What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within this little span of life by him who interests his heart in everything.
McCullough, David. John Adams. United Kingdom, Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 287
Tag: History
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Thanks to Madame Lafayette, they were seated in a gallery overlooking the choir, “as good a place as any in the church,” thought John Quincy, who in a long description of the spectacle in his diary demonstrated that besides being precociously erudite, he had learned, as his father urged, to observe the world around him and was well started on becoming an accomplished writer. He described the Parliament lined up to the right side of the choir, robed in scarlet and black, the Chambre des Comptes on the left, in robes of black and white; the bishops arriving two by two, “a purple kind of mantle over their shoulders,” the Archbishop of Paris, “a mitre upon his head,” and finally the arrival of the King.
John Quincy Adams heeding his father’s advice to observe the world around him.
Or as Teju Cole begs: observe, observe, observe.
McCullough, David. John Adams. United Kingdom, Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 327
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Once, for no reason other than intellectual curiosity, Adams rode to Windsor to call on the famous English astronomer Sir William Herschel, whose crowning achievement had been the discovery of the planet Uranus. Greeting Adams affably, Herschel was delighted to talk of his work, and Adams returned to Grosvenor Square elated. Nabby recorded that she had never known her father so gratified by a visit of any kind.
Lonely and isolated in London, John Adams took the opportunity to visit with Sir William Herschel.
Remember that today as you grill your burgers in celebration.
Happy Fourth of July!
McCullough, David. John Adams. United Kingdom, Simon & Schuster, 2001. pg 343
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Write early in the morning, cultivate memory, reread core books, take detailed reading notes, work on several projects at once, maintain a thick archive, rotate crops, take a weekly Sabbath, go to bed at the same time, exercise so hard you can’t think during it, talk to different kinds of people including the very young and very old, take words and their histories seriously (i.e., read dictionaries), step outside of the empire of the English language regularly, look for vocabulary from other fields, love the basic, keep your antennae tuned, and seek out contexts of understanding quickly (i.e., use guides, encyclopedias, and Wikipedia without guilt).”
I’d add Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Perplexity.ai to without guilt list.
H/T Austin Kleon
Hanrahan, Brían. “The Anthropoid Condition: An Interview with John Durham Peters.” Los Angeles Review of Books, July 10, 2015. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-anthropoid-condition-an-interview-with-john-durham-peters/.
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It holds a personal memory for me; for, back in the 1970s, my father took me to see my first ever test match there. I loved everything about it: the excitement of the day out, the presence of a crowd gathering with rising expectation, all intent on one thing: the match itself, with the lightning excitement of each ball played, set within the longer and more leisurely rhythm of overs and innings. But what I most remember, looking back, what set the day apart, was that for the entire day I saw my father completely happy.
– Malcom Guite, on the Oval
Seeing your father completely happy is a rare thing. One that should always be documented.
Perfect timing from Malcom’s Poet’s Corner with the US upsetting Pakistan in the Cricket T20 World Cup.
Guite, Malcolm. “Poet’s Corner.” Church Times, 31 May 2024, https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/31-may/comment/columnists/malcolm-guite-poet-s-corner. Accessed 9 June 2024.
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Good writing should be smooth, clear and short, and the art of saying little in much must be avoided at all costs. In written discourse, every needless thing gives offense and must be eliminated. . . .Had this always been done, many large and tiresome volumes would have shrunk into pamphlets, and many pamphlet into a single period.
– Benjamin FranklinFleming, Candace. Ben Franklin’s Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman’s Life. United Kingdom, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2014. pp23
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we must bear acts of god with fortitude and acts of war with courage. This attitude used to be part of the ethos of this city; don’t let it come to an end in you.
– PericlesPericles Reminds the Athenians Who They Are
from The Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides
Did Thucydides craft the greatest hype speech of all time?
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Shasta cried only a very little; he was used to hard knocks.
Lewis. C.S.. The Horse and His Boy. New York: Harper Collins, 2002.Annie. Jay-Z. C.S. Lewis. The phrase “hard-knocks” has been around since 1870.
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Not an another Oppenheimer review.
On how the world is organized against mavericks:
Normally the world is organized around dull people. Most power is controlled in this world by people who are straight and narrow. Where as the personal and professional eclectic person like Oppenheimer, the maverick, this kind of person is treated as unsound and is held at a distance. And only at special moments the world seems to be able to use these people.
– Ajay ShahAnd the type of person Oppenheimer would recruit:
When this kind of maverick was brought in to influence and around himself created an organization three thousand or six thousand interesting people, and you can imaging the kind of people who would rally around his recruitment efforts. When he would reach out and make the phone calls to people all over the world, what kind of people would he attract? He would look for the clever ones. He would not look for the obedient ones. And that’s how they did this amazing thing called the Manhattan Project. And then after the war ended the state did not need him and then you got back to the worst instincts of the people who start complaining that oh this guy is unsound in so many ways and do you know “x” about his personal life. And did you know he went and studied Sanskrit, and he takes interest in Hinduism and things like that.
– Ajay Shah -
“I had not before encountered this sort of ambition, unabashed frankly egotistical, communicating it’s excitement, and extorting sympathy.
It was not that he was without the faculty of self-criticism. He could laugh of his dreams of glory and he had an impish fun.”
Unnamed journalist from the Manchester Guardian. The Rest is History podcast episode 241, Young Churchill: Prisoner and FugitiveThat from The Rest is History podcast, with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. The backstory here is young Churchill is traveling on a ship with a journalist from the Manchester Guardian. After spending a few days observing young Winnie this was his brilliant description.
Ambition combined with the ability to laugh at one’s self. Potent mix, that.
Listen to more exquisite Rest of History pods below:
627. Jack The Ripper: From Hell (Part 4) – The Rest Is History
Why was Jack the Ripper’s final murder the most appalling of all? Who was the mysterious Mary-Jane Kelly, his unfortunate victim? And, what enduring impact would his crimes have upon the cultural climate of England, and the treatment of women? Join Tom and Dominic as they reach the nightmarish crescendo of Victorian London’s darkest days, as Jack the Ripper’s killing spree culminates with his most horrifying murder so far. Give The Rest Is History Club this Christmas – a year of bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access, the private chat community hosted on Discord, and an exclusive t-shirt! Just go to https://therestishistory.supportingcast.fm/gifts And of course, you can still join for yourself at any time at therestishistory.com or on apple podcasts. For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to http://www.goalhanger.com _______ Hive. Know your power. Visit https://hivehome.com to find out more. _______ Learn more at https://www.uber.com/onourway _______ Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ https://nordvpn.com/restishistory It's risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee ✅ _______ Twitter: @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Video Editor: Jack Meek Social Producer: Harry Balden Assistant Producer: Aaliyah Akude Producer: Tabby Syrett Senior Producer: Theo Young-Smith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Floodlights and Goalposts 