Haven't played Who said it? in a while. I totally forget what number I am up to, so I'm calling it Who said it X? As usual, my
self-imposed rules are that it has to come from my own library or at least a
library book I read. It is, as always, my excuse to just share some
"stuff" I read that struck me one way or another. I'm experimenting
by putting the answers right below the questions. Try not to cheat until you take a guess.
"The more I consider the independence of the press in its principal consequences, the more am I convinced that in the modern world it is the chief and, so to speak, the constitutive element of liberty. A nation that is determined to remain free is therefore right in demanding, at any price, the exercise of this independence. But the unlimited liberty of political association cannot be entirely assimilated to the liberty of the press. The one is at the same time less necessary and more dangerous than the other. A nation may confine it within certain limits without forfeiting any part of its self-directing power; and it may sometimes be obliged to do so in order to maintain its own authority."
1. This priggish father was delighted to give his son advice
on women in 1941:
"There are many things that a man feels are legitimate
even though they cause a fuss. Let him not lie about them to his wife or lover!
Cut them out -- or if worth a fight: just insist. Such matters may arise
frequently--the glass of beer, the pipe, the non writing of letters, the other
friend, etc. etc. If the other side's claims really are unreasonable (as they
are at times between the dearest lovers and most loving married folk) they are
much better met by above board refusal and 'fuss' than subterfuge."
*
"How quickly an intelligent woman can be taught, grasp
the teacher's ideas, see his point--and how (with some exceptions) they can go
no further, when they leave his hand, or when they cease to take a personal
interest in him. It is their gift to be receptive, stimulated, fertilized (in
many other matters than the physical) by the male."
*
"I fell in love with your mother at the approximate age
of 18. Quite genuinely, as has been shown - though of course defects of
character and temperament have caused me often to fall below the ideal with
which I started. "
A. J. R. R.
Tolkien B. Ernest Hemingway C. FDR
D. Walt Disney
That would be from A., Prof. Tolkien, to his son, Michael. I
have read many of his letters and he was as British as they come. Not
surprising that he spent a lot of time with other male writers in a group they
called The Inklings, of which C. S. Lewis was the other most well known writer.
2. If you figure out
who this is, you might guess what the hell he is talking about:
"If I saw a venomous snake crawling in the road, any
man would say I might seize the nearest stick and kill it; but if I found that
snake in bed with my children, that would be another question. I might hurt the
children more than the snake, and it might bite them. Much more, if I found it
in bed with my neighbor's children, and I bound myself by a solemn compact not
to meddle with his children under any circumstances, it would become men to let
that particular mode of getting rid of the gentleman alone. But if there was a
bed newly made up, to which the children were to be taken and it was proposed
to take a batch of young snakes and put them there with them, I take it no man
would say there was any question how I ought to decide!
A. King James I B. Adam Smith
C. Abraham Lincoln D. Mussolini
That would be Abraham
Lincoln, C. In this little not too well
known speech, his children were the white people, his neighbor's children were
the slave states, the solemn compact was the Constitution and the bed newly
made up stood for the territories from which he wished to keep slavery. The
snakes, obviously, represent slavery. Now read it. It will make a lot more
sense. At least, it seemed to for his
audience.
3. "No man of
reason can comprehend the jurisprudence that the jurists have concocted. In the
end, today's jurisprudence is nothing other than one great system of shifting
the responsibility onto someone else. He would therefore do everything to
disparage as much as possible the study of law, that is, the study of this type
of interpretation of the law. Because these studies would not form men who were
fit for life and suited to guarantee for the state its natural legal order.
These studies meant only an education in irresponsibility."
A. Thomas
Jefferson B. Friedrich Nietzsche C. Adolph Hitler D. Antonin Scalia
I usually try and
sneak a Hitler one in here somewhere. It should be a gimme. Then again, I do
try and sneak a Jefferson quote in their too.
4. I love reading how so many writers from all times in our
history seemed to be sure that morality is degrading and the next generation
always worse than the one before it. This guy may have figured out why:
"Many proofs may be given that the human race on the
whole, and especially in our own as compared with all preceding times, has made
considerable advances morally for the better. Temporary checks do not prove
anything against this. The cry of the continually increasing degradation in the
race arises just from this, that when one stands on a higher step of morality
he sees further before him, and his judgment on what men are, as compared with
what they ought to be, is more strict."
A. Socrates B.
Immanuel Kant C. Henry David Thoreau D. Winston Churchill
Hmmm. That's a poser. But, it's B., Kant, writing one of the
few things he wrote that I could actually understand. Whether he was right or
not I can't say for sure, but I doubt it. I suspect the assurance that the next
generation is morally lax is based on our inherent prejudice that what we are
used to is superior.
5. When I was young I used to go to dance clubs,
but I rarely participated. I like music but I never really understood dance. But,
others certainly do. Yet, I never once saw anything like this described here.
If there was any sexuality with people dancing where I was, it was actual and obvious, not
symbolic or eroticized. On the other hand, for the young men reading this for tips (where else would you go?),
dancing with a girl may be the quickest way to boudoir. Anyway, if I had seen
anything like this below, I would not have cried aloud, as he did:
"About midnight the wildest and maddest of dances
began. . . . it was the fandango, which I fondly supposed I had often seen, but
which was far beyond my wildest imaginings. . . . In Italy and France the
dancers are careful not to make the gestures which render this the most
voluptuous of dances. each couple, man and woman, make only three steps, then,
keeping time to the music with their castanets, they throw themselves into a
variety of lascivious attitudes; the whole of love from its birth to its end,
from its first sigh to its last ecstasy, is set forth. In my excitement I cried
aloud."
A. Casanova B. Benjamin Franklin C. Sir Richard Francis Burton D. Mahatma Gandhi
No, not Gandhi, though that would have been cool. Casanova,
A., is the answer, exactly who you would expect (but not expect if you thought
I was being sneaky). But the other two would not be surprises if it had been
them.
6. This next one is topical, with the White House clearly
embarrassed at the investigation by the Department of Justice into the phone
records of journalists, in order to figure out where a leak (that they did not
want) came from. It is not a new topic, but one we haven't figured out. I'm not
sure we ever will unless time and technology stand still. Here's someone's take
on the subject:"The more I consider the independence of the press in its principal consequences, the more am I convinced that in the modern world it is the chief and, so to speak, the constitutive element of liberty. A nation that is determined to remain free is therefore right in demanding, at any price, the exercise of this independence. But the unlimited liberty of political association cannot be entirely assimilated to the liberty of the press. The one is at the same time less necessary and more dangerous than the other. A nation may confine it within certain limits without forfeiting any part of its self-directing power; and it may sometimes be obliged to do so in order to maintain its own authority."
A. Thomas Paine B.
Mark Twain C. de Tocqueville D. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
All of them seem reasonable choices, but it was written by
C., de Tocqueville, in his landmark work on democracy in America. It is another
way of saying, if I may expand upon the words of a great writer who I doubt
would think he needed further explaining, we can't have a democracy, government
by the people, if we don't have a source to get information about that
government from someone other than the government itself. We have to take this
right very far in order to mean something, because government will twist,
threaten and lie to sustain itself. But, onthe other hand, we can't take it
so far we cripple that which we are investigating. Of course, this is just
abstract theory. Putting the bell on the cat is harder.
7. Every once in a while I rewrite the profile on this blog
without knowing if anyone ever reads it (although I think there is a statistic
Google makes available there, I'm not sure that all of the hits aren't from
me). But, I might just put the following
quote in its place some day:
"I take it for granted, when I am invited to lecture
anywhere—for I have had a little experience in that business—that there is a
desire to hear what I think on some
subject, though I may be the greatest fool in the country, and not that I
should say pleasant things merely, or such as the audience will assent to; And
I resolve, accordingly, that I will give them a strong dose of myself. They
have sent for me, and engaged to pay for me, and I am determined that they
shall have me, though I bore them beyond all precedent."
A. Mark Twain B.
Thoreau C. Winston Churchill D.
Ronald Reagan
Could be any of them, I guess, though it was famously said
by B., Thoreau, in a lecture I love entitled Life without Principle. Of course, no one is paying me, but I suppose
that this is an opportunity a blog provides, if you want to use it for this
purpose - a chance to lecture and possibly have someone read it, without anyone
ever inviting or paying you to do it. Ironically, the only time I did get paid
to lecture, a few years as an adjunct (no way to get rich, I assure you) I was
very careful not to let my opinions about the subject matter be known. On the
other hand, I'm sure the students got a strong dose of me anyway. It is almost
unavoidable if you don't want them sound asleep and impossible if you want to
have any fun at all.
8. "I should
like to ask you all if you know of any dispute or controversy existing in the
world which is worth the life of your son, or of anyone else's son? Perhaps I am
not well informed of the terrifically vital forces underlying all this unrest
in the world, but for the life of me I cannot see anything involved which could
be remotely considered worth shedding blood for."
A. Leslie Howard B. Teddy Roosevelt C. Rudyard Kipling D. Joseph
Kennedy, Sr.
The answer is definitely not A., Leslie Howard, who himself
died in WWII when his plane was shot down. It is D., Kennedy. Of course, he lost his eldest son, his
namesake, in the war to come and almost his next son, Jack, who went on to be the
last president to be assassinated, as was his younger brother and Joseph's
youngest son, Robert, while he was running for president, all of which Joseph,
Sr. lived to see. TR, was a hawk, and
lost his heroic son Quentin in a WWI dogfight. Kipling, also a hawk, helped his son get into
the British Army for WWI, in which he died.
9. And now for something entirely different:
"In this class we include those who by fraud or
intimidation have been thrust into that life of celibacy where they were
allowed to fornicate but not to marry; so that if they openly keep a concubine they are Christian priests, but if
they take a wife they are burned. In my opinion parents who intend their
children for celibate priesthood would be much kinder to castrate them in
infancy, rather than to expose them whole against their will to this temptation
to lust."
A. Mark Twain B.
Martin Luther C. Erasmus D. Pope John Paul II
It be more fun if it was D, but it is C., Erasmus, sometimes
considered the first humanist (I think that is a misinterpretation with which he
himself would have problems). I imagine there was a generation of eunuchs who
would have loved to have personally thanked him for the advice to their
parents.
10. And, at last, an explanation of why it is good to be
king:
"Upon their arrival in his presence, he causes a new
examination to be made by a different set of inspectors, and from amongst them
a further selection takes place, when thirty or forty are retained for his own
chamber. . . . These are committed separately to the care of certain elderly
ladies of the palace, whose duty it is to observe them attentively, during the
course of the night, in order to ascertain that they have not any concealed
imperfections, that they sleep tranquilly, do not snore, have sweet breath, and
are free from unpleasant scent in any part of the body. Having undergone this
rigorous scrutiny, they are divided into parties of five, each taking turn for
three days and three nights in his Majesty's interior apartment, where they are
to perform every service that is required of them, and he does with them as he
likes. When this term is completed, they are relieved by another party, and in
this manner successively, until the whole number have taken their turn; when
the first five recommence their attendance."
A. Marco Polo regarding Kublai Khan B. Aleksander Suvorov regarding Peter the
Great C . Vladimir Lenin regarding
Grigori Rasputin D. Ruhollah Khomeini
regarding Shah Pahlavi
I guess it's good work if you can get it. The answer is Marco Polo,
A.
And that concludes another exciting episode of Who said it?
