The joy I felt as the prospect before me of being the instrument destined to take away from the world one of its greatest calamities (smallpox) was so excessive that I found myself in a kind of reverie.
~ Edward Jenner (English Surgeon and discoverer of vaccination for smallpox. 1749-1823)



Next word: calamities

The willow which bends to the tempest, often escapes better than the oak which resists it; and so in great calamities, it sometimes happens that light and frivolous spirits recover their elasticity and presence of mind sooner than those of a loftier character.~Albert Schweitzer

Next word: frivolous

"The whole point of Camp is to dethrone the serious. Camp is playful, anti-serious. More precisely, Camp involves a new, more complex relation to ""the serious."" One can be serious about the frivolous, frivolous about the serious."
Susan Sontag (1933 - 2004) US "author, critic"
"Against Interpretation, ""Notes on `Camp',"" Note 41 (1966; first published 1964)."

next word: dethrone

"To be completely woman you need a master, and in him a compass for your life. You need a man you can look up to and respect. If you dethrone him it's no wonder that you are discontented, and discontented women are not loved for long."
~Marlene Dietrich (1901-92)

Not exactly a world class feminist, old Marlene was...

Next word: compass

[Proverbs] They are like the clue in the labyrinth, or the compass in the night.~Joseph Joubert

Next word: labyrinth

"I have designed my style pantomimes as white ink drawings on black backgrounds, so that man's destiny appears as a thread lost in an endless labyrinth . . . ."
Marcel Marceau (1923 - 2007) French "actor, pantomimist"
"In ""Wall Street Journal,"" 19 Nov 1965."

next word: pantomimes

When you think about the word eccentric it conjures up all sorts of images - of morris dancing or pantomime dames or the pearly kings and queens.
~ Hilary Strong



Next word: eccentric

The amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time.
~John Stuart Mill (1806-73)

A harmless hilarity and a buoyant cheerfulness are not infrequent concomitants of genius; and we are never more deceived than when we mistake gravity for greatness, solemnity for science, and pomposity for erudition.~Charles Caleb Colton

Next word: erudition

"If we steal thoughts from the moderns, it will be cried down as plagiarism; if from the ancients, it will be cried up as erudition."
~Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832)

Next word: plagiarism

The Plagiarism of orators is the art, or an ingenious and easy mode, which some adroitly employ to change, or disguise, all sorts of speeches or their own composition, or that of other authors, for their pleasure, or their utility; in such a manner that it becomes impossible even for the author himself to recognize his own work, his own genius, and his own style, so skillfully shall the whole be disguised.~Isaac D'Israeli

Next word: mode

"Men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form but with regard to their mode of life."
~Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Next word: image

Politics will eventually be replaced by imagery. The politician will be only too happy to abdicate in favor of his image, because the image will be much more powerful than he could ever be.~Marshall McLuhan

Next word: abdicate

For the mother who has opted to stay home, the question remains: Having perfected her role as a caretaker, can she abdicate control to less practiced individuals? Having put all her identity eggs in one basket, can she hand over the basket freely? Having put aside her own ambitions, can she resist imposing them on her children? And having set one example, can she teach another?
Melinda M. Marshall (20th century), U.S. author and editor. Good Enough Mothers, ch. 3 (1993).


next word: perfected

"Photography, alone of the arts, seems perfected to serve the desire humans have for a moment - this very moment - to stay."
~Sam Abell (1945- )

Next word: Photography

It is my intention to present - through the medium of photography - intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators.~Ansel Adams

Next word: intuitive

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
~Albert Einstein



Next word: rational



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Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy—a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but of using your mind's fullest power, not the joy of faking reality, but of achieving values that are real, not the joy of a drunkard, but of a producer. Happiness is possible only to a rational man, the man who desires nothing but rational goals, seeks nothing but rational values and finds his joy in nothing but rational actions.~Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Next word: indulge

"People who lean on logic and philosophy and rational exposition end by starving the best part of the mind.
~William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)


Next word: exposition

For complexity does not inevitably heighten a story's verisimilitude, or its power to convince; sometimes simplicity and economy make for a more vigorous exposition, propelling the drama forward.
~ Yan Lianke, Serve the People!: A Novel



Next word: verisimilitude



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