And it’s that time of the month again already for our selection of quotes interested or amused me. Here goes …
Nobody ever knows what to do. There’s a kind of an illusion that some people know what to do at every moment and there are people who are extremely confident and act like they know what to do but they don’t know what to do any better then you do. So not knowing what to do is sometimes a perfectly fine situation. I don’t know what to do so I’m just going to do something. And if your action is sincere and not motivated by some kind of greed or anger or some other negative quality or emotion then what you do will be right. It may not be perfect. It’ll never be perfect. It can’t be perfect. But it won’t be the wrong thing to do. You just do something that’s not motivated by greed or anger or ego, for want of a better word.
[Brad Warner at http://hardcorezen.info/the-beer-oclock-interview-2005/7805]
I always felt that what Buddhism showed me was how stupid I was and by extension how stupid everybody was. And all I’m trying to say in my books is, “Look, we’re all stupid, so just live with it. Just deal with it.” … once you realize that you are stupid you have total freedom because the other aspect of your stupidity is that you’re … also the sum total of the universe. You’re also the centre of the universe and the centre of the universe is stupidity itself. And to understand this is to be completely free from ever having to try to live up to some kind of fantasy you’ve created for yourself, and just be where you are.
[Brad Warner at http://hardcorezen.info/the-beer-oclock-interview-2005/7805]
Institutions of learning should be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity, and the less they are deflected by considerations of immediacy and application, the more likely they are to contribute not only to human welfare but to the equally important satisfaction of intellectual interest which may indeed be said to have become the ruling passion of intellectual life in modern times.
[Abraham Flexner]
In any case, we overslept. When we woke up, the whole ocean was full of broken ice. Unbelievable tabernacles floated by, driven by a mild south-west breeze, statuesque, glittering, as big as trolleys, cathedrals, primeval caverns, everything imaginable! And they changed colour whenever they felt like it – ice blue, green and, in the evenings, orange. Early in the morning they could be pink. It started to blow and the floes piled into each other, rearing up, thrusting down (as if having an orgy, as Brunström might have put it).
[Tove Jansson; Notes from an Island]
Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft are written by men.
[Terry Pratchett, Good Omens]
We ring the Quick to Church, the dead to Grave,
Good is our use, such usage let us have.
Who here therefore doth Damn, or Curse or Swear,
Or strike in Quarrel tho no Blood appear.
Who wears a Hat or Spur or turns a Bell
Or by unskilful handing ruins a Pail,
Shall Sixpense pay for every single Crime
‘Twill make him careful ‘gainst another time.
Let all in Love and Friendship hither come,
Whilst the shrill Treble calls to Thundering Tom,
And since bells are our modest Recreation,
Let’s Rise and Ring and Fall to Admiration.
[Ringers’ Rhyme Board at St Kew, Cornwall]
I have always been used to nudity since I was born. The non-judgment of the body of the other and the absence of social difference due to the clothes. Collective nudity is beautiful and not sexual. I like collective nudity of all genders and ages so that everyone is on the same level. Nudity does not mean sexuality. I admire the beauty of the female body … I find it beautiful and admirable.
[Pleasure Portraits on Instagram]
Graham Roper shares a 2001 article from Electronics Times, about a new British oscilloscope, “the first instrument of its kind to be calibrated directly in practical units of measure”. With a screen area of 3¹⁄₈ micro-acres, power consumption of 2052 British thermal units per hour and a maximum deflection of 21¹⁄₁₁ milli-fathoms, its timebase had 24 calibrated sweep rates from 4¹⁄₈ micro-fortnights/furlong to 208¹⁄₄ fortnights/furlong. We aren’t sure, but the 1 April dateline may indicate humorous intent.
[Feedback; New Scientist; 30/10/2021]
A first step was the introduction of two beavers last summer – Sigourney Beaver and Jean Claude Van-Dam (who now have two kits, Beavie Wonder and Beavie Nicks)
[Jane Dunford; Guardian; 16 November 2021]
[C]ircadian rhythm and cellular timekeeping … [come] down to cycles of protein synthesis and degradation, spooling and unspooling with … the ribosomes and the proteasomes as the ultimate timekeepers. It’s as if we have little medieval water clocks constantly running inside us.
[Derek Lowe at https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/proteins-aging-not-so-gracefully]