Method Of Treatment

When executing exercises from 72 Arts, the main point is peace of mind and concentration.  It is necessary to give up extraneous thoughts, not allow an outside evil (distracting factors) intrude (into your mind), and shun inner (thoughts).  The method of treatment of internal organs consists in harmonizing them.  Then the sick will cure his disease and the healthy will make his body and nervous system stronger.  The heart should be pure, it is necessary to foster high moral qualities, it is necessary to form clearness of purpose.  If after that you engage in Gong Fu, you will get excellent result.

-- Jin Jing Zhong, Andrew Timofeevich, Authentic Shaolin Heritage: Training Methods of 72 Arts of Shaolin, "72 Kinds of Shaolin Martial Art and Man's Internal Organs" (1934) p. 48

Nature's Little Way

Pain is just Mother Nature's little way of telling you not to do something again in a way you'll remember.

-- Tim Huntley, One on Me (1980), Chapter 11

The Moment You Believe

Another person will not hurt you without your cooperation; you are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be.

-- Epictetus (c. 55 - c. 135 AD), born a slave, Greek Stoic philosopher.  The name given by his parents, if one was given, is not known.  The word epiktetos in Greek simply means "acquired", The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments, Enchiridion 30 (c. 125 CE), h/t Evan Restivo

Alone In A Room

You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.

-- Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904 - 1991), best known as Dr Seuss, American children's author, political cartoonist, illustrator, and poet, on becoming a writer, NY Times (21 May 1986)

Conservation And Sustainable Use

General objective -- The objective of this Agreement is to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, for the present and in the long term, through effective implementation of the relevant provisions of the Convention and further international cooperation and coordination. 

-- United Nations Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, Draft agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, 5 March 2023

Proper Method

The proper method for hastening the decay of error is not by brute force, or by regulation which is one of the classes of force, to endeavour to reduce men to intellectual uniformity; but on the contrary by teaching every man to think for himself.

-- William Godwin (1756 - 1836), English journalist and political philosopher, Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) Vol. 2, bk. 8, ch. 6

The Democratic Principle

I'm all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius.

-- Leo Szilard (1898 - 1964), Hungarian-American physicist, as quoted in "Some Szilardisms on War, Fame, Peace", LIFE‎ magazine, Vol. 51, no. 9 (1 September 1961), p. 79

Dark Side Of The Moon

On 1 March 1973, a new moon rose over rock music.  Immersive, quadrophonic, celestial and deeply introspective, Pink Floyd's eighth album arrived in a heady flurry of cash tills, chiming clocks, pained-angel arias and cold, disembodied voices speaking of violence, death and insanity.  [T]he Floyd delved into the dark universe of humanity's inner space; into the stresses and horrors of everyday life that daily push us all to the brink.  A record as relatable as it was cosmic, as melodic on the topics of "Time" and "Money" as it was climactic on the themes of war, division and madness, The Dark Side of the Moon set a new standard for high-concept intellectual rock.  Forty-five million prism-clad units later, it remains the fourth best-selling record ever made.

-- Mark Beaumont, "'Sublime menace and sonic enormity': Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon at 50", The Independent, 1 March 2023

But One Coward

Finally, the necessity must again be emphasized of keeping clearly before students the object of all science, amid the turmoil and intense feeling that clouds the discussion of a burning social question.  We live in a day when in spite of the brilliant accomplishments of a remarkable century, there is current much flippant criticism of scientific work; when the truth-seeker is too often pictured as devoid of human sympathy, and careless of human ideals.  We are still prone in spite of all our culture to sneer at the heroism of the laboratory while we cheer the swagger of the street broil.  At such a time true lovers of humanity can only hold higher the pure ideals of science, and continue to insist that if we would solve a problem we must study it, and that there is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know.

-- William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868 - 1963), American civil rights activist, sociologist, and educator, The Study of the Negro Problems, paragraph 51, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, vol. XI (January 1898)

Only Ones

If you're in trouble or hurt or need -- go to poor people.  They're the only ones that'll help -- the only ones.

-- John Ernst Steinbeck Jr. (27 February 1902 - 20 December 1968), American writer, 1962 Nobel Laureate in Literature, The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Ma Joad, p. 376

Not Experts

We're a court.  We really don't know about these things.  You know, these are not like the nine greatest experts on the internet.

-- Associate Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, during oral arguments on Gonzalez v. Google, which challenges Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, 21 February 2023

Small Again

Make russia small again.

-- Ministry of Defense of Ukraine posting as @DefenceU on Twitter, 24 January 2023

Extreme Rashness

It always seems to me extreme rashness on the part of some when they want to make human abilities the measure of what nature can do.  On the contrary, there is not a single effect in nature, even the least that exists, such that the most ingenious theorists can arrive at a complete understanding of it.  This vain presumption of understanding everything can have no other basis than never understanding anything.  For anyone who had experienced just once the perfect understanding of one single thing, and had truly tasted how knowledge is accomplished, would recognize that of the infinity of other truths he understands nothing.

-- Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (1564 - 1642), Italian astronomer, physicist, and mathematician, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632)

Buster Brown

Sadly, Father Time caught up with Buster today.  My youngest daughter, Alyssa, and I had to bid him farewell.

Alyssa received her Buster Brown, a dachshund, for her fifteenth birthday 9 1/2 years ago, when he was reportedly already 8 years old.  He had been neglected in his early years, and was happy to make himself comfortable as a part of our family.  

In recent years he lost much of his eyesight and hearing.  He was always happy, as long as he had a person to rest against on the couch.  Today marked the end of an amazing 17-year run.

I'll catch you on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge, Buster.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter

After a series of short hospital stays, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter today decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention.  He has the full support of his family and his medical team.  The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.

-- The Carter Center, Statement on President Carter’s Health, 18 February 2023

Skeptical

I don't believe in astrology; I'm a Sagittarius and we're skeptical.

-- Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (1917 - 2008), British author, inventor, and futurist, "Sir Arthur's Quotes", The Arthur C. Clarke Foundation

Looking Back

Looking back on things, the view always improves.

-- Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. (1913 - 1973), American animator and cartoonist, usually known simply as Walt Kelly, most famous for the comic strip Pogo, Impollutable Pogo (1970)

A Consequential Difference

David Brooks: My thinking about the G.O.P. goes back to a brunch I had with Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D'Souza in the '80s that helps me see, in retrospect, that people in my circle were pro-conservative, while Ingraham and D'Souza and people in their circle were anti-left.  We wanted to champion Edmund Burke and Adam Smith and a Reaganite foreign policy.  They wanted to rock the establishment.  That turned out to be a consequential difference because almost all the people in my circle back then -- like David Frum and Robert Kagan -- ended up, decades later, NeverTrumpers, and almost all the people in their circle became Trumpers or went bonkers.

Bret: Right, they weren't conservatives.  They were just illiberal.

-- Bret Stephens and David Brooks, "The Party’s Over for Us. Where Do We Go Now?", New York Times (11 January 2023)

Look At Them Each Time

I really do not want my pictures in your offices, for the President is not an icon, an idol or a portrait.  Hang your kids' photos instead, and look at them each time you are making a decision.

-- Volodymyr Zelenskyy (1978 -), in his Inaugural Address as President of Ukraine, 20 May 2019

Passion And Desire

When others blame thee, blame them not; when others are angry at thee, return not anger.  Joy cometh only as Passion and Desire part.

-- Kumazawa Banzan (1619 - 1691), Japanese Confucian, as quoted in Bushido, The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobi (1899), "Honor"

Religion Or Policy

Your honesty is not to be based either on religion or policy.  Both your religion and policy must be based on it.  

-- John Ruskin (1819 - 1900), English author, poet, and painter, Time and Tide (1867), Letter VIII: Things Written, section 330

RIP Burt Bacharach

Raindrops are fallin' on my head
And just like the guy whose feet
Are too big for his bed
Nothin' seems to fit
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head
They keep fallin'

So I just did me some talkin' to the sun
And I said I didn't like
The way he got things done
Sleepin' on the job
Those raindrops are fallin' on my head
They keep fallin'

But there's one thing I know
The blues they send to meet me
Won't defeat me
It won't be long 'til happiness
Steps up to greet me

-- Burt Bacharach (12 May 1928 - 8 February 2023), American composer, songwriter, and pianist, Academy Award-winning "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (1969, with Hal David)

Love The Game

First, the facts: LeBron James passed my scoring record and now is the leading scorer in NBA history.  It takes unbelievable drive, dedication, and talent to survive in the NBA long enough to rack up that number of points when the average NBA career lasts only 4.5 years.  It's not just about putting the ball through the hoop, it's about staying healthy and skilled enough to climb the steep mountain in ever-thinning oxygen over many years when most other players have tapped out.

It's also about making sure your team gets their moments to shine and thrive and pursue their own greatness.  A record is nothing if you used other players' careers as stepping stones just for self-aggrandizement.  For me, I strove to play at the highest level I could in order to be a good teammate. The points -- and the record -- were simply a by-product of that philosophy.

I think LeBron has the same philosophy.

Bottom line about LeBron and me: LeBron makes me love the game again.  And he makes me proud to be part of an ever-widening group of athletes who actively care about their community.

-- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (16 April 1947 -), "What I Think About LeBron Breaking My NBA Scoring Record", SubStack, 8 February 2023

We Are Not Bystanders

My fellow Americans, we meet tonight at an inflection point.  One of those moments that only a few generations ever face, where the decisions we make now will decide the course of this nation and of the world for decades to come.

We are not bystanders to history.  We are not powerless before the forces that confront us.  It is within our power, of We the People. We are facing the test of our time and the time for choosing is at hand.

We must be the nation we have always been at our best.  Optimistic.  Hopeful.  Forward-looking.

A nation that embraces, light over darkness, hope over fear, unity over division.  Stability over chaos.

We must see each other not as enemies, but as fellow Americans.  We are a good people, the only nation in the world built on an idea.

That all of us, every one of us, is created equal in the image of God.  A nation that stands as a beacon to the world.  A nation in a new age of possibilities.

Because the soul of this nation is strong, because the backbone of this nation is strong, because the people of this nation are strong, the State of the Union is strong.

-- President Joe Biden, State of the Union Address, 7 February 2023

Hurry History?

A wise man does not try to hurry history.  Many wars have been avoided by patience and many have been precipitated by reckless haste.

-- Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (1900 - 1965), American politician and statesman, Speeches of Adlai Stevenson (1952), p. 39

Art Of Persistence

The art of love is largely the art of persistence.

-- Albert Ellis (1913 - 2007), American psychologist and psychotherapist

Just Another Step

When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope.  Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life.  But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.

-- Bill Murray as Phil Connors in the movie Groundhog Day (1993), written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis

The Heaven Of Animals

Here they are.  The soft eyes open.   
If they have lived in a wood
It is a wood.
If they have lived on plains
It is grass rolling
Under their feet forever.

To match them, the landscape flowers,   
Outdoing, desperately
Outdoing what is required:
The richest wood,
The deepest field.

-- James Lafayette Dickey (2 February 1923 - 19 January 1997), popular American poet and novelist, appointed eighteenth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1966, "The Heaven of Animals" from The Whole Motion: Collected Poems 1945-1992

Queen Of The Skies

If you love this business, you've been dreading this moment.  Nobody wants a four-engine airliner anymore, but that doesn't erase the tremendous contribution the aircraft made to the development of the industry or its remarkable legacy.

-- Aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia, as Boeing delivers its final 747 jumbo jet, #1547, as quoted by Gene Johnson, USA Today, 31 January 2023

Im See

Im See                        In The Lake

Heute ist das Wetter warm,          Today the weather is warm,
heute kann's nicht schaden,         today it can't hurt,
schnell hinunter an den See,        quickly down to the lake,
heute gehn wir baden!               Today we go swimming!

Eins, zwei, drei -- die Hosen aus,  One, two, three -- pants off,
Stiefel, Wams und Wäsche!           Boots, doublet and underwear!
Und dann -- plumps ins Wasser rein! And then -- plop into the water
Gerade wie die Frösche!             Just like the frogs!

Und der schönste Sonnenschein       And the most beautiful sunshine
brennt uns nach dem Bade            burns us after the bath,
Brust und Buckel knusperbraun,      breast and hump crispy brown,
braun wie Schokolade!               brown like chocolate!

-- Adolf Holst (1867 - 1945), German educator, author, and publisher of children's books, quoted in German How To Speak And Write It by Joseph Rosenberg (1960)

[Early in my 5 years of high school German, the first poem I memorized auf Deutsch was the above, ca. ~1974.  I still remembered good chunks, but not nearly all of it.]

Nothing More Certain

Age may have one side, but assuredly Youth has the other.  There is nothing more certain than that both are right, except perhaps that both are wrong.

-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, "Crabbed Age and Youth" (1878), Virginibus Puerisque, II 

A Good Action

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in the retrospect.

-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, "Reflections and Remarks on Human Life", VI: Right and Wrong, published in Works: Letters and Miscellanies of Robert Louis Stevenson -- Sketches, Criticisms, Etc. (1895), p. 628

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,
   Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
   Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
   Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
   Over the countryside --

Till I look down on the garden green,
   Down on the roof so brown --
Up in the air I go flying again,
   Up in the air and down!

-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, "The Swing" from A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)

[I received this collection of poetry as a gift on 16 September 1968.  When I had a school assignment to memorize a poem, this is the poem I chose.  When I pulled the book off the shelf just now, I found a bookmark on this page.]

Our Last Cruise

Old and young, we are all on our last cruise.

-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, "Crabbed Age and Youth" (1878), Virginibus Puerisque, II 

The Cruelest Lies

The cruelest lies are often told in silence.

-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894), Scottish novelist and poet, Truth of Intercourse

Nothing So Strange

There is nothing so powerful as truth -- and often nothing so strange.

-- Daniel Webster (1782 - 1852), United States Senator and Secretary of State, famed for his ability as an orator, Argument on the murder of Captain White (1830)

RIP David Crosby

[E]very time, man, that I get stoned and put on a guitar and somebody points me at a microphone, I have -- I can't say every time -- 99 times out of a hundred -- I have as good a time as most people do balling.  And wouldn't you want to do that?  And wouldn't anybody want to do all they could?  I want to do it all I can, 'cause it gets me off.  I love it.

-- David Van Cortlandt Crosby (14 August 1941 - 19 January 2023) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to his solo career, he was a founding member of both the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, as quoted by Ben Fong-Torres in "David Crosby: The Rolling Stone Interview", Rolling Stone, 23 July 1970

The Best

Information is not knowledge.  Knowledge is not wisdom.  Wisdom is not truth.  Truth is not beauty.  Beauty is not love.  Love is not music.  Music is THE BEST.

-- Frank Vincent Zappa (1940 - 1993), American musician, composer, and satirist, "Joe's Garage Acts II & III" (1979)

Hope To Understand

Whenever we proceed from the known into the unknown we may hope to understand, but we may have to learn at the same time a new meaning of the word "understanding."

-- Werner Karl Heisenberg (1901 - 1976), German physicist, Nobel laureate, and one of the founders of the field of quantum mechanics, Physics and Philosophy (1958)

Up To Us

A lot of people are waiting for Martin Luther King or Mahatma Gandhi to come back -- but they are gone.  We are it.  It is up to us.  It is up to you.

-- Marian Wright Edelman (1939 -), American activist for civil rights and children's rights; founder and president emerita of the Children's Defense Fund; as quoted in The Art of Winning Commitment : 10 Ways Leaders Can Engage Minds, Hearts, And Spirits (2004) by Dick Richards, p. 11

No Matter The Starting Point

Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is.  Only one must know how to "learn."

-- George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (13 January ca. 1866 - 29 October 1949), Greco-Armenian mystic and spiritual teacher, All and Everything: Views from the Real World (1973)

It Is Evident

May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.

-- Millard Fillmore (1800 - 1874), thirteenth president of the United States, serving from 1850 until 1853, and the last member of the Whig Party to hold the nation's highest office, Letter to Henry Clay (11 November 1844), as quoted in Presidential Wit from Washington to Johnson (1966) edited by Bill Adler

RIP Jeff Beck

I'm an experimenter.  It's rich because every album I've done, except for a couple of techno-y records, are different.  Really you've got to hand it to the Fender Strat, because there are songs in [that guitar].  It's a tool of great inspiration and torture at the same time because it's forever sitting there challenging you to find something else in it, but it is there if you really search.

It does respond to touch and the tonal variation is unlimited really, especially with the whammy bar.  I have it set up so it becomes almost like a pedal steel.

My Strat is another arm, it's part of me.  It doesn't feel like a guitar at all.  It's an implement which is my voice.  A Les Paul feels like a guitar and I play differently on that and I sound too much like someone else.  With the Strat, instantly it becomes mine so that's why I've welded myself to that.  Or it's welded itself to me, one or the other.

-- Geoffrey Arnold (Jeff) Beck (24 June 1944 - 10 January 2023), English rock guitarist, in an interview with Total Guitar magazine (2016)

Honorable Beginnings

Honorable beginnings should serve to awaken curiosity, not to heighten people's expectations.  We are much better off when reality surpasses our expectations, and something turns out better than we thought it would.

-- Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601 - 1658), Spanish Jesuit author regarded as one of the most accomplished prose stylists of the Baroque era, The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647), Maxim 19 (p. 12)

RIP Charles Simić

Widespread ignorance bordering on idiocy is our new national goal.  It's no use pretending otherwise and telling us ... that educated people are the nation's most valuable resources.  Sure, they are, but do we still want them?  It doesn’t look to me as if we do.  The ideal citizen of a politically corrupt state, such as the one we now have, is a gullible dolt unable to tell truth from bullshit.  An educated, well-informed population, the kind that a functioning democracy requires, would be difficult to lie to, and could not be led by the nose by the various vested interests running amok in this country. 

-- Dušan "Charles" Simić (9 May 1938 - 9 January 2023), Serbian-American poet, 1990 Pulitzer Prize winner, and poet laureate of the United States from 2007 to 2008, "Age of Ignorance" New York Review of Books, 20 March 2012

Most Readable

Perl is designed to give you several ways to do anything, so consider picking the most readable one.

-- Larry Arnold Wall (1954 -), American computer programmer, best known as the creator of the Perl programming language, in "Perl style guide" perldoc.perl.org, (2005 - 2013)

RIP Pope Benedict XVI

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

After the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord.

The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with inadequate instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers.

Let us move forward in the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing help.  The Lord will help us and Mary, his Most Holy Mother, will be on our side.  Thank you.

-- Pope Benedict XVI (born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 - 31 December 2022), prelate of the Catholic Church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013, Full text of his first public speech as pope, upon his presentation as Pope Benedict XVI (19 April 2005)

One More Year

No one is so old as to think that he cannot live one more year.

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), Roman philosopher, politician, and political theorist, Cato Maior de Senectute - On Old Age (44 BC) section 24

A Speaker Has Not Been Elected

No persons having received a majority of the whole number of votes cast by surname, a speaker has not been elected.

-- Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives for the 117th Congress Cheryl L. Johnson, the 36th individual to serve as Clerk, and who previously served during the 116th Congress, on the occasion of the Republican Majority in the House failing for the first time since 1923 to elect a speaker on the first ballot, 3 January 2023

RIP Barbara Walters

I can have respect and admiration for famous people, but I have never had a sense of fear or awe.

-- Barbara Jill Walters (25 September 1929 - 30 December 2022), American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. Walters was a working journalist from 1951 until 2015.  As quoted in "Barbara Walters, trailblazing TV icon, dies at 93" by Luchina Fisher and Bill Hutchinson, ABC News (30 December 2022)