Life & People

Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881)

Henri Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881)

Henri Frédéric Amiel (27 September 1821 – 11 May 1881) was a Swiss philosopher, poet and critic.

Born in Geneva in 1821, he was descended from a Huguenot family driven to Switzerland by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

After losing his parents at an early age, Amiel travelled widely, became intimate with the intellectual leaders of Europe, and made a special study of German philosophy in Berlin. In 1849 he was appointed professor of aesthetics at the academy of Geneva, and in 1854 became professor of moral philosophy. These appointments, conferred by the democratic party, deprived him of the support of the aristocratic party, which comprised nearly all the culture of the city.

This isolation inspired the one book by which Amiel is still known, the Journal Intime ("Private Journal"), which, published after his death, obtained a European reputation. It was translated into English by Mary A. Ward at the instigation of Mark Pattison.

Although second-rate as regards productive power, Amiel's mind was of no inferior quality, and his Journal gained a sympathy that the author had failed to obtain in his life. In addition to the Journal, he produced several volumes of poetry and wrote studies on Erasmus, Madame de Stael and other writers. He died in Geneva.

Quotes·Quotation

Hope

Hope is only the love of life.

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

Henry Adams (1838-1918)

Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918)

Henry Brooks Adams (February 16, 1838 – March 27, 1918; normally called Henry Adams) was an American journalist, historian, academic and novelist. He is best known for his autobiographical book, The Education of Henry Adams. He was a member of the Adams political family.

Quotes

Eternity

@ A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell, where his influence stops.
Ch. 20.

Friendship·Friend

¶ A friend in power is a friend lost. [The Education of Henry Adams (1907) Ch. 7.]

¶ Friends are born, not made. [The Education of Henry Adams (1907) Ch. 7.]

@ All experience is an arch, to build upon. [The Education of Henry Adams (1907) Ch. 6.]

@ Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education.

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

Helen Hayes (1900-1993)

Helen Hayes

Helen Hayes (10 October 1900 – 17 March 1993) American actress; one of the few people who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award; born Helen Hayes Brown

Quotes·Quotations by Helen Hayes

Love

¶ The truth [is] that there is only one terminal dignity — love. And the story of love is not important — what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity.
Guideposts (January 1960)

***

@ Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy, and it isn't original sin. He's born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. That he has to leave the nest, the security, and go out to do battle. He has to lose everything that is lovely and fight for a new loveliness of his own making, and it's a tragedy. A lot of people don't have the courage to do it.
Showcase (1966) by Roy Newquist

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

Helen Slater (1963- )

Helen Slater (1963- )

Helen Rachel Slater (born December 15, 1963) is an American actress and singer-songwriter.

She appeared in the title role in the 1984 film Supergirl. In the following years she starred in several successful comedy-drama films such as Ruthless People, The Secret of My Success, and City Slickers. Since then she has found work as an actress in film, television, and stage projects, including guest appearances on the series Smallville. As of 2012, she currently co-stars as Kristin Mercer on ABC Family series The Lying Game.

In the 2000s, she recorded three albums, singing her own compositions and playing the piano.

Quotes·Quotations by Helen Slater

Helen Slater as Supergirl (Kara Zor-El) from Supergirl (1984)

¶ I am Kara of Argo City, daughter of Alura and Zor-El, and I don't scare easily.

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

Helen Keller (1880–1968)

Helen Adams Keller (1880–1968)

Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of how Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the isolation imposed by a near complete lack of language, allowing the girl to blossom as she learned to communicate, has become widely known through the dramatic depictions of the play and film The Miracle Worker.

A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled, and was outspoken in her opposition to war. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Wobblies, she campaigned for women's suffrage, workers' rights, and socialism, as well as many other leftist causes.

Quotes·Quotation by Helen Keller

Inspiration

¶ Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.

¶ The mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "water" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, joy, set it free!

Life

¶ So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart, I shall say that life is good.

Optimist

¶ No pessimest ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an unchartered land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.

...

@ One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar. [Address to the American Association to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf at Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (8 July 1896), quoted in supplement to The Story of My Life]

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

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)

Helen Hunt Jackson

Helen Maria Hunt Jackson, born Helen Fiske (October 15, 1830 – August 12, 1885), was a United States poet and writer who became an activist on behalf of improved treatment of Native Americans by the U.S. government. She detailed the adverse effects of government actions in her history A Century of Dishonor (1881). Her novel Ramona dramatized the federal government's mistreatment of Native Americans in Southern California and attracted considerable attention to her cause,[1][2] although its popularity was based on its romantic and picturesque qualities rather than its political content. It was estimated to have been reprinted 300 times, and contributed to the growth of tourism in Southern California.

Quotes·Quotations by Helen Hunt Jackson

May

¶ O month when they who love must love and wed.

References

[1]^ H.H.Jackson (1884) Ramona (NY: Harper)
[2]^ DeLyser, Dydia (2005), Ramona Memories: Tourism and the Shaping of Southern California, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press)

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

Cynthia Heimel

Cynthia Heimel

Cynthia Heimel is a playwright, television writer, and the author of several satirical books which are aimed primarily at a female readership. To those who have heard of her but have not read her books, her works are probably best known for their unusual titles.
Heimel's first book Sex Tips for Girls, was a semi-satirical take on Cosmopolitan (and other "women's" magazines) and their "how to please your man" approach to feminism. Though she gives actual sex tips, Heimel's main focus was sexual self-confidence for women and the idea that women actually enjoy sex.

Heimel has stated (in Advanced Sex Tips) that she was not accepted by the feminist movement; that being too sexy to be an academic feminist and too angry for "women's" magazines, she sometimes had difficulty finding outlets that would publish her work; and that for this reason, she accepted an offer to work for Playboy and was the writer of its "Women" column for decades. Her column was ended around 2000 when the editors of Playboy expressed concern that Heimel's feminist attitudes would put off male readers.

Quotes·Quotations by Cynthia Heimel

Advice

¶ When in doubt, make a fool of yourself. There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.
["Lower Manhattan Survival Tactics" in Village Voice]

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (German pronunciation: [ˈɡeɔɐ̯k ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈheːɡəl]) (August 27, 1770 – November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher, one of the creators of German Idealism. His historicist and idealist account of reality as a whole revolutionized European philosophy and was an important precursor to Continental philosophy and Marxism.

Hegel developed a comprehensive philosophical framework, or "system", of Absolute idealism to account in an integrated and developmental way for the relation of mind and nature, the subject and object of knowledge, and psychology, the state, history, art, religion and philosophy. In particular, he developed the concept that mind or spirit manifested itself in a set of contradictions and oppositions that it ultimately integrated and united, without eliminating either pole or reducing one to the other. Examples of such contradictions include those between nature and freedom, and between immanence and transcendence.

Hegel influenced writers of widely varying positions, including both his admirers (Strauss, Bauer, Feuerbach, T. H. Green, Marx, Vygotsky, F. H. Bradley, Dewey, Sartre, Croce, Küng, Kojève, Fukuyama, Žižek, Brandom, Iqbal) and his detractors (Schopenhauer, Schelling, Kierkegaard, Stirner, Nietzsche, Peirce, Popper, Russell, Heidegger). His influential conceptions are of speculative logic or "dialectic", "absolute idealism", "Spirit", negativity, sublation (Aufhebung in German), the "Master/Slave" dialectic, "ethical life" and the importance of history.

Quotes

What experience and history teach is this - that people and government never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.

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

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

Hector Berlioz (pronounced: [ɛk'tɔʁ bɛʁ'ljoːz]; 11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts (Requiem). Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a conductor, he performed several concerts with more than 1,000 musicians. He also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the further development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and many others.

Quotes

Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.

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

Heather O'Rourke (1975- )

Heather O'Rourke (1975- )

Heather O'Rourke (December 27, 1975 – February 1, 1988) was an American child actress who played Carol Anne Freeling in the Poltergeist film trilogy and made several television guest appearances. Born in San Diego, O'Rourke also died there in 1988 of cardiac arrest due to medical error.

Quotes·Quotations by Heather O'Rourke

Heather O'Rourke as Carol Anne Freeling from Poltergeist (1982)

¶ They're here!

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