Quote of the day: Politics and Business

The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That’s the only difference.”

Ralph Nader - American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist

Continue reading…

Quote of the day: The last Poem

This quote is from James Clavell’s well known novel Shogun:

The blue sky above the earth
White clouds rise towards heaven
Life is only a butterfly’s dream
Death the way to eternal life

Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell, 1924 - 1994, Shogun

continue reading…

Quote of the day: Funeral Blues

One of W.H. Auden best known poems “Funeral Blues” in its second (shorter) and changed version. We are still searching for the original version with five stanzas which Auden wrote together with Christopher Isherwood in 1936.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Wystan Hugh Auden, 1907 - 1973, Funeral Blues

continue reading…

Quote of the day: The Myth of Sisyphus

I see many people die because they judge that life is not worth living. I see others paradoxically getting killed for the ideas or illusions that give them a reason for living (what is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying). I therefore conclude that the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions.

Albert Camus, 1913 - 1960, The Myth of Sisyphus

continue reading…

Quote of the day: Rich and Poor

A short but well known quote of this great singer and comedian, that many latest since this year do remember rather painfully:

I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Believe me, honey, rich is better.

Sophie Tucker, 1884 – 1966, singer and comedian

continue reading…

Quote of the day: Life

The following lines were found at Derzhavin’s table after his death:

The current of Time’s river
Will carry off all human deeds
And sink into oblivion
All peoples, kingdoms and their kings.
And if there’s something that remains
Through sounds of horn and lyre,
It too will disappear into the maw of time
And not avoid the common pyre… (lines broken)

Gavriil (Gavrila) Romanovich Derzhavin, 1743 – 1816, Russian poet

continue reading…

Quote of the day: Office

The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get to the office.

Robert Frost, American Poet

continue reading…

Quote of the day: Life

It’s better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!

¡Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado!
Emiliano Zapata Salazar (1879 – 1919) - Mexican Revolutionary

continue reading…

Quote of the day: Funerals

No matter how rich you become, how famous or powerful, when you die the size of your funeral will still pretty much depend on the weather.

Michael Pritchard aka Mike Dirnt, 1972 - musician

continue reading…

Quote of the day: Politics by Fear

We would normally not quote a leading Nazi figurehead, but when this leader said the following lines he was certain that his life will soon end in the Nuremberg Trials and had no interest to palliate one of the fundamental principles of the Nazi reign in Germany 1933-1945.

The Nazis in Germany during that period were the first in recent history that have…

continue reading…