No man can imagine the course of his own life, or the conduct of the world around him, unworthy his attention; yet, among the sons of learning, many seem to have thought of every thing rather than of themselves, and to have observed every thing but what passes before their eyes: many who toil through the intricacy of complicated systems, are ( Read more... )

"eight thousand kinds of chemicals, every kind of screw made, every size of needle, every kind of cord or wire, hair of humans, horses, hogs, cows, rabbits, goats, minx, camels...silk in every texture, cocoons, various kinds of hoofs, shark's teeth, deer horns, tortoise shell...cork, resin, varnish and oil, ostrich feathers, a peacock's tail, jet, ( Read more... )

plan for summer 2007: singlemindedness

Dreamed up phone number leads man to a bride ( Read more... )

interesting words, just now, from a baseball commentator
"you're never as bad as you look and you're never as good as you think you are."

nothing is simple, nothing is easy.

"He is as ugly as sin, long-nosed, queer-mouthed, and with uncouth and rustic, though courteous manners, corresponding very well with such an exterior. But his ugliness is of an honest and agreeable fashion, and becomes him much better than beauty."
hawthorne on thoreau

it's a long hustle but it keeps me real busy

"I encounter millions of bodies in my life; of these millions, I may desire some hundreds; but of these hundreds, I love only one." roland barthes

"YEVGENY IVANOVICH ZAMYATIN (1884-1937) was a naval architect by trade and a writer by nature. His favorite idea was the absolute freedom of the human personality to create, to imagine, to love, to make mistakes, and to change the world. This made him a highly inconvenient citizen of two despotisms, the tsarist and the Communist, both of which ( Read more... )