Thought For The Day

[Paul Whybrow]

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.

Brené Brown

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of defeat.

Ralph Ellison

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Barbara Kingsolver

One of my favourite authors!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it.

Terry Pratchett

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.

Louis Pasteur

 

[Steve C]

I'll be alright then. Unless I run out of time.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

You never know what you will learn until you start writing. Then you discover truths you never knew existed.

Anita Brookner

 

[Paul Whybrow]

The crime novel should have a compelling and credible plot, characters who are more than stereotypes, good writing and the creative integration of setting, narrative, characterisation and theme. To put it simply, a good detective story should be a good novel.

P.D. James

 

[Hannah F]

When I read the last word on the last page of "The Toymakers" by Robert Dinsdale, I went back to the first page and started again!

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts. It’s like passing around examples of sputum.

Vladimir Nabokov

 

[Steve C]

The Writers Group Forum is a good place for spitting it out. Lots of my sputum there.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.

John Locke

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Vanity is the quicksand of reason.

George Sand

 

[E G Logan]

Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts. It’s like passing around examples of sputum.

Vladimir Nabokov

Bit strong, but I think I'm there with him on that.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Poetry is a subject as precise as geometry.

Gustav Flaubert

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

[Eva Ulian]

Poetry is a subject as precise as geometry.

Gustav Flaubert

He's right but only in the sense that poetry must "sound right", which doesn't mean it has to rhyme, but that it has to flow as rhythmically and easily as a river after a spring shower- it takes true precision to achieve that.

It is impossible to apply the mathematical precision of geometry to poetry, simply because that requires a defined, reasoned and restrained structure; none of which appertain to the nature of poetry; for emotion, which is the basis of poetry, cannot be predicted, measured or constrained.

 

[Rich.]

...emotion, which is the basis of poetry, cannot be predicted, measured or constrained.

In which case it sounds like we need the mathematics of quantum mechanics, nothing deterministic about that.


[A joke, verily, 'twas but a jest ]

 

[Eva Ulian]

Oh dear- have no idea what you are talking about @Rich.

 

[Rich.]

Probably for the best. The maths of quantum mechanics deals with uncertainty, hence the joke. (It was a poor joke, but I couldn't resist )

 

[Eva Ulian]

need the mathematics of quantum mechanics,

Just out of curiosity does the above have anything to do with geometry? Asking for a friend....

 

[Rich.]

Well, there is something called quantum geometry. Among other things, it describes spacetime at unimaginably small scales. And it's been suggested (though I don't know if it's widely accepted) that quantum interactions play a role in consciousness. So could we write an equation that describes a poem?

I don't know, but it might make a good science fiction story...

(If you get a bunch of theoretical physicists to start chatting about maths, they'll use words like beauty and elegance. Nature is awesome, through whichever prism you look at it. The thought makes my hairs stand on end.)

 

[Eva Ulian]

The thought makes my hairs stand on end.)

Straight or curly? PS Hair is a singular collective noun, therefore no s. tut...tut

 

[Rich.]

Hair is a singular collective noun, therefore no s

No, no, I was thinking very specifically about the two quantum-mechanical hairs on the back of my neck. Count 'em: one, two.

 

[Eva Ulian]

Argh... Rich you're impossible

 

[Paul Whybrow]

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with the wind.

John Neal

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Create like a god, command like a king, work like a slave.

Constantin Brâncuşi

 

[Paul Whybrow]

Work isn’t to make money. You work to justify life.

Marc Chagall

 

[Steve C]

Justify life?? Alright, for him to say so. A lot of people work just to stay alive.

 

[E G Logan]

Justify life?? Alright, for him to say so. A lot of people work just to stay alive.

Point taken.
I think he must be speaking for himself. But maybe he should have said that.