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| QUOTATIONS 1744-1786 |
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| 1744. One who is always looking ahead spends most of his life in perpetual, though largely imagined misery, while he who lives in the present, one day at a time, experience the real one only occasionally. 1745. That's how to tell the true wisdom from the spurious one — the true wisdom makes complicated things simple, the spurious one make simple things complicated. 1746. My Jewish brothers, don't waste your time telling the world of the heartless crimes you were subjected to. And do not complain of the unjust Gentiles, for it's all in vain. The world turns away, it wouldn't hear your lamentations, or see your tears. 1747. If anyone is perplexed how such an inarticulate man of the obviously limited intellectual abilities as George W. Bush can be so popular with the American voters, watching American TV on the consistent basis may provide the answer. For the overwhelming mediocrity and often downright stupidity of the majority of its programs have such a stupefying power that it can reduce an average human being to the state of illiterate simpleton, who would then regard even such a bumbling dolt as George Bush as a paragon of all human virtues. 1748. Wherever I go I see distraught and frustrated, hurt and angry children. I hear them crying and screaming, pleading and demanding. Who'd ever said that childhood is the best, the happiest time of our lives? 1749. When a film is based on a book, especially a good one, to enjoy the film it is better not to read the book before seeing it. The same is true in reverse — to enjoy a book it is better to read it before seeing a film based on it. 1750. While America is a land of the free and a home of the brave (or is it other way around), Canada is a country of the judicially and parliamentary inquiring. And while Americans pursue happiness, we, Canadians, not unlike our British cousins, find the greatest pleasure in revelations of the latest shenanigans in high places. 1751. Among the many contrasting types of behavior which divide people into the separate categories there is this, very important one — some (mainly women), when given a choice to achieve the same results by either spending money or not, will choose the first option, and the others (mainly men), given the same choice will choose the second. 1752. Behold pure beauty of a pearl Fresh like a face of pretty girl So perfect as to be admired Not only by a dainty earl But by a solid country squire And even by a coarse churl. 1753. An average American, shaped by two hundred years of the relentless political brainwashing and indoctrination on the one side and all-pervasive commercial and cultural cajolery on the other, represent this paradoxical phenomenon of sincere, even authentic and yet complete artificiality. 1754. As my cataracts keep growing, the objects around me, especially when looked at a distance, are beginning more and more to loose their distinctive shapes and hues. The spaces separating them gradually disappear and I see everything as in a blur consisting of converging shapes and blending colors resembling a typical impressionistic painting. So, perhaps, (it's just a guess, not a hypothesis) the early impressionists, before the genre became fashionable, were simply suffering from cataracts which effected their impression of the world around them. 1755. I am alone even in my dreams An outsider anywhere I go Dropped into the stream of life to sink or swim and swim I do, against my fate's flow. 1756. When braking an idol make sure to smash a pedestal as well, and if it has a foundation do not forget to dig it up and destroy it while you at it. 1757. A pessimist is one who, while having a cold, tells everyone that he probably suffers from consumption, to the point that he begins to believe himself he really does. An optimist is one who, while suffering from consumption, dismisses it as a cold, and convinces himself that it is. 1758. British attachment to "The Pub" could be partially explained by the island's climate — the pub often provides the only dry and warm place. For even British dwellings, due to the insufficient heating systems still prevalent throughout the country, are most of the times damp and chilly, never mind being outdoors and to be exposed to the almost permanent and penetrating wetness. 1759. The problem with the political and ideological extremists, whether of right or left persuasion, is that they are often blinkered by devotion to the purity of their principle to the point when it renders them incapable to ever think about interests and needs of the middle which comprises the overwhelming majority of population in every society. 1760. Mozart would have never become "Mozart" if his father was Mozart, and Shakespeare would have never become "Shakespeare" if his father was Shakespeare. Having a parent who also happens to be a great writer, or a great composer, or a great anything is a huge handicap to a child. For while to reach the top one has to stand on the shoulders of a giant, if the giant is too tall one may not be able to climb that high. A child who has an illustrious parent first wants to be like him. But when this child becomes a man he usually want to surpass his father (rather than kill him, according to Oedipus complex assumption). The realization that he would never be able to accomplish this (because a father is too great to be surpassed) is a wound from which a son seldom recovers. Some. mostly daughters, may be satisfied with worshiping of such an eminent father, but sons never are. Instead they resent or even hate him, as if the father is personally responsible for their failure to outshine him. 1761. Having children is akin to playing a lottery. And in lottery, the chances to win increase the more tickets you buy. But also the times you may lose. For it is a lottery. 1762. The exposure to the brilliant intellect in a commonplace setting could be quite unsettling. Most of us, protestation of largely false modesty notwithstanding, value our opinions and pronouncements. And if they, more often than not, do not produce general acclamation, we tend to attribute this to the lack of discernment on the part of the listeners, rather than to the deficiency of eloquence of the speaker. But occasionally (and unexpectedly) we meet some ostensibly ordinary person, not a celebrity, not a famous writer, or a great philosopher, or an important politician, but someone who seems to be one of us —the equal, so to speak —who would say something so perceptive, so profound, so revelatory that at once we realize that no matter how long we live, or how many books we read, or how many things we learn, we would never be able to approach the brilliance of what we just heard. For everyone intuitively knows that brilliance could not be imitated or learned — Salieri could never become Mozart. And this, usually, is very unsettling and even painful to one's ego. The initial surprise often turns into envy and repeated exposure to this person could transform this envy into hate. We don't forgive those who lessen our self-esteem. 1763. A mediocre but highly ambitious man often compensates the deficiency of discernment by overabundance of determination to achieve his goals and frequently succeeds when the better man fails due to lack of resolve. 1764. Passing through a bookstore noticed a coffee-table book "GULAG — Life and death inside the Soviet Concentration Camps. I suppose by Christmas they will be selling "AUSCHWITZ" in the similar format. 1765. The history of mankind is a history of migration. No tribe, no ethnic group, no nation have the absolute rights to the territory they reside on at the present moment, but only a relative one, based on the "seniority of tenure", so to speak. Therefore while a claim, "we were here before you" may be valid or not, the categorical assertion, "we were always here" never is. 1766. Why do some religious people never take "no" for an answer? I still remember my conversation with one of them in 1973, several months after my arrival in USA after leaving Soviet Union. I don't remember what was the main topic of this conversation, but at some point he declared that religion is the only basis for the true morality. I countered it by saying that growing up in Soviet Union, officially atheistic state, didn't make me an immoral person. Moreover, I met many people in Soviet Union who by any objective standard would be regarded moral as well, though we were avowed atheists. To which he replied that Communism is also a religion and therefore my claim to be an atheist is not valid. I was rather perplexed by such an argument and didn't know what to say. Then, many years later, I visited a small synagogue in Toronto. Actually, it advertised itself as a Jewish Community Centre, but to all intent and purpose it was a synagogue, and the orthodox at that. I went there several times, but being an atheist never felt comfortable, and thought of stopping coming . The man in charge apparently sensed it, and told me one day, "Come next time and I will take you to the Mount Sinai." To which I replied, "I don't believe in God." And he said, "But God believes in you." Thus, like the religious man, I encountered in USA, he also couldn't take "no" for an answer. Both of them would not "allow" me to be what I've said I am — an atheist. Why neither of them accepted my clear and unambiguous declaration of absence of faith? It seemed to be irrational, to say the least. But come to think of it, irrationality is an integral part of any religious faith. Of course, the religious people are not completely irrational. Most of the times and in most circumstances they think and act completely rationally — they wouldn't survive if they didn't. But in the realm of religion they have to suspend this rationality and believe in something which could not be proven by pure reason and requires faith. So, having this capacity for partial irrationality it is no wonder that occasionally they exhibit it, especially in a situation closely connected to religion. Then, having access the irrational part of their personality they may say things which could not meet the test of standard logic. And if you aren't one of them, you naturally would be perplexed and lost for words. Closely connected to this phenomenon is the modern usage of a term "agnostic." Once upon a time ( and it feels like a long, long time ago) a word "atheist" was an acceptable term to describe a person who openly professed the absence of faith in God or gods. Not anymore. Since no one can prove conclusively nonexistence of God the former atheists were forced to call themselves "agnostics," i.e. one who is willing to reduce a absolute denial of actuality of God to a less categorical belief that nothing is or can be known about its existence. But surely the same standard of proof should be demanded from any religious person. Since none of the faithful can provide an irrefutable proof of God's existence, in all fairness shouldn't they call themselves agnostics as well? 1767. I don't mind people who chose to use religion as a crutch to help themselves get through life. It is their business. It doesn't effect me. But I resent and strongly object to any attempt on their part to turn this crutch into a cudgel to beat someone like me, who is avowedly atheistic, into accepting their world view. 1768. As government of Canada begins to put more and more of Canadian art on its currency, perhaps instead of going to art galleries we should simply collect bills. 1769. Hollywood establishment and its stars who almost unanimously supported John Kerry in the last American presidential election must be disappointed, like the rest of the world with G.W. Bush win. But unlike the rest of us they clearly bear some responsibility for it. Like Dr. Frankenstein, who made a creature he couldn't control and who eventually killed him, the American film industry manufactured today's America — the contrived hodgepodge of phony patriotism, phony religiosity, phony morality. As a result, American life looks to the rest of the world like a bad Hollywood movie based on the second-rate script and played by mediocre actors. 1770. Why do I occasionally have this unsettling feeling that I've never really grown up, that other people are somehow connected to reality more closely than I am, that they led harsher lives, knew the true adversity and possess the intimate knowledge of this terrible world which I can only glimpse through and touch by my intellect and not my whole being. Of course, we all live in reality, for there is nothing but reality, but their reality sometimes seems to me more real, more substantial than mine. And though as a thinker and a writer I've said and written many profound things, profound not by my own estimation, but by the judgement of listeners and readers, I feel something is missing in all of them, something missing in me, the true life knowledge, obtained not through thinking but through living. I guess this sense of unreality comes from dealing primarily in universals, this bread and butter of intellectuals, while the rest of humanity is preoccupied with everyday particulars and therefore appears to be more rooted in reality. The average person does not analyze, as a rule, his life, he lives it struggling with this or that immediate problem, trying to find the best solutions, getting it right or wrong, wining or losing, learning from his mistakes, making new ones —all that without generalizing and abstracting from it. He is one with life, his life. He is a whole in his self-centeredness, his innate indifference to anything which does not directly affect him while people like me lead semi-schizophrenic existence, simultaneously doing things and observing themselves in the process of doing them. We are both object and subject at once, and we are less concerned with ourselves than with the others, and with both only to the extent that it provide us with the data, the grist for the generalizations which seems to be the main purpose of our lives. No wonder, then, that it occasionally seems so unreal. 1771. As while admiring the great sports figures we prefer to compete with those of compatible athletic skills, so though we esteem the brilliant people we prefer to converse with ones of similar intellectual abilities and knowledge. 1772. It became quite fashionable, even obligatory, in some institutions of the higher learning for an academic to start his public lecture by positing the question bearing more or less close resemblance to the advertised title and then proceed to spend the next hour studiously avoiding giving any relevant answer. 1773. Whenever I hear English or French speaking a foreign language I'm always surprised by their peculiar inability to master proper pronunciation. They both have an disconcerting proclivity to garble even the simplest foreign words. Yet I doubt that the native speakers of these two great European languages suffer fro some kind of unique phonetic deficiency. The truer explanation must be found in their linguistic vanity and national pride, in desire when speaking any other language but their own to make sure that the listeners don't forget their(speakers) Englishness or Frenchness. Thus this notorious mispronunciation is at least half-intentional. 1774. Whether in the matters of public policies, concerning society at large, or of personal behavior of particular individuals we often find themselves in a position of unstable equilibrium, as if standing on the top of a pyramid with the proverbial "slippery slopes" on all sides. For human beings have tendency to go to extremes no matter what direction they choose — in political terms from "right" to "righter" to "rightest", or from "left" to "lefter" to "leftest", and similarly in the matters of personal behavior —from small deviations to complete debauchery, or from worthy conduct to fanatical puritanism. At the end it is all about knowing when to draw the line. Absolute consistency could be and usually is very destructive. 1775. Who said smoking is bad for your health? Since smoking was banned inside offices and other public places, everyday I see smokers standing outside in all kind of weather, exposed to elements and often not having sufficient clothe to protect them from cold, rain or snow, just to have a cigaret. Which clearly indicates that there is nothing wrong with their health and perhaps they are actually healthier than the rest of us. 1776. A man asked: "How long are we going to reinvent the wheel?" I answered: "For as long as the Earth revolves around the Sun." 1777. A man who believe in a woman's friendship is a fool. A woman is only interested in a man as a lover or a husband, but never as a friend, and any male friend she claims to have is just a potential lover or husband "in waiting." 1778. Young operatic voices are like young wine — pure, fresh and uncertain. 1779. It is almost preordained that a true intellectual will at the end of his life turn into a misanthrope. Having little in common with humanity at large he will eventually grow to hate it for not being able to fit inti it. 1780. Why do so often the grandparents love grandchildren more than their children? It is because at the time when life is coming to a close, at the time of growing despair and disillusionment with life, which for most of us went wrong, at the time of realization that the dreams of our youth have not been fulfilled and now never will, the grandchildren offer us a vicarious opportunity, an illusion to experience it all over again, to become young without Faustian bargain, in a good way. 1781. A word "individual" as applied to human beings can describe either a biological unit, a person — as in the expression: "a group consists of several individuals," or someone who is different, as far as his, ideas, beliefs, behavior... etc., are concerned, from anyone else. We all could be considered "individuals" in the first sense, but very, very few in the second. 1782. You are what you regret having done. You aren't what you regret having not done. 1783. Looking at a work of art is one thing. Occasionally it's enjoyable, sometimes it tests one's endurance. But the talk about art by academics and critics absolutely horrifies me. 1784. The Jews started as people of the Book and ended as people of books. But whether in singular or plural books have always been Jewish refuge from the hostile World. 1785. All European nationalistic movements, regardless of this or that country of origin, share one thing in common — anti-Semitism. For whatever mysterious reasons they see the Jews as a threat and an obstacle to their nationalistic aspirations. 1786. The story of Romeo and Juliet — the young lovers whose great misfortune was to belong to two hostile groups — must be as old as mankind. One can imagine that when 100 thousand years ago the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons first came into contact, some young members of each species got attracted to each other and undoubtedly encountered the similar disapproval from their respective kin as Romeo and Juliet did in medieval Italy. This archetypal scenario has been playing again and again whenever the different groups of people come into contact and nowadays more than ever. And since people on this planet have been constantly moving from place to place there must have been throughout human history numberless couples of Romeos and Juliets. One can also assume that many of them had a happier experience than Shakespearean doomed lovers, i.e. they managed to survive and produce offsprings. And since modern genetics have proven that mankind is a mixture of different races we are all in a way the children of Romeo and Juliet. |
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