The Saunterer

Irving Singer’s credo

    In his book Meaning in Life, Irving Singer wrote:

    I envision the good life in its totality as including the love of persons, things and ideals so intricately intermeshed that the meaning in one contributes to the meaningfulness of the other two. That eventuates in the state of happiness everyone desires.

    (Excerpted from page B6 of The New York Times, February 9, 2015.)
    For a brief work biography of Irving Singer, click here. For images of or relating to Irving Singer, click here.

Ezra Pound’s definition of literature

    He put it this way:
    Literature is news that STAYS news.
    (Quoted from Chapter 6, “Literchoor Is My Beat”by Ian S. MacNiven. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.)
    For a brief biography of Ezra Pound, click here. For images of or relating to Ezra Pound, click here.

Lesley Stahl on understanding women

    Can’t figure women out? Lesley Stahl recommends a book to help you:

    There’s also “The Female Brain,” by Louann Brizendine, which I read and underlined as research for my book on grandmothers. There is no better explanation for why we women act the way we do. I strongly recommend that everyone who’s female read this book, from girls of 16 up to great-grandmas of 96.

    (Quoted from page 8 of The New York Times Book Review, April 16, 2017.)

    For a brief biography of Lesley Stahl, click here. For images of or relating to Lesley Stahl, click here.

John F. Kennedy on solving difficult problems

    The Saunterer is unconvinced with President Kennedy’s optimistic trust in our willingness to solve problems we create (e.g., think climate change). History and our nature put us more in the line of problem makers than that of problem solvers:

    First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable—that mankind is doomed—that we are gripped by forces we cannot control.
    We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade—therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable—and we believe they can do it again.

    (Quoted from page 117 of Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons, by Ward Wilson. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012.)

    For a brief biography of John F. Kennedy, click here. For images of or relating to John F. Kennedy, click here.
    For a brief biography of Ward Wilson, click here. For images of or relating to Ward Wilson, click here.

John Greenleaf Whittier on the case for wilderness

    Wilderness, John Greenleaf Whittier said, connects us to our maker:

 

 

    I like to see Nature free and wild and untamed as when it came from the hand of its Creator.

 

    (Quoted from page 277 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)

    For a brief biography of John Greenleaf Whittier, click here. For images of or relating to John Greenleaf Whittier, click here.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry on what is essential to living

    Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s little prince learns a secret: 

 

And he went back to meet the fox.

“Goodbye,” he said.

“Goodbye,” said the fox. “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

“What is essential is invisible to the eye,” the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes the rose so important.”

“It is the time I have wasted for my rose—“ said the little prince, so that he would be sure to remember.

“Men have forgotten this truth,” said the fox. “But you must not forget it. You became responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . .”

“I am responsible for my rose, “the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

 

    (Excerpted from page 87 of The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. A Harvest/HBJ Book, 1971.)

    For a brief biography of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, click here. For images of or relating to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, click here.

 

Laurence Scott on the transitory nature of what is said on the internet

    What people opine on the internet is sure to be forgotten soon. Hear Laurence Scott:

 

    Who remembers trending hashtags from two months ago? When Twitter timelines fly past, doesn’t it feel as though everything is indeed turning to air, that nothing is substantial enough to grasp? . . . In an environment concerned with the question of novelty, internet memes flourish because the velocity of their mayfly lives makes the difference between inspiration and expiration almost unnoticeable. Being new isn’t the point of them because these little ephemeroptera are old almost as soon as they appear.

 

    (Quoted from page 13 of the January 1, 2016, issue of the Times Literary Supplement.)

 

    Laurence Scott is a writer and a lecturer in English and creative writing at Arcadia University, and he lives in London.

 

 

Eleanor Roosevelt’s criticism of the rich

    Because she gave her view a good many years ago, is it less true today?

 

    Sometimes I think the most troubled people I know are the very rich, especially many of them who have grown up in idle luxury.

 

    (Quoted from page 4 of The New York Times Book Review, April 9, 2017.)

 

    For a brief biography of Eleanor Roosevelt, click here. For images of or relating to Eleanor Roosevelt, click here.

Emile Zola on paintings as ideal love

    What should artists paint? Emile Zola gave this advice:

 

    Put your dreams, those beautiful golden dreams, onto your canvases and try to pass onto them that ideal love you possess.

 

    (Quoted from page 283 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)

    For a brief biography of Emile Zola, click here. For images of or relating to Emile Zola, click here.

Michael E. Mann on how Donald Trump is threatening all of us

    Quoting Pennsylvania State University climatologist Michael E. Mann in the May, 2017, issue of The Scientist, page 12:

    Trump’s de-funding of many of the basic scientific programs that are there to measure, to monitor what’s happening with the climate, is sort of like having a child who is suffering from a very high fever, and then deciding to just stop measuring their temperature, stop taking their temperature. That’s effectively what he is doing. But not just with a single human being—with our entire planet—and it’s a threat to all of us.

    For a brief biography of Michael E. Mann, click here. For images of or relating to Michael E. Mann, click here.