Great Quotes III: Source and Context are Key

[GoodSarmatian]

ALERTS TO THREATS IN 2015 EUROPE
From JOHN CLEESE
...

I am a 100% certain that I have read the exact same thing -save for the word "Syria"- on the internet at least a decade ago. It might have been about Iraq or Afghanistan and shortly after 9/11.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

"Plus, why savage individuals for “micro” offenses when everyone ostensibly agrees that the problem is cumulative? The logic is similar to that of drug warriors who urge harsh punishments for random users because drug use is harmful in aggregate, then act like their critics just don’t get how damaging heroin is."
-Conor Friedersdorf, "Why Critics of the 'Microaggressions' Framework Are Skeptical", The Atlantic

 

[Hygro]

ooh here's another one from that article, one I might commit to memory:

"As when French Revolutionaries were put to the guillotine, purity tests always turn inward."

 

[Tee Kay]

I am a 100% certain that I have read the exact same thing -save for the word "Syria"- on the internet at least a decade ago. It might have been about Iraq or Afghanistan and shortly after 9/11.

Yeah it's been circulating around the internet forever now, some cheeky blighter just added John Cleese to it.

 

[Kyriakos]

Adding John Cleese allows for a quote to resurface

Although it does sound like something Cleese would say anyway.

 

[brennan]

"Where there's law there's injustice".

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

On Her Majesty's Naval Service.
"They believe in rod, the scourger almighty, creator of hell upon earth, and in Jacky Tar, the son of a gun, who was conceived of unholy boast, born of the fighting navy, suffered under rump and dozen, was scarified, flayed and curried, yelled like bloody hell, the third day he arose again from the bed, steered into haven, sitteth on his beamend till further orders whence he shall come to drudge for a living and be paid."
-p. 239, "Cyclops", Ulysses (based on 1939 Odyssey Press Edition, notes by Sam Slote

The traditional Catholic view was that the child's life should be prioritized over the mother's, since the former could still be baptized and brought into the fold. The purpose the Church sees in women, in one sordid phrase.
"how in all our holy mother foldeth ever souls for God's greater glory whereas that earthly mother which was but a dam to bear beastly should die by canon for so saith he that holdeth the fisherman's seal, even that blessed Peter on which rock was holy church for all ages founded."
-pp. 281-282 , "Oxen of the Sun", Ulysses (based on 1939 Odyssey Press Edition, notes by Sam Slote

 

[Kyriakos]

I must have told you that I used to go to the National Library with my father. I was very shy—I’m still very shy—so I didn’t dare request books. But there were reference works on the shelves, and I would simply take down by chance, for example, a volume of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. One day I was extremely fortunate, because I took down the volume D–R, and I was able to read an excellent biography of Dryden, who Eliot has written a book about. Then, a long article on the druids, and another on the Druzes of Lebanon who believe in the transmigration of souls. There are Chinese Druzes too. Yes, that day I was very lucky: Dryden, druids and Druzes, and all those things in the same volume that went from D to R.

From http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/sep/24/prophet-reverse-borges/

 

[cardgame]

Labels exist to describe groups of people - you do not exist to fit a label.

 

[Kyriakos]

Αν μεν καλήν, έξεις κοινήν, αν δε αισχράν, έξεις ποινήν.

What Antisthenes, cynic philosopher, student of Lysias and admirer of Socrates, answered when he was asked what kind of woman one should marry. Translates to "If she is good-looking you will be sharing her with others, if she is ugly you will have sentenced yourself (to misery)".

Pun in the greek, with koine (common) and poine (sentence; punishment)

 

[Truthy]

Great quote from "The Lotus Born" (a Buddhist text):

The minister said "the whole plain around Samye is crawling with snakes!" After that he suddenly vomited blood and died.

 

[gay_Aleks]

Context? I mean, it seems rather random, almost like a slapstick.

 

[Truthy]

There was a Tibetan king who negotiated with some spirits to visit his treasury in a week's time to provide him with jewels and such. But the spirits warned that no matter what, no one should look upon them as they replenished his treasury, lest bad things happen. When they visited the next week, the king got curious so he told one of his minsters to look. And that's what happened.

One of the great things about Buddhist lore is that it's full of stories about people abruptly dying horrible deaths.

 

[Kyriakos]

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

"I base-jumped into a pack of carnivores and got rescued by my daughter, who was riding a velociraptor."

- Howard Tayler on ARK: Survival Evolved

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Holy crap, I thought I was the only one who did that. Anyway, I'm really enjoying this chapter a lot. Almost there.
"Did the process of divestiture continue?
Sensible of a benignant persistent ache in his footsoles he extended his foot to one side and observed the creases, protuberances and salient points caused by foot pressure in the course of walking repeatedly in several different directions, then, inclined, he disnoded the laceknots, unhooked and loosened the laces, took off each of his two boots for the second time, detached the partially moistened right sock through the fore part of which the nail of his great toe had again effracted, raised his right foot and, having unhooked a purple elastic sock suspender, took off his right sock, placed his unclothed right foot on the margin of the seat of his chair, picked at and gently lacerated the protruding part of the great toenail, raised the part lacerated to his nostrils and inhaled the odour of the quick, then, with satisfaction, threw away the lacerated ungual fragment.

Why with satisfaction?
Because the odour inhaled corresponded to other odours inhaled of other ungual fragments, picked and lacerated by Master Bloom, pupil of Mrs Ellis's juvenile school, patiently each night in the act of brief genuflection and nocturnal prayer and ambitious meditation."
-p. 502, "Ithaca", Ulysses (based on 1939 Odyssey Press Edition, notes by Sam Slote

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

"All Germans know the history of the murderous race mania of the Nazis that led to the break with civilization that was the Holocaust.

This is taught in German schools for good reason, it must never be forgotten. And I see no reason to change our view of history in any way. We know that responsibility for this crime against humanity is German and very much our own."
-Steffen Seibert, response to recent Netanyahu comments regarding a Palestinian Grand Mufti convincing Hitler to implement the Final Solution

 

[Kyriakos]

^

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

"Kazuhira, it takes more than premium ingredients and a clever recipe to satisfy the palate. The palate seeks one thing. Chemical additives. There is nothing mysterious or spiritual about good flavor. The tongue simply identifies specific amino acids, which the brain then recognizes as appealing. Therefore, all that is needed is to isolate those amino acids and incorporate them into your...products. To be clear, I speak of flavor. The rest is irrelevant."
-Code Talker, "The Hamburgers of Kazuhira Miller [3]", Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

 

[cardgame]

Texture > flavor though