Mr.Piffka's Quotes

"War is the tool of small-minded scoundrels who worship the death of others on the altar of their greed."
John Cory

"You know, I travelled with the Vice President earlier as he met with storm victims, and I can tell you, beneath that seemingly crusty exterior lies an emotional black hole from which no glimmer of empathy can escape and into which the shattered remnants of the human experience are sucked to implode on themselves into a microscopic singularity of universal indifference."

Samantha Bee
The Daily Show

(Piffka note: I Love Samantha Segments -- what a hoot!!)

"You're a catastrophe that walks like a man."
Bill Maher (1956- )

And just who was the target of this comment, then?

Hmmmmmmmmmm....

Ah, I see! :wink:

"A liar should have a good memory."
-Quintilian, Roman rhetorician, 'De Institutione Oratoria'


(belated advice to Scooter Libby)

Good un, Jorge! I've said something similar, little realizing that it was a Roman quotation. (What I say is I can barely remember the truth, let alone keep track of a lie.)


Did you see that I answered your question re. Annie Dillard's quote?

o-o-o-h! I just read the passage. that's great.

Thanks Pif!

BBB
Anyone named "Scooter" can't be trusted inside the White House.

BBB

a personal quote, huh BBB?

We're in a humorous vein this day:

"Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it, religion has actually convinced people that there's an INVISIBLE MAN...LIVING IN THE SKY...who watches every thing you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten special things that he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry for ever and ever ´til the end of time...but He loves you…..and He needs money!"

George Carlin (1937- )

Here's something interesting... Rumi quotes connected with Leonard Bernstein... a Piffka rather than a Mr.Piffka contribution:

On his deathbed it is said that the Leonard Bernstein asked to have three Coleman Barks' translations of Rumi odes read to him. Interesting that a Jewish musician would reach back to this 14th Century Sufi sage as translated by a southern gentleman whose work is discounted by the Sufi

The first starts: "There is a community of the Spirit". The second begins "There is a passion in me" and the third starts, "On the day I die."

This second one is not available online. It is a haunting song, made more so and more beautiful to me, that a genuine hero of mine would find such comfort in this modern interpretation of a 14th century Sufi poet.


There is a passion in me
That doesn't long for anything
From another Human Being.

I was given something else:
A Hat to wear in Both Worlds.
It has fallen off.

It really doesn't matter.

One Morning I went to a place
Beyond the Dawn.
A Source that flows and never less.

I have been shown
A Beauty
That would confuse Both Worlds.

I am nothing but a Head
Upon the ground.
A Gift for the Sun.

"It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of the existence of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of something else."
Maimonides (1135-1204)
The Guide for the Perplexed 1:72, c. 1190

I like that Maimonides quotation.

It is surely more relevant now than in his 12th century world.

I dunno... the 12th C. seems awfully "dark" to me. I love the idea of writing a "Guide to the Perplexed" -- don't you?

Here's one to make you think:

"There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths."
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

For those of you who want to be amused... here's a funny website, brought to you straight from the Piffka email list:

Become Republican

If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.
(Henry David Thoreau)



PS I loved the 'Become Republican' thing.

I sent it to all my friends.

(but not to my Republican son-in-law)

I watched it and am now on my way to the mall to buy a pair of dockers.

Oooh. Glad you liked it the both of you. (Dockers? Omigod, Diane is gonna kill me!) Mr.P and I have decided to register as Republicans so that we can vote in our state's primary. Dirty Tricks are us... we're learning.

Jjorge, that is an awesome quote from Thoreau. I am, of course, an unbridled tree-hugger.

I forgot to post today's quote earlier. Here it is:

"You have no enemy except yourselves."

St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

Yes, yes, YES!!!!
So true/so wrong!


Hello there, jjorge!