 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Reviews |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Credits |
Cast |
1 |
2 |
3 |
Reviews |
|
|
|
. . . PROPOSALS see: "LOVE & MARRIAGE (OR NOT)" for related links 'Yes,' I answered you last night; 'No,' this morning, sir, I say: Colors seen by candlelight Will not look the same by day. --Elizabeth Barrett Browning (18061861) English poet. "The Lady's 'Yes'" [1844], st. 1 If you find yourself unwilling to accept me, will you please pass this letter on to your sister Caroline. --Lord Ralph Lovelace (18391906) English writer, alpinist and linguist. (Proposal letter to Mary Stuart Wortley, quoted by Lady Wentworth in her Memoirs.) - A strange lady giving an address in Zurich wrote him a proposal thus: 'You have the greatest brain in the world, and I have the most beautiful body; so we ought to produce the most perfect child.' [George Bernard] Shaw asked: "What if the child inherits my body and your brains?" --Hesketh Pearson (18871964) English actor and biographer. _George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Personality_ [1963] but see: [When Isadora Duncan regretted that they could not have a child together, saying, 'Think what a child it would be with my body and your brains':] I know, but suppose the child was so unlucky as to have my body and your brain? --George Bernard Shaw (18561950) Irish dramatist and critic. Quoted in Lewis Copeland and Faye Copeland _10,000 Jokes, Toasts & Stories_ [1939]. - [Dr. Hackenbush (Groucho Marx):] Emily [...] marry me and I'll never look at another horse. --George Seaton (19111979) American screenwriter, director, and producer. Screenplay for _A Day at the Races_ [1937]. Of course, you haven't got to decide, but think about it. I can't advise you in my favour because it would be beastly for you, but think how nice it would be for me! --Evelyn Waugh (19031966) English novelist. Proposing to Laura Herbert in 1936. ----- propound [pruh-POWND], transitive verb: To offer for consideration; to put forward; to propose.  . . see: "ADVERSITY" see: "WEALTH" - Prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. --Francis Bacon (15611626) English philosopher and essayist. _Essays_ [1625], "Of Adversity" The virtue of Prosperity is temperence; the virtue of Adversity is fortitude. --Francis Bacon (15611626) English philosopher and essayist. _Essays_ [1625], "Of Adversity" - If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. --Anne Bradstreet (16121672) The first published American woman writer. In Nathan Henry Chamberlain _Samuel Sewall and the World He Lived In_, p. 251 [1897]. In prosperity our friends know us; In adversity we know our friends. --J. Churton Collins (18841908) British author, critic, and scholar. In Robert Andrews _The Concise Columbia Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 5 [1989]. He that swells in prosperity will shrink in Adversity. --Thomas Fuller (16541734) English writer and physician. Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732] Prosperity is a great teacher; adversity a greater. --William Hazlitt (17781830) English essayist. _Sketches and Essays_ [1829] "On the Conversation of Lords" Armaments, universal debt, and planned obsolescence those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. --Aldous Huxley (18941963) English novelist (grandson of T.H. Huxley.) _Island_ [1962], ch. 9 The fortitude which has encountered no dangers, that prudence which has surmounted no difficulties, that integrity which has been attacked by no temptations, can at best be considered but as gold not yet brought to the test, of which therefore the true value cannot be assigned. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. _The Rambler_ [14 August 1751]; (English twice-weekly journal 17501752) What a country wants to make it richer is never consumption, but production. Where there is the latter, we may be sure that there is no want of the former. To produce, implies that the producer desires to consume; why else should he give himself useless labor? He may not wish to consume what he himself produces, but his motive for producing and selling is the desire to buy. Therefore, if the producers generally produce and sell more and more, they certainly also buy more and more. --John Stuart Mill (18061873) English philosopher and social reformer. "The Consumer Theory of Prosperity" [1830] As long as you are fortunate you will have many friends, but if the times become cloudy you will be alone. --Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.18 A.D.) Roman poet. "Tristium" I. 9. 5. Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them. --Publilius Syrus (8543 B.C.) Latin writer of mimes who was originally a slave. _Moral Sayings_, tr. Darius Lyman Jr., #872 [1862] Prosperity does not exalt the wise man, nor does adversity cast him down. --Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C. 65 A.D.) Roman philosopher and poet. _Moral Essays_ tr. John W. Basore [1928] "On Consolation to Helvia" Few of us can stand prosperity. Another man's, I mean. --Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (18351910) American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot. _Following the Equator_ [1897], ch. 40 epigraph: "Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar"  PROTEST . . see: "FREEDOM" for related links I feel that I am a citizen of the American dream and that the revolutionary struggle of which I am a part is a struggle against the American nightmare. --[Leroy] Eldridge Cleaver (19351998) American black militant. In Robert Andrews _The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 213 [1987]. One fifth of the people are against everything all the time. --Robert F. Kennedy (19251968) American Democratic politician. In Robert Andrews _The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 213 [1987]. One who breaks an unjust law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law. --Martin Luther King, Jr. (19291968) American civil rights leader. "Letter from Birmingham Jail" [1963] The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in and keep in step and obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is the duty of the good citizen not to be silent. --Charles Eliot Norton (18271908) American scholar. _True Patriotism_ [1898] The lady doth protest too much, methinks. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _Hamlet_ [1600-1601], act 3, sc.2, l. 225 There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. --Eliezer [Elie] Wiesel (b. 1928) Romanian Jew and Holocaust survivor; winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. "Hope, Despair and Memory", Nobel Lecture [11 December 1986]. . . see: "RELIGION" for related links The three great elements of modern civilization: Gunpowder, Printing, and the Protestant Religion. --Thomas Carlyle (17951881) Scottish historian and political philosopher. "Critical and Miscellaneous Essays" . . see: "FREEDOM" for related links Each American embassy comes with two permanent features a giant anti-American demonstration and a giant line for American visas. Most demonstrators spend half their time burning Old Glory and the other half waiting for green cards. --P.J. O'Rourke (1947 ) American political satirist. _Holidays in Hell_ [1988] . . see: "QUOTATIONS" see: "WISDOM" see: "LANGUAGE" for other related links Collect as precious pearls the words of the wise and virtuous. --Abdelkader (or Abd el-Kader) (18081883) Military and religious leader who founded the Algerian state. Quoted in Julia B. Hoitt _Excellent Quotations For Home and School_, p. iii [1890]. Proverbs are potted wisdom. --Charles Buxton (18231871) English author. Short sentences drawn from a long experience. --Miguel de Cervantes (15471616) Spanish novelist. Attributed in "Atlantic Monthly" [February 1863]. A man of maxims only is like a Cyclops with one eye, and that eye placed in the back of his head. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge (17721834) English poet, critic, and philosopher. Apothegms are, in history, the same as the pearls in the sand, or the gold in the mine. --Desiderius Erasmus (14691536) Dutch humanist and theologian. The use of proverbs is characteristic of an unlettered people. They are invaluable treasures to dunces with good memories. --John Milton Hay (18381905) U.S. secretary of state [1898-1905] associated with the Open Door policy toward China. _Castilian Days_ [1871] What gems of painting or statuary are in the world of art, or what flowers are in the world of Nature, are gems of thought to the cultivated and thinking. --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (18091894) American physician, poet, and essayist. Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them. --Aldous Huxley (18941963) English novelist (grandson of T.H. Huxley.) _Jesting Pilate_ [1926], ch. 4 Good maxims are the germs of all excellence. --Joseph Joubert (17541824) French philosopher. _Recueil des pensιes de M. Joubert_ ("Collected Thoughts of Mr. Joubert") [1838] Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced. Even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it. --John Keats (17951821) English poet. Letter to George and Georgiana Keats [19 March 1819], in _The Letters of John Keats_ [1958], ed. Hyder Edward Rollins. [Proverbs are] the ready money of human experience. --James Russell Lowell (18191891) American poet, critic, essayist, and diplomat. _My Study Windows_ [1871] Few of the many wise apothegms which have been uttered, from the time of the seven sages of Greece to that of poor Richard, have prevented a single foolish action. --Thomas Babington Macaulay (18001859) English politician and historian. A proverb distills the wisdom of the ages, and only a fool is scornful of the commonplace. --W. Somerset Maugham (18741965) English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer. Proverbs put old heads on young shoulders. --Charles Reade (18141884) English novelist and playwright. _The Cloister and the Hearth_ [1861], ch. 24 [Definition of a proverb:] One man's wit, and all men's wisdom. --John Russell (17921878) British statesman. Quoted in _Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh_ (ed. Robert James Mackintosh [1835], entry for 6 October 1823. Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it. --George Santayana (18631952) Spanish-born philosopher and critic. _The Life of Reason_, vol V "Reason in Science" [1906] Have at you with a proverb. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _The Comedy of Errors_ [15921594] Men's maxims reveal their character. --Marquis de Vauvenargues (17151747) French moralist and essayist. _Reflections and Maxims_ [1746], #107 - Contradictory proverbs: A word to the wise is sufficient. Talk is cheap. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Out of sight, out of mind. Confession is good for the soul. Keep your troubles to yourself. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Nice guys finish last. Don't believe everything you hear. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Don't judge a book by its cover. Clothes make the man. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Faint heart never won fair lady. The meek shall inherit the Earth. Haste makes waste. Time waits for no man. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Don't beat your head against a stone wall. It's better to be safe than sorry. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Life is what we make it. What is to be will be. Look before you leap. He who hesitates is lost. Many hands make light work. Too many cooks spoil the broth. Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Don't cross the bridge until you come to it. Nothing venture, nothing gain. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Opposites attract. Birds of a feather flock together. Seek and ye shall find. Curiosity killed the cat. The pen is mightier than the sword. Actions speak louder than words. The squeaking wheel gets the grease. Silence is golden. You're never too old to learn. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. ----- adage [AD-ij], noun: An old saying, which has obtained credit by long use; a proverb. paremiology: the study of proverbs . . see: "ADVICE (GOOD)" see: "CAREFUL" see: "CAUTION" see: "COMMON SENSE" see: "FRUGAL" see: "SELF-CONTROL" see: "SENSIBLE" see: "WISDOM" It is always good When a man has two irons in the fire. --Francis Beaumont (c. 15841616) English Jacobean playwright and poet who collaborated with John Fletcher on comedies and tragedies between 1606 and 1614. _The Faithful Friends_, I, ii [c. 1608] Do not all you can; spend not all you have; believe not all you hear; and tell not all you know. --Henry G. Bohn (17961884) English publisher and bookseller. Comp., A Hand-Book of Proverbs [1860], p. 344 'Tis the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow, and not venture all his eggs in one basket. --Miguel de Cervantes (15471616) Spanish novelist. _Don Quixote de la Mancha_ [16051615] Look before you leap. --John Clarke (15961658) Comp. _Proverbs: English and Latine_ [1639] Better a live sparrow than a stuffed eagle. --Edward Fitzgerald (18091883) English scholar and poet. Letter to Professor E.B. Cowell [27 April 1859]. There is a Time to wink as well as to see. --Thomas Fuller (16541734) English writer and physician. Comp., _Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs_ [1732] Great ability without discretion comes almost invariably to a tragic end. --Lιon Gambetta (18381882) French republican statesman. Attributed in Louis Klopsch _Many Thoughts of Many Minds_, p. 69 [1896]. Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose. --Baltasar Graciαn (16011658) Spanish Jesuit philosopher. _The Art of Worldly Wisdom_ [1647] In matters of conscience first thoughts are best; in matters of prudence last thoughts are best. --Robert Hall (17641831) English minister and orator. In _Extracts From The Diary And Other Manuscripts Of The Late Frederic James Post_ (Printed by James Moyes, London, 1838). 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 (18421906) German metaphysical philosopher. _Philosophe des Unbewursten_ [1869] He that lies with the dogs, riseth with fleas. --George Herbert (15931633) English religious poet. _Comp. Outlandish Proverbs_ [1640] Better is half a loaf than no bread. --John Heywood (14971580) English playwright. _A Dialogue Containing the Number of Effectual Proverbs in the English Tongue_ [1562] - The first years of man must make provision for the last. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. _Rasselas_, ch. XVII [1759] A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused and laugh at the time, but they will be remembered, and brought out against him upon some subsequent occasion. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ "25 March 1776" [1791]. - - Don't cut what you can untie. --Joseph Joubert (17541824) French philosopher. _Pensιes_ [1838], tr. Paul Auster [1983] Chance generally favors the prudent. --Joseph Joubert (17541824) French philosopher. Attributed in Maturin M. Ballou _Pearls of Thought_, p. 35 [1882]. - I bend and do not break. --Jean de La Fontaine (16211695) French poet. _Fables_, bk. I, 22 [16681679] You will soon break the bow if you keep it always stretched. --Gaius Julius Phaedrus (c. 15 B.C. c. 50 A.D.) The versifier of Aesop's Fables in Latin, bl. III, 14, 10. With a grain of salt. --Pliny the Elder [Gaius Plinius Secundus] (2379) Roman statesman and scholar. _Natural History_ [7779] A prudent person, having to do with a designing one, will always distrust most when appearances are fairest. --Samuel Richardson (16891761) English novelist. _A Collection of the Moral and Instructive Sentiments..._ [1755] - Countess of Rousillon: Love all, trust a few, Do wrong to none. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _All's Well That Ends Well_, I, i [16021604] Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot That it do singe yourself. --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _King Henry VIII_, I, i [1613] - Never laugh at live dragons. --J.R.R. [John Ronald Reuel] Tolkien (18921973) South African-born English author. _The Hobbit_, ch. 12 [1937] ----- circumspect [SUR-kuhm-spekt], adjective: Marked by attention to all circumstances and probable consequences; cautious; prudent. . . see: "FOOD & DRINK" for related links ...potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, all very good words for the lips especially prunes and prism. --Charles Dickens (18121870) English novelist. _Little Dorrit_ [1857-1858], Book ii, Chap. v While it is undeniably true that people love a surprise, it is equally true that they are seldom pleased to suddenly and without warning happen upon a series of prunes in what they took to be a normal loin of pork. --Fran Lebowitz (1946 ) American humorist. Well, Art is Art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water! And East is East and West is West and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now, uh... Now you tell me what you know. --lines spoken by Groucho [Julius Henry] Marx (1895-1977) American film comedian, In the movie "Animal Crackers". -- Mary had a little lamb, A lobster and some prunes, A glass of wine, a piece of pie A plate of macaroons. She gobbled up a sponge cake, And what else we don't know. But when they carried Mary out Her face was white as snow. --anon. ;void(0)) PSYCHIATRY . . see: "FREUD" see: "THE MIND" for other related links see: "HEALTH" for other related links A psychiatrist is a fellow who asks you a lot of expensive questions your wife asks for nothing. --attributed to Joey Adams (19111999) American comedian. Individual psychology holds that the most important key to the understanding of both personal and mass problems is the so-called sense of inferiority, or inferiority complex, and its consequences. --Alfred Adler (18701937) Austrian psychologist. In _New York Times_ [20 September 1925]. A wonderful discovery, psychoanalysis. Makes quite simple people feel they're complex. --S. N. [Samuel Nathaniel] Behrman (18931973) American screenwriter. I regard psychiatry as fifty percent bunk, thirty percent fraud, ten percent parrot talk, and the remaining ten percent just a fancy lingo for the common sense we have had for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, if we ever had the guts to read it. --Raymond Chandler (18881959) American writer of detective fiction. Letter to Paul McClung [11 Dec. 1951]. One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star. --G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (18741936) English essayist, novelist, and poet. _Orthodoxy_ [1908], "The Logic of Elfland" - Today I resumed my practice and saw my first batch of nuts again. I must now transmute the nervous energy gained during my holiday into money to fill my depleted purse. --Sigmund Freud (18561939) Austrian psychiatrist. Letter to Carl Gustav Jung [1 October 1910], tr. Ralph Manheim [1974]. Our psychoanalysis has also had bad luck. No sooner had it begun to interest the world because of the war neuroses than the war comes to an end. --Sigmund Freud (18561939) Austrian psychiatrist. Letter to Sandor Ferenczi [1919], in Thomas Szasz _The Myth of Psychotherapy_ [1978]. - Anybody who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. --Samuel Goldwyn [Schmuel Gelbfisz] (18821974) American film producer. Attributed in N.Y. _Herald Tribune_ [26 December 1948]. Among all my patients in the second half of life that is to say over thirty-five there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a religious outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given to their followers, and none of them has been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook. --Carl Gustav Jung (18751961) Swiss psychologist. _Modern Man in Search of a Soul_, ch. 11 "Psychotherapists or the Clergy" [1933] - Oh it happened in Vienna not so very long ago, When not enough folks were getting sick; That a starving young physician tried to better his position By discovering what made his patients tick. Chorus: Oh Doctor Freud, Oh Doctor Freud, How I wish you had been otherwise employed. For this set of circumstances sure enhances the finances Of the followers of Doctor Sigmund Freud. He forgot about sclerosis But invented the psychosis, And a hundred ways that sex could be employed. He adopted as his credo: "Down repression, up libido!" And that was the start of Doctor Sigmund Freud. [Chorus] Now he analyzed the dreams Of the teens and libertines, And he substituted monologues for pills. He drew crowds just like Wells-Sadler When along came Jung and Adler, Who said "By God, there's gold in them thar ills." [Chorus] They encountered no resistance When they served as Freud's assistants As with Ego, and with Id they deftly toyed. And instead of toting bed-pans, They bore analytic dead-pans, Those ambitious Doctors Adler, Jung and Freud. [Chorus] Now the big three have departed, But not so the cult they started It's been carried on by many a goodly band. And to trauma, shock and war-shock, Someone went and added Rorschach, Now the thing has got completely out of hand. [Chorus] Now old men with double chinseys And a million would-be Kinseys Will discuss it at the drop of a repression. I wouldn't mind complaining, But for all the dough I'm paying, To lie down on someone's couch and say confession. [Chorus] --David Lazar, "Doctor Freud" [1951] - Marx and Freud are the two great destroyers of Christian civilization, the first replacing the gospel of love by the gospel of hate, the other undermining the essential concept of human responsibility. --Malcolm Muggeridge (19031990) British writer, broadcaster, and journalist. _My Life in Pictures_ [1987], p. 94 Gentlemen who wear moustaches are generally obsessive, psychopathic, impotent or have some other sexual problem. --N. Parker (Australian psychiatrist) [1969] Psychiatry enables us to correct our faults by confessing our parents' shortcomings. --Laurence J. Peter (19191990) Canadian teacher and author. - I once worked as a writer for a big New York ad agency. Our boss used to tell us: Invent a disease. Come up with the disease, he said, and we can sell the cure. Attention Deficit Disorder, Seasonal Affect Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder. These aren't diseases, they're marketing ploys. Doctors didn't discover them, copy-writers did. Marketing departments did. Drug companies did. Depression and anxiety may be real. But they can also be Resistance. When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul's call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers. We're doing exactly what TV commercials and pop materialist culture have been brainwashing us to do from birth. Instead of applying self-knowledge, self-discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work, we simply consume a product. --Steven Pressfield (b. 1943) American novelist. _The War of Art_ [2002], "Resistance And Self-Medication" - Said Freud: 'Ive discovered the Id. Of all your repressions be rid. It wont ease the gravity Of all the depravity, But youll know why you did what you did.' --Frank Richards I have contrived a chair and introduced it to our Hospital to assist in curing madness. It binds and confines every part of the body. By keeping the truck erect, it lessens the impetus of blood toward the brain. . . . Its effects have been truly delightful to me. It acts as a sedative to the tongue and temper as well as to the blood vessels. In twenty-four, twelve, six, and in some cases in four hours, the most refractory patients have been composed. I have call it a Tranquilliser. --Benjamin Rush (17451813) American physician and political leader. [10 June 1810], in David Herman and Jim Green _What Treatment? Madness: A Study Guide_ [1991]. The [American Psychiatric] association specializes in turning ordinary human frailty into disease......the association has been inventing mental illnesses for the last 50 years or so. --Irwin Savodnik, 'Psychiatry's sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseases', _Los Angeles Times_ [1 January 2006] [Savodnik is a psychiatrist and philosopher who teaches at UCLA.] After twelve years of therapy my psychiatrist said something that brought tears to my eyes. He said, 'No hablo ingles.' --Ronnie Shakes These sundry procedures [i.e., lobotomy and several forms of shock treatment] produce 'beneficial' results by reducing the patient's capacity for being human. The philosophy is something to the effect that it is better to be a contented imbecile than a schizophrenic. --Harry Stack Sullivan (18921949) American psychiatrist. Referring to psychiatry's "decortication treatments," "Conceptions of Modern Psychiatry" _Psychiatry_ [February 1940]. The joke is this: If the patient arrives early for his appointment, he is anxious; if he arrives late, he is hostile; and if he is on time, he is compulsive. Mental illness *όber Alles*. --Thomas Szasz (b. 1920) American psychiatrist. _Insanity: The Idea and Its Consequences_ [1987] I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed. --James Thurber (18941961) American humorist and cartoonist. "Carpe Noctem, If You Can", Credos and Curios [1962] [...] Anyone with a child in school knows the signs all too well. I am intrigued by the faith parents now invest the craze began about 1990 in psychologists who diagnose their children as suffering from a defect known as attention deficit disorder, or ADD. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether this "disorder" is an actual, physical, neurological condition or not, but neither does anybody else in this early stage of neuroscience. The symptoms of this supposed malady are always the same. The child or, rather, the boy forty-nine out of fifty cases are boys fidgets around in school, slides off his chair, doesn't pay attention, distracts his classmates during class, and performs poorly. In an earlier era he would have been pressured to pay attention, work harder, show some self-discipline. To parents caught up in the new intellectual climate of the 1990s, that approach seems cruel, because my little boy's problem is ... *he's wired wrong!* The poor little tyke *the fix has been in since birth!* Invariably the parents complain, "All he wants to do is sit in front of the television set and watch cartoons and play Sega Genesis." For how long? "How long? For hours at a time." Hours at a time; as even any young neuroscientist will tell you, that boy may have a problem, but it is not an attention deficit. --Tom Wolfe (1931 ) American journalist and novelist. _Hooking Up_ [2000] (ellipsis & emphasis in original text) - Neurotics build dream castles, psychotics live in them, and psychiatrists collect the rent. --anon. - Patient: Doctor, you must help me. I'm under such a lot of stress. I keep losing my temper with people. Doctor: Tell me about your problem. Patient: I just did, you stupid bastard! - Young psychologist: How can you stand listening to this stuff all day? Older psychologist: Who listens? - After a year in therapy, my psychiatrist said to me, "Maybe life isn't for everyone." --anon.  PSYCHICS . . see: "ASTROLOGY" see: "THE MIND" for other related links see: "DECEPTION" for other related links If on the first day of the month of nisan [April] the sun looks sprinkled with blood and the light is cool: the king will die and there will be mourning in the country. --Babylonian tablet (BM40085) in M.J. Cohan and John Major {ed.} _History in Quotations_ [2004] citing Wilfred H. van Soldt _Omens of Enuma Anu Enlil_ [1995], p.94. Cohan & Major explain: "The Babylonians were interested in natural phenomena, particularly eclipses. Close observations were made of the movements of the sun and moon and, of course, the stars. This is an omen based on observation of the sun at a certain time of year." A fake fortune teller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved. --Robert Heinlein (19071988) American science-fiction writer. Here's something to think about: How come you never see a headline like 'Psychic Wins Lottery'? --Jay Leno (1950 ) American comedian and host of "The Tonight Show" from 1992. A wise man shall overrule his stars, and have a greater influence upon his own content than all the constellations and planets of the firmament. --Jeremy Taylor (16131667) English Anglican clergyman and writer. In Reginald Heber _The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor_, bk. IV, ch. II, sect vi [15 vols., 1822]. [Calvin:] Do you believe our destinies are determined by the stars? [Hobbes:] Nah. [Calvin:] Oh, _I_ do. [Hobbes:] Really? How come? [Calvin:] Life's a lot more fun when you're not responsible for your actions. --Bill Waterson II (1958 ) American cartoonist, creator of "Calvin and Hobbes." _Weirdos From Another Planet_, p. 25 [1990] Edwin Goodwin, a doctor living in Solitude, Indiana in 1897, "supernaturally" discoved that pi was equal to 3.2376. Goodwin had his "solution" published in the "American Mathematical Monthly,' then set about getting government approval for his own private pi. He convinced his local legislators to introduce a bill before Indiana's House offering state schools free use of his "new mathematical truth." The bill, chocked full of math jargon, fooled the House and passed by a 67-0 vote. (It later failed to pass the Indiana Senate.) --Bruce Watson _Smithsonian Magazine_ ----- clairvoyant (adjective) Having the supposed power to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by the senses. Synonyms: precognitive, second-sighted portend (transitive verb) Omen: to be an indication that something, especially something unpleasant, is going to happen. presentiment [prih-ZEN-tuh-muhnt], noun: A sense that something will or is about to happen; a premonition. . . see: "THE HUMAN RACE" for related links There's a sucker born every minute. --attributed to Phineas T. Barnum (1810-1891) American showman. In a free country more especially, ten men who care are worth a hundred who do not. --James Bryce (18381922) British politician, diplomat, and historian; ambassador to the U.S. [19071913]. _The American Commonwealth_ [1888] The individual is foolish; the multitude, for the moment is foolish, when they act without deliberation; but the species is wise, and, when time is given to it, as a species it always acts right. --Edmund Burke (17291797) Irish-born Whig politician and man of letters. Speech in the House of Commons [7 May 1782]. - The public! The public! How many fools does it take to make up a public?" --Sιbastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort (17411794) French playwright and conversationalist. _Causeries du lundi_ (essays by Sainte-Beuve) "Chamfort" [22 September 1851] The success of many works is found in the relation between the mediocrity of the authors' ideas and that of the ideas of the public. --Sιbastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort (17411794) French playwright and conversationalist. Quoted in James Wood (ed.) _Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources_, p. 456 [1893]. - He who hangs on the errors of the ignorant multitude, must not be counted among great men. --Marcus Tullius Cicero (10643 BC) Roman orator and statesman. _De officiis_ (On Duties), I, 19 [44 BC] Leave this hypocritical prating about the masses. Masses are rude, lame, unmade, pernicious in their demands and influence, and need not to be flattered but to be schooled. I wish not to concede anything to them, but to tame, drill, divide and break them up, and draw individuals out of them. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882) American philosopher and poet. "Consideration by the Way" _The Conduct of Life_ [1860] There is not a more mean, stupid, dastardly, pitiful, selfish, spiteful, envious, ungrateful animal than the Public. It is the greatest of cowards, for it is afraid of itself. --William Hazlitt (17781830) English essayist. _Table Talk_ [1821-1822], "On Living to One's Self" All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful when it rectifies error and improves judgment; he that refines the public taste is a public benefactor. --Samuel Johnson (17091784) English poet, critic, and lexicographer. There is no tyranny so despotic as that of public opinion among a free people. --Donn Piatt (18191891) American journalist. "Lincoln" _Memories of the Men Who Saved the Union_ [1887] Was ever feather so lightly blown to and fro as this multitude? --William Shakespeare (15641616) English dramatist. _King Henry VI_, IV, viii [1592] The public be damned. --William H. Vanderbilt (18211885) American railway magnate. Replying to a reporter who asked whether he was working for the public or for his stockholders [1883]. Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and almost as strong as the Ten Commandments. --Charles Dudley Warner (18291900) American newspaperman, author, editor, and publisher. _My Summer in a Garden_ [1870] The fact is, the public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything, except what is worth knowing. --Oscar Wilde (18541900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _The Soul of Man Under Socialism_ [1891] end page | PACIFISM - PAIN | PAINTING - PARENTING | PARIS - PASSPORTS | PAST (THE) - PATRIOTISM | PEACE - PERCENTAGES | PEOPLE | PERCEPTIONS - PERSUASION | PESSIMISM - PHILOSOPHY | PHONIES - PHYSICS | PIANO - PLANS | PLACES | PLANTS - POETRY | POISON - POLITICAL PARTIES | POLITICS & POLITICIANS (PAGE 1 A - L) | POLITICS & POLITICIANS (PAGE 2 M - Z) | POLLS - POPES | POPEYE - POTENTIAL | POVERTY | POWER | PRACTICALITY - PRAYER | PREACHERS - PREPARED (BE) | PRESENT (THE) - (THE) PRESS | PRETENSION - PRIVACY | PROBLEMS - PROGRESSIVES | PROGRESS - PROPAGANDA | PROPOSALS - PUBLIC (THE) | PUBLIC OPINION - PUNCTUATION | PUNISHMENT - PURPOSE | QUALITIES - QUIPS | QUIRKS - QUOTATIONS | | H | I - J | K - L | M | N - O | P - Q | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
||