Quotes For Our Time

As I have written before I love quotations and seeing them become a regular feature in The Week magazine, I decided to take up the theme.

Every week I have to think about the English playwright, George Bernard Shaw’s quote as I strive to be clear. "The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."  Most of these quotes have been pre-tested by those who published them!

Re: Politics

Maybe the most telling, at least for me presently, is credited to none other than Napoleon Bonaparte, “In Politics, stupidity is not a handicap”!

This is one to remember in the current movement to tear down historic monuments, “Nothing is Really Lost until it is Forgotten” by contemporary painter Patrick McGrath Muniz.  For me a prime case in question is the sculpture of Theodore Roosevelt in front of New York’s Museum of Natural History by the noted American sculptor, James Earle Fraser (1876-1953).

I wish both sides of the aisle would recognize the message of a sign I saw in a hemp shop here in Santa Fe. “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in an American flag and carrying a cross” 

"If there isn't (a) vision it is hard to get others to follow" John D. Rockefeller on accepting an award from the World Monuments Fund 2009.

“Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”  German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, (1844-1900)

Clarence Darrow, the great defense attorney, and Mark Twain are both credited with the statement that could relate  to our current political polarization, “"I have never killed anyone, but I have read some obituary notices with great satisfaction." 

Covid-19

The Week Magazine quotes a Canadian Health Official, Dr. Bonnie Henry, “We are all in the same storm.  But we are not all in the same boats.” How true is that?

From Republic World

There is an old German saying which I heard often from my father, "Ein Ende mit Schrecken is besser als ein Schrecken ohne Ende” An end with terror is better than terror without end.

The following  sentiment has been expressed in many a dire situation: David Lynch, the filmmaker and artist has said, “These so-called bleak times are necessary to go through in order to get to a much, much better place.”   We can all hope and pray that this will be true this time around. 

I will end with a quote from Anthony T Hincks, an author known for publishing a book of his own quotes. I would like it printed on all my next masks: 

“Don't practice 'Germ Warfare'. MASK UP!”