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
December 22, 2023
QUOTE
Everybody has to learn that the world works in very specific ways, and you’re not in charge of it.
December 20, 2023
QUOTE
If you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.
December 19, 2023
QUOTE
For three million years we were hunter-gatherers, and it was through the evolutionary pressures of that way of life that a brain so adaptable and so creative eventually emerged. Today we stand with the brains of hunter-gatherers in our heads, looking out on a modern world made comfortable for some by the fruits of human inventiveness, and made miserable for others by the scandal of deprivation in the midst of plenty.
December 16, 2023
QUOTE
It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.
Criticism and Bolshevism have one thing in common. They both seek to pull down that which they could never build.
Familiarity breeds contempt, but without a little familiarity it’s impossible to breed anything.
Conceit is an outward manifestation of inferiority.
I love criticism just so long as it’s unqualified praise.
People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what’s wrong with it.
You will know you’re old when you cease to be amazed.
December 15, 2023
QUOTE
Inside of me there are two dogs. One is mean and evil and the other is good and they fight each other all the time. When asked which one wins I answer, the one I feed the most.
December 14, 2023
QUOTE
Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself.
It is impossible to govern the world without God. It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits and humbly implore his protection and favor.
A pack of jackasses led by a lion is superior to a pack of lions led by a jackass.
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Experience has taught us that it is much easier to prevent an enemy from posting themselves than it is to dislodge them after they have got possession, and when the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it.
But if the laws are to be so trampled upon with impunity, and a minority is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put at one stroke to republican government, and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter.
The future of this nation depends on the Christian training of our youth.
Do not let anyone claim tribute of American patriotism if they even attempt to remove religion from politics.
The last official act of any government is to loot the treasury.
December 12, 2023
QUOTE
If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.
December 11, 2023
QUOTE
If you don’t deal with your demons, they will deal with you, and it’s gonna hurt.
