September 25 is American Indian Day.
"America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization." -- Georges Clemenceau.
September 26: Poet T. S. Eliot was born Sept. 26, 1880. He wrote:
"Human kind cannot bear very much reality."
September 27: American Revolutionary War patriot Samuel Adams was born Sep. 27, 1722.
"The 100-percent American is 99 percent an idiot." -- George Bernard Shaw.
On September 28, 1841, Georges Clemenceau himself (see above) was born. He was a French statesman. Another French statesman, Charles DeGaulle, had this to say a century later, though not apropos of Clemenceau:
"Since a politician never believes what he says, he is surprised when others believe him."
Sunday, September 28, 2008
America, love it or lump it
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Today is Citizenship Day!
"The ideas of the average decently informed person are so warped, and out of perspective, and ignorant, and entirely perverse and wrong and crude...that the task of discussing anything with him seriously is simply appalling." -- Arnold Bennett.
Monday, September 8, 2008
That's actually St. Augustine's slogan
The first permanent "New World" settlement was established In St. Augustine, Florida on this day in 1565.
"Cities are the abyss of the human species." -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Friday, June 27, 2008
The war on civilization
World War I began on this day in 1914; it ended on this date also, in 1919.
"You can't say that civilization don't advance--in every war they kill you in a new way." -- Will Rogers.
Also on this day, philosopher and writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in 1778. His Confessions can be said to have given birth to the autobiography.
“(Rousseau is)surely the blackest and most atrocious villain, beyond comparison, that now exists in the world.” – David Hume.