Life & People

Estelle Reiner (1914-2008)

Estelle Reiner (1914-2008)

Estelle Reiner (June 5, 1914 – October 25, 2008), described by The New York Times as "matriarch of one of the leading families in American comedy", was an actress and singer. She was the wife of Carl Reiner and the mother of actor/comedian/activist Rob Reiner.

Quotes·Quotation by Estelle Reiner

Estelle Reiner as a Customer from When Harry Met Sally (1989)

¶ I'll have what she's having.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estelle_Reiner

Thomas Campbell

Thomas Campbell

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Campbell

Louise Bogan (1897-1970)

Louise Bogan (1897-1970)

Louise Bogan (August 11, 1897 – February 4, 1970) was an American poet. She was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945.

As poetry editor of The New Yorker magazine for nearly 40 years, Bogan played a major role in shaping mainstream poetic sensibilities of the mid-20th Century.

The Poetry Foundation notes that Bogan has been called by some critics the most accomplished woman poet of the twentieth century. It further notes that, "Some critics have placed her in a category of brilliant minor poets described as the "reactionary generation." This group eschewed the prevailing Modernist forms that would come to dominate the literary landscape of the era in favor of more traditional techniques.

Dictionary of Literary Biography contributor Brett C. Millier named Bogan "one of the finest lyric poets America has produced," and added that "the fact that she was a woman and that she defended formal, lyric poetry in an age of expansive experimentation made evaluation of her work, until quite recently, somewhat condescending."

Quotes·Quotations by Louise Bogan

Happiness

¶ I cannot believe that the inscrutable universe turns on an axis of suffering; surely the strange beauty of the world must somewhere rest on pure joy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Bogan

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)

Joseph Joubert (7 May 1754 in Montignac, Périgord – 4 May 1824 in Paris) was a French moralist and essayist, remembered today largely for his Pensées (Thoughts), which was published posthumously.

From the age of fourteen Joubert attended a religious college in Toulouse, where he later taught until 1776. In 1778 he went to Paris where he met D'Alembert and Diderot, amongst others, and later became a friend of a young writer and diplomat, Chateaubriand.

He alternated between living in Paris with his friends and life in the privacy of the countryside in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne. He was appointed inspector-general of universities under Napoleon.

Joubert published nothing during his lifetime, but he wrote a copious amount of letters and filled sheets of paper and small notebooks with thoughts about the nature of human existence, literature, and other topics, in a poignant, often aphoristic style. After his death his widow entrusted Chateaubriand with these notes, and in 1838, he published a selection entitled, Recueil des pensées de M. Joubert (Collected Thoughts of Mr. Joubert). More complete editions were to follow, as were collections of Joubert's correspondence.
Somewhat of the Epicurean school of philosophy, Joubert even valued his own frequent suffering of ill health, as he believed sickness gave subtlety to the soul.

Joubert's works have been translated into numerous languages. An English translation version was made by Paul Auster.

Quotes·Quotations by Joseph Joubert

Children

¶ Children have more need of models than of critics.

Teaching

¶ To teach is to learn twice.

Virtues

¶ If you are poor, distinguish yourself by your virtues;if rich,by your goods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Joubert

Joss Whedon

Joss Whedon

@ All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn't your pet — it's your kid. It grows up and talks back to you.

José Joaquín de Olmedo (1780-1847)

José Joaquín de Olmedo (1780-1847)

José Joaquín de Olmedo y Maruri (Guayaquil, March 20, 1780 - February 19, 1847) Patriot and poet, son of the Spanish Captain Don Miguel de Olmedo y Troyano and the Guayaquilean Ana Francisca de Maruri y Salavarría.

On October 9th, 1820, Olmedo and others declared the city of Guayaquil independent from Spain. He was President of the Free Province of Guayaquil until it was united to Gran Colombia by Simón Bolívar against Olmedo's will. He was also twice mayor of Guayaquil.

He was Vice President of Ecuador from 1830 to 1831.

He was President of Ecuador from June 6, 1845, to December 8, 1845, surviving an attempted coup on June 18th of that year.

He was also a noted poet who emphasized patriotic themes. His best known work is La victoria de Junin, which pictures the Latin American fighters for independence from Spain as the legitimate heirs of the Incas.

Olmedo devoted his life to Guayaquil, he created the Guayaquilean flag and shield, and in 1821 he composed the Song to the October Ninth, which would become the Guayaquil Anthem.

The José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport in Guayaquil is named after him.

Quotes

He who does not hope to win has already lost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Joaquín_de_Olmedo

Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)

Joseph Campbell (1904-1987)

Joseph John Campbell (March 26, 1904 – October 30, 1987) was an Irish American mythologist, writer and lecturer, best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. His work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience. His philosophy is often summarized by his phrase: "Follow your bliss."[1]

Quotes·Quotations by Joseph Campbell

Adventure

@ We have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us — the labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, and where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.
Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Chapter 1.

Challenge

¶ Opportunities to find deeper powers within ourselves come when life seems most challenging.

Notes

[1]^ Campbell's biography and Joseph Campbell: "Follow Your Bliss" from the Joseph Campbell Foundation website.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski; 3 December 1857 Berdichev, Ukraine – 3 August 1924) was an English novelist of Polish ethnicity.

Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties (and then always with a marked Polish accent). He wrote stories and novels, predominantly with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit by the demands of duty and honour. Conrad was a master prose stylist who brought a distinctly non-English tragic sensibility into English literature. While some of his works have a strain of romanticism, he is viewed as a precursor of modernist literature. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced many authors.

Films have been adapted from or inspired by Conrad's Victory, Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, An Outcast of the Islands, The Rover, The Shadow Line, The Duel, Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Almayer's Folly.

Writing in the heyday of the British Empire, Conrad drew upon his experiences in the French and later the British Merchant Navy to create short stories and novels that reflect aspects of a worldwide empire while also plumbing the depths of the human soul.

Quotes·Quotation

Evil

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

Life

We live as we dream - alone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.

After military service as commander of the Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated then Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. He was the youngest elected to the office, at the age of 43, the second-youngest President (after Theodore Roosevelt), and the first president to have been born in the 20th century. Kennedy is the only Catholic president, and is the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the building of the Berlin Wall, the Space Race, the African American Civil Rights Movement, and early stages of the Vietnam War.

Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was charged with the crime, but was shot and killed two days later by Jack Ruby before a trial could take place. The FBI, the Warren Commission, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin, with the HSCA allowing for the possibility of conspiracy based on disputed acoustic evidence. Today, Kennedy continues to rank highly in public opinion ratings of former U.S. presidents.

Quotes·Quotation by John F. Kennedy

Advice

¶ Liberty without learning is always in peril and learning without liberty is always in vain.

¶ Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

Nationality·Patriotism

¶ Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

Thought

¶ A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.

Truth

¶ The enemy of the truth is very often not the lie-deliberate, contrived, and dishonest-but the myth-persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy

John Ciardi (1916-1986)

John Ciardi (1916-1986)

John Anthony Ciardi (CHAR-dee) (June 24, 1916 - March 30, 1986) was an American poet, translator, and etymologist. While primarily known as a poet, he also translated Dante's Divine Comedy, wrote several volumes of children's poetry, pursued etymology, contributed to the Saturday Review as a columnist and long-time poetry editor, and directed the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont. In 1959, Ciardi published a book on how to read, write, and teach poetry, How Does a Poem Mean?, which has proven to be among the most-used books of its kind. At the peak of his popularity in the early 1960s, Ciardi also had a network television program on CBS, Accent. Ciardi's impact on poetry is perhaps best measured through the younger poets whom he influenced as a teacher and as editor of The Saturday Review.

Quotes·Quotation

Intelligence

¶ Intelligence recognizes what has happened. Genius recognizes what will happen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ciardi

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