“Truth and sincerity have a certain distinguishing native luster about them which cannot be perfectly counterfeited; they are like fire and flame, that cannot be painted.”
Ben Franklin
Category: Commonplace Book
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But I am more interested in the rosy cheek than I am to know what particular diet the maiden fed on. The very forest and herbage, the pellicle of the earth must acquire a bright color, an evidence of its ripeness, — as if the globe itself were a fruit on its stem, with ever a cheek toward the sun.
– Henry Thoreau
I didn’t realize how poetic Thoreau’s prose was. That’s why one must read, must discover, these works for yourself.
Experience them on your own.
Thoreau, Henry D.. Essays: A Fully Annotated Edition. Italy, Yale University Press, 2013. p. 282
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The best way forward with AI is empirical and pragmatic: develop and test models, observe what happens, and learn as we go.
That from his paper Compounding Intelligence: Adapting to the AI Revolution
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Europeans coming to America are surprised by the brilliancy of our autumnal foliage. There is no account of such a phenomenon in English poetry, because the trees acquire but few bright colors there. The most that Thomson says on this subject is his "Autumn" is contained in the lines, --
"But see the fading many-colored woods,
Shade deepening over shade, the country round
Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk and dun,
Of every hue, from wan declining green
To sooty dark" : -
and in the line which he speaks of
"Autumn beaming o'er the yellow woods."No one writes about seasons, weather, or fall, like Henry D. Thoreau.
This from his essay Autumnal Tints.
Thoreau, Henry D.. Essays: A Fully Annotated Edition. Italy, Yale University Press, 2013. p. 281
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As consequent from store of summer rains,
Or wayward rivulets in autumn flowing,
Or many a herb-lined brook's reticulations,
Or subterranean sea-rills making for the sea,
Songs of continued years I sing.
- Walt Whitman, Autumn RivuletsWhitman, Walt. The Complete Poems. United Kingdom, Penguin Books Limited, 2004. p.379
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Don’t be afraid to fail. There’s a wonderful poem by Rainer Maria Rilke that talks about the biblical story of Jacob wrestling with an angel, being defeated, but coming away stronger from the fight. It ends with an exhortation that goes something like this: “What we fight with is so small, and when we win, it makes us small. What we want is to be defeated, decisively, by successively greater things.”
– Tim O’ Reilly
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Real names tell you the story of the things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time to say anything in it, because we do not say anything in it unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.
– Treebeard
Where Merry and Pippen encounter Treebeard.
Fascinating idea from Tolkien.
What if all languages took such a long time to say anything, that we had to only say things worth saying. 🙂
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Inspired by the vanishing subgenre of agricultural memo books, ornate pocket ledgers, and the simple, unassuming beauty of a well-crafted grocery list, the Draplin Design Co., Portland, Ore. – in conjunction with Cloudal Partners, Chicago, Ill. – brings you “FIELD NOTES‘ in hopes of offering “An honest memo book worth fillin’ up with GOOD INFORMATION.”
Wow. That is a long sentence.
This from the inside back cover of any Field Notes memo book.
Fun marketing that makes you feel like a ranch hand, lone-ranger, or early 19th century boxing correspondent.
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Cohn-Bendit on TV. Intelligent, cunning, devious, has the memory of everything he has ever read; impertinent; good, rapid speaker; wraps up his opponents ( a trio of middle-aged newsmen). He has the ruthlessness of someone unable to put himself in another’s place.
– Mavis Gallant
How does Mavis get away with writing sentences like this? Describing so much with so few words. Incomplete sentences my elementary school teachers would say.
Read a few pages of the Paris Notebook and you’ll realize where the inspiration for the French Dispatch came from. Not only the Lucinda Krementz part. The entire film!
Even the typeface at the top of the pages and chapter beginnings will look familiar.
Gallant, Mavis. Paris Notebooks: Essays & Reviews. United States, David R. Godine Publisher, 2023. p. 19
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The truth is Franklin failed often. He never folded, though. When confronted with a setback, he didn’t abandon the idea. He retooled it and tried again. Franklin never let failure discourage him from taking new risks, including his biggest gamble of all: jumping from British Loyalist to American rebel, and at age sixty-nine. For Franklin, failure was a down payment on success.
That from a fascinating new book Ben & Me. Ben Franklin, late bloomer. Kept an open mind at age sixty-nine.
Weiner, Eric. Ben & Me: In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life. United States, Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster, 2024. p.104
Floodlights and Goalposts 