Life & People

George Herbert (1593-1633)

George Herbert (1593-1633)

George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was a Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest.

Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education that led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in languages and music. He went to college with the intention of becoming a priest, but his scholarship attracted the attention of King James I/VI. Herbert served in Parliament for two years. After the death of King James and at the urging of a friend, Herbert's interest in ordained ministry was renewed.

In 1630, in his late thirties he gave up his secular ambitions and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as a rector of the little parish of Fugglestone St Peter with Bemerton St Andrew, near Salisbury. He was noted for unfailing care for his parishioners, bringing the sacraments to them when they were ill, and providing food and clothing for those in need. Henry Vaughan said of him "a most glorious saint and seer".

Throughout his life, he wrote religious poems characterized by a precision of language, a metrical versatility, and an ingenious use of imagery or conceits that was favoured by the metaphysical school of poets. Charles Cotton described him as a "soul composed of harmonies". Herbert himself, in a letter to Nicholas Ferrar, said of his writings, "they are a picture of spiritual conflicts between God and my soul before I could subject my will to Jesus, my Master". Some of Herbert's poems have endured as hymns, including "King of Glory, King of Peace" (Praise), "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing" (Antiphon) and "Teach me, my God and King" (The Elixir). His first biographer, Izaak Walton, described Herbert on his death-bed as "composing such hymns and anthems as he and the angels now sing in heaven". A distant relative was the modern Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert.

Quotes·Quotations by George Herbert

Winter

¶ Every mile is two in winter.

Writing·Reading

¶ Woe be to him that reads but one book.

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

Genghis Khan (1162-1227)

Genghis Khan (1162-1227)

Genghis Khan (/ˈɡɛŋɡɪs ˈkɑːn/ or /ˈdʒɛŋɡɪs ˈkɑːn/,[4][5] Mongol: [tʃiŋɡɪs xaːŋ]; 1162? – August 1227), born Temujin, was the founder and Great Khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise.

He came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. After founding the Mongol Empire and being proclaimed "Genghis Khan", he started the Mongol invasions that resulted in the conquest of most of Eurasia. These included raids or invasions of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, Caucasus, Khwarezmid Empire, Western Xia and Jin dynasties. These campaigns were often accompanied by wholesale massacres of the civilian populations – especially in Khwarezmia. By the end of his life, the Mongol Empire occupied a substantial portion of Central Asia and China.

Before Genghis Khan died, he assigned Ögedei Khan as his successor and split his empire into khanates among his sons and grandsons.[6] He died in 1227 after defeating the Western Xia. He was buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Mongolia at an unknown location. His descendants went on to stretch the Mongol Empire across most of Eurasia by conquering or creating vassal states out of all of modern-day China, Korea, the Caucasus, Central Asian countries, and substantial portions of modern Eastern Europe, Russia and the Middle East. Many of these invasions repeated the earlier large-scale slaughters of local populations. As a result Genghis Khan and his empire have a fearsome reputation in local histories.[7]

Beyond his military accomplishments, Genghis Khan also advanced the Mongol Empire in other ways. He decreed the adoption of the Uyghur script as the Mongol Empire's writing system. He also promoted religious tolerance in the Mongol Empire, and created a unified empire from the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia. Present-day Mongolians regard him as the founding father of Mongolia.[8]

Quotes·Quotations by Genghis Khan

Death

¶ If my body dies, let my body die, but do not let my country die.

Politics

¶ With Heaven's aid I have conquered for you a huge empire. But my life was too short to achieve the conquest of the world. That task is left for you.

Footnotes

[1]^ Central Asiatic Journal (O. Harrassowitz) 5: 239. 1959. http://books.google.com/books?id=PjjjAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
[2]^ a b Rashid al-Din asserts that Genghis Khan was born in 1155, while the Yuanshi (元史, History of the Yuan dynasty records his year of birth as 1162. According to Ratchnevsky, accepting a birth in 1155 would render Genghis Khan a father at the age of 30 and would imply that he personally commanded the expedition against the Tanguts at the age of 72. Also, according to the Altan Tobci, Genghis Khan's sister, Temülin, was nine years younger than he; but the Secret History relates that Temülin was an infant during the attack by the Merkits, during which Genghis Khan would have been 18, had he been born in 1155. Zhao Hong reports in his travelogue that the Mongols he questioned did not know and had never known their ages.
[3]^ Ratchnevsky, Paul (1991). Genghis Khan: His Life and Legacy. Blackwell Publishing. p. 142. ISBN 0-631-16785-4. "It is possible, however, to say with certainty that Genghis Khan died in August 1227; only in specifying the actual day of his death do our sources disagree."
[4]^ "Genghis Khan". Webster's New World College Dictionary. Wiley Publishing. 2004. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
[5]^ "Genghis Khan". Oxford Dictionaries Online. Oxford University Press. 2011. Retrieved July 29, 2011.
[6]^ John Joseph Saunders The History of the Mongol Conquests
[7]^ a b Ian Jeffries (2007). Mongolia: a guide to economic and political developments. Taylor & Francis. pp. 5–7. ISBN 0-415-42545-X
[8]^ "Genghis Khan". North Georgia College and State University. Retrieved January 26, 2010.

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

Lee Iacocca (1924- )

Lee Iacocca (1924- )

Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca ( /ˌaɪ.əˈkoʊkə/ eye-ə-koh-kə; born October 15, 1924) is an American businessman known for engineering the Mustang, the unsuccessful Ford Pinto, being fired from Ford Motor Company, and his revival of the Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s. He served as President and CEO of Chrysler from 1978 and additionally as chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992.

One of the most famous business people in the world, Iacocca was a passionate advocate of U.S. business exports during the 1980s. He is the author (or co-author) of several books, including Iacocca: An Autobiography (with William Novak), and Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

Portfolio named Iacocca the 18th-greatest American CEO of all time.

Quotes·Quotations by Lee Iacocca

Business

¶ In the end, all business operations can be reduced to three words: people, products, and profits. People come first. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two.

Success

¶ Success comes not from what you know, but from who you know and how you present yourself to each of those people.

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

Matt Cartmill (1943- )

Matt Cartmill (1 Apr 1943 - )

An American evolutionary anthropologist

Science

¶ As an adolescent I aspired to lasting fame, I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life - so I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet girls.

Eric Idle (1943- )

Eric Idle (1943- )

Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is a British comedian, writer, and actor.

Alien life

@ And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space...
...'cos there's bugger-all down here on Earth
Eric Idle, "Galaxy Song", Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

***

@ I got used to dealing with groups of boys and getting on with life in unpleasant circumstances and being smart and funny and subversive at the expense of authority.
On his childhood years in a boarding school. 'The Pythons' Autobiography of the Pythons' (2003) by Bob McCabe.

@ Basically, the Germans came to us and said, "We don't have a sense of humour."
Answering the question "Why did you do two episodes in German?" on an HBO March 1998 Python reunion special.

@ Typical Hollywood crowd - all the kids are on drugs, and all the adults are on roller skates.
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl

@ American Beer is a lot like making love on a canoe - it's fucking close to water.
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl

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

Emily Blunt (1983- )

Emily Blunt (1983- )

Emily Olivia Leah Blunt (born 23 February 1983) is an English actress. She has appeared in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Young Victoria (2009), The Adjustment Bureau (2011), and Looper (2012). She has been nominated for four Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award. She won a Golden Globe Award for her work in the BBC television drama Gideon's Daughter (2007). In 2009, she received the BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year.

Quotes·Quotations by Emily Blunt

***

¶

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

Gautama Buddha

Gautama Buddha

Gautama Buddha or Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम बुद्ध; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. The word Buddha is a title for the first awakened being in an era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (P. sammāsambuddha, S. samyaksaṃbuddha) of our age, "Buddha" meaning "awakened one" or "the enlightened one." Gautama Buddha may also be referred to as Śākyamuni (Sanskrit: शाक्यमुनि "Sage of the Śākyas"). The Buddha found a Middle Way that ameliorated the extreme asceticism found in the Sramana religions.

The time of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain: most early-20th-century historians dated his lifetime as c. 563 BCE to 483 BCE, but more recent opinion dates his death to between 486 and 483 BCE or, according to some, between 411 and 400 BCE. UNESCO lists Lumbini, Nepal, as a world heritage site and birthplace of Gautama Buddha. There are also claims about birthplace of Gautama Buddha to be Kapileswara, Orissa or Kapilavastu at Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kośala.

Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition, and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

Quotes·Quotation by Gautama Buddha

Awakening

¶ There is only one time when it is essential to awaken. That time is now.

***

@ But truly, Ananda, it is nothing strange that human beings should die.
Digha Nikaya (DN) 16

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Buddha

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (French: [øʒɛn ɑ̃ʁi pol ɡoɡɛ̃]; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist who was not well appreciated until after his death. Gauguin was later recognized for his experimental use of colors and synthetist style that were distinguishably different from Impressionism. His work was influential to the French avant-garde and many modern artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Gauguin’s art became popular after his death and many of his paintings were in the possession of Russian collector Sergei Shchukin. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer. His bold experimentation with coloring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art, while his expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential proponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

Quotes·Quotations by Paul Gauguin

Art

¶ Art is either plagiarism or revolution.

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

Gaston Bachelard

Gaston Bachelard

@ A man is a man to the extent that he is a superman. A man should be defined by the sum of those tendencies which impel him to surpass the human condition. [L'eau et les rêves (Water and Dreams) 1942]

@ Man is a creation of desire, not a creation of need. [The Psychoanalysis of Fire, ch. 2, "Fire and Reverie" (1938)]

@ To disappear into deep water or to disappear toward a far horizon, to become part of depth of infinity, such is the destiny of man that finds its image in the destiny of water. [L'eau et les rêves (Water and Dreams) 1942]

Gary Cooper (1901-1961)

Gary Cooper (1901-1961)

Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, (May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961) was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made. He also excelled in sophisticated, screwball romantic comedies. His career spanned from 1925 until shortly before his death in 1961, and comprised more than one hundred films.

Cooper received five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, winning twice for Sergeant York and High Noon. He also received an Honorary Award in 1961 from the Academy.

Decades later, the American Film Institute named Cooper among the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars, ranking 11th among males from the Classical Hollywood cinema period. In 2003, his performances as Will Kane in High Noon, Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees, and Alvin York in Sergeant York made the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list, all of them as heroes.

Quotes·Quotation by Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig from The Pride of the Yankees (1942)

¶ [his farewell speech] Today, I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

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

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