Post some PPR quotes

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"We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant."

- The Boss

On Growing Older

Behind glass walls my fancies move,
Seeking an expressible love;
Outside,and in it's headstrong way,
The world spins faster everyday.

The formulated wish,the prayer,
Are compromised and prisoned here,
Baffled,frustrated,bitter ,vain,
Like wasps on a windowpane.

The symbols of an cancelled hour
Are word without the poet's power,
Significant like winds that blow
From whence to where we do not know

My symbols are the vital tree
Whose roots are bound,who's leaves are free
The cyclic sun,the patient rain
That falls to die and rise again.

In three dimensions I have made
Protest against a masquerade,
Now for the truth;I fear to pass
Through the broken wall of glass.

-John Wheatley-

“Brave soldier, never fear. Even though your death is near.”

- Hans Christian Andersen

May I quote Karl Popper again?

"The so-called paradox of freedom is the argument that freedom in the sense of absence of any constraining control must lead to very great restraint, since it makes the bully free to enslave the meek. The idea is, in a slightly different form, and with very different tendency, clearly expressed in Plato.

Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal."

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esBLxyTFDxE&feature=youtube_gdata_player[/youtube]

I should have posted this on Feb 11

"The last light fades and drifts across the land-the low,long land,the sunny land of spires;the ghosts of evening in a plaintive band down the long corridors of trees;pale fires echo the night from tower top to tower:Oh,sleep that dreams,and dreams that never tire,press from the petals of the lotus flower something of this to keep,the essence of an hour.
No more to wait the twilight of the moon in this sequestered vale of star and spire,for one eternal morning of desire passes to time and earthy afternoon.Here,Heraclitus,did you find in fire and shifting things the prophecy you hurled down the dead years;this midnight my desire will see,shadowed among the embers,furled in flame,the splendor and the sadness of the world."

F.Scott Fitzgerald. This Side of Paradise

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

- Old Nick, The Prince

Pie In The Sky

Long-haired preachers come out ev'ry night,
And they tell you what's wrong and what's right,
When you ask them for something to eat,
They will answer in voices so sweet:

'You will eat ,bye and bye,
In that glorious land above the sky,
Work and pray,live on hay,
You'll get pie on the sky when you die.'

Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out,
And they holler,they jump and they shout.
'Give your money to Jesus',they say,
'He will cure all diseases today.'

If you fight hard for children and wife,
Try to get something good in this life,
You're a sinner and a bad man,they tell,
When you die you will sure go to Hell.

Working men of all countries,unite
Side by side we for freedom will fight,
When the world and it's wealth we have gained,
To the grafter we will sing this refrain:

O the starvation army they play,
And they sing and they clap and they pray,
Till they get all your coin on the drum,
Then they'll tell you when you're on the bum.

You will eat bye and bye
When you've learned how to cook and fry,
Chop some wood,'twill do you good,
And you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.

Joe Hill
Executed in Utah after being found guilty of murder,1914
Collected by Lomax

Still there is Peace

It is not lost,the place we long sought,
Earth holds it safe in spite of blustering man,
In spite of wars and all the boundaries bought
With terror,blood and tears since time began
No vaunted missle yet has range to mar
The vibrant color harps of Northern Lights,
The afterglow of setting sun,or bar
Orion's tranquil march across the nights.
Still there are hillsides where the maple burns
And Hemlock trails the deer and foxes know,
Still there are purple grapes as fall returns
And boughs of golden apples hanging low
Twilight and crescent moon,these shall not cease
Though rulers rise and fall- still there is peace.

Leslie Savage Clark

"A conqueror is always a lover of peace"

Carl von Clausewitz - On war

Without great vices, is a vain.
Eutopia seated in the brain.
Fraud, luxury, and pride must live.
While we the benefits receive.
Hunger's a dreadful plague, no doubt.
Yet who digests or thrives without?

- Bernard Mandeville - Fable Of The Bees

Epitaph on the Politician Himself

Here richly,with ridiculous display,
The Politician's corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged,
I wept: for I had longed to see him hanged.

Hilaire Belloc (1898 -1956)




Prudence

Help! Mad Dog! cried someone.
I hastened swiftly
In the opposite direction.
Wisdom,I murmured,
Is better than rabies.

Christopher Morley
(1890-1957)



Confessions of the Tenant in Apt.# 2

The landlord's beige
Fleetwood Cadillac
died in front of the building;
and I was secretly happy
that my jumper cables
didn't work.

Martin Espada
(b.1957)

Source: Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian

After overthrowing the Qin Dynasty together, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu fought each other for the right to rule China.

One day, Liu Bang asked his confidant Chen Ping, "When will this chaotic world be pacified?"

Chen Ping replied, "Lord Xiang Yu is benevolent and courteous. Many men who value righteousness and courtesy flock towards him. However, Xiang Yu is reluctant to award land and titles to men who serve him well. Some men refuse to serve him because of this. As for you, my lord, you have always been rude and arrogant, hence those men who value courtesy and righteousness stay away from you. But if you are willing to award land and titles generously, then many men who are foolish, greedy and shameless will flock towards you."

(My interpretation: High pay has motivated many foolish, greedy and shameless men and women to join politics.)

Any one of the following:

"A boy of fifteen who is not a democrat is good for nothing, and he is no better who is a democrat at twenty."
--John Adams (Jan. 1799)

«N'être pas républicain à vingt ans est preuve d'un manque de cœur; l'être après trente ans est preuve d'un manque de tête.»
--François Guizot (undated)

«N'être pas socialiste à vingt ans est preuve d'un manque de cœur. D'être à trente ans est preuve d'un manque de tête.»
--Georges Clémenceau (prob. apocryphal)

«Mon fils a vingt deux ans. S'il n'était pas devenu communiste à vingt deux, je l'aurais renié. S'il est encore communiste à trente ans, je le ferais alors.»
--Georges Clémenceau (on being told that his son had joined the communists).

I Have Cast the World

I have cast the world,
and think of me as nothing.
Yet I feel cold on snow-falling day,
And happy on flower day.


Yone Noguchi
(1875-1947)


In Trouble and Shame

I look at the sweeling sunset
And wish I could go also
Through the red doors beyond the black-purple bar.

I wish that I could go
Through the red doors where I could put off
My shame like shoes on the porch
My pain like garments
And leave my flesh discarded lying
Like luggage of some departed traveller
Gone one knows not where.

Then I would turn around
And seeing my cast-off body lying like lumber,
I would laugh with joy.


D.H.Lawrence
(1885-1930)

"We all live in a house on fire,no fire department to call;no way out,just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped,locked in it".

Tennessee Williams

"Many desire to kill me,and many wish to spend an hour chatting with me.The law protects me from the former."


Karl Kraus