The Incivility of Rage
This excerpt is from Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (11.18.5b)
Quotation
What’s the Worst Thing
Trust me: you don’t want to know — and it’s the most insensitive and obliviotic question you could ask an emergency responder.
Kierkegaard on Thinking
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher, theologian, poet, social critic and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christendom, morality, ethics, psychology, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony and parables. (Wikipedia)
H.G. Wells on Education
Wells was prolific in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, social commentary, and textbooks and rules for war games.
And Ever It Has Been the Case
Seriously: who cares what “they” think! Make up your own mind. Think for yourself! If, uh, you don’t mind my suggesting it.
Are We There Yet?
This quote has been going around recently as Sagan’s “prediction” of “2017’s events” and obviously he “somehow read today’s papers.” No.
Death and Taxes
And what do you know: the world is a lot less civilized than in his time. Holmes retired from the Court at the age of 90 years, making him the oldest Justice in the Supreme Court’s history. No, that’s not the “death” part of the title. See yesterday’s item for that.
Dorothy Parker on Writing
Parker was well known as a writer, especially for The New Yorker, but also as one of the founders of the Algonquin Round Table.
Build the Wall
“I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” –President Thomas Jefferson, January 1802
Fortune Knocks
Related: “Some Blockett-type employees actually believe that they have received a genuine promotion; others recognize the truth.