Comments supplied by Dr Abe V Rotor
At no moment and time should man forget to reflect. Be it at home, school or office. Before a meeting, speech, or worthy conversation. Before going to a trip, on arriving. Before meals, or going to bed. While in pain and suffering - physical or anguish. While clinging on hope. After surviving a crisis.
Here are some quotations from famous men and women whose lives and contributions to the world have shaped our lives today - and continue to do so.
1. The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots. - Erich Fromm (We live in a postmodern world. Robotic age is with us. Our children face the TV and computer longer than any other activity, longer than sleep even. Computer syndrome is taking our children away from parents, from home, from their plans in the future. Actually we have a a new master - the Robot)
2. Look out how you use proud words. When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back. - Primer Lesson (This quotation applies to me in particular, as Radio Instructor on Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid or People's School-on-Air. It is prayer before starting my daily evening program. )
3. Only a mediocre person is always at his best. - Somerset Maugham (This challenges us to do better than average - grades, work performance, sports, etc.)
4. Eloquence: Saying the proper thing and stopping. - Stanley Link (Prepare well what you are going to say, and know when you have said enough.)
5. The victor belongs to the spoils. - F Scott Fitzgerald (Revolution is always like that. That's why progress does not necessarily follow a revolution. Its transition is rough, though called peacetime.)
6. Every man's got to figure to get beat sometime. - Joe Louis (Take it from the champion, he is ready not to win the next bout.)
7. Nothing recedes like success. - Walter Winchell (Complacency is actually sliding back. Just don't settle down with your laurels.)
8. There is no such thing as a free lunch. - Milton Friedman (Everything has a price in this world. You got to pay what you receive - directly or indirectly.)
9. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. A magnificent desolation. Edwin Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon. (While beauty begets beauty, it is not ad infinitum. It has limit. Beauty could become monotonous, and fade away. In most cases though, we take beauty for granted.)
10. When you're as great as I am, it's hard to be humble. - Mohammed Ali (Take it from Ali, the Greatest. The champion is a defeated man outside the ring, more so in his old age.)
11. Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all. - President John F. Kennedy, honoring astronaut L Gordon Cooper, Jr. (The human brain works much more than the computer, because the brain is connected to feelings. It is connected to the heart, and to the human spirit, the soul.)
12. Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork? - Stanislaw J Lee (Anyone who saw the film, The Gods Must be Crazy, can attest that the natives of Kalahari Desert manifested a "finer culture" than the streetwise guys. When Charles Darwin brought natives from Tierra del Fuego to England to be educated, he thought that they could be transformed to join the mainstream of society. He was wrong. The natives held on to their primitive culture.)
13. What is the use of running when you are on the wrong road? - Proverb (That how many people get lost. And when they realize it, it may be too late.)
14. If peace cannot be maintained with honor, it is no longer peace. - Greenock (Take it from the present situation in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine conflict, our personal relationships.)
15. For the sake of one good action a hundred evil ones should be forgotten. - Chinese Proverb (The Boy in the Dike - a story of a boy who saved Holland by plugging a hole with his arm, and dying in the process. This is a legend though, but it serves well as analogy. Everyone is capable of doing a deed that others may be saved. This is the essence of martyrdom, heroism, philanthropy, sacrifice, etc. )
16. Gross National Product is our Holy Grail. Stewart Udall (GNP is the economic barometer of a country. But this is incomplete without relating it to HDI - Human Development Index. Does high GDP translate to people's education, health, employment?)
17. How can you write when you can't cry? - Ring Larder (Put feelings in what you do. Touch people's lives. Crying is indication of that very important factor - sensitivity, like feeling for others, compassion. The works of the great masters evolved from sensitivity, and not only scholarship.
18. Youth and age will never agree - Proverb (In ancient times, yes. It is not that strict today. Increased longevity and early maturity have created a wide boundary of age. Knowledge explosion through education and Internet continue to influence both young and old at an accelerating rate. So with travel, politics, affluence, arts, and the like, are bridges linking the generations.)
19. Fine art is that in which the hand, the head, and the heart of man go together. - The Two Paths (Holism is key to fine arts. To add another H, to Head, Heart and Hands, it is Humanity. Fine arts give a "polish" to human nature, and that of his society.
20. The only thing that we have to fear is fear itself. - Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
(It's true. Fear is also an equalizer, it is the path to humility and reverence. Of change. Everything changes except change. Fear makes us change, and move on. ~
5 comments:
I really loved this saying/quotation, because in our generation now, people just spit words without being sensitive and responsible. Media plays a huge role in this; it is one of the sources of everything for media is everywhere, it is the primary channel of people to execute their feelings and opinions wherein sometimes they forgot to be liable. Words hurt more than swords. Think before we speak and learn when to stop .
i love the saying, "What is the use of running when you are on the wrong road?". sometimes most of us become so self-centered that we only think of our own benefit and happiness despite the wrongness of our actions. we dont think of what others might feel with what we're doing. most of the time we already know that what we're doing isnt just right, but we still continue to do so to satisfy our selfish desires, to satisfy our eagerness and greed. but no matter how hard we try, we always end up with failures. however there could be times that we do not know that what we are trailing is the wrong way. because we get blinded by our own desires too. we can only be enlightened once something tragic or unpleasant happens to us, and then we end up realizing that we're in the wrong way.
- majesty mae ramos of 3ca3, university of santo tomas
The quotations are very applicable in our modern society. Like this one: "Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all". Some people are very amazed on what computers can do. It is evident that technology today continues to develop. But we should not forget that we are still more intelligent than computers. These computers are not perfect. It can also commit errors and doesn't have a brain that can think on its own because it is programmed.
this quotation "There is no such thing as a free lunch" made me think that in our life today, everything will not be free. kindness will never be done without paying back. this shows that our world change a lot, especially the attitude of mankind.
"The danger of the past was that men became slaves. The danger of the future is that men may become robots."
The given quotation has struck me the most. Yes, we may have all these cool gadgets in our world today. But we still have to consider 'manpower' which is the reason behind all these great inventions. And aside from that, because of these things, we people become very dependent on machines which is not a very good idea. This is very evident to children nowadays who face their computers longer than the time they face their books.
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