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Post by assisi on Apr 10, 2020 12:24:25 GMT
From Patrick West, journalist and political commentator (and son of Mary Kenny):
We live in a post-emotional age, one characterized by crocodile tears and manufactured emotion. Ostentatious caring allows a lonely nation to forge new social bonds. Additionally, it serves as a form of catharsis. We saw this at its most ghoulish after the demise of Diana. In truth, mourners were not crying for her, but for themselves...
I love that last line.
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Post by Tomas on May 28, 2020 23:55:33 GMT
"I believe firmly in mystery and manners" - Flannery O´Connor
(I don´t believe firmly in the second, but certainly find it admirable that some do.)
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Post by Tomas on Nov 22, 2022 10:51:00 GMT
Let my epitaph be, "Here lies Joseph, who failed in everything he undertook."
(Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor)
Realism subduing optimism and pessimism alike!
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Post by Tomas on Nov 23, 2022 9:01:47 GMT
"Party is the madness of many, for the gain of a few."
(Alexander Pope, Thoughts on Various Subjects 1727)
Longevity in poetic prose...
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Post by Tomas on Jan 16, 2023 12:19:04 GMT
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Post by Tomas on Oct 10, 2023 7:34:26 GMT
"Civilization is the limitless multiplication of unnecessesary necessities."
(Mark Twain)
I guess he would be a bit confused by the lack of necessary necessities at some levels today.
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eala
Full Member
Posts: 156
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Post by eala on Nov 23, 2023 21:48:28 GMT
I particularly like the last line:
"One of the facts that might come to light in this process is our tendency to insist, when we praise a poet, upon those aspects of his work in which he least resembles any one else. In these aspects or parts of his work we pretend to find what is individual, what is the peculiar essence of the man. We dwell with satisfaction upon the poet’s difference from his predecessors, especially his immediate predecessors; we endeavour to find something that can be isolated in order to be enjoyed. Whereas if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously. And I do not mean the impressionable period of adolescence, but the period of full maturity. Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, “tradition” should positively be discouraged. We have seen many such simple currents soon lost in the sand; and novelty is better than repetition. Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour." — TS Eliot
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Post by Tomas on Jan 11, 2024 9:34:24 GMT
"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing" Amazingly good quote!
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jan 11, 2024 20:56:46 GMT
I particularly like the last line: "One of the facts that might come to light in this process is our tendency to insist, when we praise a poet, upon those aspects of his work in which he least resembles any one else. In these aspects or parts of his work we pretend to find what is individual, what is the peculiar essence of the man. We dwell with satisfaction upon the poet’s difference from his predecessors, especially his immediate predecessors; we endeavour to find something that can be isolated in order to be enjoyed. Whereas if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best, but the most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their immortality most vigorously. And I do not mean the impressionable period of adolescence, but the period of full maturity. Yet if the only form of tradition, of handing down, consisted in following the ways of the immediate generation before us in a blind or timid adherence to its successes, “tradition” should positively be discouraged. We have seen many such simple currents soon lost in the sand; and novelty is better than repetition. Tradition is a matter of much wider significance. It cannot be inherited, and if you want it you must obtain it by great labour." — TS Eliot I agree with all of that Eliot quotation except that novelty is better than repetition. Why?
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