Great Quotes III: Source and Context are Key

[Traitorfish]

“Apart from bigots and backlashers, it seems to be a malady even among those whites who like to regard themselves as 'enlightened.' I would especially refer to those who counsel, 'Wait!' and to those who say that they sympathize with our goals but cannot condone our methods of direct-action in pursuit of those goals. I wonder at men who dare to feel that they have some paternalistic right to set the timetable for another man’s liberation."

- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Timely, as he often is.

 

[Kyriakos]

Very likely posted this here some weeks ago (?), but it is a very cool quote anyway:

The descent with a T to Hades is the same from all places.

Spoken when someone told him how sad he was that he would likely die away from his homeland.

 

[Arakhor]

Descent with a T. It's one of our infamous irregular verb forms.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Thanks, fixed now

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Feels good being part of the biology master race.
"10. Study Biology
There are many reasons for this. First, biology is fascinating, never boring, and directly affects our everyday lives, yet we still know relatively little about it. Thus, the odds of making a big discovery are greatly increased compared to other disciplines. Second, biology is all around us, is vastly complicated, and encompasses disciplines such as medicine, agriculture, conservation, and computer science, as well as many others, thus lending itself to the kind of interdisciplinary approaches that make science such fun and can easily lead into new territory. Third, unlike physics and chemistry, biology is ever changing, thanks to evolution. What seems to be the rule today may have changed by the time you are doing your experiments. Finally, there are two Prize categories in which biological discoveries are currently being awarded. One is Physiology or Medicine, and the other is Chemistry, in which about half the Prizes go to biologists. Already you have increased your odds by 50%."
-Roberts RJ. 2015. Ten Simple Rules to Win a Nobel Prize. PLoS Comput Biol 11(4): e1004084. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004084

 

[gay_Aleks]

But, but, look at my future History degree! *cries*

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

You can probably turn that into a Literature or History Nobel. Not my goal to win those.

Anyway,
"The Palestinian issue is simply overwhelming in Israel. At times, it almost seems that Israelis have willingly diverted all their intellectual faculties into consideration of this one matter. Everything appears illuminated by the torch of the Arab-Israeli conflict, obscuring in the process the fascinating and dynamic nature of Israel's own society, especially since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the advent of globalization.
-Misha Glenny, p. 116, McMafia

 

[Borachio]

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

― Leo Tolstoy

 

[Kyriakos]

― Leo Tolstoy

And a few decades later: (by memory, but the quote has that meaning)

The sensitive man realises that everything must be changed in this world. But also that he has to start by changing his own self.
And this first progression which will last for his entire life

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

"Does thou claim to have done only what is in conformity with ancient custom in the land? Thou shouldst know, notwithstanding, thy Creator hath said: My name is Truth. He hath not said: My name is Custom."

- Pope Urban II to Robert I of Flanders, 1092

 

[dutchfire]

The old English is a nice touch, but I doubt it is appropriate.

 

[Arakhor]

Well, I didn't know who Robert I was, but apparently he was the brother-in-law of William the Conqueror.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

The old English is a nice touch, but I doubt it is appropriate.

In what sense? I've got three explanations for the quotation lined up, but I'd like to hear your interpretation first.

 

[Lohrenswald]

In what sense? I've got three explanations for the quotation lined up, but I'd like to hear your interpretation first.

Well he probably I-would-guess-wrote it in latin, and there's no point to translate that to old rather than modern english.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Ah; I just copied as it was printed in this book I'm reading.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

"Charm is what some people have until they start to rely on it." - Simone de Beauvoir

 

[Kyriakos]

Surely one of the most important (in negative ways too, as well as positive ones, cause it bred the distinction of sciences and types of science within a science later on- as in mechanical and quantum physics) phrases in all philosophy, is the following one by Aristotle, in his Metaphysics:

ἣν γὰρ ἀναγκαῖον ἔχειν τὸν ὁτιοῦν ξυνιέντα τῶν ὄντων, τοῦτο οὐχ ὑπόθεσις: ὃ δὲ γνωρίζειν ἀναγκαῖον τῷ ὁτιοῦν γνωρίζοντι, καὶ ἥκειν ἔχοντα ἀναγκαῖον. ὅτι μὲν οὖν βεβαιοτάτη ἡ τοιαύτη πασῶν ἀρχή, δῆλον: τίς δ᾽ ἔστιν αὕτη, μετὰ ταῦτα λέγωμεν. τὸ γὰρ αὐτὸ ἅμα ὑπάρχειν τε καὶ μὴ ὑπάρχειν ἀδύνατον τῷ αὐτῷ καὶ κατὰ τὸ αὐτό

"For a principle which every one must have who understands anything that is, is not a hypothesis; and that which every one must know who knows anything, he must already have when he comes to a special study. Evidently then such a principle is the most certain of all; which principle this is, let us proceed to say. It is, that the same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject and in the same respect" (english translation from MIT edu classics section)

Echoes to the nice battle in Cantor's time too, as well as an infinity of other stuff

Should be noted that Aristotle writes this to preface his argument against some earlier philosophers who claimed the opposite (that things may be and not be X at the same time and in the same way), as Parmenides and (ambiguously) Heraklitos did (and Socrates, in some tied manner).

 

[Traitorfish]

From r/badhistory:

-It kind of blows my mind that the First Reich lasted 854 years, but the Second only lasted 47 and the Third just 12.

-So by extrapolating, the Fourth Reich will last about 15 minutes?

-How much Reichs until we reach a singularity of time where its reign is so short it starts and ends simultaneously?

-I'm thinking that would be the 6th or 7th Reich. The 8th Reich would end before it began.

-If only there were some way of harnessing the inverse-time property of high-order Reichs to investigate the early universe. Perhaps some kind of Large Reich Collider?

-We already have something that smashes Empires together to see what happens. We call it 'Poland'.

 

[cybrxkhan]

That's a good one.

 

[Arakhor]

Heheheh.