Enduring Wisdom: Rudyard Kipling

Portrait of Rudyard Kipling
by John Collier, 1891

I have posted on Rudyard Kipling before. He's right up there with Ben Franklin on the quotability scale.  

On Self
“For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” 

“Take everything you like seriously, except yourselves.” 

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."

“Everyone is more or less mad on one point.”

“We have forty million reasons for failure, but not a single excuse.”

On Others
“I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.”

“All the people like us are we, and everyone else is They.”

“It's clever, but is it Art?”

On Words
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”

“He wrapped himself in quotations - as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.” 

“We're all islands shouting lies to each other across seas of misunderstanding.” 

“Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” 

“Gardens are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful,' and sitting in the shade.”

On Women
“A woman's guess is much more accurate than a man's certainty.” 

“The silliest woman can manage a clever man; but it needs a very clever woman to manage a fool.”

“An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.”

On Travel
“I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago. The other places don’t count. Having seen it, I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages” 

“San Francisco is a mad city - inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people whose women are of a remarkable beauty.”

“Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old.”

“The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.”

“Down to Gehenna or up to the throne, he travels the fastest who travels alone.”

More Enduring Wisdom: Tertullian

In my readings about Tertullian I was amazed by his wisdom (here for an old post and background; here and here for more quotes).  He was one of the great apologists for Christianity in the Roman world and left an extensive body of Latin writings about Christianity. This is impressive given that in Tertullian’s day it was at best unfashionable, and at worst downright dangerous to be Christian. His sense of faith was apparently much greater than his sense of fear.  He’s known for his quippy one-liners that seemed to flow from his pen in great abundance. It’s amazing that it all still seems so relevant.

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 Christians are made, not born. - Apologeticum 18

We multiply whenever we are mowed down by you; the blood of Christians is seed. - Apologeticum 50

Man is one name belonging to every nation upon earth. In them all is one soul though many tongues.  - De Testimonio Animae 6:3

Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading. - Adversus Valentinianos 1:4

Truth does not blush - Adversus Valentianos 3:2

It is certain because it is impossible. De Came Christi 5:4

He who flees will fight again - De Fuga in Persecutione, 10

It is certainly no part of religion to compel religion. - Ad Scapulam 2:2

He who lives only to benefit himself confers on the world a benefit when he dies. - ?

We are equally forbidden to wish ill, to do ill, to speak ill, to think ill of all men. The thing we must not do to an emperor, we must not do to any one else. - Apologeticum 36:4

Reason without goodness is not reason, and goodness without reason is not goodness. Adversus Marcionem II 6:2

Nothing that is unjust can be good, and everything that is just is bound to be good. Adversus Marcionem 11:4

There is no public entertainment which does not inflict spiritual damage.  De Spectaculis 15:3

Nothing that is evil is necessary. Adversus Marcionem IV 29:4

There is power also in brevity. Adversus Marcionem V 15:1

Daily, every moment, prayer is necessary to men. De exhortatione castitiatus 10:2

But Christians and now more than ever, pass their times not in gold but in iron. De Cultu Feminarum II 13:6

Applehood and Mother Pie

What's Not To Love?

I attended a Strategic Planning meeting for our the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists a couple of months ago and spent a weekend with a group of very bright and opinionated endocrinologists. During this time  we tried to read the tea leaves and divine where the current health reform efforts would leave patients and their endocrinologists. A big goals was to try to keep patients healthy and still be able to earn a living. In all honesty it was very frightening and kind of discouraging. At one point in a very long day, one of the senior members of the Board of Directors took a moment to give an impassioned plea and encourage us to action. His words  perfectly captured the sentiments of the group. Sensing this, he said 'I'm talking about applehood and mother pie people.'

Astoundingly, nobody paused for a second at hearing this fantastic spoonerism.  The group, roused by his stirring speech, kept on task and we completed our work. But the concept of applehood and mother pie has got me thinking (here and here for related posts). My colleague had everyone's agreement. Both motherhood and apple pie were beyond awesome. But that's not what he said.  The energy of the moment and his fluency of speech made it easy to hear what he intended, and to miss what he actually said.

So it is in life.  Nuances, shrouded in lofty terms and ideals can change the substance of a message. So often they go unnoticed and unchallenged. We unwittingly agree--or remain silent--despite the absurdity. If it is bloviate (yet inspiring none-the-less) speech at a Board meeting it's harmless enough. Not so if it is part of Satan's carefully orchestrated counterfeiting system which "[has] a form of godliness, but [denies] the power thereof (JS-H 1:19)." Consider the advice of James E. Talmage:

Satan has shown himself to be an accomplished strategist and a skilful imitator; the most deplorable of his victories are due to his simulation of good, whereby the undiscerning have been led captive. Let no one be deluded with the thought that any act, the immediate result of which appears to be benign, is necessarily productive of permanent good. It may serve the dark purposes of Satan to play upon the human sense of goodness, even to the extent of healing the body and apparently of thwarting death. (James E. Talmage, Articles of Faith, pg. 232)

To attempt to compile a list of spiritual spoonerisms belabors the point and probably also cheapens it. Suffice it to say that if we're not very careful, Satan will have us rallying behind him with pitchforks and torches as we rush in to defend applehood and mother pie. 

Benjamin Franklin's Enduring Wisdom

Ben Franklin as conceived by Mr Brainwash
2012 New Oxford Street Exhibition, London
(I think Ben would find great humor in this)
Photo Credit: Big Reid's iPhone

This year's endocrinology meeting (AACE) took me to Philadelphia. Great meeting. Great city.  We had the chance to visit many of the 'typical' tourist sites while there and enjoyed them all (there is no shame in admitting you are a tourist when you truly are a tourist).

One of the larger than life Philadelphians was Benjamin Franklin, and we saw plenty of his legacy. During a break between sessions, I took a moment and scrolled through my phone's quote generator app.  I couldn't believe the number of a profound sayings credited to BF.  Here's just a few:
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"Well done is better than well said."

"I saw a few die of hunger; of eating a hundred thousand."

"God heals and the doctor takes the fee."

"The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance."

"A good example is the best sermon."

"Experience is the best teacher, but a fool will learn from no other."

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing."

"Genius without education is like silver in the mine."

"God helps those who help themselves."

"The things that hurt, instruct."

"A virtuous heretic shall be saved before a wicked Christian."

"Clean your finger before you point at my spots."

"Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."

"If you would be loved, love and be lovable."

"To err is human, to repent divine, to persist devilish."

Franklin Bust by James Pennison
Arch and 4th Street Fire Station
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Franklin Institue Rotunda
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Photo Credit: Big Reid's iPhone