“The quieter you become, the more you can hear”
- Ram Das
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The version we were taught in the 60’s in the UK was "Billy Brown revives on your gin but values good whisky*. It didn’t have Ms Violet, but apparently it was memorable.
I learned the naughty version in the Navy. Blame Uncle Sam.
hee hee
Mongo
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You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.
Mae West
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Kurt, now there was a man with a mind.
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It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.
Dolly Parton
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Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy
- Ludwig van Beethoven
“Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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“Remember this, son, if you forget everything else. A poet is a musician who can’t sing. Words have to find a man’s mind before they can touch his heart, and some men’s minds are woeful small targets. Music touches their hearts directly no matter how small or stubborn the mind of the man who listens.”
Excerpt From: Patrick Rothfuss. “The Name of the Wind.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-name-of-the-wind/id357923567
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The Kingkiller Chronicle is a hoot, great fun.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
-Ben Franklin
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Interestingly, Mr. Franklin was not addressing liberty as we understand it, but rather money and taxation, and security on the frontier
Mr. Franklin was writing not as a subject being asked to cede his liberty to government, but in his capacity as a legislator being asked to renounce his power to tax lands notionally under his jurisdiction. The “liberty” of which he wrote was the right of the Assembly, of which he was a member, to tax landowners.
The Pennsylvania Assembly wanted to tax the lands of the Penn family, which ruled Pennsylvania in absentia , to raise money for defense against French and Indian attacks. The governor kept vetoing the Assembly’s efforts at the behest of the family (the Penns had appointed him). The Penns wanted to pay a single lump sum of their choosing in lieu of being taxed.
The “essential liberty” to which Mr. Franklin referred was thus not what we think of today as civil liberties but, rather, the right of self-governance of a legislature in the interests of collective security.
That is, he was against the Assembly giving up its right to tax (“give up essential Liberty”), and instead accepting the lump sum “to purchase a little temporary Safety” from French and Indian attacks.
The letter in which he wrote the phrase is long and complicated. It is amazing someone read the entire dull thing and pulled out this quote.
History is both fascinating and illuminating.
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Interesting example of how things lately are routinely used in another context, or the context changed or a word or two changed, and so, from a seemingly unimpeachable source - creating a new reality or “fact”.
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Exactly.
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My middle school history teacher said to always remember the basis of the word. “His story” literally means the story as told by the author of the reference book. It has nothing to do with what actually happened during the time or event being relayed. I have carried this bit of knowledge with me since that time.
That is not the actual etymology of the word “history,” but it is a great way to remember to inquire into and understand contemporary context.
In this case, Mr. Franklin almost meant the opposite of how the quote is presently used. Instead of cautioning citizens not to give up their civil rights, he was writing in favor of the right of government to tax its populace even in light of citizens’ objections.
It is interesting how things can become completely misconstrued without the overall context and time frame taken into account.
Our current political situation is a good case in point. All of the snips, clips, and jabs using words that are either taken completely out of context or deliberately (possibly unknowingly) spreading falsehoods that make it all the way around the planet and into millions of eagerly waiting inboxes or “news feeds” on social platforms without having any kind of reference or sources given.
I don’t belong to any of the social platforms but do see the carnage every day.
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It’s a real shame Patrick Rothfuss hasn’t written more. Love his work.
Think of how American history would look from the Native point of view if they used the printed word.