Few new truths have ever won their way against the resistance of established ideas save by being overstated.
quote by Isaiah Berlin
Added by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
Save Your Love
You were my woman and I was your man
You were good lookin
You know I was your biggest fan
You tried to teach me things I already knew
When you couldnt reach me
Girl, I think you knew that we were through
Baby, its over
Save your love, save it, save it
Save your love, save it, save it
Save your love, I dont want it (save your love)
Save it for someone else (save it, save it)
Save your love, I dont need it (save your love)
Put it back on the shelf
For somebody else
You said you love me, you may have been right
But hangin above me, girl,
You know that we would fight
You tried to change me and mess up my mind
Now, dont rearrange me
And girl, you know thats why youre left behind
Its over now
Save your love, save it, save it
Save your love, save it, save it
Save your love, I dont want it (save your love)
Save it for someone else (save it, save it)
Save your love, I dont need it (save your love)
Put it back on the shelf
For somebody else
Girl, you know its over
We had some good times
But now theyre gone, so long
Save your love, save it, save it
Save your love, save it, save it
Save your love, I dont want it (save your love)
Save it for someone else (save it, save it)
Save your love, I dont need it (save your love)
Put it back on the shelf
For somebody else
Save your love, I dont want it (save your love)
Save it for someone else (save it, save it)
Save your love, I dont need it (save your love)
Girl, I dont want it, save your love
Save your love, I dont want it (save your love)
Save it for someone else (save it, save it)
Save your love, I dont need it (save your love)
Girl, I dont want it, save your love
Save your love, I dont want it (save your love)
Save it for someone else (save it, save it)
Save your love, I dont need it (save your love)
Girl, I dont want it, save your love
song performed by Kiss
Added by Lucian Velea
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On A Path Of Least Resistance
I'm on a path of least resistance.
And its existence.
On a path of least resistance.
I'm on a path of least resistance,
And its existence.
On a path of least resistance.
Pain,
And its existence.
Felt,
And its existence.
Hurts,
In this existence...
And I need to get away.
Pain,
And its existence.
Felt,
And its existence.
Hurts,
In this existence...
And I need to get away.
I'm on a path of least resistance.
And its existence.
On a path of least resistance,
And I need to get away.
I'm on a path of least resistance.
And its existence.
On a path of least resistance,
And I need to get away.
Oh!
Pain,
And its existence.
Oh.
Felt,
And its existence.
Oh.
Hurts,
In this existence...
And I need to get away.
Oh pain,
And its existence.
Oh.
Felt,
And its existence.
Oh.
[...] Read more
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Added by Poetry Lover
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Save Me
(with dave mason)
Save me...
Save me...
Shes not a star
But shell go far
So shes telling all her friends
Shes only young and just begun
To see clearly
In her eyes
Nothing turned out like she thought it would
(thought it would)
And I was waiting right there where she stood
She said: save me
From this wicked world Im livin in
She said: save me
I dont wanna lose, I wanna win
I cant run and I cant hide
(cant run, cant hide away)
I cant run and I cant hide
(cant run, cant hide away)
She said: save me
(save me, girl)
She said save me...
Ooh!
All on her own
Shes on the phone
So sincerely...
Ooh... makin a joke
Theres no reply
She wonders why
And pays the rent one more time
Everybodys out there on the take
(on the take)
And I was there when she began to brake
(she began to brake)
She said: save me
From this wicked world Im livin in
(save me, baby)
She said: save me
I dont wanna lose, I wanna win
I cant run and I cant hide
(cant run, cant hide away)
I cant run and I cant hide
(cant run, cant hide away)
She said: save me
(save me, girl)
She said save me...
Ooh!
Everybodys out there on the take
(on the take)
[...] Read more
song performed by Michael Jackson
Added by Lucian Velea
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Slipping Away
i keep slipping away
i keep slipping away
i keep slipping
i keep slipping
i keep slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
myself keeps slipping away
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save
tried to save
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save myself
tried to save
save
save
keep slipping
save
keep slipping
[...] Read more
song performed by Nine Inch Nails
Added by Lucian Velea
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You
You - youre wasting my time
You - youre wasting my time
Were making music were doing fine
Were making music were doing fine
Then a slap in the face takes me back to the starting line
Then a slap in the face takes me back to the starting line
You - your wasting my life
You - your wasting my life
You cant lose what youve already lost
You cant lose what youve already lost
Your arms are open but your legs are crossed
Your arms are open but your legs are crossed
Save me - save me
Save me - save me
Im going down for the third time
Im going down for the third time
Save me - save me
Save me - save me
Somebody throw me my next line
Somebody throw me my next line
Too hot for me to handle
Too hot for me to handle
So cold Im getting nowhere
So cold Im getting nowhere
Pinch me to see if Im sleeping
Pinch me to see if Im sleeping
Maybe its only a nightmare
Maybe its only a nightmare
You - why did it have to be you?
You - why did it have to be you?
Of all those girls I had to choose
Of all those girls I had to choose
You win and I lose
You win and I lose
You - you with the poisonous eyes
You - you with the poisonous eyes
One look and Im hooked
One look and Im hooked
One touch and my goose is cooked
One touch and my goose is cooked
Save me - save me
Save me - save me
Im going down for the third time
Im going down for the third time
Save me - save me
Save me - save me
Somebody throw me a life line
Somebody throw me a life line
Too late to change partners
Too late to change partners
[...] Read more
song performed by Who
Added by Lucian Velea
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Ideas For Walls
So many things in my head, Ive always had them before
No reason to be upset, theyre just ideas for walls
Now Im standing inside, outside, which is the right side
Im standing, demanding that the nightlife be called the right life
Like putting paint on my feet & walking sideways in rows
My walls could be so complete, complete with patterns of toes
Now Im standing inside, outside, which is the right side
Im standing the left side, right side, which is the right side
Now-ideas
Ideas for walls
Ideas for walls
Ideas for walls
A little m for the mirror, a double u for the wall
To make things perfectly clear, a great big h in the hall
Now Im standing inside, outside, which is the right side
Im standing, demanding that the nightlife be called the right life
Is everybody confused? (no) Im making no sense at all
You want a room with a view you need ideas for walls
Now Im standing inside, outside, which is the right side
Im standing inside, outside, outside, right side
Inside, outside, which is the right side
Now -- ideas
Ideas for walls
Ideas for walls
Ideas for walls
Ideas
Theyre just ideas for walls
Ideas for walls
Ideas for walls
Ideas for walls
Ideas for walls
song performed by Men Without Hats
Added by Lucian Velea
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Save Me
Written by christine mcvie and eddy quintela.
Hey you
The one with the laughing eyes
You, the one with the haunting stare
Well you
You have the power to hypnotize
I shoulda known better
I should beware
cos I have followed you
Done everything for you
But you just wont look my way
So come on baby and
Save me
Im running for cover
Save me
Is it one or the other babe
Save me
Its time for somebody else
Save me
Well, you, you could own the universe
Think about it and youll realize
You, you got to believe me
And take my word
Look at me
Its written in my eyes
cos I have followed you
Done everything for you
But you just wont look my way
So come on baby and
Save me
Im running for cover
Save me
Is it one or the other babe
Save me
I guess its time for somebody else
Save me
I cant wait any longer
For paradise
I told you once
Im not gonna tell you twice
So come on baby and
Save me
Im running for cover
Save me
Is it one or the other babe
Save me
I guess its time for somebody else
Save me
Save me
Im running for cover
[...] Read more
song performed by Fleetwood Mac
Added by Lucian Velea
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Bipolar
Oh no here we go,
here we go again
You were so afraid
you let me back in
Back in thru a door
you had long forgot
Its resistance is shot,
mine was not
But I waited..
my complicated,overrated girl
You know that I hated,we suffocated
and Overstated everything
Why can't you be bi-sexual instead of bi-polar?
Oh look there she goes
There she goes again
She keeps on checkin out
Checkin out her friends
I swear you'll never know
Know what's on her mind
Wish she'd given in
At least one time, Cuz
I waited..
my complicated,overrated girl
You know that I hated,we suffocated
and Overstated everything
Why can't you be bi-sexual instead of bi-polar?
Get up get up, whatcha doing in bed
I think it's all in your head
Get up get up, no don't sleep sunday morning
And there's a whole world around you gotta let in
Especially the girls, we all like the girls
I waited..
my complicated,overrated girl
You know that I hated,we suffocated
and Overstated everything
Why can't you be bi-sexual?
Why can't you be bi-sexual?
Why can't you be bi-sexual?
instead of bi-polar
song performed by Bowling For Soup
Added by Lucian Velea
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Runaround On The Underground
(a. bell / v. clarke)
Im waiting at the bus stop for a double-decker ride.
Supermarket checkout boy finds his way inside.
A shady looking character, his beady eyes on me.
I slip into a window seat, and then pretend to read.
Its a wild, its a wild, wild, wild world.
The hardest thing is holding on,
Holding on and take the strain.
Theyre coming at me at angles that I never knew existed.
They aint gonna get me.
Im building up my colours of resistance. (colours of resistance)
Its a runaround on the underground.
A cybermatic shopper, with a slight sadistic grin,
Pulls a zipper on her sleeping bag; shuts herself within.
A triple quilted chrysalis waiting for the sales.
A bargain basement butterfly going off the rails
Its a wild, its a wild, wild, wild world.
The hardest thing is holding on,
Holding on and take the strain.
Theyre coming at me at angles that I never knew existed...woah
They aint gonna get me.
Im building up my colours of resistance. (colours of resistance)
Its a runaround on the underground.
Its a wild, its a wild, wild, wild world.
The hardest thing is holding on,
Holding on and take the strain.
Theyre coming at me at angles that I never knew existed.
They aint gonna get me.
Im building up my colours of resistance. (colours of resistance)
Its a runaround on the underground the hardest thing is holding on,
Holding on and take the strain.
Theyre coming at me at angles that I never knew existed.
They aint gonna get me.
Im building up my colours of resistance. (colours of resistance)
The hardest thing is holding on,
Holding on and take the strain.
song performed by Erasure
Added by Lucian Velea
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Save Us
Too late to call for the priest
He is not here anymore
We look at the age of the beast
And weve seen its vast armies form
Hear our call
Chorus: please, save us
Please, save us
In permanent madness we live
No time for life and for love
To take is the rule, not to give
Insanity comes from below
To take us all
Chorus: please, save us
Please, save us
We believe that the phenomena of nature
Are the expression of infinitive intelligence
We express our belief that all forms of life
Are manifestations of spirit
And thus, all men are children of god
Far from down below one comes prepared to take us all
Waiting for his future and the final call
We stand on the edge of the world
Just one step more and we fall
Guide us and please take our hands
Without you were weak and alone
Hear our call
Chorus: please, save us
Please, save us
Now!
Save us--from the gods of thunder
Save us--from the dogs of war
Save us--from the creeping nightmares
Save us--from the evils course
Save us--from our own ignorance
Save us--from the man in black
Save us--from the desolation
Save us--from the hate attack
Save us--oh please
Save us--please save us
Save us--oh please
Save us--now!
song performed by Helloween
Added by Lucian Velea
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Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society
Epigraph
Υδραν φονεύσας, μυρίων τ᾽ ἄλλων πόνων
διῆλθον ἀγέλας . . .
τὸ λοίσθιον δὲ τόνδ᾽ ἔτλην τάλας πόνον,
. . . δῶμα θριγκῶσαι κακοῖς.
I slew the Hydra, and from labour pass'd
To labour — tribes of labours! Till, at last,
Attempting one more labour, in a trice,
Alack, with ills I crowned the edifice.
You have seen better days, dear? So have I —
And worse too, for they brought no such bud-mouth
As yours to lisp "You wish you knew me!" Well,
Wise men, 't is said, have sometimes wished the same,
And wished and had their trouble for their pains.
Suppose my Œdipus should lurk at last
Under a pork-pie hat and crinoline,
And, latish, pounce on Sphynx in Leicester Square?
Or likelier, what if Sphynx in wise old age,
Grown sick of snapping foolish people's heads,
And jealous for her riddle's proper rede, —
Jealous that the good trick which served the turn
Have justice rendered it, nor class one day
With friend Home's stilts and tongs and medium-ware,—
What if the once redoubted Sphynx, I say,
(Because night draws on, and the sands increase,
And desert-whispers grow a prophecy)
Tell all to Corinth of her own accord.
Bright Corinth, not dull Thebes, for Lais' sake,
Who finds me hardly grey, and likes my nose,
And thinks a man of sixty at the prime?
Good! It shall be! Revealment of myself!
But listen, for we must co-operate;
I don't drink tea: permit me the cigar!
First, how to make the matter plain, of course —
What was the law by which I lived. Let 's see:
Ay, we must take one instant of my life
Spent sitting by your side in this neat room:
Watch well the way I use it, and don't laugh!
Here's paper on the table, pen and ink:
Give me the soiled bit — not the pretty rose!
See! having sat an hour, I'm rested now,
Therefore want work: and spy no better work
For eye and hand and mind that guides them both,
During this instant, than to draw my pen
From blot One — thus — up, up to blot Two — thus —
Which I at last reach, thus, and here's my line
Five inches long and tolerably straight:
[...] Read more
poem by Robert Browning (1871)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Canto the Eighth
I
Oh blood and thunder! and oh blood and wounds!
These are but vulgar oaths, as you may deem,
Too gentle reader! and most shocking sounds:
And so they are; yet thus is Glory's dream
Unriddled, and as my true Muse expounds
At present such things, since they are her theme,
So be they her inspirers! Call them Mars,
Bellona, what you will -- they mean but wars.
II
All was prepared -- the fire, the sword, the men
To wield them in their terrible array.
The army, like a lion from his den,
March'd forth with nerve and sinews bent to slay, --
A human Hydra, issuing from its fen
To breathe destruction on its winding way,
Whose heads were heroes, which cut off in vain
Immediately in others grew again.
III
History can only take things in the gross;
But could we know them in detail, perchance
In balancing the profit and the loss,
War's merit it by no means might enhance,
To waste so much gold for a little dross,
As hath been done, mere conquest to advance.
The drying up a single tear has more
Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore.
IV
And why? -- because it brings self-approbation;
Whereas the other, after all its glare,
Shouts, bridges, arches, pensions from a nation,
Which (it may be) has not much left to spare,
A higher title, or a loftier station,
Though they may make Corruption gape or stare,
Yet, in the end, except in Freedom's battles,
Are nothing but a child of Murder's rattles.
V
And such they are -- and such they will be found:
Not so Leonidas and Washington,
Whose every battle-field is holy ground,
Which breathes of nations saved, not worlds undone.
How sweetly on the ear such echoes sound!
While the mere victor's may appal or stun
The servile and the vain, such names will be
A watchword till the future shall be free.
[...] Read more
poem by Byron from Don Juan (1824)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Thoughts and ideas - (Talking through my hat)
Break and husk
thoughts and ideas that,
without reason,
I smashing them like nuts
into my head – mortar with pig iron pestle.
Lay and hatch
thoughts and ideas,
and younglings,
instead of fly,
I keep them under latch
in my head – cage of neurons,
dendrites and axons.
Knead and raise
thoughts and ideas
but let me tempted,
and without reason,
instead of bake them, I play
“of thieves and bobbies”
with bullets of dough
shot from my head – automatic gun.
Pull kernels out of
thoughts and ideas
but I put not them to spring
and hundredfold harvest to bring,
I chain them necklace
that my poor mind
who walks nomad
through my head – ballad
to put it neck
in a night with moon
and than to catch
in a fairies dance
and hungry of blue
to soar in the stars.
***
Thoughts and ideas
are shrieking through my mind
as lost migratory birds
in an autumn of rains.
Thoughts and ideas
- arrow-shaped cranes with wet wings -
fall all at once
in my head – moorland
of thistle and mud.
[...] Read more
poem by Viorel Petru Trifan
Added by Poetry Lover
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Save Your Love
(jerry lynn williams)
Producer for bonnie: gene capel
I've always wandered alone
Afraid and on my own
But up till now i'd think of you
Memories lost and regained
Seemed to refrain me
On days that weren't quite so blue
*save your love
Like it means the world to you
'cause that's exactly what
Your love means to me
It's like a spirit lost
And finally set free
Come on and save your love
Save your love for me
You upped and told me your feelings
Hiding down deep within
Where do i begin
So i'll keep on singing this song
Hope you'll sing along
Then maybe someday we'll be friends
(* repeat 2 times)
Save your love, oh yeah
Save your love
Come on and save your love
Save your love for me
Save your love, save your love
Come on and save your love
Save your love for me
(* repeat)
Save your love
Oh save your love
Save your love, oh yeah yeah
Save your love
Save your love
Come on and save your love
Save your love...
song performed by Bonnie Tyler
Added by Lucian Velea
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Save Me
I'm driving through the desert I, met a man
Who told me of his crazy plan
He'd been walking there for 20 days
He was going to walk on
For 20 more
Said "How about a drink or a bite to eat?"
He said "No, my faith is all I need"
So then, save me
Save me mister walking man
If you can
You don't need to prove a thing to me
Just give me faith, make me believe
Come on, save me
Save me Mister walking man
If you can
Come on, save me
Save me Mister stranger
If you please save me
Save me
Stranger, if you please
Or am I too far gone
I see to get back home
To get back home
How about you take a ride with me
We could kill some time, shoot the breeze
He said "every whispering wind and second counts"
Oh, maybe if you walk, but you should drive around
Save me
Save me
Mr walking man, if you can
Come on, save me
Save me Mr stranger, if you please
Save me, save me
Stranger, if you please
Or am I too far gone
To get back home
To get back home
I don't need you to stall for some time, no
I don't need you to turn water into wine, no
I don't need you to, to fly
I'm just asking you to save me
(You might try savin' yourself)
I'm gonna save me
(You might try savin' yourself)
I swear those lips shine
(You might try savin' yourself)
As it, the moon, the moon it shines
(You might try savin' yourself)
Why don't you, save me
(You might try savin' yourself)
[...] Read more
song performed by Dave Matthews Band
Added by Lucian Velea
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V. Count Guido Franceschini
Thanks, Sir, but, should it please the reverend Court,
I feel I can stand somehow, half sit down
Without help, make shift to even speak, you see,
Fortified by the sip of … why, 't is wine,
Velletri,—and not vinegar and gall,
So changed and good the times grow! Thanks, kind Sir!
Oh, but one sip's enough! I want my head
To save my neck, there's work awaits me still.
How cautious and considerate … aie, aie, aie,
Nor your fault, sweet Sir! Come, you take to heart
An ordinary matter. Law is law.
Noblemen were exempt, the vulgar thought,
From racking; but, since law thinks otherwise,
I have been put to the rack: all's over now,
And neither wrist—what men style, out of joint:
If any harm be, 't is the shoulder-blade,
The left one, that seems wrong i' the socket,—Sirs,
Much could not happen, I was quick to faint,
Being past my prime of life, and out of health.
In short, I thank you,—yes, and mean the word.
Needs must the Court be slow to understand
How this quite novel form of taking pain,
This getting tortured merely in the flesh,
Amounts to almost an agreeable change
In my case, me fastidious, plied too much
With opposite treatment, used (forgive the joke)
To the rasp-tooth toying with this brain of mine,
And, in and out my heart, the play o' the probe.
Four years have I been operated on
I' the soul, do you see—its tense or tremulous part—
My self-respect, my care for a good name,
Pride in an old one, love of kindred—just
A mother, brothers, sisters, and the like,
That looked up to my face when days were dim,
And fancied they found light there—no one spot,
Foppishly sensitive, but has paid its pang.
That, and not this you now oblige me with,
That was the Vigil-torment, if you please!
The poor old noble House that drew the rags
O' the Franceschini's once superb array
Close round her, hoped to slink unchallenged by,—
Pluck off these! Turn the drapery inside out
And teach the tittering town how scarlet wears!
Show men the lucklessness, the improvidence
Of the easy-natured Count before this Count,
The father I have some slight feeling for,
Who let the world slide, nor foresaw that friends
Then proud to cap and kiss their patron's shoe,
Would, when the purse he left held spider-webs,
Properly push his child to wall one day!
[...] Read more
poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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VII. Pompilia
I am just seventeen years and five months old,
And, if I lived one day more, three full weeks;
'T is writ so in the church's register,
Lorenzo in Lucina, all my names
At length, so many names for one poor child,
—Francesca Camilla Vittoria Angela
Pompilia Comparini,—laughable!
Also 't is writ that I was married there
Four years ago: and they will add, I hope,
When they insert my death, a word or two,—
Omitting all about the mode of death,—
This, in its place, this which one cares to know,
That I had been a mother of a son
Exactly two weeks. It will be through grace
O' the Curate, not through any claim I have;
Because the boy was born at, so baptized
Close to, the Villa, in the proper church:
A pretty church, I say no word against,
Yet stranger-like,—while this Lorenzo seems
My own particular place, I always say.
I used to wonder, when I stood scarce high
As the bed here, what the marble lion meant,
With half his body rushing from the wall,
Eating the figure of a prostrate man—
(To the right, it is, of entry by the door)
An ominous sign to one baptized like me,
Married, and to be buried there, I hope.
And they should add, to have my life complete,
He is a boy and Gaetan by name—
Gaetano, for a reason,—if the friar
Don Celestine will ask this grace for me
Of Curate Ottoboni: he it was
Baptized me: he remembers my whole life
As I do his grey hair.
All these few things
I know are true,—will you remember them?
Because time flies. The surgeon cared for me,
To count my wounds,—twenty-two dagger-wounds,
Five deadly, but I do not suffer much—
Or too much pain,—and am to die to-night.
Oh how good God is that my babe was born,
—Better than born, baptized and hid away
Before this happened, safe from being hurt!
That had been sin God could not well forgive:
He was too young to smile and save himself.
When they took two days after he was born,
My babe away from me to be baptized
And hidden awhile, for fear his foe should find,—
[...] Read more
poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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A Map Of Culture
Culture
Contents
What is Culture?
The Importance of Culture
Culture Varies
Culture is Critical
The Sociobiology Debate
Values, Norms, and Social Control
Signs and Symbols
Language
Terms and Definitions
Approaches to the Study of Culture
Are We Prisoners of Our Culture?
What is Culture?
I prefer the definition used by Ian Robertson: 'all the shared products of society: material and nonmaterial' (Our text defines it in somewhat more ponderous terms- 'The totality of learned, socially transmitted behavior. It includes ideas, values, and customs (as well as the sailboats, comic books, and birth control devices) of groups of people' (p.32) .
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poem by Nyein Way
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XI. Guido
You are the Cardinal Acciaiuoli, and you,
Abate Panciatichi—two good Tuscan names:
Acciaiuoli—ah, your ancestor it was
Built the huge battlemented convent-block
Over the little forky flashing Greve
That takes the quick turn at the foot o' the hill
Just as one first sees Florence: oh those days!
'T is Ema, though, the other rivulet,
The one-arched brown brick bridge yawns over,—yes,
Gallop and go five minutes, and you gain
The Roman Gate from where the Ema's bridged:
Kingfishers fly there: how I see the bend
O'erturreted by Certosa which he built,
That Senescal (we styled him) of your House!
I do adjure you, help me, Sirs! My blood
Comes from as far a source: ought it to end
This way, by leakage through their scaffold-planks
Into Rome's sink where her red refuse runs?
Sirs, I beseech you by blood-sympathy,
If there be any vile experiment
In the air,—if this your visit simply prove,
When all's done, just a well-intentioned trick,
That tries for truth truer than truth itself,
By startling up a man, ere break of day,
To tell him he must die at sunset,—pshaw!
That man's a Franceschini; feel his pulse,
Laugh at your folly, and let's all go sleep!
You have my last word,—innocent am I
As Innocent my Pope and murderer,
Innocent as a babe, as Mary's own,
As Mary's self,—I said, say and repeat,—
And why, then, should I die twelve hours hence? I—
Whom, not twelve hours ago, the gaoler bade
Turn to my straw-truss, settle and sleep sound
That I might wake the sooner, promptlier pay
His due of meat-and-drink-indulgence, cross
His palm with fee of the good-hand, beside,
As gallants use who go at large again!
For why? All honest Rome approved my part;
Whoever owned wife, sister, daughter,—nay,
Mistress,—had any shadow of any right
That looks like right, and, all the more resolved,
Held it with tooth and nail,—these manly men
Approved! I being for Rome, Rome was for me.
Then, there's the point reserved, the subterfuge
My lawyers held by, kept for last resource,
Firm should all else,—the impossible fancy!—fail,
And sneaking burgess-spirit win the day.
The knaves! One plea at least would hold,—they laughed,—
One grappling-iron scratch the bottom-rock
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poem by Robert Browning from The Ring and the Book
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Canto the Second
I
Oh ye! who teach the ingenuous youth of nations,
Holland, France, England, Germany, or Spain,
I pray ye flog them upon all occasions,
It mends their morals, never mind the pain:
The best of mothers and of educations
In Juan's case were but employ'd in vain,
Since, in a way that's rather of the oddest, he
Became divested of his native modesty.
II
Had he but been placed at a public school,
In the third form, or even in the fourth,
His daily task had kept his fancy cool,
At least, had he been nurtured in the north;
Spain may prove an exception to the rule,
But then exceptions always prove its worth -—
A lad of sixteen causing a divorce
Puzzled his tutors very much, of course.
III
I can't say that it puzzles me at all,
If all things be consider'd: first, there was
His lady-mother, mathematical,
A—never mind; his tutor, an old ass;
A pretty woman (that's quite natural,
Or else the thing had hardly come to pass);
A husband rather old, not much in unity
With his young wife—a time, and opportunity.
IV
Well—well, the world must turn upon its axis,
And all mankind turn with it, heads or tails,
And live and die, make love and pay our taxes,
And as the veering wind shifts, shift our sails;
The king commands us, and the doctor quacks us,
The priest instructs, and so our life exhales,
A little breath, love, wine, ambition, fame,
Fighting, devotion, dust,—perhaps a name.
V
I said that Juan had been sent to Cadiz -—
A pretty town, I recollect it well -—
'T is there the mart of the colonial trade is
(Or was, before Peru learn'd to rebel),
And such sweet girls—I mean, such graceful ladies,
Their very walk would make your bosom swell;
I can't describe it, though so much it strike,
Nor liken it—I never saw the like:
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poem by Byron from Don Juan (1824)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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