ZUO Zongtang (左宗棠, 1812-1885)

Zuo Zongtang

Zuo Zongtang (左宗棠) (November 10, 1812 – September 5, 1885), sometimes referred to as General Tso, was a statesman and military leader of the late Qing dynasty (大清).[1]

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Quotes·Quotations by Zuo Zongtang

@ We shall first confront them [the Russians] with arguments...and then settle it on the battlefields. [John King Fairbank, Kwang-ching Liu, Denis Crispin Twitchett (1980). Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911. Cambridge University Press. p. 93. ISBN 0521220297. Retrieved on 2010-6-28.][2]

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Images

Photograph of Zuo Zongtang, late 19th century

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuo_Zongtang

[2] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Zuo_Zongtang

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (English pronunciation: /ˈsɔrən ˈkɪərkəɡɑrd/ or /ˈkɪərkəɡɔr/; Danish: [ˈsɶːɐn ˈkiɐ̯ɡəɡɒːˀ]) (5 May 1813 –11 November 1855) was a Danish philosopher, theologian and religious author. He was a critic of idealist intellectuals and philosophers of his time, such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel. He was also critical of the state and practice of Christianity, primarily that of the Church of Denmark. He is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher.

Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", giving priority to concrete human reality over abstract thinking, and highlighting the importance of personal choice and commitment.

His theological work focuses on Christian ethics, institution of the Church, and on the differences between purely objective proofs of Christianity. He wrote of the individual's subjective relationship to Jesus Christ, the God-Man, which came through faith.

His psychological work explored the emotions and feelings of individuals when faced with life choices. His thinking was influenced by Socrates and the Socratic method.

Kierkegaard's early work was written under various pseudonyms whom he used to present distinctive viewpoints and interact with each other in complex dialogue. He assigned pseudonyms to explore particular viewpoints in-depth, which required several books in some instances, while Kierkegaard, openly or under another pseudonym, critiqued that position. He wrote many Upbuilding Discourses under his own name and dedicated them to the "single individual" who might want to discover the meaning of his works. Notably, he wrote:

"Science and scholarship want to teach that becoming objective is the way. Christianity teaches that the way is to become subjective, to become a subject."

The scientist can learn about the world by observation but Kierkegaard emphatically denied that observation could reveal the inner workings of the spiritual world. In 1847 Kierkegaard described his own view of the single individual:

God is not like a human being; it is not important for God to have visible evidence so that he can see if his cause has been victorious or not; he sees in secret just as well. Moreover, it is so far from being the case that you should help God to learn anew that it is rather he who will help you to learn anew, so that you are weaned from the worldly point of view that insists on visible evidence. (...) A decision in the external sphere is what Christianity does not want; (...) rather it wants to test the individual’s faith."

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Quotes·Quotations by Soren Kierkegaard

Advice

¶ Far from idleness being the root of all evil, it is rather the only true good.

Love

¶ Don't forget to love yourself.

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

Queen Victoria (1819-1901)

Queen Victoria (1819-1901)

Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and the King died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the Sovereign held relatively few direct political powers. Privately, she attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments. Publicly, she became a national icon, and was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

She married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children and 26 of their 34 grandchildren who survived childhood married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.

Her reign of 63 years and 7 months, which is longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history, is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, cultural, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. She was the last British monarch of the House of Hanover; her son and successor Edward VII belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

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Quotes·Quotation

Victory·Defeat

¶ We are not interested in the possibilites of defeat.

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

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Henry David Thoreau (born David Henry Thoreau; July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) (pronounced like the word thorough, with emphasis on the first syllable) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.[1]

Thoreau's books, articles, essays, journals, and poetry total over 20 volumes. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history, two sources of modern day environmentalism. His literary style interweaves close natural observation, personal experience, pointed rhetoric, symbolic meanings, and historical lore, while displaying a poetic sensibility, philosophical austerity, and "Yankee" love of practical detail. He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life's true essential needs.

He was a lifelong abolitionist, delivering lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending abolitionist John Brown. Thoreau's philosophy of civil disobedience influenced the political thoughts and actions of such later figures as Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Thoreau is sometimes cited as an individualist anarchist. Though Civil Disobedience seems to call for improving rather than abolishing government – "I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government" – the direction of this improvement points toward anarchism: "'That government is best which governs not at all;' and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have." Richard Drinnon partly blames Thoreau for the ambiguity, noting that Thoreau's "sly satire, his liking for wide margins for his writing, and his fondness for paradox provided ammunition for widely divergent interpretations of 'Civil Disobedience.'" He further points out that although Thoreau writes that he only wants "at once" a better government, that does not rule out the possibility that a little later he might favor no government.

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Quotes·Quotation

Fashions

¶ Every generation laughs at the old fashions but religiously follows the new. [Fashions]

Truth

¶ Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau

Christopher Pearce Cranch (1813-1892)

Christopher
Pearse
Cranch

Christopher Pearce Cranch (1813-1892)

Christopher Pearse Cranch (March 8, 1813 – January 20, 1892) was an American writer and artist.

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Quotes·Quotations by Christopher Pearce Cranch

Spring

¶ If there comes a little thaw, Still the air is chill and raw, Here and there a patch of snow, Dirtier than the ground below, Dribbles down a marshy flood; Ankle-deep you stick in mud In meadows while you sing, "This is Spring."

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

Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a minister of the Church of England, a university professor, historian and novelist. He is particularly associated with the West Country and northeast Hampshire.

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Quotes·Quotations by Charles Kingsley

Season

¶ Every winter, When the great sun has turned his face away, The earth goes down into a vale of grief, And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables, Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay-- Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses.

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