“The nineteenth century, utilitarian throughout, set up a utilitarian interpretation of the phenomenon of life which has come down to us and may still be considered as the commonplace of everyday thinking. ... An innate blindness seems to have closed the eyes of this epoch to all but those facts which show life as a phenomenon of utility” ThinkingMayStillsFactsShowsSeemsEyeCenturyEverydayInterpretationPhenomenonBlindnessInnateUtilityCommonplaceNineteenth CenturyEpochUtilitarian Author:Jose Ortega y Gasset
“Unquenchable is a worthy successor to Cadillac Desert that ably demonstrates how our most valuable resource is being squandered, ignored, and flushed away. Although it reminds us that water is indeed finite, Unquenchable clearly shows us the solutions to the greatest threat of the 21st century are limited only by politics and greed.” ShowsWaterCenturySolutionsResourcesThreatGreedValuableWorthyDesertIgnored21st CenturyFiniteSuccessorsCadillacs Author:Terry Tamminen
“The 20th century mind is nostalgic for the paradise that once existed on the mushroom dotted plains of Africa where the plant-human symbiosis occurred that pulled us out of the animal body and into the tool-using, culture-making, imagination-exploring creature that we are. And why does this matter? It matters because it shows that the way out is back and that the future is a forward escape into the past. This is what the psychedelic experience means. Its a doorway out of history and into the wiring under the board in eternity.” WayMindHumansMeanDoeMatterShowsBodyPastCultureImaginationAnimalCenturyCreaturesToolsEternityPlantBoardsParadiseExploring20th CenturyPsychedelicDoorwaysNostalgicMushroomsPsychedelic ExperienceWiringSymbiosis Author:Terence McKenna
“Cruel and paradoxical though it undoubtedly is, the record shows that yje most succesful 20th century monarchs have been those who were not actually born to succeed. King George VI was 41 when the abdication of Edward VIII propelled him suddenly and unexpectedly to take up the crown; and Queen Elizabeth II spent her first decade with no inkling thay she herself might one day have to reign. Taken together, these examples suggest that the best preparation for the job of sovereign is not to be prepared for it at all, ir not to be too well prepared for it, or for too long.” FirstsWellsLongHas BeensShowsMightTogetherJobsBornTakenRecordsCenturyExampleKingsOne DaySucceedPreparedDecadesPreparationQueensCrownsBe PreparedSovereignReign20th CenturyMonarchsParadoxicalIrsBritish HistoryQueen ElizabethAbdicationElizabeth Ii Author:David Cannadine
“Contemporary Christianity, diverse and complex as we find it, actually may show more unanimity than the Christian churches of the first and second centuries. For nearly all Christians since that time, Catholics, Protestants, or Orthodox, have shared three basic premises. First, they accept the canon of the New Testament; second, they confess the apostolic creed; and third, they affirm specific forms of church institution. But every one of these - the canon of Scripture, the creed, and the institutional structure - emerged in its present form only toward the end of the second century.” FirstsMayEndsShowsChristianFormReligionThreeChurchAcceptingChristianityCenturyThirdsCatholicInstitutionsStructureComplexesScriptureContemporaryOrthodoxCreedsDiverseTestamentPremisesNew TestamentProtestantsChristian ChurchCanonApostolicUnanimity Author:Elaine Pagels
“Fear, coercion, punishment, are the masculine remedies for moral weakness, but statistics show their failure for centuries. Why not change the system and try the education of the moral and intellectual faculties, cheerful surroundings, inspiring influences? Everything in our present system tends to lower the physical vitality, the self-respect, the moral tone, and to harden instead of reforming the criminal.” TryingSelfShowsMoralInfluenceCenturyCrimeIntellectualWeaknessPrisonCriminalsPunishmentToneSelf RespectStatisticsFacultyWhy NotRemedyCheerfulMasculineSurroundingsVitalityCoercion Book:Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897 Source: Eighty Years and More: Reminiscences, 1815-1897
“The war in Afghanistan, the first war of the twenty-first century, shows the United States doing what it wants to do, not caring about who it antagonizes, not caring about the effects on neighboring regions.” WantFirstsWarStatesShowsUnitedUnited StatesEffectsCenturyTwentiesCaringRegionsAfghanistanNot Caring Author:Tariq Ali
“The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.” MenMindBelieveStillsShowsEarthChristianChurchPrayerAttitudeFailingCenturyMedicineConvincedCuresEnlightenedFlatsChristian Church Book:Minority Report Source: Minority Report
“The fact that Newton and Michael Faraday and other scientists of the past were deeply religious shows that religious skepticism is not a prejudice that governed science from the beginning, but a lesson that has been learned through centuries of experience in the study of nature.” Has BeensFactsShowsPastReligiousStudyCenturyLessonsScientistPrejudiceSkepticismNewton Book:Facing Up Source: Facing Up
“Pretty much anything you laughed at in the second half of the 20th century can be traced back to Your Show Of Shows.” ShowsHalfCenturyLaughed20th Century Author:Rob Reiner
“The financial history of the last century shows a steady increase in the amount of public indebtedness. Nobody believes that the states will eternally drag the burden of these interest payments. It is obvious that sooner or later all these debts will be liquidated in some way or other, but certainly not by payment of interest and principal according to the terms of the contract.” WayBelieveStatesShowsLastsTermInterestCenturyAmountIncreaseFinancialObviousBurdenDebtContractsSteadyDragSooner Or LaterPrincipalPaymentIndebtedness Book:Human Action Source: Human Action
“I think one of the great bits of The Muppet show is that it was set in a 19th century British theater and they live so nicely amongst that lovely old theater.” ThinkingShowsBitsCenturyTheaterBritishLovely19th CenturyMuppetMuppet Show Author:James Bobin
“17th century philosophers were not in a position to understand the mind as well as we can today, since the advent of experimental methods in psychology. It shows no disrespect for the brilliance of Descartes or Kant to acknowledge that the psychology which they worked with was primitive by comparison with what is available today in the cognitive sciences, any more than it shows disrespect for the brilliance of Aristotle to acknowledge that the physics he worked with does not compare with that of Newton or Einstein.” MindWellsDoeShowsTodayPsychologyCenturyPositionMethodPhilosopherAvailablePhysicsCompareAcknowledgeComparisonPrimitiveBrillianceNewtonDisrespectCognitiveAdventCognitive Science17th Century Author:Hilary Kornblith