no. 887

 "To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. . . . Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph."

Mark Twain

no. 886

 “Music is one of the most fantastic things. Almost like fire, and water, and air. It's like a thing. And it does so much. It does a thing for the intellect, it does a thing for the emotions. And a certain kind of music can swell the heart to almost burst. Tears of happiness flow out of your eyes. You can't believe the beauty that comes. And it comes from these notes."

David Lynch in the film Beatles 64

no. 885

 "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." 

Helen Keller

no. 884

“There is a common belief that there is an ideological ‘center’— a large group of ‘moderate’ voters either with a consistent ideology of their own or lined up left to right on the issues or forming a ‘mainstream’, all with the same positions on issues.

In fact, the so-called center is actually made up of biconceptuals — people who are conservative in some aspects of life and progressive in others. Voters who self-identify as ‘conservative’ often have significant progressive values in important areas of life. We should address these ‘partial progressive’ biconceptuals through their progressive identities, which are often systematic and extensive.

A common mistaken ideology has convinced many progressives that they must ‘move to the right’ to get more votes. But this is counterproductive. By moving to the right, progressives actually help activate the right's values and give up on their own. In the process, they also alienate their own base.

George Lakoff, from “Twelve Communication Traps Democrats and Progressives Must Avoid.” 

no. 883

 “The universe contains any amount of horrible ways to be woken up,  such as the noise of the mob breaking down the front door, the scream of fire engines, or the realization that today is the Monday which on Friday night was a comfortably long way off. 

A dog's wet nose is not strictly speaking the worst of the bunch, but it has its own peculiar dreadfulness which connoisseurs of the ghastly and dog owners everywhere have come to know and dread. It's like having a small piece of defrosting liver pressed lovingly against you.”

From Terry Pratchett’s novel Moving Pictures

no. 882

 “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.” 

Peter Brook, The Empty Space Atheneum (New York, 1968)

no. 881

 “That might sound odd, I guess, but there’s something satisfyingly… apparent about hanging yourself on a wall. Be it a trophy taken from war, a great beast, or just a really nice picture, what you put on your walls is your declaration to the world, the words you speak to whoever can hear you.”

From Sam Sykes’ novel Seven Blades In Black

no. 880

 “Religion attaches to heaven an idea of equality which prevents the rich from being slaughtered by the poor.”

Napoleon Bonaparte, March 4, 1806, during a meeting of the national committee

no. 879

 

no. 878

 

Excerpt from Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny:"

no. 877

 “This process includes the replacement of all first-rate talents, regardless of their political loyalties, with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is the best guarantee of their loyalty.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, renewed version, A Harvest Book New York, 1976, 339

no. 876

 “Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.”

Albus Dumbledore.

(Yes, I know it’s J.K.Rowling)

no. 875

 “Let me remind you: Surrender means Russian occupation. Russian occupation means torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, denial of your identity, forcible adoption of your own children, filtration camps, and mass graves. Occupation is just another form of the war.”

Oleksandra Matviichuk

no. 874

 “I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.”

Harper Lee

no. 873

 

no. 872

 “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist”

- Robert Jones Jr.

no. 871

 “Those who walk a hundred miles should consider themselves halfway there at the ninety-ninth.”

Possibly an old Eastern saying.

no. 870

 “Kick at the darkness, until it bleeds daylight.” 

Bruce Cockburn.

no. 869

 

no. 868

 “For every complex problem there is a solution which is clear, simple and wrong.” 

H L Mencken

no. 867

 "Try to realize that you don’t have to annihilate yourself in the face of cultural annihilation. Hold onto who you are and try not to be afraid to live your truth in the midst of an avalanche of toxic bullshit." 

Marc Maron

no. 866

 “What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really appear to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. That’s all. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts. Those who were making it in England, for example, did not get on the Mayflower. That’s how the country was settled. Not by Gary Cooper. Yet we have a whole race of people, a whole republic, who believe the myths to the point where even today they select political representatives, as far as I can tell, by how closely they resemble Gary Cooper. Now this is dangerously infantile, and it shows in every level of national life.”

James Baldwin in a Talk to Teachers working in the New York Public School System on October 16, 1963 discussing the American Identity

no. 865

 

no. 864

 

no. 863

 

Barbara Kinsolving

no. 862

 

no. 861

 "I had placed my stick on the table, as I do every evening. It had been specially made to suit my height, to enable me to walk without too much difficulty. As I was standing up, a customer called: 'Monsieur, don't forget your pencil.' 

It was very unkind, but most funny."

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

It’s important to be able to laugh at yourself, but it’s also important to recognize when people are being assholes. 

no. 860

 

Langston Hughes

no. 859

 “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”

Proverbs 26:11

no. 858

 

no. 857

 “ A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles,” 

Thomas Jefferson

no. 856

 “The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.” 

T.H. White: The Once and Future King 

no. 855

 “There is no hope but us. 

There is no mercy but us. 

There is no justice. 

There is just us…

All things that are, are ours. 

But we must care. 

For if we do not care, we do not exist.” 

~Terry Pratchett

no. 854

 

“All wars are class wars.”

@socialiststeve6 on Twitter

no. 853