QUOTES: John Stuart Mill On Ethics & War.

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TOP: TOP: John Stuart Mill, frontal shot.

Hi All,

I had today off and one of the activities I enjoy most on my days off is: reading. Reading is good for the soul and it invigorates the mind... and I strongly feel that any kind of reading benefits the reader... even tabloid trash rags, People Magazine, and that like. Even that sort of written drivel keeps words flowing through the mind. However, to really stimulate the mind, one has to read the writings of intelligent people, not just professors and philosophers, but the people that made a difference and their time and resolved to share their thoughts. One such person, whose writings I often return to is John Stuart Mill, a British philosopher, Political economist, and a Member of Parliament among his many other accomplishments.

Here are a few of his quotes that really make me think...

John Stuart Mill on the military:

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

John Stuart Mill on the freedom:

"The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. Each is the proper guardian of his own health, whether bodily, or mental and spiritual. Mankind are greater gainers by suffering each other to live as seems good to themselves, than by compelling each to live as seems good to the rest."

John Stuart Mill on the conformity:

"In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."

John Stuart Mill helped to foster and develop a philosophy known as utilitarianism, which I don't feel I've ever really understood despite much study, but that's another topic altogether...

TOP: John Stuart Mill, profile shot.

To learn more about John Stuart Mill, please check out this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart_Mill

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

QUOTES: Unlikely Friendship (23 February 2007...

. Hi Everyone,

Sorry for not posting lately... between the flu striking me down and a busy life, I haven't had much time for the blog lately. However, I came across this quote recently and really enjoyed it... it sounds like it came from some kind of "self-improvement book" or "guide to relationships," but it came from an entirely different sort of book. See if you can figure out where it came from.

"Most of us have very few friends; we can count them on the fingers of one hand. We are surrounded by acquaintances, but intimate friends are few. A friendship that survives the years originates more than two people's quest for togetherness. It depends above all on their adjustment and acquiescence to each other's traits. Accepting friends is something like a 'package deal.' Some of their attributes are just what you want to see in someone, those very traits that make you want to be close to someone. Others you find downright unpleasant. With these, too, you must make your peace. You can't set out to change them. This is the only way to develop genuine companionship - a relationship put to the test in a moment of pain, of need for help, of yearning for an attentive ear or a shoulder to lean on."

"A Warrior's Way - Israel's Most Decorated Tank Commander Relives His Greatest Battles"
Pgs. 199-200. 1994 SPI paperback edition.
By: Brigadier General (ret.) Avigdor Kahalani.

It's hard to imagine that, in that quote, Kahalani is writing about the camaraderie between men-at-arms AKA soldiers. The quote could just as easily apply to male-female relationships or just about any other type of relationship.

I've long been a fan of Avigdor Kahalani; he has genuine qualities that are really hard to fake. He also has a "rags-to-riches" background and is of Yemenite descent, some of the many Jews who had long resided in the Arab world until Arab nationalism came to a heady brew in the beginning of the twentieth century. I've long followed his career and you can learn more about it here:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/kahalani.html

Just recently, I watched some specials about the 1973 Yom Kippur War on The Military Channel with an interview with Kahalani. Despite markedly non-native English, the man is a powerful speaker and it's easy to see how he motivated the men under his many commands.

If you have any interest in the history of the Middle East, I highly recommend reading any of his novels. I've enjoyed every single one of Kahalani's books that I've read. I will comment that SPI paperbacks do tend to have a large number of typos though.

Have a great weekend!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

QUOTES: Twain On Fathers (13 February 2007)...

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Hi Everyone,

I hope that everything is going well for everyone. I've been keeping busy with life and it's been making sure that things don't get too boring. The other day ago, a friend and I were discussing parents, which brought to mind a quote from Mark Twain that my mother loves to recall... she even writes it into the syllabus for her college classes. At any rate, it's a gem and well worth sharing. Enjoy!

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

- Attributed by Reader's Digest, Sept. 1937.
This quote has been attributed to Mark Twain, but until the attribution can be verified, the quote should not be regarded as authentic.

Please check out this site for many more great Mark Twain quotes:

http://www.twainquotes.com/Father.html

Twain is best known for his characters Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn...


But my favorite Twain work beyond a doubt is "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court."

It has one of the earliest examples of the use of a time travel plot device in literature and the novel is full of entertaining comedy... one of Twain's great talents was a very witty intuitive sense of humor.

I also highly recommend another writer from roughly the same period named Ambrose Bierce. If you've never checked out his "The Devil's Dictionary," you're missing out.

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
(first published in book form as The Cynic's Word Book, 1906)

Have a kick-back Tuesday!

Shalom,

Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

QUOTES: Marcus Aurelius Antonius On the Majority!

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Hi Everyone,

I've been pretty bust lately although I have a few posts in the works... a battle report from this past weekend's MWS (gaming club) meeting, a movie review, some photos I took while hiking, but that will have to wait until I have a bit more time...

Until then, I'll leave you with a quote I like:

The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Roman Emperor, C.E. 161-180 (121 CE - 180 CE)

Have a great Wednesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.


Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

QUOTES: Talking About Ideas?

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Hi Everyone,

I had a great weekend and I hope you did too. I got to game a little, visit my parents, made it to the gym, and got to visit an old friend who just happens to own a dry sauna, what they call in Russian, the "banya." It was a good weekend and a good visit.

Another little something I've been pondering for awhile is to add semi-regular posts with quotes from various sources that I enjoyed so here goes:

"Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about themselves, and below average people talk about others."

*** Which type of person do you want to be? ***

See if you can guess the source of the quote and check down below once you have your guess.

Have a great Monday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
In case you're wondering, this quote came from Ann Landers.

P.S.S.
If you're wondering about the photo, I had no method for choosing it other than I liked it.

Notes regarding photos / pictures: These are not all my images. I am using various images from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).