1Quote1Day - NYE Resolution

  “To be great, art has to point somewhere.” - Anne Lamot (1954- ). Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, 4 (“Giving”), 1995 There are two means for which we create art - for no point, and for a point. We create art for no point at all when we create art simply for the sake of creation. When we sing a song to ourselves while we walk in the woods alone that nobody else will ever hear, when we draw little doodles in the margins of your school notebooks, and when we create elaborate sandcastles on the beach, we are creating for the sake of creating. We make art, quite often, no because we want to achieve something or say something, but only for the pure enjoyment of the creation of that piece of art, for the pure joy of life, or for the unquenchable need to simply express our feelings. Not every piece of art needs to be happy - misery loves company, after all. In our happy days we paint for the joy of painting, and during our sad days, we write only because it hurts t...

  “The highest art…sets down its creations and trusts in their magic, without fear of not being understood.” - Herman Hesse (1877-1962). Reflections, 516, ed. Volker Michels, 1974 It is a terribly frightening thing, to send your art out into the world. Who are you to have created something which is worthy of remembrance, worthy of care, worthy of immortality? We are always afraid of two things when we show somebody our art - We have the fear that it will seem unremarkable, and we have the fear that it will be totally misunderstood. As regards the fear of our art being unremarkable, there is no sure way to tell that it is remarkable for other people except by showing it to them. The only way we can even begin to guess whether it will be so is by trusting in ourselves, and in our own sense of good and bad. We constantly alternate between being the most brutal and the most forgiving of our critics, for we may look on a doodle we dew or a poem we wrote in the middle of a rainstorm, o...

  “An army, like a serpent, travels on its belly.” - Frederick II (1712-1786). Attributed See Statesmen: B.H. Liddell Hart (2) An army travels in its belly. It runs on food, on supplies, on oil and blood. It runs itself into the ground, it runs itself ragged, it runs itself into a state of dire need for repair, simply by the regular maintenance of its machines, the standard training it needs, and the slow drip of experience caused by the old and wise constantly leaving, while the young and foolish are always entering. Battles, battles are won by the courage of the people who fight them, the advantages in technology and Intel one side has over the other, and by clever and quick commanders. However, one of the most important lessons of War comes to us out of antiquity, by way of our phrase 'A Pyrrhic Victory' - This event is named after king Pyrrus, an ancient king of Epirus in Greece, who won a great victory - and lost a war, because he paid too terrible a price for his win, a...

  "The force of any army, like momentum in mechanics, is represented by the mass multiplied by the rate of movement.” - Napoleon (1769-1821). Napoleon in His Own Words, 8, comp. Jules Bertaut, 1916 Not just the force of any army acts in this way, but also the force of anything which exerts a force. The physical law of the universe is repeated again and again for rocks, armies, societies, souls, and silences. An army which is small and nimble but that moves fast may win over a large but slow army - up to a point. After all, quantity is a quality all its own. There are two possible tricks to beating an army bigger than you are. Either you outmaneuver them on an open field, tactically or strategically, or else you fight them in an enclosed space, where they cannot bring their force to bear. If you are large and slow, then your task is to catch the enemy, and if you are small and fast, then your task is to avoid the enemy. The ideal state, of course, is to be large and fast, so that...

  “The only way to form an army to be confided in, was a systemic discipline, by which means all men may be made heroes” - John Adams (1735-1826). In Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal, August 1851 One of the problems of any state is that it almost always needs a body of armed personnel to protect itself from outside aggressors, but it has no powerful defense against that armed force, if it turns on the state. There are multiple ways of dealing with this issue, such as having a small force, having an ineffective force, having disorganized force, effectively controlling the power of the purse, instigating regular purges of the command core, and so on and on. However, this only works if there is no danger from outside forces - if they are in need of an effective fighting force, then there is virtually no way to ensure that it never becomes hostile to the state. It might become hostile for many reasons, ranging from arrears of pay, to a badly managed war, or simply because the commanders ...

  "When someone opposes me, he arouses my attention, not my anger. I go to meet a man who contradicts me, who instructs me. The cause of truth should be the common cause for both.” - Montaigne (1533-1592). “Of the Art of Discussion,” Essays, 1588, tr. Donald M. Frame, 1958 How are we to view those who disagree with us? Shall we think of them as enemies and fools, who must be struck down and controlled, lest they do damage and evil in their misconceptions? Might we treat them as teachers and friends, who only mean to do good in the world, to help us along the way by tough instruction, and who yearn, like us, for the truth of the thing? This is a conundrum we often face, the issue of whether we should treat this particular enemy with grace, raise him up and treat him gently, or if we would treat him like a devil in human form, burning and destroying him before he corrupts all that he touches? Deciding between these two options is no easy task - as babies in arms we tend towards th...

  "Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced.” - H.L. Mencken (1806-1956). In Christopher Matthews, Hardball: How Politics Is Played - Told by One Who Knows the Game, 2, 1988 When is it worth trying to convince someone, and when is it not worth the effort? It is perhaps too simple to say that this always depends on the odds of them being convinced, because it may be very important that they be convinced - Important enough that the odds don't matter, you still have to try. However, in some cases, this will never work. That is, if the person you are trying to convince has a vested interest in not being convinced, then it is very likely that you should not waste your time trying to convince him. Instead, you should aim to change his mind by some other means than argument. You may want to try and convince him not that you are right and he is wrong, but that he actually has a vested interest in holding to your view. You may try and direct him to do what you ...