Thursday, February 08, 2007
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CONFESSIONS OF AN ABOMINABLE NO MAN
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It is not enough to have all the right arguments on your side, you must also adapt them to the occasion; and if you are dealing from a position of weakness, you are expected to flatter your adversary into thinking he is right and to apologize for making a nuisance of yourself. If diplomacy, etiquette, and brown-nosing are not your forte, avoid criticizing those in power, and their flunkies, hirelings, supporters, friends, and relatives.
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SPIRIT OF CONTRADICTION
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If you make an obvious assertion, such as “the sun rises in the east,” or “two plus two make four,” someone is sure to contradict you. Anyone who has ever written for Armenians is familiar with this phenomenon.
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CAUSE FOR CELEBRATION
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Once in a while a reader who has engaged in Internet hooliganism writes to apologize. This is not something that happens every day or year. As a matter of fact, they are such rare occurrences that I am tempted to mark them on my calendar so that I may celebrate their anniversaries.
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LINES TO REMEMBER
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Henry de Montherlant: “Some people acquire a sense of justice only after they have suffered an injustice.”
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Raymond Queneau: “There is deception in all action, as there is error in all thought.”
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Henri Bosco: “Great decisions are not made, they make themselves.”
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Friday, February 09, 2007
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IRREFUTABLE ARGUMENTS
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Our partisans have three powerful arguments against their critics: (one) you are too young to know any better; (two) you are too old to be up to date with recent developments; and (three) you must be a member of the opposition.
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UNDERSTANDING GOD
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God is too large a concept to fit into anyone’s pocket. If you think God is on your side, He is sure to abandon you.
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ON FALLIBILITY
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Nothing can be as easy and natural as being wrong – wrong about God, wrong about oneself, wrong about the world, wrong about everything.
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IQ
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Only idiots brag about how smart they are.
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HEAVEN AND HELL
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Heaven is a place reserved only for those who have been through hell.
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SAVING FACE
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If you are out to save face, the gutter is not the best place to do it from.
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TURKISH PROVERB
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“Eshek khoshavnan ne annar?” (What does a jackass know about stewed raisins?)
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LINES WORTH REMEMBERING
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Simone de Beauvoir: “If one lives long enough one sees all victories turn into defeats.”
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Alphonse de Lamartine: “If you miss one person, the whole world seems empty.”
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Jules Supervielle: “I am a perfectly honest man. I disgust myself completely.”
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Francois de la Rochefoucauld: “We get so used to hiding our feelings from others that we end up hiding them from ourselves.”
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Saturday, February 10, 2007
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AFTER MY OWN HEART
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Francois de la Rochefoucauld: “Sometimes one is as different from oneself as from others.”
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Alain: “An error by Descartes is better than a truth by a pedant.”
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Pierre Mendes France: “Democracy is a state of mind.”
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George Bataille: “I believe truth has only one visage: that of a violent contradiction.”
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Gustave Le Bon: “Sooner or later a crime committed by all becomes a right.”
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Alfred de Vigny: “Something of the student remains in all professors.”
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Albert Camus: “If we fail to reconcile justice with liberty, we fail in all things.”
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Flaubert: “We should get rid of all flags – they have been soiled with too much blood and merde.”
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Paul Valéry: “I say this without any hesitation: a university degree is the mortal enemy of culture.”
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