Passionate Curiosity

The important thing is not to stop questioning; curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when contemplating the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of the mystery every day. The important thing is not to stop questioning; never lose a holy curiosity.

Albert Einstein, in an interview with William Miller, Life magazine, May 2, 1955.

A Ripple of Hope

Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of repression and injustice.

Robert Kennedy, speech delivered in Cape Town, South Africa on June 6, 1966. This is one of two inscriptions at his gravesite, designed by architect I.M. Pei, at Arlington National Cemetary in Washington, D.C.

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat, and tears.

This is a famous misquotation of a phrase used in Winston Churchill’s first speech as Prime Minister of Britain to the House of Commons shortly after World War II began. In his speech, delivered on May 13, 1940, Churchill actually used the phrase: “I have nothing to offer but blood and toil, tears and sweat.” Over time, the original phrase was misquoted as “I have nothing to offer but blood, sweat, and tears” — the word “toil” was dropped and the words “sweat” and “tears” were transposed.

Soon after the speech, it was pointed out to Churchill that Henry James, who published The Bostonians in 1885, used a similar phrase in his book: “In the last resort the whole burden of the human lot came upon them; it pressed upon them far more than on the others, the intolerable load of fate. It was they who sat cramped and chained to receive it; it was they who had done all the waiting and taken all the wounds. The sacrifices, the blood, the tears, the terrors were theirs.” Churchill’s response was that he had never read the book. Although the constructions are similar, Churchill’s phrase has better consonance and whether misquoted or not has survived the test of time.

For further reading: They Never Said It: A Book of Fake, Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions by Paul Boller, Jr. and John George, Oxford University Press (1989); The Bostonians by Henry James, Everyman Library (1992).

Taking Care of the Planet

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

Native American Proverb

The Truth of Religion

Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble.

Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth, Doubleday (1988).

Casablanca Quotations

Despite contributions from four different writers, as well as a producer and songwriter, daily re-writes on the set, and beginning filming with a half-written script, Casablanca emerged as a cohesive, tightly-constructed film that went on to win three Academy Awards and become a top ten classic in the pantheon of the greatest movies of all times. In 2005, the American Film Institute asked a jury of 1,500 film critics, artists, and historians to create a list of the top 100 movie quotations. Casablanca had six quotations in the list, more than any other movie in list (noted below in blue). Here’s looking at you, Casablanca:

Spoken by Rick Blaine played by Humphrey Bogart:

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine. (AFI #67)

I stick my neck out for nobody.

Oh, he’s just like any other man, only more so.

Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. (AFI #20)

Captain Louis Renault played by Claude Rains

I am shocked — shocked— to find that gambling is going on in here!

I’m making out the report now. We haven’t quite decided whether he committed suicide or died trying to escape.

Oh, please, monsieur. It is a little game we play. They put it on the bill, I tear up the bill. It is very convenient.

I have no conviction, if that’s what you mean. I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy.

Major Strasser has been shot. [pause] Round up the usual suspects. (AFI #32)

Rick, you’re not only a sentimentalist, but you’ve become a patriot.

You mustn’t underestimate American blundering. I was with them when they “blundered” into Berlin in 1918.

Spoken by Guillermo Ugarte played by Peter Lorre

You know, Rick, I have many a friend in Casablanca, but somehow, just because you despise me, you are the only one I trust.

Spoken by Ilsa Lund played by Ingrid Bergman:

Play it once, Sam, for old times’ sake. Play it, Sam. Play “As Time Goes By.” (AFI #28)
This is misquoted as “Play it again, Sam” — one of the most misquoted lines in film history. Very likely the title of a film by Woody Allen, Play It Again Sam, in 1972 contributed to the ongoing misquotation of the line.

Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time.

Sung by Sam played by Dooley Wilson:

You must remember this / A kiss is still a kiss / A sigh is just a sigh / The fundamental things apply / As time goes by. / And when two lovers woo, / They still say, “I love you” / On that you can rely / No matter what the future brings…

Famous dialogue in final scene between Rick Blaine and Ilsa Lund:

Rick: Last night we said a great many things. You said I was to do the thinking for both of us. Well, I’ve done a lot of it since then, and it all adds up to one thing: you’re getting on that plane with Victor where you belong.

Ilsa: But, Richard, no, I… I…

Rick: Now, you’ve got to listen to me! You have any idea what you’d have to look forward to if you stayed here? Nine chances out of ten, we’d both wind up in a concentration camp. Isn’t that true, Louie?

Captain Renault: I’m afraid Major Strasser would insist.

Ilsa: You’re saying this only to make me go.

Rick: I’m saying it because it’s true. Inside of us, we both know you belong with Victor. You’re part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. If that plane leaves the ground and you’re not with him, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life.

Ilsa: But what about us?

Rick: We’ll always have Paris. (AFI #43) We didn’t have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.

Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.

Rick: And you never will. But I’ve got a job to do, too. Where I’m going, you can’t follow. What I’ve got to do, you can’t be any part of. Ilsa, I’m no good at being noble, but it doesn’t take much to see that the problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that.

[Ilsa lowers her head and begins to cry]

Rick: Now, now…

[Rick gently places his hand under her chin and raises it so their eyes meet]

Rick: Here’s looking at you kid. (AFI #5)

Read related posts: Casablanca at 70, Bogart

For further reading: We’ll Always Have Paris by Robert Nowlan, Harper (1995), The Dictionary of Film Quotations by Melinda Corey and George Ochoa, Crown (1995).  The Oxford Dictionary of Catchphrases by Anna Farkas, Oxford (2002). http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Casablanca_(film)

Couplets: The Lessons of History

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.

 Aldous Huxley, Collected Essays, “Case of Voluntary Ignorance” (1959)

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana, The Life of Reason, “Reason in Common Sense,” Volume 1 (1905).

Couplets: Reading a Great Book

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.

Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist, playwright, professor (1913-1995) best known for writing The  Deptford Trilogy (1970-75).

When you read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before.

Clifton Fadiman, American editor, literary critic, and essayist (1904-1999). He helped establish the Book-of-the-Month Club and served on its editorial board for 50 years as well as serving on the editorial board of the Encyclopedia Britannica and The Reader’s Club. He was the a book editor at Simon & Schuster and The New Yorker. He was a voracious reader, known to read 80 pages per hour. Ironically, he lost his sight due to illness in the 1980s but continued reading (listening to audio tapes) and writing (through dictation).

Couplets: Tolerance

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Aristotle, Metaphysics (c. 340 – 330 BC)

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Attributed to Voltaire, Essay on Tolerance (1763). The actual quote was written by Evelyn Hall in the book, The Friends of Voltaire (1906) paraphrasing Voltaire’s attitude. An editor for Reader’s Digest misread the passage and assumed the paraphrase was an actual quote. To set the record straight, Hall later wrote: “I did not mean to imply that Voltaire used these words verbatim and should be surprised if they are found in any of his works. They are rather a paraphrase of Voltaire’s words in the Essay on Tolerance — ‘Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so too.’ ” (Saturday Review, May 11, 1935).

The Lesson of Experience

Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.

Vernon Sanders Law (born 1930, a retired Major League Baseball pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates).

The McFarland Baseball Quotations Dictionary by David Nathan, McFarland and Company (2000).

What is Your Legacy?

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.

Pericles, The Funeral Oration of Pericles (delivered circa 404 BC) as recorded in History of the Peloponnesian War (book two) by Thucydides.

Self Reliance

A man said to the universe:
“Sir I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”

Stephen Crane, The Complete Poems of Stephen Crane, Cornell University Press (1972).

The Difficulty of Love

For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation

Rainer Maria Rilke,  Letters to a Young Poet, Letter Seven  (1929).

Mature Love

Immature love says: “I love you because I need you.” Mature love says: “I need you because I love you.”

Erich Fromm,  The Art of Loving  (1956).

Lean on Me

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for any one else.

Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (1864-65).

The Mystery of the Human Being

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.

Charles Dickens,  A Tale of Two Cities (1859).

Giving Back

Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you?

Spoken by William hundert in the film, The Emperor’s Club (2002) written by Neil Tolkin (based on short story The Palace Thief  by Ethan Canin) and directed by Michael Hoffman.

Living in a Material World

Socrates believed that the wise person would instinctively lead a frugal life. He himself would not even wear shoes; yet he constantly fell under the spell of the marketplace and would go there often to look at all the wares on display. When a friend asked why, Socrates said, “I love to go there and discover how many things I am perfectly happy without.”

Anthony De Mello, SJ. The Prayer of the Frog (Vol 2), Anand Press (1989).

The Paradox of Love

You will notice that what we are aiming at when we fall in love is a very strange paradox. The paradox consists of the fact that, when we fall in love, we are seeking to re-find all or some of the people to whom we were attached as children. On the other hand, we ask our beloved to correct all of the wrongs that these early parents or siblings inflicted upon us. So that love contains in it the contradiction: The attempt to return to the past and the attempt to undo the past.

Spoken by Professor Levy in the film, Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) written and directed by Woody Allen.

Happiness

Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.

Thomas Huxley. Essay “Distractions I” in Vedanta for the Western World, edited by Christopher Isherwood, Vedanta Press (1945).

The Meaning of Life

People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance within our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. That’s what it’s all finally about.

 Joseph Campbell. Excerpt from Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, PBS, 2001.

The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt. Excerpt from his speech, “Citizenship In A Republic, ” delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on April 23, 1910.

Build Our Youth for the Future

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.

Franklin D. Roosevelt. From: Teachers Have Class: A Tribute by Mary Rodarthe, Andrews MacMeel Publishing (2011).

Think Different

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

From: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster (2011). Written by Rob Siltanen and Ken Segall of TBWA/Chiat/Day for Apple’s Think Different campaign in 1997.

Harold Kushner

In my forty years as a rabbi, I have tended to many people in the last moments of their lives. It was not death that frightened them; it was insignificance, the fear that they would die and leave no mark on the world.

Healing edited by J. Pincott, Random House (2007).