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IMMORTALITY --- IMPARTIALITY --- IMPERIALISM
IMPORTANT --- IMPOSSIBLE
IMPOSTORS

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IMMORTALITY

see: "DEATH"
see: "HEAVEN"
see: "RELIGION"
see: "AGE" for other related links


I don't want to achieve immortality through my work;
I want to achieve immortality through not dying.
--Woody Allen [Allen Stewart Konigsberg] (b. 1935)
American actor, screenwriter, and director.
Quoted in Eric Lax _Woody Allen and His Comedy_ [1975].

To live in the hearts we leave
Is not to die.
--Thomas Campbell (1777—1844)
Scottish poet.
"Hallowed Ground" [1825]

If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so
much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life
and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life.
--Albert Camus (1913—1960)
French novelist, dramatist, and essayist who won
the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature.
"Summer in Algiers" [1936] in _The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays_ [1955].

No one could ever meet death for his country
without the hope of immortality.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.
"Tusculanarum Disputationum", I, 15

The origin of the absurd idea of immortal life is easy to discover;
it is kept alive by hope and fear, by childish faith, and by cowardice.
--Clarence Darrow (1857—1938)
American lawyer.
Attributed in Andrι Bacard
_Hunger For Power: Who Rules the World_, p. 66 [1986].

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
--Emily Dickinson (1830—1886)
American poet.
_The Chariot_, l. 1 [1890]

If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in
immortality, not only love but every living force
maintaining the life of the world would at once
be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be
immoral, everything would be permissible,
even cannibalism.
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821—1881),
Russian novelist, journalist, and short story writer.
_The Brothers Karamazov_, bk. II, ch. 6 [1879-80]

Oh may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
"Oh May I Join the Choir Invisible" [1867 poem]

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
--John Kenneth Galbraith (1908—2006)
American economist.
Quoted in _Anglo American Trade News_, vol. 15 [1976].

No young man believes he shall ever die.
--John Hazlitt (1767—1837)
English painter.
William Hazlitt (1778—1830) quotes his brother in his
1827 essay "On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth".

[Referring to his contributions of poetry:]
I have erected a monument more lasting than bronze
And taller than the regal peak of the pyramids. [...]
I shall never completely die.
--Horace [Quintus Horatius Flaccus] (65—8 BC)
Roman poet.
_Odes_, bk. III

Our hope of immortality does not come from any religions,
but nearly all religions come from that hope.
--Robert Green Ingersoll (1833—1899)
American politician and orator known as "The Great Agnostic."
"Ingersoll's Views on Politics and Religion"
_Chicago Times_ [14 November 1879]

What a world were this,
How unendurable its weight, if they
Whom Death hath sunder'd did not meet again!
--Robert Southey (1774—1843)
English poet.
_Inscriptions_, XVII "Epitaph"

Ah, Christ, that it were possible,
For one short hour to see
The souls we loved, that they might tell us
What and where they be.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809—1892)
English poet.
"Maud; A Monodrama", pt. XXVI [1856]

-----

ambrosia (noun)
1. In classical mythology, the food of the
deities, which was supposed to make those
who ate it immortal.
2. Something delicious: a substance that
tastes or smells delicious (literary).



IMPARTIALITY

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.

see: "FAIR"
see: "OBJECTIVITY"
see: "INDIFFERENCE" for other related links


He who experiences the unity of life sees his own Self
in all beings, and all beings in his own Self, and looks
on everything with an impartial eye.
--The Bhagavad Gita (c. 5th c BC. — 2nd c AD.)
Hindu sacred text.

IMPARTIAL, adj. Unable to perceive any promise of personal
advantage from espousing either side of a controversy or
adopting either of two conflicting opinions.
--Ambrose Bierce (1842—1914)
American newspaperman, wit, and satirist.
_The Cynic's Word Book_ [1906] (Retitled in 1911 as _The Devil's Dictionary_.)

Impartiality [...] is a pompous name for indifference,
which is an elegant name for ignorance.
--G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874—1936)
English essayist, novelist, and poet.
In _The Speaker: The Liberal Review_ V. III, Oct. 1, 1900 to March 31, 1901.

[Replying to complaints of his bias in editing
the British Gazette during the General Strike:]
I decline utterly to be impartial as between
the fire brigade and the fire.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
Speech, House of Commons [7 July 1926].

When people feel deeply, impartiality is bias.
--John Reith, Lord Reith of Stonehaven (1889—1971)
British administrator and politician.
_Into the Wind_ [1945]

Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
--Eliezer [Elie] Wiesel (b. 1928)
Romanian Jew and Holocaust survivor.
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
(Speech accepting the Prize.)



IMPERIALISM

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.

see: "CONQUEST"
see: "FOREIGN POLICY"
see: "NATIONALIISM"
see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for other related links


Why doesn't the United States take over the
Monarchy and unite with England? England
does have important assets. Naturally the
longer you wait, the more they will dwindle.
At least you could use it for a summer resort
instead of Maine.
--W.H. [Wystan Hugh] Auden (1907—1973)
English-born poet and man of letters.
"February 1947" in Nicholas Jenkins (ed)
_The Table Talk of W.H. Auden_ [1990].

Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim gun, and they have not.
--Hilaire Belloc (1870—1953)
British poet, essayist, historian, and novelist.
_The Modern Traveller_ [1909], quoted in M.J. Cohan and
John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 693 [2004].
Cohan & Major note:
A succinct verdict by the British writer on the balance
of power between imperialism and its subjects in the
closing decade [the 1800s.] The Maxim gun was the
machine-gun invented by the American arms
manufacturer Hiram Maxim in 1883.

The old century is very nearly out, and leaves the
world in a pretty pass, and the British Empire is
playing the devil in it as never an empire before on
so large a scale. We may live to see its fall. All the
nations of Europe are making the same hell upon
earth in China, massacring and pillaging and raping
in the captured cities as outrageously as in the
Middle Ages. The Emperor of Germany gives the
word for slaughter and the Pope looks on and
approves. In South Africa our troops are burning
farms under Kitchener's command, and the Queen
and the two Houses of Parliament, and the bench of
bishops, thank God publicly and vote money for the
work. The Americans are spending fifty millions a
year on slaughtering the Filipinos; the King of the
Belgians has invested his whole fortune on the
Congo, where he is brutalizing the Negroes to fill his
pockets. The French and Italians for the moment are
playing a less prominent part in the slaughter, but
their inactivity grieves them. The whole white race is
revelling openly in violence, as though it had never
pretended to be Christian. God's curse be on them
all! So ends the famous nineteenth century in which
we were so proud to have been born!
--Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840—1922)
English poet and publicist.
Diary entry, [22 December 1900] in
_My Diaries_ [1932 edn.] pp. 375-6.

Wherever the European has trod, death seems to
pursue the aboriginal. We may look to the wide
extent of the Americas, Polynesia, the Cape of Good
Hope and Australia, and we find the same result.
--Charles Darwin (1809—1882)
English naturalist.
_The Voyage of the Beagle_, ch. 19 [1839]

We should keep the Panama Canal.
After all, we stole it fair and square.
--S. I. (Samuel Ichiye) Hayakawa (1906—1992)
English professor and academic; U.S. Senator from California [1977—83].
While negotiations between Panama and the United States over the Canal's
future were underway; quoted in Erwin Knoll, ed. _Language in Action_
[1984], "No Comment".

A Western civilization cannot be imposed on an
Eastern or a Temperate upon a Tropical, people.
We can no more send our civilization to central
Africa than we can send our climate there.
--Independent Labor Party [Eng.] pamphlet
_Imperialism: Its Meaning and Its Tendency_ [May 1900]

I do not want to miss a good chance of getting
us a slice of this magnificent African cake.
--Leopold II (1835—1909)
King of the Belgians [1865—1909].
To Henri Solvyns, Belgian ambassador to London [1876], quoted in
M.J. Cohan and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 691 [2004].

Some gentlemen may, indeed, object to the slave
trade as inhuman and impious; let us consider that
if our colonies are to be maintained and cultivated,
which can only be done by African Negroes, it is
surely better to supply ourselves with those labourers
in British bottoms [ships], than purchase them through
the medium of French, Dutch or Danish factors.
--Temple Luttrell
Speech in House of Commons [23 May 1777], quoted in M.J. Cohan
and John Major (eds.) _History in Quotations_, p. 396 [2004].

-

The English and Dutch administrators of Malaysia have done admirable work;
but the profit to the Europeans in those States has always been one of the chief
elements considered; whereas in the Philippines our whole attention was
concentrated upon the welfare of the Filipinos themselves, if anything to the
neglect of our own interests.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
_An Autobiography_, ch. 14 [1913]


There is nothing even remotely resembling 'imperialism'
or 'militarism' involved in the present development of that
policy of expansion which has been part of the history
of America from the day when she became a nation.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
(1901 statement), quoted in Christopher Thorne
_Allies of a Kind_, pp. 21-2 [1979].

-

Imperialism: The aims of your neighbor; opposite to your
own aims, which is called Foreign Policy.
--Leo Rosten (1908—1997)
Polish-born American writer and social scientist.
"Political Lexicon" in _New Republic_ [3 July 1935].

All the territorial possessions of all the political
establishments in the earth — including America,
of course — consist of pilferings from other people's
wash. No tribe, howsoever insignificant, and no
nation, howsoever mighty occupies a foot of land
that was not stolen.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Following the Equator_ [1897]

-

We assert that no nation can long endure half
republic and half empire, and we warn the
American people that imperialism abroad will
lead quickly and inevitably to despotism at
home.
--The Democratic National Platform of 1900



IMPORTANT

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.

see: "PRIORITIES"


Sooner or later we all discover that the important
moments in life are not the advertised ones, not
the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not
the great goals achieved. The real milestones are
less prepossessing. They come to the door of
memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in,
sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our
lives are measured by these.
--Susan B. Anthony (1916—1991)
American feminist and author.
_The Ghost in My Life _ [1971]

Those who have some means think that the most
important thing in the world is love. The poor
know that it is money.
--Gerald Brenan (1894—1987)
British travel writer and novelist.
_Thoughts in a Dry Season: A Miscellany_ [1978]

^^

Once when Noλl Coward was crossing from Britain to the United States
by ocean liner, the company in the cocktail lounge included a rather
pompous English gentleman who was complaining bitterly of a recent
occasion on which he had not been treated with the respect he clearly
felt he deserved. "They didn't seem to know who I was!' he protested.

'And who *were* you?' enquired Coward politely.

_The Folio Book of Humorous Anecdotes_
Introduced by Edward Leeson [2005], "Actors and the Theatre"

^^

A man's most valuable trait is a judicious
sense of what not to believe.
--Euripides (485?—406 B.C.)
Greek dramatist.
_Helen_ [412 B.C.]

The most important things to say are those which often
I did not think necessary for me to say — because they
were too obvious.
--Andrι Gide (1869—1951)
French novelist and critic; awarded Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947.
_The Journals of Andrι Gide: 1914—1927_ [23 August 1926]

I am a free man, an American, a United States
Senator, and a Democrat, in that order.
--Lyndon B. Johnson (1908—1973)
American Democratic statesman, President [1963—1969].
_Texas Quarterly_ [Winter 1958]

Of those that spin out life in trifles, and die without a memorial, many flatter
themselves with high opinions of their own importance, and imagine that they
are every day adding some improvement to human life.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
_The Idler_ (essays in the newspaper "The Universal Chronicle"
from 1758—1760) [Issue of 5 August 1758]

He who imagines he can do without the world deceives
himself much; but he who fancies the world cannot do
without him is still more mistaken.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_, XCIII [1665]

To the world you may be just one person,
but to one person you may be the world.
--attributed to Brandi Snyder

-

"How To Gain Status And Intimidate People"
by Jeffrey Shaffer and Suzy Blackaby
_The Wall Street Journal_ [26 November 1984]

Are you losing the race to keep up with the Joneses? Or worse, do you feel as if it just isn't worth the effort anymore? Don't be discouraged. Confidence is the key to success in any endeavor, but achieving just the right balance of competitive desire and cool self-assurance can be tricky. So is projecting an image that will awe your subordinates and mystify your rivals. It's especially difficult when your personal budget demands that you exist on a diet of baked beans and generic cola. We think we've solved the problem with a list of tips that will get your confidence level back up to par, at minimum personal expense. Just remember that moxie can be as important as money when it comes to looking good.

1. Carry a foreign-language newspaper in your briefcase. When sitting at a bar, take out the paper and scan the pages with a serious expression. It's important to pick a difficult language for the gambit, something other than French, German or Spanish. Those could get you in trouble if some exchange student calls your bluff.

2. Keep an old telephone in your car under the front seat. When driving, hold the receiver up to your ear and act as if you were talking to someone on the other end. If stopped at a busy intersection, roll down your window so pedestrians can hear the conversation. Then, in a loud, demanding voice, say things such as, "Tell Harris we need that building! Tell him to offer 50 million, straight cash, whatever it takes!"

3. Use expensive containers to dispose of household trash. When you visit a store such as Neiman-Marcus (we buy all of our pencils there) pick up a couple of extra shopping bags. Several times a month you should fill one with garbage and place it on the curb with your other household rubbish. Make sure the name of the store is clearly visible from the street.

4. Wear T-shirts commemorating fantastic events of physical endurance. Most towns now have these stores where you can print messages on shirts. Simply order one up with the inscription, "Snow Madness Run, Butte-Great Falls December 1981." When people ask why they've never heard about such a grueling race, say, "Oh, we only ran it once, 12 of us got together and just went for it. Never could get any sane group to sanction it."

5. Mount extra clocks on your office walls. Label each one with the name of an international capital (Lima, Bonn, Canberra) and check them periodically when talking with a client.

6. Keep mysterious items in the glove compartment of your car. Instead of the usual mess of tissues, loose change and old sunglasses, you should have at least two of the following articles: a slide rule, a map of the London subway system, an English-Swahili dictionary, a small jar of litmus paper or a prism. When a passenger discovers the items, shrug and say something like, "Oh, just some things for this project I'm thinking about..." and then close the compartment smartly, to show the conversation is not going any further.

7. Print your own wine labels. This is fairly risky and is a ploy that should only be used when you really want to play hardball. Grab a few bottles of your favorite generic vintage from the local Econo-Mart, soak the labels off and paste on your own. Getting them designed shouldn't be difficult. Chances are that you know of a graphic artist who's struggling to the same degree as yourself. For a small fee or a large lasagna, he or she can come up with a private reserve label just for you, from folksy wine cellar to expensive foreign vineyards, to suit any occasion.

-----

eminent [EM-uh-nuhnt], adjective:
1. high in station, rank, or repute; prominent, distinguished
2. conspicuous; noteworthy
3. high; lofty
4. standing out above other things; prominent

epoch [EP-uhk], noun:
1. The beginning of a distinctive period in the history of anything.
2. A particular period of time marked by distinctive features or events.
3. A memorable date.

exigent [EK-suh-juhnt], adjective:
1. Requiring immediate aid or action; pressing; critical.
2. Requiring much effort or expense; demanding; exacting.

nabob (noun) ['ney-bahb]
1. A governor or deputy governor of a town or district
in India under the Mogul Empire (also nawab);
2. A person of wealth, influence and prominence.
". . . nattering nabobs of negativism."
--Spiro Agnew
nabobery: a place frequented by nabobs,
nabobical : the adjective meaning "pertaining to a nabob,"
An exclusive neighborhood in San Francisco is
known as Nob Hill.

panjandrum [pan-JAN-druhm], noun:
An important personage or pretentious official.
Panjandrum was coined by Samuel Foote (1720-1777) in
a piece of nonsense writing:
"So she went into the garden to cut a cabbage-leaf to make
an apple-pie; and at the same time a great she-bear, coming
up the street, pops its head into the shop. "What! No
soap?" So he died, and she very imprudently married the
barber: and there were present the Picninnies, and the
Joblillies, and the Garyulies, and the grand Panjandrum
himself, with the little round button at top, and they all
fell to playing the game of catch-as-catch-can till the
gunpowder ran out at the heels of their boots."
It was composed on the spot to challenge actor Charles
Macklin's claim that he could memorize anything. Macklin
is said to have refused to repeat a word of it.

redoubtable
[ih-DOW-tuh-buhl], adjective:
1. Arousing fear or alarm; formidable.
2. Illustrious; eminent; worthy of respect or honor.

salient [SAY-lee-unt; SAYL-yunt], adjective:
1. Shooting out or up; projecting.
2. Forcing itself on the attention; prominent; conspicuous; noticeable.
3. Leaping; springing; jumping.

sine qua non [sin-ih-kwah-NON; -NOHN; sy-nih-kway-], noun:
An essential condition or element; an indispensable thing.




IMPOSSIBLE

.
.

see: "DIFFICULTIES"
see: "TRYING"


You cannot teach a crab to walk straight.
--Aristophanes (c. 450—c. 388 BC)
Greek comic dramatist.
_Peace_, l. 1083 [421 B.C.]

A convincing impossibility is better than an unconvincing possibility.
--Aristotle (384—322 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
Quoted in C.O. Brink _Horace on Poetry_, p. 93 v. II [1971].

All things are possible until they are proved
impossible and even the impossible may only
be so, as of now.
--Pearl S. Buck (1892—1973)
American author noted for her novels of life in China;
winner of the 1938 Nobel Prize for Literature.
_ A Bridge for Passing_ [1962]

Madame, if it be possible, it is done;
if impossible, it shall be done.
--Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734—1802)
French statesman.
Quoted in Jules Michelet _Historie de la Rιvolution Franηaise_ [1847].

'One can't believe impossible things.' said Alice.
'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said
the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did
it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've
believed many as six impossible things before
breakfast.'
--Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832—1898)
English writer and logician.
_Thorough the Looking-Glass_, ch. 5 [1872]

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that
something is possible, he is almost certainly right.
When he states that something is impossible, he is
very probably wrong.
--Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917—2008)
English science-fiction writer.
_Profiles of the Future_, ch. 2 [1962]

A Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is a strategic impossibility.
--George Fielding Eliot (1894—1971).
"The Impossible War with Japan" in
_American Mercury_ [September 1938].

Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible.
Suddenly, you are doing the impossible.
--Francis, St, of Assisi (1181—1226)
Italian monk.
Attributed in "Reader's Digest" [1987].

You cannot make a silk purse of a sow's ear.
--Stephen Gosson (1554—1624)
English satirist.
_The Ephemerides of Phialo_ [1579]

Never stop because you are afraid — you are never so likely
to be wrong. Never keep a line of retreat: it is a wretched
invention. The difficult is what takes a little time; the
impossible is what takes a little longer.
--Fridtjof Nansen (1861—1930)
Norwegian polar explorer.
Quoted in "Listener" [14 December 1939].

The word 'impossible' is to be found only in the Dictionary of Fools.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804—1815].
Quoted in C.F. Dowsett _Quit You Like Men_, p. 14 [1883, 3rd ed.].

The Difficult is that which can be done immediately;
the Impossible that which takes a little longer.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.
Quoted in "Reader's Digest" [November 1939].

Despise no man and consider nothing impossible,
for there is no man who does not have his hour
and there is no thing that does not have its
place.
--Talmud (A.D.1st—6th cent.)
Rabbinical writings.

It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance,
for it requires knowledge to perceive it; and, therefore, he
that can perceive it hath it not.
--Jeremy Taylor (1613—1667)
English Anglican clergyman and writer.
Quoted in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 244 [1908 ed.].

-----

Sisyphean (adj.) [si-sκ-'fee-κn]
Endlessly laborious and futile; also,
related to Sisyphus, as "the Sisyphean
story."



Click picture to ZOOM
IMPOSTORS

.
.

see: "DECEPTION" for related links


All the characters in this book are entirely fictitious,
and any person claiming to be any one of them will
be prosecuted.
--anonymous author's note in a book


end page



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