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GRAVEYARDS
GREATNESS --- GREED
GREETINGS --- GRIEF --- GROOMING
GROUPS --- GROUCHO MARX --- GROWING

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.
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GRAVE(YARDS)

see "DEATH" for related links

Photograph: The graveyard of Trinity Church in NYC.


A few days after Fort Sumter, Lee left his house
on the hill and never went back to it. And within
a few more days it was a camp and then a
graveyard. The Secretary of War, to whom Lee
had written a note rejecting the Northern
command, saw to it that no one would want to
live there again. He ordered that soldiers' graves
should be planted close to the house. Later the
place was confiscated by the government and
became a military cemetery. It is now Arlington,
the national military cemetery.
--Alistair Cooke [Alfred Cooke] (1908—2004)
British-born American broadcater and journalist.
_America_ [1973]

Go to the dull churchyard and see
Those hillocks of mortality.
Where proudest man is only found
By a small swelling in the ground.
--Thomas Flatman (1637—1688)
English poet and miniature painter.
_A Doomsday Thought_ [1659]

^

Charles Lamb (1775—1834)
British essayist, poet, and literary critic.

When Charles Lamb was little more than a
toddler, his sister, Mary, took him for a
walk in the graveyard. The precocious little
boy read the laudatory epitaphs on the tomb-
stones, commemorating the deceased as
'virtuous,' 'charitable,' 'beloved,' and so on.
As they came away, he asked, 'Mary, where
are all the naughty people buried?'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

The consumer's side of the coffin lid is never ostentatious.
--Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (1909—1966)
Polish writer.
_Unkempt Thoughts_ [1962]

-

We give to each a tender thought, and pass
Out of graveyards with their tangled grass.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
"Morituri Salutamus" [1875]


The grave itself is but a covered bridge,
Leading from light to light, through a brief darkness.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
"The Golden Legend" [1851]

-

In 1610, an unlikely monument to pi was built
in Holland. A tombstone in the graveyard of
Peter's Church in Leiden was supposedly engraved
with the numbers 2-8-8, representing the 33rd
through 35th digits of pi, calculated by the
mathematician who spent his last 14 years expanding
pi to 35 digits.
--Bruce Watson
_Smithsonian Magazine_

There'll be two dates on your tombstone
And all your friends will read 'em
But all that's gonna matter is
That little dash between 'em.
--Kevin Welch b.1955
lyrics, 'Pushing Up Daisies,'
in album: _Life Down Here On Earth_ [1995].

--

Dad and young son were in a cemetary looking at headstones.
The boy says, "Why do they bury two people in a grave, Daddy?"
The daddy says, "Don't be ridiculous, son. They don't do that."
"But Daddy," replied the boy, "it says right here, here lies so-
and-so, a lawyer and an honest man."

-----

sarcophagus (noun) [sahr-'kah-fκ-gκs]
An above-ground stone or marble coffin, often
decorated with sculpture and inscriptions.



GREATNESS

.
.

see "SUCCESS" for related links


It is easy to believe that life is long and one's gifts are vast
— easy at the beginning, that is. But as the limits of life grow
more evident; it becomes clear that great work can be done
rarely, if at all.
--Alfred Adler (1870—1937)
Austrian psychologist.
_New Yorker_ [19 February 1972]

Greatness, after all, in spite of its name, appears to be
not so much a certain size as a certain quality in human
lives. It may be present in lives whose range is very
small.
--Phillips Brooks (1835—1893)
American religious leader.

He who ascends to mountaintops, shall find
The loftiest peaks most wrapt in clouds and snow;
He who surpasses or subdues mankind,
Must look down on the hate of these below.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
"Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" [1818]

The greatest man is he who chooses the right with invincible
resolution, who resists the sorest temptations from within
and without, who bears the heaviest burdens cheerfully,
who is calmest in storms and most fearless under menace
and frowns, whose reliance on truth, on virtue, on God,
is most unfaltering.
--William Ellery Channing (1780—1842)
American Unitarian clergyman and author.
_Self-Culture_ [1838]

Physical courage, which despises all danger,
will make a man brave in one way; and moral
courage, which despises all opinion, will make
a man brave in another. The former would
seem most necessary for the camp, the latter
for council; but to constitute a great man, both
are necessary.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.

Man is only great when he acts from his passions.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and
Prime Minister [1868, 1874—1880].
_Coningsby_ [1844] , bk. 4, ch. 13

The defects of great men are the
consolation of dunces.
--Isaac D'Israeli (1766—1848)
English author and the father of Benjamin Disraeli.
_Literary Character of Men of Genius, Drawn from
Their Own Feelings and Confessions_ [1795]

-

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it
is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man
is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect
sweetness the independence of solitude.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Essays: First Series_ [1841] "Self-Reliance"


A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little
statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul
has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his
shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and
to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though
it contradict every thing you said to-day. - 'Ah, so you shall be sure to
be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood?
Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther,
and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise
spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.
_Essays: First Series_ [1841] "Self-Reliance"

-

It is a grand mistake to think of being
great without goodness; and I pronounce
it is certain that there was never yet a
truly great man that was not at the same
time truly virtuous.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
"The Busy-Body Papers" in the
_American Weekly Mercury_ [18 February 1729].

A man does not attain the status of
Galileo merely because he is
persecuted; he must also be right.
--Stephen Jay Gould (1941—2002)
American palaeontologist.
_Ever Since Darwin_ [1977]

There are no great men, only great challenges
that ordinary men are forced by circumstances
to meet.
--William F. ("Bull") Halsey (1882—1959)
American naval commander who led
campaigns in the Pacific during WWII.
In Thomas A. Bailey
_Presidential Greatness: The Image and the Man from
George Washington to the Present_ [1966].

The world's great men have not commonly been great
scholars, nor its great scholars great men.
--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809—1894)
American physician, poet, and essayist.
_The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table_ [1858]

COMTE DE VERGENNES: You replace Mr. [Benjamin]
Franklin [as minister to France]?
JEFFERSON: I succeed him; no one could replace
him.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
(In 1785.)

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
_A Psalm of Life_ [1838] "Voices of the Night"

We will find in the lives of men who have done anything,
of those whom we call great men, that it is this spirit of
adventure, the call of the unknown, that has lured and
urged them along on their course ... All of us are explorers
in life, whatever trail we follow ... It is the explorers with
the true spirit of adventure we now need if humanity
shall really overcome the present difficulties ... Ah, youth.
What a glorious word! Unknown realms ahead of you,
hidden behind the mists of the morning. As you move
on, new islands appear, mountain summits shoot up
through the peering mists, one behind another, waiting
for you to climb; dense new forests unfold for you to
explore, free boundless plains for you to traverse.
--Fridtjof Nansen (1861—1930)
Norwegian polar explorer.
Speech on being installed as Rector of the
University of Aberdeen [November 1926].
In Nigel Rees _Brewer's Famous Quotations_ [2006].

To vilify a great man is the readiest way
in which a little man can himself attain
greatness.
--Edgar Allan Poe (1809—1849)
American poet and short-story writer.

We can't all be heroes because somebody
has to sit on the curb and clap as they
go by.
--attributed to Will Rogers [William Penn Adair Rogers] (1879—1935)
American humorist and actor; attributed

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some
generations much is given. Of others much is expected.
This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with
destiny.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882—1945)
American Democratic statesman and President [1933—1945].
In his acceptance speech at the Democratic Party National
Convention [June 1936].

But be not afraid of greatness: some
men are born great, some achieve
greatness, and some have greatness
thrust upon them.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Twelfth Night_ [1601], II, v, 144

There is no greatness where there is
not simplicity, goodness, and truth.
--Leo Tolstoy (1828—1910)
Russian novelist.



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GREED

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see: "DESIRE'
see: "EXCESS"
see "MONEY" for other related links


A frenzy seized my soul ... Piles of gold rose up before me
... castles of marble, thousands of slaves ... myriads of fair
virgins contending with each other for my love — were among
the fancies of my fevered imagination. The Rothschilds,
Girards, and Astors appeared to be but poor people; in short,
I had a very violent attack of gold fever.
--Hubert Howe Bancroft [1849]
in M.J. Cohan and John Major {eds.}
_History in Quotations_ [2004] pp. 578-579.
Cohan & Major explain:
The Rothschilds were European bankers of legendary wealth.
The American financiers Stephen Girard (1750—1831) and John
Jacob Astor (1763—1848) made their initial fortunes in trade.
On 24 Jan. 1848 gold was found in California, triggering a gold
rush that drew tens of thousands of prospectors into the state.

Greed is all right. Greed is healthy. You can
be greedy and still feel good about yourself.
--Ivan F. Boesky (1937— )
American businessman.
Commencement address at University
of California, Berkeley [18 May 1986].
(In November Boesky was charged by
the SEC with insider trading and was
subsequently sentenced to prison.)

What the object of senile avarice may be I cannot conceive.
For can there be anything more absurd than to seek more
journey money, the less there remains of the journey?
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
"On Old Age," tr. Evelyn Shirley Shuckburgh (1843-1906)
in _The Harvard Classics_ [1909—1914]
Edited by Charles William Eliot (1834—1926), vol. IX, pt. 2.

No utopia can ever give satisfaction to everyone, all the time.
As their material conditions improve, men raise their sights
and become discontented with power and possessions that
once would have seemed beyond their wildest dreams. And
even when the external world has granted all it can, there
still remain the searchings of the mind and the longings of
the heart.
--Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917—2008)
English science-fiction writer.
_Childhood's End_ [1953], pt. II "The Golden Age," ch. 8

To do all the talking and not be willing
to listen is a form of greed.
--Democritus of Abdera (c. 460 B.C.—c. 370 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.

I kept on digging the hole deeper and deeper looking for
the treasure chest until I finally lifted my head, looked up
and realized that I had dug my own grave.
--Saint Dominic [born Dominic de Guzmαn ] (c. 1170—1221)
Spanish theologian.

Too many of us look upon Americans as
dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel,
even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly
by the Americans themselves.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
--Epicurus (341—270 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.

But the music that excels is the sound of oil wells
As they slurp, slurp, slurp into the barrels
I want an old-fashioned house
With an old-fashioned fence
And an old-fashioned millionaire.
--Marve Fisher
American songwriter,
'An Old-Fashioned Girl" [1954 song]

Many persons think that by hoarding money they are gaining
safety for themselves. If money is your hope for independence
you will never have it. The only real security that a man can have
in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.
Without these qualities, money is practically useless.
--Henry Ford (1863—1947)
American car manufacturer.

He is not poor that hath not much,
but he that craves much.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.
_Gnomologia_ [1732]

There is enough in this world for everyone's
need, but not enough for everyone's greed.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic
movement against British rule.

These who give not till they die show that they
would not then if they could keep it any longer.
--Joseph Hall (1574—1656)
English bishop, moral philosopher, and satirist.

The covetous man is ever in want.
--Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65—8 BC)
Roman poet.
_Epistles_
book I, epistle ii, l. 56

Our desires always increase with our possessions.
The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed
impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.

Never in the history of the world have so many people been
so rich; never in the history of the world have so many of
those same people felt themselves so poor.
--Lewis H. Lapham (1935— )
American syndicated newspaper columnist and author.
_Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion_ [1988]

I'll be sick tonight.
(In reply to his mother's warning, 'You'll be
sick tomorrow,' when stuffing himself with
cakes at tea.) [ODTQ]
--Jack Llewelyn-Davies (1894—1959),
in Andrew Birkin _J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys_ [1979].

^

Ferenc Molnαr (1878—1952)
Hungarian dramatist and novelist.

When Molnαr was living in a hotel in Vienna
during the 1920s, a large contingent of his
relatives came to see him in the hope of
sharing some of the fruits of the playwright's
fabulous success. They were prepared for a
hostile reception, but to their surprise Molnαr
greeted them kindly, even insisting that they
all sit for a group portrait to mark the occasion.
The print ready, Molnαr presented it to the
hotel doorman. 'And whenever you see any
of the persons in the picture trying to get
into the hotel, don't let them in.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

It is not the want, but rather abundance that creates avarice.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
In M.P. Singh
_Quote Unquote (A HandBook of Quotation)_, p. 5.

The things which belong to others please us
more, and that which is ours, is more pleasing
to others.
--Publilius Syrus (85—43 B.C.)
Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave.

Lately in a wreck of a Californian ship, one of the
passengers fastened by a belt about him with two
hundred pounds of gold in it, with which he was
found afterward at the bottom. Now, as he was
sinking — had he the gold? or had the gold him?
--John Ruskin (1819—1900)
English art and social critic.
(In 1860.)

-

It is not the man who has little, but the
man who craves more, that is poor.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.


He that visits the sick, in hopes of a legacy, let
him be never so friendly in all other cases, I
look upon him in this to be no better than a
raven, that watches a weak sheep only to peck
out its eyes.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.

-

Among the many other questions raised by the
nebulous concept of 'greed' is why it is a term
applied almost exclusively to those who want
to earn more money or want to keep what they
have already earned — never to those wanting to
take other people's money in taxes or to those
wishing to live on the largess dispensed from
some taxation.
--Thomas Sowell (1930— )
American economist and author.
_The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation
as a Basis for Social Policy_ [1996]

I have heard of the stewardess of an American vessel,
who, when the ship was sinking, saw heaps of gold coin
scattered upon the cabin floor by those who had thrown
it there in the confusion of their escape. She gathered
up large quantities of it, wrapped it round her waist,
and leaped into the water. She sank like a millstone,
as though she had studiously prepared herself for
destruction.
--Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834—1892)
English nonconformist preacher.
_The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit: Sermons Preached and Revised_ [1877]

The stoical scheme of supplying our
wants, by lopping off our desires,
is like cutting off our feet when we
want shoes.
--Jonathan Swift (1667—1745)
Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.
_Thoughts on Various Subjects_ [1711]

^

A lady sitting next to Anthony Trollope at dinner observed that
he helped himself liberally from every dish that was offered to him.
'You seem to have a very good appetite, Mr. Trollope,' she
remarked, rather impertinently. 'None at all, madam,' he replied,
'but, thank God, I am very greedy.'
--_The Folio Book of Humorous Anecdotes_
Introduced by Edward Leeson [2005], "Food, Drink and Entertaining"

^

You can't have everything. Where would you put it?
--Steven Wright (1955— )
American writer and actor.

It is expected that a strict and severe enquiry
will immediately be made into the means by which
gentlemen returning from India have acquired
such monstrous and outgrown fortunes... It must
end in bringing the plunderers of the East to that
condign punishment which, to the disgrace of the
national character, has so long been withheld from
them.....
--"The Public Advertiser" fulminates against
'nabobs' [3 December 1774]

$33,000
Average amount added to their pay the
American worker estimates would make them
happier in their current jobs, according to a
survey by Gallup.
--blurb in _Las Vegas Business Press_ [28 August 2006]

-----

cupidity [kyoo-PID-uh-tee], noun:
Eager or excessive desire, especially for wealth; greed; avarice.
Ex.: For such is human cupidity that we Thoroughbreds have but
one chance to survive it -- to run so fast and to win so much
money that we are retired in comfort in our declining days.
--William Murray, "From the Horse's Mouth,"
_New York Times_ [8 August 1993]

esurient [ih-SUR-ee-uhnt; -ZUR-], adjective:
Ex.: Hungry; voracious; greedy. The enemy then was an esurient
Soviet Union which, having swallowed up Eastern Europe,
had imposed a totalitarian system on countries just liberated
from Nazism.
Arnold Beichman, "As Truman envisioned our role,"
_Washington Times_ [23 April 2002]

philistinism (noun)
A desire for wealth and material possessions with
little interest in ethical or spiritual matters.

rapacious (adj.)
Greedy and grasping, especially for money, and sometimes willing
to use unscrupulous means to obtain what is desired.



GREETINGS

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.

see "KINDNESS" for related links
see "FRIENDS / FRIENDSHIP" for related links


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.

I occasionally get birthday cards from fans.
But it’s often the same message: They hope
it’s my last.
--Al Forman,
National League umpire [baseball]
"Time" [25 August 1961]

Hail, emperor, those who are about to die greet you.
--Suetonius [Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus] (c. 69—c. 122)
Roman biographer and antiquarian.
_"Claudius"_ [c. 120]
(Gladiators saluting Emperor Claudius.)

----

THINGS THAT HALLMARK CARDS DON'T SAY


My tire was thumping.
I thought it was flat
When I looked at the tire...
I noticed your cat.
Sorry!

Heard your wife left you,
How upset you must be.
But don't fret about it...
She moved in with me.

How could two people as beautiful as you
Have such an ugly baby?

We have been friends for a very long time ..
What say we stop?

Congratulations on your new bundle of joy.
Did you ever find out who the father was?

Your friends and I wanted to do
something special for your birthday.
So we're having you put to sleep.

So your daughter's a hooker,
and it spoiled your day.
Look at the bright side,
it's really good pay.



GRIEF

.
.

see "DEATH" for related links


There is no greater pain than to remember,
in our present grief, past happiness.
--Dante Alighieri (1265—1321)
Italian poet, literary theorist, and moral philosopher.
_La dinina commedia_ (The Divine Comedy) [c. 1310—1321]
"Inferno," Canto V, Lines 121-123

Between grief and nothing I will take grief.
--William Faulkner (1897—1962)
American novelist.
_The Wild Palms_ [1939]

-

While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates.
You must wait till grief be digested, and then amusement
will dissipate the remains of it.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791]
"10 April 1776"


He who has so little knowledge of human nature, as to
seek happiness by changing any thing but his own
dispositions, will waste his life in fruitless efforts, and
multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
"The Rambler" (English journal),
Number 6 [7 April 1750]

-

Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than
happiness ever can; and common sufferings
are far stronger links than common joys.
--Alphonse de Lamartine (1790—1869)
French poet and politician.

Part of every misery is, so to speak, the misery's
shadow or reflection: the fact that you don't merely
suffer but have to keep on thinking about the fact
that you suffer. I not only live each endless day in
grief, but live each day thinking about living each
day in grief.
--C.S. [Clive Staples] Lewis (1898—1963)
British scholar and novelist.
"A Grief Observed" (1961)
Originally published under the pseudonym N. W. Clerk.
(About the death of his wife, Joy, in 1960.)

He who walks through a great city to find
subjects for weeping, may, God knows,
find plenty at every corner to wring his
heart; but let such a man walk on his
course, and enjoy his grief alone — we
are not of those who would accompany
him. The miseries of us poor earthdwellers
gain no alleviation from the sympathy of
those who merely hunt them out to be
pathetic over them. The weeping
philosopher too often impairs his eyesight
by his woe, and becomes unable from
his tears to see the remedies for the evils
which he deplores. Thus it will often be
found that the man of no tears is the
truest philanthropist, as he is the best
physician who wears a cheerful face,
even in the worst of cases.
--Charles Mackay (1814—1889)
Scottish poet and newspaperman.
_Extraordinary Popular Delusions And The Madness Of Crowds_ [1841]

No one feels another's grief, no one understands
another's joy. People imagine they can reach one
another. In reality they only pass each other by.
--Franz Peter Schubert (1797—1828)
Austrian composer.

-

What's gone, and what's past help,
should be past grief.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.


To weep is to make less the depth of grief.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_King Henry VI_ [1590—1591] Pt. 3


Everyone can master a grief but he that hath it.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.

-

There are those among us that live in rooms
of experience that you and I can never enter.
--John Ernst Steinbeck (1902—1968)
American novelist.

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words
left unsaid and deeds left undone.
--Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811—1896)
American writer and philanthropist.
[Sister of Henry Ward Beecher, daughter of Lyman Beecher.]
_Little Foxes_ [1865] ch. 3

I hold it true, what'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809—1892)
English poet.

He that conceals his grief finds no remedy for it.
--Turkish proverb

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value
of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Following the Equator_ [1897]
"Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar"

Joy and grief are never far apart. In the same street the
shutters of one house are closed, while the curtains of
the next are brushed by shadow of the dance. A wedding-
party returns from church, and a funeral winds to its door.
The smiles and the sadness of life are the tragi-comedy
of Shakespeare. Gladness and sighs brighten and dim
the mirror he beholds.
--Robert Aris Willmott (1809—1863)
English editor and author.

You can't go back home to your family —
To a young man's dream of fame and glory,
To the country cottage away from strife and conflict,
To the father you have lost,
To the old forms and systems of things,
Which seemed everlasting but are changing all the time.
--Thomas Wolfe (1900—1938)
American novelist.
_You Can't Go Home Again_ [1940]

Excess of grief for the deceased is madness;
for it is an injury to the living, and the
dead know it not.
--Xenophon (c.430—352 B.C.)
Athenian historian.

-----

disconsolate [dis-KON-suh-lut], adjective:
1. Being beyond consolation; deeply dejected and dispirited;
hopelessly sad; filled with grief.
2. Inspiring dejection; saddening; cheerless.

dolorous [DOH-luh-ruhs], adjective:
Marked by, causing, or expressing grief or sorrow.
Ex.: Climbing out on to a narrow ledge, we waving cheerily at the
people passing by on the street below, until my mother was informed
of our misdemeanour -- by a waitress wickedly known to great-aunt
Mary, behind her table napkin, as Sourpuss for her perpetually
dolorous expression -- and we were lured back inside.
--Mary Varnham,
"Voices of young and old are rarely heard,"
"The Evening Post" (Wellington, New Zealand), [30 March 1995]




GROOMING

.
.

see: "THE BODY"


^

George Kelly (1887—1974)
American playwright.

On his deathbed Kelly was visited by his sister
Mary's daughter, who had come to see her uncle
for the last time. As she leaned forward to kiss
him the old man whispered softly, 'My dear,
before you kiss me goodbye, fix your hair.
It's a mess.'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

^

-----

titivate [TIT-uh-vayt], transitive & intransitive verb:
To smarten up; to spruce up.
Ex.: It's easy to laugh at a book in which the heroine's husband
says to her, 'You look beautiful,' and then adds, 'So stop
titivating yourself.'
--Joyce Cohen, review of "To Be the Best", by Barbara Taylor
Bradford, _New York Times_ [31 July 1988]



GROUPS

.
.

see "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links


Insanity is something rare in individuals — but
in groups, parties, and nations, it is the rule.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_Beyond Good and Evil_ [1885-1886],
pt. 4 "Maxims and Interludes"

Whenever the roles of individuals within a group become specialized,
it becomes both possible and easy for the individual to pass the moral
buck to some other part of the group. In this way, not only does the
individual forsake his conscience but the conscience of the group as
a whole can become so fragmented and diluted as to be nonexistent.
. . . The plain fact of the matter is that any group will remain inevitably
potentially conscienceless and evil until such time as each and every
individual holds himself or herself directly responsible for the behavior
of the whole group - the organism - of which he or she is a part.
--Scott Peck (1936—2005)
American author.
_People of the Lie_ [1983]

All assemblages of man are different from the men
themselves. Neither intelligence nor culture can
prevent a mob from acting as a mob. The wise
man and the knave lose their identity and merge
themselves into a new being.
--Thomas Brackett Reed (1839—1902)
American lawyer and politician.
In a speech at Bowdoin College, Maine [25 July 1902].

-

"Well, there were sixty-eight people there, and sixty-two of
them had no more desire to throw a stone than you had."

"Satan!"

"Oh, it's true. I know your race. It is made up of sheep. It is
governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities. It
suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful
that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is
right, sometimes wrong; but no matter, the crowd follows it.
The vast majority of the race, whether savage or civilized,
are secretly kind-hearted and shrink from inflicting pain, but
in the presence of the aggressive and pitiless minority they
don't dare to assert themselves. Think of it! One kind-hearted
creature spies upon another, and sees to it that he loyally
helps in iniquities which revolt both of them. Speaking as
an expert, I know that ninety-nine out of a hundred of your
race were strongly against the killing of witches when that
foolishness was first agitated by a handful of pious lunatics
in the long ago. And I know that even to-day, after ages of
transmitted prejudice and silly teaching, only one person in
twenty puts any real heart into the harrying of a witch. And
yet apparently everybody hates witches and wants them
killed. Some day a handful will rise up on the other side
and make the most noise — perhaps even a single daring
man with a big voice and a determined front will do it —
and in a week all the sheep will wheel and follow him, and
witch-hunting will come to a sudden end."

--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_The Mysterious Stranger_ [1916], ch. 9

-----

bevy [BEV-ee], noun:
1. A group; an assembly or collection.
2. A flock of birds, especially quails or
larks; also, a herd of roes.

camarilla (noun)
A group of confidential, often scheming advisers.
Synonyms: cabal, faction, junto

claque [KLACK], noun:
1. A group hired to applaud at a performance.
2. A group of fawning admirers.

doyen [DOY-en; DWAH-yan], noun:
1. The senior member of a body or group.
2. One who is knowledgeable or uniquely skilled as a
result of long experience in some field of endeavor.
doyenne doy-(Y)EN; dwah-YEN, noun:
A woman who is a doyen.
Ex.: Two dozen reporters, led by Helen Thomas of
United Press International, the seventy-six-year-old
doyenne of the press corps, filed into the room.
--Howard Kurtz
_Spin Cycle_

internecine (adj.)
1. Destructive to all involved; mutually fatal or ruinous.
2. Of or pertaining to conflict, discord, or struggle within
a group.

retinue (noun)
The group following and attending to some important person.
Synonyms: entourage, cortege, suite




GROUCHO MARX

.
.

Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895-1977)
American film comedian.

see: "HUMOR"
see "PEOPLE" for related links


The world would not be in such a snarl
If Marx had been Groucho instead of Karl.
--Irving Berlin (1888—1989)
American songwriter.
Birthday message to Groucho Marx,
quoted in Groucho Marx, _The Groucho Phile_ [1976].

I fell in love with Groucho when I was 14 and he
was in his 80s making a guest appearance on the Bill
Cosby show. I went on a crusade to see all their
movies, like staying up to watch the late show.
Sometimes a local television station presented
"Slapstick Cinema" on Sunday afternoons featuring
the Marxes or W.C. Fields, Mae West. I spent the
summer I was 14 in the library reading all the old
magazine articles and books about the Marxes I
could find. I worked up the courage to write to
Groucho, telling of all the works I had read about
him. I received in the mail an 8x10 photograph of
Groucho, Chico and Harpo in costume, with the
words: "I deny everything! Groucho" scrawled
across the top.
--Deb, alt.quotations

On his climb up the ladder he has enjoyed life to
the utmost. He has shaken hands with Presidents,
danced cheek to cheek with Marlene Dietrich,
played baseball with Lou Gehrig, traded backhands
with Jack Kramer, strummed guitar duets with the
great Segovia, and he's insulted nearly everyone
worth insulting.
--Arthur Marx,
_Life with Groucho_ [1954]

-

Last night I shot an elephant in my pajamas, and
how he got in my pajamas I'll never know.
--Morrie Ryskind (1895—1985)
American screenwriter.
_Animal Crackers_ [1930 screenplay], spoken by Groucho Marx.

^

The maξtre d'hτtel stopped Groucho as he was
about to enter the dining room of a smart Los
Angeles hotel. 'I am sorry, sir, but you have
no necktie.'

'That's all right,' said Groucho, 'don't be sorry.
I remember the time when I had no pants.'

'I am sorry, sir,' repeated the man, 'you cannot
enter the dining room without a necktie.'

Groucho caught sight of a bald man in the
center of the dining room and yelled, 'Look!
Look at him! You won't let me in without
a necktie, but you let him in without his
hair!'

--_Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes_
edited by Clifton Fadiman and Andrι Bernard [2000 ed.]

(about the maξtre d'hτtel)

^

The timeless wisdom of Groucho Marx:

Those are my principles. If you don't
like them, I have others.

Marriage is the chief cause of divorce.

I never forget a face, but in your case
I'll be glad to make an exception.

Here's to our wives and girlfriends ...
may they never meet!

I find television very educating. Every time somebody
turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a
book.

She got her good looks from her father.
He's a plastic surgeon.

Anyone who says he can see through
women is missing a lot.

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening.
But this wasn't it.

Paying alimony is like feeding hay to
a dead horse.

A child of five would understand this.
Send someone to fetch a child of five.

I was married by a judge. I should have
asked for a jury.

Now there's a man with an open mind — you
can feel the breeze from here!

Remember men, you are fighting for the lady's
honor, which is probably more than she ever did.

Only one man in a thousand is a leader of
men, the other 999 follow women.

Hello, I must be going.

--

Groucho (directly to the camera as Chico began
the play the piano): I've got to stay here, but
there's no reason why you folks can't go out
into the lobby until this thing blows over.



GROWING

.
.

see "KNOWLEDGE" for related links
see "SUCCESS" for related links


Do you want my one-word secret of happiness -
It's growth, mental, financial, you name it.
--Harold S. Geneen (1910—1997)
English-born American communications executive.

You must not quote to me what I
once said. I am wiser now.
--Romy Schneider (1938—1982)
Austrian actress.

One grows or dies. There is no third possibility.
--Oswald Spengler (1880—1936)
German philosopher.
_Aphorisms_ #147

When people will not weed their own minds,
they are apt to be overrune with nettles.
--Horace Walpole (1717—1797)
English writer and connoisseur.


-----

burgeon (verb) [‘bκr-jκn]
To bud, sprout, to begin to grow or blossom;
to grow and flourish.

excrescence [ik-SKRESS-uhn(t)s], noun:
1. Something (especially something abnormal) growing
out from something else.
2. A disfiguring or unwanted mark, part, or addition.
Ex: It wasn't just predictable curmudgeons like Dr.
Johnson who thought the Scottish hills ugly; if anybody
had something to say about mountains at all, it was
sure to be an insult. (The Alps: "monstrous
excrescences of nature,"
in the words of one wholly typical 18th-century observer.)
--Stephen Budiansky, "Nature? A bit overdone,"
_U.S. News & World Report_ [2 December 1996]

fecund [FEE-kuhnd; FEK-uhnd], adjective:
1. Capable of producing offspring or vegetation;
fruitful; prolific.
2. Intellectually productive or inventive.
Ex.: For 21 years after the birth of the Prince of Wales, the
fecund royal couple produced children at the rate of two
every three years -- eight boys and six girls in all.
--Saul David,
_Prince of Pleasure_


end page



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