User:John/quotations

Nichts weiter tun als anschauen, sammeln, bezeugen, beglaubigen, wahren!

''Allein bleiben! Geschehen lassen! Ernst bleiben! Wild können wir nur in dem Maß sein,'' wie wir unbedingt ernst bleiben. ''Nichts weiter tun als anschauen, sammeln, bezeugen, beglaubigen, wahren! Geist'' ''bleiben! Im Abstand bleiben! Im Wort bleiben!''

''Be alone! Let things happen! Be serious! We can be savages, only inasmuch as we keep being serious. But to do no more than look, assemble, testify, preserve.'' ''To remain spirit! Keep your distance! Keep your word!''

(from Wings of Desire, screenplay by Peter Handke and Wim Wenders)

On forgiveness

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.

(From the Hebrew Scriptures)

''Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.''

(From the Christian Scriptures)

''Repair the evil done to you with something that is better. And lo! The enemy who did evil to you may turn into a close and true friend.''

(From the Muslim Scriptures)

(Quoted in On Forgiveness by Richard Holloway)

Europe

Perhaps we in Europe today are European to the extent to which we desire to feel European and cannot. We cannot be enthusiastic. We know that our community was built as a last resort, from the ashes of what was more than just another war, from too much knowledge. Unlike the United States of America, our project has no dionysiac spirit behind it, no fundamentalism. Or even excitement. Following the carnival of nineteenth century nationalism, the nightmare of twentieth century carnage, this new entity proceeds sceptical and crabwise from one compromise to the next. Its rhetoric is almost wilfully hollow. And this is its strength. Nobody is going to make a crusade of the European Community, though everybody fears they need it. It expands not by aggression but by surrender, the surrender on the part of each new member of that delirium of individual destiny which characterized our national pasts. And by a certain weary economic opportunism. One by one the surrounding states throw in the towel and join us. A project conceived during the most exacting of hangovers, Europe faces each new day with the wisdom of the morning after, determined never to touch strong drink again. We can thus feel fairly sure that, even if we must accept that it will never stir our souls, all the same we are hardly likely to be asked to die beneath its flag.

(From "Europe" in Adultery & Other Diversions by Tim Parks, 1999, ISBN 0099274841)

On truth "...just as the computer who wants his calculations to deal with sugar, silk, and wool must discount the boxes, bales, and other packings, so the mathematical scientist, when he wants to recognize in the concrete the effects which he has proved in the abstract, must deduct the material hindrances, and if he is able to do so, I assure you that things are in no less agreement than arithmetical computations. The errors, then, lie not in the abstractness or concreteness, not in geometry or physics, but in a calculator who does not know how to make a true accounting." (Galileo Galilei)

Thought for the day

"In the long run my observations have convinced me that some men, reasoning preposterously, first establish some conclusion in their minds which, either because of its being their own or because of their having received it from some person who has their entire confidence, impresses them so deeply that one finds it impossible ever to get it out of their heads. Such arguments in support of their fixed idea ... gain their instant acceptance and applause. On the other hand whatever is brought forward against it, however ingenious and conclusive, they receive with disdain or with hot rage - if indeed it does not make them ill. Beside themselves with passion, some of them would not be backward even about scheming to suppress and silence their adversaries. I have had some experience of this myself. ... No good can come of dealing with such people, especially to the extent that their company may be not only unpleasant but dangerous." (Galileo Galilei)

Words of wisdom
 *  (adapted from User:Cactus.man) 


 * "Did not strong connections draw me elsewhere, I believe Scotland would be the country I would choose to end my days in." Benjamin Franklin
 * "We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation." Voltaire
 * "We all know that Prime Ministers are wedded to the truth, but like other wedded couples, they sometimes live apart." Saki
 * "Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open." Sir James Dewar
 * "An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support." John Buchan
 * "God help England if she had no Scots to think for her." George Bernard Shaw
 * "When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years." Mark Twain
 * "Never wrestle with a pig; you both get muddy and the pig enjoys it." Anon

Political Compass


 * Economic Left/Right: -7.88
 * Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.33
 * Political Compass website that this rating came from

Travelling