Anyone who feels attacked is being addressed

Nationalism is an infantile disease.
It is the measles of mankind.

Albert Einstein

The World As I See It, 1935

The fundamental evil

Ich erkläre das grundlegende Übel der Welt damit, 
dass der liebe Gott zu wenig Geld geschaffen hat.
                                      * * *
The fundamental evil of the world arose from the fact
that the good Lord has not created money enough. 

 Heinrich Heine (13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856)

Sláinte, John!

"I think technique can be taught  
but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, 
and I see writing and reading as completely related. 
One almost couldn't exist without the other."

[John McGahern, who would today celebrate his 91. birthday.]

Sláinte, John!

... But on the whole ...

„Ich liebe den einzelnen Menschen, jeder, der mir näher kommt, den ich näher kennenlernen möchte, im Großen und Ganzen, mit Ausnahmen. Aber insgesamt betrachte ich die Menschheit doch ein bisschen als Ungeziefer, weil sie unsere Erde zerstört.“   

                                                         * * *    

I love the individual human being, everyone who comes close to me, who I want to get to know better, by and large, with exceptions. But on the whole, I see humanity as a bit of a vermin because it is destroying our planet."

Herbert Rosendorfer (19 February 1934 – 20 September 2012 

 

The price of apathy ...

Plato (427 BC – 347 BC)

The bad is called good

We live now in an era where normal values have been displaced.
The good is called bad, the bad - good.

Anna Politkovskaya (30 August 1958 – 6 October 2006)

Dark suspicion

I've got a deep dark suspicion
that pretty soon we should start
looking around for another planet
for ourselves. 

Wolfgang Borchert (20 May 1921 – 20 November 1947)

A process of discovery

As a writer, I write to see.
If I knew how it would end, I wouldn't write.
It's a process of discovery.

John McGahern  (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006)

Beat the drum, Heinrich!*

I have never seen an ass
who talked like a human being,
but I have met many human beings
who talked like asses.

Heinrich Heine (13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856)

* Heine's Doctrine

Today 532 years ago

  The American who was the first to discover Columbus made a nasty discovery.

Der Amerikaner, der den Kolumbus zuerst entdeckte,
machte eine böse Entdeckung. [G 183]

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)

Today 531 years ago

 The American who was the first to discover Columbus made a nasty discovery.

Der Amerikaner, der den Kolumbus zuerst entdeckte,
machte eine böse Entdeckung. [G 183]

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)

Beers & Books CCCXXIX – A Message to the Irish People

"It is clear that it is not man
who has created the universe
- whether you believe in God or in gods
or deny any divine presence -
man cannot alter the laws
that govern the universe
without damaging it."

Seán MacBride ( 26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988)

Our Civilisation

"Our civilization, bequeathed to us by fierce adventurers, eaters of meat and hunters, is so full of hurry and combat, so busy about many things which perhaps are of no importance, that it cannot but see something feeble in a civilization which smiles as it refuses to make the battlefield the test of excellence."

James Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941)

Beers & Books CCLVXXX – John Hume

Difference is of the essence of humanity.
Difference is an accident of birth and should therefore
never be the source of hatred or conflict.
The answer to difference is to respect it.
Therein lies a most fundamental principle of peace:
respect for diversity.

John Hume (18 January 1937 – 3 August 2020)

Beers & Books CCLXI – Jakob Wassermann

All injustice and suffering on earth
has its reason in the fact
that experiences cannot be transmitted.
At the most, they can be communicated.
Between the appropriate and the unbearable
lies the whole path of experience,
which only one person can ever travel alone.
Just as only one person ever dies alone
and no one knows anything about death....

Jakob Wassermann (10 March 1873 – 1 January 1934)

Beers & Books CCXXXVII – Richard Barham Middleton

The Ghostship & Other Stories

 Richard Middleton ( 28 October 1882 – 1 December 1911)

Today 530 years ago

The American who was the first to discover Columbus made a fatal discovery.

Der Amerikaner, der den Kolumbus zuerst entdeckte,
machte eine böse Entdeckung. [G 183]

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)

Beers & Books CCXXXI – Alistair MacLeod

I like to think
that I am telling a story rather than writing it.

Alistair MacLeod (20 July 1936 – 20 April 2014)

Beers & Books CCXXX – Laurent Binet

Civilizations
*
“What would you do if you ruled the world?”
The gigolo replied that he would abolish all laws.
Barthes said: “Even grammar?”

Laurent Binet * 19 July 1972

Beers & Books CCXXIX – The Letters of John McGahern

I think technique can be taught but I think
the only way to learn to write is to read,
and I see writing and reading as completely related.
One almost couldn't exist without the other.

John McGahern (12 November 1934 – 30 March 2006)