Wednesday, 4 December 2013
Mark Twain and Albert Einstein: Separated at Birth?
Or maybe they just had the same hairstylist: no one...
Can you figure out who said what?
1. "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
2. "A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds."
3. "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
4. "All generalizations are false, including this one."
5. "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
6. "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
7. "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
8. "Don't let schooling interfere with your education." (Note the similarity to 3.)
9. "Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense."
10. "Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others."
11. "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
12. "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
13. "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
14. "To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal."
15. "The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it."
16. "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
17. "Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today."
18. "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
19. "It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it."
20. "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
1. E. 2. T 3. E. 4. T 5. T 6. E 7. E. 8. T 9. T 10. T 11. E 12. E 13. E 14. T 15. T 16. E. 17. T 18. E 19. T 20. E
How'd you do? If you can't believe some of the answers, check my sources for the Einstein quotes, and for the Twain. And let me know if I've made any mistakes. It was easy to get very mixed up
1. "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
2. "A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds."
3. "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school."
4. "All generalizations are false, including this one."
5. "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."
6. "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
7. "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
8. "Don't let schooling interfere with your education." (Note the similarity to 3.)
9. "Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense."
10. "Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered - either by themselves or by others."
11. "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
12. "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
13. "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
14. "To refuse awards is another way of accepting them with more noise than is normal."
15. "The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it."
16. "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
17. "Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today."
18. "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
19. "It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it."
20. "Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
1. E. 2. T 3. E. 4. T 5. T 6. E 7. E. 8. T 9. T 10. T 11. E 12. E 13. E 14. T 15. T 16. E. 17. T 18. E 19. T 20. E
How'd you do? If you can't believe some of the answers, check my sources for the Einstein quotes, and for the Twain. And let me know if I've made any mistakes. It was easy to get very mixed up
This quiz is in honour of the publication of Autobiography of Mark Twain, ,the first sample chapter of which I downloaded to my kindle last night. Unfortunately the first chapter consisted of pages and pages of academic notes. I can generally get a good hit off those frees of e-books but not in this case. Because of my kindle, I am beginning to be extremely widely read -- as long as one counts only the first chapters of books. Still, I dare say this makes me more knowledgeable than many a cocktail party guest or book club participant and they don't refrain from commenting.
Thursday, 21 November 2013
More quotes...
“Everything you can imagine is real.” ― Pablo Picasso
“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.” ― Gilda Radner
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” ― Isaac Asimov
“People aren’t either wicked or noble. They’re like chef’s salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.” ― Lemony Snicket
“Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don’t want..to impress people that they don’t like.” ― Will Rogers
“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.” ― Arundhati Roy
“Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books.” ― Julian Barnes
“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.” ― Jim Morrison
“Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.” ― Jon Krakauer
“If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.” ― Frank Zappa
“We have to create culture, don’t watch TV, don’t read magazines, don’t even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you’re worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you’re giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have tits like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told ‘no’, we’re unimportant, we’re peripheral. ‘Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.’ And then you’re a player, you don’t want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that’s being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.” ― Terence McKenna
“That’s how stories happen — with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There’s only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.” ― Haruki Murakami
“If other people do not understand our behavior—so what? Their request that we must only do what they understand is an attempt to dictate to us. If this is being “asocial” or “irrational” in their eyes, so be it. Mostly they resent our freedom and our courage to be ourselves. We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them. How many lives have been ruined by this need to “explain,” which usually implies that the explanation be “understood,” i.e. approved. Let your deeds be judged, and from your deeds, your real intentions, but know that a free person owes an explanation only to himself—to his reason and his conscience—and to the few who may have a justified claim for explanation.” ― Erich Fromm
“Everything you can imagine is real.” ― Pablo Picasso
“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.” ― Gilda Radner
“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” ― Isaac Asimov
“People aren’t either wicked or noble. They’re like chef’s salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.” ― Lemony Snicket
“Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don’t want..to impress people that they don’t like.” ― Will Rogers
“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.” ― Arundhati Roy
“Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren’t. I’m not surprised some people prefer books.” ― Julian Barnes
“People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that’s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they’re afraid to feel? Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they’re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It’s all in how you carry it. That’s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.” ― Jim Morrison
“Make a radical change in your lifestyle and begin to boldly do things which you may previously never have thought of doing, or been too hesitant to attempt. So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservation, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life, you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and its incredible beauty.” ― Jon Krakauer
“If you end up with a boring miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest, or some guy on television telling you how to do your shit, then you deserve it.” ― Frank Zappa
“We have to create culture, don’t watch TV, don’t read magazines, don’t even listen to NPR. Create your own roadshow. The nexus of space and time where you are now is the most immediate sector of your universe, and if you’re worrying about Michael Jackson or Bill Clinton or somebody else, then you are disempowered, you’re giving it all away to icons, icons which are maintained by an electronic media so that you want to dress like X or have tits like Y. This is shit-brained, this kind of thinking. That is all cultural diversion, and what is real is you and your friends and your associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hopes, your plans, your fears. And we are told ‘no’, we’re unimportant, we’re peripheral. ‘Get a degree, get a job, get a this, get a that.’ And then you’re a player, you don’t want to even play in that game. You want to reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that’s being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world.” ― Terence McKenna
“That’s how stories happen — with a turning point, an unexpected twist. There’s only one kind of happiness, but misfortune comes in all shapes and sizes. It’s like Tolstoy said. Happiness is an allegory, unhappiness a story.” ― Haruki Murakami
“If other people do not understand our behavior—so what? Their request that we must only do what they understand is an attempt to dictate to us. If this is being “asocial” or “irrational” in their eyes, so be it. Mostly they resent our freedom and our courage to be ourselves. We owe nobody an explanation or an accounting, as long as our acts do not hurt or infringe on them. How many lives have been ruined by this need to “explain,” which usually implies that the explanation be “understood,” i.e. approved. Let your deeds be judged, and from your deeds, your real intentions, but know that a free person owes an explanation only to himself—to his reason and his conscience—and to the few who may have a justified claim for explanation.” ― Erich Fromm
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Friday, 8 November 2013
Sunday, 3 November 2013
Del blog "El silencio de los besos dormidos"
Con una sola chispa de tus ojos se pueden incendiar arboledas ...de los besos dormidos
Con una sóla lágrima se desprenden glaciares que se estrellan contra las naves blancas
...sonámbulas de la ilusión primera
...porque
Me buscarás sin prisa entre la gente
y amoldarás tu paso a mis pisadas
Mis palabras todavía emocionadas
...ajenas a tu hielo y a tu ambiente
El frío de tu sombra convergente
me trepará de hiedras apretadas
Subiendo hasta mis venas desplegadas
el pasmo de tu abrazo disolvente
Irás difuminando mi paisaje
mi densidad irás disminuyendo
Archivarás el nombre de mi ausencia
mientras voy iniciando el Gran Viaje
que se suele llamar
"me estoy muriendo"...
(según versos de E. Carrión Fos)
Con una sola chispa de tus ojos se pueden incendiar arboledas ...de los besos dormidos
Con una sóla lágrima se desprenden glaciares que se estrellan contra las naves blancas
...sonámbulas de la ilusión primera
...porque
Me buscarás sin prisa entre la gente
y amoldarás tu paso a mis pisadas
Mis palabras todavía emocionadas
...ajenas a tu hielo y a tu ambiente
El frío de tu sombra convergente
me trepará de hiedras apretadas
Subiendo hasta mis venas desplegadas
el pasmo de tu abrazo disolvente
Irás difuminando mi paisaje
mi densidad irás disminuyendo
Archivarás el nombre de mi ausencia
mientras voy iniciando el Gran Viaje
que se suele llamar
"me estoy muriendo"...
(según versos de E. Carrión Fos)
Monday, 28 October 2013
El blog se volvió el refugio de los eremitas... (el resto, el que lo leyó lo leyó...).
No recuerdo si alguna vez lo dije o no, así que lo escribo ahora.
Este espacio (mi blog) es absolutamente un lugar personal, donde escribo o comparto cosas que siento - sean mias o tomadas de otra/s fuente/s- y que me alegraré si también son del interés del que "pase" por aquí. PERO: no es un foro de opiniones y menos de discusión, por eso no se ven comentarios (que por otra parte tampoco permitiría viniendo de usuarios "fantasma", es decir que no dan su identidad).
Dicho esto, creo que está de más aclarar que el no esté de acuerdo o algo no le guste, tiene suficiente material en la web que se ajuste a sus intereses y/o expectativas.
Quien quiera intercambiar respetuosamente opiniones, puede hacerlo via email.
Un saludo y buena semana.
No recuerdo si alguna vez lo dije o no, así que lo escribo ahora.
Este espacio (mi blog) es absolutamente un lugar personal, donde escribo o comparto cosas que siento - sean mias o tomadas de otra/s fuente/s- y que me alegraré si también son del interés del que "pase" por aquí. PERO: no es un foro de opiniones y menos de discusión, por eso no se ven comentarios (que por otra parte tampoco permitiría viniendo de usuarios "fantasma", es decir que no dan su identidad).
Dicho esto, creo que está de más aclarar que el no esté de acuerdo o algo no le guste, tiene suficiente material en la web que se ajuste a sus intereses y/o expectativas.
Quien quiera intercambiar respetuosamente opiniones, puede hacerlo via email.
Un saludo y buena semana.
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Tuesday, 15 October 2013
Escucho radio por internet mientras cocino.
Lindas canciones, a veces también algunas frases formuladas en forma no kitsch...
Una me dejó hoy (o mejor dicho me dió más) motivos para seguir "filosofando" (con mis disculpas a los filósofosde verdad...).
Decía que el amor es un milagro...y si...visto todas las cosas que lo ahogan en la cotidianeidad, diría que lo es cuando podemos vivirlo, sin explicaciones de ninguna clase... (científicas, espirituales, religiosas... sorry si olvido alguna etiqueta más... que obviamente para el tema no hace falta...).
Al final cada uno vive y siente "ESO" a lo que le pusimos de nombre "AMOR", como lo que nunca podrá definirse con palabras.
Nada más, buenas noches
Lindas canciones, a veces también algunas frases formuladas en forma no kitsch...
Una me dejó hoy (o mejor dicho me dió más) motivos para seguir "filosofando" (con mis disculpas a los filósofosde verdad...).
Decía que el amor es un milagro...y si...visto todas las cosas que lo ahogan en la cotidianeidad, diría que lo es cuando podemos vivirlo, sin explicaciones de ninguna clase... (científicas, espirituales, religiosas... sorry si olvido alguna etiqueta más... que obviamente para el tema no hace falta...).
Al final cada uno vive y siente "ESO" a lo que le pusimos de nombre "AMOR", como lo que nunca podrá definirse con palabras.
Nada más, buenas noches
PD: una canción que no soporto, el himno para consolar a las cornudas -cada dos dias con la misma cancioncita ;-)- es "Tanta voglia di lei" de los Pooh... qué hipocresia...
Il canto delle sirene: In una poesia
Il canto delle sirene: In una poesia: KARMELO C. IRIBARREN COME NELLA VITA Tutto può accadere in una poesia: il quotidiano, certo, ma anche lo sfolgorio, e persino entrambe ...
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Monday, 30 September 2013
Il mio canto
Deve volare leggero il mio canto,
come le alcioni dei lirici greci,
come il filo di fumo del camino,
come i piccoli semi del tarassaco,
come la neve che turbina in cielo.
Deve volare leggero il mio canto,
come piuma, perché deve venire
fino da te, che sei così lontano.
come le alcioni dei lirici greci,
come il filo di fumo del camino,
come i piccoli semi del tarassaco,
come la neve che turbina in cielo.
Deve volare leggero il mio canto,
come piuma, perché deve venire
fino da te, che sei così lontano.
(Dal Blog Il canto delle sirene)
 |
| "Mermaid Singing" (2010) by Stacy Esch (gel pen with digital enhancement) |
Il canto infinito del mare
Ascolto il canto infinito del mare: è una voce che mi risuona dentro,
è il sangue che mi pulsa nelle vene,
è il palpito continuo del mio cuore.
Anche quando, lontano dalla costa,
percorro le pianure e le città che hanno montagne grigie sullo sfondo,
io sento quel canto dentro me.
(dal Blog Il canto delle sirene - Dr.Salvo)
Ascolto il canto infinito del mare: è una voce che mi risuona dentro,
è il sangue che mi pulsa nelle vene,
è il palpito continuo del mio cuore.
Anche quando, lontano dalla costa,
percorro le pianure e le città che hanno montagne grigie sullo sfondo,
io sento quel canto dentro me.
(dal Blog Il canto delle sirene - Dr.Salvo)
Il canto delle sirene: E feci visita al mare
Il canto delle sirene: E feci visita al mare: EMILY DICKINSON MI AVVIAI DI BUON’ORA… Mi avviai di Buon'ora - Presi il mio Cane - E feci visita al Mare - Le Sirene dello Scantina...
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
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