dance
No sane man will dance. - Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43 BC)
"I invite ...[her] to dance. She is big and
graceful as a parade float and I steer her effortlessly
out into the middle of everything. "Our father is pressed
into dancing which he does like a flightless bird, all
flapping arms and pot belly. Still, he dances. Our mother
has a kiss for him. -Michael Cunningham_A Home at the End
of the World_, 1990 p. 33
They who love dancing too much seem to have more
brains in their feet than in their head. --Terence (c.
190-159 BC)
-
death
Don't take life too seriously -- you'll never get out
if it alive.
The high cost of living hasn't affected its
popularity.
Relax - otherwise you might die all tensed up .
Stanton's Law of Minimum Requirements. Bad breath is
better than no breath at all.
Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which
one can die.
Many who plan to seek God at the eleventh hour die at
10:30.
A "Frisbeterian" believes that when you die, your soul
goes up on the roof, and you can't get it back down.
It's not the pace of life that concerns us, it's the
sudden stop at the end.
Die, v.: To stop sinning suddenly.
My uncle taught me not to say anything about the dead
unless it was good. So, is he dead? Good! -- heard on
drivetime radio
Forget not Death, O man! for thou may'st be
Of one thing certain--he forgets not thee.
Persian saying
What is
Dying?
A ship sails
and I stand watching
till she fades on the horizon
and someone at my side says,
"She is gone."
Gone Where?
Gone from my sight, that is all:
She is just as large as when I saw
her.
The diminished size,
and total loss of sight
Is in me, not in her,
And just at the moment
when someone at my side says
"She is gone"
There are others
who are watching her coming,
and other voices take up a glad shout,
"There she comes!"
and that, is dying.
Rejoice not over thy greatest enemy being dead, but
remember that we die all. --The Apocrypha, Ecclesiasticus
8:7
To the good man to die is gain. The foolish fear death
as the greatest of evils, the wise desire it as a rest
after labours and the end of ills. -- Ambrose
Rebirth brings us into the Kingdom of grace, and death
into the Kingdom of glory.-- - Richard Baxter
On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that,
citizens; on this side, orphans; on that, children; on
this side, captives; on that, freemen.
Henry Ward Beecher
I'd rather be dead than think about death. --Brendan
Behan
Ignorance of death is destroying us. Death is the dark
backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything. --Saul
Bellow
Always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they
won't come to yours. --Yogi Berra
Death is part of this life and not of the next. --
Elizabeth Bibesco, _Haven_, 1951
Man born of woman is of few days and full of
trouble.
He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a
fleeting shadow, he does not endure.
Job 14:1-2
Death is not the end. There remains the litigation
over the estate.-- Ambrose Bierce.
Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.
--Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
Nothing can make up for the absence of someone whom we
love, and it would be wrong to try to find a substitute
.... It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap; he
does not fill it, but on the contrary, he keeps it empty
and so helps us to keep alive our former communion with
each other, even at the cost of pain.-- Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
The waters are rising, but so am I. I am not going
under but over. Do not be concerned about dying; go on
living well, the dying will be right.
Last words of Catherine Booth, 61, wife of Salvation Army
founder William Booth. 4.10.1890
What then is there left for me to do? Not count the
weeks, the days and the hours which will bring me again
into her sweet company.....My work plainly is to fill up
the weeks, the days and the hours and cheer my poor heart
as I go alongwith the thought that, when I have served my
Christ and my generation according to the will of God --
which I vow this afternoon I shall do with the last drop
of my blood -- then I trust that He will bid me to the
skies as he bade her.
William Booth at the grave of his wife, in Blood and
Fire, Roy Hattersley, 1999
YES,
thou art gone ! and never more
Thy sunny smile shall gladden me ;
But I may pass the old church door,
And pace the floor that covers thee.
May stand upon the cold, damp
stone,
And think that, frozen, lies below
The lightest heart that I have
known,
The kindest I shall ever know.
Yet, though I cannot see thee
more,
'Tis still a comfort to have seen ;
And though thy transient life is
o'er,
'Tis sweet to think that thou hast been
;
O think a soul so near divine,
Within a form so angel fair,
United to a heart like thine,
Has gladdened once our humble
sphere.
BRONTE, ANNE. A REMINISCENCE 1844.
THERE 's little joy in life for me,
And little terror in the grave ;
I 've lived the parting hour to see
Of one I would have died to save.
Calmly to watch the failing breath,
Wishing each sigh might be the last ;
Longing to see the shade of death
O'er those beloved features cast.
The cloud, the stillness that must
part
The darling of my life from me ;
And then to thank God from my heart,
To thank Him well and fervently ;
Although I knew that we had lost
The hope and glory of our life ;
And now, benighted, tempest-tossed,
Must bear alone the weary strife.
BRONTE, CHARLOTTE. ON THE DEATH OF ANNE
BRONTE,1849
All the kings throughout history sent their people out
to die for them Only one person ever died for their
people willingly and lovingly. DAVE BROWN
After this it was noised abroad that Mr.
Valiant-for-truth was taken with a summons by the same
post as the other, and had this for a token that the
summons was true, "That his pitcher was broken at the
fountain." Eccl. 12:6. When he understood it, he called
for his friends, and told them of it. Then said he, I am
going to my Father's; and though with great difficulty I
have got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the
trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I
give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and
my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and
scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have
fought His battles who will now be my rewarder. When the
day that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him
to the river-side, into which as he went, he said,
"Death, where is thy sting?" And as he went down deeper,
he said, "Grave, where is thy victory?" 1 Cor. 15:55. So
he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on
the other side.
John Bunyan, Pilgrims Progress
That person will not be proud of his rich and fine
clothes who is sensible that he may be stripped by death
tomorrow, and sent out of the world, as he came naked
into it. He will not today be very proud of his personal
beauty, who hath no dependence on escaping tomorrow that
stroke of death which will mar all his beauty, and make
that face which he now thinks so comely appear ghastly
and horrid; when instead of a ruddy and florid
countenance, there will be the blood settled, cold and
congealed, the flesh stiff and clayey, the teeth set, the
eyes fixed and sunk into the head. Nor will he today very
much affect to beautify and adorn with gaudy and
flaunting apparel, that body concerning which he is
sensible that it may be wrapped in a winding sheet
tomorrow, to be carried to the grave, there to rot, and
be covered and filled with worms. --Jeremiah
Burroughs
I eveywhere teach that no one can be justly condemned
and perish except on account of actual sin; and to say
that the countless mortals taken from life while yet
infants are precipitated from their mother's arms into
eternal death is a blasphemy to be universally
detested.
John Calvin , in Augustus H. Strong "Systematic
Theology", page 663.
I John Calvin, servant of the Word of God in the
church of Geneva, weakened by many illnesses...thank God
that he has not only shown mercy to me, his poor
creature....and suffered me in all sins and weaknesses,
but what is more than that, he has made me a partaker of
his grace to serve him through my work...I confess to
live and die in this faith which he has given me,
inasmuch as I have no other hope or refuge than his
predestination upon which my entire salvation is
grounded. I embrace the grace which he has offered me in
our Lord Jesus Christ, and accept the merits of his
suffering and dying that through him all my sins are
buried; and I humbly beg him to wash me and cleanse me
with the blood of our great Redeemer, as it was shed for
all poor sinners so that I, when I appear before his
face, may bear his likeness."
Calvin's Last Will (April 25, 1564) Letters of John
Calvin, 29
Come Love, come Lord, and that long day
For which I languish, come away.
When this dry soul those eyes shall see
And drink the unseal'd source of Thee,
When glory's sun faith's shades shall chase,
Then for Thy veil give me Thy face.
Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a
piece of the continent, a part of the main... any man's
death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind,
and therefore never send to know for whom the bells
tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne Devotions XVII
Death,
be not proud, though some have called
thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not
so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost
overthrow,
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou
kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy
pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more
must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do
go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's
delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings,
and desperate men,And dost with poison,
war, and sickness dwell;
And poppy or charms can make us sleep
as well
And better than thy stroke; why
swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake
eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou
shalt die.
John Donne
All our life is but a going out to the place of
execution, to death.--John Donne (1572-1631)_Sermons_ No.
4
Since.....the children of believers are holy......in
virtue of the covenant of grace, in which they, together
with the parents, are comprehended, godly parents have no
reason to doubt of the election and salvation of their
children, whom it pleaseth God to call out of this life
in their infancy
(Canons of Dordt, I/17).
Death
in itself is nothing; but we fear
To be we know not what, we know not
where.
John Dryden. 1631-1701. Aurengzebe. Act
iv. Sc. 1.
So softly death succeeded life in her,
She did but dream of heaven, and she was
there.
John Dryden (1631-1700)_Eleonora_, Line
315
Resolved, never to do anything which I should be
afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life....
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)
When it comes time to die, make sure that all you have
to do is die. -- Jim Elliot , journal: 25 March 1951
My son, a perfect little boy of five years and three
months, had ended his earthly life. You can never
sympathize with me; you can never know how much of me
such a young child can take away. A few weeks ago I
accounted myself a very rich man, and now the poorest of
all. --Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)_Letter to Thomas
Carlyle_ [February 28, 1842]
Since the last communion here, one of our dear helpers
in this presbytery from whose lips you used to hear the
joyful sound, is gone away to the communion-table above;
and glory be to God that he got a full gale of heavenly
wind, to drive him in with holy joy and triumph to the
harbor of glory. RALPH ERSKINE
Death comes to all
But great achievements build a monument
Which shall endure until the sun grows cold.
Georg Fabricius
Most men need patience to die, but a saint who
understands what death admits him to should rather need
patience to live. I think he should often look out and
listen on a deathbed for his Lord's coming; and when he
receives the news of his approaching change he should
say, 'The voice of my beloved! behold, He cometh leaping
over the mountains, skipping upon the hills' (Song of
Solomon 2:8)--JOHN FLAVEL
A Christian in this world is but gold in the ore; at
death the pure gold is melted out and separated and the
dross cast away and consumed. -- Flavel
If this were the last day of your life, my friend
Tell me, what do you think you would do then?
Stand up to the blow, that fate has struck upon you?
Make the most of all you still have coming to you? or
Lay down on the ground and let the tears flow from
you
Crying to the grass and trees
And heaven finally on your knees:
Let me live again
Let life come find me wanting
Spring must strike again
Against the shield of winter
Let me feel once more
The arms of love surround me
Telling me the danger's past
I need not fear the icy blast again.
S Genesis "Undertow"
The
boast of heraldry, the pomp of
power,
And all that beauty, all that wealth
e'er gave,
Await alike the inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the
grave.
Gray's Elegy
Now, as touching my death, rejoice as I do, my dearest
sister, that I shall be delivered of this corruption, and
put on incorruption; for I am assured that I shall for
losing a mortal life win one that is immortal, joyful and
everlasting...Lady Jane Grey (1537-54) before
execution
This machine will take off a head in a twinkling, and
the victim will feel nothing but a sense of refreshing
coolness. We cannot make too much haste, gentlemen, to
allow the nation to enjoy this advantage. -- . I.
Guillotin
I want to die in my sleep peacefully like my
grandfather not screaming and in terror like his
passengers. --Jack Handey
He whose head is in heaven need not fear to put his
feet into the grave. -- Matthew Henry
Death will be the funeral of all our evils and the
resurrection of all our joys. --GEORGE HERBERT.
When the cancer that later took his life was first
diagnosed, Senator Richard L. Neuberger remarked upon his
"new appreciation of things I once took for
granted--eating lunch with a friend, scratching my cat
Muffet's ears and listening for his purrs, the company of
my wife, reading a book or magazine in the quiet of my
bed lamp at night, raiding the refrigerator for a glass
of orange juice or a slice of toast. For the first time,
I think I actually am savoring life. _Better Homes and
Gardens_
I suppose all of us hover between two ways of
regarding death, which appear to be in hopeless
contradiction with each other. First there is the
familiar and instinctive recoil from it as embodying the
supreme and irrevocable disaster...But, then, there is
another aspect altogether which death can wear for us. It
is that which first comes to us, perhaps, as we look down
upon the quiet face, so cold and white, of one who has
been very near and dear to us. There it lies in
possession of its own secret. It knows it all. So we seem
to feel. And what the face says in its sweet silence to
us as a last message from one whom we loved is:
'Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have
only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has
happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I,
and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly
together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to
each other, that we are still. Call me by the old
familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you
always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no
forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always
laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be
ever the household word that it always was. Let it be
spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow
upon it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the
same as it ever was. There is absolute and unbroken
continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I
am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very
near, just around the corner. All is well. Nothing is
hurt; nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be
as it was before. How we shall laugh at the trouble of
parting when we meet again!'
So the face speaks. Surely while we speak there is
a smile flitting over it; a smile as of gentle fun at the
trick played us by seeming death...
Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918) `The King of Terrors.'
Sermon in St. Paul's on 15 May 1910), at which time the
body of King Edward VII was lying in state
atWestminster.
God hath my daily petitions, for I am at peace with
all men, and He is at peace with me . . . and this
witness makes the thoughts of death joyful.
Richard Hooker died at 46 His last words
We are all under sentence of death, but with a sort of
indefinite reprieve. --Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
It is important to speak of suffering and death in a
way that dispels fear. Indeed, dying is a part of life. -
Pope John Paul II in Austria: Message to the sick and
suffering June 1998
It is, indeed, apparent, from the constitution of the
world, that there must be a time for other thoughts; and
a perpetual meditation upon the last hour, however it may
become the solitude of a monastery, is inconsistent with
many duties of common life. But surely the remembrance of
death ought to predominate in our minds, as an habitual
and settled principle, always operating, though not
always perceived; and our attention should seldom wander
so far from our own condition as not to be recalled and
fixed by the sight of an event which must soon, we know
not how soon, happen likewise to ourselves, and of which,
though we cannot appoint the time, we may secure the
consequence." -- Samuel Johnson: Rambler #78
He is gone, and we are going.-- Samuel Johnson, letter
to Mrs Thrale on the death of her son, Harry: 25 March
1776.
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The
act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a
time.
Samuel Johnson (Boswell: Life of Johnson)
Since business and gaiety are always drawing our
attention away from a future state, some admonition is
frequently necessary to recall it to our minds, and what
can more properly renew the impression than the examples
of mortality which every day supplies? The great
incentive to virtue is the reflection that we must die;
it will, therefore, be useful to accustom ourselves,
whenever we see a funeral, to consider how soon we may be
added to the number of those whose probation is past, and
whose happiness or misery shall endure forever. Samuel
Johnson: Rambler #78
Every funeral may justly be considered as a summons to
prepare for that state into which it shows us that we
must some time enter; and the summons is more loud and
piercing as the event of which it warns us is at less
distance. To neglect at any time preparation for death is
to sleep on our post at a siege; but to omit it in old
age is to sleep at an attack. - Samuel Johnson: Rambler
#78
Nothing confers so much ability to resist the
temptations that perpetually surround us, as an habitual
consideration of the shortness of life, and the
uncertainty of those pleasures that solicit our pursuit;
and this consideration can be inculcated only by
affliction. 'O Death! how bitter is the remembrance of
thee, to a man that lives at ease in his possessions!' If
our present state were one continued succession of
delights, or one uniform flow of calmness and
tranquility, we should never willingly think upon its
end; death would then surely surprise us as 'a thief in
the night;' and our task of duty would remain unfinished,
till 'the night came when no man can work.'- Samuel
Johnson: Adventurer #120
Catch, then, oh catch the transient hour;
Improve each moment as it flies!
Life's a short summer, man a flower;
He dies -- alas! how soon he dies!
Samuel Johnson from "Winter, An Ode",
If we really think that home is elsewhere and that
this life is a 'wandering to find home,' why should we
not look forward to the arrival?
C.S. Lewis letter:7 June 1959
Has this world been so kind to you that you should
leave with regret? There are better things ahead than any
we leave behind.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)
In the chapter, "Farewell to Shadowlands," the
children are afraid of being sent away from Narnia. Aslan
assures them that they will not - and a wild hope rises
in them. Aslan tells them that there was a real railway
accident. "Your father and mother and all of you are --
as you used to call it in the Shadowlands -- dead. The
term is over: the holiday has begun. The dream is ended.
This is the morning...things that began to happen after
that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write
them. And as for us, this is the end of all stories, and
we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever
after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real
story. All their life in this world and all their
adventures in Narnia have only been the cover of the
Great Story which none on earth has read; which goes on
forever, in which every chapter is better than the one
before." C. S. LEWIS, Last Battle
Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection
not in words alone,but in every leaf in springtime.
--Martin Luther
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word;
But as Thou dwell'st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.
Come not in terrors, as the King of kings,
But kind and good, with healing in Thy wings,
Tears for all woes, a heart for every plea&emdash;
Come, Friend of sinners, and thus abide with me.
Thou on my head in early youth didst smile;
And, though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee,
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows
flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
Henry Francis Lyte - 1793-1847
"Now I leave off to speak any more to creatures, and
turn my speech to Thee, O Lord. Now I begin my
intercourse with God which shall never be broken off.
Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations.
Farewell, meat and drink.
Farewell, the world and all delights.
Farewell, sun, moon, and stars.
Welcome God and Father.
Welcome sweet Lord Jesus, Mediator of the New
Covenant.
Welcome Blessed Spirit of Grace, God of all
Consolation.
Welcome Glory.
Welcome Eternal Life.
Welcome death."
Dr. Matthew MacKail stood below the gallows, and as his
martyr cousin writhed in the tautened ropes, he clasped
the helpless jerking legs together and clung to them that
death might come the easier and sooner. And so, with
Christ was Hugh MacKail "with his sweet boyish
smile."
The martyrdom of Hugh MacKail
After the fever of life &emdash; after weariness,
sicknesses, fightings and despondings, languor and
fretfulness, struggling and failing, struggling and
succeeding &emdash; after all the changes and chances of
this troubled and unhealthy state, at length comes death
&emdash; at length the white throne of God &emdash; at
length the beatific vision. J. H. Newman
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died.
Rather, we should thank God that such men lived.--George
S. Patton, Jr
Even very young children need to be informed about
dying. Explain the concept of death very carefully to
your child. This will make threatening him with it much
more effective. -- P.J. O'Rourke
United with his fellowmen by the strongest of all
ties, the tie of a common doom, the free man finds that a
new vision is with him always, shedding over every daily
task the light of love. The life of Man is a long march
through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured
by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope
to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as
they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by
the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the
time in which we can help them, in which their happiness
or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on
their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of
sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring
affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instil faith
in hours of despair. Let us not weigh in grudging scales
their merits and demerits, but let us think only of their
need, of the sorrows, the difficulties, perhaps the
blindnesses, that make the misery of their lives; let us
remember that they are fellow-sufferers in the same
darkness, actors in the same tragedy with ourselves.--
Bertrand Russell The Free Man's Worship"
[1903]
Death--the last sleep? No, it is the final
awakening.-- Walter Scott
To
grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after
death,
The undiscover'd country from whose
bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the
will
And makes us rather bear those ills we
have
Than fly to others that we know not
of?
Hamlet, Act III
Farewell! a long farewell to all my
greatness!
This is the state of man: today he puts
forth
The tender leaves of hopes; tomorrows
blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick
upon him;
The third day comes a frost, a killing
frost,
And, when he thinks, good easy man,
full surely
His greatness is a-ripening, nips his
root,
And then he falls, as I do.
William Shakespeare, King Henry VIII,
III,ii.351
"What!" cries one, "Is there not a terrible amount of
pain connected with death?" I answer, No. It is life that
has the pain; death is the finis of all pain. You blame
death for the disease of which he is the cure.--Charles
Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) _Metropolitan Tabernacle
Pulpit_
No believer dies an untimely death. Long life is not
to be reckoned by years as men count them. He lives
longest who lives best. Many a man has crowded half a
century into a single year. God gives his people life,
not as the clock ticks, but as he helps them to serve
him, and he can make them to live much in a short space
of time. There are no untimely figs gathered into God's
basket. The great Master of the vineyard plucks the
grapes when they are ripe and ready to be taken, and not
before.--Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)_Metropolitan
Tabernacle Pulpit_ Vol. 18 [1872]
Old and young, we are all on our last cruise. --Robert
Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) _Virginibus Puerisque_
[1881], Part 2, "Crabbed Age and Youth"
Eternity is a terrible thought. I mean, where's it all
going to end? --Tom Stoppard (1937-____) In "Quote Disk
1,2,3," by DBUG, 1991.
To a true believer, death is but going to Church: from
the Church below to the Church above.-Augustustus
Toplady--Works, p.543
I did not attend his funeral, but I wrote a nice
letter saying I approved of it. - Mark Twain
(1835-1910)
Let us endeavour so to live that when we come to die
even the undertaker will be sorry.--Mark Twain
If a wicked man seems to have peace at death, it is
not from the knowledge of his happiness, but from the
ingnorance of his danger.
THOMAS WATSON
I want to go ahead of Father Time with a scythe of my
own. -- H G Wells
You have now such faith as is necessary for your
living unto God. As yet you are not called to die. When
you are, you shall have faith for this also.
John Wesley letter: 17 April 1776
Our birth is nothing but our death begun, as tapers
waste the moment they take fire.-- Edward Young
decay
When Catholicism goes bad it becomes the... religio
[religion] of amulets and holy places and
priest craft: Protestantism, in its corresponding
decay, becomes a vague mist of ethical platitudes.
C.S. Lewis
deception
Nothing is so easy as to deceive oneself; for what
we wish, we readily believe.-- Demosthenes (B.C.
384-322)
The first principle is that you must not fool
yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool. -
Richard P. Feynman (1918 &endash; 1988)
We are never deceived: we deceive ourselves.--
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
No man was ever so much deceived by another as by
himself.
Fulke Greville (1554-1628) In "Wisdom of the Ages
at Your Fingertips," MCR software, 1995.
The true way to be deceived is to think oneself
more clever than others.--La Rochefoucauld
(1613-1680)_Reflections; or, Sentences and Moral
Maxims_ [1678], Maxim 127
The greatest deception men suffer is from their own
opinions. -- Leonardo da Vinci
debt
Neither
a borrower nor a lender be
For loan oft loses both itself and
friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of
husbandry."
Wm Shakespeare,Hamlet
defeat
A good retreat is better than a bad stand.
Irish Proverb
But man is not made for defeat. A man can be
destroyed but not defeated.- Ernest Hemingway
(1889-1961)
All defeat is a collaboration. --Peggy Noonan. What
I Saw at the Revolution, p. 294
What is defeat? Nothing but education, nothing but
the first step to something better. - Wendell
Phillips
Being defeated is often a temporary condition.
Giving up is what makes it permanent. -Marilyn vos
Savant
democracy
Democracy is mob rule, but with income taxes.
Why don't more people vote? Is it ignorance or
apathy?
I don't know, and I don't care.
It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is
worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a
reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is
called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But
from the absolute will of an entire people there is no
appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason. -- Lord
Acton
A democracy is a government in the hands of men of
low birth, no property, and vulgar employments. -
Aristotle, Rhetoric, Independency
Universal suffrage is the most monstrous and
iniquitous of tyrannies-because the force of numbers
is most brutal, having neither courage nor talent.
Paul Bourquet, Le Diciple, 1889
Your representative owes you, not his industry
only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of
serving you, if he sacrifices it to your
opinion.--Edmund Burke to the voters of Bristol,
1774
To drive men from independence to live on alms, is
itself great cruelty.
Edmund Burke Reflections on the Revolution in France,
1790
The devil was the first democrat. --Byron
If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket
would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how
much slaughtering he did on the side. --Orson Scott
Card
The next time they give you all that civic bull....
about voting, keep in mind that Hitler was elected in
a full, free democratic election.- George Carlin
Many forms of government have been tried, and will
be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends
that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has
been said that democracy is the worst form of
Government except all those other forms that have been
tried from time to time. -- Winston Churchill, House
of Commons, 11 Nov. 1947
The best argument against democracy is a five
minute conversation with the average voter. Winston
Churchill
It is the besetting vice of democracies to
substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual
form in which the masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
- James Fenimore Cooper
The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to
mediocrity, since the tastes, knowledge, and
principles of the majority form the tribunal of
appeal.
James Fenimore Cooper
Nor is the people's judgement always true,
The most may err as grossly as the few."
John Dryden, _Absalom and Achitophel_
Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting
themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has
made our generation understand that to choose one's
government is not necessarily to secure freedom. --
F.A. Hayek
In each age it is necessary to adapt to the popular
mythology. At one times kings were anointed by Deity,
so the problem was to see to it that Deity anointed
the right candidate. In this age the myth is 'the will
of the people'.
Professor Bernardo de la Paz on recently elected
congress, in "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", by Robert
Heinlein.
The Masses are Asses - Cornelious C. Janzen
That government is the strongest of which every man
feels himself a part.--- Thomas Jefferson
Fifty-one percent of a nation can establish a
totalitarian regime, suppress minorities and still
remain democratic. -- Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn
..there are two opposite reasons for being a
democrat. You may think all men so good that they
deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth,
and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice.
That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine
of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe
fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be
trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows.
----C. S. Lewis "Membership" Sobernost #31 (June
1945)
I am a democrat because I believe in the Fall of
Man. I think most people are democrats for the
opposite reason. A great deal of democratic enthusiasm
descends from the ideas of people like Rousseau, who
believed in democracy because they thought mankind so
wise and good that everyone deserved a share in the
government. The danger of defending democracy on these
grounds is that they are not true....Mankind is so
fallen that no man can be trusted with unchecked power
over his fellows. Aristotle said that some people were
only fit to be slaves. I do not contradict him. But I
reject slavery because I see no men fit to be masters.
CS Lewis
When the people have no tyrant, their own public
opinion becomes one. Lord Lytton
.no man shall be admitted to the body politic but
such as are members of some of the churches within the
limits' of the colony. - The General Court of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony 18 May 1631
Democracy is the art of running the circus from the
monkey cage. -- H.L. Mencken
Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective
wisdom of individual ignorance.--H.L. Mencken
Democracy is a form of religion; it is the worship
of jackals by jackasses. -- H.L. Mencken
Public opinion is held in reverence. It settles
everything. Some think it is the voice of God.--Mark
Twain
The essence of democracy is not that everyone makes
and administers laws but that lawgivers and rulers
should be dependent on the people's will in such a way
that they may be peaceably changed if conflict
occurs.-- Ludwig von Mises
Democracy, which is a charming form of government,
full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of
equality to equals and unequals alike.--Plato, The
Republic. Book VIII. 558
Democracy: The substitution of election by the
incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
--George Bernard Shaw
A democracy is a state in which the poor, gaining
the upper hand, kill some and banish others, and then
divide the offices among the remaining citizens
equally, usually by lot.-- Plato, The Republic,
VIII
Because in the oligarchical State they are
disqualified and driven from office, and therefore
they cannot train or gather strength; whereas in a
democracy they are almost the entire ruling power, and
while the keener sort speak and act, the rest keep
buzzing about the bema and do not suffer a word to be
said on the other side; hence in democracies almost
everything is managed by the drones. -- Plato, "The
Republic"
When 25 percent of the population believe the
President should be impeached and 51 percent of the
population believe in UFOs, you may or may not need a
new President, but you definitely need a new
population. -Harry Reasoner
"Senator, you have the vote of every thinking
person!""
Adlai E. Stevenson called back ""That's not enough,
madam, we need a majority
Enemies within are those who do not believe in the
democratic system but who will use violence or
intimidation - some means other than democracy - to
attain their ends. - Margaret Thatcher, speaking on
Channel 4 TV quoted in Brenda Maddox, Maggie the First
Lady, p160
When Abraham Lincoln spoke in his famous Gettysburg
speech of 1863 of 'government of the people, by the
people, and for the people,' he gave the world a neat
definition of democracy which has since been widely and
enthusiastically adopted. But what he enunciated as a
form of government was not in itself especially
Christian, for nowhere in the Bible is the word democracy
mentioned. Ideally, when Christians meet, as Christians,
to take counsel together, their purpose is not (or should
not be) to ascertain what is the mind of the majority but
what is the mind of the Holy Spirit - something which may
be quite different.
Nevertheless I am an enthusiast for democracy. And I take
that position, not because I believe majority opinion is
inevitably right or true - indeed no majority can take
away God-given human rights - but because I believe it
most effectively safeguards the value of the individual,
and, more than any other system, restrains the abuse of
power by the few. And that is a Christian concept.
Margaret Thatcher, speech to the Church of Scotland
General Assembly, 21.5.88
How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll
in Egypt?- Harry Truman
Public opinion is held in reverence. It settles
everything. Some think it is the voice of God.--Mark
Twain
From bondage to spiritual faith,from
spiritual faith to great courage,
from great courage to liberty,
from liberty to abundance,
from abundance to selfishness,
from selfishness to complacency,
from complacency to dependency,
from dependency back into bondage.
Alexander Fraser Tytler ,Lord Woodhouselee
(1748-1813), "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian
Republic"
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people
by the people for the people.--Oscar Wilde
The Bible is for the government of the
people, by the people, and for the people. --John
Wycliffe (ca.1330-1384)
The only way to settle questions of an ideological
nature or controversial issues among the people is by
the democratic method, the method of discussion, of
criticism, of persuasion and education, and not by the
method of coercion or repression. --Mao Ze-dong, "On
the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the
People", 1957
depression
Some days you're the dog, some days you're the
hydrant.
There are many reasons why God would not want you. But
don't worry. You're in good company.
- Moses stuttered.
-- David's armor didn't fit.
--- John Mark was rejected by Paul.
---- Hosea's wife was a prostitute.
----- Amos' only training was in the school of fig-tree
pruning.
------ Jacob was a liar.
------- David had an affair.
-------- Solomon was too rich.
--------- Abraham was too old.
---------- David was too young.
----------- Timothy had ulcers.
------------ Peter was afraid of death.
------------- Lazarus was dead.
-------------- John was self-righteous.
--------------- Jesus was too poor.
-------------- Naomi was a widow.
------------- Paul was a murderer. So was Moses.
------------ Jonah ran from God.
----------- Miriam was a gossip.
---------- Gideon and Thomas both doubted.
--------- Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal.
-------- Elijah was burned out.
------- John the Baptist was a loudmouth.
------ Martha was a worry-wart
----- Mary was lazy.
---- Samson had long hair.
--- Noah got drunk.
-- Did I mention that Moses had a short fuse?
- So did Peter, Paul - well, lots of folks did.
But God doesn't require a job interview.
He doesn't hire and fire like most bosses, because He's
more our Dad than our Boss.
He doesn't look at financial gain or loss.
He's not prejudiced or partial, not judging, grudging,
sassy, or brassy, not deaf to our cry, not blind to our
need.
As much as we try, God's gifts are free.
We could do wonderful things for wonderful people and
still not be . . .Wonderful.
Satan says, "You're not worthy."
Jesus says, "So what? I AM."
Satan looks back and sees our mistakes.
God looks back and sees the cross.
He doesn't calculate what you did in '78. It's not even
on the record.
Sure. There are lots of reasons why God shouldn't want
us.
But if we are magically in love with Him, if we hunger
for Him more than our next breath,
He'll use us in spite of who we are, where we've been, or
what we look like.
Step out of your limitations into the illimitable nature
of who God is.
Everyone thinks his own burden heavy.... French
Proverb
If you are bitter at heart, sugar in the mouth will
not help you. Jewish proverb
Some days you're the pigeon; some days you're the
statue. ~ Roger Anderson
Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a
glass of wine. Thomas Aquinas
God of our life, there are days when the burdens we
carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the
road seems dreary and endless, the skies grey and
threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and
our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their
courage. Flood the path with light, run our eyes to where
the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave
music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and
saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we
may be able to encourage the souls of all who journey
with us on the road of life, to Your honour and glory.
--. Augustine
One of the things I learned the hard way was that it
doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making
optimism a way of life can restore your faith in
yourself. Lucille Ball (1911-1989)
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed
spirit dries up the bones.--Prov. 17:22
I am ashes where once I was fire. --Lord Byron
[George Noel Gordon] (1788-1824) (To the Countess
of Blessington, 1823)
I can have all the money and cars in the world and be
unhappy. Once you find out that money and fame and
success doesn't do it, where do you go then? That's a big
dilemma. I had all those things: A beautiful wife, cars,
a home, money, friends. All the things that you think a
man could need and it didn't stop me drinking. I was
depressed. I was suicidal. Eric Clapton
Some days are diamonds
Some days are stones
Sometimes the hard times won't leave me alone
Sometimes the cold wind blows a chill in my soul
Some days are diamonds, some days are stone.
Neil Diamond
And the best part of health is fine disposition. It is
more essential than talent, even in the works of talent.
Nothing will supply the want of sunshine to peaches, and,
to make knowledge valuable, you must have the
cheerfulness of wisdom. Whenever you are sincerely
pleased, you are nourished. The joy of the spirit
indicates its strength. All healthy things are
sweet-tempered. Genius works in sport, and goodness
smiles to the last; and, for the reason, that whoever
sees the law which distributes things, does not despond,
but is animated to great desires and endeavors. He who
desponds betrays that he has not seen it....It is
observed that a depression of spirits develops the germs
of a plague in individuals and nations. Ralph Waldo
Emerson, The Conduct of Life
He's turned his life around. He used to be depressed
and miserable.Now he's miserable and depressed.- David
Frost
Melancholy attends the best joys of an ideal life.
--Margaret Fuller
A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
--Samuel Johnson, Rasselas
Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means
but drinking. Boswell: Life of Johnson
No disease of the imagination ... is so difficult of
cure as that which is complicated with the dread of
guilt: fancy and conscience then act interchangeably upon
us, and so often shift their places that the illusions of
one are not distinguished from the dictates of the other.
If fancy presents images not moral or religious, the mind
drives them away when they give it pain; but when
melancholic notions take the form of duty, they lay hold
on the faculties without opposition, because we are
afraid to exclude or banish them. For this reason the
superstitious are often melancholy, and the melancholy
almost always superstitious." - Samuel Johnson: Rasselas
[the character Imlac]
Talking of constitutional melancholy, he observed, "A
man so afflicted, Sir, must divert distressing thoughts,
and not combat with them." Boswell: "May not he think
them down, Sir?" Johnson: "No, Sir. To attempt to think
them down is madness. He should have a lamp constantly
burning in his bed chamber during the night, and if
wakefully disturbed, take a book, and read, and compose
himself to rest. To have the management of the mind is a
great art, and it may be attained in a considerable
degree by experience and habitual exercise.." Boswell:
"Should not he provide amusements for himself? Would it
not, for instance, be right for him to take a course of
chymistry?" Johnson: "Let him take a course of chymistry,
or a course of rope-dancing, or a course of any thing to
which he is inclined at the time. Let him contrive to
have as many retreats for his mind as he can, as many
things to which it can fly from itself." - James Boswell:
Life of Johnson
The black dog I hope always to resist, and in time to
drive, though I am deprived of almost all those that used
to help meWhen I rise my breakfast is solitary, the
black dog waits to share it, from breakfast to dinner he
continues barking, except that Dr Brocklesby for a little
keeps him at a distanceNight comes at last, and some
hours of restlessness and confusion bring me again to a
day of solitude. What shall exclude the black dog from a
habitation like this?
Samuel Johnson, Letter to Mrs Thrale, 28 June 1783, in R.
W. Chapman (ed.) Letters of Samuel Johnson (1952) vol. 3
(on his attacks of melancholia; more recently associated
with Winston Churchill, who used the phrase black dog
when alluding to his own periodic bouts of
depression)
Knowing your own darkness is the best method for
dealing with the darknesses of other people. --Carl
Jung
No thoroughly occupied man was ever yet very
miserable. Letitia Landon (1802-1838)
[Melancholy] falls upon a contented life, like
a drop of ink on white paper, which is none the less a
stain that it carries no meaning with it.
John Gibson Lockhart
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
Henry W. Longfellow. 1807-1882. The Rainy Day
Depression is the inability to construct a future.
--Rollo May
I cannot stand being awake, the pain is too much.
~Spike Milligan
Believe not these suggestions, which proceed
From anguish of the mind, and humours black
That mingle with thy fancy.
John Milton. (1608 -1674). Samson Agonistes
Mirth, and even cheerfulness, when employed as
remedies in low spirits, are like hot water to a frozen
limb.-- Benjamin Rush (1746-1813)
Our every defence against Satan rests upon the power
of Jesus Christ. Drawing upon that power, the Protestant
Reformation itself a a mighty fortress. Luther also used
more direct means of defence, such as cheerfulness,
laughter, boisterousness, bawdiness,scorn, insults and
obscenity. Everything active, assertive, earthy and good
humoured fends off the depression on which the prince of
darkness thrives. One of Luther's best defences was to go
to bed with Katie. --J Russell The Prince of Darkness p
173
Sometimes one has simply to endure a period of
depression for what it may hold of illumination if one
can live through it, attentive to what it exposes or
demands.- May Sarton
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Hamlet, Act III
Macbeth: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the
written troubles of the brain, and with some sweet
oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that
perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart?
Doctor: Therein the patient Must minister to himself.
Shakespeare., Macbeth
When you are depressed, the past and the future are
absorbed entirely by the present, as in the world of a
three-year-old. You can neither remember feeling better
nor imagine that you will feel better…. Depression
means that you have no point of view.-- Andrew Solomon,
"Anatomy of Melancholy". The New Yorker. 12 Jan 1998
I wonder if anyone will ever know the emptiness of my
life. Personal Diary - Last entry "Oh what's the
point?"
Kenneth Williams
Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
--Steven Wright
design
Good design follows the pattern set not by our desire,
but our Designer.-- Graham Clarke, graphic designer
desire
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to
fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to
fall.
Francis Bacon. 1561-1626. Of Goodness.
The desires of man increase with his acquisitions;
every step which he advances brings something within
his view, which he did not see before, and which, as
soon as he sees it, he begins to want. Where necessity
ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied
with every thing that nature can demand, than we sit
down to contrive artificial appetites. -
Samuel Johnson: Idler #30
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in
this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation
is that I was made for another world. -- C S
Lewis--Mere Christianity
despair
Never despair; but if you do, work on in
despair.--Burke (1729-1797)
I cannot describe to you the despairing sensation
of trying to do something for a man who seems
incapable or unwilling to do anything further for
himself.-- Lord Byron, letter to Thomas Moore
In idleness there is a perpetual despair.-- Thomas
Carlyle
Despair is the conclusion of fools. --Disraeli,
_Alroy_, 1833
Despair is vinegar from the wine of hope. Austin
O'Malley
Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.
--Terence (B.C. 185-159)
devil
Give the devil an inch, and he'll become your
ruler.
My dear brothers, never forget when you hear the
progress of the Enlightenment praised, that the devil's
cleverest ploy is to persuade you he doesn't exist --
attributed to Baudelaire (1821-67)
Of course I believe in the devil. If I did not, I
should have to believe that I am the devil myself. --G.
K. Chesterton
None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect
of Jesus; but the devil is always imagined as being of
acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest
courage. --Lydia Maria Child (1802-1880) _Letters from
New York_, Volume 1 [1843], Letter 33
[December 8, 1842]
There is an evil power, a Satanic power, which holds
souls in error, and which persists. It is interesting to
note that in the first centuries of the Christian era
many demoniacal phenomena appeared in countries in the
course of being converted from idolatry to Christianity.
The same is true of pagan civilisation today. In my
research into the fourth century, I was surprised to find
a great recrudescence of magical practices at the very
moment when Roman civilization under Constantine was
about to be snatched away bodily from paganism and
enter... into the kingdom of the Son; at that time, all
the rites of sorcery took on an incredible virulence...
Jean Danielou, The Salvation of the Nations
The attributes of God have been carefully explored.
But the Devil's attributes have been left vague. I think
I've found one of them. It is he who puts the prices on
things." "Doesn't God put a price on things?" "No. One of
his attributes is magnanimity. But the Devil is a setter
of prices, and a usurer, as well. You buy from him at an
agreed price, but the payments are all on time, and the
interest is charged on the whole of the principal, right
up to the last payment, however much of the principal you
think you have paid off in the meantime."-- Robertson
Davies, _World Of Wonders_
Look at me -- underestimated from Day One! You'd never
think I was a master of the universe, now, would
you?--John Milton aka Satan, in Devil's Advocate 1997
The Devil does not shock a saint into alertness by
suggesting whopping crimes. He starts off with little,
almost inoffensive things to which even the heart of a
saint would make only mild protests.--Walter Farrell,
_Companion to Summa_, 1941
The devil gets up to the belfry by the vicar's skirts.
--Thomas Fuller
No popular film in the last two decades treats the
Devil with more seriousness and subtlety [than The
Exorcist]; indeed, it is stunnig to watch the film
today. We all remember the vomiting and head-spinning,
but what stands out now in an age of special effects is
the dialogue about the nature of good and evil, the
Devil's aim to confuse the two, and the unreliability of
modern science in clarifying the issue. Satan is not
treated as someone or something that can be reduced to
petty human motivations or simplistic ambitions or
explanations. He is what he is: a mystery, the
omnipresent tempter. He is the Devil without quotation
marks. -- Jonah Goldberg
To deny the existence of these evil spirits, to deny
the existence of the Devil, is to deny the truth of the
New Testament. To deny the existence of these imps of
darkness is to contradict the words of Jesus Christ . . .
If we give up the belief in devils, we must give up the
inspiration of the Old and New Testament. We must give up
the divinity of Christ. To deny the existence of evil
spirits is to utterly destroy the foundation of
Christianity . . . If all the accounts in the New
Testament of casting out devils are false, what part of
the Blessed Book is true? . . . If the Devil does not
exist, the Christian creeds all crumble. Robert Green
Ingersoll
The Devil has been one of the organising principles of
world politics for as long as Christian civilisation has
existed. The Devil serves to identify what evil is and
became an entity who was reponsible for evil that let God
and ourselves off the hook. That has been the function of
the Devil in history.--Leslek Kolakowski
Satan is inconsistent. He persuades a man not to go to
synagogue on a cold morning; yet when the man does go, he
follows him into it.
The Koretser Rabbi, 18thC, quoted _Hasidic Anthology_,
ed.Louis Newman
It is so stupid of the twentieth century to have
abandoned belief in the devil when he is the only
explanation for it. -- Ronald Knox
He is the most diligent preacher of all other; he is
never out of his diocese.--Hugh Latimer, _Sermons_,
1549
There are two equal and opposite errors into which our
race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in
their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an
excessive and healthy interesting in them. They
themselves are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a
materialist or a magician with the same delight.--C. S.
Lewis, _The Screwtape Letters_
Let us act with humility, cast ourselves at one
another's feet, join hands with each other, and help one
another. For here we battle not against pope or emperor,
but against the devil, and do you imagine that he is
asleep?--Martin Luther
I often laugh at Satan, and there is nothing that
makes him so angry as when I attack him to his face, and
tell him that through God I am more than a match for him.
Martin Luther
In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is
the best and easiest method of winning over the devil.
Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom
you are talking. But by all means flee solitude, for the
devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when
you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and
despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him.
Therefore, Jerome, joke and play games with your wife and
others. In this way you will drive out your diabolical
thoughts and take courage Be of good courage, therefore,
and cast these dreadful thoughts out of your mind.
Whenever the devil pesters you with these thoughts, at
once seek out the company of men, drink more, joke and
jest, or engage in some other form of merriment.
Sometimes it is necessary to drink a little more, play,
jest, or even commit some infraction in defiance and
contempt of the devil in order not to give him an
opportunity to make us scrupulous about trifles. We shall
be overcome if we worry too much about falling into some
sin. Accordingly if the devil should say, "Do not drink,"
you should reply to him, "On this very account, because
you forbid it, I shall drink, and what is more, I shall
drink a generous amount." Thus one must always do the
opposite of that which Satan prohibits. What do you think
is my reason for drinking wine undiluted, talking freely,
and eating more often, if it is not to torment and vex
the devil who made up his mind to torment and vex me.
Martin Luther
The best way to get rid of the Devil, if you cannot
kill it with the words of Holy Scripture, is to rail at
and mock him. Music, too, is very good; music is hateful
to him, and drives him far away. Martin Luther
The Devil fears the word of God, He can't bite it; it
breaks his teeth. Martin Luther
It is the devil's masterstroke to get us to accuse
him.--George Meredith (1828-1909)
Romantics regarded Milton's Satan as the most
important symbol of the rebelliousness that they
considered the greatest good.
Jeffrey Russell, The Prince of Darkness, p205
The prince of darkness is a gentleman. --Shakespeare,
_King Lear_
It is in the highest interests of the devil to
persuade the world that religious people are
disagreeable.--Hubert van Zeller, _We Live With Our Eyes
Open_, 1949
diary
A diary will show you that troubles that loomed so
large and menacingly at the time become insignificant and
usually forgotten over the months.
John Copeland DIARY OF A SUPERANNUATED SOUL w/e8.8.98
Rien. [Nothing.] - The diary of Louis XVI for
14 July 1789 - the day the Bastille was stormed.
I do not keep a diary. Never have. To write a diary
every day is like returning to one's own vomit. --Enoch
Powell Article, 1977
diet
He who stuffeth, puffeth.
One day I will diet. The other 364 I'll eat what I
like.
If you are going to be thin you will have to be
hungry the rest of your life.
Eat right. Stay fit. Die anyway.
Dieting is wishful shrinking.
Dieting is a losing battle.
A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, for they
are sticking to their diets.
Tubby or not tubby, fat is the question! -- Sign in
a Belfast slimming clinic
Use three physicians still:
First Doctor Quiet,
Then Doctor Merryman,
And Doctor Diet.
Cited by Robertson Davies in a letter (Nov. 3, 1986)
to Margaret Laurence & identified only as "old
medieval medical advice."
No diet will remove all the fat from your body
because the brain is entirely fat. Without a brain you
might look good, but all you could do is run for
public office. Covert Bailey
It is not fatness; it is development.-- Ingrid
Bergman, on her middle-age spread, @ 20 years ago
One sits the whole day at the desk and appetite is
standing next to me. 'Away with you,' I say. But
Comrade Appetite does not budge from the spot. -
Leonid Brezhnev (1906 &endash; 1982)
I'm trying to lose some weight so I've gone on a
garlic diet. You eat garlic with everything. It
doesn't make you lose any weight but people stand
further back and you look thinner at a distance. ~
Noel Britton.
Sweets are the destiny that shapes our ends. - Andy
Chap's Funnies
The only time to eat diet food is while you're
waiting for the steak to cook. -- Julia Child
The second day of a diet is always easier than the
first. By the second day you're off it. -- Jackie
Gleason
The three words women most want to hear from a man
are, "You lost weight"- Lori Gottlieb
Äs God's Word is food for our spirit. Being
spiritually skinny is not attractive to God. -- Ron
Haithcock
Food is an important part of a balanced diet. --
Fran Lebowitz
"It's true that a good diet is the best medicine
when it suits the individual, but to live medically is
to live wretchedly." Then he related some examples of
deceased persons who starved themselves to death on
the advice of their physicians. "I eat what I like and
will die when God wills it."-- Luther's Tabletalk from
No.3801
I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I
eat. There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an
extra three years in the geriatric ward.- John
Mortimer
I am not fat. I am pleasantly plump -- Obelix the
Gaul.
Dieting is a way of starving to death so you can
live longer. --Bob Phillips
I'm on a new tranquilizer diet. I haven't lost an
ounce, but I don't care. -- Bob Phillips
I highly recommend worrying. It is much more
effective than dieting. --William Powell
I was a vegetarian until I started leaning toward
the sunlight. -- Rita Rudner
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)_Julius Caesar_
[1599], Act I, Scene ii, Line 191
Thou seest I have more flesh than another man and
therefore more fraility ~William Shakespeare
1564-1616, Henry IV (1597)
Health food makes me sick. -- Calvin Trillin
A diet is when you have to go to some length to
change your width. -- Wit & Wisdom
difficulty
It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties
vanish when faced boldly.--- Isaac Asimov
Obstacles are things a person sees when he takes
his eyes off his goal.--- E. Joseph Crossman
When Solomon said that there was a time and a place
for everything he had not encountered the problem of
parking an automobile. - Bob Edwards (1947 - )
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into
small jobs. - Henry Ford, 1863 - 1947
All problems become smaller if you don't dodge
them, but confront them. Touch a thistle timidly, and
it pricks you; grasp it boldly, and its spines
crumble.
William S. Halsey
The three hardest tasks in the world are neither
physical feats nor intellectual achievements, but
moral acts: to return love for hate, to include the
excluded, and to say, "I was wrong." --Sydney J.
Harris (1917-1986) _Pieces of Eight_
Our achievements speak for themselves. What we have
to keep track of are our failures, discouragements,
and doubts. We tend to forget the past difficulties,
the many false starts, and the painful groping. - Eric
Hoffer (1902-1983) "Reflections on the Human
Condition," aph. 157, 1973.
Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a
wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to
climb it, go through it, or work around
it, - Michael Jordan
Obstacles are those frightful things you see when
you take your eyes off the goal. -- Hannah Moore
I have only one eye: I have a right to be blind
sometimes: I really do not see the signal
Horatio Nelson routs the French at the Battle of
Copenhagen, 2 April 1801, ignoring Admiral Parker's
order to disengage.
diplomacy
Diplomacy: thinking twice before saying
nothing.
Diplomacy --- The art of letting other people
achieve your ends.
Diplomacy: lying in state. Oliver Herford
Diplomacy - the art of letting someone have your
way.-- attributed to Daniele Vare
discipline
God's house of correction is His school of
instruction.- Thomas Brooks
Let the abbott restrain the badly behaved, and the
inflexible and the proud, or the disobedient, with blows
or chastisement of the body.
Rule of Benedict, in R Lacey and D Danziger, The Year
1000, Little, Brown and Co,GB, 1999, p107
Whomever the Lord has adopted and deemed worthy of his
fellowship ought to prepare themselves for a hard,
toilsome, and unquiet life, crammed with very many and
various kinds of evil. It is the Heavenly Father's will
thus to exercise them so as to put his own children to a
definite test. Beginning with Christ, his first-born, he
follows this plan with all his children. --John Calvin,
The Institutes of the Christian Religion
[1559]
When you were quite a little boy, somebody ought to
have said ``hush'' just once. --- Mrs Patrick Campbell,
to George Bernard Shaw.
It is one thing to praise discipline, and another to
submit to it. -- Cervantes, _The Dialogue of the Dogs_,
1613
No steam or gas ever drives anything until it is
confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power
until it is tunneled. No life ever grows until it is
focused, dedicated, disciplined. Harry Emerson Fosdick
(1878-1969) "Living Under Tension."
God's wounds cure, sin's kisses kill. - WILLIAM
GURNALL
Man must be disciplined, for he is by nature raw and
wild. Kant, Immanuel (1724-1804)
I would rather have the rod to be the general terror
to all, to make them learn, than tell a child, if you do
thus or thus, you will bemore esteemed than your brothers
or sisters. The rod produces an effect which terminates
itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his
task, and there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting
emulation, and comparisons of superiority, you lay the
foundation of lasting mischief; you make brothers and
sisters hate each other." -- Samuel Johnson (Boswell:
Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides)
Discipline is the bridge between goals and
accomplishment.... Jim Rohn
God had one Son without sin, but not a single child
without the rod. C. H. Spurgeon Meditation for Morning
May 31
The price of excellence is discipline.The cost of
mediocrity is disappointment.-William W. Ward
discrimination
Our company does not discriminate on the basis of
race, sex, age, or religion... unless the religions
are bizarre and unpopular and can be considered cults
(and so may be freely discriminated against), or you
are a short, fat, bald, ugly,white heterosexual male
(and can be picked on without restraint), or are
anerd, smoker, or single person. Stupid people may now
also be discriminated against due to the failure of
their lobbying efforts.
There is a mania in legislation in detecting
discrimination. But all life is about discrimination.
Enoch Powell Article, 1975
In the long run, there is not much
discrimination against superior talent. - Carter G.
Woodson(1875 &endash; 1950)
disestablishment
An
impetuous maiden named Marion,
An antidisestablishmentarian,
Took a rabbit, a bear
And a pig to the fair,
And posed as a veterinarian.
Without honesty, trust, faithfulness to an
obligation, respect for the rights and interests of
others and love of neighbour, civilised society falls
apart. I believe that process would become all the
more pronounced in a society that abandoned its
historic spiritual framework in favour of an avowedly
secular one. - George Carey 23 Apr 2002
The minimal nature of the Anglican establishment,
its relative openness to other denominations and
faiths seeking a public space and the fact that its
very existence is an ongoing acknowledgement of the
public character of religion are all reasons why it
may seem far less intimidating to the minority faiths
than a triumphal secularism
Tariq Modood Not Easy Being British.
The main motive for disestablishment, as we meet it
in the press and elsewhere, is of course the old
secularist agenda, coming from those who are offended
that the Enlightenment hasn't been able to have its
way with every area of society. When people argue that
we live in a religiously plural society, they usually
don't actually want to take those religions seriously;
they are just repeating another bit of Enlightenment
rhetoric, that there are so many religions that all
are equally irrelevant. In fact, though of course
non-Christian faiths must be taken seriously, they
still only represent a tiny minority of people in this
country. And there is good evidence that many leaders
of Jewish and Muslim communities are much happier that
Christianity is the established religion than they
would be if secularism were to replace it. The Jews in
particular know what that might mean - N. T. Wright,
GOD AND CAESAR, THEN AND NOW, Lecture:, Monday 22
April 2002
disguise
A bank robber in Vienna has eluded the police after
staging a hold-up in the nude. 'His disguise was
perfect', said a police spokesman. 'The bank was full
of lady employees - and not one of them could describe
the guy's face'
diversity
Diversity has no inherent value, but is
simply a fact of life, which may be employed or
endured either well or badly. My circle of friends is
diverse. So is my household garbage. --Bruce Thompson
divorce
I still miss my ex-husband, but my aim is
improving.
Most recent numbers indicate that 52 percent of all
marriages end in divorce. The divorce rate for FIRST
marriages is about 37 percent. The divorce rate for
SECOND marriages is about 63 percent. The divorce rate
for THIRD marriages is about 78 percent. - Your odds
of succeeding are far greater if you stick it out with
the one you got. - The divorce rate for couples who
"pray together regularly" is ONE out of 152.
According to the European Union's statistical
office (Eurostat, ugh!) the UK and Finland "Top" the
European divorce rate with 2.8 divorces per 1000
people per annum, notwithstanding the rate of marriage
is falling. Between 1993 and 1999 the number of
divorces in the UK fell for that reason, but 39% of
children were born outside wedlock compared with an E
U average of 29%
Divorce is defeat. --Lucille Ball
The worst reconciliation is better than the best
divorce.-- Cervantes
Any man with eyes in his head, whatever the ideas
in his head, who looks at the world as it is today,
must know that the whole social substance of marriage
has changed . . . Numbers of normal people are getting
married, thinking already that they may be divorced .
. The Church was right to refuse even the exception.
The world has admitted the exception; and the
exception has become the rule . . The Catholic Church,
standing almost alone, declared that it would in fact
lead to an anarchical position; and the Catholic
Church was right. --G K Chesterton {The Well and the
Shallows, NY: Sheed & Ward, 1935, pp. 42-43}
If Americans can be divorced for "incompatibility
of temper" I cannot conceive why they are not all
divorced. I have known many happy marriages, but never
a compatible one.-- G K Chesterton-_What is Wrong with
the World_, 1910
So many people think divorce a panacea for every
ill, who find out, when they try it, the remedy is
worse than the disease.
Dorothy Dix (1870-1951)"Dorothy Dix, Her Book,"
1926.
Getting divorced just because you don't love a man
is almost as silly as getting married just because you
do.~Zsa Zsa Gabor
All [Christian churches] regard divorce as
something like cutting up a living body, as a kind of
surgical operation. Some of them think the operation
so violent that it cannot be done at all; others admit
it as a desperate remedy in extreme cases. They are
all agreed that it is more like having both your legs
cut off than it is like dissolving a business
partnership or even deserting a regiment. What they
all disagree with is the modern view that it is a
simple readjustment of partners, to be made whenever
people feel they are no longer in love with one
another, or when either of them falls in love with
someone else.
C S Lewis-- _Mere Christianity_
This story has irritated me from the start, and it
has nothing to do with Rev. Robinson's sexual
orientation. The guy left his wife and kids to go do
the hokey-pokey with someone else: that's what it's
all about, at least for me. Marriages founder for a
variety of reasons, and ofttimes they're valid
reasons, sad and inescapable. But "I want to have sex
with other people" is not a valid reason for depriving
two little girls of a daddy who lives with them, gets
up at night when they're sick, kisses them in the
morning when they wake. There's a word for people who
leave their children because they don't want to have
sex with Mommy anymore: selfish. I'm not a praying
man, but I cannot possibly imagine asking God if that
would be okay. -- James Lileks,
http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/03/0803/080703.html
She cried, and the judge wiped her tears with my
checkbook. --Tommy Manville (1894-1967)
To propose that marriage be abandoned and
half-marriage substituted is like advising a man with
a sty to get a glass eye. He doesn't want a glass eye;
he wants his own natural and perfect eye, with the sty
plucked out. All such reformers forget that the reall
essence of marriage is not the nature of the relation
but the performance of that relation. It is a device
for time-binding, like every other basic human
institution. Its one indomitable purpose is to endure.
Plainly enough, divorce ought to be easy when the
destruction of a marriage is an accomplished fact, but
it would be folly to set up conditions tending to make
that destruction more likely. Too much, indeed, has
been done in that direction already. The way out for
people who are incapable of the concessions and
compromises that go with every contract is not to fill
the contract with snakes but to avoid it altogether.
There are, indeed, many men and women to whom marriage
is a sheer psychic impossibility. But to the majority
it is surely not. They find it quite bearable; they
like it; they want it to endure. What they need is
help in making it endurable.-- H. L. Mencken,
"Divorce" The New York _World_, Jan 26, 1930
doctor
Doctor to patient: I have good news and bad news -
the good news is that you are not a hypochondriac.
A patient going to a doctor for his first
visit was asked, "And whom did you consult before
coming to me?" "Only the village druggist," was the
answer. "And what sort of foolish advice did that
numbskull give you?" asked the doctor, his tone and
manner denoting his contempt for the advice of the
layman. "Oh," replied his patient, with no malice
aforethought, "he told me to come and see you."
Honour physicians for their services, for the Lord
created them; for their gift of healing comes from the
Most High and they are rewarded by the King. .... The
Lord created medicines out of the earth and the
sensible will not despise them. .... And he gave skill
to human beings that he might be glorified in his
marvelous works. By them the physician heals and takes
away pain; the pharmacist makes a mixture from them.
God's works will never be finished and from him health
spreads over all the earth.My child, when you are ill,
do not delay but pray to the Lord and he will heal
you. Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly
... Then give physician his place for the Lord created
him; do not let him leave you, for you may need him.
There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands
of the physicians, for they too pray to the Lord that
he grant them success in diagnosis and in healing for
the sake of preserving life.- -- Ecclesiasticus 38
Doctors automatically know what's wrong with you.
They have a sick sense. - Beau M., age 10
"Is it true that you smoke
eight to ten cigars a day?"
"That's true."
"Is it true that you drink five martinis a day?"
"That's true."
"Is it true that you still surround yourself
with beautiful young women?"
"That's true."
"What does your doctor say about all of
this?"
"My doctor is dead."
George Burns
Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only
difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas
doctors rob you and kill you too. - Anton Chekhov
Man has discovered that to kneel before God at
least is more dignified than to lie down before a
psychiatrist.--William A. Donaghy (1909-1975)
The patient is not likely to recover who makes the
doctor his heir. - Thomas Fuller
After death the doctor. Jacula Prudentum. George
Herbert. 1593-1632.
Doctors introduce medication of which they know
very little, into patients of whom they know even
less, against diseases of which they know nothing.
-Dr. Barbara Moore.
Psychotherapy conquered what is in effect the human
condition by annexing it in its entirely to the
medical profession.
Thomas Szasz The Myth of Psychotherapy
Doctor, I have a ringing in my ears.
The doctor said: "Don't answer!"- Henty Youngman
dogs
What has four legs and an arm? A happy pit
bull.
Absolutely nothing in the world is friendlier than
a wet dog.
The greatest dog is the hot dog, for it feeds the
hand that bites it.
The reason dogs have so many friends is because
they wag their tails and not their tongues.
If your dog is fat, you aren't getting enough
exercise.
To err is human, to forgive canine.
The reason a dog has so many friends is that he
wags his tail instead of his tongue.
Dogs need to sniff the ground; it's how they keep
abreast of current events. The ground is a giant dog
newspaper, containing all kinds of late-breaking dog news
items, which, if they are especially urgent, are often
continued in the next yard. -Dave Barry
In life the firmest friend, the first to welcome,
foremost to defend. --George Gordon, Lord Byron
Faithful: With eye upraised his master's look to
scan,
The joy, the solace, and the aid of man:
The rich man's guardian and the poor man's friend,
The only creature faithful to the end.
George Crabbe
We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and
love we can spare.And in return, dogs give us their all.
It's the best deal man has ever made. -M.Facklam
In life and in making films, it's really important to
keep your innocence. Pull a little tail, and maybe there
is an elephant at the end. It's important to preserve
your innocence and your optimism, especially when it's
not easy. It's wonderful, the look in the eyes of some
dogs. Such innocence. Such sincerity. A dog does not know
how to wag his tail insincerely. Such wonder. Such
admiration for us, because we are bigger and seem to know
what we are doing. It's an openness which I could almost
envy if it did not involve such dependence. I Fellini, by
Charlotte Chandler, p. 93
There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie˜
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.
When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find˜it's your own affair˜
But...you've given your heart to a dog to tear.
When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone˜wherever it goes˜for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.
We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-term loan is as bad as a long˜
So why in˜Heaven (before we are there?)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?
Rudyard Kipling, "THE POWER OF THE DOG"
Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive
evidence that you are wonderful. -Ann Landers
I
wonder what goes through his mind when
he sees us peeing in his water bowl.
-Penny Ward Moser
How do you know the dog food you bought is really
new and improved? "The Great Swami" in a local radio
commercial
That indefatigable and unsavory engine of
pollution, the dog.--John Sparrow (1906-1992) (In a
letter to _The Times_ [September 30,
1975])
doubt
Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to
death.
Nobody can honestly think of himself as a strong
character because, however successful he may be in
overcoming them, he is necessarily aware of the doubts
and temptations that accompany every important choice.
--W. H. Auden
If you are ever in doubt as to whether to kiss a
pretty girl, always give her the benefit of the doubt.
--Thomas Carlyle
Materialists and madmen never have doubts.-- G. K.
Chesterton
If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must
at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible,
all things.-- Rene Descartes, Discours de la Me'thode,
1637
When in doubt, go shopping.--Sarah Ferguson
The believer will fight another believer over a
shade of difference: the doubter fights only with
himself.~ Graham Greene, Monsignor Quixote, Pt 1, Ch 4
(1982)
If ours is an examined faith, we should be unafraid
to doubt....There is no believing without some
doubting, and believing is all the stronger for
understanding and resolving doubt. -- Os Guinness
If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you
believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Don't give us your doubts, gives us your
certainties, for we have doubts enough of our own.--
Goethe
Secular faiths such as Marxism left much less room
for doubt than religion. Religion knows all about
doubt. Since God's ways are unknowable, religion can
endure only if it finds a place for self-questioning.
Prayer itself is a questioning dialogue with God. But
what is Marxism's equivalent of prayer? Since the
theory had to be correct, a believer had to disavow
the testimony of his own senses; and if reality failed
to live up to the promise of theory, then the reality
was deficient.
Michael Ignatieff, "The Era of Error", _The New
Republic_, Aug.9,1999
After we came out of the church, we stood talking
for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious
sophistry to prove the non existence of matter, and
that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I
observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is
not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall
forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered,
striking his foot with mighty force against a large
stone, till he rebounded from it -- "I refute it
thus." --James Boswell: Life of Samuel Johnson
dreams
We cast away priceless time in dreams, born of
imagination, fed upon illusion, and put to death by
reality.-Judy Garland (1922-1969) "Imagination," In
"Judy Garland," by Anne Edwards, 1975.
It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to
live. - J K Rowling,, Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone
Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams
than the imagination when awake? -- Leonardo da
Vinci
dress
If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
Say what you want about long dresses, but they
cover a multitude of shins. Mae West
drink
What soberness conceals, drunkenness reveals.
One difference between a man and a machine is that
a machine is quiet when well oiled.
Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.
Alcohol preserves everything except secrets.
Beauty lies in the hands of the beer holder.
Draft beer, not people!
The Heineken Uncertainty Principle:
You can never be sure how many beers you had last
night.
She was only a Bootlegger's Daughter, but I loved
her still.
Sometimes too much to drink isn't enough.
Hangover: The wrath of grapes.
Alcohol is like love. The first kiss is magic, the
second is intimate, the third is routine. After that
you take the girl's clothes off.
Scientists for Health Canada suggested that men
should take a look at their beer consumption,
considering the results of a recent analysis that
revealed the presence of female hormones in beer. The
theory is that drinking beer makes men turn into
women. To test the finding, 100 men were fed 6 pints
of beer each. It was then observed that 100% of the
men gained weight, talked excessively without making
sense, became overly emotional, couldn't drive, failed
to think rationally, argued over nothing, and refused
to apologize when wrong. No further testing is
planned.
I think that I shall never hear
A poem lovelier than beer.
The stuff that Joe's Bar has on tap,
With golden base and snowy cap.
The stuff that I can drink all day
Until my mem'ry melts away.
Poems are made by fools, I fear
But only Schlitz can make a beer.
What's so unpleasant about being drunk? You ask a
glass of water.--Douglas Adams THHGttG
Wine is as good as life to a man, if it be drunk
moderately. What is life then to a man who is without
wine? For it was made to make men glad.--
Ecclesiaticus.
Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and
a glass of wine. --Thomas Aquinas
I never turned to drink. It seemed to turn to
me.
Brendan Behan when told to turn from drinking 12 pints
plus 2-3 bottles of whisky a day.
Drinking makes such fools of people, and people are
such fools to begin with, that it's compounding a
felony. Robert Benchley
..wine that gladdens the heart of man - Psa.
104:15
Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine
because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
1Tim. 5:23 NIV
One evening in October, when I was one-third
sober,
An' taking home a "load" with manly pride,
My poor feet began to stutter, so I lay down in the
gutter,
And a pig came up an" lay down by my side.
Then we sang "It's all fair weather when good fellows
get together,"
Till a lady passing by was heard to say:
You can tella man who boozes by the company he
chooses",
And the pig got up and slowly walked away.
Benjamin H Burt 1880-1950, And the pig got up and
slowly walked away, 1933 song.
It is permissible to use wine not only for
necessity, but also to make us merry...... [it
must be moderate] lest men forget themselves,
drown their senses,.....in making merry [those who
enjoy wine] feel a livelier gratitude to God. ~
John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian Religion
People who drink light "beer" don't like the taste
of beer; they just like to pee a lot.--Capital
Brewery, Middleton, WI
Drink moderately, for drunkeness neither keeps a
secret, nor observes a promise. --Miguel De
Cervantes
When I was younger I made it a rule never to take
strong drink before lunch. It is now my rule never to
do so before breakfast. -- Winston Churchill
I neither want it [brandy] nor need it, but
I should think it pretty hazardous to interfere with
the ineradicable habit of a lifetime. -- Churchill
No one can ever say that I ever failed to display a
meet and proper appreciation for alcohol. --Winston
Churchill
My rule of life prescribed as an absolutely sacred
rite smoking cigars and also the drinking of alcohol
before, after and if need be during all meals and in
the intervals between them.- Winston Churchill,
1874 - 1965
Went home to lunch at 12.30 p.m., enjoying a bottle
of Shepherd Neame's 5.4% "Bishop's Finger". This
really is the elixir of life, but unfortunately, when
drinking this strong bitter, I tend to keel over
whilst in the middle of a dissertation about the
excessive drinking habits of the young.--John Copeland
DIARY OF A SUPERANNUATED SOUL w/e22.8.98
Then
trust me, there's nothing like
drinking
So pleasant on this side of the
grave;
It keeps the unhappy from thinking,
And makes e'en the valiant more
brave.
Chas. Didbin (1745-1814)
The horse and mule live thirty
years
And never know of wine and beers.
The goat and sheep at twenty die
Without a taste of scotch or rye.
The cow drinks water by the ton
and at eighteen is mostly done.
The dog at fifteen cashes in
Without the aid of rum or gin.
The modest, sober, bone-dry hen
Lays eggs for noggs and dies at
ten.
But sinful, ginful, rum-soaked men
Survive three-score years and ten.
And some of us, though mighty few
Stay pickled 'til we're ninety-two.
Charles Duffy
I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the
food. - W. C. Fields
First you take a drink, then the drink takes a
drink, then the drink takes you. - F. Scott
Fitzgerald
Beer is proof that God loves us. --Benjamin
Franklin
It is disgusting to notice the increase in the
quantity of coffee. Everybody is using coffee. If
possible this must be prevented. My people must drink
beer. -- - Fredrick the Great, 1777
Wine is earth's answer to the sun. - Margaret
Fuller 1810-1850
Wine is sunlight held together by water.-
Galileo
Licker talks mighty loud w'en it git loose fum de
jug.
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908), UNCLE REMUS: HIS
SONGS & HIS SAYINGS (1880), "Plantation
Proverbs".
The wine urges me on, the bewitching wine, which
sets even a wise man to singing and to laughing
gently, and rouses him up to dance and brings forth
words which were better unspoken. --Homer (c. 700 BC)
_The Odyssey_, Book XIV, Line 463
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify the ways of God to man.
A E Housman
I like liquor - its taste and its effects - and
that is just the reason why I never drink it.
"Stonewall" Jackson (1824-1863) In "The Harper Book of
Quotations," by Robert I. Fitzhenry, 1993.
Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no;
drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. Not through
mere perversity do men run after it. William James
Boswell: "I think, Sir, you once said to me, that
not to drink wine was a great deduction from life."
Johnson: "It is a diminution of pleasure, to be sure;
but I do not say a diminution of happiness. There is
more happiness in being rational."
James Boswell: Life of Samuel Johnson
I called on Dr. Johnson one morning, when Mrs.
Williams, the blind lady, was conversing with him. She
was telling him where she had dined the day before.
"There were several gentlemen there," said she, "and
when some of them came to the tea-table, I found that
there had been a good deal of hard drinking." She
closed this observation with a common and trite moral
reflection; which, indeed, is very ill-founded, and
does great injustice to animals -- "I wonder what
pleasure men can take in making beasts of themselves."
"I wonder, Madam," replied the Doctor, "that you have
not penetration to see the strong inducement to this
excess; for he who makes a beast of himself gets rid
of the pain of being a man."
Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale; collected
in "Johnsonian Miscellanies," edited by G.B. Hill.
In the bottle discontent seeks for comfort,
cowardice for courage, and bashfulness for
confidence.- Samuel Johnson: Addison (Lives of the
Poets)
We discussed the question whether drinking improved
conversation and benevolence. Sir Joshua maintained it
did. Johnson: "No, Sir: before dinner men meet with
great inequality of understanding; and those who are
conscious of their inferiority, have the modesty not
to talk. When they have drunk wine, every man feels
himself happy, and loses that modesty, and grows
impudent and vociferous: but he is not improved; he is
only not sensible of his defects. --"Boswell: Life of
Johnson
Talking of drinking wine, he said, "I did not leave
off wine because I could not bear it; I have drunk
three bottles of port without being the worse for it.
University College has witnessed this." Boswell: "Why
then, Sir, did you leave it off?" Johnson: "Why, Sir,
because it is so much better for a man to be sure that
he is never intoxicated, never to lose the power over
himself."
Boswell: Life of Johnson
Boswell: "I think, Sir, you once said to me, that
not to drink wine was a great deduction from life."
Johnson: "It is a diminution of pleasure, to be sure;
but I do not say a diminution of happiness. There is
more happiness in being rational." Boswell: Life of
Johnson
Boswell: "You must allow me, Sir, at least that it
produces truth; in vino veritas, you know, Sir--"
"That (replied Mr. Johnson) would be useless to a man
who knew he was not a liar when he was sober."
--Piozzi: Anecdotes of Johnson
Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he
who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.--Samuel
Johnson
Wine makes a man better pleased with himself; I do
not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.
Samuel Johnson
I . . . strongly object to the tyrannic and
unscriptural insolence of anything that calls itself a
Church and makes teetotalism a condition of
membership. Apart from the more serious objection
(that our Lord himself turned water into wine and made
wine the medium of the only rite He imposed on all His
followers), . . . Don't they realize that Christianity
arose in the Mediterranean world where, then as now,
wine was as much part of the normal diet as bread?
--Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) _Letters of C.S.
Lewis_ [1966], "16 March 1955"
I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy
eating, and in fourteen days I lost two weeks. -- Joe
E Lewis
Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of
temperance. It is a species of intemperance within
itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason, in
that it attempts to control a mans appetite by
legislation and makes a crime out of things that are
not crimes.- attr to Abraham Lincoln, but most
probably not his, though a true observation IMO.
We are fighting Germany, Austria and Drink, and as
far as I can see, the greatest of these deadly foes is
Drink. - David LLoyd George, The Times, 30 Mar
1915
Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at
tax collectors and miss.--Lazarus Long, "Time Enough
for Love"
Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I
drink I feel ashamed. Then, I look into the glass and
think about the workers in the brewery and all of
their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer,
they might be out of work and their dreams would be
shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I
drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be
selfish and worry about my liver." Robert A.
Lotzer
Dear Kate, we arrived in Halle today at eight, but
did not continue on to Eisleben because a big
Anabaptist met us with waves and hunks of ice. She
flooded the land and threathened to rebaptize us ...
We take refreshment and comfort in good Torgau beer
and Rhenish wine, waiting to see whether the Saale
(river) will come down ... The devil resents us, and
he is in the water - so better safe than sorry.
Martinn Luther to his wife:, in Theology of the
Reformers, Timothy George.
Prohibition makes you want to cry in your beer, and
denies you the beer to cry into.--Don Marquis
I'd rather that England should be free than that
England should be compulsorily sober. With freedom we
might in the end attain sobriety, but in the other
alternative we should eventually lose both freedom and
sobriety. --W.C. Magee, Archbishop of York Sermon at
Peterborough (1868)
Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken
Christian. --Herman Melville
When night
Darkens the streets, then wander forth the
sons
Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine.
John Milton. 1608-1674. Paradise Lost.
Book i. Line 500.
Satiety comes of too frequent repetition; and he
who will not give himself leisure to be thirsty can
never find the true pleasure of drinking.
--Montaigne
I'm sitting here completely surrounded by no
beer.~~~ Onslow, Keeping Up Appearances
Dinner without wine is like a kiss without a
squeeze.-Robert B. Parker, "The Widening Gyre", p.
21
The juice of the grape is the liquid quintessence
of concentrated sunbeams. - Thomas Love Peacock
Fill
with mingled cream and amber,
I will drain that glass again.
Such hilarious visions clamber
Through the chamber of my brain.
Quaintest thoughts, queerest
fancies
Come to life and fade away.
What care I how time advances:
I am drinking ale today.
Edgar Allen Poe
If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon
he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing
he next comes to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and
from that to incivility and procrastination. -- Thomas
De Quincey
Never accept a drink from a urologist. -- Kevin
Michael Reed
Drunkenness is temporary suicide: the happiness
that it brings is merely negative, a momentary
cessation of unhappiness.
Bertrand Russell
Drunkenness does not create vice; it merely brings
it into view --Seneca
I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking: I
could well wish courtesy would invent some other
custom of entertainment. --William Shakespeare
(1564-1616) _Othello_ Act II, Scene iii, Line 34
O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths
to steal away their brains! That we should, with joy,
pleasance, revel, and applause, transform ourselves
into beasts! --William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)_Othello_ Act II, Scene iii, Line 293
PORTER: Drink, sir, is a great provoker of three
things.
MACDUFF: What three things does drink especially
provoke?
PORTER: Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes
the desire, but it takes away the performance.
Shakespeare, MacBeth, 2:iii
We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards.
--William Shakespeare (1564-1616) _The Tempest_
[1611-1612], Act I, Scene I
Put it back in the horse! - H. Allen Smith (1906
&endash;1 976), on tasting his first American
beer.
When the pilgrims, seeking religious freedom,
landed at Plymouth rock, the first permanent building
put up was the brewery.
Jim West, Drinking With Calvin and Luther!
(Carmichael, CA: Jim West 1995), p.14.
Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer
the world. --Kaiser Wilhelm
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up
reading. --Henny Youngman
A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge says
"You've been brought here for drinking. The drunk says
"Okay, let's get started.- Henty Youngman
There's nothing romantic, nothing grand, nothing
heroic, nothing brave, nothing like that about
drinking. It's a real coward's death. -- Warren
Zevon
driving
Always try to drive so that your license will
expire before you do.
Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be
recalled by their maker.
I don't have a license to kill. I have a learner's
permit. --Bumper Sticker
There are so many terrible drivers out there. I
mean, it's so annoying how motorists drive so closely
in front of you. --"HealthWise"
When Solomon said that there was a time and a place
for everything he had not encountered the problem of
parking an automobile. - Bob Edwards (1947 &endash;
)
No other man-made device since the shields and
lances of ancient knights fulfills a man's ego like an
automobile. --Lord Rootes (1894-1964)
drugs
I don't take drugs - I'm not even an athlete.
I tried sniffing Coke once, but the ice cubes got
stuck in my nose.
Man who stands on toilet set is High on
POT......
Apothecary, n. The physician's accomplice,
undertaker's benefactor and grave-worm's provider. --
Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
Opiate, n. An unlocked door in the prison of
Identity. It leads into the jail yard.--Ambrose
Bierce, 1906
Our generation was right about civil rights;
we were right about Vietnam; we were right about
poverty. Unfortunately, we were wrong about drugs.--
David Crosby
For the past seventeen years I have been
experimenting with lager. I am a lager user and one
drug leads to another. If you do lager, as night
follows day, you'll end up doing Kentucky Fried
Chicken~Ben Elton
No families take so little medicine as those of
doctors, except those of apothecaries. - from Medical
Essays... Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935)
There are three side effects of acid. Enhanced long
term memory, decreased short term memory, and I forget
the third.
Timothy Leary
The pharmaceutical industry is redefining and
relabeling as medicinal problems calling for drug
intervention a wide range of human behaviors which, in
the past, have been viewed as falling within the
bounds of the normal trials and tribulations of human
existence. -- Drs. Henry L. Lennard, Leon J. Epstein
and Donald C. Ransom, _Mystification and Drug Use_,
1971
I will lift mine eyes unto the pills. Almost
everyone takes them, from the humble aspirin to the
multi-coloured, king-sized three deckers, which put
you to sleep, wake you up, stimulate and soothe you
all in one. It is an age of pills. --Malcolm
Muggeridge (1903-1989) _The New Statesman_ [August
3, 1962] "London Diary"
In the United States today.... opiates are the
religion of the people. -- Thomas Szasz
Like every product of nature and human invention,
drugs may be abused. Against that hazard, self-control
is the only effective remedy.--Thomas S. Szasz, Los
Angeles Times, Nov 23, 2001 p. B17
Reality is a crutch for people who can't cope with
drugs.-- Lily Tomlin
I'm addicted to placebos. I'd quit, but it wouldn't
matter.-Steven Wright
duty
A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only
deferred, and we must come back and settle the account
at last.
Duty is ours; results are God's. -- John Quincy
Adams 1831
Use thy duties, as Noah's dove did her wings, to
carry thee to the ark of the Lord Jesus Christ, where
only there is rest. ISAAC AMBROSE
It is good to follow the path of duty, though in
the midst of darkness and discouragement. --David
Brainerd journal
Oh, how comfortable and sweet it is, to feel the
assistance of divine grace in the performance of the
duties which God has enjoined on us!' - David
Brainerd, journal:, 17 Jan 1745
It behooves us to accomplish what God requires of
us, even when we are in the greatest despair
respecting the results.... John Calvin (1509-1564)
I may no longer depend on pleasant impulses to
bring me before the Lord. I must rather respond to
principles I know to be right, whether I feel them to
be enjoyable or not. -- Jim Elliot
Heart-work is hard work indeed. To shuffle over
religious duties with a loose and careless spirit,
will cost no great difficulties; but to set yourself
before the Lord, and to tie up your loose and vain
thoughts to a constant and serious attendance upon
him: this will cost you something. To attain ease and
dexterity of language in prayer and to be able to put
your meaning into appropriate and fitting expressions
is easy; but to get your heart broken for sin while
you are actually confessing it; melted with free grace
even while you are blessing God for it; to be really
ashamed and humbled through the awareness of God's
infinite holiness, and to keep your heart in this
state not only in, but after these duties, will surely
cost you some groans and travailing pain of soul. -
JOHN FLAVEL
Be sure that it is a mistaken devotion which
interferes with the duties of your natural state of
life.... Jean N. Grou (1731-1803)
The two highest achievements of the human mind are
the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever
these two concepts fall into disrepute, get out of
there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is
too late to save that society. It is doomed. -- Robert
Heinlein
Fortitude I take to be the quiet possession of a
man's self, and an undisturbed doing his duty whatever
evils beset, or dangers lie in the way. In itself an
essential virtue, it is a guard to every other
virtue.-- John Locke
When we have, through Christ, obtained mercy for
our persons, we need not fear but that we shall have
suitable and seasonable help for our duties. ... John
Owen (1616-1683)
O good old man, how well in thee appears
The constant service of the antique world,
When service sweat for duty, not for meed!
Thou art not for the fashion of these times,
When none will sweat but for promotion
W.S., As You Like It, III
When we can say "no" not only to things that are
wrong and sinful, but also to things pleasant,
profitable, and good which would hinder and clog our
grand duties and our chief work, we shall understand
more fully what life is worth, and how to make the
most of it. _Charles A. Stoddard
dyslexia
We do not know for sure what causes dyslexia,
but we do know that it affects children who are
physically and emotionally healthy, academically
capable, and who come from good home environments. In
fact, many dyslexics have the advantages of excellent
schools, high mental ability, and parents who are
well-educated and value learning. ~ from official
definition: US Dept of Health & Human Services
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