Tag Archives: quotes

“I don’t repeat gossip … so listen carefully”

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“I don’t repeat gossip … so listen carefully”.

Yesterday (Sunday 23 September), I ran into an acquaintance in a local pub, and he invited me to join him at his table. I accepted gladly and enjoyed catching up as we haden’t come across one another for a while.

During the course of our chat, my acquaintance came out with the above quotation, which greatly amused me and I fell to pondering on its origin.

The quote can be found on metal plaques and mugs, but one of the few places where it’s origins are discussed is here, https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=733071. However this post gives no conclusive evidence as to the quotations origin. If any of my readers know where the above eminates from, I would be very interested to hear from you.

Kevin

Quote Of The Day

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“If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies

on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity”.

(Middlemarch Chapter XX, http://www.victorianlondon.org/etexts/eliot/middlemarch-0020.shtml).

The Abyss

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“Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.” (F Nietzsche).

I first came across this quote while at university and it has stayed with me ever since. There is a fascinating discussion regarding it’s meaning here, http://forums.philosophyforums.com/threads/and-if-you-gaze-for-long-into-an-abyss-the-abyss-gazes-also-into-38060-11.html

3 Quotes Challenge – Day 1

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Many thanks to masgautsen of The Thoughts and Life of Me for nominating me to participate in the 3 Quotes Challenge, (http://thethoughtsandlifeofme.com/2015/06/14/3-quotes-challenge-1st-day/).

There are three simple rules:

 

  1. Post 3 of your favourite quotes each per day for 3 recurrent days. The quotes can be of any other people or it may come straight from your own heart.

 

  1. Nominate 3 bloggers with each post to challenge them.

 

  1. Don’t forget to utter a thankful word to the person who nominated you

 

Now for my first quote which comes from Lord Acton:

 

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority;

still more when you superadd the tendency of the certainty of corruption by authority.”

 

My nominees who are, of course under no obligation whatsoever to accept. We all have busy lives so I won’t be offended if you don’t participate.

 

Lucy of Secret Diary Of Portergirl (https://portergirl.wordpress.com/author/portergirl/).

Victo Dolore of Behind The White Coat (https://doctorly.wordpress.com/author/redscreamer/)

And JC of Writing Post Parkinsons (https://nimbus432.wordpress.com/author/nimbus432/)

Quotation Time

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“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

The above quote, by Mark Twain is a favourite of mine.

Darkness

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From the darkness we came and to the darkness we shall return.

 

The above words came to me when I woke up today, on a gloomy UK morning. Looking them up on the web there are variations on the quote but not the precise wording given above.

 

We come from the dark womb then, sooner or later we enter, as Hamlet so eloquently puts it “The undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller returns”. Am I in a dark mood? Not particularly. The quote popped into my head this morning and seemed appropriate to share it.

Thought Provoking

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“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons

than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment

us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

I came across the above while browsing the blog Economics for Morons http://economicsformorons.wordpress.com/ and on using trusty old Google discovered that C S Lewis is it’s author. Thought provoking …

Beyond Mere Words

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On Tuesday evening I had dinner with an old friend. During the meal I remarked how as I walked up the hill towards the restaurant the sound of birdsong filled the air. Listening to the song of the birds almost made me weep and yet I was unable to put into words why that should be so.

Several days later my friend sent me the below quote who’s origin I have been unable to trace. It expresses beautifully my feelings on that evening as I listened to birdsong on my way to meet my friend

“I walk a path after rain between trees.

I hear birdsong

 

And weep inside for something lost.”