Quotes of quotes.
Today, when using a local e-learning platform to get information about a course on “Interdisciplinary Communication” I learned the imperative way that interdisciplinary communication is inaccessible to guests. Even more so, it is forbidden.
There you learn. Faster than any course could do.
To achieve the impossible, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.
— Tom Robbins
After you!
O me, man of slack faith so long!
Standing aloof—denying portions so long;
Only aware to-day of compact, all-diffused truth;
Discovering to-day there is no lie, or form of lie, and can be none, but grows as inevitably upon itself as the truth does upon itself,
Or as any law of the earth, or any natural production of the earth does(This is curious, and may not be realized immediately—But it must be realized;
I feel in myself that I represent falsehoods equally with the rest,
And that the universe does.)Where has fail’d a perfect return, indifferent of lies or the truth?
Is it upon the ground, or in water or fire? or in the spirit of man? or in the meat and blood?
Meditating among liars, and retreating sternly into myself, I see that there are really no liars or lies after all,
And that nothing fails its perfect return—And that what are called lies are perfect returns,
And that each thing exactly represents itself, and what has preceded it,
And that the truth includes all, and is compact, just as much as space is compact,
And that there is no flaw or vacuum in the amount of the truth—but that all is truth without exception;
And henceforth I will go celebrate anything I see or am,
And sing and laugh, and deny nothing.
Walt Whitman, All is Truth. First published in ‘Leaves of Grass’ 1855.
Every sentence that I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.
— Niels Bohr (Danish physicist, 1885-1962)
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)— Walt Whitman, Song of Myself in Leaves of Grass
if you find it difficult to be yourself
then go ahead and be someone else
just don’t do it around me
In his song Blowin’ in the Wind Bob Dylan answers a wonderful bunch of big questions with his famous lyrics
The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind,
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
The whole life is a pretty windy season. But until today, the answer has not been blown off.
I am looking for references of the following apparently inevitable quote:
I once said that I often quoted myself. It added spice to my conversation, like this adds spice to my conversation. See?
— supposedly by George Bernard Shaw
Any pointers welcome.
