An online commonplace book
“Griefs upon griefs! Disappointments upon disappointments. What then? This is a gay, merry world notwithstanding.”
– John Adams
The final John Adam’s quote in McCullough’s brilliant biography. A quote written in a letter to his friend Francis van der Kemp.
McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 651
It is true that Christianity teaches us to place others before ourselves in order to gain heaven; but Christianity also teaches us to do good to our fellow men for the love of God. What a magnificent expression; man uses his intelligence to penetrate the mind of God and sees that God’s aim is order. He freely joins in this grand design and, sacrificing his private interests to this admirable order of all creation, he expects no other reward than the joy of contemplating it.
– Alexis de Tocqueville
A magnificent expression indeed. Contemplate creation today.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. London, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003. pg 614
I began to read just after I was four. The letters on the page suddenly gave in and admitted what they stood for.
– Penelope Fitzgerald
Some descriptions are well…FIRE. As read from Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life.
Lee, Hermione. Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life. United States, Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. pg 28
I realize that a man’s arm can be amputated to save his life; but I am unwilling to be convinced that he is going to display as much dexterity as with the arm intact.
– Alexis de Tocqueville
A Tocqueville quote for our days?
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. London, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003. pg 609
A stream of visitors continued through the seasons and among them was young Ralph Waldo Emerson, who a few years earlier had graduated from Harvard as class poet. He found Adams upstairs in his library seated in a large overstuffed armchair, dressed in a blue coat, a cotton cap covering his bald head. Recounting the interview, Emerson wrote, “He talks very distinctly for so old a man–enters bravely into long sentences which are interrupted by want of breath but carries them invariably to a conclusion without ever correcting a word.”
You know, you can just go visit your heroes.
Ralph Waldo Emerson for John. John for Sir William Herschel.
Posted while watching Iron Man. The first one.
McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 640
So, as men become more equal and individualism more of a menace, newspapers are more necessary. The belief that they just guaranteed freedom would diminish their importance; they sustain civilization.
– Alexis de Tocqueville
If Tocqueville believed this in the 1800s, then how does it apply today?
What happens when newspapers fade? What replaces them?
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. London, Penguin Publishing Group, 2003. pg 601
I would like people to go away having not just been entertained or gotten some useful information, but be better people, in however slight a sense. To have an aspiration that web pages could be better, that the Internet could be better: “You too could go out and read stuff! You too could have your thoughts and compile your thoughts into essays, too! You could do all this!”
Gwern and the role he wants to fill. As heard on The Dwarkesh Podcast.
The AI avatar is creepy. For me, audio listen only. Brilliant interview – insightful and inspiring.
Too many adjectives on this post?
Patel, Dwarkesh. “Gwern Branwen – How an Anonymous Researcher Predicted AI’s Trajectory.” Dwarkesh Podcast (blog), November 13, 2024. https://www.dwarkesh.com/p/gwern-branwen.
“In the storm, as well as the smooth sea of life, her virtues were ever the object of his trust and veneration”
– Columbian Centinel obituary notice for Abagail Adams
Both John and Abigail Adams should rise in status.
#relationshipgoals
McCullough, David. John Adams. Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 625
Maria was precocious, and published an essay advocating higher education for women when she was nine years old. The essay was actually written by one of her tutors, but she translated it into Latin and delivered it from memory to an academic gathering in the garden of the family home. Her father also arranged for her to debate philosophy in the presence of prominent scholars and public figures. She disliked making a public spectacle of herself and asked her father for permission to become a nun. When he refused, she extracted an agreement that she could attend church whenever she wished, wear simple clothing, and be spared from all public events and entertainments.
Love how this passage appeared out of nowhere in Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities.
Maria is labeled a mathematician, but she was also a philosopher, a master of languages, and also would run hospices.
Next level polymath.
Stewart, Ian. Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities. United States, Basic Books, 2009.
there’s the sheer beauty of it for athet, you know know all the sports have great athletes but for sheer grace and speed, for for, the combination of power and grace there’s nothing like what happens say in the infield when a beautiful double play is turned to see Ozzie Smith made plays at short stop that that were balletic in a way that nothing, and I mean nothing that happens in those other games matches
– David Bentley Hart
No one. And I mean no one, speaks baseball the way David Bentley Hart does. The details, the passion, the reverence.
All in time for Spring Training.
That from the new documentary DBH: Cutting Forms from Mystery:
Floodlights and Goalposts 