User:Benedict of Constantinople

Introduction
Greetings! How are you? My name is Benedict of Constantinople and, yes, I am a real person. If, by any chance, I do not respond to your messages, please kindly assume that real life got in my way and I am dealing with it. Other than that, please feel free to leave as many messages as you want (without vandalizing my talk page) here.

I adore the humanities, particularly history, philosophy, and theology. I also have a love for languages, particularly older languages like Greek, Latin, Aramaic, and even Egyptian. I speak English and Chinese fluently and I am learning French.

I am a major supporter of Western ideology and culture. That is not to say that I hate everything to do with the Orient, rather it is to say that I merely enjoy studying about the West better.

So, then, without further ado, see you around if I have the chance! Have a nice day!

--Benedict of Constantinople (talk)

Quotes! A Wealth of Knowledge!
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

-Albert Einstein

History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity. -Cicero, Roman author, orator, & politician (106 BC - 43 BC), Pro Publio Sestio

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. -George Santayana, US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952), The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. -Albert Einstein, US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

$$E=MC^2$$

Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free. -HH The Dalai Lama

Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice. -Spinoza

Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck. -Immanuel Kant Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily. -Napoleon Bonaparte

Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools. -Napoleon Bonaparte

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business. -Henry David Thoreau

Primary Historical People that I Admire (in no particular order of preference)
1. Napoleon I

2. Alexander the Great

3. Charles Darwin

4. Alexander Suvorov

5. Trajan

6. Julius Caesar

7. Marcus Tullius Cicero

8. Immanuel Kant

9. Albert Einstein

10. His Highness, Tenzin Gyatso, The Dalai Lama

11. Pope John Paul II

12. Leo Tolstoy

13. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington

14. William the Conquerer

15. Justinian the Great

16. Suleiman the Magnificent

17. Rene Descartes

18. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough

19. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek

20. Saint Thomas Aquinas

21. Winston Churchill

22. Franklin Delano Roosevelt

23. Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg

24. Diana, Princess of Wales

25. Gustavus Adolphus

26. Albrecht von Wallenstein

27. Confucius

28. Frederick the Great

29. Jesus Christ

30. Richard Dawkins

31. Sir Isaac Newton

32. William Shakespeare

33. Horatio Nelson

34. Flavius Belisarius

35. Narses (The General who served under Justinian)