give me wisdom

an islamic fable paraphrased and contracted by Victor Pelevin in Babylon, and then by me again.

Once there were thirty birds they lived together and they decied that they needed a king so they went off in search of a great wise Bird called Smerug. the search was long and hard and they underwent 30 trials and each trial they overcame among themselves. When they had overcame the thirty trials the discovered that Smerug means 30 birds.

I'd like to find the original fable, if it even exists

'Seek to understand, not to be understood'

"Our greatest victories, are won not be arms but be greatness of soul" Spinoza.

"The ideal man, therefore, is alturistic because he is wise...He does not speak evil of others, even of his enemies, unless it be to themselves...He never feels malice and always forgets injuries...In short, he is a good friend to others because he is his own best friend" Aristotle.

Okay, these might not be exact quotes, but I appreciate the sentiment of both of them, got them from a book called Living Biographies of Great Philosophers by H. Thomas and D. Thomas; W.H. Allen; London 1959

"Be excellent to each other" Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure.

"Be Excellent to each other", isn't that also the essential teaching of JC, or at least the most important one.

ed, i thought jarvis' most important one was 'everybody hates a tourist"?

No, it was, "You were brought up on the Space Race/Now they want you to clean toilets."

There's a wonderfully dour quote from Arthur Balfour, of all people, that I like which I have around somewhere -- it's an incredible depressing vision of the ultimate fate of the earth that makes Michael Gira seem like Pollyanna. I'm terrible with remembering extended quotes, though -- I don't have one that encapsulates any particular philosophy of mine.

When times are tough I always go back to that old steadfast 'Don't let the bastards grind you down'.

"We all live in the city, and imagine country scenes: for among the rich, within four walls and out of reach, we live behind a screen" - Sandy Denny, 1970 (I'm not sure whether I agree entirely with these sentiments, mind. Whatever, I have quoted it often enough, so it has to be here.)

"The only difference between stupidity and the universe is that the universe is finite." Albert Einstein (I think).

"The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced." And "Keep going until your good becomes better, and your better becomes your best." Frank Zappa.

I do not quote. I am quoted. So there.

Just keep on keeping on

"It is better to regret something you have done, than it is to regret something you HAVEN'T done" - Butthole Surfers.

"One must allow other people to be right... it consoles them for not being anything else." - Andre Gide.

Two quotes that I live my life by...

any more wisdom?

"When the horse is dead, get off." I got it from Kinky Friedman-- don't know if he got it somewhere.

I do believe our friend Ed is referring to Farid Al-Din Attar's The Conference of the Birds.

"Physics is like sex, sure it has practical results but thats not why we do it." - Feynman

I have a notebook full of these and so cannot choose easily! these are the ones i actually live my life by though.

"I don't think it would all have got me quite so down if just once in a while - just once in a while - there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn't, it's just a disgusting waste of time!" -j.d. salinger

"Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you can teach your moods 'where they get off,' you can never be either a sound Christian or a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and hte state of its digestion." -c.s. lewis

"'To a life,' said the Viking, 'which is a reason unto istelf.'"-ayn rand

"Damn work. Damn death."-anthony burgess

The conference of birds is the greatest.

"Remember death brings eternal unconscioussness so live easily and conquer your anxieties , or you are futile." George Freeman

Lao Tzu say: "Man on hillside with mouth open wait long time before roast turkey fly in"

I'm not racist, I hate everybody. I don't know who said that. we were coming up with ideas for these last night. Never trust anyone wearing camel shoes, and never trust anyone in white trousers were two of my favourites.

Revive! I was having an argument last night because I thought the "I wouldn't be a member of any club that would have me" quote was Mark Twain, when instead it's Groucho Marx. D'oh.

Quotes! Famous or interesting or whatever!

"I am not young enough to know everything."

-- Oscar Wilde

Morrissey makes so much more sense now.

from the high school yearbook entry of my friend the prom king:

football is like nuclear war--there are no winners, only survivors