To Quote Or Not To Quote

As I have mentioned before, I find the use of quotations liberating and oft times interesting. Some might not find them interesting, but that is ok with me. They have the right to be wrong. :) Ah, nothing like love and goodwill toward all, right? No, these quotes are not Christmas themed, but I was watching the end of 'Boston Legal' and it was sort of Christmas themed. In any event, what follows is a selection of the obscure, bizarre and somewhat nominal. Enjoy, if you will. If not, I will try and do better next time.

1) 'I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.' --Albert Einstein -- I have used this as a header for my War and Political Poems on another writing website... something of an epigraph, or perhaps an epitaph, depending on what the future holds.

2) 'To write history, one must be more than a man, for the keeper of this great justiciary must be free of all preoccupation of interest... or vanity.' -- Napoleon Bonaparte -- I rather like this one because of the shock factor... Napoleon, the Napoleon? I also like it since it reminds me that I need to seek objectivity in history, though it is often hard take a step back and render an objective view.

3) 'The avalanche has already begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.' -- Kosh, Babylon 5 -- I still use this in my signature file on occasion, as this quote from my favorite TV show reminds me that sometimes events are far beyond are control regardless of our attempts to change them.

4) 'You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.' -- Leon Trotsky -- Another one that makes one think of the source. On the other hand, quite the astute observation from one who probably understood better than most.

5) 'A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.' -- George Moore, The Brook Kerith -- I always liked the romanticism in this, and sometimes it can be true... but home is what you make of it and where you decide it to be. Nice sentiments, though.

6) 'Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love.' -- Charles M. Schulz -- Ah, Charlie Brown and your wisdom. I am not as much a fan of peanut butter, but I take the meaning.

7) 'I do not know what I seem to the world, but to myself I appear to have been like a boy playing upon the seashore and diverting myself now and then by finding a smoother stone or prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay before me all undiscovered.' -- Sir Isaac Newton -- I know this used as my header for the blog, but I have never explained my usage of this fine quote by Sir Isaac Newton. I keep it as my header as a reminder that if a man like Newton can be that humble before knowledge, then I know I have much, much to learn.

8) 'Inter Arma Silent Leges.'/'In times of war, all laws are silent.' -- I originally read this in a book called All the Laws but One about the removal of civil rights in wartime. (specifically the suspension of Habeus Corpus) Most interesting read, and the discussions were, well, intense.

9) 'Poets are mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese' -- G.K. Chesterton -- As a poet, I thought this was pretty silent... and I am still silent on the whole cheese issue.

10) 'Talk not of ruling in this dolorious gloom,
Nor think vain words can ease my doom.
Rather I'd choose laboriously to bear
A weight of woes, and breathe the vital air,
A slave to some poor hind that toils for bread,
Than reign the sceptred monarch of the dead.'
-- Achilles, The Odyssey

-- I have used a portion of this quote before in my poem, 'The Ferryman', but it is not the Alexander Pope version of The Odyssey. I read a portion of this recently in a new history of the Trojan war, and really liked its elegance. And it is an interesting take on our own mortality.

That should do it here, and I hope I have not bored away most of my audience.

C.