The English
Benjamin Disraeli … the liberal PM …
Success is the child of audacity. The secret of success is constancy to purpose. Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius. Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.
Diligence is the mother of good fortune. Through perseverance many people win success out of what seemed destined to be certain [...]
Root of the Economic Imbroglio …
The crux of the problem was articulated so well by Keynes:
‘Nothing corrupts society more than to disconnect effort and reward.’
(However. more to the point, Bill Maher observes,
“If you have a gun, you can rob a bank but if you have a bank, you can rob everyone”.)
John Maynard Keynes (1883 –1946). British economist whose ideas [...]
Omar Khayyam’s couplets …
Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultán’s Turret in a Noose of Light.
One Moment in Annihilation’s Waste,
One Moment, of the Well of Life to taste–
The Stars are setting and the Caravan
Starts for the Dawn of [...]
Emily Bronte …
A person who has not done one half his day’s work by ten o clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.
I’ll walk where my own nature would be leading: It vexes me to choose another guide.
I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and [...]
Lord Byron …
A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn’t know. A woman should never be seen eating or drinking, unless it be lobster, salad and Champagne — the only true feminine and becoming viands.
All who want joy must share it. Happiness was born a Twin. Always laugh when you [...]
Lord Chesterfield …
From ‘Lord Chesterfield’s Letters’. Not intended for publication, the celebrated and controversial correspondence between father and son dates from 1737. They reflect the political craft of a leading statesman and the urbane wit of a man who associated with Addison, Pope and Swift. The letters reveal the authors political cynicism, views on good breeding and [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )After Shakespeare stands John Milton …
The superior man acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past in order to strengthen his character thereby.
Give me the liberty to know, to utter and to argue freely, according to conscience; this above all liberties.
Better to reign in hell then to serve in heaven.
Nothing profits more than self esteem, [...]
End of the US? …
Nov 20th, 1777, Lord Chatham (the elder Pitt) feeble and old, yet the old Lion retains some of his former vigor, when in one of his last speeches in the House of Lords, he concludes, ”You may ravage. You cannot conquer the Americans - and their mighty continental nation. It is impossible!” And as he breaks down, he [...]
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )The Original ??? …
Bit disconcerting, when you had credited some one with something, to find that some other, much earlier had said the same.
Case in point. The great Gibbon, in his magnum opus, has observed –
“The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were considered by the people as equally true; by the by the [...]
Benjamin Franklin in London – Pitt on the Founding Fathers
Ben Franklin was an interested spectator in the House of Lords when Pitt the Elder praised the American Founding Fathers. Franklin wrote -
“Dr Franklin presents his best respects to Lord Stanhope, with many thanks to his Lordship and Lord Chatham, for the communication of so authetic a copy of the motion. Dr Franklin is filled with admiration [...]
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