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. . . SENATE (THE U.S.) see: "POLITICS" for related links [When asked, "Do you pray for the Senators?":] I look at the Senators and pray for the country. --Edward Everett Hale (1822—1909) American clergyman, writer, and chaplain of the Senate. Quoted in Van Wyck Brooks, _New England: Indian Summer_ [1940]. Give us clear vision, that we may know where to stand and what to stand for — because unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything. --Peter Marshall (1902—1949) Clergyman, author, and Senate chaplain. In a Senate prayer [1947]. This is the Senate of equals, of men of individual honor and personal character, and of absolute independence. We know no masters, we acknowledge no dictators. This is a hall for mutual consultation and discussion; not an arena for the exhibition of champions. --Daniel Webster (1782—1852) American orator and politician. In a speech in the U.S. Senate [26 January 1830].  . . see: "AGE" for related links Always be nice to your children because they are the ones who will choose your rest home. --attributed to Phyllis Diller (b. 1917) American comedian. Said the little boy, "Sometimes I drop my spoon." Said the old man, "I do that too." The little boy whispered, "I wet my pants." "I do that too," laughed the old man." Said the little boy, "I often cry." The old man nodded, "So do I." "But worst of all," said the boy, "it seems Grown-ups don't pay attention to me." And he felt the warmth of a wrinkled old hand. "I know what you mean," said the old man. --Shel Silverstein (1930—1999) Ameican poet and songwriter. - The aged hold far too obstinately to their outmoded ideas. Perhaps that is why the natives of the Fiji Islands kill their parents when they grow old. They facilitate evolution by garroting their ancestors. --unattributed in "The New Freeman" [1930-1931 U.S. magazine]. ;void(0)) SENSE OF HUMOR . . see: "HUMOR" for related links Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. --Variously attributed to Francis Bacon, Robert Walpole, and anon. A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing. --Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, essayist, and critic. _The Note-Books of Samuel Butler_, ed. Henry Festing Jones [1907] "Life" Do you know why God withheld the sense of humor from women? That we may love you instead of laughing at you. --Mrs. Patrick Campbell [Beatrice Stella Tanner] (1865—1940) British stage actress. Quoted in Margot Peters _Mrs. Pat : The Life of Mrs. Patrick Campbell_ [1984]. No mind is thoroughly well organized that is deficient in a sense of humor. --Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834) English poet, critic, and philosopher. _Table Talk_ [1835] A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections. --George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880) English novelist. _Daniel Deronda_, bk. 2, ch. 15 [1876] Common sense and a sense of humor are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. --attributed to William James (1842—1910) American philosopher. They have no sense of humor. I was worried I'd wake up in fifty years surrounded by people with clipboards. (Announcing he had ended his association with the cyronics movement, thereby abandoning his plan to have his head preserved.) --Timothy Leary (1920—1996) American psychologist. In "Daily Telegraph" [10 May 1996]. A man sufficiently gifted with humor is in small danger of succumbing to flattering delusions about himself, because he cannot help perceiving what a pompous ass he would become if he did. --Konrad Lorenz (1903—1989) Austrian zoologist. _On Aggression_ [1963] What an ornament and safeguard is humor! Far better than wit for a poet and writer. It is a genius itself, and so defends from the insanities. --Sir Walter Scott (1771—1832) Scottish novelist and poet. Quoted by Ralph Waldo Emerson in the August, 1871 meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. --George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950) Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.] A sense of humor... is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life. --Hugh Sidey (1927—2005) American journalist. Contributing editor, "Time" (magazine). . . see: "THE BODY" I who am blind can give one hint to those who see — one admonition to those who would make full use of the gift of sight: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you would be stricken blind. And the same method can be applied to the other senses. Hear the music of voices, the song of a bird, the mighty strains of an orchestra, as if you would be stricken deaf tomorrow. Touch each object you want to touch as if tomorrow your tactile sense would fail. Smell the perfume of flowers, taste with relish each morsel, as if tomorrow you could never smell and taste again. Make the most of every sense. --Helen Keller (1880—1968) American author and educator who was blind and deaf. "Three Days to See", essay in _Atlantic Monthly_ [1933]. - "For Family Survival, Penguins Play a Game Of 'Name That Tune'" September 9, 2005 By Sharon Begley _The Wall Street Journal_ [ . . . ] Penguins may look pretty much alike even to other penguins, but they don't sound alike. To generate their unique calls, scientists have discovered, the birds use two voice boxes. That lets them emit different calls simultaneously, modulating frequency, amplitude and beat, write Thierry Aubin of the Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, and Pierre Jouventin of the Center for Functional Ecology and Evolution, Montpellier, France. The interaction of two frequencies generates beats that penetrate solid objects such as, oh, huddled penguin bodies as dense as 10 birds per square meter. In addition, the system creates a huge variety of "vocal signatures." Adults emit highly individual calls of four to eight syllables. A chick, which memorizes dad's call during the five weeks it spends sitting atop his feet, plays a life-or-death game of "name that tune," identifying him as he waddles through the colony like a bowling pin with feet and calls at regular intervals. Playing recorded calls for king penguin chicks, Prof. Aubin and Prof. Jouventin find that even a syllable or two is enough for most hatchlings to recognize mom or dad (though they usually wait for at least four before leaving the crèche, apparently wanting to be sure). From acoustics alone, the chicks should not be able to distinguish their parents' call from more than about 25 feet, beyond which the signal-to-noise ratio drops below 1. Yet, just like humans in the din of a cocktail party, they can pick out their partner's voice across the room (especially if the voice says something like, "Wow, you look terrific; have you been working out?"). Penguins can recognize a mate's or parent's call despite background noise and acoustic jamming by other calls. "Chicks have an exceptional capacity to discriminate the correct call from extraneous calls," conclude the scientists. Adult penguins even factor in wind conditions. In blustery weather, they increase their call's length and number of syllables, so that at 25 mph both are double what they were at 18 mph. This increases the signal-to-noise ratio, leading Prof. Aubin and Prof. Jouventin to conclude, only half in jest, that the birds "apply the mathematical theory of communication" to adjust their calls to prevailing conditions. [ . . . ] ----- aesthete [ES-theet], noun: One having or affecting great sensitivity to beauty, as in art or nature. ageusia (noun) [ê-'gu-see-yê] Loss of the sense of taste, gustatory anesthesia, specifically, the loss of the ability to distinguish sweet, sour, bitter, or salty (the only tastes the human palate recognizes) dulcet (adj.) ['dêl-set] Pleasingly sweet to the ear, soothingly musical, most closely associated with sounds, such as those of the dulcimer, a word based on the same root. fetor [FEE-tuhr; FEE-tor], noun: A strong, offensive smell; stench. olfaction (noun) 1: The faculty of perceiving odors; sense of smell. Syn.: smell , scent 2: The action or process of perceiving odors; smelling. palate (noun) 1: The roof of the mouth, which separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity and consists of a bony front section and a soft muscular back section. 2: The sense of taste, or precision of discrimination between tastes. redolent (adj.) Permeated by or giving off a strong, usu. pleasant, odor. sapid (adj.) 1: Having taste or flavor, esp. an agreeable taste. 2: Pleasing to the mind; interesting. Related: savory sentient [SEN-shee-uhnt], adjective: 1. Capable of perceiving by the senses; conscious. 2. Experiencing sensation or feeling. sonorous [suh-NOR-uhs; SAH-nuh-rus], adjective: 1. Giving sound when struck; resonant; as, "sonorous metals." 2. Loud-sounding; giving a clear or loud sound; as, "a sonorous voice." tactile (adj.) 1: Of, having, or pertaining to the sense of touch. 2: Capable of being perceived through touch voluptuary (noun) [vê-'lêp-tyu-er-i or -chu-er-i] Someone given to sensuous pleasure, indulgence in luxury, or the gratification of the senses; a hedonist, sensualist, or sybarite. . . see: "PRUDENCE" One of the first businesses of a sensible man is to know when he is beaten, and to leave off fighting at once. --Samuel Butler (1835—1902) English novelist, essayist, and critic. In Robert Andrews _The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 156 [1987]. The intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly anything. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749—1832) German poet, novelist, and playwright. Quoted in Stephen Spender (ed.) _Great Writings of Goethe_ [1958]. Did you ever try to talk sense to a maniac? [...] I did once. [...] Luckily for me, the bottle he hit me with was pretty flimsy. --"Mr. Bahu", in Aldous Huxley's _Island_ [1962]. We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us. --François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. _Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral Maxims_, maxim 347 [1678] . . see: "HYPOCRISY" see: "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for other related links Exaggerated sensitiveness is an expression of the feeling of inferiority. --Alfred Adler (1870—1937) Austrian psychologist. The tears that are shed for fictitious sorrow are admirably adapted to make us proud of all the virtues which we do not possess. --Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712—1778) French philosopher and novelist. In Mary Wollstonecraft _A Vindication of the Rights of Men_ [1790]. DONALBAIN: To show an unfelt sorrow is an office Which the false man does easy. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _Macbeth_ [1606] ----- maudlin [MAWD-lin], adjective: Tearfully or excessively sentimental. . . see: "TIME" for related links - Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow. Try to remember the kind of September when grass was green and grain was yellow. Try to remember the kind of September you were a tender and callow fellow. Try to remember and if you remember, then follow, (echo) follow, follow, follow, follow follow, follow, follow, follow. Try to remember when life was so tender that no one wept except the willow. Try to remember when life was so tender that dreams were kept beside your pillow. Try to remember when life was so tender that love was an ember about to billow. Try to remember and if you remember, then follow, (echo) follow, follow, follow, follow follow, follow, follow, follow. Deep in December it's nice to remember it's nice to remember altho' you know the snow will follow. Deep in December it's nice to remember it's nice to remember without a hurt the heart is hollow. Deep in December it's nice to remember it's nice to remember the fire of September that made us mellow. Try to remember and if you remember, then follow, (echo) follow, follow, follow, follow follow, follow, follow, follow. --"Try To Remember" (1960 song) Music by Harvey Schmidt, book and lyrics by Tom Jones. ;void(0)) SERENITY . . see: "HAPPINESS" for related links - God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen. --Reinhold Neibuhr (1892—1971) American theologian. "The Serenity Prayer" [1926] - . . see: "SADNESS" A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition. --C.C. Colton (1780—1832) English clergyman and writer. _Lacon: or, Many Things in Few Words_, CCII [1821 ed.] Those wanting wit affect gravity and go by the name of solid men; and a solid man is, in plain English, a solid, solemn fool. --John Dryden (1631—1700) English poet, critic, and dramatist. _Aureng-Zebe_ [1676] If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it. --Herodotus (484—c.425 BC) Greek author of the first great narrative history produced in the ancient world. _The Histories of Herodotus_ bk. II, ch. 173 I have observed that in comedies the best actor plays the droll, while some scrub rogue is made the fine gentleman or hero. Thus it is in the farce of life. Wise men spend their time in mirth; it is only fools who are serious. --Henry Saint John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke (1678—1751) English politician and philosopher. Gravity is a mystery of the body invented to conceal the defects of the mind. --François de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680) French classical author. _Moral Reflections, Sentences and Maxims of Francis, Duc de La Rochefoucauld_ [William Gowans, New York, 1851], #269 Too much gravity argues a shallow mind. --Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741—1801) Swiss writer, Protestant pastor, and founder of physiognomics. Quoted in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 207 [1908 ed.]. People who cannot recognize a palpable absurdity are very much in the way of civilization. --Agnes Repplier (1855—1950) American author. _In Pursuit of Laughter_, ch. 9 [1936] I never knew so young a body with so old a head. --William Shakespeare (1564—1616) English dramatist. _The Merchant of Venice_ [1596—1598], act 4, sc, I, l. 182 Do not assume that because I am frivolous I am shallow; I don't assume that because you are grave you are profound. -attributed to Sydney Smith (1771—1845) English clergyman and essayist. Seriousness [is] the only refuge of the shallow. --Oscar Wilde (1854—1900) Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet. _The Rout of the R[oyal] A[cademy]_ [1887] ----- flippant [FLIP-uhnt], adjective: Lacking proper seriousness or respect; showing inappropriate levity; pert. Ex.: The conversations had grown more adult over the years--she was less flippant, at least. --Sylvia Brownrigg, _The Metaphysical Touch_ gravitas (noun) ['græ-vi-tahs or 'græ-vi-tæs] Solemnity or seriousness eliciting the respect of others. end page | SACRED PLACES - SANTA CLAUS | SARCASM - SCHOOL | SCIENCE - SCULPTURE | SEA (THE) - SEEING | SELF - SELF-ESTEEM | SELF-EXAMINATION - SEMANTICS | SENATE (THE U.S.) - SERIOUSNESS | SEX | SEX SYMBOLS - SHEEP | SHIPS - SHYNESS | SICKNESS - SILENCE | SILLINESS - SINGING | SINGLE-MINDEDNESS - SKY | SLANDER - SLAVERY | SLEEP - SMILES | SMOKING - SOCIETY | SOLDIERS - SOPHISTICATION | SORROW - SOUTH SEA | SPACE - SPAM | SPEECH | SPEECHES - SPENDTHRIFTS | SPIDERS - SPY | SPORTS & SPORTSMANSHIP | STAGE (THE) - STERILIZATION | STOCK MARKET - STRANGERS | STRENGTH - SUBURBS | SUCCESS | SUFFERING - SUMMER | SUN - SUPREME COURT | SURPRISE - SYSTEM (THE) | | R | S | T | U - END | | Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The Reviews | |
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