Today is


   "A word to the wise ain't necessary --  
          it's the stupid ones that need the advice."
					-Bill Cosby

Wednesday, September 28, 2005


Quote of the Day

"Religion is man's way of accepting life as an inevitable defeat. That it is not an inevitable defeat is a claim that cannot be defended in good faith. One can, of course, disperse one's life over the contingencies of every day, but even then it is only a ceaseless and desperate desire to live, and finally a regret that one has not lived. One can accept life, and accept it, at the same time, as a defeat only if one accepts that there is a sense beyond that which is inherent in human history -- if, in other words, one accepts the order of the sacred. A hypothetical world from which the sacred had been swept away would admit of only two possibilities: vain fantasy that recognizes itself as such, or immediate satisfaction which exhausts itself. It would leave only the choice proposed by Baudelaire, between lovers of prostitutes and lovers of clouds: those who know only the satisfactions of the moment and are therefore contemptible, and those who lose themselves in otiose imaginings , and are therefore contemptible. Everything is contemptible, and there is no more to be said. The conscience liberated from the sacred knows this, even if it conceals it from itself."

-- Leszek Kolakowski, "The Revenge of the Sacred in Secular Culture," in Modernity on Endless Trial

6 Comments:

Blogger Conservative in Virginia said...

Now, that's more like it. What I expect from Kate Marie: something to stretch my brain.

And to show my appreciation, here's a book suggestion for her daughters.

September 28, 2005 9:48 AM  
Blogger Kate Marie said...

LOL! Thanks, CIV. That looks like great bedtime reading for the girls -- good stocking stuffer material. Actually, my mother would probably get a big kick out of it, too.

I figured you'd take to Leszek Kolakowski a bit more readily than to Jack Black. :)

September 28, 2005 9:58 AM  
Blogger stewdog said...

I didn't know there were prostitute clouds. "Hey baby, nice nimbus. . wanna come over to my place and cumulus together?"

September 28, 2005 2:53 PM  
Blogger Conservative in Virginia said...

That was a rather otiose comment there, Stewdog.

September 28, 2005 5:23 PM  
Blogger stewdog said...

Damn, CIV, you sent me to the dictionary on that word. For a second I thought that I had committed a cardinal, venial, and mortal sin. But instead, you are saying that my comment was just not up to the posting.
Understand something about the Dog of Stew. I am the court jester among the literati where Kate Marie's postings are concerned. If I can't make an intelligent comment about them, expect humor. An as my friend Joyce once said about me "You have to listen to his jokes. . he hits on about 30% of them.

September 28, 2005 8:17 PM  
Blogger Conservative in Virginia said...

Ha! Caught you! You didn't read KM's post carefully, or you would have seen:

and those who lose themselves in otiose imaginings

I was just practicing my new vocabulary word.

September 29, 2005 12:57 PM  

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