Quote No. CXVII

"When you need to shoot, shoot, don't talk."

-Tuco Ramirez

(The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly)

Quote #116: on persuasion

"If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. But do not care to convince him. Men will believe what they see. Let them see"

- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American writer.

Quote #115: De Profundis by Christina Rossetti

Oh why is heaven built so far,
Oh why is earth set so remote?
I cannot reach the nearest star
That hangs afloat.

I would not care to reach the moon,
On round monotonous of change;
Yet even she repeats her tune
Beyond my range.

I never watch the scatter'd fire
Of stars or sun's far-trailing train,
But all my heart is one desire,
And all in vain:

For I am bound with fleshly bands,
Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope;
I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,
And catch at hope.

Quote #114: on excessive taxation

"Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery." -- Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States.

Quote #113: on the nature of education

“Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities - that's training or instruction - but is rather making visible what is hidden as a seed” -- St. Thomas More, Lord Chancellor of England and martyr.

Why do we quote?

A good question.  What is it about quotations that captivate those of us who like them?  I have books of quotations -- by the Founding Fathers, by Abraham Lincoln, by various theological authors, etc.  Why?  What is it about the words of others that is so appealing?  Partly it is authority -- the use of words by notable authors to support my own contentions.  It allows me to speak without using my own voice.  But that, I think, isn't the main reason.  The main reason is joy in the phrasing and wisdom of others.  What I like about quotations is the ability to reference a particularly well-put point or insight, and to share that literary or verbal excellence with others.  That to me is why quotations are so interesting.

As Lincoln once quipped, "For those who like that kind of thing, it's the kind of thing they like." 

Quote #112: don't act in a hurry

"Here is a very wise rule:  never act in a hurry, and always be ready to alter your preconceived ideas.  And here is another principle that goes with it; don't be too ready to accept the first story that is told you, or hand on to others the rumours you hear, and the secrets entrusted to you.  Find out some wise counsellor to advise you, a man of enlightened conscience, and be prepared to go by his better judgement, instead of trusting your own calculations.  Believe me, a holy life gives a man the wisdom that reflects God's will, and a wide range of experience.  The humbler he is, the more submissive in God's service, the more wise and calm will be his judgements on every question."  - The Imitation of Christ, Bk. 1, Ch. 4, Para. 2 (Ronald Knox translation).

Worshipping the Intellect

"There seems to be an inverse corrolary between those who worship the intellect and those who use it. [Sam] Harris, like so many atheists, is a devout worshipper of the intellect."

Mark P. Shea, Catholic blogger

Quote CX

"There are no good laws but such as repeal other laws."

President Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), our last Independent executive, who martyred his presidency in order that he not be guilty of destroying our Constitution or have a part in the post-bellum alienization of the American South.

Quote #109: on love

From one of the great English poets of the Romantic period:

"All thoughts, all passions, all delights
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame."

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).

On Intellectuals

“Scratch an intellectual and you find a would-be aristocrat who loathes the sight, the sound, and the smell of common folk.”

Eric Hoffer

On Appetite

"The ideal is for us not to control our appetites at all, but to allow them full rein in the wake of an uncontrolled appetite for God.

It is important to take seriously the implication of our beatitude that there really is an appetite for God, and for his righteousness. We too easily speak and think as if righteousness resulted chiefly from the curbing of our appetites, as if our appetites were only for sin. But strictly speaking we have no appetite for sin. What we experience as an appetite for sin is a sick appetite which has mistaken its object. In moments of despondency we may perhaps look around and think that we should be much happier if we gave up trying to be good, if we could enjoy all the vices of the world around us. But that is only a fantasy. The desire for goodness is really a much more robust desire than any alleged desire for evil. . . ."

Father Simon Tugwell, O.P.

Quote #106

“Because of our traditions we have kept our balance for many, many years … Because of our traditions, everyone of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do.” -- from Fiddler on the Roof.

Quote CV

"True law is right reason in agreement with nature; it is of universal application, unchanging and everlasting; it summons to duty by its commands and averts from wrongdoing by its prohibitions."

-Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 B.C.-43 B.C.)

Quote CIV

"A little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion."

-Sir Francis Bacon

Quote No. 103

Affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction that is not matured and ripened by it and made fit for God by that affliction."

-John Donne (1572-1631)

Quote #102

"The wise determine from the gravity of the case; the irritable, from sensibility to oppression; the high minded, from disdain and indignation at abusive power in unworthy hands."

-- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), English statesman and member of Parliament, generally acknowledged founder of modern conservatism.

The 100 quote milestone!

Thanks to Jakeman for getting us across the 100 quote milestone. Great work by all the contributors here at Culby's Daily Quotebook! Quote-on!

Quote No. 101

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."

-Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

Quote Number 100

Bringin' it back...

"The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether; more to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in jeeping them there is great reward."

Psalm 19:7-11 (New King James Version)

Well, are we going to make it to 100 quotes?

I was going to post the 100th quote this afternoon, but I thought I would leave it up to this blog's founder, Jakeman, to do the honors if he would like.  So, Jakeman, will you post a quote to get us across the 100th quote mark, or should I do the honors?

Quote #99: law and ideology

"It is admittedly somewhat ironic that legal certainty increases precisely in virtue of an element that, although moderating the ideal demands on legal theory, is the most susceptible to ideological distortions." - Jurgen Habermas, Between Facts and Norms (transl. by William Rehg, MIT Press: 1998), pg. 221.

Quote #98: on living in the end times

"Although the early church say the end of the world as imminent, why should we reenter that frame of mind, now that we know that the world was not about to end? Well, the New Testament invites us to see eternity as continually intersecting -- literally, cutting across -- time. This is a synchronic, not a diachronic, faith. We are created now, at every now. Christ comes now; the Incarnation is now. The great judgment is now. 'The accomplishment of everything impends' (1 Peter 4.7). Christ brought his reign with him. It is both present and to come."
--Garry Wills, The Rosary (Viking: 2005), pg. 20.

Danger to Liberty

"There is something so far-fetched and so extravagant in the idea of danger to liberty from the militia that one is at a loss whether to treat it with gravity or with raillery; whether to consider it as a mere trial of skill, like the paradoxes of rhetoricians; as a disingenuous artifice to instill prejudices at any price; or as the serious."

- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 29

Advantage of being Armed

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of."
- James Madison, Federalist No. 46

Quote #95: on the powers of government

"A government ought to contain in itself every power requisite to the full accomplishment of the objects committed to its care, and to the complete execution of the trusts for which it is responsible, free from every other control but a regard to the public good and to the sense of the people."
- Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 31 (January 1, 1788).

Unalienable Rights

"The whole of that Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... [It] establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of."

- Albert Gallatin, letter to Alexander Addison, 1789

Quote #93: on the purpose of government

"Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. In a society under the forms of which the stronger faction can readily unite and oppress the weaker, anarchy may as truly be said to reign as in a state of nature, where the weaker individual is not secured against the violence of the stronger; and as, in the latter state, even the individuals are prompted, by the uncertainty of their condition, to submit to a government which may protect the weak as well as themselves; so, in the former state, will the more powerful factions or parties be gradually induced, by a like motive to wish for a government which will protect all parties, the weaker as well as the more powerful."
- Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), American founding father.

To Guard Liberty

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."

- Patrick Henry, Speech in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, 1778

The Right of Citizens to Be Armed

"Whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it."
- Federal Farmer, Antifederalist Letter, No. 18

Quote #90: St. Stephen

Since today is St. Stephen's Day, I thought it might be fitting to have a quote dedicated to the first believer to give up his life rather than renounce the Christian faith.  Here's the story of his martyrdom, as found in the Acts of the Apostles:

But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said, "Look!  I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"

Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at  him with one accord;
and they cast him out of the city and stoned him.  And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."  Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin."  And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Acts 7.54-60 (New King James Version).

Quote #89: "Love Came Down at Christmas"

Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.

Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.

 - Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), English poet.

4 short quotes

• Quote #85:  "Anxiety is the hand maiden of creativity." - T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), Anglo-American poet.

• Quote #86:  "Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar." - William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English poet.

• Quote #87:  "A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years mere study of books." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), American author and linguist.

• Quote #88:  "Man is a mixture of good and evil, and he can never be perfected in this life. The notion of his natural goodness is a delusive theory which will blow up any social order that is predicated upon it." - Richard M. Weaver (1910-1963), scholar and rhetorical theorist.
  

Why George Washington was Great

"The great Searcher of human hearts is my witness, that I have no wish, which aspires beyond the humble and happy lot of living and dying a private citizen on my own farm."

- George Washington

Quote #83: on schadenfreude

"Do not rejoice at the fall of your enemy;
do not gloat when he is brought down,
or the Lord will be displeased at the sight,
and will cease to be angry with him."
- Proverbs 24.17-18 (Revised English Bible translation).

Quote #82: on the difficulty of discerning God's will

"Certainly there is no contending against the Will of God; but still there is some difficulty in ascertaining, and applying it, to particular cases." - Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865), 16th president of the United States.

Quote #81: on revenge

"Giving up our desire to take revenge is a hard sacrifice, perhaps the hardest, which Christ requires of us.  For our whole human nature cries out for vengence against our enemies.  The desire for revenge is stronger in our human blood than any other desire.  But - and we know it - we can no longer take revenge.  If my enemy stands there before my eyes, and I am overcome by the obsession to finally be able to take revenge, then Jesus Christ stands at once behind my enemy and entreats me:  do not lift up your hand, but leave vengence to me; I will take it."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Christ's Love and Our Enemies (1938).

Quote #80: on beauty

"Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it even to the wicked." - St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430 A.D.).

The Cost of Freedom

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it."
--Thomas Paine, The Crisis, No. 4, 1777

Quote #78: most people have their price

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder." - George Washington (1732-1799), American founding father and first president of the United States.

"If the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them."

- Candidus in The Boston Gazette, 1772

Quote #76: on happiness

From an early Christian letter dating from the second century A.D.:

And once you love Him, you will be an imitator of His kindness. And you must not be surprised that man can become an imitator of God. He can, since He so wills. Certainly, to be happy does not mean to tyrannize over one's neighbors, or to wish to have an advantage ove rthe weaker ones, or to be rich and therefore able to use force against one's inferiors. It is not in such matters that one can imitate God; no, such amtters are foreign to His majesty. On the other hand, he who takes his neighbor's burden upon himself, who is willing to benefit his inferior in a matter in which he is his superior, who provides the needy with what he himself has received from God and thus becomes the god of the recipients -- he, I say, is an imitator of God!

- Epistle to Diognetus 10.4-6 (Ancient Christian Writers translation).

Quote #75: a marriage blessing

One of my favorite passages from one of my favorite plays:

Honor, riches, marriage blessing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be stil upon you!
June sings her blessings on you.
Earth's increase, foison plenty,
Barns and garners never empty,
Vines with clust'ring bunches growing,
Plants with goodly burden bowing;
Spring come to you at the farthest
In the very end of harvest.
Scarcity and want shall shun you,
Ceres' blessing so is on you.

- William Shakespeare, from The Tempest, IV, i.

Quote #74: the meaning of Jesus' birth

"The birth of Jesus provides our entrance into the reality and meaning of creation: this is the world of the Father revealed by Jesus. Jesus shows us that the creation is something to be lived, not just looked at, and the way he did it becomes the way we do it."

- Eugene H. Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (Eerdmans: 2005), pg. 137

"I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death."

- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis, No. 1, 1776

Quote #72: "the sacred had finally overspread the world."

A great Jewish scholar meditates on what the destruction of the Second Temple meant for Jewish practice in the world:

If we appreciate the force of powerful emotions aroused by the Temple cult, we may understand how grand a revolution was effected in the simple declaration, so long in coming, that with the destruction of the Temple the realm of the sacred had finally overspread the world. We must now see in ourselves, in our selfish motives to be immolated, the noblest sacrifice of all. So Rabban Gamaliel son of Rabbi Judah the Patriarch said, "Do His will as if it was your will, so that He may do your will as if it ws His will. Make your will of no effect before His will, that He may make the will of others of no effect before your will." His will is that we love our neighbors as ourselves. Just was willingly as we would contribute bricks and mortar for the building of a sanctuary, so willingly we ought to contribute love, renunciation, self-sacrifice, for the building of a sacred community. If one wants to do something for God in a time when the Temple is no more, the offering must be the gift of selfless compassion. The holy altar must be the streets and marketplaces of the world.

- Jacob Neuser, Judaism in the Beginning of Christianity (Fortress Press: 1984), pgs. 98-99.

Quote LXXI: On Education, The Consumation Of

"The start of learning, thus, lies in reading, but its consummation lies in meditation."

Hugh of St. Victor

Quote #70: on controling one's emotions

"Do not give in too much to feelings. A overly sensitive heart is an unhappy possession on this shaky earth."

- Goethe (1749-1832), German philosopher and writer.

Quote #69: on human improvement

"Beavers build houses; but they build them in nowise differently, or better now, than they did, five thousand years ago. Ants, and honey-bees, provide food for winter; but just in the same way they did, when Solomon referred the sluggard to them as patterns of prudence. Man is not the only animal who labors; but he is the only one who improves his workmanship."

- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), American statesman and president.

"No morn ever dawned more favorable than ours did; and no day was ever more clouded than the present! Wisdom and good examples are necessary at this time to rescue the political machine from the impending storm."

- George Washington, letter to James Madison, 1786