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"He had delusions of adequacy ” Walter Kerr
"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”- Winston Churchill
"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure. - Clarence Darrow
"He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” - John Bright
"He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.” - Dr Johnson
"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up. - Paul Keating
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But I'm afraid this wasn't it.” - Groucho Marx
Nicolas remarks en passant that ‘A traveller’s social mobility makes it easier for him to be objective’ – a conclusion I also reached in 1963, when my spontaneously welcoming hosts ranged from Balkan factory workers to Turkish university professors, Azeri peasants, Iranian police officers, Afghan tribesmen (and women), a couple of ambassadors and the Wali of Swat. This mobility, largely explained by a scarcity of travellers, could not easily be replicated today. For decades past the holiday industry’s tentacles have been reaching deeper and deeper into every continent, only deterred by wars or rumours of new viral hazards. Therefore the territories that might allow travel to be a personal adventure, a test of adaptability – the individual seeking non-commercial relationships with new places and peoples – have been grievously curtailed. And, which is of far greater importance, this mindless movement of millions makes a sinister contribution to global warming. (Yes, of course I’m a travel snob – it’s inevitable, a generational thing.)
ReplyDeleteDervla Murphy on Nicolas Bouvier, The Way of the World (‘masterpiece’: Paddy Leigh Fermor’s judgement)
https://foxedquarterly.com/dervla-murphy-nicolas-bouvier-literary-review/
Murphy normally travelled alone without luxuries and depending on the hospitality of local people. She was in some dangerous situations; for example, she was attacked by wolves in the former Yugoslavia, threatened by soldiers in Ethiopia, and robbed in Siberia. However, she described her worst incident as tripping over cats at home and shattering her left arm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervla_Murphy
The successor to politics will be propaganda. Propaganda, not in the sense of a message or ideology, but as the impact of the whole technology of the times.
Marshall McLuhan
Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect: like a man, who hath thought of a good repartee when the discourse is changed, or the company parted; or like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead.
Political Lying
By Jonathan Swift
https://www.bartleby.com/209/633.html
Quod gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.
"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence."
Christopher Hitchens
“I consider it a lack of self-control to write anything which you intend to keep hidden."
Cicero