The Saunterer

Rainer Maria Rilke on what art is to the artist

    Art for the sake of art is one thing. Rainer Maria Rilke saw the other: Art for the sake of the artist:

Know, then, that art is this: the means through which singular, solitary individuals fulfill themselves. (Quoted from The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg, p. 180.)

    For a brief biography of Rainer Maria Rilke, click here.

George Orwell on rationalizing our false beliefs

    We are all little emperors who can be self-deceived by our own clothes. When we fool ourselves with false beliefs, one self-deception leads to the next, and soon or late reality exposes us. George Orwell says it nicely:

We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield. (Quoted from George Orwell: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, by George Orwell, Jeffrey, New Hampshire: David R. Godine. 2000. vol. 4, p. 124)   

    For a brief biography of George Orwell, click here.

   

Mao Zedong’s plan for saving the world

    If they really wanted to save the world, religious and political leaders would take a page from Mao Zedong:

Our plans, work, [and] thinking all should start with the [awareness] that we have a population of 600 million. . . . Here [we] need birth control; it would be great [if we] could lower the birth [rate] a bit. [We] need planned births. I think humanity is most inept at managing itself. It has plans for industrial production . . . [but] it does not have plans for the production of humans. This is anarchism, no government, or organization, no rules. If [we] go on this way, I think humanity will prematurely fall into strife and hasten toward destruction. (Mao Zedong quoted from Just One Child, by Susan Greenhalgh. University of California Press. 2008. p. 46.)

    For a brief biography of Mao Zedong, click here.