The Dignity of Speech

This seems seems to apply to modern politics. What custom does Donald Trump follow in terms of  language customs? What customs do the other politicians follow? Should it matter?

The Dignity of Speech 

Ben, Johnson (1573-1637).

“Custom is the most certain mistress of language, as the public stamp makes the current money. But we must not be too frequent with the mint, every day coming. Nor fetch words from the extreme and utmost ages; since the chief virtue of style perspicuity, and nothing so vicious in it, as to need an interpreter.”

What would the “extreme and utmost ages” be?

 

The Last Day

by: A Montana Hunter

For some, the end
of a casual day
for some, the end
of a significant display
of determination
of hope
of trial
of error
of life
of death
of survival
of accomplishment
They’ll continue without us
in the wild world
that some never see
In the depths of your imagination,
you explore the planned evasion
executed
by those who’ve humbled you.

On Pleasure

Epicurus (341-270 B.C.)

“Philosophy must be the cure of the mind and the soul; it must be a guide to happiness.”

“We must consider that of desires some are natural, others vain, and of the natural some are necessary and others merely natural; and of the necessary some are for happiness, others for the repose of the body, and others for very life. the right understanding of these facts enables us to refer all choice and avoidance to the health of the body and (the soul’s) freedom form disturbance, since this is the aim of the life of blessedness.”

Pessimism

Duhring, Eugen (1833-1921).

“Pessimism is itself the peak of moral evil, in the sense that it adores nothing and condemns nature. Scepticism tries to do that with regard to reason. It is the theoretical supplement to practical corruption. It is incompatible with the trust of healthy knowledge, and is opposed to real logical knowledge as a final possibility. When it remains faithful to its essence (or rather its nuisance), it implies that there cane deviation for personal contingencies; therefore it assists wicked-ness.”

On Progress

Mendelssohn, Moses (1729-1786).

 

“Progress is for individual man, who is destined by Providence to pass a portion of his eternity here on earth. Every one goes his own way through life. One’s route leads him over flowers and meadows; another’s across desert plains, over steep mountains or by the side of dangerous precipices. Yet they all get on in the journey, pursuing the road to happiness, to which they are destined. But that the bulk, or the whole human race here on earth, should be constantly moving forth in progress of time, and perfecting itself, seems to me to not have been the design of Providence.”

Travel

A poem by Robert Louis Stevenson (1901).

 

Hunting fish before his eyes;–
Where in jungles, near and far,
Man-devouring tigers are,
Lying close and giving ear
Lest the hunt be drawing near,
Or a comer-by be seen
Swinging in the palanquin;–
Where among the desert sands
Some deserted city stands,
All its children, sweep and prince,
Grown to manhood ages since,
Not a foot in street or house,
Not a stir of child or mouse,
And when kindly falls the night,
In all the town no spark of light.
There I’ll come when I’m a man
With a camel caravan;
Light a fire in the gloom
Of some dusty dining room;
See the pictures on the walls,
Heroes, fights and festivals;
And in the corner find the toys
Of the old Egyptian boys.

On Human Nature

Lu Wang (Lu Hsiang-Shan) (1139-1192).

 

“Human Nature is originally good. Any evil in it results from the changes made upon it by [external] things. He who knows the injury caused by [those external] things and who can revert himself [i.e. can return to his original condition], can then know that goodness is the innate possession of our Nature.”

“Mind should not be contaminated with anything; it should stand alone and independent. In its original state, the Mind of Man contains no disorder, [but gradually and] confusedly it is led astray by [external] things. If one has the proper spirit, he will immediately rise [above things], and will [attain the original] good. But if one continuously moves away [from the Original Mind], he will then become corrupted.”

The Love of Nature

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor.

 

“The love of nature is ever returned double to us, not only (as) the delighter in our delight, but by linking our sweetest, but of themselves perishable feelings to distinct and vivid images, which we ourselves, at times, and which a casual thousand recollections recall to our memory. She is the preserver, the treasurer, of our joys. even in sickness and nervous diseases she has peopled our imagination with lovely forms, which have sometimes overpowered the inward pain and brought with them their old sensations. And even when all men have seemed to desert us, and the friend of our heart has passed on with one glance form his “cold disliking eye–” yet even then the blue heaven spreads itself out and bends over us, and the little tree still shelters us under its plumage as a second cope, a domestic firmament, and the low creeping gale will sigh in the heath plant and soothe us by sound of sympathy, till the lulled grief lose in fixed gaze on the purple heath-blossom, till the present beauty becomes a vision of memory.”