Handwritten: Your Favourite Quotes

[txomsy]

 

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. Epictetus.

[Mercian]

13 hours ago, txomsy said:

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. Epictetus.

Ooh!

I was about to post an Epictetus quote!

 

I’ll need to try to write it out legibly first though… 😁

 

[txomsy]

I wouldn't worry (I don't, indeed). Actually, I do not think my notes are so legible either, which is why I do add them as text as well. That way I make sure they can be read one way or the other.

 

You may do the same. It is the content that is important, not the form.

 

And now you got me intrigued...

[dms525]

@txomsy Your Epictetus quote reminding me of this one:

 

 

It is a corollary of the Epictetus aphorism, I think.

 

Happy writing!

 

David

[txomsy]

That is a very deep and thoughtful quote. It resounds as the answer to a Zen koan, and has reminded me of this other one by Socrates:

 

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

 

 

But the one i actually intended to upload today was the following from Kant, which seems all too apt for this thread:

 

Three things tell a man: his eyes, his friends and his favorite quotes.

 

[inkstainedruth]

23 hours ago, txomsy said:

I wouldn't worry (I don't, indeed). Actually, I do not think my notes are so legible either, which is why I do add them as text as well. That way I make sure they can be read one way or the other.

 

You may do the same. It is the content that is important, not the form.

 

And now you got me intrigued...

A friend of mine posted a piece of calligraphy to FB that someone commissioned from her, which is written mirror-image.  It took me a while to read it, though I think I eventually deciphered it (while having my face about 5" from the monitor, and sort of squinting a bit).  And the ensuing discussion after she posted the image involved writing/drawing left-handed, being ambidextrous, and writing mirror-image if you WERE ambidextrous.

Don't remember what the hand was, but I think she said it was some sort of Gothic (but not the very tight blackletter that I think of).

Oh and I really like the one from Socrates that you then posted.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[txomsy]

thanks, @inkstainedruth. I hope today's one is also of your liking.

 

Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.

Blaise Pascal

 

And is it not a pity (and a shame) that after so long, this quote may still apply nowadays? What does it tell of us?

 

Note: those are rhetoric questions (i.e. for self-pondering, not expecting an answer) for any potential response would quickly delve deep into unwelcome waters.

 

[Mercian]

Section 28 of the ‘Encheiridion’ of Epictetus (which was actually written as a summary of Epictetus’ teachings by his student Lucius Flavianus Arrianus, aka ‘Arrian’).

 

I find this to be a useful aperçu to remember when I am becoming vexed by having to deal with Other People…

 

 

With my usual apologies for my inconsistent scrawl 😔

Transcript:

If some person in the street were given power over your body you would be furious.

Yet you give power over your mind to anyone who happens to insult you, allowing it to become disturbed and troubled.

Are you not ashamed of this?

 

Edited November 18, 2022 by Mercian
To add transcript.

[Mercian]

9 hours ago, txomsy said:

And is it not a pity (and a shame) that after so long, this quote may still apply nowadays? What does it tell of us?

I know that you asked this rhetorically, but the answer to the question is, of course, that the fact that the quote is still applicable even now is merely yet more proof (as if any were needed) of the Deathless Truth of the following statement:

 

Humanity - you will never find a more-wretched hive of scum and villainy 🙁

 

Then again, you will also never find another source of Caol Ila, so it’s ‘swings-&-roundabouts’, eh? 😉

[dms525]

Or ... 

 

 

Shaw borrowed this from Hegel, I believe.

 

David

[txomsy]

6 hours ago, Mercian said:

I know that you asked this rhetorically, but the answer to the question is, of course, that the fact that the quote is still applicable even now is merely yet more proof (as if any were needed) of the Deathless Truth of the following statement:

 

Humanity - you will never find a more-wretched hive of scum and villainy 🙁

 

Then again, you will also never find another source of Caol Ila, so it’s ‘swings-&-roundabouts’, eh? 😉

That is a very pessimistic view of mankind.

 

It reminds me that I have to unearth the quotes by Schopenhauer who, if I remember well, said something like

 

Mirrors and copulation are abominable, for both multiply the number of men upon Earth.

 

BTW, I personally prefer Lagavulin (or Talisker).

 

[txomsy]

17 hours ago, Mercian said:

Section 28 of the ‘Encheiridion’ of Epictetus (which was actually written as a summary of Epictetus’ teachings by his student Lucius Flavianus Arrianus, aka ‘Arrian’).

 

I find this to be a useful aperçu to remember when I am becoming vexed by having to deal with Other People…

 

 

With my usual apologies for my inconsistent scrawl 😔

Transcript:

If some person in the street were given power over your body you would be furious.

Yet you give power over your mind to anyone who happens to insult you, allowing it to become disturbed and troubled.

Are you not ashamed of this?

 

 

Nice quote from Epictetus. I did hand copy the Enchiridion some time ago, as I think it should be a must read. We are trained for techniques but not for life. Not that it contains all solutions to all problems, at least not practical problems, but shows a way to view life that can get one along pretty well.

 

Seneca (and other stoics) is another of my favorites.

 

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.

 

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Edited November 19, 2022 by txomsy
Added transcription

[Mercian]

21 hours ago, txomsy said:

That is a very pessimistic view of mankind.

Guilty as-charged, Your Honour 😔

 

In mitigation, I add that I have S.A.D., that it is now November, that the weather here has been almost-unbroken overcast and/or rain for a couple of weeks now, and that Winter is coming!

 

Perhaps more likely to prompt the Court to show mercy is the fact that the bit I typed in bold is a shameless theft of an only-slightly-adapted quote from Star Wars: Episode IV.

It is what Obi-Wan Kenobi says about Mos Eisley Spaceport when he, Luke, and the droids first arrive there.

 

Oh, also, in Happier News: whilst I don’t currently have any Caol Ila (‘tis hard-to-find, and thus is not exactly ‘inexpensive’), I do currently have a bottle of Talisker 10 (I found for sale it at 75% of its normal price in a local supermarket) 😊

[txomsy]

The court feels sympathetic and inclined to rule favorably. If I have a collection of quotes from Schopenhauer I cannot be that far from pessimism myself. At least at times. While most often I try to stay on the optimistic side, I find it educational to remember every so that not everything is so rosy and one should be wary.

 

Your story with Caol Ila parallels mine with Lagavulin: I had to "downgrade" to 10yo Talisker as I found a heavily discounted bottle.

 

Anyway, another quote always worth keeping in mind is this one from Nietzsche:

 

You have your way, I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

 

 

 

[ParramattaPaul]

Nietzsche was wrong! 

 

Any ex-soldier can tell you, having learnt it at his or her personal expense, that the Army way is THE ONLY WAY.

[Mercian]

3 hours ago, txomsy said:

Anyway, another quote always worth keeping in mind is this one from Nietzsche:

 

You have your way, I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

 

 

I like that 👍

 

20 minutes ago, ParramattaPaul said:

Nietzsche was wrong! 

 

Any ex-soldier can tell you, having learnt it at his or her personal expense, that the Army way is THE ONLY WAY.

😁

 

As a Brit, I am now hoping that nobody suggests that The Only Way Is Essex…

 

😱

[inkstainedruth]

I just looked that show up.  And all I can think of is "Wow -- and I thought AMERICAN reality shows on TV were bad...."

That's certainly a far cry from the one time I was in the UK (mid-1970s) and saw my first two episodes of Doctor Who (although at the time I was looking at my brother going "Why are we watching a KIDS' show?") and another night saw most of Marat-Sade (missed the beginning and couldn't stay up to watch the end, which may have been just as well ) UNCUT as far as I could tell....  And years later after the brouhaha about an early episode of Miami Vice (and the partial nudity therein) called the local station which aired it and was going "What's the big hairy deal -- it was in the 10 PM time slot -- after all, BBC showed Marat-Sade in PRIME TIME in the 1970s!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[txomsy]

Today's quote, one i should learn from for i have plenty of difficulty keeping my mouth shut.

 

A wise man speaks because he has something to say, a fool because he has to say something.

Plato

 

[txomsy]

Well, let us go back to Schopenhauer, even pessimism can teach us good lessons. If one thinks of this, it is but a rephrasing of Socrates' 'All I know is I know nothing' from a different perspective and with a different twist.

 

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Arthur Schopenhauer

 

[OCArt]

12 hours ago, txomsy said:

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

Oh, I like that quote very much! Thanks for posting.