Basic Research

"Basic research is what I am doing when I don't know what I am doing." ~ Wernher von Braun

This amused the heck out of me.  I think I must do craploads of "basic research."

Through Linoleum

"They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze.  They should photograph me through linoleum." ~ Tallulah Bankhead

Exactly.

The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.
~ Dr. Joyce Brothers

Dear Josh Ritter

As if your songs weren't fabulous enough, you also named two of your albums with direct quotes from Hamlet and Horatio (So Runs the World Away and To the Yet Unknowing World).  I caught the Horatio quote last year as I taught the play.  I didn't catch the Hamlet one until this year's adventures in education.  Nicely done, sir.  Nicely done.

On Writing

Perspective

"No human thing is of serious importance." ~ Plato

I both agree and disagree with this statement.  The little trials and tribulations of our lives really don't make much a mark on the hard surface of the world.  In this way, Plato is totally right.  We get caught up in trivia.  So much of our daily lives are filled with minutia that are of paramount importance to us, have the power to make us ecstatic or miserable, and when we step away from them for a moment and see those concerns for what they really are, many of them can look small or petty.  

Our individual suffering or joy is only a drop in the bucket of the total history and experience around us.  And yet, that total sea is composed of those little drops.  Our world is not vast, not macro.  We are beings who live and die on the micro scale.  The tiny ripples in our pools have the effect of tidal waves when that is the boundary of all you know.  

I think this quote can be good for putting things into perspective, to help us remember that we need to look at the whole instead of only our little part.  If we are finding a way not to be trapped by the useless and the trivial, then good for us.  If we're turning a deaf ear to the cries of those nearby who are genuinely in need, then perhaps we need to think again.

Inhumanity

"The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity." ~ George Bernard Shaw

Malice v. Stupidity

"Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity." ~ Unknown

I need to put this one somewhere I can see it often, I think.

A Pretty Accurate Description

"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions." ~ Augusten Burroughs

What He Said

You see, making a living doing something you love isn’t only about making a living (in fact for many that’s not even a possibility) it’s about making a life. That means building friendships, respecting your own limitations, taking pleasure in your own creativity and in the creativity of others, and always, always, always reminding yourself to enjoy the moment you’re in.
~ Josh Ritter

Interesting Invitation

“I’ll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours.”
~ Bob Dylan

Those Who Walk Alone

“The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.”
― Albert Einstein

Pride Blind

"Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them." ~ Robertson Davies

True enough, I guess.  This directly relates to a conversation I had with someone the other day.  Maybe he needs this quote.

Music Is a Moral Law

“Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.”
~ Plato

_______________
This rolled through my Tumblr this morning, and I'm taking just a second to post it before I go to school because it's fantastic.  Music is the thing that keeps me moving most days.  Whether I am playing it or listening to it, it is the clockwork keeping the machine going.  When I feel terrible, it either helps me work through it or lifts me out of it.  When I am rejoicing, it celebrates with me.  When I grieve, it pulls the sorrow out of me. I have seen many other quotes about music, and I have some other good ones tucked back, but this one is seems to wrap it all up so well.   

A Thought on What Love Might Be

You're not friends. You'll never be friends. You'll be in love 'til it kills you both. You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other 'til it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends. Real love isn't brains, children. It's blood. It's blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love's bitch, but at least I'm man enough to admit it.  ~ Spike, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Purpose

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Tracking a Quote

Sticks and stones are hard on bones aimed with angry art. Words can sting like anything but silence breaks the heart.   Mcginley, Phyllis
I saw this today on the web attributed to Emily Dickinson.  It didn't quiiiite sound Dickinsoneque, if you follow me, so I did some more digging.  I think it more likely traceable to the source above.  The fact that it didn't come from the Divine Dickinson, however, does not make it untrue.  It's the silence that kills.  At least if someone is "cussing you," you know what they think of you....  It's when you have to wonder what they think, when silence reigns, that your mind can fill in those blanks with all sorts of nastiness.  Yeah.  Silence sucks.

Mad Scientists

"We live in a Newtonian world of Einsteinian physics ruled by Frankenstein logic." ~ David Russell

Exactly.

John and Francisco

“When you force a man to act against his own choice and judgment, it's his thinking that you want him to suspend.”
— John Galt
Atlas Shrugged (Part 3, Chapter 8, Page 1,104)


“There are no evil thoughts except one: the refusal to think.”
— Francisco d'Anconia
Atlas Shrugged (Part 2, Chapter 2, Page 418)

The Sky and Its Stars....

"The sky and its stars make music in you."  ~ Denderah Temple wall inscription, Egypt

This may be one of the most beautiful quotes I have ever seen.  Just thinking about it makes me think of sitting in the middle of the night-dark pasture and staring up into the blue-black sky and all the tiny lights there.  There is that feeling that swells in the chest, as if my heart were unfurling wings that were too large for the space, and I always breathe a little too deeply, can't pull in enough air.  Since I was a child, I have wished that I could fly up into that sky and feel what owls must feel as they race along those empty spaces, wished I could rise up and up until the dome of Heaven was there like a velvet curtain before me and I could see the sleeping world below.

Even when I'm driving at night, the sliver of the sky through the windshield fills me with the same peace.  Sometimes, when I am so restless that there is no other way to be calm, I go out driving late at night, listening to whatever is on the radio but hearing only the silent songs of the stars until whatever has been pricking me with its sharp little claws lets go and I can be peaceful again.

Maybe later this week, I'll go up to our place in the country and let the day fade to night, let the sun slide behind the treeline and wait for the stars to flicker into their accustomed places in the darkening blue background.  I haven't taken the time to hear the symphony in awhile, and this quote has stirred a yearning in me.  There is no better place I know to let them weave their spell than in that silent place where only counterpoint will be the wind in the trees and the sound of tall grasses rustling.