what happened before one was born is always to be a child. M A R C U S T U L L I U S C I C E R O , R O M A N S T A T E S M A N ( J A N U A R Y 3 , 1 0 6 -D E C E M B E R 7 , 4 3 B . C . )
Avoid whatever is approved by the mob, and things that are the gift of chance. Whenever circumstances bring some welcome thing your way, stop in suspicion and alarm. … They are snares. … we think these things are ours when in fact it is we who are caught. That track leads to precipices; life on that giddy level ends in a fall.
( L U C I U S A N N A E U S ) S E N E C A , R O M A N P H I L O S O P H E R , S T A T E S M A N A N D W R I T E R ( C . 5 B . C . - 6 5 A . D . )
A very popular error: having the courage of one’s convictions; rather it is a matter of having the courage for an attack on one’s convictions.
F R I E D R I C H W I L H E L M N I E T Z S C H E , G E R M A N P H I L O S O P H E R ( O C T O B E R 1 5 , 1 8 4 4 - A U G U S T 2 5 , 1 9 0 0 )
All creation is a mine, and every man a miner. A B R A H A M L I N C O L N , 1 6 T H P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( F E B R U A R Y 1 2 , 1 8 0 9 - A P R I L 1 5 , 1 8 6 5 ) S P E E C H , 1 8 6 0
We understand, then, do we not? What I promised without mentioning it, have you not accepted? What the study could not teach — what the preaching could not accomplish is accomplished, is it not?
( W A L T E R ) W A L T W H I T M A N ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 8 1 9 - M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 9 2 )
A knowledge of history arms us with our best weapon against our own ignorance, and makes possible the revolt against the arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around.
G ( I L B E R T ) K ( E I T H ) C H E S T E R T O N , E N G L I S H E S S A Y I S T , N O V E L I S T A N D P O E T ( M A Y 2 9 , 1 8 7 4 - J U N E 1 4 , 1 9 3 6 )
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Rejection is the basis of logical thinking. The rejection process is incorporated in the concept of the negative. The negative is a judgment device. It is the means whereby one rejects certain arrangements of information. The negative is used to carry out judgment and initiate rejection. The concept of the negative is crystallized into a definite language tool. This language tool consists of the words no and not. Once one learns the function and use of these words one has learned how to use logical thinking. The whole concept of logical thinking is concentrated in the use of this language tool. Logic could be said to be the management of NO.
E D W A R D D E B O N O L A T E R A L T H I N K I N G : C R E A T I V I T Y S T E P - B Y - S T E P , 1 9 7 0
… as Wittgenstein said, when accused of shutting his eyes to the possibility of doubt –– ‘They are shut’.
L U D W I G ( J O S E F J O H A N N ) W I T T G E N S T E I N , A U S T R I A N P H I L O S O P H E R ( A P R I L 2 6 , 1 8 8 9 - A P R I L 2 9 , 1 9 5 1 )
The truth is not the evidence. R J S
Certainty is not clarity, but blindness. C H R I S T O P H E R P H I L L I P S , A M E R I C A N T E A C H E R O F P H I L O S O P H Y ( J U L Y 1 5 , 1 9 5 9 - ) S I X Q U E S T I O N S O F S O C R A T E S , 2 0 0 4
But, after all, who knows, and who can say Whence it came, and how creation happened? The gods themselves are later than creation, So who knows truly whence it has arisen?
Whence all creation has its origin, He, whether he fashioned it or whether he did not, He, who surveys it all from the highest heaven, He knows –– or maybe even he does not know.
H Y M N O F C R E A T I O N R I G V E D A , A N C I E N T S A N S K R I T S C R I P T U R E , 1 5 0 0 - 1 0 0 0 B . C .
… revelation comes in two volumes: Nature and the Bible. T H O M A S A Q U I N A S , I T A L I A N P H I L O S O P H E R A N D T H E O L O G I A N ( 1 2 2 5 -M A R C H 7 , 1 2 7 4 )
Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the crannies, I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
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Little flower –– but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all and all, I should know what God and man is.
A L F R E D T E N N Y S O N , 1 S T B A R O N , E N G L I S H P O E T A N D P O E T L A U R E A T E ( A U G U S T 6 , 1 8 0 9 - O C T O B E R 6 , 1 8 9 2 ) I D Y L L S O F T H E K I N G , 1 8 5 6 - 1 8 8 5
A scientific genius is not a person who does what no one else can do; he or she is someone who does what it takes others to do. The genius is not a unique source of insight; he is merely an efficient source of insight.
M A L C O L M G L A D W E L L , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R “ I N T H E A I R : W H O S A Y S B I G I D E A S A R E R A R E ? ” T H E N E W Y O R K E R , M A Y 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts. E D W A R D ( E G B E R T ) R ( O S C O E ) M U R R O W , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T ( A P R I L 2 5 , 1 9 0 8 - A P R I L 2 7 , 1 9 6 5 )
We have a moral duty to keep history warm and alive in our minds, to brood over it.
M A X B Y R D , P R O F E S S O R E M E R I T U S O F E N G L I S H A T T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F C A L I F O R N I A , D A V I S “ G L O B A L I Z A T I O N 3 . 0 , ” T H E W I L S O N Q U A R T E R L Y , A U T U M N 2 0 0 7
The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie ... but the myth. J O H N F I T Z G E R A L D K E N N E D Y , 3 5 T H P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( M A Y 2 9 , 1 9 1 7 - N O V E M B E R 2 2 , 1 9 6 3 ) Y A L E C O M M E N C E M E N T S P E E C H
You will find all knowledge of the truth originates out of the senses, and the senses are quite irrefutable. If sense is false, reason will have to be. ... All that verbose harangue against the senses is utter absolute nothing.
( T I T U S ) L U C R E T I U S ( C A R U S ) , R O M A N P O E T ( 9 9 - 5 5 B C )
The activist historian who thinks he is deriving his policy from his history may in fact be deriving his history from his policy, and may be driven to commit the cardinal sin of the historical writer: he may lose his respect for the integrity, the independence, the pastness of the past.
R I C H A R D H O F S T A D T E R , A M E R I C A N H I S T O R I A N ( A U G U S T 6 , 1 9 1 6 -O C T O B E R 2 4 , 1 9 7 0 )
In science we hold up beauty and elegance as the goal. J A N N A L E V I N , A M E R I C A N A S T R O P H Y S I C I S T A N D A U T H O R
It’s all about evidence. Facts and manipulation.
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L O K S U M
Search for the truth we can and must, but own it––never. W I L L I A M S L O A N E C O F F I N , A M E R I C A N C L E R G Y M A N A N D P E A C E A C T I V I S T ( J U N E 1 , 1 9 2 4 - ) C R E D O , 2 0 0 4
You don’t have to know what a concept is in order to have one. D O U G L A S H O F S T A D T E R , A M E R I C A N S C I E N T I S T A N D A U T H O R ( F E B R U A R Y 1 5 1 9 4 5 - )
False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by little evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.
C H A R L E S ( R O B E R T ) D A R W I N , E N G L I S H N A T U R A L I S T ( F E B R U A R Y 1 2 , 1 8 0 9 -A P R I L 1 9 , 1 8 8 2 )
As Spock asked Kirk, don’t the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? R O B E R T E G G E R , A M E R I C A N S O C I A L N O T F O R P R O F I T E N T R E P R E N E U R B E G G I N G F O R C H A N G E , 2 0 0 2
My dad once said to me, “Son, a fool with a plan can beat a genius with no plan.” T ( H O M A S ) B O O N E P I C K E N S , A M E R I C A N B U S I N E S S M A N ( M A Y 2 2 , 1 9 2 8 - )
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, You shall no longer take things at second or third hand … nor feed on spectres in books … A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books.
( W A L T E R ) W A L T W H I T M A N ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 8 1 9 - M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 9 2 ) S O N G O F M Y S E L F
I love discourse. I’m dying to have my mind changed. J A C K N I C H O L S O N , A M E R I C A N A C T O R ( 1 9 3 7 - ) “ W H A T I ’ V E L E A R N E D , 2 0 0 4 , ” E S Q U I R E M A G A Z I N E , J A N U A R Y 2 0 0 4
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- HOW THINGS ARE -
It is the bird singing that makes us happy. L A W R E N C E F E R L I N G H E T T I ( B O R N L A W R E N C E F E R L I N G ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A R C H 2 4 , 1 9 1 9 - ) P O E T R Y A S I N S U R G E N T A R T , 1 9 7 5 - 2 0 0 7
There are almost 23 million households like that in America, 60 million individuals including 18 million children. They’ve gone virtually unmentioned in this campaign. Obama and McCain both talk about the middle class. These people are the forgotten class.
M I C H A E L Z W E I G , A M E R I C A N P R O F E S S O R O F E C O N O M I C S A N D D I R E C T O R O F T H E C E N T E R F O R T H E S T U D Y O F W O R K I N G C L A S S L I F E
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ M I C H A E L Z W E I G , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 0 8
despair is the bottom of up
R J S
Mr. Bush said he was optimistic because the economy’s “foundation is solid” as measured by employment, wages, productivity, exports and the federal deficit. He was wrong on every count. On some, he has been wrong for quite a while.
Mr. Bush boasted about 52 consecutive months of job growth during his presidency. What matters is the magnitude of growth, not ticks on a calendar. The economic expansion under Mr. Bush — which it is safe to assume is now over — produced job growth of 4.2 percent. That is the worst performance over a business cycle since the government started keeping track in 1945.
Mr. Bush also talked approvingly of the recent unemployment rate of 4.8 percent. A low rate is good news when it indicates a robust job market. The unemployment rate ticked down last month because hundreds of thousands of people dropped out of the work force altogether. Worse, long-term unemployment, of six months or more, hit 17.5 percent. We’d expect that in the depths of a recession. It is unprecedented at the onset of one.
Mr. Bush was wrong to say wages are rising. On Friday morning, the day he spoke, the government reported that wages failed to outpace inflation in February, for the fifth straight month. Productivity growth has also weakened markedly in the past two years, a harbinger of a lower overall standard of living for Americans.
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Exports have surged of late, but largely on the back of a falling dollar. The weaker dollar makes American exports cheaper, but it also pushes up oil prices. Potentially far more serious, a weakening dollar also reduces the Federal Reserve’s flexibility to steady the economy.
Finally, Mr. Bush’s focus on the size of the federal budget deficit ignores that annual government borrowing comes on top of existing debt. Publicly held federal debt will be up by a stunning 76 percent by the end of his presidency. Paying back the money means less to spend on everything else for a very long time.
E D I T O R I A L “ T H R O U G H B U S H - C O L O R E D G L A S S E S , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , M A R C H 1 6 , 2 0 0 8
The leverage party’s over for the masters of the universe. Shed a tear. When you trade pieces of paper for other pieces of paper instead of trading them for real things, one day someone wakes up and realizes the paper’s worth nothing. And Lehman Brothers, after 158 years, has gone poof in the night.
We’re witnessing the passing of more than a venerable firm. We’re seeing the death of a culture.
For years, accountants, rating agencies and Wall Street executives decided to shoot craps and collect fees. Regulators, taking their cue from a distracted President Bush, took a nap. The two M’s — Money and Me — became the lodestones of the zeitgeist, and damn those distant wars.
The biggest single-day market drop since 9/11 reminded me that when trading reopened on Sept. 17, 2001, and the Dow plunged 684.81 points, some executives backdated their options to reprice them at this post-attack low to increase their potential gains.
So that’s what “financial killing” really means. No better illustration exists of a culture where private gain has eclipsed the public good, public service, even public decency, and where the cult of the individual has caused the commonwealth to wither.
R O G E R C O H E N N E W Y O R K T I M E S C O L U M N I S T “ T H E K I N G I S D E A D , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , S E P T E M B E R 1 7 , 2 0 0 8
Stupidity carried beyond a certain point becomes a public menace. E Z R A ( W E S T O N L O O M I S ) P O U N D , A M E R I C A N P O E T A N D C R I T I C ( O C T O B E R 3 0 , 1 8 8 5 - N O V E M B E R 1 , 1 9 7 2 )
Last week, the Audubon Society released a new report describing the sharp and startling population decline of some of the most familiar and common birds in America: several kinds of sparrows, the Northern bobwhite, the Eastern
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meadowlark, the common grackle and the common tern. The average decline of the 20 species in the Audubon Society’s report is 68 percent.
Forty years ago, there were an estimated 31 million bobwhites. Now there are 5.5 million. Compared to the hundred-some condors presently in the wild, 5.5 million bobwhites sounds like a lot of birds. But what matters is the 25.5 million missing and the troubles that brought them down — and are all too likely to bring down the rest of them, too. So this is not extinction, but it is how things look before extinction happens. ...
The trouble with humans is that even the smallest changes in our behavior require an epiphany. And yet compared to the fixity of other species, the narrowness of their habitats, the strictness of their diets, the precision of the niches they occupy, we are flexibility itself.
We look around us, expecting the rest of the world’s occupants to adapt to the changes that we have caused, when, in fact, we have the right to expect adaptation only from ourselves.
V E R L Y N K L I N K E N B O R G “ M I L L I O N S O F M I S S I N G B I R D S , V A N I S H I N G I N P L A I N S I G H T , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , J U N E 1 9 , 2 0 0 7
A decade ago, census demographers estimated that the nation’s population, which topped 300 million in 2006, would not surpass 400 million until sometime after mid-century. Now, they are projecting that the population will top 400 million in 2039 and reach 439 million in 2050.
So-called minorities, the Census Bureau projects, will constitute a majority of the nation’s children under 18 by 2023 and of working-age Americans by 2039.
For the first time, both the number and the proportion of non-Hispanic whites, who now account for 66 percent of the population, will decline, starting around 2030. By 2050, their share will dip to 46 percent.
Higher mortality rates among older native-born white Americans and higher birthrates rates among immigrants and their children are already driving ethnic and racial disparities.
“A momentum is built into this as a result of past immigration,” said Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center. “In the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, there were more Hispanic immigrants than births. This decade, there are more births than immigrants. Almost regardless of what you assume about future immigration, the country will be more Hispanic and Asian.”
S A M R O B E R T S “ I N A G E N E R A T I O N , M I N O R I T I E S M A Y B E T H E U . S . M A J O R I T Y , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , A U G U S T 1 4 , 2 0 0 8
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Recent research has revealed a terrible fact: that an average British body carries a cocktail of more than thirty toxic chemicals, acquired from sofas, carpets, hairsprays, shampoos, computers, non-stick pans, canned foods, TV sets and much besides. The Faustian contract not only persists, but the devil’s side is winning: nearly 90 per cent of the 100,000 chemicals in industrial use in Europe have been insufficiently researched for their human toxicity, and their use is growing in relentless pursuit of providing ‘competitive’ (read ‘cheap) transport, food, clothing and much else.
A ( N T H O N Y ) C ( L I F F O R D ) G R A Y L I N G , B R I T I S H P H I L O S O P H E R A N D A U T H O R ( A P R I L 3 , 1 9 4 9 - ) T H E H E A R T O F T H I N G S : A P P L Y I N G P H I L O S O P H Y T O T H E 2 1 S T C E N T U R Y , 2 0 0 5
Having accounted for nearly a quarter of the world’s population in 1950, the West now accounts for barely 15 percent, and declining birthrates suggest that this share will shrink further.
M A R T I N W A L K E R , S E N I O R S C H O L A R A T T H E W I L S O N C E N T E R “ G L O B A L I Z A T I O N 3 . 0 , ” T H E W I L S O N Q U A R T E R L Y , A U T U M N 2 0 0 7
In 1950, the world’s total GDP had a value of just over $1 trillion, and world trade amounted to $130 billion, or about 13 percent of output. By 1970, global GDP had surpassed the $3 trillion level and world trade was at $650 billion, around 20 percent of output. By 1990, the value of world output was more than $20 trillion, and that of world trade $7 trillion, or 35 percent of output. Last year, with global output near $48 trillion, world trade reached $24 trillion, or 50 percent of output.
M A R T I N W A L K E R , S E N I O R S C H O L O R A T T H E W I L S O N C E N T E R “ G L O B A L I Z A T I O N 3 . 0 , ” T H E W I L S O N Q U A R T E R L Y , A U T U M N 2 0 0 7
… Of the world’s 20 most polluted cities, 16 are in China, and 90 percent of China’s cities have contaminated groundwater. China’s Information Office of the State Council, an administrative arm of the government, estimated that pollution cost the country $200 billion in 2005, which translates into nearly 10% of its GDP. The list goes on and on and includes very real evidence that China’s environmental problems are increasingly being outsourced to the rest of the world as well. Indeed, as much as 40 percent of the air pollution in Japan and South Korea can be traced back to China. On some days, as much as 40 percent of the pollution in Los Angeles is generated from across the Pacific, in China.
C H R I S W A R R E N “ C L E A N A N D S O B E R I N G : A F T E R D E C A D E S O F R U N A W A Y E C O N O M I C E X P A N S I O N , C H I N A I S C O N F R O N T I N G T H E R E S U L T I N G P O L L U T I O N P R O B L E M , ” A M E R I C A N W A Y M A G A Z I N E , F E B R U A R Y 1 5 , 2 0 0 8
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The City of Chicago is preparing to pay nearly $20 million to four men who were once sent to death row after interrogations that they say amounted to torture by the Chicago police, the city’s law department said on Friday.
If the legal settlement is approved next week by the city’s aldermen, it will be a crucial first effort to put a painful, notorious chapter in the city’s history behind it, some officials here said.
The four men were among scores of black men who reported being tortured, beaten with telephone books, and even suffocated with plastic typewriter covers during police interrogations in the 1970s and 1980s, special prosecutors found last year. The four men were pardoned by Gov. George Ryan in 2003.
Of the proposed settlement, Flint Taylor, a lawyer for one of the men, Leroy Orange, said, “It speaks volumes about the seriousness of the systematic torture, abuse and cover-up that went on in the city of Chicago for decades.”
M O N I C A D A V E Y A N D C A T R I N E I N H O R N “ S E T T L E M E N T F O R T O R T U R E O F 4 M E N B Y P O L I C E , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , D E C E M B E R 8 , 2 0 0 7
About 6 in 10 Americans.according to a 2005 Harris Poll, believe in the devil and hell, and about 7 in 10 believe in angels, heaven and the existence of miracles and of life after death. A 2006 survey at Baylor University found that 92 percent of respondents believe in a personal God –– that is, a God with a distinct set of character traits ranging from “distant” to “benevolent.”
R O B I N M A R A N T Z H E N I G , A M E R I C A N W R I T E R P E A C E I S T H E W A Y , 2 0 0 5
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- POLITICS -
It all began with democracy [in Britain]. Before we had the vote, all the power was in the hands of the rich people. If you had money, you could have healthcare, education, look after yourself when you were old. And what democracy did was to give the poor the vote and it moved power from the marketplace to the polling station, from the wallet to the ballot. And what people said was very simple: During the 1930’s we had mass unemployment, but we don’t have unemployment during the war. If you can have full employment killing Germans, why can’t you have it by building hospitals, schools, recruiting nurses and teachers? If you can find money to kill people, you can find money to help people.
( A N T H O N Y N E I L W E D G W O O D ) “ T O N Y ” B E N N , F O R M E R B R I T I S H M E M B E R O F P A R L I A M E N T ( A P R I L 3 , 1 9 2 5 - )
M I C H A E L M O O R E , A M E R I C A N F I L M P R O D U C E R S I C K O , 2 0 0 7
We apologize for the inconvenience, but this is a revolution. S U B C O M A N D A N T E M A R C O S
L A W R E N C E F E R L I N G H E T T I ( B O R N L A W R E N C E F E R L I N G ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A R C H 2 4 , 1 9 1 9 - ) P O E T R Y A S I N S U R G E N T A R T , 1 9 7 5 - 2 0 0 7
I was born for the storm and a calm doesn’t suit me. A N D R E W J A C K S O N , S E V E N T H P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S A N D A M E R I C A N G E N E R A L ( M A R C H 1 5 , 1 7 6 7 - J U N E 8 , 1 8 4 5 )
BILL MOYERS: Quickly connect the dots of this recent era for us, ballooning debt, sliding home prices, recurrent money supply expansion, growing inflation, peak oil, crumbling dollar, stagnant wages. What do they have in common?
KEVIN PHILLIPS: Well, I think they're all part of something I'm starting to think of as the mega bubble, 25 years of just pumping up the money supply and deregulating and not worrying about the ordinary person but sort of faking him or her out with friendly statistics and feel-good stuff. We are in an age of disappointment. And I don't think that’s going to be eradicated easily. I’m not sure it will be at all.
K E V I N P H I L I P S , N I X O N W H I T E H O U S E S T R A T E G I S T , P O L I T I C A L A N D E C O N O M I C C R I T I C ( N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 1 9 4 0 - )
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ K E V I N P H I L I P S , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , S E P T E M B E R 7 , 2 0 0 8
It will be quiet on Tuesday. No speeches. No motorcades. No paid political announcements. It’s a very special day, just for grown-ups. America votes
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Tuesday…and . . . on Tuesday, the shouting and the begging and the threatening and the heckling will be silenced. It’s very quiet in a voting booth. And nobody’s going to help you make up your mind. So –– just for that instant –– you’ll know what the man you’re voting for will do a thousand times a day for the next four years. Now it’s your turn.
N E W S P A P E R A D , E L E C T I O N D A Y , 1 9 6 8
You grew up in Chicago where, it is famously said, four out of every two votes are cast Democratic, right? And whereas we learned in 1960 you never count the votes of the deceased until you know how many need, right? So you have some experience with what can go wrong in elections. What can go wrong this election?
M I C H A E L C R I S P I N - M I L L E R , A M E R I C A N P R O F E S S O R O F M E D I A , C U L T U R E A N D C O M M U N I C A T I O N A T N Y U
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ M I C H A E L C R I S P I N - M I L L E R A N D P R O T E C T I N G Y O U R V O T E , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , O C T O B E R 1 7 , 2 0 0 8
As gifted as he [John McCain] is, he is essentially going to execute the Republican agenda, the orthodoxy of the Republican agenda, with a new face and a maverick approach to it, and he’d be quite good at it. But I think we need a generational change.
C O L I N ( L U T H E R ) P O W E L L , A M E R I C A N M I L I T A R Y L E A D E R A N D U . S . S E C R E T A R Y O F S T A T E ( A P R I L 5 , 1 9 3 7 - )
J E F F Z E L E N Y “ D O N A T I O N R E C O R D A S C O L I N P O W E L L E N D O R S E S O B A M A , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , O C T O B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 8
“The political system does not do well with gradual, long-term problems,” Peter Orszag, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, said. “It deals with crises, often imperfectly, but it does deal with them. The current experience makes the case.”
D A V I D L E O N H A R D T “ A P O W E R T H A T M A Y N O T S T A Y S O S U P E R , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , O C T O B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
I’ve always believed that America’s government was a unique political system — one designed by geniuses so that it could be run by idiots. I was wrong. No system can be smart enough to survive this level of incompetence and recklessness by the people charged to run it.
This is dangerous. We have House members, many of whom I suspect can’t balance their own checkbooks, rejecting a complex rescue package because some voters, whom I fear also don’t understand, swamped them with phone calls. I
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appreciate the popular anger against Wall Street, but you can’t deal with this crisis this way. …
I always said to myself: Our government is so broken that it can only work in response to a huge crisis. But now we’ve had a huge crisis, and the system still doesn’t seem to work. Our leaders, Republicans and Democrats, have gotten so out of practice of working together that even in the face of this system-threatening meltdown they could not agree on a rescue package, as if they lived on Mars and were just visiting us for the week, with no stake in the outcome.
T H O M A S L . F R I E D M A N , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R A N D J O U R N A L I S T ( J U L Y 2 0 , 1 9 5 3 - ) “ R E S C U E T H E R E S C U E , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 2 0 0 8
“There are not a lot of things we can count on these days,” said Mark McKinnon, a former adviser to Mr. McCain who stepped aside earlier this year because, he told associates, he did not want to be part of a campaign tearing down Mr. Obama. “But, the sun will rise. The sun will set. And presidential campaigns will go negative.”
Chris Lehane, a Democratic consultant known as an advocate for tough campaigns, said: “At the end of the day, campaigns are campaigns. In the last five days, it always comes down to a knife fight in a telephone booth.”
A D A M N A G O U R N E Y “ C A M P A I G N S S H I F T T O A T T A C K M O D E O N E V E O F D E B A T E , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , O C T O B E R 6 , 2 0 0 8
RICK KARR: Michael Savage isn't the only right-wing talk-radio host who launches blistering, even violent, verbal attacks on people and groups he doesn’t like. Glenn Beck, for instance, fantasized about murdering a liberal filmmaker.
GLENN BECK:”I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out of him. Is this wrong?”
RICK KARR: Michael Reagan, son of the former president, suggested that people who claim that “nine-eleven was an inside job,” a U.S. government conspiracy, deserve to die.
MICHAEL REAGAN: “Take them out and shoot them. They are traitors to this country, and shoot them. But anybody who would do that doesn’t deserve to live. You shoot them. You call them traitors, that’s what they are, and you shoot them dead. I’ll pay for the bullet.”
RICK KARR: Neal Boortz went after victims of Hurricane Katrina.
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NEAL BOORTZ: “That wasn’t the cries of the downtrodden. That’s the cries of the useless, the worthless. New Orleans was a welfare city, a city of parasites, a city of people who could not, and had no desire to fend for themselves. You have a hurricane descending on them and they sit on their fat asses and wait for somebody else to come rescue them.”
RICK KARR: Muslims are some of Boortz's favorite targets.
NEAL BOORTZ:”It’s Ramadan and Muslims in your workplace might be offended if they see you eating at your desk. Why? I guess it’s because Muslims don’t eat during the day during Ramadan. They fast during the day and eat at night. Sorta like cockroaches.”
RICK KARR: Reverend Chris Buice says he’s heard that kind of language before.
REVEREND CHRIS BUICE: If you look at the history of like situations like in Rwanda in 1994, the talk radio was a big part of leading to the conditions that created a genocide. The Hutu radio disc jockeys would call the Tutsi cockroaches. There’s the sense that these aren’t human beings. You know, they’re not human beings with children or grandchildren. These are cockroaches. And when you hear in talk radio that liberals are evil, that they are traitors, that they are godless, that they are on the side of the terrorist. That’s hate language. You don’t negotiate with evil people. You don’t live in community with people you consider to be traitors.
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ R A G E O N T H E R A D I O , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , S E P T E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
I feel for Ms. Palin’s son who has been shipped off to the war in Iraq. But at his deployment ceremony, which was on the same day as the Charlie Gibson interview, Sept. 11, she told the audience of soldiers that they would be fighting “the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”
Was she deliberately falsifying history, or does she still not know that Iraq and Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?
To burnish the foreign policy credentials of a vice presidential candidate who never even had a passport until last year, the Republicans have been touting Alaska’s proximity to Russia. (Imagine the derisive laughter in conservative circles if the Democrats had tried such nonsense.) So Mr. Gibson asked Ms. Palin, “What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?”
She said, “They’re our next-door neighbors. And you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska. From an island in Alaska.”
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Mr. Gibson tried again. “But what insight does that give you,” he asked, “into what they’re doing in Georgia?”
B O B H E R B E R T , N E W Y O R K T I M E S C O L U M N I S T “ S H E ’ S N O T R E A D Y , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , ” S E P T E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
Ms. Palin talked repeatedly about never blinking. When Mr. McCain asked her to run for vice president? “You have to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission,” she said, that “you can’t blink.”
Fighting terrorism? “We must do whatever it takes, and we must not blink, Charlie, in making those tough decisions of where we go and even who we target.”
E D I T O R I A L “ G O V . P A L I N ’ S W O R L D V I E W , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , ” S E P T E M B E R 1 3 , 2 0 0 8
“This election is not about issues, so much as the candidate’s images,” said McCain campaign manager [Rick] Davis, in one of the campaign’s most notable announcements.
F R A N K R I C H , N E W Y O R K T I M E S C O L U M N I S T “ P A L I N A N D M C C A I N ’ S S H O T G U N M A R I A G E , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , ” S E P T E M B E R 7 , 2 0 0 8
BILL MOYERS: There was an interview that Chris Wallace [television commentator] did with John McCain's campaign manager, Rick Davis, in which Davis comes out and says, you know, they’re not going let Sarah Palin be interviewed until the media learn to afford her some respect and deference.
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ M E D I A A N A L Y S I S , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , S E P T E M B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
Rush Limbaugh, the right-wing Talk Radio star, delivered this verdict: “Babies, guns and Jesus. Hot damn!”
A L E X I M O S T R O U S I N W A S I L L A , A L A S K A “ S A R A H P A L I N , T H E P A S T O R A N D T H E P R O P H E C Y : J U D G M E N T D A Y I S N O T F A R A W A Y , ” T I M E S O N L I N E , S E P T E M B E R 1 0 , 2 0 0 8
My fellow Americans: We are a country in debt and in decline — not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline. Our political system seems incapable of producing long-range answers to big problems or big opportunities. We are the ones who need a better-functioning democracy — more than the Iraqis and Afghans. We are the ones in need of nation-building. It is our political system that is not working.
I continue to be appalled at the gap between what is clearly going to be the next great global industry — renewable energy and clean power — and the inability of
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Congress and the administration to put in place the bold policies we need to ensure that America leads that industry.
“America and its political leaders, after two decades of failing to come together to solve big problems, seem to have lost faith in their ability to do so,” Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald Seib noted last week. “A political system that expects failure doesn’t try very hard to produce anything else.”
T H O M A S L . F R I E D M A N , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R A N D J O U R N A L I S T ( J U L Y 2 0 , 1 9 5 3 - ) “ A N X I O U S I N A M E R I C A , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 0 8
Beginning with the election of John F. Kennedy in 1960, “the occupant of the White House has become a combination of demigod, father figure and, inevitably, the betrayer of inflated hopes. Pope. Pop star. Scold. Scapegoat. Crisis manager. Commander in Chief. Agenda settler. Moral philosopher. Interpreter of the nation’s charisma. Object of veneration. And the butt of jokes. All rolled into one.”
A N D R E W J . B A C E V I C H , P R O F E S S O R O F F O R E I G N R E L A T I O N S , B O S T O N U N I V E R S I T Y ( 1 9 4 7 - ) T H E L I M I T S O F P O W E R : T H E E N D O F A M E R I C A N E X C E P T I O N A L I S M , 2 0 0 8
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ A N D R E W J . B A C E V I C H , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , A U G U S T 1 5 , 2 0 0 8
Thus we see there is a basic principle for the sovereign: Through sincerity and faithfulness, he maintains his rule, and through pride and self-indulgent living he loses it. (Arthur Waley translation)
C O N F U C I U S , C H I N E S E P H I L O S O P H E R ( S E P T E M B E R 2 8 , 5 5 1 B . C . - 4 7 9 B . C . )
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- ON BUSINESS -
He was there at the top… impervious, untouchable, insulated… a master of the universe. A great height to view the rest of the world. A great height from which to fall.
( T H O M A S K E N N E R L Y ) T O M W O L F E ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R A N D J O U R N A L I S T ( M A R C H 2 , 1 9 3 1 - ) B O N F I R E O F T H E V A N I T I E S , 1 9 8 7
There is an element in the readjustment of our financial system, more important than currency, more important than gold, and it is the confidence in the people themselves. Confidence and courage are the essentials in carrying out our plan. Let us unite in banishing fear. Together we cannot fail.
F R A N K L I N D E L A N O R O O S E V E L T , 1 9 3 2 , 3 2 N D P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( J A N U A R Y 3 0 , 1 8 8 2 - A P R I L 1 2 , 1 9 4 5 ) 1 S T F I R E S I D E C H A T , M A R C H 1 2 , 1 9 3 3
Challenge capitalism masquerading as democracy. L A W R E N C E F E R L I N G H E T T I ( B O R N L A W R E N C E F E R L I N G ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A R C H 2 4 , 1 9 1 9 - ) P O E T R Y A S I N S U R G E N T A R T , 1 9 7 5 - 2 0 0 7
You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste. It’s an opportunity to do important things you would otherwise avoid.
R A H M I S R A E L E M A N U E L , A M E R I C A N P O L I T I C I A N A N D O B A M A C A B I N E T C H I E F O F S T A F F ( N O V E M B E R 2 9 , 1 9 5 9 - )
Beware of geeks bearing formulas. W A R R E N B U F F E T T , A M E R I C A N F I N A N C I E R ( A U G U S T 3 0 , 1 9 3 0 - )
Somehow the genius quants — the best and brightest geeks Wall Street firms could buy — fed $1 trillion in subprime mortgage debt into their supercomputers, added some derivatives, massaged the arrangements with computer algorithms and — poof! — created $62 trillion in imaginary wealth. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine that all of that imaginary wealth is locked up somewhere inside the computers, and that we humans, led by the silverback males of the financial world, Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson, are frantically beseeching the monolith for answers. Or maybe we are lost in space, with Dave the astronaut pleading, “Open the bank vault doors, Hal.”
R I C H A R D D O O L I N G , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R O F “ R A P T U R E F O R T H E G E E K S : W H E N A . I . O U T S M A R T S I . Q . ” “ T H E R I S E O F T H E M A C H I N E S , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , O C T O B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
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But we are suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines’ decisions. ... Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won’t be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.
T H E O D O R E K A C Z I N S K I , A M E R I C A N T E R R O R I S T , K N O W N A S T H E U N I B O M B E R
R I C H A R D D O O L I N G , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R O F “ R A P T U R E F O R T H E G E E K S : W H E N A . I . O U T S M A R T S I . Q . ” “ T H E R I S E O F T H E M A C H I N E S , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , O C T O B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
When Treasury Secretary Paulson (looking very much like a frightened primate) came to Congress seeking an emergency loan, Senator Jon Tester of Montana, a Democrat still living on his family homestead, asked him: “I’m a dirt farmer. Why do we have one week to determine that $700 billion has to be appropriated or this country’s financial system goes down the pipes?”
“Well, sir,” Mr. Paulson could well have responded, “the computers have demanded it.”
R I C H A R D D O O L I N G , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R O F “ R A P T U R E F O R T H E G E E K S : W H E N A . I . O U T S M A R T S I . Q . ” “ T H E R I S E O F T H E M A C H I N E S , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , O C T O B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
Our entire economy is in danger. G E O R G E W A L K E R B U S H , 4 3 R D P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( J U L Y 6 , 1 9 4 6 - )
P E T E R S . G O O D M A N “ C R E D I T E N T E R S A L O C K D O W N , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , S E P T E M B E R 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
My friend Rob Watson, the head of EcoTech International, has a saying about Mother Nature that goes like this: “Mother Nature is just chemistry, biology and physics. That’s all she is.” And because of that, says Rob, you cannot spin Mother Nature. You cannot bribe Mother Nature. You cannot sweet talk her, and you cannot ignore her. She’s going to do with the climate whatever chemistry, biology and physics dictate. And Mother Nature always bats last, and she always bats a thousand.
There is a parallel with markets. At their core, markets are propelled by fear and greed. They’re just the balance at any given moment of those two impulses. Over the long run, you cannot spin the market. You cannot sweet talk it into going up
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or beg it not to go down. It’s going to do whatever it’s going to do — which ever way greed and fear tug it. And the market always bats last and it always bats a thousand.
What am I saying? We are where we are today because we went on a credit binge and we’re now paying the price. Because it was the biggest credit binge the world has ever been on, a lot of wealth is going to be wiped out. Now what you’re witnessing is the market re-evaluating and re-pricing every asset in the world, without mercy, telling each stock, bond and bank what its value is in a post-credit binge world.
T H O M A S L . F R I E D M A N , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R A N D J O U R N A L I S T ( J U L Y 2 0 , 1 9 5 3 - ) “ T H E P O S T - B I N G E W O R L D , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , O C T O B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
“One thing seems probable to me,” Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, said recently. “The U.S. will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system.” At another time, that remark might have sounded like mere nationalist bluster. Right now, it doesn’t seem ridiculous to ask whether 2008 will come to be seen as the first year of a distinctly non-American century.
D A V I D L E O N H A R D T “ A P O W E R T H A T M A Y N O T S T A Y S O S U P E R , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , O C T O B E R 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
Before he [Richard Fuld, Chairman of Lehman Brothers] took up the top post at Lehman, he found himself in a Las Vegas casino when a bad gambler blew $4 million. The gambler was following a classic strategy: when the cards go against you, double up the bet, because eventually things are sure to turn your way. Fuld took notes on a cocktail napkin as the gambler imploded, reaching the conclusion that bad luck can always continue longer than seems reasonable. “I don’t care who you are,” he wrote later. “You don’t have enough capital.”
J I M J A M I E S O N “ H O W T H E M A S T E R S O F T H E U N I V E R S E R A N A M O K A N D C O S T U S T H E E A R T H , ” T H E S C O T S M A N , S E P T E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 0 8
Are you capable of taking a perfectly good 158-year-old company and turning it into dust? If so, then you may not be earning up to your full potential.
You should be raking it in like Richard Fuld, the longtime chief of Lehman Brothers. He took home nearly half-a-billion dollars in total compensation between 1993 and 2007.
Last year, Mr. Fuld earned about $45 million, according to the calculations of Equilar, an executive pay research company. That amounts to roughly $17,000 an hour to obliterate a firm. If you’re willing to drive a company into the ground for less, apply by calling Lehman Brothers at (212) 526-7000.
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Oh, nevermind. N I C H O L A S D . K R I S T O L , N E W Y O R K T I M E S C O L U M N I S T “ N E E D A J O B ? $ 1 7 , 0 0 0 A N H O U R . N O S U C C E S S R E Q U I R E D , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , S E P T E M B E R 1 7 , 2 0 0 8
No other nation ever had it quite so good. Before the dollar, the pound sterling was the pre-eminent monetary brand. But when Britannia ruled the waves, the pound was backed by gold. You could exchange pound notes for gold coin, and vice versa, at the fixed statutory rate.
Today’s dollar, in contrast, is faith-based. Since 1971, nothing has stood behind it except the world’s good opinion of the United States. And now, watching the largest American financial institutions quake, and the administration fly from one emergency stopgap to the next, the world is changing its mind.
J A M E S G R A N T “ T H E B U C K S T O P P E D T H E N , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , S E P T E M B E R 2 3 , 2 0 0 8
“The global financial crisis endangers all our work,” said the secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who used his opening remarks at the General Assembly to question the reliance on free markets. “We need a new understanding on business ethics and governance, with more compassion and less uncritical faith in the ‘magic’ of markets.”
B A N K I M O O N , K O R E A N - B O R N S E C R E T A R Y G E N E R A L O F T H E U N I T E D N A T I O N S ( J U N E 1 3 , 1 9 4 4 - )
N E I L M A C F A R Q U H A R “ U P H E A V A L O N W A L L S T . S T I R S A N G E R A T U . N . , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , S E P T E M B E R 2 3 , 2 0 0 8
… our bank crisis is not over. Two weeks ago, Goldman Sachs analysts said that U.S. banks may need another $65 billion to cover more write-downs of bad mortgage-related instruments and potential new losses if consumer loans start to buckle. Since President Bush came to office, our national savings have gone from 6 percent of gross domestic product to 1 percent, and consumer debt has climbed from $8 trillion to $14 trillion.
T H O M A S L . F R I E D M A N , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R A N D J O U R N A L I S T ( J U L Y 2 0 , 1 9 5 3 - ) “ A N X I O U S I N A M E R I C A , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 0 8
Investors are like hyperactive first graders playing musical chairs. [September 14, 2008]
S A M S T O V A L L , S T A N D A R D A N D P O O R ’ S E Q U I T Y R E S E A R C H
FLOYD NORRIS: The government is nationalizing companies. They nationalized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And that made a little bit of sense, since we’d always thought Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had an implicit government
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guarantee, whatever that meant. And now they’ve nationalized AIG. They own eighty percent of the company. They have lent money to the company at very strict terms.
For this company to somehow pay that loan back will require amazing competence in managing things. And I don’t think anybody expects them to ever do that. They’re probably going to liquidate AIG. It amazes me. I’m not sure it was unnecessary, as I said. But I can only envision what the right wing would be saying if a liberal Democrat had decided to nationalize the biggest insurance company in America. I don’t think you’d be hearing a lot of praise for it.
GRETCHEN MORGENSON: The ugly thing about this is privatizing gains and socializing losses. So when things are going well, the managements make out, the shareholders make out, the counterparties are fine. All the private sector people do well. But when something goes wrong, when decisions are made that turn out to be bad decisions, the U.S. taxpayer has to take on the problem.
And there’s something very wrong about that. Because all of those people that made all that money are running off here into the distance with the money, carrying it in their bags. And the United States taxpayer is on the hook.
F L O Y D N O R R I S , N E W Y O R K T I M E S B U S I N E S S & F I N A N C I A L C O L U M N I S T
G R E T C H E N M O R G E N S O N , N E W Y O R K T I M E S B U S I N E S S & F I N A N C I A L C O L U M N I S T
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ W A L L S T R E E T W O E S , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , S E P T E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 8
The only repectable type of socialism in America is socialism for the rich. J O H N K E N N E T H G A L B R A I T H , A M E R I C A N - C A N A D I A N E C O N O M I S T ( O C T O B E R 1 5 , 1 9 0 8 - A P R I L 2 9 , 2 0 0 6 )
… Alan Greenspan [Federal Reserve Chairman, 1987-2006] has finally decided to admit, you know, this [financial meltdown] may be one of those once-a-century biggies. Well, what makes it fascinating is that I sometimes use the description “seven sharks.” There are seven sharks in the tank with the economy.
And the first is financialization because we’re so dependent on this industry that’s sort of half lost its marbles. The second is that you have this huge buildup of debt, absolutely unprecedented anywhere in the world. The third is you've now got home prices collapsing. The fourth is you’ve got global commodity inflation building up.
The fifth is you’ve got flawed and deceptive government economics statistics. The sixth is that you’ve got what they call peak oil where the world is, to some extent, running out of oil. So it’s not just commodity inflation, it’s a shortage of oil. And then the last thing is the collapsing dollar. Now, whenever you get this sort of
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package in one decade, you got a big one. And when Greenspan says it’s a once a century, I think it’s another variation but on a par with the Thirties.
K E V I N P H I L I P S , N I X O N W H I T E H O U S E S T R A T E G I S T , P O L I T I C A L A N D E C O N O M I C C R I T I C ( N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 1 9 4 0 - )
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ W A L L S T R E E T W O E S , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , S E P T E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 8
Voluntary regulation of investment banks does not work, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox testified on Capitol Hill today.
“The last six months, during which the SEC and the Federal Reserve have worked collaboratively with each of the firms pursuant to our memorandum of understanding — have made abundantly clear that voluntary regulation doesn’t work,” Mr. Cox said in prepared testimony at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee on turmoil in the U.S. credit markets.
He referred to the SEC’s program of voluntary supervision for investment bank holding companies, the Consolidated Supervised Entity program, which was put in place by the SEC in 2004.
“The failure of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to give regulatory authority over investment bank holding companies to any agency of government was, based on the experience of the last several months, a costly mistake,” Mr. Cox said in his testimony.
Gramm-Leach-Bliley allowed banks, brokerage firms and insurers to combine after years of separation that was required under Depression-era laws.
The $58 trillion notational market in credit default swaps is “another similar regulatory hole that most be immediately addressed to avoid similar consequences,” Mr. Cox testified.
S A R A H A N S A R D “ C O X : V O L U N T A R Y R E G U L A T I O N D O E S N ’ T W O R K , ” I N V E S T M E N T N E W S , S E P T E M B E R 2 3 , 2 0 0 8
KEVIN PHILLIPS: … We are on the wrong track. I wish I could say that there’s a blueprint that would get us back on the right track. But my sense of the histories of leading world economic powers is that you don’t get back on the right track.
… You go through a painful adjustment process. The British were absolutely top dog in the world in 1914. Two world wars and 35 years later, after World War II, they were having food rationing, the pound sterling crashed, dukes were giving guided tours of their castles because they couldn’t afford to maintain them otherwise. Doesn’t take long. And I’m afraid the United States is coming right into that period which marks a couple of decades coming up that are going to be very difficult for America.
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K E V I N P H I L I P S , N I X O N W H I T E H O U S E S T R A T E G I S T , P O L I T I C A L A N D E C O N O M I C C R I T I C ( N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 1 9 4 0 - )
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ W A L L S T R E E T W O E S , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , S E P T E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 8
Yes, life’s getting better. Just not better than it used to be. J O H N A L E X A N D E R T H A I N , C H A I R M A N A N D C E O O F M E R R I L L L Y N C H ( M A Y 2 6 , 1 9 5 5 - )
I want everyone to have a healthy dose of paranoia. [October 2008] W A R R E N M U L A , A M E R I C A N I N S U R A N C E B R O K E R A G E E X E C U T I V E
What client would want to pay for this? A N O N .
the heart & the mind of a company are considered inefficiences. … as is the conscience.
R J S
I have no idea what the stock market is going to do next month or in six months from now. I do know that the American economy over time, will do very well, and people who own a piece of it will do well.
W A R R E N B U F F E T T , A M E R I C A N F I N A N C I E R ( A U G U S T 3 0 , 1 9 3 0 - )
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- TRADITION -
The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
A L E X I S ( C H A R L E S H E N R I M A U R I C E C L É E L ) D E T O C Q U E V I L L E , F R E N C H S O C I O L O G I S T ( J U L Y 2 9 , 1 8 0 5 - J U L Y 1 6 , 1 8 5 9 ) D E M O C R A C Y I N A M E R I C A , 1 8 4 0
If Westerners feel dazed and confused upon exiting the plane at the new international airport terminal here [in Beijing], it’s understandable. It’s not just the grandeur of the space. It’s the inescapable feeling that you’re passing through a portal to another world, one whose fierce embrace of change has left Western nations in the dust.
The sensation is comparable to the epiphany that Adolf Loos, the Viennese architect, experienced when he stepped off a steamship in New York Harbor more than a century ago. He had crossed a threshold into the future; Europe, he realized, was now culturally obsolete.
N I C O L A I O U R O U S S O F F “ I N C H A N G I N G F A C E O F B E I J I N G , A L O O K A T T H E N E W C H I N A , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , J U L Y 1 3 , 2 0 0 8
To be patient and gentle, ready to teach, returning not evil for evil: that is the strength of character of the people of the southern countries. It is the ideal place for the moral man. To lie under arms and meet death without regret; that is the strength of character of the people of the northern countries. It is the ideal of brave men of your type. Wherefore the man with the true strength of moral character is one who is gentle, yet firm. How unflinching is his strength!
C O N F U C I U S , C H I N E S E P H I L O S O P H E R ( 5 5 1 - 4 9 7 B . C )
In exalting competition, Americans often forget that cooperation and collective effort are the foundation of freedom.
B E N J A M I N R . B A R B E R , P R O F E S S O R , U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D “ T H E L O S T A R T O F C O O P E R A T I O N , ” T H E W I L S O N Q U A R T E R L Y , A U T U M N 2 0 0 7
“It is not enough that I win,” proclaims the hubris-driven American competitor, “others must lose.”
B E N J A M I N R . B A R B E R , P R O F E S S O R , U N I V E R S I T Y O F M A R Y L A N D “ T H E L O S T A R T O F C O O P E R A T I O N , ” T H E W I L S O N Q U A R T E R L Y , A U T U M N 2 0 0 7
Donald Rumsfeld said that his mission in the War against Terror was to persuade the world that Americans must be allowed to continue their way of life. When the
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maddened King stamps his foot, slaves tremble in their quarters. So, standing here today, it’s hard for me to say this, but “The American Way of Life” is simply not sustainable. Because it doesn’t acknowledge that there is a world beyond America.
D O N A L D R U M S F E L D , U . S . S E C R E T A R Y O F D E F E N S E ( J U L Y 9 , 1 9 3 2 - )
A R U N D H A T I R O Y , I N D I A N W R I T E R ( N O V E M B E R 2 4 , 1 9 6 1 - ) “ C O M E S E P T E M B E R , ” S P E E C H , S A N T A F E , N E W M E X I C O , S E P T E M B E R 2 0 0 2
They are cowshit farmers, these New Englanders who built our red barns so admired as emblems, in photograph, in paint, of America’s imagined past (backward utopians that we’ve become). But let me tell how it is inside those barns. Warm. Even in dead of winter, even in the dark night solid with thirty below, thanks to huge bodies breathing heat and grain sacks stuffed under doors and in broken windows, warm, and heaped with reeking, steaming manure, running with urine that reeks even more, the wooden channels and flagged aisles saturated with a century’s excreta.
H A Y D E N C A R R U T H , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( A U G U S T 3 , 1 9 2 1 - ) “ M A R S H A L L W A S H E R , ” T O W A R D T H E D I S T A N T I S L A N D S : N E W A N D S E L C T E D P O E M S B Y H A Y D E N C A R R U T H , 2 0 0 6
Frankly, I worry that enemies of Senator Obama will seize upon details like his grandfather’s Islamic faith or his father’s polygamy to portray him as an alien or a threat to American values. But snobbishness and paranoia ill-become a nation of immigrants, where one of our truest values is to judge people by their own merits, not their pedigrees. If we call ourselves a land of opportunity, then Mr. Obama’s heritage doesn’t threaten American values but showcases them.
The stepgrandson of an illiterate, barefoot woman in this village of mud huts in Africa may be the next president of the United States. Such mobility — powered by education, immigration and hard work — is cause not for disparagement but for celebration.
N I C H O L A S D . K R I S T O F , A M E R I C A N C O L U M N I S T F O R T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S “ O B A M A ’ S K E N Y A N R O O T S , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
… why did Rome fall? Because of things interior and exterior. The interior part was less and less just taxation. More and more it was the poor and the middle class that bore the burden of taxation. And the wealthy and very wealthy pretended to pay but didn’t actually. And I think we are in a very similar situation with regard to that. Then the other thing was –– the external thing was that you had all of these Germanic barbarians who we think of as marauders and all that. They just
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wanted in. They were on the wrong side of the river. And they knew it. They wanted to have farms and vineyards like the Romans had. They thought it looked great. They wanted to cross the river. You know, what they were? They were immigrants. That’s who they were, not at all unlike the situation today at the borders of our country and the borders of Europe.
… And what happened was despite the unjust taxation or despite –– taxation in any form, the Romans could not pay to keep them out. No matter what they did they couldn’t make those walls high enough and strong enough to keep out the barbarians. If people really want to get in they’re going to find a way in.
T H O M A S C A H I L L , A M E R I C A N S C H O L A R A N D W R I T E R
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , P B S , D E C E M B E R 2 8 , 2 0 0 7
Have you noticed all these new nonfiction books on “happiness”? It’s an industry. It’s really frightening. People need to read a book on how to be happy? It’s completely an American thing. Can you imagine people in Naples sitting on a bus or in a trattoria reading a book about happiness?
C H A R L E S S I M I C , Y U G O S L A V I A N - A M E R I C A N P O E T A N D C R I T I C – P O E T L A U R E A T E O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( M A Y 9 , 1 9 3 8 - )
D E B O R A H S O L O M O N , A M E R I C A N C O L U M N I S T F O R T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S ( A U G U S T 9 , 1 9 5 7 - ) “ I N - V E R S E T H I N K I N G , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S M A G A Z I N E , F E B R U A R Y 3 , 2 0 0 8
… Americans are careless to this day about little things and about big things. They’re careless about being on time for example … They’re careless about big things. Heaven knows, they’ve been careless about the environment from the beginning. They’ve laid waste the American environment from the very earliest time in our history.
H E N R Y S T E E L E C O M M A G E R , A M E R I C A N H I S T O R I A N ( O C T O B E R 2 5 , 1 9 0 2 -M A R C H 2 , 1 9 9 8 )
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ A C O N V E R S A T I O N W I T H H E N R Y S T E E L E C O M M A G E R , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , E D U C A T I O N A L B R O A D C A S T I N G C O R P O R A T I O N , M A R C H 2 6 , 1 9 7 4
Has there ever been a society so exquisitely rigged for implosion? J A M E S H O W A R D K U N S T L E R , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R W O R L D M A D E B Y H A N D , 2 0 0 8
If, we can identify a single moment when the Western dominated Globalization 2.0 gave way to Globalization 3.0, it may have been when China acceded to WTO [World Trade Organization] membership on or about December 11, 2001. A new era of globalization dawned. Now the West must cede command to others.
M A R T I N W A L K E R , S E N I O R S C H O L O R A T T H E W I L S O N C E N T E R
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“ G L O B A L I Z A T I O N 3 . 0 , ” T H E W I L S O N Q U A R T E R L Y , A U T U M N 2 0 0 7
Uncomfortable with access to immense stores of fact, amerikans prefer spin. R J S
“Oprah dresses conservatively,” explained Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud, a co-owner of a women’s spa in Riyadh called Yibreen and a daughter of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States. “She struggles with her weight. She overcame depression. She rose from poverty and from abuse. On all these levels she appeals to a Saudi woman. People really idolize her here.”
K A T H E R I N E Z O E P F “ S A U D I W O M E N F I N D A N U N L I K E L Y R O L E M O D E L : O P R A H , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S , S E P T E M B E R 1 9 , 2 0 0 8
Stigler’s Law: No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer. S T E P H E N S T I G L E R , A M E R I C A N S T A T I S T I C I A N
M A L C O L M G L A D W E L L , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R “ I N T H E A I R : W H O S A Y S B I G I D E A S A R E R A R E ? ” T H E N E W Y O R K E R , M A Y 1 2 , 2 0 0 8
The miracle of Christmas is that, like the distant and very musical voice of the hound, it penetrates finally and becomes heard in the heart.
E ( L W Y N ) B ( R O O K S ) W H I T E , A M E R I C A N W R I T E R ( J U L Y 1 1 , 1 8 9 9 - O C T O B E R 1 , 1 9 8 5 ) N O T E S O N O U R T I M E S , 1 9 3 7 - 1 9 5 4
By the time of the American Revolution there was already a robust plebeian resentment of the aristocrat as parasite, a priviledged nonproducer living off the hard labor of those he lorded over.
S T E V E F R A Z E R , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R W A L L S T R E E T : A M E R I C A ’ S D R E A M P A L A C E , 2 0 0 8
… There’s a very great sense of guilt about the negro –– about slavery –– which was not present in the past, on the whole, in the 19th century, and in the mistreatment of blacks from the end of slavery on to the present day –– a sense that we have betrayed the promise of freedom.
We have a sense of guilt about what we did to the Indian. … And we have a sense of guilt, I think –– a very deep one –– about Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, as indeed we should have. We have some sense of guilt –– although I don’t know how widespread it is –– about being the only people so far who have used the atomic bomb. We keep worrying about the Russians and the Chinese using it, but we are the only people who ever did.
H E N R Y S T E E L E C O M M A G E R , A M E R I C A N H I S T O R I A N ( O C T O B E R 2 5 , 1 9 0 2 -M A R C H 2 , 1 9 9 8 )
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B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ A C O N V E R S A T I O N W I T H H E N R Y S T E E L E C O M M A G E R , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , E D U C A T I O N A L B R O A D C A S T I N G C O R P O R A T I O N , M A R C H 2 6 , 1 9 7 4
… there is less harmony in our society –– to my mind –– than at any time since Reconstruction. And I think this is a very ominous development. … Perhaps the pressures of modern life, and the requirement that all intelligent people have in mind everything that goes on in modern life –– perhaps those pressures are now intolerable, and they are impairing the surface concensus that did obtain in the past.
H E N R Y S T E E L E C O M M A G E R , A M E R I C A N H I S T O R I A N ( O C T O B E R 2 5 , 1 9 0 2 -M A R C H 2 , 1 9 9 8 )
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ A C O N V E R S A T I O N W I T H H E N R Y S T E E L E C O M M A G E R , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , E D U C A T I O N A L B R O A D C A S T I N G C O R P O R A T I O N , M A R C H 2 6 , 1 9 7 4
… almost all the emergencies turn out not to be –– just as almost all the requirements of national security, like the break-in to Dr. Fieldings’s office, turn out not to be. Certainly, there was no emergency, I think , at the time of the Bay of Pigs. Mr. Kennedy went along with that, and later regretted it. He knew it was a mistake. If you set up elaborate systems which are almost guaranteed to mislead you, you invite being misled, and invite the misuse of power. And the C.I.A., and perhaps the Secret Service, and so forth, are systems whose vested interest it is to mislead the country into believing there’s a crisis, and therefore, justifying their conclusions about things.
H E N R Y S T E E L E C O M M A G E R , A M E R I C A N H I S T O R I A N ( O C T O B E R 2 5 , 1 9 0 2 -M A R C H 2 , 1 9 9 8 )
B I L L M O Y E R S , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D F O R M E R P R E S I D E N T I A L P R E S S S E C R E T A R Y ( J U N E 6 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ A C O N V E R S A T I O N W I T H H E N R Y S T E E L E C O M M A G E R , ” B I L L M O Y E R S J O U R N A L , E D U C A T I O N A L B R O A D C A S T I N G C O R P O R A T I O N , M A R C H 2 6 , 1 9 7 4
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- THE EXISTENTIAL -
… I did somezing magnificent and mysterious … and ze beauty of eet is zat I don’t have a “why.”
P H I L I P P E P E T I T , F R E N C H H I G H W I R E A R T I S T W H O W A L K E D B E T W E E N T H E W O R L D T R A D E C E N T E R T O W E R S I N 1 9 7 4 , ( A U G U S T 1 3 , 1 9 4 9 - )
D A V I D E D E L S T E I N “ F O L I E Á D E U X : A H E I S T P I C T U R E A B O U T O N E O F T H E G R E A T E S T S T U N T S I N N E W Y O R K H I S T O R Y , ” T H E N E W Y O R K M A G A Z I N E , J U L Y 2 8 - A U G U S T 4 , 2 0 0 8
The struggle itself is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.
A L B E R T C A M U S , F R E N C H N O V E L I S T A N D P H I L O S O P H E R ( N O V E M B E R 7 , 1 9 1 3 - J A N U A R Y 4 , 1 9 6 0 ) T H E M Y T H O F S I S Y P H U S , 1 9 5 5
… working without a why M E I S T E R E C K H A R T , G E R M A N C H R I S T I A N M Y S T I C ( 1 2 6 0 - 1 3 2 9 )
Life confronts us point-blank. J O S É O R T E G A Y G A S S E T , S P A N I S H W R I T E R , P H I L O S O P H E R A N D P O E T ( M A Y 9 , 1 8 8 3 - O C T O B E R 1 8 , 1 9 5 5 )
why not practice becoming a cloud with each breath before you need to?
R J S
It avails not neither time or place. Distance avails not. I am with you, you men and women of a generation or ever so many generations hence. I project myself. Also I return. I am with you and know how it is.
( W A L T E R ) W A L T W H I T M A N ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 8 1 9 - M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 9 2 )
If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential, if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?
S Ø R E N ( A A B Y E ) K I E R K E G A A R D , D A N I S H P H I L O S O P H E R ( M A Y 5 , 1 8 1 3 -N O V E M B E R 1 1 , 1 8 5 5 ) F E A R A N D T R E M B L I N G ( F R Y G T O G B A E V E N ) , 1 8 4 3
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By the end of his life, Leibnitz had come to view 0 and 1 in zenlike terms, as part of the complex interaction of life and consciousness –– 1 representing God, he believed, and 0 representing the void.
B A R O N G O T T F R I E D W I L H E L M V O N L E I B N I Z , G E R M A N P H I L O S O P H E R , M A T H E M A T I C I A N A N D S T A T E S M A N ( 1 6 4 6 - 1 7 1 6 )
P H I L I P T O S H I O S U D O , J A P A N E S E - A M E R I C A N M U S I C I A N Z E N C O M P U T E R , 1 9 9 9
6.44. It is not how things are in the world that is mysterious, but that it exists. L U D W I G ( J O S E F J O H A N N ) W I T T G E N S T E I N , A U S T R I A N P H I L O S O P H E R ( A P R I L 2 6 , 1 8 8 9 - A P R I L 2 9 , 1 9 5 1 ) T R A C T A T U S L O G I C O - P H I L O S O P H I C U S , 1 9 2 1
The one space reaches through all Beings, World inner space. The birds fly silently through us. Oh, I want to grow, I look outside, and in me grow the tree.
R A I N E R M A R I A R I L K E , A U S T R O - G E R M A N P O E T ( D E C E M B E R 4 , 1 8 7 5 -D E C E M B E R 2 9 , 1 9 2 6 ) “ E S W I N K T Z U F Ü H L U N G ” , “ E V E R Y T H I N G B E C K O N S T O U S T O P E R C E I V E I T ”
I am told there is a saying in the Torah that many who are now in their graves believed that life would not continue without them. But it did.
D E B O R A H S O N T A G “ T H E P A L E S T I N I A N C O N V E R S A T I O N , ” T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S M A G A Z I N E , F E B R U A R Y 3 , 2 0 0 2
… the wise man looks into space, and does not regard the small as too little, nor the great as too big; for he knows there there is no limit to dimensions.
L A O T Z U , C H I N E S E P H I L O S O P H E R ( C . 6 0 4 - 5 3 1 B . C . )
There comes a time in a man’s life when to get where he has to go –– if there are no doors or windows, he walks through a wall.
B E R N A R D M A L A M U D , A M E R I C A N N O V E L I S T ( A P R I L 2 6 , 1 9 1 4 - M A R C H 1 8 , 1 9 8 6 )
The more comprehensible reality becomes, the more meaningless. S T E V E N W E I N B E R G , A M E R I C A N P H Y S I C I S T ( M A Y 3 , 1 9 3 3 - )
Knoweth thou not that the sun thou seeth with thine eyes is but a reflection of the sun behind the veil.
M E V L A N A J E L A L U D D I N R U M I , S U F I P O E T A N D S A I N T ( S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 1 2 0 7 - D E C E M B E R 1 7 , 1 2 7 3 )
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The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.
F R E D E R I C K B U E C H N E R , A M E R I C A N M I N I S T E R A N D W R I T E R ( J U L Y 1 1 , 1 9 2 6 - )
Then I saw that there was a way to hell, even from the Gates of Heaven. J O H N B U N Y A N , E N G L I S H W R I T E R A N D P R E A C H E R ( N O V E M B E R 2 8 , 1 6 2 8 -A U G U S T 3 1 , 1 6 8 8 ) P I L G R I M ’ S P R O G R E S S , 1 6 7 8
… if it told us the answer, it would take our freedom away from us. S Ø R E N ( A A B Y E ) K I E R K E G A A R D , D A N I S H P H I L O S O P H E R ( M A Y 5 , 1 8 1 3 -N O V E M B E R 1 1 , 1 8 5 5 )
It ain’t over till it’s over. Y O G I ( L A W R E N C E P E T E R ) B E R R A , A M E R I C A N B A S E B A L L P L A Y E R ( M A Y 1 2 , 1 9 2 5 - ) W H A T T I M E I S I T ? Y O U M E A N N O W ? 2 0 0 2
Philosophers constantly see the method of science before their eyes, and are irresistibly tempted to ask and answer questions in the way science does. This tendancy leads the philosopher into complete darkness.
L U D W I G ( J O S E F J O H A N N ) W I T T G E N S T E I N , A U S T R I A N P H I L O S O P H E R ( A P R I L 2 6 , 1 8 8 9 - A P R I L 2 9 , 1 9 5 1 )
The world rushes on over the strings of the lingering heart making the music of sadness.
S I R R A B I N D R A N A T H T A G O R E , H I N D U P H I L O S O P H E R A N D P O E T ( M A Y 7 , 1 8 6 1 - A U G U S T 7 , 1 9 4 1 ) S T R A Y B I R D S , X L I V
I hold the Fates bound fast in iron chains And with my hand turn fortune’s wheel about.
C H R I S T O P H E R M A R L O W E , E N G L I S H P O E T A N D P L A Y W R I G H T ( F E B R U A R Y 2 6 , 1 5 6 4 - M A Y 3 0 , 1 5 9 3 ) T A M B U R L A I N E , 1 5 8 7
Happiness and the absurd are two sons of the same earth. They are inseparable. A L B E R T C A M U S , F R E N C H N O V E L I S T A N D P H I L O S O P H E R ( N O V E M B E R 7 , 1 9 1 3 - J A N U A R Y 4 , 1 9 6 0 ) L E M Y T H E D E S I S Y P H E ( T H E M Y T H O F S I S Y P H U S ) , 1 9 4 2
... This is how it must live: severed, detatched. L A U R I E S H E C K , A M E R I C A N P O E T
S T E P H E N K U U S I S T O , D E B O R A H T A L L , D A V I D W E I S S T H E P O E T ’ S N O T E B O O K , 1 9 9 5
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Out of memory. We wish to hold the whole sky, but we never will. J A P A N E S E C O M P U T E R S C R E E N H A I K U
I know my fate. One day there will be associated with my name the recollection of something frightful –– of a crisis like no other before on earth, of the profoundest collision of conscience.
F R I E D R I C H W I L H E L M N I E T Z S C H E , G E R M A N P H I L O S O P H E R ( O C T O B E R 1 5 , 1 8 4 4 - A U G U S T 2 5 , 1 9 0 0 ) B E Y O N D G O O D A N D E V I L , 1 8 8 6
Your hearts are taken up with worldly gain from the cradle to the grave. But you shall know. You shall before long come to know. Indeed, if you knew the truth with certainty, you would see the fire of hell ...
M U H A M M E D , P R O P H E T A N D F O U N D E R O F I S L A M ( 5 7 0 - 6 3 2 ) T H E H O L Y Q U R ’ À N , M U S L I M S A C R E D S C R I P T U R E
This life of hers was as cold as an attic that looks north; and boredom, quiet as a spider, was spinning its web in the shadowy places of her heart.
G U S T A V E F L A U B E R T , F R E N C H N O V E L I S T ( D E C E M B E R 1 2 , 1 8 2 1 - M A Y 8 , 1 8 8 0 ) M A D A M E B O V A R Y , 1 8 5 7
And the Days Are Not Full Enough
And the days are not full enough And the nights are not full enough And life slips by like a field mouse Not shaking the grass.
E Z R A ( W E S T O N L O O M I S ) P O U N D , A M E R I C A N P O E T A N D C R I T I C ( O C T O B E R 3 0 , 1 8 8 5 - N O V E M B E R 1 , 1 9 7 2 )
There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn. A L B E R T C A M U S , F R E N C H N O V E L I S T A N D P H I L O S O P H E R ( N O V E M B E R 7 , 1 9 1 3 - J A N U A R Y 4 , 1 9 6 0 ) T H E M Y T H O F S I S Y P H U S , 1 9 4 2 , T R A N S L A T E D B Y J U S T I N O ’ B R I E N
Flow, flow, flow, the current of life is ever onward … K O B O D A I S H I - Z A Z O , J A P A N E S E C U L T U R A L M O N U M E N T
Afflictions bow me to earth … Hence viper thoughts that coil around my mind, Reality’s dark dream.
S A M U E L T A Y L O R C O L E R I D G E , E N G L I S H L I T E R A R Y C R I T I C A N D P O E T ( O C T O B E R 2 1 , 1 7 7 2 - J U L Y 2 5 , 1 8 3 4 )
God is a great underground river that no one can dam up and no one can stop.
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M E I S T E R E C K H A R T , G E R M A N C H R I S T I A N M Y S T I C ( C . 1 2 6 0 - C . 1 3 2 9 )
Where men can’t live, gods fare no better. C O R M A C M C C A R T H Y , A M E R I C A N N O V E L I S T T H E R O A D , 2 0 0 6
We’re lost. But at least we’re making good time! Y O G I ( L A W R E N C E P E T E R ) B E R R A , A M E R I C A N B A S E B A L L P L A Y E R ( M A Y 1 2 , 1 9 2 5 - ) W H A T T I M E I S I T ? Y O U M E A N N O W ? 2 0 0 2
For some people the day comes when they have to declare the great Yes or the great No. It’s clear at once who has the Yes ready within him: and saying it
he goes from honor to honor, strong in his conviction. He who refuses does not repent. Asked again, he’d still say no. Yet that no –– the right no –– drags him down all his life.
C O N S T A N T I N E P . C A V A F Y , G R E E K P O E T ( 1 8 6 3 - 1 9 3 3 ) “ C H E F E C E … I L G R A N R I F I U T O , ” T R A N S L A T E D F R O M T H E G R E E K B Y E D M U N D K E E L E Y A N D P H I L I P S H E R R A R D
D A I S Y G O O D W I N , E N G L I S H T E L E V I S I O N P R O D U C E R 1 0 1 P O E M S T H A T C O U L D S A V E Y O U R L I F E : A N A N T H O L O G Y O F E M O T I O N A L F I R S T A I D , 2 0 0 3
O the mind, mind has its mountains; cliffs of fall Frightful, sheer, no man fathomed. Hold them cheap May who ne’er hung there.
G E R A R D M A N L E Y H O P K I N S , E N G L I S H P O E T A N D P R I E S T ( J U L Y 2 8 , 1 8 4 4 -J U N E 8 , 1 8 8 9 )
Man is condemned to be free. J E A N - P A U L S A R T R E , F R E N C H P H I L O S O P H E R A N D N O V E L I S T ( J U N E 2 1 , 1 9 0 5 - A P R I L 1 5 , 1 9 8 0 ) E X I S T E N T I A L I S M A N D H U M A N I S M , 1 9 4 6
Listening to the monkey’s cry what would he say about a baby abandoned to the autumn wind
M A T S U O B A S H , J A P A N E S E P O E T ( 1 6 4 4 - N O V E M B E R 2 8 , 1 6 9 4 )
J A N E R E I C H H O L D , A M E R I C A N H A I K U P O E T B A S H : T H E C O M P L E T E H A I K U , 2 0 0 8
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- OUR IDEALS -
For alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga: a belief that we are connected as one people.
B A R A C K ( H U S S E I N ) O B A M A , J R . , A M E R I C A N S E N A T O R F R O M I L L I N O I S ( A U G U S T 4 , 1 9 6 1 - ) S P E E C H , D E M O C R A T I C N A T I O N A L C O N V E N T I O N , 2 0 0 4
Oh, is he the fellow who knows that a thing can’t be done and still wants to do it? C O N F U C I U S , C H I N E S E P H I L O S O P H E R ( 5 5 1 - 4 9 7 B . C )
The literature of the poor, the feelings of the child, the philosophy of the street, the meaning of the household life, are the topics of the time. It is a great stride. It is a sign — is it not? — of new vigor, when the extremities are made active, when currents of warm life run into the hands and feet .... Let me see every trifle bristling with the polarity that ranges it instantly on an eternal law; and the shop, the plow and the ledger referred to the like cause by which light undulates and poets sing.
R A L P H W A L D O E M E R S O N , A M E R I C A N E S S A Y I S T A N D P O E T ( M A Y 2 5 , 1 8 0 3 -A P R I L 2 7 , 1 8 8 2 ) T H E A M E R I C A N S C H O L A R , A S P E E C H A T H A R V A R D U N I V E R S I T Y , 1 8 3 7
When the Great Principle prevails the world is a Commonwealth in which rulers are selected according to their wisdom and ability. Mutual confidence is promoted and good neighborliness is cultivated. Hence men do not regard as parents only their own parents nor do they treat as children only their own children; provision is secured for the aged till death; employment of the able bodied and the means of growing up for the young. Helpless widows and widowers, orphans and the lonely, as well as the sick and the disabled are well cared for. Men have their respective occupations and women their homes. They do not like to see wealth lying idle, yet they do not keep it for their own gratification. They despise indolence, yet they do not use their energies for their own benefit. In this way selfish schemings are repressed and robbers thieves and other lawless men no longer exist, and there is no need for people to shut their outer doors. This is the great harmony.
C O N F U C I U S , C H I N E S E P H I L O S O P H E R ( 5 5 1 - 4 9 7 B . C ) T H E C H A P T E R O F G R E A T H A R M O N Y ( T A T U N G )
I wish for eyes, ever young, that can see what might be. S Ø R E N ( A A B Y E ) K I E R K E G A A R D , D A N I S H P H I L O S O P H E R ( M A Y 5 , 1 8 1 3 -N O V E M B E R 1 1 , 1 8 5 5 )
… you ever see the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory [1971]? Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory? Where Gene Wilder says to the little boy Charlie, he’s
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about to give him the chocolate factory. He says “Well Charlie, did anybody ever tell you the story of the little boy who suddenly got everything he ever wanted?” Charlie’s eyes get like saucers and he says, “No, what happened to him?” Gene Wilder says, “He lived happily ever after.”
R A N D Y P A U S C H , A M E R I C A N C O M P U T E R S C I E N C E I N N O V A T O R R A N D Y P A U S C H ’ S L A S T L E C T U R E , C A R N E G I E M E L L O N , 2 0 0 7
I stand for the sunny point of view, the joyful conclusion. ( W A L T E R ) W A L T W H I T M A N ( J R . ) , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A Y 3 1 , 1 8 1 9 - M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 9 2 )
I’m not remotely interested in just being good. ( V I N C E N T T H O M A S ) V I N C E L O M B A R D I , A M E R I C A N F O O T B A L L C O A C H ( J U N E 1 1 , 1 9 1 3 - S E P T E M B E R 3 0 , 1 9 7 0 )
Excellence means doing ordinary things extraordinarily well. J O H N W . G A R D N E R , A M E R I C A N E D U C A T O R ( O C T O B E R 8 , 1 9 1 2 - F E B R U A R Y 8 , 2 0 0 2 )
Goodness of itself is generous. T H O M A S A Q U I N A S , I T A L I A N P H I L O S O P H E R A N D T H E O L O G I A N ( 1 2 2 5 -M A R C H 7 , 1 2 7 4 )
We never really say we can’t.
C O R A K . S . F U N G
“Why does not Mrs. Smith come to be photographed?” she wrote to a friend about a lady in London whom she had never met. “I hear she is beautiful. Bid her come, and she shall be made immortal.”
J U L I A M A R G A R E T C A M E R O N , E N G L I S H P H T O G R A P H E R ( F L . 1 8 6 0 ’ S )
S U S A N S O N T A G , A M E R I C A N W R I T E R A N D C R I T I C ( 1 9 3 3 - 2 0 0 4 ) W H E R E T H E S T R E S S F A L L S , 2 0 0 1
Anything not worth doing well is not worth doing. W A R R E N B U F F E T T , A M E R I C A N B U S I N S E S S E N T R P R E N E U R A N D I N V E S T O R ( A U G U S T 3 0 , 1 9 3 0 - )
R O B E R T E G G E R , A M E R I C A N S O C I A L N O T - F O R - P R O F I T E N T R E P R E N E U R B E G G I N G F O R C H A N G E , 2 0 0 2
It matters not what you try to carry out, but once you try to carry out a thing you must never give up until you have done it thoroughly and well. If another man succeed by one effort, you will use a hundred efforts. If another man succeed by ten efforts, you will use a thousand efforts.
C O N F U C I U S , C H I N E S E P H I L O S O P H E R ( 5 5 1 - 4 9 7 B . C )
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... Morrie knew better. He saw right to the core of the problem, which was human beings wanting to feel that they mattered.
M O R R I S S C H W A R T Z , A M E R I C A N S O C I O L O G Y P R O F E S S O R
M I T C H A L B O M , A M E R I C A N S P O R T S W R I T E R ( 1 9 5 8 - ) T U E S D A Y S W I T H M O R R I E , 1 9 9 7
Hope your ‘sick’ turn bad That means your body turn well. (Ha Ha Ha)
V I V I A N L E E , H O N G K O N G S T U D E N T
Knowledge is power. F R A N C I S B A C O N , 1 S T V I S C O U N T O F S T . A L B A N , E N G L I S H P H I L O S O P H E R , S T A T E S M A N A N D W R I T E R ( J A N U A R Y 2 2 , 1 5 6 1 - A P R I L 9 , 1 6 2 6 )
Perhaps the best press he [Dick Cheney] has ever received from the national media came during the 2004 campaign when he broke with Bush and supported his younger daughter, Mary, who is gay, by expressing his distaste for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage saying, “Freedom means freedom for everybody.”
( R I C H A R D B R U C E ) D I C K C H E N E Y , V I C E P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S , A M E R I C A N B U S I N E S S M A N A N D P O L I T I C I A N ( J A N U A R Y 3 0 , 1 9 4 1 - )
T O D D S . P U R D U M , A M E R I C A N W R I T E R A N D C O R R E S P O N D E N T F O R T H E N E W Y O R K T I M E S “ A F A C E O N L Y A P R E S I D E N T C O U L D L O V E , ” V A N I T Y F A I R , J U N E 2 0 0 6
Lastly, there are truly moral men who unconsciously live a life in entire harmony with the universal moral order and who live unknown to the world and unnoticed of man without any concern. It is only men of holy, divine natures who are capable of this.
C O N F U C I U S , C H I N E S E P H I L O S O P H E R ( 5 5 1 - 4 9 7 B . C )
The ghosts will show up eventually. D E R E K J E T E R , A M E R I C A N Y A N K E E B A S E B A L L P L A Y E R 2 0 0 3 P L A Y O F F G A M E , Y A N K E E S L O S I N G 5 - 2 A N D R I S E U P T O W I N G A M E
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul ...
E M I L Y D I C K I N S O N , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( D E C E M B E R 1 0 , 1 8 3 0 - M A Y 1 5 , 1 8 8 6 )
whatever you think i said, whatever you interpret as having happened, i wish only to love you & bring your heart peace.
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R J S
The greatest poverty is not to live In a physical world.
W A L L A C E S T E V E N S , A M E R I C A N P O E T A N D B U S I N E S S M A N ( O C T O B E R 2 , 1 8 7 9 - A U G U S T 2 , 1 9 5 5 )
… His affection is capacious and generous; everything worthy has a home in it. As he knows, everything worthy is fragile and under threat, is prey to time and invisible to power, and yet affection keeps the accounting in the black. Worthy things, invested with affection, pass into “the now / which is eternal.” I don ‘t know how this can be, and I don’t think Hayden knows. And yet I believe it is so; I believe that Hayden believes that it is so.
H A Y D E N C A R R U T H , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( A U G U S T 3 , 1 9 2 1 - )
W E N D E L L B E R R Y , A M E R I C A N M A N O F L E T T E R S A N D F A R M E R ( A U G U S T 5 , 1 9 3 4 - ) “ M Y F R I E N D H A Y D E N , ” A M E R I C A N P O E T : J O U R N A L O F T H E A M E R I C A N A C A D E M Y O F P O E T S , V O L U M E 3 3 , F A L L 2 0 0 7
If thou conceivest a small minute Circle, as small as a Grain of Mustard-seed, yet the Heart of God is wholly and perfectly therein: and if thou are born in God, then there is, in thyself, (in the Circle of thy Life), the whole Heart of God undivided ...
J A C O B B O E H M E , G E R M A N M Y S T I C A N D S H O E M A K E R ( 1 5 7 5 - 1 6 2 4 )
I want there to be democracy… I am looking for a life worth living … T W E N T Y - F O U R Y E A R O L D Z A P A T I S T A G U E R I L L E R O
C H R I S T O P H E R P H I L L I P S , A M E R I C A N T E A C H E R O F P H I L O S O P H Y ( J U L Y 1 5 , 1 9 5 9 - ) S I X Q U E S T I O N S O F S O C R A T E S , 2 0 0 4
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
P R O V E R B S 2 9 : 1 8
Luck is when preparation meets opportunity. G E O R G E S . P A T T O N , J R . , A M E R I C A N G E N E R A L ( N O V E M B E R 1 1 , 1 8 8 5 -D E C E M B E R 2 1 , 1 9 4 5 )
I was looking at a meadow. Suddenly the realization came that during my years of wandering I had searched in vain for such a combination of leaves and flowers as was here and that I have been always yearning to return. Or, to be precise, I understood this after a huge wave of emotion had overwhelmed me, and the only name I could give it now would be –– bliss.
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C Z E S L A W M I L O S Z , P O L I S H - A M E R I C A N P O E T ( J U N E 3 0 , 1 9 1 1 - A U G U S T 1 4 , 2 0 0 4 ) “ H A P P I N E S S , ” T O B E G I N W H E R E I A M , 2 0 0 1
The devil is always suggesting that we compromise our high calling by substituting good in place of the best.
W I L L I A M S L O A N E C O F F I N , A M E R I C A N C L E R G Y M A N A N D P E A C E A C T I V I S T ( J U N E 1 , 1 9 2 4 - ) C R E D O , 2 0 0 4
Nothing at last is sacred but the integrity of your own mind. R A L P H W A L D O E M E R S O N , A M E R I C A N E S S A Y I S T A N D P O E T ( M A Y 2 5 , 1 8 0 3 -A P R I L 2 7 , 1 8 8 2 )
… Far off in her chair, Erect, compact, our teacher sits at ease. She vivifies the atoms of the air… … and of our flesh. Slovenly chaos groans As one by one the molecules awake. Her beam illuminates our very bones And shows us what we are until we ache, And then amid our awkward strugglings We scorn to change our joyous state with kings.
M A R T H A H E Y N E M A N , A M E R I C A N A U T H O R F R O M “ ” T O M R S . H O W A R T H O N H E R N I N E T I E T H B I R T H D A Y F R O M A P U P I L O F F O R T Y Y E A R S , ” T H E B R E A T H I N G C A T H E D R A L
A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature. R A L P H W A L D O E M E R S O N , A M E R I C A N E S S A Y I S T A N D P O E T ( M A Y 2 5 , 1 8 0 3 -A P R I L 2 7 , 1 8 8 2 )
Millions of mountains before the eyes, One step forward –– blue skies.
C H I N E S E P R O V E R B
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- WHIMSY -
Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. B E N J A M I N F R A N K L I N , A M E R I C A N S T A T E S M A N A N D I N V E N T O R ( J A N U A R Y 1 7 , 1 7 0 6 - A P R I L 1 7 , 1 7 9 0 )
... the present is in perpetual motion, leaves us as soon as it arrives, ceases to be present before its presence is well perceived, and is only known to have existed by the effects which it leaves behind.
S A M U E L J O H N S O N , E N G L I S H M A N O F L E T T E R S ( S E P T E M B E R 1 8 , 1 7 0 9 -D E C E M B E R 1 3 , 1 7 8 4 )
... It’s hard to avoid getting stuck on mysticism’s stickiness! I L L Y A K U T I K , R U S S I A N - A M E R I C A N P R O F E S S O R A N D W R I T E R H I E R O G L Y P H I S O F A N O T H E R W O R L D , 2 0 0 0
This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force. D O R O T H Y P A R K E R , A M E R I C A N W R I T E R A N D P O E T ( 1 8 9 3 - 1 9 6 7 )
A woman called and said, “I need to fly to pepsi-cola on one of those computer planes.” I asked if she meant to fly to Pensacola on a commuter plane. She said, “Yeh, whatever.”
A N O N .
Behind that bumbling buffoonish exterior there lurks a bumbling buffoonish interior.
B R I T I S H T O R Y P O L I C I A L R E M A R K
Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. M A R K T W A I N ( S A M U E L L A N G H O R N E C L E M E N S ) , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T , L E C T U R E R A N D A U T H O R ( N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 1 8 3 5 - A P R I L 2 1 , 1 9 1 0 )
Cast ye a stone upon the water and behold ... it sinks.
J . D . H A S K E L L , A M E R I C A N I N S U R A N C E B R O K E R
Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards,if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
R O N A L D W I L S O N R E A G A N , 4 0 T H P R E S I D E N T O F T H E U N I T E D S T A T E S ( F E B R U A R Y 6 , 1 9 1 1 - J U N E 5 , 2 0 0 5 )
Into love and out again,
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Thus I went, and thus I go.
D O R O T H Y P A R K E R , A M E R I C A N W R I T E R A N D P O E T ( 1 8 9 3 - 1 9 6 7 ) “ T H E O R Y ”
Mrs. America works with her own “independent telecommunications consultant,” Bob “Know Your Equipment” Schuck. Mr. Schuck’s anti-telemarketing suggestions are more technical, such as deploying your touch-tone phone as an annoying musical instrument. “Mary Had a Little Lamb” is a favorite (6-5-4-5 6-6-6; 5-5-5; 6-6-6. 6-5-4-5 6-6-6-6 5-5-6-5-444444444444444.). [Try it! ed.]
J O E S H A R K E Y ‘ A N S W E R I N G T H E P H O N E A S A N A C T O F R E V E N G E ’ , N E W Y O R K T I M E S , J U N E 2 2 , 1 9 9 7
I’m not young enough to know everything. S I R J A M E S M A T T H E W B A R R I E , 1 S T B A R O N E T , S C O T T I S H N O V E L I S T A N D D R A M A T I S T ( M A Y 9 , 1 8 6 0 - J U N E 1 9 , 1 9 3 7 )
This taught me a lesson, but I'm not quite sure what it is. J O H N M A C E N R O E , A M E R I C A N T E N N I S P L A Y E R ( F E B R U A R Y 1 6 , 1 9 5 9 - )
SELF-ESTEEM, n. An erroneous appraisement. A M B R O S E ( G W I N E T T ) B I E R C E , A M E R I C A N J O U R N A L I S T A N D W R I T E R ( J U N E 2 4 , 1 8 4 2 - 1 9 1 4 ) T H E D E V I L ’ S D I C T I O N A R Y , 1 9 0 6
Money
That money talks I won’t deny. I heard it once. It said, “Goodbye.”
R I C H A R D A R M O U R
D A I S Y G O O D W I N , E N G L I S H T E L E V I S I O N P R O D U C E R 1 0 1 P O E M S T H A T C O U L D S A V E Y O U R L I F E : A N A N T H O L O G Y O F E M O T I O N A L F I R S T A I D , 2 0 0 3
Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamp-post how it feels about dogs.
C H R I S T O P H E R H A M P T O N
There is a woman who swam around Manhattan, and I asked her, “Why? She said, “It hadn’t ever been done before.” Well, she didn’t have to do that. If she wanted to do something no one had ever done before, all she had to do was vacuum my apartment.
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R I T A R U D N E R , A M E R I C A N C O M E D I A N ( S E P T E M B E R 1 7 , 1 9 5 3 - )
Don’t be so humble, you’re not that great. G O L D A M E I R , I S R A E L I S T A T E S W O M A N A N D P R I M E M I N I S T E R ( M A Y 3 , 1 8 9 8 -D E C E M B E R 3 , 1 9 7 8 )
There was a young fellow of Deale Who said, “Although pain isn’t real, When I sit on a pin and it punctures my skin I dislike what I think I feel.
A N O N .
We play tonight, we win tonight. T - S H I R T W O R N B Y N E W Y O R K Y A N K E E S M A N A G E R , J O E T O R R E , 1 9 9 6
A British soldier in Iraq, after hearing that Geoff Hoon had compared Umm Qasr to Southamptom, disagreed with the Defence Minister: ‘There’s no beer, no prostitutes, and people are shooting at us,’ he said. ‘It’s more like Portsmouth.’
T H E I D L E R B O O K O F C R A P T O W N S : T H E 5 0 W O R S T P L A C E S T O L I V E I N T H E U K , 2 0 0 3
What is the opposite of nuts?
It’s soup! Let’s have no ifs or buts.
In any suitable repast
The soup comes first, the nuts come last.
Or that is what sane folk advise;
You’re nuts if you think otherwise. R I C H A R D W I L B U R , A M E R I C A N P O E T F R O M O P P O S I T E S , 1 9 7 3
A prisoner paints a landscape on the wall of his cell showing a miniature train entering a tunnel. When his jailers come to get him, he asks them “politely to wait a moment, to allow me to verify something in the little train in my picture. As usual, they started to laugh, because they considered me to be weak minded. I made myself very tiny, entered into my picture and climbed into the little train, which started moving, then disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel. For a few seconds, a bit of flaky smoke could be seen coming out of the round hole. Then this smoke blew away, and with it the picture, and with the picture, my person ...”
H E R M A N N H E S S E , G E R M A N N O V E L I S T A N D P O E T ( J U L Y 2 , 1 8 7 7 - A U G U S T 9 , 1 9 6 2 ) F O N T A I N E # 5 7 [ F R E N C H L I T E R A R Y R E V I E W P U B L I S H E D I N A L G I E R S T H E N I N F R A N C E D U R I N G T H E S E C O N D W O R L D W A R ]
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Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen...
F R A N K Z A P P A , A M E R I C A N M U S I C I A N , R E C O R D P R O D U C E R A N D F I L M D I R E C T O R ( D E C E M B E R 2 1 , 1 9 4 0 - D E C E M B E R 4 , 1 9 9 3 )
When you’re working on one thing and yearn for another, imagine that the thing you’re working on would be the one you would be yearning for if you were working on the other.
J U A N R A M Ó N J I M É N E Z , S P A N I S H P O E T ( D E C E M B E R 2 4 , 1 8 8 1 - M A Y 2 9 , 1 9 5 8 ) T H E C O M P L E T E P E R F E C T I O N I S T , C H R I S T O P H E R M A U R E R , E D I T O R ( 1 9 9 7 )
Do what you will, this Life’s a Fiction And is made up of Contradiction.
W I L L I A M B L A K E , E N G L I S H E N G R A V E R A N D P O E T ( 1 7 5 7 - 1 8 2 7 )
Nobody goes there any more. It’s too crowded. Y O G I ( L A W R E N C E P E T E R ) B E R R A , A M E R I C A N B A S E B A L L P L A Y E R ( M A Y 1 2 , 1 9 2 5 - )
On Wall Street today, news of lower interest rates sent the stock market up, but then the expectation that these rates would be inflationary sent the market down, until the realization that lower rates might stimulate the sluggish economy pushed the market up, before it ultimately went down on fears that an overheated economy would lead to a reimposition of higher interest rates.
M A N K O F F T H E N E W Y O R K E R M A G A Z I N E , 1 9 8 1
$100 placed at 7 percent interest compounded quarterly for 200 years will increase to more than $100,000,000 –– by which time it will be worth nothing.
R O B E R T A N S O N H E I N L E I N , A M E R I C A N S C I E N C E F I C T I O N A U T H O R ( 1 9 0 7 -1 9 8 8 ) T H E N O T E B O O K S O F L A Z A R U S L O N G
“I see nobody on the road,” said Alice. “I only wish I had such eyes,” the King remarked in a fretful tone. “To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance too! Why, it’s as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!”
L O U I S C A R R O L L ( C H A R L E S L U T W I D G E D O D G S O N ) , E N G L I S H W R I T E R A N D M A T E H M A T I C I A N ( 1 8 3 2 - 1 8 9 8 ) T H R O U G H T H E L O O K I N G G L A S S , 1 8 7 2
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The largest Fire ever known Occurs each afternoon.
E M I L Y D I C K I N S O N , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( D E C E M B E R 1 0 , 1 8 3 0 - M A Y 1 5 , 1 8 8 6 )
My Name Escapes Me: The Diary of a Retiring Actor S I R A L E C G U I N N E S S , B R I T I S H A C T O R ( A P R I L 2 , 1 9 1 4 - A U G U S T 5 , 2 0 0 0 )
When you reach a crossroad, take it. Y O G I ( L A W R E N C E P E T E R ) B E R R A , A M E R I C A N B A S E B A L L P L A Y E R ( M A Y 1 2 , 1 9 2 5 - )
Have a nice day, unless you’ve made other plans. A N O N .
The Universe is but a Thing of Things The things but balls all going round in rings Some of them mighty huge, some mighty tiny All of them radiant and mighty shiny.
R O B E R T ( L E E ) F R O S T , A M E R I C A N P O E T ( M A R C H 2 6 , 1 8 7 4 - J A N U A R Y 2 9 , 1 9 6 3 ) A C C I D E N T A L L Y O N P U R P O S E
I’m afraid of the dark, and suspicious of the light. W O O D Y A L L E N ( A L L E N S T E W A R T K O N I G S B E R G ) , A M E R I C A N F I L M A C T O R , D I R E C T O R A N D C O M E D I A N ( D E C E M B E R 1 , 1 9 3 5 - )
... Prophets of doom: do not give up hope. J O H N D . B A R R O W , E N G L I S H P H Y S I C I S T A N D C O S M O L O G I S T ( N O V E M B E R 2 9 , 1 9 5 2 - ) T H E B O O K O F N O T H I N G , 2 0 0 0
I cut the orange in two, and couldn’t make the two parts equal. To which was I unjust? I’m going to eat them both!
F E R N A N D O A N T Ó N I O N O G U E I R A P E S S O A ( A L B E R T O C A E I R O ) , P O R T U G U E S E P O E T ( J U N E 1 3 , 1 8 8 8 - N O V E M B E R 3 0 , 1 9 3 5 )
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...After you die You hover near the ceiling above your body And watch the mourners awhile. A few days more You float above the heads of the ones you knew And watch them through a twilight. As it grows darker You wander off and find your way to the river And wade across. On the other side, night air, Willows, the smell of the river, and a mass Of sleeping bodies all along the bank, A kind of singing from among the rushes Calling you forward in the dark. You lie down and embrace one body, the limbs Heavy with sleep reach eagerly up around you And you make love until your soul brims up And burns free out of you and shifts and spills Down over into that other body, and you Forget the life you had and begin again On the same crossing––maybe as a child who passes Through the same place. But never the same way twice.
R O B E R T P I N S K Y , A M E R I C A N P O E T T H E W A N T B O N E ( 1 9 9 7 )
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