Ruminations
OF THE DAY
July 22, 2024
QUOTE
There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.
BIRTHDAYS
1925 – Joseph Sargent, Actor, director, and producer
1934 – Louise Fletcher, Actress
1947 – Albert Brooks, Actor, comedian, director, and screenwriter
1947 – Don Henley, Singer-songwriter and drummer
1955 – Willem Dafoe, Actor
1964 – David Spade, Actor, producer, and screenwriter
IN MEMORY
1832 – Napoleon II, French emperor
1934 – John Dillinger, Gangster
1967 – Carl Sandburg, Poet and historian
2008 – Estelle Getty, Actress
ON THIS DAY
1598 – William Shakespeare’s play, The Merchant of Venice, is entered on the Stationers’ Register. By decree of Queen Elizabeth, the Stationers’ Register licensed printed works, giving the Crown tight control over all published material.
1793 – Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean becoming the first recorded human to complete a transcontinental crossing of North America.
1893 – Katharine Lee Bates writes “America the Beautiful” after admiring the view from the top of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1894 – The first ever motor race is held in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen.
1937 – The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.
OF THE DAY ARCHIVE
April 6, 2023
QUOTE
Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
What is really amazing, and frustrating, is mankind’s habit of refusing to see the obvious and inevitable until it is there, and then muttering about unforeseen catastrophes.
Maybe happiness is this: not feeling like you should be elsewhere, doing something else, being someone else.
The day you stop learning is the day you begin decaying.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
April 5, 2023
QUOTE
You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good . . . Joan Crawford is dead. Good.
April 3, 2023
QUOTE
I have found that when you are deeply troubled, there are things you get from the silent devoted companionship of a dog that you can get from no other source.
April 1, 2023
QUOTE
The pursuit of perfection is frustrating and a waste of time, because nothing is ever perfect.
The pursuit of excellence is commendable and worthwhile. Therefore strive for excellence not perfection.
March 31, 2023
QUOTE
People without homes will not quarrel with their leaders. This is well known among our principle men now engaged in forming an imperialism of capitalism to govern the world. By dividing the people we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance to us except as teachers of the common herd.
March 30, 2023
QUOTE
Wouldn’t it be terrible if you’d spent all your life doing everything you were supposed to do, didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, didn’t eat things, took lots of exercise, all the things you didn’t want to do, and suddenly one day you were run over by a big red bus, and as the wheels were crunching into you you’d say ‘Oh my god, I could have got so drunk last night!’ That’s the way you should live your life, as if tomorrow you’ll be run over by a big red bus.
March 29, 2023
QUOTE
Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette – the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.
March 28, 2023
QUOTE
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
