A Modicum of Modesty Please

I just picked up a new (for me) book to read, and

the very first paragraph prompted me to blog about it. The title of the book is More Than A Hero, by Hana Ali, daughter of Muhammad Ali (the boxer for those of you who have been off the planet for a few decades). Most people know Ali is a Muslim. Now, I do not dress all covered up like that, not at all; my favorite outfit is jeans n a sexy-yet-not-too-revealing top for going out on weekends. But today's girls drive me insane, all the girls gone wild antics. I could go into a rant about it but I won't, not in this particular blogging episode. But what I am gonna do is copy what Hana wrote, because I thought it very wise, sensitive, and intelligent. For those of you who are non-religious (I myself am anti-organized religion, pro-spirituality and your own private one-on-one relationship with your own concept of God/Creator), just take the mention of God metaphorically (tho Ali did not mean it that way- he was devout when saying this) and think of Nature and her creations:

FROM THE INTRODUCTION TO MORE THAN A HERO, BY HANA ALI

(She explains this happened when she was 9 or 10 years old, on her first visit to her father and his new wife.) ...I was wearing a little white tank top and a short black skirt. I had been raised Orthodox Muslim, so I had never before worn such revealing clothing while in my father's presence. When we finally arrived, the chauffeur escorted my younger sister, Laila, and me up to my father's suite. As usual, he was hiding behind the door waiting to scare us. We exchanged as many hugs and kisses as we could possibly give in one day. My father took a good look at us. Then, he sat me down on his lap and said something that I will never forget. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Hana, everything that God made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to. Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the of the ocean, covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You've got to work hard to get to them." He looked at me with serious eyes. "Your body is sacred. You're far more precious than diamonds and pearls, and you should be covered too."

QUOTES by Voltaire, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, John Wayne

JOHN WAYNE: May 26 1907 - June 11 1979

Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.

I've always followed my father's advice. He told me, first to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble.

Life's tough. Its even tougher if you're stupid.

If you've got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

Talk low, talk slow, and don't talk too much.

Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. Its perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday.


VOLTAIRE: November 21 1694 - May 30 1778

[I always find it interesting, when reading quotes, articles, etc from someone who lived long ago, to imagine their words and their frame of mind, their reasons for thinking that way, in context with the time they lived in and the events of that time; then I like to compare how accurately or inaccurately the same words may fit with the world today - often you see how timeless things really are - and compare the events of their day with those of today. Sometimes its a mere slip of thought that quickly blows away; but sometimes the parallels and/or the changes, and so on, can really stir up some interesting ideas and show the way to fascinating life lessons. Its hard to describe what I mean, but I'm sure many others do the same, and that some won't be interested in such things, and the rest, the ones I write of this for, will try it and then you'll see what I mean. I have a hard time describing it without writing a small book on it, so I'll stop here. -JasWolfhawk]

A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon to live without working at the expense of the rascals that work to live.

A multitude of laws in a country is, like a great number of physicians, a sign of weakness and malady. +++
+++ [This is one of the sayings I was speaking of above - one of my main complaints in this country today is that our elected representatives make WAY too many laws - many to protect us from ourselves, because they know what is best for us. This is strictly and directly opposed to our Constitution and the ideas and ideals of our Founding Fathers and the many who died fighting for our FREEDOM. Laws are meant to be GUIDELINES to be USED WITH COMMON SENSE, for the purpose of protecting us from others that would do us harm. As for the individual, the only thing of his/hers that this nation's government is supposed to protect is our LIBERTY, our right to pursue happiness as long as its not at the expense of others. We all will die. Til then, we each have the right to live in a way that makes us happy. What use is a long life if its so restricted you cannot enjoy it? Okay here I go again. You see what I mean, and I'll go on with the quotes now.]

A witty saying proves nothing.

All sects are different, because they come from men. Morality is everywhere the same, because it comes from God.

As long as people believe in absurdities, they will continue to commit atrocities.

As long as there are fools and rascals, there will be religions.

Common sense is not so common.

Do well and you will have no need for ancestors.

Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less in human beings of which they know nothing.
'
Doubt is not a pleasant condition but certainty is an absurd one.

England has 42 religions and only 2 sauces. (Ha ha)

Every man is guilty of all the good he DID NOT do.

God created sex. Priests created marriage.

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.

God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.

God is always on the side of the big battalions. [Well I guess so, since all winning sides always claim God helped them win, therefore their cause was just. Very excellent point.]

History is fables agreed upon.

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

I have lost the half of myself - a soul for which mine was made. [NOTE: Voltaire wrote this when Emilie, the love of his life, died. If you wish, you may read the love story of Voltaire and Emilie du Chatelet here http://www.visitvoltaire.com/love_story_voltaire.htm ++++++++


MARK TWAIN

Love seems the swiftest, but is the slowest of growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.

Man - a figment of God's imagination.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

Of all things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. [Seen it on bumper stickers and all over the place, but never have seen anyone credit Twain for saying it.]

Of all the delights of this world man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven.

Pessimism is only the name that men weak of nerve give to wisdom.

The best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he'd learned in 7 years.

OSCAR WILDE: October 16 1854 - November 30 1900

A grand passion is the privilege of people who have nothing to do.

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not love her.

A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

Alas, I am dying beyond my means. (Wilde said this as he sipped champagne on his deathbed)

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.

America had often been discovered befoe Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.

America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

Being natural is simply a pose.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. there is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Everyone who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.

I am not young enough to know everything. [HA! I seen teenagers and young men and women have not changed at all!]

I can resist anything but temptation.

Missionaries are going to reform the world whether it wants to or not.

QUOTES

THOMAS JEFFERSON: " Banks are more dangerous than standing armies." ( A "standing army" is defined as "a permanent army of paid soldiers"; a type of army, not really made of citizens with the people's causes and protection as its purpose. They are more along the lines of Hitler's SS - an army with the rulers' interests in mind, meant to keep the powers protected against the people.)

MUHAMMED ALI: (Ali delivered this at his Harvard graduation. Supposedly its the shortest quote in the English language. Its definitely short and sweet, but THINK about it.) "Me, we."
ALSO FROM ALI: "Its hard to be humble, when you're as great as I am." BUT HE ALSO SAID: "It's just a job. Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand. I beat people up."

MAYA ANGELOU: "We really are 15 countries, and its remarkable that each of us thinks we represent the REAL America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the black American in Durham - both are certain that they are the real American."

THOMAS JEFFERSON: "An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens."
"Democracy is 51% of the people taking away the rights of the other 49%."
"God forbid we should ever be 20 years without a rebellion."
"I have no ambition to govern men. It is a painful and thankless office."
"I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
"I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service, and of retiring with hands as clean as they are empty."
"I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms are in the physical."
"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wastion the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."
"If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny." (Ever notice that tho people seem to be living longer, they feel worse during that long lifetime?)
"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong."
"In matters of style, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock."
"Information is the currency of democracy." (And people who choose to remain ignorant will be ruled by those who know. Awareness and participation are the price of democracy.)
"It is error alone which needs the support of government. The truth can stand up for itself."
"It is in our lives, not in our words, that our religion must be read."
"Never trouble another for what you can do yourself."
"No government should ever be without censors, and where the press is FREE, no one ever will." (Unfortunately, the media cannot be trusted to tell the whole truth and nothing but truth today - everyone has an agenda to push.)
"No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it... To myself, personally, it brings nothing but increasing drudgery and daily loss of friends."
"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances." (Yet so many today think they have to show out and be bad. Loudness has nothing to do with being right.)
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he MUST more approve of the homage of reason than that blindfold of fear." (At another time he repeated this statement, but he changed the word "fear" to "faith")
"Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it (my life) has been honest and dutiful to society, the religion which regulated it cannot be a bad one."
"That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves."
"The beauty of the 2nd amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it."
"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are WILLING to work and give to those who would NOT." (This has nothing to do with helping those who are truly in need- only the lazy who look for a free ride, as if life and everyone else owes them something for existing.)
"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurous to others." (And it has no right to protect me from myself, nor to make laws based on opinions, not facts.)
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilence."
(The exact meaning of the 2nd amendment has been debated. Falsely. Its a matter of public record EXACTLY what the founding fathers meant:) "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." (And remember, Jefferson is the author of the bulk of the Constitution.)
"The Tree of Liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
"The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our 1st objective."
"There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequal people."
"We confide in our strength, without boasting of it; we respect that (strength) of others,without fearing it."

UNKNOWN: "Truth is always the strongest argument."

THOMAS JEFFERSON: (yes again. What can I say - I'm a big fan. And this should've been included previously.)
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are the rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness...Whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends it is the right of the people to abolish it, and to institute a new government." (Note the right is for the PURSUIT of happiness - the right to do whatever you need to do to try to achieve happiness, as long as it doesn't take away from anyone else. He does not say we have the right to guaranteed happiness - just the pursuit of it. That's a huge difference that some people just do not seem to understand.)

(I DIDN'T NOTE THE SOURCES OF THESE - I'M SURE A SEARCH WOULD PROVIDE THIS INFO IF NEEDED);
Suspicion haunts the guilty mind.

He jests at scars who never felt a wound.

Beware of jealousy. It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on.

When pride begins, love ceases.

A habit of sneering marks the egotist, or the fool, or the knave, or all three.

Common and vulgar people ascribe all ill that THEY feel to others.

The fawning, sneaking, and flattering hypocrite, that will do, or be, anything for his own advantage.

Fate steals along with silent tread, Found oftenest in what we least dread, Frowns in the storm with angry brow, But in the sunshine strikes the blow.

We should often be ashamed of our very best actions, if the world only saw the motives which caused them.

One believes easily that which one hopes for earnestly.