Sunday, May 18, 2014 – In This World of Perpetual Crises
Try to relax and enjoy the crisis. ~ Ashleigh Brilliant
In the best of times, our days are numbered anyway. So it would be a crime against nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly, that it put off enjoying those things for which we were designed in the first place: the opportunity to do good work, to enjoy friends, to fall in love, to hit a ball, and to bounce a baby. ~ Alistair Cooke
Any idiot can face a crisis – it is this day-to-day living that wears you out. ~ Anton Chekhov
There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full. ~ Henry Kissinger
The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow. ~ H. G. Wells
The easiest period in a crisis situation is actually the battle itself. The most difficult is the period of indecision – whether to fight or run away. And the most dangerous period is the aftermath. It is then, with all his resources spent and his guard down, that an individual must watch out for dulled reactions and faulty judgment. ~ Richard M. Nixon
The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville
Midlife crisis is that moment when you realize your children and your clothes are about the same age. ~ William D. Tammeus
At every crisis the Kaiser crumpled. In defeat he fled; in revolution he abdicated; in exile he remarried. ~ Winston Churchill
In prehistoric times, mankind often had only two choices in crisis situations: fight or flee. In modern times, humor offers us a third alternative; fight, flee – or laugh. ~ Robert Orben
In a crisis, don’t hide behind anything or anybody. They’re going to find you anyway. ~ Bear Bryant
Every crisis offers you extra desired power. ~ William Moulton
I stand by this man [President George W. Bush]. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things. He stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound… with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world. ~ Stephen Colbert
A wise man who stands firm is a statesman; a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe. ~ Adlai E. Stevenson
I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. ~ Abraham Lincoln (attributed)
The statement about corporations first turned up in 1873 and has been cited ever since in speeches, articles, and books by those with Populist and anti-trust sympathies. On December 15, 1931, Pennsylvania’s Louis T. McFadden gave a speech in the House of Representatives featuring Lincoln’s remarks about the crisis created by “the money power of the country.” Two days later, however, Congressman Morton D. Hull revealed that he had been checking on the authenticity of the quotation and had concluded it was fake. To support his claim, he produced a letter from H. H. B. Meyers, director of the Legislative Reference Section of the Library of Congress, which informed him that there was no record of any such statement by the Civil War President. He also noted that Lincoln had lived and died before big corporations came into existence, and it would never have occurred to him to make such a statement. ~ “They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions” by Paul F. Boller, Jr. and John George
The collapse of Enron and the subsequent collapse of Arthur Andersen were tremendous tragedies. But as I stated at the time of my indictment on July 8, 2004, failure does not equate to a crime. ~ Kenneth Lay
We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it. ~ Tennessee Williams
I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a “will to renewal.” This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of “crises” – of rupture, repudiation and resistance. When there is no “crisis” there is stagnation, petrifaction and death. All thought, all art is aggressive. ~ Eugene Ionesco
My personal reaction to the crisis was to eat like a pig – anything and everything. ~ Anita Roddick
I think it’s only in a crisis that Americans see other people. It has to be an American crisis, of course. If two countries fight that do not supply the Americans with some precious commodity then the education of the public does not take place. But when the dictator falls, when the oil is threatened, then you turn on the television and they tell you where the country is, what the language is, how to pronounce the names of the leaders, what the religion is all about, and maybe you can cut out recipes in the newspaper of Persian dishes. ~ Don Delillo
Watch out for emergencies. They are your big chance. ~ Fritz Reiner
When is a crisis reached? When questions arise that can’t be answered. ~ Ryszard Kapuscinski
Anything in history or nature that can be described as changing steadily can be seen as heading toward catastrophe. ~ Susan Sontag
Mistakes, scandals, and failures no longer signal catastrophe. The crucial thing is that they be made credible, and that the public be made aware of the efforts being expended in that direction. The “marketing” immunity of governments is similar to that of the major brands of washing powder. ~ Jean Baudrillard
If some great catastrophe is not announced every morning, we feel a certain void. Nothing in the paper today, we sigh. ~ John Emerich
The notion that one will not survive a particular catastrophe is, in general terms, a comfort since it is equivalent to abolishing the catastrophe. ~ Iris Murdoch
The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet. ~ William Gibson
You are an explorer, and you represent our species, and the greatest good you can do is to bring back a new idea, because our world is endangered by the absence of good ideas. Our world is in crisis because of the absence of consciousness. ~ Terence McKenna
At first sign of crisis, the ignorant don’t panic because they don’t know what’s going on, and then later they panic precisely because they don’t know what’s going on. ~ Jarod Kintz
When the times are a crucible, when the air is full of crisis, those who are the most themselves are the victims. ~ Gregory Maguire
One of the first signs of the beginning of understanding is the wish to die. This life appears unbearable, another unattainable. One is no longer ashamed of wanting to die; one asks to be moved from the old cell, which one hates, to a new one, which one willl only in time come to hate. In this there is also a residue of belief that during the move the master will chance to come along the corridor, look at the prisoner and say: “This man is not to be locked up again, He is to come with me.” ~ Franz Kafka, Blue Octavo Notebooks
After a great blow, or crisis, after the first shock and then after the nerves have stopped screaming and twitching, you settle down to the new condition of things and feel that all possibility of change has been used up. You adjust yourself, and are sure that the new equilibrium is for eternity. . . But if anything is certain it is that no story is ever over, for the story which we think is over is only a chapter in a story which will not be over, and it isn’t the game that is over, it is just an inning, and that game has a lot more than nine innings. When the game stops it will be called on account of darkness. But it is a long day. ~ Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men
Just Above Sunset 