But, here, I made this nice quiz for you. It's in the old "matching" format. Obviously, don't look up the quotes. Try to guess. I'll give you the answers
1. “We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.”
2. “The world is not to be put in order. The world is order. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.”
3. “Monsters cannot be announced. One cannot say: 'Here are our monsters,' without immediately turning the monsters into pets.”
4. “Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”
5. “Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
6. “Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man.”
7. "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star."
8. "I accept chaos, I'm not sure whether it accepts me."
9. “In times of widespread chaos and confusion, it has been the duty of more advanced human beings--artists, scientists, clowns and philosophers--to create order. In times such as ours, however, when there is too much order, too much management, too much programming and control, it becomes the duty of superior men and women to fling their favorite monkey wrenches into the machinery. To relive the repression of the human spirit, they must sow doubt and disruption.”
10. “For nothing matters except life; and, of course, order.”
***
A. Henry Adams
B. Jacques Derrida
C. Bob Dylan
D. Gustave Flaubert
E. Frank Herbert (author of "Dune")
F. Henry Miller
G. Friedrich Nietzsche
H. Tom Robbins ("Even Cowgirls Get the Blues")
I. Hunter S. Thompson
J. Virginia Woolf
ADDED: The answers are here.
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27 comments:
I read though the quotes and didn't recognize any of them, but #8 elicited "that's got to be Woody Allen" but he isn't on the list, so I'm 0-for-10.
I think 5, “Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work” is Flaubert (D). I'm guessing 8, "I accept chaos, I'm not sure whether it accepts me," is Dylan (C), as it's the only one that seems kind of Dylanesque to me.
Tough one!
2nd law, new to lawyer.
Carry on.
I knew the Dylan quote from before, and would have guessed it even if I didn't.
I never would have guessed Hunter Thompson for his quote. Too earnest and pious for him.
The Hunter S Thompson quote jumped out at me. We all read and loved HST in college. His daily meal/drink/drug/writing routine was legendary.
I got Dylan and Flaubert, no clue as to the others. Surprised by the V. Woolf quote, I would have thought she was more interested in rejecting order because of her upbringing and embrace of the unconventionality of Bloomsbury.
I prefer The Shadows (chaos) and The Vorlon (order).
I was very surprised by the Hunter S. Thompson one, especially because I initially misread it.
“We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.”
I thought I was seeing: We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we respect those we have entrusted to enforce those laws.
Big difference!
My least favorite statement is the Virginia Wolfe one, but I suspect it's something she has a character say.
So is this PalbableBitchery blog kind of like that book by Kilgore Trout?
The Frank Herbert one was appropriately Dune-y.
The Virginia Wolfe quote is from an essay about the essayist Montaigne. Context:
"It appears, then, that we are to aim at a democratic simplicity. We may enjoy our room in the tower, with the painted walls and the commodious bookcases, but down in the garden there is a man digging who buried his father this morning, and it is he and his like who live the real life and speak the real language. There is certainly an element of truth in that. Things are said very finely at the lower end of the table. There are perhaps more of the qualities that matter among the ignorant than among the learned. But again, what a vile thing the rabble is! “the mother of ignorance, injustice, and inconstancy. Is it reasonable that the life of a wise man should depend upon the judgment of fools?” Their minds are weak, soft and without power of resistance. They must be told what it is expedient for them to know. It is not for them to face facts as they are. The truth can only be known by the well-born soul —“l’âme bien née”. Who, then, are these well-born souls, whom we would imitate if only Montaigne would enlighten us more precisely?
"But no. “Je n’enseigne poinct; je raconte.” After all, how could he explain other people’s souls when he could say nothing “entirely simply and solidly, without confusion or mixture, in one word”, about his own, when indeed it became daily more and more in the dark to him? One quality or principle there is perhaps — that one must not lay down rules. The souls whom one would wish to resemble, like Etienne de La Boétie, for example, are always the supplest. “C’est estre, mais ce n’est pas vivre, que de se tenir attaché et oblige par necessité a un seul train.” The laws are mere conventions, utterly unable to keep touch with the vast variety and turmoil of human impulses; habits and customs are a convenience devised for the support of timid natures who dare not allow their souls free play. But we, who have a private life and hold it infinitely the dearest of our possessions, suspect nothing so much as an attitude. Directly we begin to protest, to attitudinise, to lay down laws, we perish. We are living for others, not for ourselves. We must respect those who sacrifice themselves in the public service, load them with honours, and pity them for allowing, as they must, the inevitable compromise; but for ourselves let us fly fame, honour, and all offices that put us under an obligation to others. Let us simmer over our incalculable cauldron, our enthralling confusion, our hotch-potch of impulses, our perpetual miracle — for the soul throws up wonders every second. Movement and change are the essence of our being; rigidity is death; conformity is death: let us say what comes into our heads, repeat ourselves, contradict ourselves, fling out the wildest nonsense, and follow the most fantastic fancies without caring what the world does or thinks or says. For nothing matters except life; and, of course, order."
That is, Wolfe is telling us what Montaigne thought.
Got 2 right.
7-G. Used to use the Neitzsche quote to woo women in younger days. Works well.
8-C. I'm not a Dylan fan but saw it once and it stuck with me. Great line.
Don’t forget the Second Law of Thermodynamics: “Sooner or later everything turns to shit,” as Woody Allen will attest.
I recognized the Flaubert line. It gets quoted quite a lot......I read the Wolfe passage. None too pithy. There's a reason why you seldom see her quotations.
Kenneth Burke points out that law and order isn't a pleonasm.
I think it was Kenneth Burke. Long time ago anyway.
Yes, google finds it
A Rhetoric of Motives.
I read it in 1980.
That was fun. I only got Tom Robbins though. Probably should have gone to college.
Got Flaubert and Adams right. Phew. Two of my favorites.
Now, what'll it be tonight, here at Hillbilly Mansion -- the Dictionnaire des Idées Reçues or The Education? Methinks, as Flaubert wouldn't have written, that Flaubert would have been a good blogger or even tweeter -- slow, but good.
Dang, the only one I got right was Derrida, of all people.
Added: I should've known that 7 was Nietzsche. I've certainly seen it before.
Most of these quotes are nonsense. Chaos is freedom. Order is slavery. Balance the 2 and you have a life worth living. But to pretend that control is preferable to chaos is just silly.
5. “Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
**********
That reminded me of a Chinese fortune cookie-sized strip of paper I found in a new shirt's pocket.
Aside from saying "Inspector No. 5", it read:
"Think like a man of action; act like a man of thought".
--Henri Bergson.
Althouse quoting Woolf quoting Montaigne to explain the contradictions inherent in a discussion of order vs chaos is why I love this blog.
Did anyone catch Professor Emerita Ann Althouse's drift?
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