« Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte. » — Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales (1657)
“I’ve made this [letter] longer only because I haven’t had time to make it shorter.” — Blaise Pascal
Tag Archives: quotes
Floras Freude
“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.” — Iris Murdoch (1919–1999)
Post-Performative Post-Scriptum
Floras Freude means (I hope) “Flora’s Joy” in German.
Multitudinous Marriment
• …ποντίων τε κυμάτων ἀνήριθμον γέλασμα… — Αἰσχύλος, Προμηθεὺς δεσμώτης (c. 479-24 B.C.)
• …of ocean-waves the multitudinous laughter… Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus* at Perseus
• …ever-glittering laughter of the far-thrown waves… (my translation)
See also:
γέλασμα, a laugh, κυμάτων ἀνήριθμον γέλασμα, Keble’s “the many-twinkling smile of Ocean, ” Aesch. — Liddell and Scott
Keble was not a sacred but, in the best sense of the word, a secular poet. It is not David only, but the Sibyl, whose accents we catch in his inspirations. The “sword in myrtle drest” of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, “the many-twinkling smile of ocean” from Æschylus, are images as familiar to him as “Bethlehem’s glade” or “Carmel’s haunted strand.” Not George Herbert, or Cowper, but Wordsworth, Scott, and perhaps more than all, Southey, are the English poets that kindled his flame, and coloured his diction. — John Keble at Penny’s Poetry Pages
One day Mr Gordon had accidentally come in, and found no one there but Upton and Eric; they were standing very harmlessly by the window, with Upton’s arm resting kindly on Eric’s shoulder, as they watched with admiration the network of rippled sunbeams that flashed over the sea. Upton had just been telling Eric the splendid phrase, “anerhithmon gelasma pontou”, which he had stumbled upon in an Aeschylus lesson that morning, and they were trying which would hit on the best rendering of it. Eric stuck up for the literal sublimity of “the innumerable laughter of the sea,” while Upton was trying to win him over to “the many-twinkling smile of ocean.” They were enjoying the discussion, and each stoutly maintaining his own rendering, when Mr Gordon entered. — quote from Frederic W. Farrar’s Eric, or Little by Little (1858) at Sententiae Antiquae
*Or possibly his son Euphorion.
Math Matters
“Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little; it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover.” — Bertrand Russell, An Outline of Philosophy (1927), ch. 15, “The Nature of our Knowledge of Physics”
He Say, He Sigh, He Sow #49
• «Планета есть колыбель разума, но нельзя вечно жить в колыбели.» — Константин Эдуардович Циолковский (1911)
• “Planet is the cradle of mind, but one cannot live in the cradle forever.” — Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
A Seriously Sizzling Series of Super-Saucy Salvadisms
Some good quotes by Salvador Dalí (1904-89), who will need no introduction to keyly committed core components of the quixotically contrarian community. The Spanish should be reliable, but the English translations may not be (coz i dun em).
• A los seis años quería ser cocinero. A los siete quería ser Napoleón. Mi ambición no ha hecho más que crecer; ahora sólo quiero ser Salvador Dalí y nada más. Por otra parte, esto es muy difícil, ya que, a medida que me acerco a Salvador Dalí, él se aleja de mí.
— At six years of age I wanted to be a chef. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. My ambition has only grown since then, but now I only want to be Salvador Dalí and nothing more. Still, it’s very difficult, because the closer I get to Salvador Dalí, the further he gets from me.
• El canibalismo es una de las manifestaciones más evidentes de la ternura.
— Cannibalism is a sure sign of affection.
• El que quiere interesar a los demás tiene que provocarlos.
— He who wishes to interest other people needs to provoke them.
• …Es curioso, a mi me interesa mucho mas hablar, o estar en contacto con la gente que piensa lo contrario de lo que yo pienso, que de los que piensan lo mismo que pienso yo.
— …It’s strange, but I’d much rather talk with or be in touch with people who think the opposite of what I think than with those who think the same as I do.
• Es fácil reconocer si el hombre tiene gusto: la alfombra debe combinar con las cejas.
— It’s easy to tell if a man has good taste: his carpet should harmonize with his eyebrows.
• De ninguna manera volveré a México. No soporto estar en un país más surrealista que mis pinturas.
— Under no circumstances will I return to Mexico. I cannot bear to be in a country more surreal than my own paintings.
• Hoy, el gusto por el defecto es tal que sólo parecen geniales las imperfecciones y sobre todo la fealdad. Cuando una Venus se parece a un sapo, los seudoestetas contemporáneos exclaman: ¡Es fuerte, es humano!
— Today, a taste for the defective is so strong that the only things that seem attractive are imperfections and, above all, ugliness. When a Venus looks like a toad, the pseudo-aesthetes of today shout: “That’s great, that’s human!”
• Los errores tienen casi siempre un carácter sagrado. Nunca intentéis corregirlos. Al contrario: lo que procede es racionalizarlos, compenetrarse con aquellos integralmente. Después, os será posible subliminarlos.
— Mistakes almost always have a sacred character. Never try to correct them. On the contrary, you need to ponder them, to examine them from every angle. Afterwards, you will be able to absorb them.
• La Revolución Rusa es la Revolución Francesa que llega tarde, por culpa del frío.
— The Russian Revolution is the French Revolution arriving late due to the cold.
• La única diferencia entre un loco y Dalí, es que Dalí no está loco.
— The only difference between a madman and Dalí is that Dalí is not mad.
• La vida es aspirar, respirar y expirar.
— Life is aspiring, respiring and expiring.
• Lo importante es que hablen de ti, aunque sea bien.
— What’s important is that people talk about you, even if they only say good things.
• Lo único de lo que el mundo no se cansará nunca es de la exageración.
— The only thing the world never tires of is exaggeration.
• ¡No podéis expulsarme porque Yo soy el Surrealismo!
— You cannot expel me: I am Surrealism! (After being expelled from the surrealist movement in Paris.)
• Picasso es pintor. Yo también. Picasso es español. Yo también. Picasso es comunista. Yo tampoco.
— Picasso is a painter. So am I. Picasso is a Spaniard. So am I. Picasso is a communist. Nor am I.
• Sin una audiencia, sin la presencia de espectadores, estas joyas no alcanzarían la función para la cual fueron creadas. El espectador, por tanto, es el artista final. Su vista, corazón, mente — con una mayor o menor capacidad para entender la intención del creador — da vida a las joyas.
— Without an audience, without a circle of spectators, these jewels would never realize the purpose for which they were created. The spectator is therefore the final artist. His eyes, his heart, his mind — whether better or worse equipped to understand the purpose of the creator — give life to the jewels.
• Llamo a mi esposa: Gala, Galuska, Gradiva; Oliva por lo oval de su rostro y el color de su piel; Oliveta, diminutivo de la oliva; y sus delirantes derivados: Oliueta, Oriueta, Buribeta, Buriueteta, Siliueta, Solibubuleta, Oliburibuleta, Ciueta, Liueta. También la llamo Lionette, porque cuando se enfada ruge como el león de la Metro-Goldwyn Mayer.
— I call my wife Gala, Galuska, Gradiva; Oliva for her oval face and the colour of her skin; Oliveta, diminutive of Oliva; and its delirious derivations: Oliueta, Oriueta, Buribeta, Buriueteta, Siliueta, Solibubuleta, Oliburibuleta, Ciueta, Liueta. I also call her Lionette, because when she’s angry she roars like the MGM lion.
• Sólo hay dos cosas malas que pueden pasarte en la vida, ser Pablo Picasso o no ser Salvador Dalí.
— There are only two things that can go wrong for you in life: being Pablo Picasso or not being Salvador Dalí.
• Si muero, no moriré del todo.
— If I die, I will not die completely. (Compare Horace’s Non omnis moriar, I will not wholly die.)
• La inteligencia sin ambición es un pájaro sin alas.
— Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.
• No tengas miedo de la perfección, nunca la alcanzarás.
— Don’t be afraid of perfection, because you’ll never achieve it.
• Para comprar mis cuadros hay que ser criminalmente rico como los norteamericanos.
— To buy my paintings you have to be criminally rich like the Americans.
• Hay días en que pienso que voy a morir de una sobredosis de satisfacción.
— There are days when I think that I will die of an overdose of satisfaction.
• El termómetro del éxito no es más que la envidia de los descontentos.
— The thermometer of success is nothing more than the envy of the discontent.
• Lo menos que puede pedirse a una escultura es que no se mueva.
— The least that one can ask of a sculpture is that it stays still.
• Mientras estamos dormidos en este mundo, estamos despiertos en el otro.
— When we are asleep in this world, we are awake in another.
• Yo no tomo drogas. Yo soy una droga.
— I do not take drugs. I am a drug.
• Los que no quieren imitar nada, no producen nada.
— Those who refuse to imitate will never create.
• Las guerras nunca han hecho daño a nadie, excepto a la gente que muere.
— Wars have never done harm to anyone, except to those who die.
• Gustar el dinero como me gusta, es nada menos que misticismo. El dinero es una gloria.
— To relish money as I do is nothing short of mysticism. Money is a glory.
• La existencia de la realidad es la cosa más misteriosa, más sublime y más surrealista que se dé.
— The existence of reality is the most mysterious, most sublime and most surrealist thing of all.
O l’Omertà o la Morte
• φασὶ γοῦν Ἵππαρχον τὸν Πυθαγόρειον, αἰτίαν ἔχοντα γράψασθαι τὰ τοῦ Πυθαγόρου σαφῶς, ἐξελαθῆναι τῆς διατριβῆς καὶ στήλην ἐπ’ αὐτῷ γενέσθαι οἷα νεκρῷ. — Κλήμης ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Στρώματα.
• They say, then, that Hipparchus the Pythagorean, being guilty of writing the tenets of Pythagoras in plain language, was expelled from the school, and a pillar raised for him as if he had been dead. — Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, 2.5.9.57.3-4
He Say, He Sigh, He Sow #45
…ψάμμος ἀριθμὸν περιπέφευγεν… — Πίνδαρου Ολυμπιόνικος ΙΙ, 98
“…the sand escapes all numbering…” — Pindar, Second Olympian Ode, line 98
He Say, He Sigh, He Sow #44
H. Rider Haggard describes fractals:
Out of the vast main aisle there opened here and there smaller caves, exactly, Sir Henry said, as chapels open out of great cathedrals. Some were large, but one or two — and this is a wonderful instance of how nature carries out her handiwork by the same unvarying laws, utterly irrespective of size — were tiny. One little nook, for instance, was no larger than an unusually big doll’s house, and yet it might have been a model for the whole place, for the water dropped, tiny icicles hung, and spar columns were forming in just the same way. — King Solomon’s Mines, 1885, ch. XVI, “The Place of Death”
He Say, He Sigh, He Sow #37
• Il sole, con tutti quei pianeti che girano intorno ad esso e da esso dipendono, può ancora maturare un grappolo d’uva come se non vi fosse nient’altro da fare in tutto l’universo. — Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642.
• “The sun, with all those planets turning around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.”
Overlord In Terms of Core Issues Around Maximal Engagement with Key Notions of the Über-Feral 