 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Reviews |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Reviews |
|
|
 . . . ABILITY see: "PERSERVERANCE" see: "TALENT" That there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity for Knowledge, this I call a tragedy. --Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881) Scottish historian and political philosopher. _Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufeldrockh_, III, iv [1835] An able man shows his Spirit by gentle words and resolute actions. --Lord Chesterfield [Philip Dormer Stanhope] (1694—1773) British writer and politician. _Letters Written by the Earl of Chesterfield to His Son_, vol. 3 [1827] (Pub. by Mrs. Eugenia Stanhope) - Ability without honor is useless. --attributed to Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC) Roman orator and statesman. I add this also, that natural ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability. [Lat., Etiam illud adjungo, saepius ad laudem atque virtutem naturam sine doctrina, quam sine natura valisse doctrinam.] --Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC) Roman orator and statesman. _Oratio Pro Licinio Archia_, VII - There is only one proof of ability — action. --Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830—1916) Austrian writer. _Aphorisms_ [1880—1905] One couldn't carry on life comfortably without a little blindness to the fact that everything has been said better than we can put it ourselves. --George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880) English novelist. _Daniel Deronda_, bk. II, ch. XVI [1876] The hard soil and four months of snow make the inhabitiant of the northern temperate zones wiser and abler than the fellow who enjoys the fixed smile of the tropics. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882) American philosopher and poet. "Prudence" _Essays_, First Series [1841] The tragedy is that so many have ambition and so few have ability. --attributed to William Feather (1889—1981) American author and publisher. - Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you're right. --attributed to Henry Ford (1863—1947) American car manufacturer. One of the great discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do. --Henry Ford (1863—1947) American car manufacturer. Quoted in _The American Magazine_, vol. 131 [1941]. - Great ability without discretion comes almost invariably to a tragic end. --Léon Gambetta (1838—1882) French republican statesman. Attributed in Louis Klopsch _Many Thoughts of Many Minds_, p. 69 [1896]. There is no need to show your ability before everyone. --Baltasar Gracián (1601—1658) Spanish Jesuit philosopher. _The Art of Worldly Wisdom_ [1647] There are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers, and they are entitled to a little representation [on the Supreme Court], aren't they? We can't have all Brandeises, Frankfurters, and Cardozos. --Roman L. Hruska (1904—1999) American politician. Quoted in "N.Y. Times" [17 March 1970]. It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test. --Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915) American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania". _Little Journeys: To the Homes of Eminent Orators_ [1916] "Pericles" He was one of those men who possess almost every gift, except the gift of the power to use them. --Charles Kingsley (1819—1875) English writer and clergyman. _Westward Ho!_ [1855] We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882) American poet. _Kavanagh: A Tale_, ch. I [1849] Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also. --Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121—180) Roman emperor [161—180] and Stoic philosopher. _Meditations_ trans. Gerald H. Rendall [1901] If the only tool you have is a hammer, it is tempting to treat everything as if it were a nail. --Abraham Maslow (1908—1970) American psychologist. _The Psychology of Science_ [1966] The older I get the more I admire and crave competence, just simple competence, in any field from adultery to zoology. --H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956) American journalist and literary critic. Quoted in Alistair Cooke _Memories of the Great and the Good_ [2000]. Ability is of little account without opportunity. --Napoleon I (1769—1821) Emperor of France [1804—1815]. Attributed in _The Homiletic Review_ [November 1895]. The ablest man I ever met is the man you think you are. --attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882—1945) American Democratic statesman and President [1933—1945]. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. --Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919) American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909]. In _The Works of Theodore Roosevelt: Through the Brazilian Wilderness and Papers on Natural History_ [1914]. Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities. --Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860) German philosopher. _Über den Willen in der Natur_ (On the Will in Nature) [1836] Martyrdom. . . the only way in which a man can become famous without ability. --George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950) Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.] _The Devil's Disciple_ [1901] Ability is the art of getting credit for all the home runs somebody else hits. --Casey Stengel (1891—1975) American Major League baseball player and manager; inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1966. Quoted in Ira Berkow & Jim Kaplan _The Gospel According to Casey_ [1993]. Inequalities of condition spring from inequalities of talent and courage. --Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715—1747) French moralist and essayist. _Reflections and Maxims_ [1746], tr. F.G. Stevens [1940] - They are able because they think they are able. --Virgil (70—19 B.C.) Roman poet. _The Aeneid_, v. 231 & note the variant (improved?) translation: They conquer who believe they can. --John Dryden (1631—1700) English poet, critic, and dramatist. Quoted in "The Rambler" #25 [12 June 1750]. - A sobering thought: what if, at this very moment, I *am* living up to my full potential? --attributed to Jane Wagner (b. 1935) American writer, director and producer. The world cares very little about what a man or woman knows; it is what the man or woman is able to do that the world cares about. --Booker T. Washington (1856—1915) African-American educator. "Mind and Matter" Address to the Alabama State Teachers' Association, Selma, Ala. [5 June 1895]. ----- proclivity [pro-KLIV-uh-tee], noun: A natural inclination; predisposition. repertory (noun) The entire range of skills or aptitudes or devices used in a particular field or occupation. Synonyms: repertoire wunderkind [VOON-duhr-kint], noun; plural wunderkinder 1. A child prodigy. 2. One who achieves great success or acclaim at an early age. [Late 19th century. From German, literally “wonder child.”]  . . see: "BABIES" see: "BIRTH CONTROL" - "Freedom to Choose" by Bob Blue In a clinic on Main Street, in Washingtonville, Lost in thought, by a window, stood Mary McGill, When her eyes met the eyes of a woman outside. Was it rain on her glasses, or tears she had cried? Outside, on the picket line, Rosemary Flynn Felt the rain on her face, and the anger within, As she glared at the face inside, gentle, and warm, That seemed almost to beckon her in from the storm. And the two women found themselves staring awhile Recognition, awareness, but never a smile. And there seemed to be some kind of truce in that stare, Until Rosemary Flynn recalled why she was there. Then she held up her sign, which said, "Thou shalt not kill," And she pointed directly at Mary McGill. And Mary McGill, before starting to turn, Gave a nod to acknowledge Rosemary's concern. One day, Mary counselled a child named Michelle, Who tried hard to seem calm, in her personal Hell. Mary spoke to Michelle with the tone of a friend, And her gentleness brought Michelle's calm to an end. Michelle told her story with pain hard to hide, Of her mother, and John, and the new life inside. She had meant to show love. She had meant no one harm, But her mother felt anger, and John felt alarm. And the new life inside was a life. It was real, With a brain, and a heartbeat she thought she could feel. And she wanted the child. She would love it so well. She would build it a heaven to make up for this hell. But she'd end the new life, for her mother and John. "I'll do it," she said, "for my mother and John." These words had an emptiIness Mary saw through. "If you do it," said Mary, "please do it for you." Michelle looked at Mary through the pain, and the tears, And Mary saw all of Michelle's sixteen years, And she thought she saw something of several years more, Or perhaps she had seen Michelle's face once before. Michelle only murmured the words, "I don't know." And she stood, and she turned, and she started to go. And Mary made one last request of Michelle, With her parting words, "Take time to think this out well." That night, Michelle's mother stormed into the place, Not hiding her anger, yet hiding her face. "My daughter came here with a purpose," she said. "Not to have you put foolish ideas in her head. She is young; she's a girl, and the father's a boy, And she thinks that a baby is some kind of toy. Your job is to teach her — to straighten her out, Not confuse her, and send her home riddled with doubt." "My job," explained Mary, "is not to confuse, But to make her aware of her freedom to choose. My job is to make sure the options are known. You are right. She is young. But her life is her own." Then Mary saw something in this woman's face, And remembered the person, the time, and the place. This woman had labelled abortion a sin. The face in the picket line. Rosemary Flynn. People often accuse, and are quick to condemn When the issue is safe, and does not affect them. I don't envy the job facing Mary McGill. I don't know all the meanings of "Thou shalt not kill." It's a problem more simply prevented than solved, But the choice must belong to the woman involved, And I think that the answers come not from above, But from us, and our consciences, tempered with love. - Abortions will not let you forget. You remember the children you got that you did not get. --Gwendolyn Brooks (1917—2000) American poet. "The Mother" l. I [1945] The freedom women were supposed to have in the Sixties largely boiled down to easy contraception and abortion: things to make life easier for men, in fact. --Julie Burchill (b. 1959) English journalist. _Damaged Goods_ "Born Again Cows" [1986] - The same amendment of the Constitution that forbids the establishment of a State Church affirms my legal right to argue that my religious belief would serve well as an article of our universal public morality. I may use the prescribed processes of government — the legislative and executive and judicial processes — to convince my fellow citizens — Jews and Protestants and Buddhists and non- believers — that what I propose is as beneficial for them as I believe it is for me; that it is not just parochial or narrowly sectarian but fulfills a human desire for order, peace, justice, kindness, love, any of the values most of us agree are desirable even apart from their specific religious base or context. . . . I can, if I wish, argue that the State should not fund the use of contraceptive devices not because the Pope demands it but because I think that the whole community — for the good of the whole community — should not sever sex from an openness to the creation of life. And surely, I can, if so inclined, demand some kind of law against abortion not because my Bishops say it is wrong but because I think that the whole community, regardless of its religious beliefs, should agree on the importance of protecting life — including life in the womb, which is at the very least potentially human and should not be extinguished casually. No law prevents us from advocating any of these things: I am free to do so. So are the Bishops. And so is Reverend Falwell. --Mario Cuomo (b. 1932) American lawyer and politician. Speech in 1984 at Notre Dame while governor of New York. - I think incest can be handled as a family matter within the family. --attributed to Representative Jay Dickey (Ark.), defending his position against abortion even in the case of rape or incest. Liberals want to strike down the abortion laws, so that unwanted babies can be killed off before they are born. Conservatives want to strike down the welfare laws, so that unwanted babies can be starved to death after they are born. --attributed to N. Sally Hass Sperm cells, even under optimal conditions, will never, never ever, become a human being. But that earliest embryo will, barring natural disaster or lethal human intervention, become what everybody recognizes as a human baby on its further way to becoming a fully developed human being. [...] The truth is so blindingly obvious that many are blind to it: nothing that is not a human being has the potential of becoming a human being, and nothing that has the potential of becoming a human being is not a human being. --Richard John Neuhaus (1936—2009) Canadian Catholic priest and writer. In _A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life_ [1 November 2002]. I've noticed that everybody that is for abortion has already been born. --Ronald Reagan (1911—2004) American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor. Campaign debate [21 September 1980]. Dread not infanticide; the crime is imaginary: we are always mistress of what we carry in our womb, and we do no more harm in destroying this kind of matter than in evacuating another, by medicines, when we feel the need. --attributed to Marquis de Sade (Donatien Alphonse François, Comte de Sade) (1740—1814) French aristocrat and writer of pornography. Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life; it is bad to damage and destroy life. --Albert Schweitzer (1875—1965) Franco-German theologian, philosopher, and mission doctor. "Religion and Modern Civilization" (essay) [1934] Whoever destroys a single life is as guilty as though he had destroyed the entire world; and whoever rescues a single life earns as much merit as though he had rescued the entire world. --Talmud (A.D.1st—6th cent.) "Tractate Sanhedrin" 37:1 - The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion because if a mother can kill her own child what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between. --Mother Teresa (1910—1997) Roman Catholic nun and missionary. Nobel Peace Prize Lecture [1979] It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish. --attributed to Mother Teresa (1910—1997) Roman Catholic nun and missionary. - Prevention of birth is premature murder, and it makes no difference whether it is a life already born that one snatches away or a life that is coming to birth. --Tertullian [Quintas Septimus Florens Tertullianus] (c. 155/160—after 220) Early Christian theologian, polemicist, and moralist. _The Christian's Defense_ [c. 215] - Extra place set at your mind's table like Ezekiel's empty glass, clean spoon. Hands that never pointed out the moon, laid the baby in the Christmas stable, dried dishes. Voice that doesn't call downstairs that he or she will be there soon. In steam behind a bathroom door, no one puts on makeup, leaves a towel for you to find. No hairdryer. No C in French. No midnight curfew, no slamming door, no not-speaking-to. When was it you began to hear silence? They don't tell you about that voice, clear, insistent, steady as a heartbeat, asking, How weren't you ready? --Sally Thomas, "Choice" - . . see: "GOODBYES" see: "LEAVING" see: "MEMORY" see: "PARTING" see: "LOVE & MARRIAGE (OR NOT)" for other related links I was courtmartialled in my absence and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence. --Brendan Behan (1923—1964) Irish poet, novelist, and playwright. _The Hostage_, act I [1958] To know after absence the familiar street and road and village and house is to know again the satisfaction of home. --Hal Borland [Harold Glen] (1900—1978) American author. _Sundial of the Seasons_ [1964] - Absence is to love what wind is to a fire; It extinguishes the small, it kindles the great. --Roger de Rabutin, Comte de Bussy (1618—1693) French soldier and poet. _Histoire amoureuse des Gaules_ [1660] & see: Absence diminishes mediocre passions and increases great ones, as the wind blows out candles and fans fire. --François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. _Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_, maxim 276 [1678] - 'Tis sweet to hear the watch-dog's honest bark Bay deep-mouth'd welcome as we draw near home; 'Tis sweet to know there is an eye will mark Our coming, and look brighter when we come. --Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824) English Romantic poet and satirist. _Don Juan_ [1818], canto I, st. 123 Absence, that common cure of love. --Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616) Spanish novelist. "Don Quixote de la Mancha" pt I, bk. 3, ch. 10 [1605] Short absence quickens love; long absence kills it. --Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau (1715—1789) French political economist and father of the French revolutionary Comte de Mirabeau. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Pearls of Thought_, p. 1 [1882] - Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Isle of Beauty, fare thee well! --Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797—1839) English songwriter. a popular miscellaneous writer best known for his songs. "Isle of Beauty" [c. 1830] in _Songs and Ballads, Grave and Gay_ [1844] otoh: Absence makes the heart grow fonder is a lot of crap. Absence makes them think you're dead. --attributed to James Caan (b. 1940) American actor. - Conspicuous by his absence. --Terence [Publius Terentius Afer] (c. 190—159 BC) Roman comic dramatist. Attributed in _The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms_ - Today man is, and tomorrow he will be seen no more. And being removed out of sight, quickly also he is out of mind. --Thomas a' Kempis (1380—1471) German ascetical writer. _The Imitation of Christ_, bk. 1, ch. 23, sec. 1 [c.1420] & see: Out of sight, out of mind. --Desiderius Erasmus (1469—1536) Dutch humanist and theologian. _Adagia_ [1500] -  ABSENTMINDED . . see: "THE MIND" for related links ^^ William Cecil (1863—1936), Bishop of Exeter. Traveling by rail to a confirmation ceremony, the abesentminded bishop mislaid his ticket and was unable to produce it for the ticket collector. "It's all right my Lord," said the ticket collector, "We know who you are." "That's all very well," replied the bishop, "but without the ticket how am I to know where I'm going?" --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard ^^ . . see: "MODERATION" see: "SELF-CONTROL" see: "ALCOHOL" for other related links see: "FOOD & DRINK" for other related links You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred. --Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (b. 1935) American actor, screenwriter, and director. Dialogue in the 1978 movie "Interiors". One reason why I don't drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time. --Lady Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor (1879—1964) American-born, first woman to be a member of Parliament in Britian. In "Christian Herald" [June 1960]. To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation. --Augustine, St. of Hippo (354—430) Christian theologian and bishop of Hippo in Roman Africa [396-430]. _On the Good of Marriage_ [401] Abstainer, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. --Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914) American newspaperman, wit, and satirist. _The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906] (Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.) I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the time he killed himself. --Johnny Carson (1925—2005) American comedian and host of The Tonight Show [1962—1992]. On NBC's The Tonight Show [20 November 1984]. ^^ Lord William Cecil, son of the Prime Minister Lord Salisbury, and Bishop of Exeter, was well-known for his superb chef and his marvellous cellar. At one dinner party, the woman sitting next to him was surprised (and perturbed) to notice that, while everyone else's glasses were lavishly filled, the butler always passed her by. In the end she tackled her host, asking whether she might also be allowed a glass of wine. The Bishop apologised profusely, and the butler was ordered to fill her glass. 'But I'm afraid it was I who gave the order that you should not be given any wine. You see, I understood that you were the Secretary of the local Temperance Society.' 'Oh no, dear Bishop,' she replied. 'I am the Secretary of the Chastity League.' 'Ah, that was it,' he said. 'I knew there was *something* you didn't do. _The Folio Book of Humorous Anecdotes_ Introduced by Edward Leeson [2005], "Church and Clergy" ^^ I'll turn over a new leaf. --Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616) Spanish novelist. _Don Quixote de la Mancha_, pt. II, bk. iii, ch. xiii [1615] Oons, Sir! do you say that I am drunk? Sir, that I am as sober as a judge. --Henry Fielding (1707—1754) English novelist and dramatist. _Don Quixote in England_, 3.14 [1734] Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water. --attributed to W. C. Fields [William Claude Dukenfield] (1880—1946) American vaudeville star and film actor. ^^ Ira Gershwin (1896—1983) American lyricist. Gershwin was a keen poken player, but very unlucky. After a particularly disastrous evening, he announced to his friends, 'I take an oath, I'll never pick up a card again.' After a moment's pause, he added, 'Unless, of course, I have guests who want to play. . . Or, unless I am a guest in another man's house.' He paused again. 'Or whatever circumstances arise.' --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and André Bernard [2000 ed.] ^^ Love causes more pain than pleasure. Pleasure is only illusory. Reason would command us to avoid love, if it were not for the fatal sexual impulse — therefore it were best to be castrated. --Karl von Hartmann (1842—1906) German metaphysical philosopher. _Philosophe des Unbewursten_ [1869] - Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. _Rasselas_, ch. 26 [1759] [At a dinner, when urged by Hannah More to take some wine:] Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Quoted in Mrs. Ellis _A Voice From the Vintage_ [1843]. - The first thing men do when they have renounced pleasure, through decency, lassitude, or for the sake of health, is to condemn it in others. Such conduct denotes a kind of latent affection for the very things they left off; they would like no one to enjoy a pleasure they can no longer indulge in; and thus they show their feelings of jealousy. --Jean de La Bruyère (1645—1696) French essayist and moralist. "Of Mankind" Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into. --Don Marquis (1878—1937) American poet and journalist. "Sun Dial Time" [1936] Abstaining so as really to enjoy, is the epicurism, the very perfection, of reason. --Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778) French philosopher and novelist. Attributed in _A New Dictionary of Quotations From the Greek, Latin ..._ [1859]. A life which goes excessively against natural impulse is. . . likely to involve effects of strain that may be quite as bad as indulgence in forbidden impulses would have been. People who live a life which is unnatural beyond a point are likely to be filled with envy, malice and uncharitableness. --Bertrand Russell (1872—1970) British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate. "Authority and the Individual" - Thanksgiving dinner's sad and thankless Christmas dinner's dark and blue When you stop and try to see it From the turkey's point of view. Sunday dinner isn't sunny Easter feasts are just bad luck When you see it from the viewpoint Of a chicken or a duck. Oh how I once loved tuna salad Pork and lobsters, lamb chops too 'Til I stopped and looked at dinner From the dinner's point of view. --Shel Silverstein (1930—1999) Ameican poet and songwriter. "Point of View" - - The only way for a rich man to be healthy is by exercise and abstinence, to live as if he were poor. --Sir William Temple (1628—1699) English statesman and diplomat. Attributed in John Timbs _Laconics: Or, The Best Words of the Best Authors_, p. 169 [1829]. & see: A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly the worst ingredients of poverty. --Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696—1782) Scottish lawyer, agriculturalist, and philosopher. Introduction to the Art of Thinking [1761] - Use, do not abuse; neither abstinence nor excess ever renders man happy. --Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) (1694—1778) French writer and philosopher. _Sept discours en vers sur l'homme_ [1738] - Here's to temperance supper, With water in glasses tall, And coffee and tea to end with, And me not there at all. --anon. -- A cowboy, who is visiting Wyoming from Texas, walks into a bar and orders three mugs of Bud. He sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more. The bartender approaches and tells the cowboy, "You know, a mug goes flat after I draw it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time." The cowboy replies, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Arizona, the other is in Colorado. When we all left our home in Texas, we promised that we'd drink this way to remember the days when we drank together. So I'm drinking one beer for each of my brothers and one for myself." The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there. The cowboy becomes a regular in the bar, and always drinks the same way. He orders three mugs and drinks them in turn. One day, he comes in and only orders two mugs. All the regulars take notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss." The cowboy looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns in his eyes and he laughs. "Oh, no, everybody's just fine," he explains, "It's just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church and I had to quit drinking." -- ----- abstinent [AB-stuh-nuhnt], adjective: abstaining, especially from self-indulgence ascetic (noun) [ê-'se-tik] Someone who, for spiritual reasons, rejects material comforts in favor of an austere life of abstinence and self-denial, usually as a hermit. ;void(0)) ABSURDITIES . . see: "IMPOSSIBLE" see: "NONSENSE" see: "RIDICULOUS" see: "SILLINESS" Absurdity, n.: A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent with one's own opinion. --Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914) American newspaperman, wit, and satirist. _The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906] (Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.) A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing. --Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, essayist, and critic. _The Note-Books of Samuel Butler_, ed. Henry Festing Jones [1907] "Life" - I judge the notion of the absurd to be essential and consider that it can stand as the first of my truths. --Albert Camus (1913—1960) French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature. _The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays_ [1955 English ed.] {published in French in 1942}, "An Absurd Reasoning: Philosophical Suicide" ...life is absurd. --Albert Camus (1913—1960) French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature. _L'Homme révolté_ ("The Rebel") [1951 essay] - There is nothing so absurd as but some philosopher has said it. --Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC) Roman orator and statesman. _De Divinatione_ (On Divination), bk. 2, ch. 119 [44 BC] Every absurdity has now a champion to defend it: and as he is generally much in the wrong, so he has always much to say; for error is ever talkative. --Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774) Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist. _The Traveller: Or, A Prospect of Society_ [1764] - The sublime and the ridiculous are often so nearly related, that it is difficult to class them separately. One step above the sublime, makes the ridiculous; and one step above the ridiculous, makes the sublime again. --Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (1737—1809) English-American writer and political pamphleteer. _Age of Reason_, pt. 2 [1794] & see: From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step. --Napoleon I (1769—1821) Emperor of France [1804—1815]. (To the Abbe du Pradt, on the return from Russia [1812], referring to the retreat from Moscow.) & see: Aunt Jane observed, the second time She tumbled off a bus, 'The step is short from the Sublime To the ridiculous.' --Harry Graham (1874—1936) British writer and journalist. _Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes_ [1899] - Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it. --Jules Renard (1864—1910) French novelist and dramatist. "Journal" [February 1890] People who cannot recognize a palpable absurdity are very much in the way of civilization. --Agnes Repplier (1855—1950) American author. _In Pursuit of Laughter_, ch. 9 [1936] There is no absurdity so palpable but that it may be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to inculcate it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. --Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860) German philosopher. _Studies in Pessimism_ [1851] "Further Psychological Observations" Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. --attributed to Voltaire (François Marie Arouet) (1694—1778) French writer and philosopher.  ABUSE . . see: "HURTING (SOMEONE)" for related links Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult; whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse. --Bible "Proverbs" 9:7 NIV It is the wit, the policy of sin, to hate those men we have abused. --Sir William Davenant [also spelled D'Avenant] (1606—1668) English poet, playwright, and theater manager. "The Just Italian" [1630] Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who affronts, but the view we take of these things as insulting. When, therefore, any one provokes you, be assured that it is your own opinion which provokes you. --Epictetus (55—135) Greek philosopher. _The Enchiridion_ [c. 135] Abuse is the weapon of the vulgar. --attributed to Samuel Griswold Goodrich (1793—1860) American publisher and children's books under the pseudonym of Peter Parley. - Abuse a man unjustly and you will make friends for him. --attributed to Edgar Watson Howe (1854—1937) American journalist and author. Don't abuse your friends and expect them to consider it criticism. --attributed to Edgar Watson Howe (1854—1937) American journalist and author. - It is better a man should be abused than forgotten. --Samuel Johnson (1709—1784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. Quoted in Hester Lynch Piozzi _The Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson_ [1786]. I do not waste my time in answering abuse; I thrive under it like a field that benefits by the manure that is carted on to it. --Henry Labouchère (1831—1912) British politician and writer. In Algar Labouchere Thorold _The Life of Henry Labouchere_, p. 454 [1913] I seem to you cruel and too much addicted to gluttony, when I beat my cook for sending up a bad dinner. If that appears to you too trifling a cause, say for what cause you would have a cook flogged. --Martial [Marcus Valerius Martialis] (38/41—103) Roman poet. _Epigrams_ [86-98], bk. VIII The hearts of small children are delicate organs. A cruel beginning in this world can twist them into curious shapes. The heart of a hurt child can shrink so that forever afterward it is hard and pitted as the seed of a peach. Or, again, the heart of such a child may fester and swell until it is misery to carry within the body, easily chafed and hurt by the most ordinary things. --Carson Smith McCullers (1917—1967) American author. _The Ballad of the Sad Café_ [1951] George Taylor (Charleton Heston) speaking:] Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape! --"Planet of the Apes" [1968] Screenplay by Rod Serling and Michael Wilson. I never yet heard man or woman much abused, that I was not inclined to think the better of them; and to transfer any suspicion or dislike to the person who appeared to take delight in pointing out the defects of a fellow-creature. --Jane Porter (1776—1850) Scottish novelist. In _Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney_ [1807] A wound from a tongue is worse than a wound from a sword; for the latter affects only the body—, the former, the spirit, the soul. --Pythagoras (582—486 B.C.) Ionian mathematician and philosopher. Attributed in James Comper Gray _The Biblical Museum_ [vol. V, 1878]. There are none more abusive to others than they that lie most open to it themselves; but the humor goes round, and he that laughs at me today will have somebody to laugh at him tomorrow. --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.—65 A.D.) Roman philosopher and poet. _Moral Essays_, "Of Anger" Whipping and abuse are like laudanum; you have to double the dose as the sensibilities decline. --Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811—1896) American writer and philanthropist. [Sister of Henry Ward Beecher, daughter of Lyman Beecher.] _Uncle Tom's Cabin_, ch. 20 [1852] The man that lays his hand on woman, Save in the way of kindness, is a wretch Whom 'twere gross flattery to name a coward. --John Tobin (1770—1804) English dramatist. _The Honey Moon_, II, i [1805] - They do say, Mrs M, that verbal insults hurt more than physical pain. They are, of course, wrong, as you will soon discover when I stick this toasting fork into your head. --dialogue, "Sense and Senility" Black Adder [Edmund] ----- flagellate (verb) ['flæ-jê-leyt] To whip or scourge; to punish by whipping. fulminate [FUL-muh-nayt], intransitive verb: 1. To issue or utter verbal attacks or censures authoritatively or menacingly. 2. To explode; to detonate. transitive verb: 1. To utter or send out with denunciations or censures. 2. To cause to explode. Ex.: He lets others fulminate on his behalf while he maintains his gentlemanly demeanor. --Richard Sandomir, "Cablevision's Dolan Makes the Deal Only When He's Ready," _New York Times_ [6 December 1998] harangue (verb) [hê-'ræng] Verbal harassment, a tirade; a ranting uncontrolled preachment or piece of writing focused on a subject of interest only to the speaker or author. objurgate (verb) ['ahb-jur-geyt] To rebuke harshly. syn: censure, chide, reproach, upbraid, rebuke, scold, berate. obloquy [OB-luh-kwee], noun: 1. Strongly condemnatory or abusive language or utterance. 2. The condition of disgrace suffered as a result of public blame, abuse, or condemnation; ill repute. scurrilous [SKUR-uh-luhs], adjective: Grossly or obscenely abusive. vituperate (verb) [vI-'tu-pêr-yet or -'tyu (British)] To scold extremely harshly and with abusive language, to furiously verbally abuse. The noun is "vituperation" [vI-tu-pêr-'ey-shên] and the adjective, "vituperative" [vI-'tu-pêr-ê-tiv]. end page | ABILITY - ABUSE | ACADEMY AWARDS - ACCUSATION | ACHIEVEMENT - ACQUAINTANCE | ACTION/S | ACTORS / ACTING | ACTUARIES - ADVERSARIES | ADVERSITY - ADVERTISING | ADVICE | AFFAIRS - AFGHANISTAN | AGE | AGNOSTICS - AIRPLANES | ALCOHOL | ALIBI - AMBITION | AMERICA PAGE 1 (A-M) | AMERICA PAGE 2 (N-Z) | AMERICANS | AMERICAN INDIANS | AMERICAN REVOLUTION | AMUSEMENT - ANCESTORS | ANGER | ANIMAL RIGHTS - ANIMALS | ANIMOSITIES - APATHY | APOLOGY & APPEARANCE | APPEASEMENT | APPLAUSE - APRIL | ARCHAEOLOGISTS - ARCHITECTURE | ARGUMENT | ARISTOCRACY - ART | ASHAMED - ASTROLOGY | ATHEISM | ATOM BOMB - ATTRACTION | AUSTRALIA | AUTHORITY - AUTOMOBILES | AUTUMN - AWARENESS | | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
||