Quotes that hit home

[ergophobe]

"The grass is always greener on the side that's fertilized with bullshit."
  — unknown

[ergophobe]

A few quotes from a recent poetry binge.

Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.
  -- Wendell Berry, "Manifesto: the Mad Farmer Liberation Front." https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/B/BerryWendell/ManifestoMad/index.html
 
The poem that quote is from is worth a read in its entirety. First published in 1973, it has the prescient line: "When they want you to buy something, they will call you."


I am done with apologies. If contrariness is my
inheritance and destiny, so be it. If it is my mission
to go in at exits and come out at entrances, so be it.
I have planted by the stars in defiance of the experts,
and tilled somewhat by incantation and by singing,
and reaped, as I knew, by luck and Heaven's favor,
in spite of the best advice.
  -- Wendell Berry, "The Contrariness of the Mad Farmer."
  https://onbeing.org/poetry/the-contrariness-of-the-mad-farmer/
 

If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you, you are surely lost.
  -- David Wagoner, "Lost" https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=31967
 

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
  -- Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/poetry-180/all-poems/item/poetry-180-133/the-summer-day/

That last one is super famous and oft-quoted. In general, though, I am not a fan of Mary Oliver except her poem Wild Geese.

My favorite poet, bar none, is Marie Howe, but her poems read better in full. I won't try to quote them. I will only recommend two.

"The Affliction"
https://poets.org/poem/affliction

"What the Living Do" (I used to have this one memorized; it is a poem about/to her brother who died of AIDS)
https://poets.org/poem/what-living-do

[buckworks]

Just spotted on Twitter:

"Unlimited self-confidence is not an adequate substitute for knowledge."

[Drastic]

Well, shit. I guess I better work on a better balance there.

[ergophobe]

"Well, sh##. I guess I better work on a better balance there."
  -- Drastic on The Core

[Brad]

"You got to lose to know how to win"

-- Aerosmith, 'Dream On'

[littleman]

How about a quote that missed the mark?

"No two countries with McDonald's within their borders have ever been in a war since having a McDonald's"

-- Thomas Friedman

[ergophobe]

"I myself was to experience how easily one is taken in by a lying and censored press and radio in a totalitarian state. Though unlike most Germans I had daily access to foreign newspapers, especially those of London, Paris and Zurich, which arrived the day after publication, and though I listened regularly to the BBC and other foreign broadcasts, my job necessitated the spending of many hours a day in combing the German press, checking the German radio, conferring with Nazi officials and going to party meetings. It was surprising and sometimes consternating to find that notwithstanding the opportunities I had to learn the facts and despite one's inherent distrust of what one learned from Nazi sources, a steady diet over the years of falsifications and distortions made a certain impression on one's mind and often misled it. No one who has not lived for years in a totalitarian land can possibly conceive how difficult it is to escape the dread consequences of a regime's calculated and incessant propaganda."

William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (location 6057 in the Kindle version)

[ergophobe]

How about a quote that missed the mark?

How about another one, from the Treaty of Tripoli (Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States of America and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary), ratified unanimously by the US Senate in 1797:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen; and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Four years later, the US was at war with four North African states ("to the shores of Tripoli/We will fight our nation's battles"). The reasons for that war were, indeed, not based on a pretext arising from religious opinions. I was thinking of more recent history there.

[buckworks]

Spotted on Twitter just now:

""Instead of arguing with facts and logic, use a thought-terminating cliche."

[buckworks]

Politicians, most of whom have no medical training, are all too eager to inject themselves into matters of healthcare, particularly when it fills a partisan purpose.

From an editorial in the Dothan Eagle, dated Nov 13, 2021.

https://dothaneagle.com/opinion/editorial/the-medically-illiterate/article_c5c4de7a-43fe-11ec-be2f-773d81f1f7e5.html

[ergophobe]

Although, I would not say that the politicians with medical training who serve in the US Congress have a particularly laudatory track record on medical issues either. Partisanship always seems to take precedence, at least for high-profile, hot-button issues (vaccines, insurance, etc)

[rcjordan]

"The pandemic was the bomb cyclone of our discontents"

Opinion | It's Time to Stop Living the American Scam - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/07/opinion/work-busy-trap-millennials.html
^{A good read.}

[ergophobe]

There are a lot of quotable lines in that article.

Excerpts with paywall-busting link to original here
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/7/7/2108942/--It-s-Time-to-Stop-Living-the-American-Scam

[buckworks]

Spotted on Twitter, in a discussion about Thomas Jefferson owing slaves:

"I believe one of the biggest problems is how we deify the founders and many other historical figures. If we just chose our words properly and used words like "influential" instead of "great" it would go a long way. We just need to stop using words that convey goodness or morality"