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Mr.Piffka's Quotes

 
 
Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Tue 15 Nov, 2005 08:53 pm
"One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy."

E. B. White (1899-1985)

(Piffka note: I've always liked E.B. White.)

Hi Jjorge, that is a good one isn't it? ... and so old, too.

Yes, Mr.P's family was very good at keeping records, many were well-educated and most kept journals. One of the guys I think is coolest from his family claimed that he wrote the song, "Home on the Range." Very Happy
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2005 08:43 am
"The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error."

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2005 10:14 am
Oooh, good one.
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jjorge
 
  1  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2005 01:46 pm
Pif,

I just noticed you signature line:

'No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds -- November.'

I love it.
Where did it come from? Is it yours?
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2005 06:26 pm
No. (heh heh)

It's from Thomas Hood (1799 - 1845), a not very well-known Scottish poet.

Here's the entire poem - "November"

No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! -
November!

Here are two different versions of his life, and since you might be interested, I'll also copy his most famous poem.

Quote:
Thomas Hood (1799-1845) was born in London, the son of a bookseller. His childhood was complicated by the death of his father in 1811 which forced him to leave school and take a position as a clerk; before becoming interested in engraving under the influence of his uncle. He became interested in writing from an early age, and following a brief stint as a professional engraver began to write for the London Magazine in 1821. This association was short lived though, but the seed had been sown for his career as a professional writer which would also see him as an early champion for Copyright reform.


Quote:
the son of a Scottish bookseller. Following poor health he was sent to Dundee in 1815 to recuperate with his father's relatives where he wrote for the local newspaper. returning to London in 1818. In 1821, after a period working as an engraver, he was appointed sub-editor of the London Magazine where he met Hazlitt, Lamb and John Reynolds. In 1829 he became editor of The Gem in 1829 and published works by Tennyson, among others.

It would be easy to dismiss Hood as a lesser poet of the Romantic Era and early Victorian age, but his contribution was far greater than most realise. Mostly known during his lifetime for his comic writings, many self-published, it is his more serious writings that are best known today. His major serious work was "The Song of the Shirt" which was published anonymously in Punch in 1843. It was a powerful attack on worker exploitation and was immediately reprinted in the London Times and other newspapers across Europe. It was dramatised by Mark Lemon as The Sempstress, was printed on broadsheets, cotton handkerchiefs and was highly praised by many of the literary establishment, including Charles Dickens.
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McTag
 
  1  
Reply Wed 16 Nov, 2005 11:36 pm
Good stuff Piff. Your contributions are greatly appreciated.

There is on BBC radio a weekly programme called "Quote Unquote"...which you could listen to on-line...which is very good...and from which my sig quote was lifted this week!
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Nov, 2005 08:20 am
Thanks, McTag, I'm glad you like to come here and read. I like your quote too and am copying it here so it doesn't get lost when you change sig lines.

--- "The game of chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency." -Raymond Chandler ---

A good piquant turn of phrase. I'll have to see about that radio show. Thank you for pointing me there. (It must be a little tricky to get a quote off of a radio station.)

For Thursday, straight from the emails of Mr.Piffka*:

"All the war in the world, all the violence, is in the name of religion, which has been born of a dualistic mind."

Deepak Chopra (1947- )


*I admit, I was surprised he'd quote Chopra, but he has gained a lot of respect for him since viewing the movie "One".
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msolga
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Nov, 2005 02:32 pm
Piffka wrote:
"The chief qualification of a mass leader has become unending infallibility; he can never admit an error."

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975)


Ohhhhh, I got one of those! Sad
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jjorge
 
  1  
Reply Thu 17 Nov, 2005 09:33 pm
"Hear that hissing noise? That's the sound of the air being let out of Woodward's reputation."
-Arianna Huffington
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Nov, 2005 01:29 pm
"This ain't a war….it's a goddam whorehouse."
John Dos Passos (1896-1970)


Jjorge, we have a library copy of Bush at War sitting on the Dining table.... hiss.....
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spendius
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Nov, 2005 03:17 pm
The truth is,we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless.

Woodrow Wilson.
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jjorge
 
  1  
Reply Fri 18 Nov, 2005 10:11 pm
Piffka wrote:


Jjorge, we have a library copy of Bush at War sitting on the Dining table.... hiss.....



Smile Question
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Nov, 2005 11:55 am
"Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions."
Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885)


Jjorge -- Didn't you refer to Bob Woodward and how he's pandered to the administration in that book on Bush?
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jjorge
 
  1  
Reply Sat 19 Nov, 2005 11:28 pm
Piffka wrote:


Jjorge -- Didn't you refer to Bob Woodward and how he's pandered to the administration in that book on Bush?



Yes Pif, I did, but the way you answered -perhaps because you mentioned having his book on your table- I wasn't sure if you were agreeing with me, or hissing AT me. Very Happy
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Sun 20 Nov, 2005 09:35 am
A little irony for your Sunday...

"Thank God I'm an atheist."
Luis Buñel (1900-1983)


Jjorge- You think I might hiss at you? Very Happy

I'm just a little disappointed with Woodward but maybe (>?) he is telling it as he sees it. <shrug> We chose NOT to buy the book, you'll notice.
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Mon 21 Nov, 2005 09:10 am
"Nature never makes any blunders, when she makes a fool she means it."

Archibald Alexander (1772-1851)
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Tue 22 Nov, 2005 08:43 am
"Force is the weapon of the weak."

Ammon Hennacy (1893-1970)
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Wed 23 Nov, 2005 08:57 am
"On the bank of the Oxford canal at the bottom of my garden is a large willow tree, and it is pumping downy seeds into the air...The whole performance, cotton wool, catkins, tree and all, is in aid of one thing and one thing only, the spreading of DNA around the countryside. Not just any DNA, but DNA whose coded characters spell out specific instructions for building willow trees that will shed a new generation of downy seeds. Those fluffy specks are, literally, spreading instructions for making themselves. They are there because their ancestors succeeded in doing the same. It is raining instructions out there; it's raining programs; it's raining tree-growing, fluff-spreading, algorithms. That is not a metaphor, it is the plain truth. It couldn't be any plainer if it were raining floppy discs."

Richard Dawkins (1941- )
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Piffka
 
  1  
Reply Mon 28 Nov, 2005 09:53 am
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Diane
 
  1  
Reply Mon 28 Nov, 2005 11:47 am
Piff, thank you for the report from DSBTF. It covers most everything that is wrong with this war.

Isn't it amazing that Hoover and McCarthy and all the Cold War warriors couldn't do half the damage the Bush administration has done? (And most of them probably wouldn't have considered going the way of the Shrub).

Now for something to lighten the mood:

"Men are from earth. Women are from earth. Deal with it."
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