Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Some more interesting quotations


A note: these are all from our Uncle Gilbert, and apply to technology, engineering, science...


"I have often thanked God for the telephone..." What's Wrong With the World CW4:112

"It may be easier to get chocolate for nothing out of a shopkeeper than out of an automatic machine. But if you did manage to steal the chocolate, the automatic machine would be much less likely to run after you." The Ball and the Cross

"No machine can lie," said Father Brown, "nor can it tell the truth." The Wisdom of Father Brown

"The rebuilding of this bridge between science and human nature is one of the greatest needs of mankind." The Defendant

"We have to go on using the Greek name of amber as the only name of electricity because we have no notion what is the real name or nature of electricity." The Common Man

"The Eastern says fate governs everything and he sits and looks pretty; we believe in Free-will and Predestination and we invent Babbage's Calculating Machine." (GKC quoted in Maisie Ward's Gilbert Keith Chesterton)

"I like the Cyclostyle ink; it is so inky. I do not think there is anyone who takes quite such a fierce pleasure in things being themselves as I do. The startling wetness of water excites and intoxicates me: the fieriness of fire, the steeliness of steel, the unutterable muddiness of mud. It is just the same with people.... When we call a man "manly" or a woman "womanly" we touch the deepest philosophy." (from a letter to Frances Blogg quoted in Maisie Ward's Gilbert Keith Chesterton)


I live in an age of varied powers and knowledge,
Of steam, science, democracy, journalism, art
But when my love rises like a sea,
I have to go back to an obscure tribe and a slain man
To formulate a blessing.
[CW10:30]


To the child the tree and the lamp-post are as natural and as artificial as each other; or rather, neither of them are natural but both supernatural. For both are splendid and unexplained. The flower with which God crowns the one, and the flame with which Sam the lamplighter crowns the other, are equally of the gold of fairy-tales. In the middle of the wildest fields the most rustic child is, ten to one, playing at steam-engines. And the only spiritual or philosophical objection to steam-engines is not that men pay for them or work at them, or make them very ugly, or even that men are killed by them; but merely that men do not play at them. The evil is that the childish poetry of clockwork does not remain. The wrong is not that engines are too much admired, but that they are not admired enough. The sin is not that engines are mechanical, but that men are mechanical.
Heretics CW1:112-113

3 Comments:

At 08 November, 2005 20:14, Blogger Dr. Thursday said...

Now that I am at home, and tired, I will do something strange, and comment on my own blogg.

"To the child the tree and the lamp-post are as natural and as artificial as each other; or rather, neither of them are natural but both supernatural. For both are splendid and unexplained."

I have read this before, but it is very moving to me.

I may be 50+ and a Ph.D. but still feel that way.

Is there anyone out there - Ph.D. or not - who feels that way too?


DON'T YOU EVER THINK ABOUT WHAT WE DO WITH THIS AMAZING THING IN FRONT OF YOU???? (OK, I'll try...)

You - you mean - this - this thing in front of me - this alphabet - I can press these things, and the words will be written, just as my mind directs my fingers, and then -

There is a small whispering sound...

They go WHERE?

Oh, no, it's almost too much to believe, it sounds like magic - like Floo powder from Diagon Alley, or the palantiri of FĂ«anor...

No, really - you say that WHAT I WRITE WILL GO OUT THROUGH THAT LITTLE WIRE AND EVERYONE THAT HAS THE SAME KIND OF LITTLE WIRE WILL BE ABLE TO READ THIS???

No, that's very hard to believe... but then again, it sounds just like what we do at Holy Mass.

Is there - is there some kind of ritual one must do - kiss the space-bar, or maybe incense the hard drives - maybe one must fast for a day, or keep vigil, or wash one's hands three times in the Jordan before touching the sacred alphabet-which-travels-to-the-world???

It seems too wonderful for us to just sit down and bang away.

But there it is.

And now you read what happens when I am tired and there is an unsupervised keyboard.

 
At 08 November, 2005 22:10, Blogger rhapsody said...

Hi Dr. Thursday,

I got home from work a little while ago-

Was having a problem with my blog, but Mrs. Brown told me how to adjust it-

I do really like your quotes, although I'm not an engineer or a doctor.

Many things are fascinating, whether they are explainable or not. I do not understand all the wires and how they work, although if someone gave me a simple explanation, I would probably catch on- well, if my kids helped :)

Whether I understand this form of communication or not, I know I'm very grateful for it, & glad that I know the little that I do!

Good night!
Thank you!

 
At 11 November, 2005 21:51, Blogger Nancy C. Brown said...

Dr. Thursday. Yes, I do. The first thought that popped into my head when I saw Chesterton's "I often thank God for the telephone" was that now it is, to me, "I often thank God for the internet, and computers, and the lack of language barrier (like a communion of saints). You are there, half way across the country, yet we can instantly communicate with each other by magic!

Yes, and prayer, worship, incense, bowing or genuflecting, if what in it is God we are worshipping, yes, because he created everything, yes.

It is truly and utterly amazing. And we would not be wrong to be amazed every moment of every day.

 

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