January 25, 2017

“I think, therefore I am” — and some variations I think are funny (therefore they are)…

Rene Descartes cogito ergo sum quote 3a
FAMOUS PHILOSOPHER’S QUOTE:

Cogito ergo sum.” (“I think, therefore I am.”)
       René Descartes (1596-1650)
       French mathematician and philosopher  
       Famous axiom in his book
Principia Philosophiae (Principles of Philosophy, 1644)
       Descartes first recorded the axiom in French, as “Je pense, donc je suis,” in his philosophical and mathematical treatise, Le Discours de la Méthode (A Discourse on Method, 1637). However, the Latin version from Principia Philosophiae —
“Cogito ergo sum”is better known.
       The French and Latin versions of the quote have traditionally been translated in English as “I think, therefore I am.”
       Alternate translations include “I am thinking, therefore I am” and “I am thinking, therefore I exist.”

Warp-Nation-Weary-of-Trump-Tweets-1000
THE PRESIDENT TRUMP TWEET THEORY VARIATION:

“He tweets, therefore he is. Twitter gives him a platform to say whatever he wants completely unfiltered. The media can’t and won’t do that for him.”
      
John Feehery
       Republican political consultant
       Quoted
in an article media writer James Warren posted on the Vanity Fair website on December 6, 2016
       (Cartoon by
Kim Warp.)

We Eat Therefore We Hunt poster-8x6
A FAMOUS HUNTER’S VARIATION:

“We eat, therefore we hunt.”
       Sarah Palin
       Conservative American politician, celebrity and avid hunter 
       This comes from the
rambling speech Palin gave on July 26, 2009, announcing her resignation as Governor of Alaska. The full quote is: “Stand strong, and remind them patriots will protect our guaranteed, individual right to bear arms, and by the way, Hollywood needs to know, we eat, therefore we hunt.”

I Suck Therefore I am-8x6
AN AVANT-GARDE PAINTER’S VARIATION:

“I Suck Therefore I Am” 
       Agus Suwage  
       Indonesian artist
       This is the title of the 2004 painting by Suwage shown at left. At the time, it was estimated to be worth up to 207,000 Malaysian Ringgits (over $61,975 in U.S. currency). Other works by Suwage have
sold for even more, so I guess some people don’t think he sucks.

I Shop Therefore I am-8x6
THE SHOPAHOLIC VARIATION:

“I Shop Therefore I Am”
      
Barbara Kruger
       American multimedia artist  
       These words on the artwork by Kruger shown at left are seemingly a send-up of consumerism. But ironically, the image was
later used on tote bags and t-shirts sold by Bloomingdale’s. 

 

I Teach Therefore I Drink-8x6
THE ALCOHOLIC TEACHER VARIATION:

“I Teach Therefore I Drink”  
       A slogan on t-shirts
sold on Amazon and other sites. They seem to be quite popular. I’m not sure what that says about the teaching profession. 

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Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on my Famous Quotations Facebook group.

Some books with a title or subtitle based on Descartes’ quote (there are even more)…

January 24, 2017

What’s the beginning of wisdom?

God-8x6 
BIBLICAL BEGINNINGS:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”  
      
Psalms 111:10    
       The full verse in Psalms 111:10 says: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.”
       There’s a similar verse in The Book of Proverbs (
Proverbs 1:7): “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”
      
Job 28:28 offers this variation: “And unto man he [God] said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.”

Clarence Darrow-8x6
CLARENCE DARROW’S COUNTERQUOTE:

“The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom. The modern world is the child of doubt and inquiry, as the ancient world was the child of fear and faith.”
      
Clarence Darrow (1857-1938)
       American lawyer, agnostic and free speech advocate
       In his essay
“Why I am an agnostic” (1896) 

Bertrand Russell 2-8x6
BERTRAND RUSSELL’S COUNTERQUOTE:

“Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty.  To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom, in the pursuit of truth as in the endeavour after a worthy manner of life.” 
      
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
       British philosopher, mathematician, atheist and social critic 
       From his essay
“An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”, included in the book Unpopular Essays (1950)

Thomas Aquinas-8x6
A DEEP THOUGHT FROM THOMAS AQUINAS:

“The beginning of a thing is a part of it. But fear is not a part of wisdom, since fear is in the appetitive power, whereas wisdom is in the intellectual power. Hence it seems that fear is not the beginning of wisdom.”
      
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
       Italian Catholic priest, philosopher and saint 
       In his
Summa Theologica (“Summary of Theology”), written 1265-1274 A.D.

Multicultural Dictionary of Proverbs-8x6
AN OLD GERMAN VARATION:

“To question a wise man is the beginning of wisdom.” 
      
German proverb
       Quoted in
The Multicultural Dictionary of Proverbs (2005) 

George William Foote-8x6
THE MOST OBVIOUS OBSERVATION:

“If the fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom, it is at least the beginning of religion.”
      
George William Foote (1850-1915)
       British writer and social critic
      
“Letters to the Clergy,” published in The Freethinker, Volume 10 (1890)

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Related reading…

January 17, 2017

“Nothing is certain except death and taxes.” (Or, as Franklin actually said: “Il n’y a rien d’assure que la mort et les impôts.”


THE FAMOUS WORDS FRANKLIN DIDN’T SAY (IN ENGLISH):

“Nothing is certain except death and taxes.”
      
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) 
       American “founding father,” publisher, diplomat and scientist 
       This is the usual English translation of a comment Franklin made
in a letter he wrote to French scientist Jean-Baptiste Leroy, dated November 13, 1789.
       Franklin wrote his letter to Leroy in French. His “death and taxes” remark was related to the Constitution of the United States of America, which had been adopted two years earlier. What he actually wrote was:
       “Notre constitution nouvelle est actuellement établie, tout paraît nous promettre qu’elle sera durable; mais, dans ce monde, il n’y a rien d’assure que la mort et les impôts.”
       The common English translation of this sentence is: “Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.”  (Sometimes the last part is translated as “
Nothing is certain but death and taxes.”)
       As noted by the invaluable
Phrase Finder site and other reference sources, similar quotations about death and taxes pre-date Franklin’s letter. But the English translation of Franklin’s version is certainly the most famous. (For more background see this post on my ThisDayinQuotes.com blog.)

Donald Trump cartoon from usnewscom

THE DONALD TRUMP UPDATE:

“With Donald Trump as President almost nothing is certain except uncertainty itself.”
       David C. Kibbe
       President and CEO of the non-profit healthcare information technology organization DirectTrust 
       A remark quoted in a January 9, 2017 press release discussing health industry IT trends that seems applicable to more than health industry IT trends.
       (Cartoon by Dan Wasserman.)


THE UNCERTAIN WILL ROGERS QUOTE:  

“The difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”
       Attrib. to
Will Rogers (1879-1935)
       American humorist
       A quip
widely attributed to Rogers, but without any specific source
       There’s no contemporary record of Rogers uttering or writing this old joke. However,
quote maven Barry Popik has noted that a similar line was used by another humorist Rogers had a connection with, the witty newspaper columnist Robert Quillen (1887-1948).
       In several of the humorous columns Quillen wrote in the early 1930s, he said the “difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time the legislature meets.” In a 1934 column, Quillen added Congress, saying: “The main difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get any worse every time congress or the state legislature meets.” That same year, movie producer George Marshall and screenwriter Lamar Trotti visited Quillen and purportedly used him as the model for the newspaper editor Will Rogers played in the film Life Begins at Forty. The film’s credits credit Quillen for “contributing dialogue.” My guess is that, if Rogers ever did use the line about Congress, he may have borrowed it from Quillen.


SCARLET O’HARA’S BABY BIRTHIN’ VERSION:

“Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them!”
      
Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949)
       American novelist, journalist and philanthropist  
       This is what the character
Scarlett O’Hara says about the “untimeliness” of her pregnancy, in Chapter 38 of Mitchell’s 1936 novel Gone with the Wind
       The line was not used in the classic 1939 movie adaptation, in which actress Vivien Leigh played Scarlet. But if it had been, I imagine her adding one of her favorite sayings: “Fiddle-dee-dee!”


SOMETHING YOU DON’T WANT YOUR DOCTOR TO SAY:

“In life only one thing is certain, besides death and taxes...No matter how hard we try, No matter how good our intentions, we are going to make mistakes.”
      
Dr. Meredith Grey (played by Ellen Pompeo)
       In the
“Heart of the Matter” episode of the TV show Grey’s Anatomy (Season 4, Episode 4, first aired Oct. 18, 2007)


A GOLF ADDICT’S COUNTERQUOTE:

“Ben Franklin was wrong. There is more certainty in life than just death and taxes. There is also the very reliable need for ‘just one more’ piece of golf equipment.”
      
Dorothy Langley
       American author and golfer
      
In her book A View from the Red Tees: The Truth About Women and Golf (1997)


THE 20TH CENTURY OUTLOOK:

“To the typical American on the eve of the twentieth century it appeared a unique country, a land of promise where one person's gain was another person’s opportunity, and the inevitable was not just death and taxes but improvement and growth.”
      
Richard M. Abrams
       Historian and Professor Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley
       An observation
in his book The Burdens of Progress, 1900-1929 (1978)


THE 21ST CENTURY OUTLOOK:

“Besides death and  taxes, this too is certain: The American economy will never return to its  maximum prosperity until it completes a very broad-based tax reform.” 
       Economists
Glenn Hubbard and Peter Navarro
      
In their book Seeds of Destruction: Why the Path to Economic Ruin Runs Through Washington, and How to Reclaim American Prosperity (2010)

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Comments? Corrections? Post them on the Famous Quotations Facebook page.

Related reading…

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