Don's Detour

Those who wish to follow along can visit my other blog at

http://donsdetour.blogspot.com/

Don's Detour

Trvth will take a brief hiatus while I attend to some medical issues.  I'm sure you'll hear from me again before Christmas.

Comfortable Conviction

Insurance -- an ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.

-- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913?), American satirist and author, in: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary, University of Georgia Press (2001) p. 133

Habit Rules

Habit rules the unreflecting herd.

-- William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English poet, Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Part II, No. 28 (1821)

Just Kidding

The only difference between me and most people is that I'm perfectly aware that all my important decisions are made for me by my subconscious. My frontal lobes are just kidding themselves that they decide anything at all. All they do is think up reasons for the decisions that are already made.      

-- Rex Stout (1886-1975), American author of detective novels, "Author Rex Stout Vs. The FBI" in Life Magazine (10 December 1965)

The Same Individual

Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

-- Arthur Koestler (1905-1983), Hungarian-British author and journalist, Drinkers of Infinity: Essays 1955-1967 (1967)

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
    For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
    For everything Thy goodness sends.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American philosopher, essayist, and poet, Thanksgiving

The Message Is Clear

The message to the West is clear: We have bought their buildings, we have bought their companies, and now we are going to buy their art.

-- Liu Yiqian, Chinese billionaire who made the winning bid at auction for a Modigliani portrait at $170.4 million with fees, New York Times, 18 November 2015

Almost Dead

Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.

-- Robert Jordan (1948-2007), American fantasy author, Lord Of Chaos (1994)

Acnestis

acnestis:

The part of an animal's skin that it cannot reach to scratch itself, usually the space between the shoulder blades.

Not Something To Aspire To

Normal is not something to aspire to, it is something to get away from.

-- Jodie Foster (19 November 1962-), two-time Academy Award-winning American actress, director, and producer,  as quoted in Diamonds, Pearls & Stones : Jewels of Wisdom for Young Women from Extraordinary Women of the World (2004) p. 6

A Crown

The man who is well wears a crown that only the sick can see.

-- Sir William Osler, (1849 - 1919), Canadian physician

Half The World

Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.

-- Robert Frost, attributed

Ego Says

Ego says, "Once everything falls into place, I'll feel peace."  Spirit says, "Find your peace, and then everything will fall into place."

-- Marianne Williamson (1952-), American spiritual teacher, author, and lecturer, on Twitter as @marwilliamson, 10 August 2013

Life Is A Shipwreck

Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

-- Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) (1694-1778), quoting the character Bottiglia, in Candide (1759)

Made Entirely Of Flaws

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.

-- Augusten Burroughs (1965-), American writer, Magical Thinking: True Stories (2004)

Edmund Fitzgerald

On this date (10 November) in 1975, forty years ago, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, sank in Lake Superior with the loss of 29 lives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald

Knack Of Flying

The knack of flying lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ...  Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.

-- Douglas Adams (1952-2001), English author and satirist, Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), Chapter 9

Arbitration

This amounts to the whole-scale privatization of the justice system.  Americans are actively being deprived of their rights.

-- Myriam Gilles, law professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, on businesses bypassing the legal system with arbitration, New York Times, 2 November 2015

With Curious Art

With curious art the brain, too finely wrought,
Preys on herself, and is destroy'd by thought:
Constant attention wears the active mind,
Blots out our powers, and leaves a blank behind.

-- Charles Churchill (1731 – 1764), English poet and satirist, Epistle to William Hogarth (July 1763), line 645