Tag Archives: advice

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SIGNS OF YOUR SPIRIT

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“SOME DAY YOU MAY BE AS OLD AS I AM.  PLEASE TAKE MY ADVICE, AND DON’T WASTE YOUR SHORT LIFE.  INVEST YOUR YOUTHFUL VITALITY IN YOUR ART. SHARE THE BEST OF YOUR SPIRIT WITH THE WORLD. YOUR BODY WILL DIE, BUT YOU CANNOT DIE. SO, DON’T WORRY ABOUT PETTY THINGS LIKE BODIES, MONEY AND POSSESSIONS. THEY PASS WITH THE BODY AND ARE MEANINGLESS. DON’T WORRY WHAT ANYONE THINKS OF YOU. DON’T SEEK APPROVAL, EXCEPT FROM YOURSELF.

YOUR ART AND IDEAS ARE SIGNS OF YOUR SPIRIT.

YOUR BEAUTY ENDURES FOREVER, AS DO YOU.”

— Lawrence R. Spencer. 2012

ART, BULLSHIT, LIVES, LOUD ZOO, PICTURE POEMS, POETIC NONSENSE, READING MATTER, UNIVERSES

PHILOSOPHER FOR HIRE

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no-free-adviceA philosopher is someone who practices philosophy, which involves rational inquiry into areas that are outside of either theological dogma or science. The term “philosopher” comes from the Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος (philosophos) meaning “lover of wisdom”. Its origination has been ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras.

In the classical sense, a philosopher was someone who lived according to a certain way of life, focusing on resolving existential questions about the human condition, and not someone who discourses upon theories or comments upon authors. Typically, these particular brands of philosophy are Hellenistic ones and those who most arduously commit themselves to this lifestyle may be considered philosophers.

In a modern sense, a philosopher is an intellectual who has contributed in one or more branches of philosophy, such as aesthetics, ethics, epistemology, logic, metaphysics, social theory, and political philosophy. A philosopher may also be one who worked in the humanities or other sciences which have since split from philosophy proper over the centuries, such as the arts, history, economics, sociology, psychology, linguistics, anthropology, theology, and politics.

— Wikipedia

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AESOP’S FABLE: LIFE LESSONS FROM 620 BC

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AESOP’S FABLES are a collection of hundreds of short stories, usually featuring animals impersonating humans, that tell a pithy moral story.  They are precise observations of human behavior made more than 2,500 years ago by a Greek writer / philosopher.  Aesops lived in Greece around the same time the Buddha and Loa-Tze lived in the India and China.  His moral lessons are as relevant now as they were in 620 BCE.  This demonstrates the maxim that “The more things change, the more they stay the same“.  Apparently, this applies even more so to human behavior and misbehavior.  — Lawrence Spencer, 2012

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Aesop (c. 620-564 BC)  was a fabulist or story teller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop’s Fables. He was born a slave, and in his lifetime two different masters owned him before being granted his freedom. The slave masters were named, Xanthus and Iadmon, the latter gave him his freedom as a reward for his wit and intelligence. As a freedman he became involved in public affairs and traveled a lot—telling his fables along the way. King Croesus of Lydia was so impressed with Aesop that he offered him residency and a job at his court.

“The popularity of Aesop is also shown by the fact that Plato records that Socrates decided to versify some of his fables while he was in jail awaiting execution.”  -Robert Temple

While on a mission for King Croesus to distribute a certain amount of gold to the people of Delphi in Greece, there was a misunderstanding about how much gold each person was supposed to receive. Aesop became discouraged because the Delphians did not seem appreciative enough of the gift from the King so Aesop decided to take it all back to King Croesus. On his journey back the people of Delhi, who thought he was actively cheating them and giving them a bad reputation, tracked him down. Lloyd W. Daly writes “Apprehensive of his spreading this low opinion of them on his travels, the Delphians lay a trap for Aesop. By stealth they [stashed] a golden bowl from [their] temple in his baggage; then as he starts off through Phocis, they overtake him, search his baggage, and find the bowl. Haled back to Delhi, Aesop is found guilty of sacrilege against Apollo for the theft of the bowl and is condemned to death by being hurled off a cliff.”

READ THE ON-LINE FABLES OF AESOP HERE:  http://www.aesopfables.com/aesopsel.html

“We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.”

“United we stand, divided we fall.”

“The gods help them that help themselves.”

“The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle’s own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction.”

“I will have nought to do with a man who can blow hot and cold with the same breath.”

“We would often be sorry if our wishes were gratified.”

“Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.”

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”

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GEORGE ORWELL’S FINAL WARNING

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Nineteen Eighty-Four is a novel by George Orwell published in 1949. It is a dystopian and satirical novel about Oceania, a society tyrannized by The Party and its totalitarian ideology. The Oceanian province of Airstrip One is a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance, and public mind control, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (Ingsoc) under the control of a privileged Inner Party elite that persecutes all individualism and independent thinking as thoughtcrimes. Their tyranny is headed by Big Brother, the quasi-divine Party leader who enjoys an intense cult of personality, but whom may not even exist. Big Brother and the Party justify their rule in the name of a supposed greater good. The protagonist of the novel, Winston Smith, is a member of the Outer Party who works for the Ministry of Truth (Minitrue), which is responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism. His job is to re-write past newspaper articles so that the historical record always supports the current party line. Smith is a diligent and skilful worker, but he secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion against Big Brother.

As literary political fiction and as dystopian science-fiction, Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic novel in content, plot, and style. Many of its terms and concepts, such as Big Brother, doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, and memory hole, have entered everyday use since its publication in 1949. Moreover, Nineteen Eighty-Four popularized the adjective Orwellian, which describes official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of the past by a totalitarian or authoritarian state. (Wikipedia.org)

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AMBITIOUS ADVICE

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Mark_Twain_1907

Repost from an article in “Quoteinvestigator.com”:

“The following compelling advice is credited to Mark Twain in self-help books and on websites. It is valuable guidance in my opinion:

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

While searching to learn more about the saying I came across another version which used a different wording. The word “people” was replaced with “those”, and “feel” was replaced with “believe”:

“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.”

Did Twain say or write either of these expressions?

Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence known to QI was published in 1938 in the memoir of an extraordinary elocutionist who gave recitals at Chautauquas around the United States. Chautauquas were assemblies that combined entertainment and education by presenting lecturers, preachers, musicians, and other performers to a largely rural audience. Gay Zenola MacLaren wrote in her memoir that she met Mark Twain when she was still a child who aspired to be a great performer. Twain offered her the following counsel:

He opened the door for me himself. As we said good-bye, he put his fingers lightly under my chin and lifted my head up so that my eyes met his.

“Little girl,” he said earnestly, “keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

The date of the meeting was not listed in the book.

In 1901 a review of a performance by MacLaren was published in a Brooklyn, New York newspaper:

She has an almost ventriloquistic power of changing her voice from the light tones of women to the heavier speaking of men, so the recital was thoroughly well balanced and was given with intelligence.

In 1909 the periodical “The Lyceumite and Talent” printed an advertisement for Gay Zenola MacLaren that included a testimonial statement from Mark Twain:

Opinions from Prominent Men

An unusually gifted young lady. Mark Twain.

I do not hesitate to say that I think Miss MacLaren’s work phenomenal. She is a genius. Major James B. Pond.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1938 Time magazine reviewed MacLaren’s memoir and noted that she “got her big chance at the New York Chautauqua”. The magazine presented an eclectic list of participants at Chautauquas:

Thereafter she followed the Chautauqua circuit, along with chalk-talk artists, bell ringers, evangelists, yodlers, zither performers, magicians, bagpipe players, ventriloquists and the strange assortment of educators and entertainers who, in brown tents pitched in small towns all over the U. S., spread culture to apathetic audiences before the War.

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In 1948 a large compilation of quotations titled “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips” edited by Caroline Thomas Harnsberger was published. The statement was included, and the accompanying citation pointed to MacLaren’s memoir:

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

P. 66—Morally We Roll Along—MacLaren

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READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/03/23/belittle-ambitions/