Blog Archives - wouldgodmilkagoat?

wouldgodmilkagoat?

incapable of controlling what he was saying...

6/25/2017

He was obviously no longer concerned with the benefits of a peaceful settlement and the discussion of any such possibility; his sole intention was to demonstrate his own righteousness, his own power, and to demonstrate Alexander's wrongness and error.
His opening words had clearly been intended as an indication of his own advantageous position, and his willingness to negotiate despite it. But here he was in full flow, and the more he talked the less capable he became of controlling what he was saying.
His whole purpose was now clearly centered on the need to exult himself and insult Alexander, precisely what he had had the least intention of doing at the outset of the interview.--------Napoleon wouldn't go on. He himself was clearly the only person who needed to speak, and on he went with all the volubility and uncontrolled testiness of spoilt people.

War and Peace
~Leo Tolstoy

a buffoon like Hitler

6/24/2017

"No one in the family accompanied him. Sabine and Gerhard were lying low in Gottingen, frightened. Very few Jews would go abroad that night in Germany. -----The other Bonhoeffers would not associate themselves with such a vulgar show, and the mother and father retired early to read Dostoevsky in bed, secure in the knowledge that a buffoon like Hitler could not last long."

Saints and Villains
~Denise Giardina

Mindless Fury- (in its grip)

6/23/2017

War and Peace
~ Leo Tolstoy

"As an envoy he was anxious not to lose face, and he felt duty-bound to raise objections, but as a man he cringed before the numbing onslaught of mindless fury which had Napoleon in its grip. He was now aware that anything said by Napoleon would be meaningless and an embarrassment to the speaker himself when he eventually pulled himself together. Balashev stood there looking down at Napoleon's fat legs working away, and did all he could do to avert his eyes."

the king who didn't know himself

6/21/2017

Regan: "Tis the infirmity of his age. Yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself."

King Lear
~William Shakespeare

flirting with fascism

6/20/2017

Sabine had written, Dearest brother, our people are more than flirting with fascism. On every side one hears expressions of the purest hatred directed toward the government, toward Jews, toward emancipated women, toward artists and writers.---Dietrich's father had written, Do not believe any alarmist news from Germany. Of course your sister is upset. The Nazis make noise, and regularly brawl with Communists in the streets. (Not in our neighborhood.) There is some harassment of the Jews as well. But the German people will never vote for Hitler. Only a putsch could bring him to power, but a putsch requires secrecy, and a popularity Hitler does not enjoy. Never fear, we are keeping a close eye on our little Austrian. Sleep well, my son.

Saints and Villains
a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
~ Denise Giardina

This Hideous Rashness

6/19/2017

Let it fall rather, though the fork invade
The region of my heart. Be Kent unmannerly
When Lear is mad. What wouldst thou do, old man?
Think'st thou that duty shall have dread to speak
When power to flattery bows?
To plainness honor's bound
When majesty falls to folly. Reserve thy state,
And in thy best consideration check
This hideous rashness.

King Lear
~ William Shakespeare

a Particular Megalomaniac

6/19/2017

We can well understand how these---and other causes endless in number, infinite in their proliferation because of the endless points of view available---might have appeared to contemporaries. But for us, the descendants of these people, as we contemplate this vast accomplishment in all its enormity and seek to penetrate its dreadful simplicity, these explanations seem inadequate. It is beyond our comprehension that millions of Christian men should have killed and tortured each other just because Napoleon was a megalomaniac.

War and Peace
~Leo Tolstoy

Napoleon

6/17/2017

On the 29th of May Napoleon left Dresden, where he had spent three weeks surrounded by a court made up of princes, dukes, kings and even an emperor. Before leaving, Napoleon spoke pleasantly to the princes, kings and emperor who had earned his favour, and unpleasantly to the kings and princes who had not quite come up to scratch. He presented the Empress of Austria with some diamonds and pearls, of his own (which meant stolen from other kings). He warmly embraced his Empress, Marie-Louise, who thought of herself as his wife despite the existence of another one back in Paris, and left her behind.-----with the diplomats still believing firmly in the possibility of peace and working strenuously toward it, and even though the Emperor Napoleon had just written a personal letter to the Emperor Alexander calling him his 'esteemed brother' and assuring him in good faith that he had no wish to go to war and would always treat him with affection and respect.....

War and Peace
~ Leo Tolstoy

Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland

6/6/2017

"I was knocked up by him one night to go to the house, because he said they were calling to him. But when they got there, there was nothing to be found. But some see these things, and some can't. It's against our creed to believe in them. And the priests won't let on that they believe in them themselves, but they are more in dread of going about at night than any of us."

~Bartley Coen
as told to Lady Gregory and documented in the above text, published 1920