1Quote1Day - NYE Resolution

  "Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled. The greatest part of men cannot judge of reasoning and are impressed by character; so that, if you allow your adversary a respectable character, they will think, that though you differ from him, you may be wrong. Sir, treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in a battle” - Samuel Johnson (1709-1784). 15 August  1773. In James Boswell, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson, L.L.D., 1786 The idea in this quote runs counter to much of what I read about the art of rhetoric, which is often regarded as a sort of cooperative endeavor, in its ideal state. This is rhetoric as dialectic, as an attempt to find out the truth. There is another type of rhetoric however, which is designed around the idea of victory and defeat - that you win or lose, based on how other people perceive the argument. In the case of speech between two people, the cooperative effort is...

  "Many times what cannot be refuted by arguments can be parried by laughter.” - Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536). The Praise of Folly, 25, 1509, tr. Hoyt Hopewell Hudson, 1941  I understand this quote in a negative and a positive sense. In the negative sense, one way to respond to a well-reasoned, cogent, clear, and correct viewpoint is to dismiss it as absurd. “There is no way that anybody actually does that, it is impossible that that would happen, it is foolish to think that those words or that action meant what you thought it did”, and so on and so on, are the cries of the deceiver, the hypocrite, and the fool. This doesn't mean that each and every statement of this sort, each and every counter-argument is invalid, but it does suggest that if your opponent in an argument, or someone who holds an opposite point of view than you, is deciding to try and achieve victory or perceived correctness by dismissing your concerns, or treating your ideas as worthless, then they may be t...

  "We ought in fairness to fight our case with no help beyond the bare facts: nothing, therefore, should matter except the proof of these facts.” - Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). Rhetoric, 3.1, tr. Rhys Roberts, 1954  At first glance, this quote seems to suggest that we should abstract all emotion away from our arguments. That we  should, in our attempts to figure out a truth or to change someone's mind, rely solely upon the logic of our argument, and the facts of the case. This is certainly advice that it is often wise to heed, for our emotions are always ready to engage, and thus to change our opinion. It is very easy for us to only see one side of an issue, or to make up our minds about which side of an argument to choose to believe, and all even before we have heard the argument, or seen the evidence, if we are emotionally engaged with the outcome. It is often easier for us to understand what the correct choice is if we are somewhat distant from the result of that choice, ...

  "The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his client to plant vines” - Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). “Frank Lloyd Wright Talks of His Art,” New York Times Magazine, 4 October 1953  If a life or a belief can be an edifice, then it can either be a living structure, or a dead one. A living structure is one that changes over time, which can learn and grow, or fall and fade. It turns slowly with the seasons, grows quietly through the years, and moves around from time to time. A dead structure is one which cannot react to changes Ina dynamic fashion, cannot move from where it is standing without outside assistance, and never grows up, only down. A living structure is certainly less stable than a dead one, being made with bones and string instead of concrete and steel, but I suspect that the living structure can weather a storm better. It might not appear like it will during the first storm when it is beaten down, and the concrete structure stands ta...

"The most magnificent edifices, most beautiful temples and monuments of worldly glory are repulsive to [the pious man] when they are built by the sweat and tears of suffering slaves, or erected through injustice and fraud” - Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972). Man is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion, 26, 1951 When we stare at an edifice, do we think of its past? Not only a building, but also any 'edifice' may, I think, have some link to this thought. For example, we are an edifice. As a person, we are constructed out of natural materials, in an artificial manner, for us to live in. We stand up to shocks, require upkeep, have a vast and complicated system for ensuring energy flow, and so on. As a person, my 'edifice' is who I think I am, and who I appear to be. Don't we all put on a facade and appear to be something we are not, while what really holds up is our bones and core structures? When we take off a beautiful facade and find an ugly concrete wall beh...

  "When the million applaud you, seriously ask yourself what harm you have done; when they censure you, what good!” - C.C. Colton (1780-1832). Lacoon: or, Many Things in Few Words; Addressed to Those Who Think , 1.193,1823 Praise and blame are interesting things, because they may or may not be unearned, and may or may not lie. Just like people, the acclaim of the crowd and the cursing of the multitude upon you is not always because of what you have done, but because of what you have appeared to do. Praise and blame can be used to puff you up when you have done nothing to deserve it, to hide your failures behind a veneer of popularity, to defect fault form another and put it on you, or to point out a true failure of yours. We do not want to buy to much into the names that others call us, the positive or negative views of us and our actions that others have. The truest judge of our actions, their cause and purpose, if not their result, is us. Praise and blame, especially when it i...

  "He too serves a certain purpose who only stands and cheers.” - Henry Adams (1838-1918). The Education of Henry Adams, 24, 1907 In the modern world, this takes the form of the claim that those who support a cause from the sidelines also have a purpose. It is a common claim that if you are not actively helping, then you are actively harming - that is, that if you are not showing your support for a cause by direct action or concrete use of your personal resources, then you are harming the cause. This is another version of the claim that if you are not with us, then you are against us. That claim has always bothered me, because it can be used so often as a call to duty, a reason that I 'should' act to do all sorts of things. For most of us, I think hat there are many things we are happy to support 'from the sidelines' as it were, celebrating when we see a victory in the newspaper, hear about a law being passed or one struck down, and when we see signs which suppor...

  "No appeasement will avoid necessary battles. It only makes them more costly and lengthy.” - Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931). Aphorisms of Present Times, 4.8, 1913, tr. Alice Widener, 1979 - When is it appeasement, and when is it a stalling action? I think it depends on if you have a means or method of escape from the situation. When you are simply appeasing an enemy, then the day will come when he will want everything, and you will have nothing left to defend yourself with, because you will have given it all away, if the series of demands and appeasement is taken to its logical conclusion. So, you should not use appeasement because it will only make you weaker than you are now, for the inevitable battle. You cannot escape this battle because you are not the one trying to start it - they are. Yet, you are not helping, by appearing to be weaker than you are. You only appear more prey-like when you do so. On the other hand, appearing weaker than you are, or putting off a battle until ...

  "What is actually happening is often less important than what appears to be happening.” - William V. Shannon. “The amazing myth of George McGovern,” Dallas Morning News, 2 July 1972 - Very often, we pay more attention to what we think is happening, instead of what may actually be happening. That is, we react to what we think something is, not what it actually is. We live in a world filled with our perceptions, filled with events, patterns, meanings, and purposes which are, literally, nothing more than our best guess. We use logic, but regardless of whether the logic we use is correct or not, in use, it requires that we be able to tell what is true from what is not true. Thus, a ship exploding in a harbor is the fact, but the idea that the Spanish blew it up, is the interpretation, and so we have the start of the Spanish-American war. A tax on tea, or an assault on a ship, isn't the reason for a war, but is rather the 'Final straw'. A word someone says to us import...

  "Happy the man who never puts on a face, but receives every visitor with that countenance he has on '' - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). Journal, 28 July 1833 - One of the reasons I think that this is true, is because if you never have to put on a mask in front of a visitor, then you know that each person who visits your house, is one who has chosen to visit you because of who you really are, and not for who you pretend to be. We put on masks all the time, pretending to be calm, rational, emotional, logical, polite, a good child, husband, sister, student, poet, and so on and on. We tell stories to ourselves, and to others, about who we are and what we want. We try to direct and control ourselves, we try to do what we are supposed to, we try not to disappoint others or ourselves. We often fail at this, and then we put on another mask, or at least it is easy to put on another mask, pretending that we are OK, that we are happy, that we really care about this issue or that...

  "Why do I write these short aphorisms? Because words fail me!” - Satnislaw J. Lec (1909-1966). Unkempt Thoughts, p. 110, tr. Jacek Galazka, 1962 - Words often fail us. We do not know what to say, or how to say it - we sit and struggle to remember the exact word we wish to use, we can picture something in our head but not describe it, and we use metaphor and simile to get our point across. We express our love and sorrow in poetry, our deepest concerns and worries in our actions, and pass bit of information along, by glance and innuendo. An aphorism is a short, pithy phrase, which says a lot in a few words. Many of these quotes have been aphorisms, a short series of words which contains the ability to seemingly contain more information than it does. This happens hin one of two ways. Either we hear the phrase and then ponder upon it in order to figure out what it means, or we hear the phrase, and those words act like a spark to the tinder of our memories. Aphorisms can be general ...

  "In political as in individual life, anxieties which can be expressed are far less important than those which cannot.” - Gustave Le Bon (1841-1931). Aphorisms of Present Times, 4.7, 1913, tr. Alice Widener, 1979 - What is most painful and difficult to talk about is that which is most important to us. How easy it is to speak of the present moment, our opinion of a TV show, or our ideas on the best way to make a sandwich, compared to our wishes for the future, our memories of the past, and our fears in the present? It is not something we accomplish in a quick or efficient fashion, those talks we have about things which are really important to us. We need help, real help, deep help, then we do not ask for it. When we are sad, or angry, or hating, or despairing, then we do not say that we are. Rather, we speak in an oblique fashion, we insinuate, we suggest, we say in between our words, or with the tone of our voices., the look in our eyes.  In politics we don't often dare to...

  “Stupidity is without anxiety” - Goethe (1749-1832). 16 August 1824. In Peter Exkerman, Conversations with Goethe, 1836-1848, tr. John Oxenford, 1850 - We have anxiety because we cannot stop thinking about what is going to happen. We go over every possible scenario in our heads and lose track of all of them, or we obsess in a single pattern, going round and round in circles. Anxiety is having an intrusive thought that just won't go away or being unable to stop worrying over some possible event. The worst thing about anxiety is how it seems to control you, how it seems to paralyze you, and how it seems to keep you up at night. When Goethe says that stupidity is without anxiety, then I understand this in one of two ways.  In the first way, he simply means to say that anxiety is a disease of thought, a pale cast over our minds. The smarter we are, or the more aware we are of our circumstances, then the more we tend to live in our heads. A strong mind is able to create halluc...

  “People wish to be settled; only in so far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). “Circles,” Essays: First Series, 1841 - What is it to be 'settled'? At first, I thought of it as something like 'being happy with where you are in life', but I think that is too simple of an explanation. We can be happy where we are in life, and still be looking for change. By this, I mean that we can be happy with where we are 'right now', and yet also be aiming for something better in the future, some change in our status, some new ability, or some greater vision. We can be happy, and unsettled. By 'settled' then, I think I mean something like 'happy to stay here'. That is, if we imagine someone who is settled in their life, then we can imagine someone who is at a place where they will stay for the rest of their life, or at least until something outside of their control comes to knock them away. This is like an old ...

  "A man is forbidden to eat anything until he has fed his beast.” - Talmud (A.D. 1st-6th cent.) Rabbinical writings. In Lewis Browne, ed., The Wisdom of Israel, rev. Ed., p. 178, 1955 (1948) - You feed your horse, dog, or chickens before you feed yourself, for two reasons. The first reason is that, sometimes, we rely upon these animals. This quote was originally written back during a time when we did to rely upon machines in the way we do today, but instead relied upon draft animals for most of our work. In the case of something like a horse or an ox, we make sure that they are fed before us, because we rely upon them to do so much of our work. If they grow sick or weak, then the work we can get out of them decreases drastically, and it is through the use of their power, and not ours, that we are able to accomplish much of what we do. We cannot run as fast as a dog to catch sheep, pass over miles and miles to deliver a message like a horse can, or draw as heavy of a plow as an o...

  “The basis of all animal rights should be the Golden Rule: we should treat them as we would wish them to treat us, were any other species in our dominant position.” - Christine Stevens. In Michael Foc, Returning to Eden, 1980 - This is an interesting way to phrase the Golden Rule, by placing it into practice. It is only recently in the history of human civilization that we have grown to have an adoration for and a reverence of, the whole of the animal kingdom. It was a time long and dark, written and unwritten in our histories, where we with the animal fraught. Fraught over territory, over food, over shelter. Today, we still fight, still deal with invasive species in our rivers and deadly mosquitoes in the air, but on the whole, the fight is done. We do not live our regular days afraid of some lion or wolf hunting us, or desperate for a caribou or a bison to feast upon. We have, humanity has, achieved a dominance upon this planet unlike any mammal ever has before,or likely ever ...

  “Don’t lose your temper; use it.” - Dolly Parton (1946- ). Joan River television interview, 26 November 1993 - We often hide from our emotions. Anger is just one of these, the most famously dangerous one. Grief, sorrow, joy, fear, need, and melancholy, these all have their stories to tell us as well, they push us to move onward. What is dangerous for us is when these emotions control us so completely that we can do nothing but feel, do nothing but act them out in the most direct and destructive manner. The human being is both rational and emotional, feeling and thinking, and it is through the utilization of both parts of our personas that we are best able to travel through this life. When we are ruled by our emotions we experience problems, and we experience those problems too, when we pretend that our emotions are not there. What we are feeling, is something we are feeling for a reason - our hearts do not bleed in vain.  So, this quote suggests, use your feelings. Find i...

  “We were made men and not angels in order that we may seek our happiness through the medium of this life.” - Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936). Tragic Sense of Life, 11, 1913, tr. J.E. Crawford Flitch, 1921 - An angel is a mental being, an ethereal being, a thing of the upper air. Angels, like devils, alight upon our shoulders and speak to us the secrets of the world, the orders and temptations of what we can, and should, do. Our conscious speaks to us with the voice of an angel, a voice full of logic and understanding, love and hope, which cries and weeps at the ruin of the world. We we to follow such a voice, to follow such advice, then surely we would be better people, more moral and more in tune with the living force. But we are not angels, and within us the spirit resides along with the beast, fighting and playing together as the days turn. We are not happy to always be playing in the mire, full of enjoyable physical sensations and fulfilled selfish needs, and neither are we ha...