And lo, they said it is time for our monthly round-up of quotes, interesting and amusing.
In February 1881 William Cox was charged with bigamy, having married Caroline in 1875 and Rosina in 1880. In his defence, evidence was given that Caroline had married George in 1873, which would have made her marriage to William void and his marriage to Rosina valid. But it was then proved that George had also been married before, which would have made his marriage to Caroline void, her marriage to William valid, and William’s marriage to Rosina void! At this point the magistrates seem to given up, and simply discharged William, who was to be found living with Rosina at the time of the subsequent census.
[Rebecca Probert; Divorced, Bigamist, Bereaved? The Family Historian’s Guide to Marital Breakdown, Separation, Widowhood, and Remarriage: from 1600 to the 1970s]
If you can imagine something, then someone in history has carved, drawn, painted, etched, handwritten, collaged and sewn it into pornography.
[Hannah Rose Woods; https://www.historytoday.com/archive/review/poking-fun]
If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you. If you really make them think, they’ll hate you.
[Donald Robert Perry Marquis, American Journalist (1878-1937)] (h/t John Monaghan)
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Was the earth made to preserve a few covetous, proud men to live at ease; or was it made to preserve all her children?
[Gerrard Winstanley; 1619; Founder of The True Levellers]
If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter.
[Blaise Pascal; mathematician; Lettres Provinciales; 1657]
In some sense, the problems of the world are me. The world I live in is a reflection of me. If the world is in a state of panic, it must be because that state of panic exists within me. Therefore, I attend closely to the state of panic I feel in myself. I don’t try to force it to stop … knowing that it has always been futile …
[Brad Warner, “Responding to Fear” at http://hardcorezen.info/responding-to-fear/6862]
I also believe in karma. I know it’s somewhat controversial. But I believe that things will turn out for me precisely as they are meant to. There is only one thing I can do to avoid whatever pain or difficulty is in store for me, and that is to do as much good as I can whenever I have an opportunity. That is the only sort of activity that might change the course of my own life . In that sense, I have nothing at all to fear. Fear is just something extra that gets in the way of my being able to offer help when help is needed.
[Brad Warner, “Responding to Fear” at http://hardcorezen.info/responding-to-fear/6862]
The idea of two people spending their lives together was invented by people who were lucky to make it to thirty without being eaten by dinosaurs.
[Kevin Dolenz, St Elmo’s Fire; 1985]
5.5 million is an decent estimate of the number of insect species (8mil+ not unrealistic according to some). There are around 6500 species of mammal. So, for every mammal species there are likely ca.1000 insect species. Worth thinking about next time you watch a nature documentary.
[Prof. Adam Hart; @AdamHartScience on Twitter]
If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need.
[Cicero]
If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
[George Orwell]
I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.
[Borges]
The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
[Stephen Hawking]
Or in the words of George Bernard Shaw:
Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.