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Chris Lavergne

4,208 Quotes
President of Thought.is
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4,208 quotes curated by Chris Lavergne:

“Her words were ended. But Aeneas, warned by Jove, held still his eyes; he struggled, pressed care back within his breast. With halting words he answers her at last: “I never shall deny what you deserve, the kindnesses that you could tell; I never shall regret remembering Elissa for as long as I remember my own self, as long as breath is king over these limbs. I’ll speak brief words that fit the case. I never hoped to hide—do not imagine that—my flight; I am not furtive. I have never held the wedding torches as a husband; I have never entered into such agreements. If fate had granted me to guide my life   460 by my own auspices and to unravel my troubles with unhampered will, then I should cherish first the town of Troy, the sweet remains of my own people and the tall rooftops of Priam would remain, my hand would plant again a second Pergamus for my defeated men. But now Grynean Apollo’s oracles would have me seize great Italy, the Lycian prophecies tell me of Italy: there is my love,  there is my homeland.”
— Virgil, The Aeneid
Tagged: Duty, Love
“The queen stopped but he, warned by Jupiter now, his gaze held steady, fought to master the torment in his heart. At last he ventured a few words: “I… you have done me so many kindnesses, and you could count them all. I shall never deny what you deserve, my queen, never regret my memories of Dido, not while I can recall myself and draw the breath of life. 420 I’ll state my case in a few words. I never dreamed I’d keep my flight a secret. Don’t imagine that. Nor did I once extend a bridegroom’s torch or enter into a marriage pact with you. If the Fates had left me free to live my life, to arrange my own affairs of my own free will, Troy is the city, first of all, that I’d safeguard, Troy and all that’s left of my people whom I cherish. The grand palace of Priam would stand once more, with my own hands I would fortify a second Troy 430 to house my Trojans in defeat. But not now. Grynean Apollo’s oracle says that I must seize on Italy’s noble land, his Lycian lots say ‘Italy!’ There lies my love, there lies my homeland now. ”
— Virgil, The Aeneid
Tagged: Duty
“The perfect criminal is the one who lays claim to the crime he has not committed. Who conceals his innocence behind the mask of crime. He is much harder to unmask. ”
— Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories IV: 1995 - 2000
Tagged: Crime, Masks
“As for freedom, it will soon cease to exist in any shape or form. Living will depend upon absolute obedience to a strict set of arrangements, which it will no longer be possible to transgress. The air traveller is not free. In the future, life's passengers will be even less so: they will travel through their lives fastened to their (corporate) seats. ”
— Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories
Tagged: Corporate Living, Freedom
“It is exciting to hear one of your fondest ideas formulated in one fell swoop, better than you could have done it yourself. You feel no intellectual jealously at seeing yourself outstripped in this way. ”
— Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories
Tagged: Quotes
“The corporate book industry can’t grow at the rate required by publicly held companies, anyway. This is why it is failing. Publishing is a sustainable business, not a growth industry. So it needs to be run by people looking for sustainable projects and careers—not runaway profits.”
— Douglas Rushkoff,
Tagged: Book Publishing
“For models come and go. Not that the old ones turn out necessarily to be untrue. They may remain entirely true while they become quite unfruitful. Models provide analogies which are of their very nature limited, and, as this dialogue which makes human society what it is moves on, the models once found serviceable because relevant in a special to current preoccupations are abandoned for others more relevant to new problems, new insights, and new solutions.”
— Walter Ong, American Catholic Crossroads
Tagged: Truth as Movement, Never Ending Story, The Evolution of Knowledge
“Like generals in the safety of a situation room using toy tanks on a miniature battlefield to re-create a noisy and violent war, government and corporate leaders strategized in isolation from the cacophony of feedback. They sought to engage with their challenges from far above and to make moves as if the action were occurring on a game board. Complexity was reduced to simple, strategic play.”
— Douglas Rushkoff, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now
Tagged: Complexity, Detachment
“In a networked ideascape, the ownership of an idea becomes as quaint and indefensible a notion as copyright or patents. Since ideas are built on the logic of others, there is no way to trace their independent origins. It’s all just access to the shared consciousness. Everything is everything. Acceptance of this premise feels communist or utopian; resistance feels like paranoia.”
— Douglas Rushkoff, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now
Tagged: Consciousness, Copyright
“How many generations before our own asked people to earn and save enough money while young in order to accumulate a nest egg big enough to live off for the last third of one’s life? It’s a bit like asking an animal to get fat enough not to have to eat again for the rest of its natural life. ”
— Douglas Rushkoff, Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now