 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
End |
Reviews |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
End |
Reviews |
|
|
|
. . . see "RELIGION" for related links I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure that is all that agnosticism means. --Clarence Darrow (18571938) American lawyer. Speech at the trial of John Thomas Scopes [15 July 1925]. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our being. --Albert Einstein (18791955) German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Letter to Ensign Guy H. Raner [summer of 1945]. ^ W. C. Fields [William Claude Dukenfield] (18791946), American film actor and comedian. A lifelong agnostic, Fields was discoverd reading a Bible on his deathbed. 'I'm looking for a loophole,' he explained. --_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_ edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.] ^ I don't know about God...the only things I know are what I see, hear, feel and smell. --Gunther Grass (1927 ) Polish born Nobel Prize winning author. Paris "Herald Tribune" [23 March 1970]. No matter how I probe and prod I cannot quite believe in God. But oh! I hope to God that he Unswervingly believes in me. --E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (18961981) American songwriter. "The Agnostic" [1965] - In matters of the intellect follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other consideration... and do not pretend that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or demonstrable. That I take to be the agnostic faith, which if a man keep whole and undefiled, he shall not be ashamed to look the universe in the face, whatever the future may have in store for him. --T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (18251895) English biologist {grandfather of Aldous Huxley}. When I reached intellectual maturity, and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; a Christian or a freethinker, I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until at last I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure that they had attained a certain "gnosis" had more or less successfully solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble. And, with Hume and Kant on my side, I could not think myself presumptuous in holding fast by that opinion. [ . . . ] So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of "agnostic". It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the "gnostic" of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant; and I took the earliest opportunity of parading it at our Society, to show that I, too, had a tail, like the other foxes. --T.H. (Thomas Henry) Huxley (18251895) English biologist (grandfather of Aldous Huxley.) In _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_ [1908], edited by James Hastings. - Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one, He must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear. --Thomas Jefferson (17431826) American statesman and president [18011809]. Letter to Peter Carr [10 August 1787]. There must be either a predestined Necessity and inviolable plan, or a gracious Providence, or a chaos without design or director. If then there be an inevitable Necessity, why kick against the pricks? If a Providence that is ready to be gracious, render thyself worthy of divine succour. But if a chaos without guide, congratulate theyself that amid such a surging sea thou hast a guiding Reason. --Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121180) Roman emperor [161180] and Stoic philosopher. _Meditations_, trans. C. R. Haines I was much cheered upon my arrival (in prison) by the warden at the gate who had to take particulars about me. He asked my religion, and I replied, 'Agnostic.' He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh, 'Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God.' --Bertrand Russell (18721970) British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate. Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpits that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish and ignorant? Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh? We are a company of ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness, learning only be incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a glimmering of truth by falling into every conceivable error, dimly discerning light enough for our daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describe the ultimate origin or end of our paths; and yet, when one of us ventures to declare that we don't know the map of the universe as well as the map of our infinitesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness.... --Sir Leslie Stephen (18321904) English critic, man of letters, and first editor of the _Dictionary of National Biography_. "An Agnostic's Apology", _Fortnightly Review_ [1876] There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds. --Alfred, Lord Tennyson (18091892) English poet. "In Memoriam A. H. H." [1850] ----- nescient (adj.) ['ne-shent, 'ne-si-yκnt] (1) Ignorant, lacking knowledge; (2) agnostic, believing that man is incapable of understanding the nature of the universe.  . . see: "APPROVAL" see: "CONTRADICTION" see: "DISSENT" As I usually do when I want to get rid of someone whose conversation bores me, I pretended to agree. --Albert Camus (19131960) French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature. _The Stranger_, 2.1 [1942], tr. Stuart Gilbert [1946] I don't like to talk much with people who always agree with me. It is amusing to coquette with an echo for a little while, but one soon tires of it. --Thomas Carlyle (17951881) Scottish historian and political philosopher. 'My idea of an agreeable person,' said Hugo Bohun, 'is a person who agrees with me.' --Benjamin Disraeli (18041881) British Tory statesman, novelist, and Prime Minister [1868, 18741880]. _Lothair_ [1870] Damn those who have said what we wanted to say! --Aelius Donatus (late 4th cent. A.D.) Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. I feel ill at ease with that little word "We." No man is at one with another, you see. Behind all agreement lies something amiss. All seeming accord cloaks a lurking abyss. --Albert Einstein (18791955) German-American physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. In "The New Yorker" [20 June 1994] p.93. An agreement between two men to do what both agree is wrong. --Lord Edward Gascoyne-Cecil (18671918) British soldier and colonial administrator in Egypt. (Defining "compromise".) This hitteth the nail on the head. --John Heywood (14971580) English playwright. _Proverbs_ [1546] Th' feller that agrees with ever'thing you say is either a fool er he is gettin' ready t'skin you. --Frank McKinney (Kin) Hubbard (18681930) American humorist. We rarely find that people have good sense unless they agree with us. --Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (16131680) French classical author. _Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_ [1678]; maxim 347. If you wish to appear agreeable in society, you must consent to be taught many things which you already know. --Johann Kaspar Lavater (17411801) Swiss writer, Protestant pastor, and founder of physiognomics. In Robert Andrews _The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 246 [1987]. Stand with anybody that stands *right*. Stand will him while he is right and *part* with him when he goes wrong. --Abraham Lincoln (18091865) American Republican statesman, President [18611865]. Speech on the Kansas-Nebraska Act, [16 October 1854]. Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much. --Walter Lippmann (18891974) American journalist. There's nothing in this world more instinctively abhorrent to me than finding myself in agreement with my fellow humans. --Malcolm Muggeridge (19031990) British writer, broadcaster, and journalist. Radio broadcast [29 April 1955]. Nobody agrees with anybody else anyhow, but adults conceal it and infants show it. --Ogden Nash (19021971) American writer of humorous poetry. Agreeing to differ. [Latin: Discors concordia.] --Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.18 A.D.) Roman poet. "Metamorphoses" I. 433 That character in conversation which commonly passes for agreeable is made up of civility and falsehood. --Alexander Pope (16881744) English poet. Needless to say, the President is correct. Whatever it was he said. --Donald Rumsfeld (1932 ) American Secretary of Defense [19751977] & [20012006]. Men keep agreements when it is to the advantage of neither to break them. --Solon (630?560? B.C.) Athenian lawmaker and Lyric poet. Them's my sentiments. --William Makepeace Thackeray (18111863) English novelist. _Vanity Fair_ [18471848], Vol. I, Ch. 21 If two men on a job agree all the time, then one is useless. If they disagree all the time, then both are useless. --Darryl F. Zanuck (19021979) American producer, writer, actor and director who headed 20th Century Fox. ----- accede [ak-SEED], intransitive verb: 1. To agree or assent; to give in to a request or demand. 2. To become a party to an agreement, treaty, convention, etc. 3. To attain an office or rank; to enter upon the duties of an office. apposite (adjective) ['ζ-pκ-zit] Strikingly appropriate, applicable, or fitting; well put. asseverate [uh-SEV-uh-rayt], transitive verb: To affirm or declare positively or earnestly. concordat (noun) A signed written agreement between two or more parties (nations) to perform some action. Synonyms: compact, covenant proponent [pruh-POH-nuhnt], noun: One who argues in support of something; an advocate; a supporter. ;void(0)) AIR FORCE . . see "WAR & PEACE" for related links Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. (On the skill and courage of British airmen.] --Winston Churchill (18741965) British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [19401945, 19511955]. [Speech, House of Commons, 20 August 1940.] ;void(0)) AIR TRAVEL . . see "TRAVEL" for related links Photograph of dragon fly courtest of Charlie B. in alt.fifty-plus.friends, a Usenet newsgroup. My inclination to go by Air Express is confirmed by the crash they had yesterday, which will make them careful in the immediate future. --A.E. [Alfred Edward] Houseman (18591936) English classical scholar and poet. Letter [17 August 1920]. I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me they are wonderful things for other people to go on. --Jean Kerr (19232003) American writer, [wife of Walter Kerr]. _The Snake Has All the Lines_ [1958] Anything that is white is sweet. Anything that is brown is meat. Anything that is grey, don't eat. --Stephen Sondheim (1930 ) American musical theater lyricist and composer. (On airline food.) "Do I Hear a Waltz?" [1965 song]. There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror. --Orson Welles (19151985) American motion-picture actor, director, producer, and writer. Interview in "The Times" [6 May 1985]. --- Revisiting the Grand Canyon Crash 50 Years Later TWA, United Collision Killed 128, Spawned FAA; Lessons for Today's Skies _The Wall Street Journal_ June 20, 2006 On a Saturday morning in June, Trans World Airways Flight 2 departed Los Angeles International Airport for Kansas City, Mo., and three minutes later United Airlines Flight 718 took off from the same airport for Chicago. About 90 minutes later, they collided over the Grand Canyon, killing 128 people. The Grand Canyon crash, 50 years ago next week but still vividly remembered by many, was the worst in aviation history at the time, and it remains one of the most important in terms of triggering safety enhancements for travelers. Even today, the lessons learned from that tragedy resonate with the challenges faced in the skies as the U.S. once again struggles to modernize air-traffic control. Now, as then, skies are getting more crowded as new types of planes open up travel, from regional airline planes to corporate jets to a coming influx of "very light jets" designed to carry only six people. Now, as then, the federal government is scrambling to modernize air-traffic control to increase capacity. It's a project already many years in the making, and many years from completion, but the Federal Aviation Administration says it is making progress. The June 30, 1956, crash spurred development of a nationwide system of radar coverage and led to the creation of the FAA. It was a huge advance, and just in time, historians say, since near misses in the skies were already rapidly rising and passenger jets flying twice as fast as the propeller-driven planes of the day were about to start entering service. "The crash very conceivably saved a lot of lives," says Jon Proctor, an aviation historian and editor of Airliners magazine. In 1956, there was no radar coverage of the skies outside of urban areas. As planes flew along, they reported their position and altitude by radio and estimated their arrival time at the next checkpoint. Controllers kept track on paper, or by moving markers across tabletops as if they were game pieces. Pilots flying by instruments had to stay on prescribed airways like highways in the sky. But if you weren't in the clouds, you could go off the airways and fly under visual rules when pilots were responsible for seeing and avoiding other airplanes. That's what both planes, both flown by veteran pilots, were doing. TWA Flight 2, a Lockheed Constellation, took off at 9:01 a.m., planning to cruise at 19,000 feet with 70 people on board. At about 9:04 a.m., United Flight 718, a Douglas DC-7, took off with 58 people on board after filing a flight plan to cruise at 21,000 feet. About 20 minutes into its flight, the TWA plane requested permission to climb to 21,000 feet. An air-traffic controller in Los Angeles denied the request because of the United plane at 21,000 feet. TWA Flight 2 then requested clearance to stay 1,000 feet on top of the clouds a common practice at the time. The request was approved. At 9:59 a.m., Flight 2 reported its position and said it was 1,000 feet on top of the clouds at 21,000 feet and would reach the Painted Desert reporting line at 10:31 a.m. A minute earlier, United 718 reported that it was at 21,000 feet and would reach Painted Desert at 10:31 a.m. Same altitude; same time. Both reports were relayed to a controller in Salt Lake City, but since both planes were flying under visual rules, the controller wasn't required to warn either plane they were likely on converging courses. He didn't. [ . . . ] ;void(0)) AIRPLANES . . see "TRAVEL" for related links We were one of those wretched traveling families you see getting on planes the kind where you don't actually see the people, just this mound of baby equipment shufling slowly down the aisle toward you. This sight is always hugely popular with the other passengers, some of whom will yank open the emergency exits and dive out of the plane. Because they know what babies do on planes: They stand on their parents' laps and stick their heads up over the seats, so they can get maximum range when they shriek. On a baby-intensive airplane, you see shrieking baby heads constantly popping up all over, like prairie dogs from hell. --Dave Barry (1947 ) American humorist. - Given the national mood, it was only appropriate that suddenly, in 1927, the overnight hero of the world was an American. On a drizzly May morning, an airplane lined up on a muddy, primitive runway on Long Island. It was going for a shot at a $25,000 prize for a nonstop transatlantic flight. Of the three contenders, one was both the strangest and the smallest: it was twenty-seven feet, three inches long, had no radio and no sextant, and its instrument panel was less pretentious than that of a 1927 automobile. It had cost $10,580, and every inch of its construction had been carefully watched over by the man who was going to fly it; unlike the others he was going alone, and he did not intend to hop islands or countries, he was going for the whole stretch-New York to Paris. He was a skinny, blond twenty-five-year-old from Minnesota, who had been a parachute jumper and an airmail pilot in the wildcat days. The plane which for balance carried all the gasoline it could in a cased-in cockpit up front, so that the pilot was literally flying blind wobbled and bounced into the heavy skies, and that night forty thousand baseball fans in New York stood and prayed for its pilot. In Tokyo, at their midnight, people swarmed into the streets. The stock exchanges of London, Berlin, and Amsterdam interrupted regular quotations with the word that there was no word. As the second night came on in Paris, an appeal went out to everybody who owned an automobile which might be from seventy to eighty thousand, maybe to head for a landing field at Le Bourget and line up in two files, switch the headlights on and thus create a visible shaft of white fog. Into it, thirty-three hours after just missing the telephone wires on Long Island, the strange plane trundled and stopped. It was engulfed by one hundred thousand Parisians. When they lifted the pilot out of the cockpit, if he had said he was Alexander the Great, they'd have believed him. He reportedly said simply: "I am Charles Lindbergh." He came home to naval salutes and a frenetic press, and a ticker-tape parade up Broadway. --Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (19082004) British-born American broadcater and journalist. _America_ [1973] - If God had intended us to fly, he'd never have given us the railways. --Flanders & Swann Musical duo who performed comic and satirical songs. "By Air" [1963] I like terra firma the more firma, the less terra. --George S. Kaufman (18891961) American playwright, director, and producer. I feel about airplanes the way I feel about diets. It seems to me that they are wonderful things for other people to go on. --Jean Kerr (19232003) American writer, [wife of Walter Kerr]. _The Snake Has All the Lines_ [1958] Flights by machine heavier than air is unpractical and insignificant, if not utterly impossible. --Simon Newcomb (18351909) Canadian-born American astronomer and mathematician. (Eighteen months before the Wright brothers' flight at Kitty Hawk.) Success. Four flights Thursday morning. All against twenty-one mile wind. Started from level with engine power alone. Average speed through air thirty-one miles. Longest fifty-nine seconds. Inform press. Home Christmas. --Wilbur Wright (18671912) and Orville Wright (18711948) Designed the first airplane. (Telegram to the Reverend Milton Wright, from Kitty Hawk, N.C. [17 December 1903]). - On April 25, 1974, the "Toronto Star" reported the deaths of Mr. Todd Missfield and Ms. Bonnie Johnson who died when their Cessna 150 airplane crashed into a billboard. The message on the billboard read: "Learn to Fly." ----- jetsam (noun) ['jet-sκm] Cargo thrown out of a ship or plane to lighten it. end page | ABILITY - ABUSE | ACADEMY AWARDS - ACCUSTOMED | ACHIEVEMENT - ACQUAINTANCE | ACTIONS | 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 End | The Reviews | Photos | |
||