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| What We Must Do
We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world
-- its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the
world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence
and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from
it. The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient
Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men. When
you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are
miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not
worthy of self-respecting human beings. We ought to stand up and look the
world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world,
and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better
than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world
needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful
hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the
words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and
a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all
the time toward a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed
by the future that our intelligence can create.
from Why I Am Not A Christian by Bertrand Russell
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| Yankees -vs- Red SoxA teacher asks her students if they're Yankees fans. All of the hands
go up except for one student.
"Okay, Bobby. What team are you a fan of?"
"The Red Sox."
"Why's that?"
"Well, my parents are both Red Sox fans, so I'm a Red Sox fan too."
"That's not a good answer, Bobby. If your parents were both morons, would you be a moron too?"
"No, that would make me a Yankees fan!"
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| One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
~Bertrand Russell
The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of
the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I
have always cultivated.
~Oscar Wilde
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I love Oscar Wilde.
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| There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
Denis Diderot
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| Making the Right ChoiceYoung King Arthur was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a
neighboring kingdom. The monarch could have killed him but was moved by
Arthur's youthful happiness. So he offered him freedom so long as he
could answer a very difficult question. Arthur would have a year to
figure out the answer. If, after a year, he still had no answer, he
would be killed. The question was, "What do women really want?"
Such a question would perplex even the most knowledgeable man, and, to
young Arthur, it seemed an impossible query. Since it was better than
death, he accepted the monarch's proposition to have an answer by
year's end. Arthur returned to his kingdom and began to poll everybody:
the princess, the prostitutes, the priests, the wise men, the court
jester. He spoke with everyone, but no one could give him a
satisfactory answer. What most people told him was to consult the old
witch, as only she would know the answer. The price would be high,
since the witch was famous throughout the kingdom for the exorbitant
prices she charged.
The last day of the year arrived, and Arthur had no alternative but to
talk to the witch. She agreed to answer his question, but he'd have to
accept her price first: The old witch wanted to marry Gawain, the most
noble of the Knights of the Round Table and Arthur's closest friend!
Young Arthur was horrified. The witch was hunchbacked and awfully
hideous, she had only one tooth, she smelled like sewage water, and she
often made obscene noises. He had never run across such a repugnant
creature. He refused to force his friend to marry her and have to
endure such a burden.
Gawain, upon learning of the proposal, spoke with Arthur. He told him
that nothing was too big of a sacrifice compared to Arthur's life and
the preservation of the Round Table. Hence, their wedding was
proclaimed, and the witch answered Arthur's question: "What a woman
really wants is to be able to be in charge of her own life."
Everyone instantly knew that the witch had uttered a great truth and
that Arthur's life would be spared. And so it went. The neighboring
monarch spared Arthur's life and granted him total freedom. What a
wedding Gawain and the witch had! Arthur was torn between relief and
anguish. Gawain was proper as always, gentle and courteous. The old
witch put her worst manners on display. She ate with her hands, belched
and farted, and made everyone uncomfortable.
The wedding night approached. Gawain, steeling himself for a horrific
night, entered the bedroom. What a sight awaited! The most beautiful
woman he'd ever seen lay before him! Gawain was astounded and asked
what had happened. The beauty replied that since he had been so kind to
her (when she had been a witch), half the time she would be her
horrible, deformed self, and the other half, she would be her beautiful
maiden self. Which, she asked, would he want her to be during the day
and which during the night?
What a cruel question. Gawain began to think of his predicament: During
the day, he could have a beautiful woman to show off to his friends,
but at night, in the privacy of his home, he would be with an old
spooky witch. Or would he prefer having by day a hideous witch but by
night a beautiful woman to enjoy many intimate moments? What would you
do? What Gawain chose follows below, but don't read until you've made
your own choice.
Noble Gawain replied that he would let the witch choose for herself.
Upon hearing this, she announced that she would be beautiful all the
time because he had respected her and had let her be in charge of her
own life.
What is he moral of this story? The moral is that it doesn't matter if
your woman is pretty or ugly; underneath it all, she's still a witch. | | |
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