All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Aphorisms, proverbs, wise sayings and other witty, pithy stuff
Heinlein was probably exclusively thinking of religion but the relevancy to the Left’s brand of politically correct propaganda is extremely obvious to me.
It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creeds into law if it acquires the political power to do so, and will follow it by suppressing opposition, subverting all education to seize early the minds of the young, and by killing, locking up, or driving underground all heretics.
Freedom and liberty are tricky words but I agree with the spirit of this saying.
“Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty”
Frank Herbert
He got this one right.
The greatest evils in the world will not be carried out by men with guns, but by men in suits sitting behind desks
The common argument that crime is caused by poverty is a kind of slander on the poor.
Xenophon was a practical man. That must have frustrated his mentor Socrates. The thought of that pleases me immensely for some reason. I guess it’s my hate for Plato. Here’s more of an observation than a quote.
When the interests of mankind are at stake, they will obey with joy the man whom they believe to be wiser than themselves. You may prove this on all sides: you may see how the sick man will beg the doctor to tell him what he ought to do, how a whole ship’s company will listen to the pilot.
Xenophon
Ray Bradbury turned Americana into fantasy (and sometimes horror). But Dandelion Wine is his love song to small town America circa 1928. And one of the lessons he tries to teach is that progress doesn’t always mean improvement. Too bad the family is one of the things that doesn’t look like it will survive 21st Century America.
You want to see the real happiness machine? The one they patented a couple thousand years ago. It still runs; not good all the time, no! but it runs. It’s been here all along.
…
Hesitantly, Grandfather, Douglas and Tom peered through the large windowpane.
And there in the small warm pools of lamplight, you could see what Leo Auffman wanted you to see. There sat Saul and Marshall, playing chess at the coffee table. In the dining room Rebecca was laying out the silver. Naomi was cutting out paper-doll dresses. Ruth was painting water colors. Joseph was running his electric train. Through the kitchen door, Lena Auffman was sliding a pot roast from the steaming oven. Every hand, every head, every mouth made a big or little motion. You could hear their far away voices under glass. You could hear someone singing in a high sweet voice. You could smell bread baking, too, and you knew it was real bread that would soon be covered with real butter. Everything was there and it was working.
Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine (1957)
Old give ’em hell Harry. I wonder what he would have thought of having to call Bruce Jenner, Caitlyn or lose his job?
When even one American – who has done nothing wrong – is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth – then all Americans are in peril.
Harry S Truman
I grew up on this guy’s stuff. We don’t see eye to eye on everything but he did get a lot of stuff right. Plus he definitely was an American original. In his novel “Friday” he represented the balkanization of North America. I wonder whether he would be surprised by where we are today. My guess, probably not.
There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.
Robert A. Heinlein
Holmes again! Jeremy Brett starred in a BBC series which encompassed a large number of the Holmes canon. The scene I highlight here was memorable so I decided to include this for today’s quote.
“When you combine the ideas of whistles at night, the presence of
a band of gipsies who are on intimate terms with this old doctor,
the fact that we have every reason to believe that the doctor has
an interest in preventing his stepdaughter’s marriage, the dying
allusion to a band, and, finally, the fact that Miss Helen Stoner
heard a metallic clang, which might have been caused by one of
those metal bars that secured the shutters falling back into its
place, I think that there is good ground to think that the
mystery may be cleared along those lines.”
“But what, then, did the gipsies do?”
“I cannot imagine.”
“I see many objections to any such theory.”
“And so do I. It is precisely for that reason that we are going
to Stoke Moran this day. I want to see whether the objections are
fatal, or if they may be explained away. But what in the name of
the devil!”
The ejaculation had been drawn from my companion by the fact that
our door had been suddenly dashed open, and that a huge man had
framed himself in the aperture. His costume was a peculiar
mixture of the professional and of the agricultural, having a
black top-hat, a long frock-coat, and a pair of high gaiters,
with a hunting-crop swinging in his hand. So tall was he that his
hat actually brushed the cross bar of the doorway, and his
breadth seemed to span it across from side to side. A large face,
seared with a thousand wrinkles, burned yellow with the sun, and
marked with every evil passion, was turned from one to the other
of us, while his deep-set, bile-shot eyes, and his high, thin,
fleshless nose, gave him somewhat the resemblance to a fierce old
bird of prey.
“Which of you is Holmes?” asked this apparition.
“My name, sir; but you have the advantage of me,” said my
companion quietly.
“I am Dr. Grimesby Roylott, of Stoke Moran.”
“Indeed, Doctor,” said Holmes blandly. “Pray take a seat.”
“I will do nothing of the kind. My stepdaughter has been here. I
have traced her. What has she been saying to you?”
“It is a little cold for the time of the year,” said Holmes.
“What has she been saying to you?” screamed the old man
furiously.
“But I have heard that the crocuses promise well,” continued my
companion imperturbably.
“Ha! You put me off, do you?” said our new visitor, taking a step
forward and shaking his hunting-crop. “I know you, you scoundrel!
I have heard of you before. You are Holmes, the meddler.”
My friend smiled.
“Holmes, the busybody!”
His smile broadened.
“Holmes, the Scotland Yard Jack-in-office!”
Holmes chuckled heartily. “Your conversation is most
entertaining,” said he. “When you go out close the door, for
there is a decided draught.”
“I will go when I have said my say. Don’t you dare to meddle with
my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her!
I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here.” He stepped
swiftly forward, seized the poker, and bent it into a curve with
his huge brown hands.
“See that you keep yourself out of my grip,” he snarled, and
hurling the twisted poker into the fireplace he strode out of the
room.
“He seems a very amiable person,” said Holmes, laughing. “I am
not quite so bulky, but if he had remained I might have shown him
that my grip was not much more feeble than his own.” As he spoke
he picked up the steel poker and, with a sudden effort,
straightened it out again.
“Fancy his having the insolence to confound me with the official
detective force! This incident gives zest to our investigation,
however, and I only trust that our little friend will not suffer
from her imprudence in allowing this brute to trace her. And now,
Watson, we shall order breakfast, and afterwards I shall walk
down to Doctors’ Commons, where I hope to get some data which may
help us in this matter.”
So, let’s keep going with the Sherlock Holmes theme. Today let’s just go for a famous quote.
“You will not apply my precept,” he said, shaking his head. “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
The Sign of the Four, ch. 6 (1890)
Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four