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Tag Archives: quotation

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German Winter Nights by Johann Beer

words and images Posted on March 16, 2023 by dlschirfMarch 17, 2023

Quotation from one of the strangest books I’ve read, German Winter Nights (1681) by Johann Beer. When the characters aren’t pulling off frat-level and sometimes sadistic, cruel pranks, they’re moralizing. Ludwig is one of the cruelest of the “brothers.” Here he moralizes.

What does it help us humans that we invade countries in war, lay waste to them, even bring them under our dominion? Many a person fights and defeats his outer enemy and nonetheless permits himself to be so cravenly conquered by his inner and invisible foe, who often can be driven back and away by a single pious thought. What did the miserable Veronia gain through her wantonness? Her desire was brief, her pleasure imperfect, her delight sinful, her marriage stained, her life shortened, and, what I don’t want to believe, her soul perhaps lost forever! Carnal depravity bears such fruits, and she did enjoy it because she never acknowledged the sin in which she was so frightfully lost.

Ludwig in German Winter Nights by Johann Beer
Posted in Blog, Books and literature, Quotations | Tagged 17th century, books, German, Johann Beer, literature, novel, quotation | Leave a reply

North and South, Mrs. Hale on Milton (Manchester)

words and images Posted on February 25, 2023 by dlschirfFebruary 25, 2023

Mrs. Hale, the woman displaced by her husband’s conscientious concerns from the bucolic south of England to the industrial northern city of Milton (Manchester), has opinions about Milton and its residents. From the 2004 BBC series based on Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South:

The people here don’t want learning. They don’t want books and culture. It’s all money and smoke. That’s what they eat and breathe.

Not just in 19th-century Milton.

Posted in Books and literature, Entertainment, Quotations | Tagged Elizabeth Gaskell, quotation, TV | Leave a reply

“Kind youth” from “The White Snake” (fairy tale)

words and images Posted on February 11, 2023 by dlschirfFebruary 11, 2023

The horse may not have thought him a “kind youth.”

Then the kind youth dismounted, drew his sword, and killing his horse left it there as food for the young ravens. They hopped up, satisfied their hunger, and piped: 'We'll remember, and reward you!'

Lang, Andrew. The Fairy Books - Complete Series (Illustrated Edition): 400+ Tales in One Edition . Musaicum Books. Kindle Edition.
Posted in Blog, Books and literature, Quotations | Tagged fairy tale, quotation | Leave a reply

“Far more happier” (The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes)

words and images Posted on January 22, 2023 by dlschirfFebruary 11, 2023

I just realized (or remembered, now I think about it) Kindle has a visual quotation feature. This one refers to Tahiti, “paradise” to the early sailors who landed there and found a different and less restrictive society, not so much after a few visits.

JB Journal, (end) August 1770. Cook’s entry of the same date describes the natives as ‘in reality … far more happier than we Europeans’

Holmes, Richard. The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science . Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Posted in Blog, Books and literature, Quotations | Tagged european history, history, nonfiction, quotation | Leave a reply

“A letter to the normals from a person with severe chronic pain”

words and images Posted on May 24, 2012 by dlschirfJanuary 8, 2019

I found this posted without attribution on the Patients Like Me site and repeat it without comment.

Having chronic pain means many things change, and a lot of them are invisible. Unlike having cancer or being hurt in an accident, most people do not understand even a little about chronic pain and its effects, and of those that think they know, many are actually misinformed.

In the spirit of informing those who wish to understand: These are the things that I would like you to understand about me before you judge me.

Please understand that being sick doesn’t mean I’m not still a human being. I have to spend most of my day in considerable pain and exhaustion, and if you visit, sometimes I probably don’t seem like much fun to be with, but I’m still me, stuck inside this body. I still worry about work, my family, my friends, and most of the time, I’d still like to hear you talk about yours, too.

Please understand the difference between “happy” and “healthy”. When you’ve got the flu, you probably feel miserable with it, but I’ve been sick for years. I can’t be miserable all the time. In fact, I work hard at not being miserable. So, if you’re talking to me and I sound happy, it means I’m happy. that’s all. It doesn’t mean that I’m not in a lot of pain, or extremely tired, or that I’m getting better, or any of those things. Please don’t say, “Oh, you’re sounding better!” or “But you look so healthy!” I am merely coping. I am sounding happy and trying to look normal. If you want to comment on that, you’re welcome.

Please understand that being able to stand up for ten minutes doesn’t necessarily mean that I can stand up for twenty minutes, or an hour. Just because I managed to stand up for thirty minutes yesterday doesn’t mean that I can do the same today. With a lot of diseases you’re either paralyzed, or you can move. With this one, it gets more confusing everyday. It can be like a yo-yo. I never know from day to day, how I am going to feel when I wake up. In most cases, I never know from minute to minute. That is one of the hardest and most frustrating components of chronic pain.

Please repeat the above paragraph substituting, “sitting”, “walking”, “thinking”, “concentrating”, “being sociable” and so on, it applies to everything. That’s what chronic pain does to you.

Please understand that chronic pain is variable. It’s quite possible (for many, it’s common) that one day I am able to walk to the park and back, while the next day I’ll have trouble getting to the next room. Please don’t attack me when I’m ill by saying, “But you did it before!” or “Oh, come on, I know you can do this!” If you want me to do something, then ask if I can. In a similar vein, I may need to cancel a previous commitment at the last minute. If this happens, please do not take it personally. If you are able, please try to always remember how very lucky you are, to be physically able to do all of the things that you can do.

Please understand that “getting out and doing things” does not make me feel better, and can often make me seriously worse. You don’t know what I go through or how I suffer in my own private time. Telling me that I need to exercise, or do some things to “get my mind off of it”, may frustrate me to tears, and is not correct. If I was capable of doing some things any or all of the time, don’t you know that I would? I am working with my doctors and I am doing what I am supposed to do. Another statement that hurts is, “You just need to push yourself more, try harder”. Obviously, chronic pain can deal with the whole body, or be localized to specific areas. Sometimes participating in a single activity for a short or a long period of time can cause more damage and physical pain than you could ever imagine. Not to mention the recovery time, which can be intense. You can’t always read it on my face or in my body language. Also, chronic pain may cause secondary depression (wouldn’t you get depressed and down if you were hurting constantly for months or years?), but it is not created by depression.

Please understand that if I say I have to sit down, lie down, stay in bed, or take these pills now, that probably means that I do have to do it right now, it can’t be put off or forgotten just because I’m somewhere, or I’m right in the middle of doing something. Chronic pain does not forgive, nor does it wait for anyone.

If you want to suggest a cure to me, please don’t. It’s not because I don’t appreciate the thought, and it’s not because I don’t want to get well. Lord knows that isn’t true. In all likelihood, if you’ve heard of it or tried it, so have I. In some cases, I have been made sicker, not better. This can involve side effects or allergic reactions, as is the case with herbal remedies. It also includes failure, which in and of itself can make me feel even lower. If there were something that cured, or even helped people with my form of chronic pain, then we’d know about it. There is worldwide networking (both on and off the Internet) between people with chronic pain. If something worked, we would KNOW. It’s definitely not for lack of trying. If, after reading this, you still feel the need to suggest a cure, then so be it. I may take what you said and discuss it with my doctor.

If I seem touchy, it’s probably because I am. It’s not how I try to be. As a matter of fact, I try very hard to be normal. I hope you will try to understand. I have been, and am still, going through a lot. Chronic pain is hard for you to understand unless you have had it. It wreaks havoc on the body and the mind. It is exhausting and exasperating. Almost all the time, I know that I am doing my best to cope with this, and live my life to the best of my ability. I ask you to bear with me, and accept me as I am. I know that you cannot literally understand my situation unless you have been in my shoes, but as much as is possible, I am asking you to try to be understanding in general.

In many ways I depend on you, people who are not sick. I need you to visit me when I am too sick to go out. Sometimes I need you help me with the shopping, the cooking or the cleaning. I may need you to take me to the doctor, or to the store. You are my link to the “normalcy” of life. You can help me to keep in touch with the parts of life that I miss and fully intend to undertake again, just as soon as I am able.

I know that I asked a lot from you, and I do thank you for listening. It really does mean a lot.

Thank you.

Posted in Blog, Commentary | Tagged health, quotation | Leave a reply

Washington Irving on the gift of the poet

words and images Posted on December 7, 2011 by dlschirfJanuary 7, 2023

On returning to my inn, I could not but reflect on the singular gift of the poet; to be able thus to spread the magic of his mind over the very face of nature; to give to things and places a charm and character not their own, and to turn this “working-day world” into a perfect fairy land. He is indeed the true enchanter, whose spell operates, not upon the senses, but upon the imagination and the heart. . . . I had surveyed the landscape through the prism of poetry, which tinged every object with the hues of the rainbow.

Washington Irving, “Stratford-on-Avon”
Posted in Blog | Tagged commonplace book, quotation, Washington Irving | Leave a reply

Me on Black Friday

words and images Posted on November 25, 2011 by dlschirfMay 1, 2020

During the annual Black Friday shopping event, Americans spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need and that don’t make them happy or happier, just poorer and unsatisfied. Then, like Charlie Brown, they wonder what happened to the spirit of Christmas.

Diane Schirf
Posted in Blog, Quotations | Tagged holiday, quotation | 1 Reply

Washington Irving on Poets Corner (Westminster Abbey)

words and images Posted on November 24, 2011 by dlschirfApril 4, 2020

I passed some time in Poets Corner, which occupies an end of one of the transepts or cross aisles of the abbey. The monuments are generally simple; for the lives of literary men afford no striking themes for the sculptor. Shakespeare and Addison have statues erected to their memories; but the greater part have busts, medallions, and sometimes mere inscriptions. Notwithstanding the simplicity of these memorials, I have always observed that the visitors to the abbey remained longest about them. A kinder and fonder feeling takes place of that cold curiosity or vague admiration with which they gaze on the splendid monuments of the great and the heroic. They linger about these as about the tombs of friends and companions; for indeed there is something of companionship between the author and the reader. Other men are known to posterity only through the medium of history, which is continually growing faint and obscure: but the intercourse between the author and his fellow-men is ever new, active, and immediate. He has lived for them more than for himself; he has sacrificed surrounding enjoyments, and shut himself up from the delights of social life, that he might the more intimately commune with distant minds and distant ages. Well may the world cherish his renown; for it has been purchased, not by deeds of violence and blood, but by the diligent dispensation of pleasure. Well may posterity be grateful to his memory; for he has left it an inheritance, not of empty names and sounding actions, but whole treasures of wisdom, bright gems of thought, and golden veins of language.

Washington Irving, “Westminster Abbey”
Posted in Blog, Quotations | Tagged commonplace book, quotation, Washington Irving | Leave a reply

Snippets from life

words and images Posted on May 2, 2009 by dlschirfJanuary 4, 2019

Capitalists in the making

College female 1: . . . a concept for class. That’s how Jamba Juice was created.
College female 2: Oh, wow.

When reviewers need editors

This is a book that every single parent needs to read.

Book review

[That’s single as in every parent, not as in every unmarried parent.]

Something old, something new

DUDE, WE WERE ON FIRE!

Chicago History Museum headline

Poetry in transit

My love for you is like a shiny heart-shaped metaphor about the sea.

Metra sign

Phone sex?

Take it off vibrate. I don’t pay for that.

Women speaking into her mobile phone

Capitalism redux

We have swine flu masks! We have Hallmark cards for Mom!

Electronic sign at Walgreens

College doesn’t equal smart

Some students purge or starve so they can binge drink.

RedEye

For when video games can’t keep them entertained

Offered by the Illinois Tollway at oases: The popular Captain Tollway coloring book

Whatever happened to “Billy” and “Susie”?

Willow! Montana!

Dad calling his children

When your marriage is as comfy as an old shoe

Elderly couple at the bus stop discussing the man’s choice of gym shoes:

Woman: Is there any reason you made that weird decision?
Man: If it aggravates you, that’s reason enough.

Taking the high road to higher education with no pit stops

Dedicated to the enlightenment of the human spirit
NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS

Window sign at Roosevelt University

Capitalist dreams, part III

If I major in econ. and work on Wall Street, I could be your sugar mama!

College student on mobile phone in elevator
Posted in Blog, Quotations | Tagged behavior, humor, life, quotation, words | 2 Replies

D. H. Lawrence quotations

words and images Posted on February 18, 2008 by dlschirfApril 16, 2019

From St. Mawr by D. H. Lawrence.

Lou:

As far as people go, my heart is quite broken. As far as people go, I don’t want any more. I can’t stand any more. What heart I ever had for it — for life with people — is quite broken. I want to be alone, mother: with you here, and Phoenix perhaps to look after horses and drive a car. But I want to be by myself, really.

Mrs. Witt:

I’m convinced that ever since men and women were men and women, people who took things seriously, and had time for it, got their hearts broken. Haven’t I had mine broken? It’s as sure as having your virginity broken: and it amounts to about as much. It’s a beginning rather than an end.

Lou:

I’ve got to live for something that matters, way down in me. And I think sex would matter to my very soul, if it was really sacred. But cheap sex kills me . . . I dislike [men] because they’re not men enough: babies, and playboys, and poor things showing off all the time, even to themselves. I don’t say I’m any better. I only wish, with all my soul, that some men were bigger and stronger and deeper than I am . . . No, mother, of this I am convinced: either my taking a man shall have a meaning and a mystery that penetrates my very soul, or I will keep to myself . . . And to [the spirit that is wild], my sex is deep and sacred, deeper than I am, with a deep nature aware deep down of my sex.

Posted in Blog, Quotations | Tagged D. H. Lawrence, quotation | Leave a reply

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