Notes and Highlights

November 2019 · 2 minute read · Tags: [snippets clips]

The Dunciad by Alexander Pope

Nor public flame, nor private, dares to shine;

Nor human spark is left, nor glimpse divine!

Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored;

Light dies before thy uncreating word:

Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall;

And universal darkness buries all.

Quotes

“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” - Sun Tzu

“To ensure the adoration of a theorem for any length of time, faith is not enough; a police force is needed as well.” - Albert Camus (French philosopher, author, and journalist)

“Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.” - George Bernard Shaw (an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist, and political activist)

“They laughed at Columbus and they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.” - Carl Sagan

“The breaking of a wave cannot explain the whole sea.” - Vladimir Nabokov (Russian novelist, poet, translator and entomologist)

Goethe’s Aphorisms

#346. The senses do not deceive; it is the judgment that deceives.

#554. A man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible; otherwise he would not try to fathom it.

#324. It is not enough to know, we must also apply; it is not enough to will, we must also do.

#239. To live in a great idea means to treat the impossible as though it were possible. It is just the same with a strong character; and when an idea and a character meet, things arise which fill the world with wonder for thousands of years.

#223. We cannot escape a contradiction in ourselves; we must try and resolve it. If the contradiction comes from others, it does not affect us: it is their affair.

#7. Tell me with whom you associate, and I will tell you who you are. If I know what your business is, I know what can be made of you.