Thursday, June 30, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-30


"Every nation is selfish and every nation considers its selfishness sacred."

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) "Letter to an American" (1944)

A Union Jack flies next to European Union flags at the European Commission in Brussels for a visit by British Prime Minister David Cameron (January 29, 2016) Protograph by Laurent DuBrule
A Union Jack flies next to European Union flags at the European Commission in Brussels for a visit by British Prime Minister David Cameron (January 29, 2016) Protograph by Laurent DuBrule

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-29


"Think not the bigotry of another is any excuse for your own."

John Wesley (1703-1791) "A Caution Against Bigotry," Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)

Poster advertising a counter protest, which devolved into a melle in Sacramento, California (June 26, 2016)
Poster advertising a counter protest, which devolved into a melee in Sacramento, California (June 26, 2016)

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-28


"Authoritarianism and secrecy breed incompetence; the two feed on each other. It's a vicious cycle. Governments with authoritarian tendencies point to what is in fact their own incompetence as the rationale for giving them yet more power."

Josh Marshall (1969-    ) "I Was Finally Able," Talking Points Memo (January 17, 2006)

Interior of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, after housing refugees of Hurricane Katrina "in lawless squalor" (September 2, 2005) Photograph by James Nielsen
Interior of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, after housing refugees of Hurricane Katrina "in lawless squalor" (September 2, 2005) Photograph by James Nielsen

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-26


"Nationalism does nothing but teach you how to hate people that you never met."

Doug Stanhope (1967-    ) No Refunds, recorded at the Gotham Comedy Club in New York City (March 12, 2007)

Donald Trump holding a bible while speaking at a Faith and Freedom Coalition forum in Des Moines, Iowa (September 19, 2015) Photograph by Brian C. Frank
Donald Trump holding a bible while speaking at a Faith and Freedom Coalition forum in Des Moines, Iowa (September 19, 2015) Photograph by Brian C. Frank

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-25


"Virginity, virginity, when you leave me, where do you go? / I am gone and never come back to you. / I never return."

Sappho (circa 630-570 BCE) Fragment

The Vestal Virgin Tuccia by Giovanni Battista Moroni (circa 1555)
The Vestal Virgin Tuccia by Giovanni Battista Moroni (circa 1555)

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-22


"What is hateful to thee, do not unto thy fellow; this is the whole law. All the rest is a commentary to this law."

Hillel the Elder (circa 110-10 BCE) Quoted in the Talmud, "Tractate Shabbat," chapter 2

La justice by Bernard d’Agesci
La Justice by Bernard d'Agesci

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Monday, June 20, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-20


"Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?"

Roger Ebert (1942-2013) Review of Talk Radio in the Chicago Sun-Times (December 21, 1988)

Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) getting his mouth taped by trainer Angelo Dundee during the weigh-in before his fight with Doug Jones (March 1963) Photograph by George Silk
Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay) getting his mouth taped by trainer Angelo Dundee during the weigh-in before his boxing match with Doug Jones (March 1963) Photograph by George Silk

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Friday, June 17, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-17


"I confess that I do not see what good it does to fulminate against the English tyranny while the Roman tyranny occupies the palace of the soul."

James Joyce (1882-1941) "Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages," a lecture at Università Popolare, Trieste, Austria-Hungary (April 27, 1907)

An unidentified Magdalene Laundry in Ireland (circa 1900)
An unidentified Magdalene Laundry in Ireland (circa 1900)

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-15


"People don't ever seem to realise that doing what's right's no guarantee against misfortune."

William McFee (1881-1966) Casuals of the Sea, book 2, chapter 6 (1916)

The crew of Black Hawk helicopter Super 6-4 a month before the Battle of Mogadishu; from left: Winn Mahuron, Tommy Field, Bill Cleveland, Ray Frank, and Mike Durant (September 1993) Photograph by Army Ranger Phil Lepre
The crew of Black Hawk helicopter Super 6-4 a month before the Battle of Mogadishu; from left: Winn Mahuron, Tommy Field, Bill Cleveland, Ray Frank, and Mike Durant (September 1993) Photograph by Army Ranger Phil Lepre

Monday, June 13, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-13


"For someone like me, it is a very strange habit to write in a diary. Not only that I have never written before, but it strikes me that later neither I, nor anyone else, will care for the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl."

Anne Frank (1929-1944) The Diary of a Young Girl, June 20, 1942 (1947)

Bronze sculpture of Anne Frank by Sara Pons Arnal (2001) near the corner of Travessia de Sant Antoni and Plaça d'Anna Frank in Barcelona
Bronze sculpture of Anne Frank by Sara Pons Arnal (2001) near the corner of Travessia de Sant Antoni and Plaça d'Anna Frank in Barcelona (Photograph by Enfo)

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-11


"He who inflicts a vile and unjust harm by using the power and the force with which he is invested, does not conquer; the true victory is to have on one's side Right naked and entire."

Luís de Camões (1524-1580) Os Lusíadas, canto 10, stanza 58 (1572)

An
An unknown protester facing down a column of tanks on Chang'an Avenue near the Beijing Hotel, during the Tiananmen Square Protests (June 5, 1989) Photograph by Jeff Widener

Friday, June 10, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-10


"As I see it, the sole motivating factor behind the death penalty is vengeance, not justice, and I firmly believe that a government that forbids killing among its citizens should not be in the business of killing people itself."

Larry Flynt (1942-    ) "Don't Execute the Man Who Paralyzed Me," The Hollywood Reporter (October 17, 2013)

Electric Chair at Sing Sing by William van der Weyde (circa 1900)
Electric Chair at Sing Sing by William van der Weyde (circa 1900)

Thursday, June 09, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-09


"The way society is organized at the moment, we have no choice but to blame men for bad behavior. If we allowed men to act like unrestrained horny animals, all hell would break loose. All I'm saying is that society has evolved to keep males in a state of continuous unfulfilled urges, more commonly known as unhappiness."

Scott Adams (1957-    ) "Pegs and Holes," Scott Adams' Blog (June 15, 2011)

John Goodman as Walter Sobchak in the "Mark it Zero" scene from The Big Lebowski (1998)
John Goodman as Walter Sobchak in the "Mark it Zero" scene from The Big Lebowski (1998)

Tuesday, June 07, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-07


"It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory."

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) "The War and the Future," Order of the Day (1942)

Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix (1830)
Liberty Leading the People by Eugène Delacroix (1830)

Monday, June 06, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-06


"Perhaps a revolution can overthrow autocratic despotism and profiteering or power-grabbing oppression, but it can never truly reform a manner of thinking; instead, new prejudices, just like the old ones they replace, will serve as a leash for the great unthinking mass."

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) "Answering the Question: What is Enlightenment?," Berlinische Monatsschrift (December 1784)

Illustration for the Women's March on Versailles by an unknown artist (1789)
Illustration for the Women's March on Versailles by an unknown artist (1789)

Sunday, June 05, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-05


"The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. No, not at all. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be."

Robert Fulghum (1937-    ) It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It (1988)

Pastorale by Rupert Bunny (1893)
Pastorale by Rupert Bunny (1893)

Saturday, June 04, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-04


"One thing we know about incentives is you can't incent a dead person. No matter what we do, Hawthorne will not produce any more works, [even if] we can give him all the money in the world."

Lawrence Lessig (1961-    ) Debate with Jack Valenti on "The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet" at Harvard University Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society (October 1, 2000)

Stereoscopic portrait of Nathaniel Hawthorne (circa 1860-1865)
Stereoscopic portrait of Nathaniel Hawthorne (circa 1860-1865)

Friday, June 03, 2016

Quote of the Day for 2016-06-03


"Before the civil war commenced, the United States of America were colonies, and we should not forget that such communities do not cease to be colonies because they are independent."

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) Speech in the House of Commons (February 5, 1863)

Alma Parens (The Motherland) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1883)
Alma Parens (The Motherland) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1883)