OSCAR WILDE’S EPIGRAMS ON THOUGHT

 

          OSCAR WILDE’S EPIGRAMS ON THOUGHT

            A thought is defined as something a person thinks of or remembers.

            And thoughts are said to be a person’s mind and all the ideas that are there  when thinking is going on.

            Some important synonyms of thought are : Idea, judgement, conclusion, appraisal, assessment, estimation, opinion,  point of view, position, stance  , stand, feeling, sentiment, belief, conviction, etc.

            Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish poet, novelist and playwright. He became famous due to his sharp wit, flamboyant style and  playing a leading role in the aesthetic movement which promoted art for art’s sake.

            He is most famous for his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), a brilliant comedy The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) and his large number of epigrams under various heads.

            According to a literary critic Wilde considered thought to be more important than action, and regarded contemplation as the most cultured way of living.

            When at home, he spent hours, lying on a sofa, expending his energies of thought.  

            Given below are some of his great epigrams on THOUGHT.

1.     A thought is immoral. Its very essence is destruction. If you think of anything, you kill it. Nothing survives being thought.  

 

2.     The value of an idea has nothing whatsoever to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it.

3.     Consistency is the las refuge of the unimaginative.

4.     An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.

5.     Only the shallow know themselves.

6.     Men of thought should have nothing to do with action.

7.     “What are you thinking?” is the only question that any civilized being should ever be allowed to whisper to another.

8.     Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

9.     Action ! What is action? It dies at the moment of its energy. It is a base concession to fact, The world is made by the singer for the dreamer !

10.            Intellect is in itself a mode of exaggeration, and destroys the harmony of any face. The moment one sits down to think, one  becomes all nose, all forehead, or something horrid.

 

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PUNCHLINE: I CAN STAND BRUTE FORCE, BUT BRUTE REASON IS QUITE

UNREASONABLE.

 

                                                            *******

G. R. Kanwal

15 August 2026

 

 

 

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QUOTES THAT MATTER

 

QUOTES THAT MATTER         

1. The only freedom worth possessing is that which gives enlargement to a people’s energy, intellect, and virtues. The savage makes his boast of  freedom.  But what is its worth?  He is indeed, free from what he calls the yoke of civil institutions. But other and worse chains bind him, The very privation of civil government is in effect a chair; for, by                                                 withholding protection from property it virtually shackles the arm of industry, and forbids exertion for the melioration of his lot. Progress, the growth  of intelligence and power, is the end and boon of liberty; and without this, a people may have the name, but want the substance and spirit of freedom.----American  clergy, William Ellery Channing (1780-1848).   
2. The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it. ----English economist John Stuart Mill (1806-1872).
3. A useful definition of liberty is obtained only by seeking the principle of liberty in the main business of human life, that is to say, in the process by which men educate their response and learn to control their environment. -----American author and editor Walter  Lippman  (1889-1974).
4. Freedom requires action, responsibility, and respect for others.----Indian lawyer and anti-colonial nationalist Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948).
5. Man is born free, and everywhere he is chains. -----Genevan philosopher and writer Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
6. The English poet John Milton (1608-1674)  defined freedom as the power of human reason to choose good over evil.
7. The character Satan in  John Milton’s book Paradise Lost, Book II, said : “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven”.
8. True freedom demands incessant hard work and the service of suffering millions. -----Former Indian Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) in his Tryst with Destiny Speech on August 14, 1947.

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G.R.Kanwal

14 August 2026

                                                           

A BOUQUET OF GREAT THOUGHTS

 

                A BOUQUET OF GREAT THOUGHTS

            Great thoughts are found in the writings of great poets, thinkers, seers, sages, philosophers, statesmen, social reformers, and religious scholars. To find, remember, and translate them into action is to become morally and philosophically wiser and richer.   

            Look at the following thoughts and absorb them into your memory  for  synthesizing them  with your practical life.

1.     Guilt, according to some scholars, is something that can be overcome. It does not exist in Buddhist terminology. With the Buddha nature all negative things can be purified. Guilt is incompatible with our (Buddhist) thinking as you are part of an action but not fully responsible for it.

However, in some cases one must repent, deliberately hold responsibility, have regret and never commit the mistake again.----His Holiness The Dalai Lama in The Path To Tranquillity (A Book of Daily Meditations).    

2.     The river and its waves are one surf: where is the difference between the river and its waves? When the wave rises, it is the water; and when it falls, it is the same water again. Where is the distinction? Because it has been named as wave, shall it no longer be considered as water?----Indian devotional mystic poet and saint,  Kabir(1398-1518).

3.     The way of lovers is different. To them, lies from each other are better than truth from others.---Sufi mystic and Persian poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi  (1207-1273).

Rumi also said: You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean, in a drop.

4.     He who does reverence to his own sect, while disparaging the sects of others, wholly from attachment to his own, with intent to enhance the glory of his own sect, in reality, by such conduct, inflicts the severest injury on his own sect. Concord, therefore, is meritorious.----Asoka the Great (Died 232 BC at Pataliputra)  former emperor of the Maurya Empire in his twelfth edict.

5.     More things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of. What are men better than sheep or goats, that nourish a blind life within the brain, if, knowing God, they lift no hands of prayer both for themselves and those who call them friends !-----The English poet Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892).

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PUNCHLINE: The more you speak of yourself, the more you are likely to lie.

                                                *******

 

G. R. Kanwal

13 August 2026

 

IMPORTANCE OF 12TH AUGUST

 

 

                                IMPORTANCE OF 12^TH AUGUST

            August 12 is globally recognized as International Youth Day. It is devoted to thinking about the issues of youth, especially about their education, all-round development, opportunities for employment, and general satisfaction of their life’s needs and specific aims.

            The qualities of youth recognized by most of the countries are : High energy, boundless curiosity, intense passion, and a strong desire to learn.

            According to an overview : “Young people often possess great physical and mental vitality, a readiness to take healthy risks, deep adaptability to change, and an optimistic outlook on the future. “

            The philosophy of life has many varieties. Two of them are first: “Laugh, drink, and be merry;” and the other one : “Simple living, and high thinking.”

             The American philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) says

            “Not gold, but only men can make

            A people great and strong---

            Men who, for truth and honour’s sake,

            Stand fast and suffer long.

 

            Brave men who work while others sleep,

            Who dare while others fly,

            They build a nation’s pillars deep,

            And lift them to the sky.”

 

            Another American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882 ) says in his poem A PSALM OF LIFE :

           

            “Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,

            Is our destined end or way :

            But to act, that each tomorrow

            Finds us farther than today.

 

            Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

            And our hearts, though stout and brave,

            Still, like muffled drums, are beating

            Funeral marches to the grave.

 

            In the world’s broad field of battle,

            In the bivouac of Life,

            Be not like dumb, driven cattle !

            Be a hero in the strife !

 

            Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant !

            Let the dead past bury its dead !

            Act –act in the living Present !

            Heart within, and God o’erhead !

 

PUNCHLINE: Almost everything that is great has been done by youth.-----Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), Prime Minister of U.K.

                       

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G.R.Kanwal  

12 August 2026

             

 

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

 

THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER

                        The Rime of the Ancient Marine (published in 1834) is a lyrical ballad written by the English poet and literary critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834).

                        The ballad relates the sufferings and redemption of an old sailor and his mariners because he irreligiously shoots and kills an albatross leading to his and his companions supernatural punishment. He is forgiven only when he admires water snakes and exhibits deep love for them. He tells this story to a wedding guest whom he detains when he was going to attend the marriage celebration.  The moral of this ballad is that human beings can gain spiritual redemption only by learning to love God’s creatures to gain spiritual redemption.      

                        Look at the following lines from the poem:

O Wedding-guest! This soul hath been

Alone on a wide wide sea

So lonely ‘twas, that God himself

Scarce seemed there to be.

 

O sweeter than the Marriage-feast,

‘Tis sweeter far to me

To walk together to the Kirk

With a goodly company.

 

To walk together to the Kirk

And all together pray,

While each to his great father bends,

Old men, and babes, and loving friends,

And Youths, and Maidens gay.

 

Farewell! But this I tell

To thee, thou wedding-guest !

He prayeth well who loveth well

Both man and bird and beast.

 

He prayeth best who loveth best,

All things both great and small :

For the dear God, who loveth us,

He made and loveth all.

 

            Before the above-mentioned moral of the ballad , this is how he  praised

the water snakes:

 

Beyond the shadow of thee ship

I watch’d the water-snakes :

They mov’d in tracks of shining white ;

And when they rear’d, the elfish light

Fell off in hoary flakes.

 

Within the shadow of the ship

I watch’d their rich attire :

Blue, glossy green, and velvet black

They coil’d and swam; and every track

Was a flash of golden fire,

 

O happy living things ! no tongue

Their beauty might declare :

A spring of love gusht from my heart,

And I bless’d them unaware !

Sure my kind saint took pity on me,

And I bless’d them unaware.

 

The self-same moment I could pray;

And from my neck so free

The Albatross fell off, and sank

Like lead into the sea.

                                                            *****

G.R.Kanwal

11 August 2026       

 

 

 

 

 

SHAKESPEARE ON MERCY

 

 

                                SHAKESPEARE ON MERCY

            The British poet-playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was not a saint or seer or a sage or a priest but a great poet with the qualities of a kind-hearted human being.

            A person who is almost as merciful as God Almighty has in him the qualities of compassion, forgiveness and kindness.

            A sufi poet says that God forgives all kinds of chronic sinners not only once but innumerably because His court of justice is not  one of disappointment but of eternal hope. He goes on giving the guilty new chances for self-reformation.

            According to religious thinkers patience, helpfulness, goodness, gentleness,  grace, kindness, humanism , forgiveness, and pity are the core qualities of those powerful people who have the authority of punishing the wrong-doers  but do not use their authority immediately. .

            Here are some relevant quotes from Shakespeare’s writings:

*Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill. ---Henry VI , 2^nd Part, Act 5.

**Press not a falling man too far; ‘t is virtue.----Henry VIII, Act 3.

***The common executioner,/Whose heart the accustom’d  sight of death makes hard,/Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck/But first begs pardon.---As You Like It, Act 3.

****When vice makes mercy, mercy ‘s so extended,/That for the fault’s love is the offender friended. ----Measure for Measure, Act 4.  

            Finally, a full sonnet on Mercy by William Shakespeare from Merchant of Venice, Act 4.

              The quality of mercy is not strained.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven

Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown.

His scepter shows the force of temporal power,

The attribute to awe and majesty,

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.

But mercy is above this sceptered sway;

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;

It is an attribute of God himself;

And earthly power doth then show like God’s

When mercy seasons justice.                                        

                                                            *****           

 

G.R.Kanwal

10 August 2026

 

 

MUST READ AGAIN AND AGAIN

 

                MUST READ AGAIN AND AGAIN

                        Great literature including poetry is a thing of beauty which has eternal relevance. According to the English romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) :

                        A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

                         Its loveliness increases; it will never

                        Pass into nothingness, but still will keep

                        A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

                        Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing

                        Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing

                        A flowery band to bind us to the earth,

                        Spite of despondence, of the human dearth

                        Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

                        Of all the unhealthy and o’er darkn’d ways

                        Made for our searching yes, in spite of all,

                        Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

                        From our dark spirits. Such the sun , the moon,

                        Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon

                        For simple sheep; and such are daffodils

                        With the green world they live in, and clear rills

                        That for themselves a cooling covert make

                        ‘Gainst the hot season, the mid-forest brake,

                        Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms,

                        And such too is the grandeur of the dooms

                        We have imagined for the mighty dead;

                        An endless fountain of immortal drink,

                        Pour into us from the heaven’s brink.

            The lines given above are in the very beginning of Endymion,” a narrative poem by John Keats.  They are full of aesthetic joy and sublime poetic imagination. The poet supports his ideas by focusing on natural objects like the sun, the moon, the flowers, and splendid dooms made for mighty dead.

            There is both pleasure and purpose for the reader. We should get connected with beautiful things of the world to feel joyous and have a sleep full of sweet dreams.

              There are enough prose and poetic works in literature which are things of beauty and a source of eternal joy.  We shall have a look at them in coming days. They deserve to be read again and again.

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G.R.Kanwal

9 August 2026