TERMS STARTING WITH
characters ::: 1. The combination of qualities, features and traits that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another. 2. The marks or symbols used in writing systems such as the letters of the alphabet.
characters of Malachim” (angels) and invoked in
characters on the 1st pentacle of the planet Jupiter.
characters (tongue) of angels and invoked to
Characters: Statements or E-values like pleasant, true, known; all possible ego attitudes and feelings are so termed. (See Avenarius). -- H.H.
TERMS ANYWHERE
6.001 "education" /siks dub*l oh wun/, /dub*l oh wun/ or rarely /siks dub*l oh fun/ {MIT}'s introductory computer class for majors, known for its intensity. Developed by {Gerald Sussman} and {Hal Abelson}, the course is taught in {Scheme} and introduces {recursion}, {higher-order functions}, {object-oriented programming} and much more. Students who grasp the {meta}circular {interpreter} gain entry into the {Knights of the Lambda-Calculus}. 6.001 has been exported to several other colleges, sometimes successfully. The textbook, "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs", written with Julie Sussman is a classic that can be found on the shelves of many computer scientists, whether they took the course or not. Legendary characters from the class, problem sets, and book include the wise Alyssa P. Hacker, Ben Bitdiddle, Lem E. Tweakit and Eva Lu Ator, the careless Louis Reasoner and {Captain Abstraction}. (1994-11-22)
8.3 "file system, filename extension" A common shorthand for the limits on filename length imposed by the {file system} used by {MS-DOS} and {Microsoft Windows} - at most eight characters, followed by a ".", followed by a {filename extension} of at most three characters. {Windows 95} supports long filenames by using multiple directory entries per file. The extra entries are hidden. It also automatically derives an 8.3 name for each file for {backward compatibility} so that older versions of DOS can still access the file. (1998-10-05)
Ablanathanalba (Gnostic) Used as a magical charm during the later Roman Empire when Gnosticism flourished in most great centers of population such as Alexandria. In Greek characters it is a palindrome. See also ABRACADABRA.
Abraham (Hebrew) ’Abrāhām Traditionally the founder of the Hebrew and South-Arabian peoples, whose original name was Abram. “Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee” (Genesis 17:5). Blavatsky holds that Abraham “belongs to the universal mythology. Most likely he is but one of the numerous aliases of Zeruan (Saturn), the king of the golden age, who is also called the old man (emblem of time)” (IU 2:216). Such figures are described in various ways: as historical characters, as mythoi, and as rulers of sidereal and terrestrial powers to be interpreted astronomically and cosmically.
age ::: n. **1. A great period or stage of the history of the Earth. 2. Hist. Any great period or portion of human history distinguished by certain characters real or mythical, as the Golden Age, the Patriarchal Age, the Bronze Age, the Age of the Reformation, the Middle Ages, the Prehistoric Age. 3. A generation or a series of generations. 4. Advanced years; old age. age"s, ages, ages". v. 5.** To grow old; to become aged.
aggregate type "programming" A data {type} composed of multiple elements. An aggregate can be homogeneous (all elements have the same type) e.g. an {array}, a list in a {functional language}, a string of characters, a file; or it can be heterogeneous (elements can have different types) e.g. a {structure}. In most languages aggregates can contain elements which are themselves aggregates. e.g. a list of lists. See also {union}. (1996-03-23)
algebraical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to algebra; containing an operation of algebra, or deduced from such operation; as, algebraic characters; algebraical writings.
alphabetical ::: a. --> Pertaining to, furnished with, expressed by, or in the order of, the letters of the alphabet; as, alphabetic characters, writing, languages, arrangement.
Literal.
American Standard Code for Information Interchange "character, standard" The basis of {character sets} used in almost all present-day computers. {US-ASCII} uses only the lower seven {bits} ({character points} 0 to 127) to convey some {control codes}, {space}, numbers, most basic punctuation, and unaccented letters a-z and A-Z. More modern {coded character sets} (e.g., {Latin-1}, {Unicode}) define extensions to ASCII for values above 127 for conveying special {Latin characters} (like accented characters, or {German} ess-tsett), characters from non-Latin writing systems (e.g., {Cyrillic}, or {Han characters}), and such desirable {glyphs} as distinct open- and close-{quotation marks}. ASCII replaced earlier systems such as {EBCDIC} and {Baudot}, which used fewer bytes, but were each {broken} in their own way. Computers are much pickier about spelling than humans; thus, {hackers} need to be very precise when talking about characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names - some formal, some concise, some silly. Individual characters are listed in this dictionary with alternative names from revision 2.3 of the {Usenet} ASCII pronunciation guide in rough order of popularity, including their official {ITU-T} names and the particularly silly names introduced by {INTERCAL}. See {V} {ampersand}, {asterisk}, {back quote}, {backslash}, {caret}, {colon}, {comma}, {commercial at}, {control-C}, {dollar}, {dot}, {double quote}, {equals}, {exclamation mark}, {greater than}, {hash}, {left bracket}, {left parenthesis}, {less than}, {minus}, {parentheses}, {oblique stroke}, {percent}, {plus}, {question mark}, {right brace}, {right brace}, {right bracket}, {right parenthesis}, {semicolon}, {single quote}, {space}, {tilde}, {underscore}, {vertical bar}, {zero}. Some other common usages cause odd overlaps. The "
American Standard Code for Information Interchange ::: The basis of character sets used in almost all present-day computers. US-ASCII uses only the lower seven bits (character points 0 to 127) to convey some as EBCDIC and Baudot, which used fewer bytes, but were each broken in their own way.Computers are much pickier about spelling than humans; thus, hackers need to be very precise when talking about characters, and have developed a considerable amount of verbal shorthand for them. Every character has one or more names - some formal, some concise, some silly.Individual characters are listed in this dictionary with alternative names from revision 2.3 of the Usenet ASCII pronunciation guide in rough order of popularity, including their official ITU-T names and the particularly silly names introduced by INTERCAL.See V ampersand, asterisk, back quote, backslash, caret, colon, comma, commercial at, control-C, dollar, dot, double quote, equals, exclamation mark, brace, right bracket, right parenthesis, semicolon, single quote, space, tilde, underscore, vertical bar, zero.Some other common usages cause odd overlaps. The
amulet ::: n. --> An ornament, gem, or scroll, or a package containing a relic, etc., worn as a charm or preservative against evils or mischief, such as diseases and witchcraft, and generally inscribed with mystic forms or characters. [Also used figuratively.]
anastatic ::: a. --> Pertaining to a process or a style of printing from characters in relief on zinc plates.
angels found inscribed in Hebrew characters on
angle bracket "character" Either of the characters """ (less-than, {ASCII} 60) and """ (greater-than, ASCII 62). Typographers in the {Real World} use angle brackets which are either taller and slimmer (the {ISO} "{Bra}" and "{Ket}" characters), or significantly smaller (single or double guillemets) than the less-than and greater-than signs. See {broket}. (1995-11-24)
angle bracket ::: (character) Either of the characters (less-than, ASCII 60) and > (greater-than, ASCII 62). Typographers in the Real World use angle brackets significantly smaller (single or double guillemets) than the less-than and greater-than signs.See broket. (1995-11-24)
anti-aliasing "graphics" A technique used on a {grey-scale} or colour {bitmap display} to make diagonal edges appear smoother by setting {pixels} near the edge to intermediate colours according to where the edge crosses them. The most common example is black characters on a white background. Without anti-aliasing, diagonal edges appear jagged, like staircases, which may be noticeable on a low {resolution} display. If the display can show intermediate greys then anti-aliasing can be applied. A pixel will be black if it is completely within the black area, or white if it is completely outside the black area, or an intermediate shade of grey according to the proportions of it which overlap the black and white areas. The technique works similarly with other foreground and background colours. "Aliasing" refers to the fact that many points (which would differ in the real image) are mapped or "aliased" to the same pixel (with a single value) in the digital representation. (1998-03-13)
anti-aliasing ::: (graphics) A technique used on a grey-scale or colour bitmap display to make diagonal edges appear smoother by setting pixels near the edge to intermediate colours according to where the edge crosses them.The most common example is black characters on a white background. Without anti-aliasing, diagonal edges appear jagged, like staircases, which may be overlap the black and white areas. The technique works similarly with other foreground and background colours.Aliasing refers to the fact that many points (which would differ in the real image) are mapped or aliased to the same pixel (with a single value) in the digital representation. (1998-03-13)
aragonite ::: n. --> A mineral identical in composition with calcite or carbonate of lime, but differing from it in its crystalline form and some of its physical characters.
artificial intelligence ::: (artificial intelligence) (AI) The subfield of computer science concerned with the concepts and methods of symbolic inference by computer and symbolic faster. The term was coined by Stanford Professor John McCarthy, a leading AI researcher.Examples of AI problems are computer vision (building a system that can understand images as well as a human) and natural language processing (building have foundered on the amount of context information and intelligence they seem to require.The term is often used as a selling point, e.g. to describe programming that drives the behaviour of computer characters in a game. This is often no more intelligent than Kill any humans you see; keep walking; avoid solid objects; duck if a human with a gun can see you.See also AI-complete, neats vs. scruffies, neural network, genetic programming, fuzzy computing, artificial life. CMU Artificial Intelligence Repository .(2002-01-19)
artificial intelligence "artificial intelligence" (AI) The subfield of computer science concerned with the concepts and methods of {symbolic inference} by computer and symbolic {knowledge representation} for use in making inferences. AI can be seen as an attempt to model aspects of human thought on computers. It is also sometimes defined as trying to solve by computer any problem that a human can solve faster. The term was coined by Stanford Professor {John McCarthy}, a leading AI researcher. Examples of AI problems are {computer vision} (building a system that can understand images as well as a human) and {natural language processing} (building a system that can understand and speak a human language as well as a human). These may appear to be modular, but all attempts so far (1993) to solve them have foundered on the amount of context information and "intelligence" they seem to require. The term is often used as a selling point, e.g. to describe programming that drives the behaviour of computer characters in a game. This is often no more intelligent than "Kill any humans you see; keep walking; avoid solid objects; duck if a human with a gun can see you". See also {AI-complete}, {neats vs. scruffies}, {neural network}, {genetic programming}, {fuzzy computing}, {artificial life}. {ACM SIGART (http://sigart.acm.org/)}. {U Cal Davis (http://phobos.cs.ucdavis.edu:8001)}. {CMU Artificial Intelligence Repository (http://cs.cmu.edu/Web/Groups/AI/html/repository.html)}. (2002-01-19)
as characters in his “Visions of the Daughters of
As to the mode of writing this mystery-speech, “The sacerdotal language (Senzar), besides an alphabet of its own, may be rendered in several modes of writing in cypher characters, which partake more of the nature of ideographs than of syllables” (VS vii).
Aufklärung: In general, this German word and its English equivalent Enlightenment denote the self-emancipation of man from mere authority, prejudice, convention and tradition, with an insistence on freer thinking about problems uncritically referred to these other agencies. According to Kant's famous definition "Enlightenment is the liberation of man from his self-caused state of minority, which is the incapacity of using one's understanding without the direction of another. This state of minority is caused when its source lies not in the lack of understanding, but in the lack of determination and courage to use it without the assistance of another" (Was ist Aufklärung? 1784). In its historical perspective, the Aufklärung refers to the cultural atmosphere and contrlbutions of the 18th century, especially in Germany, France and England [which affected also American thought with B. Franklin, T. Paine and the leaders of the Revolution]. It crystallized tendencies emphasized by the Renaissance, and quickened by modern scepticism and empiricism, and by the great scientific discoveries of the 17th century. This movement, which was represented by men of varying tendencies, gave an impetus to general learning, a more popular philosophy, empirical science, scriptural criticism, social and political thought. More especially, the word Aufklärung is applied to the German contributions to 18th century culture. In philosophy, its principal representatives are G. E. Lessing (1729-81) who believed in free speech and in a methodical criticism of religion, without being a free-thinker; H. S. Reimarus (1694-1768) who expounded a naturalistic philosophy and denied the supernatural origin of Christianity; Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) who endeavoured to mitigate prejudices and developed a popular common-sense philosophy; Chr. Wolff (1679-1754), J. A. Eberhard (1739-1809) who followed the Leibnizian rationalism and criticized unsuccessfully Kant and Fichte; and J. G. Herder (1744-1803) who was best as an interpreter of others, but whose intuitional suggestions have borne fruit in the organic correlation of the sciences, and in questions of language in relation to human nature and to national character. The works of Kant and Goethe mark the culmination of the German Enlightenment. Cf. J. G. Hibben, Philosophy of the Enlightenment, 1910. --T.G. Augustinianism: The thought of St. Augustine of Hippo, and of his followers. Born in 354 at Tagaste in N. Africa, A. studied rhetoric in Carthage, taught that subject there and in Rome and Milan. Attracted successively to Manicheanism, Scepticism, and Neo-Platontsm, A. eventually found intellectual and moral peace with his conversion to Christianity in his thirty-fourth year. Returning to Africa, he established numerous monasteries, became a priest in 391, Bishop of Hippo in 395. Augustine wrote much: On Free Choice, Confessions, Literal Commentary on Genesis, On the Trinity, and City of God, are his most noted works. He died in 430. St. Augustine's characteristic method, an inward empiricism which has little in common with later variants, starts from things without, proceeds within to the self, and moves upwards to God. These three poles of the Augustinian dialectic are polarized by his doctrine of moderate illuminism. An ontological illumination is required to explain the metaphysical structure of things. The truth of judgment demands a noetic illumination. A moral illumination is necessary in the order of willing; and so, too, an lllumination of art in the aesthetic order. Other illuminations which transcend the natural order do not come within the scope of philosophy; they provide the wisdoms of theology and mysticism. Every being is illuminated ontologically by number, form, unity and its derivatives, and order. A thing is what it is, in so far as it is more or less flooded by the light of these ontological constituents. Sensation is necessary in order to know material substances. There is certainly an action of the external object on the body and a corresponding passion of the body, but, as the soul is superior to the body and can suffer nothing from its inferior, sensation must be an action, not a passion, of the soul. Sensation takes place only when the observing soul, dynamically on guard throughout the body, is vitally attentive to the changes suffered by the body. However, an adequate basis for the knowledge of intellectual truth is not found in sensation alone. In order to know, for example, that a body is multiple, the idea of unity must be present already, otherwise its multiplicity could not be recognized. If numbers are not drawn in by the bodily senses which perceive only the contingent and passing, is the mind the source of the unchanging and necessary truth of numbers? The mind of man is also contingent and mutable, and cannot give what it does not possess. As ideas are not innate, nor remembered from a previous existence of the soul, they can be accounted for only by an immutable source higher than the soul. In so far as man is endowed with an intellect, he is a being naturally illuminated by God, Who may be compared to an intelligible sun. The human intellect does not create the laws of thought; it finds them and submits to them. The immediate intuition of these normative rules does not carry any content, thus any trace of ontologism is avoided. Things have forms because they have numbers, and they have being in so far as they possess form. The sufficient explanation of all formable, and hence changeable, things is an immutable and eternal form which is unrestricted in time and space. The forms or ideas of all things actually existing in the world are in the things themselves (as rationes seminales) and in the Divine Mind (as rationes aeternae). Nothing could exist without unity, for to be is no other than to be one. There is a unity proper to each level of being, a unity of the material individual and species, of the soul, and of that union of souls in the love of the same good, which union constitutes the city. Order, also, is ontologically imbibed by all beings. To tend to being is to tend to order; order secures being, disorder leads to non-being. Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal each to its own place and integrates an ensemble of parts in accordance with an end. Hence, peace is defined as the tranquillity of order. Just as things have their being from their forms, the order of parts, and their numerical relations, so too their beauty is not something superadded, but the shining out of all their intelligible co-ingredients. S. Aurelii Augustini, Opera Omnia, Migne, PL 32-47; (a critical edition of some works will be found in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vienna). Gilson, E., Introd. a l'etude de s. Augustin, (Paris, 1931) contains very good bibliography up to 1927, pp. 309-331. Pope, H., St. Augustine of Hippo, (London, 1937). Chapman, E., St. Augustine's Philos. of Beauty, (N. Y., 1939). Figgis, J. N., The Political Aspects of St. Augustine's "City of God", (London, 1921). --E.C. Authenticity: In a general sense, genuineness, truth according to its title. It involves sometimes a direct and personal characteristic (Whitehead speaks of "authentic feelings"). This word also refers to problems of fundamental criticism involving title, tradition, authorship and evidence. These problems are vital in theology, and basic in scholarship with regard to the interpretation of texts and doctrines. --T.G. Authoritarianism: That theory of knowledge which maintains that the truth of any proposition is determined by the fact of its having been asserted by a certain esteemed individual or group of individuals. Cf. H. Newman, Grammar of Assent; C. S. Peirce, "Fixation of Belief," in Chance, Love and Logic, ed. M. R. Cohen. --A.C.B. Autistic thinking: Absorption in fanciful or wishful thinking without proper control by objective or factual material; day dreaming; undisciplined imagination. --A.C.B. Automaton Theory: Theory that a living organism may be considered a mere machine. See Automatism. Automatism: (Gr. automatos, self-moving) (a) In metaphysics: Theory that animal and human organisms are automata, that is to say, are machines governed by the laws of physics and mechanics. Automatism, as propounded by Descartes, considered the lower animals to be pure automata (Letter to Henry More, 1649) and man a machine controlled by a rational soul (Treatise on Man). Pure automatism for man as well as animals is advocated by La Mettrie (Man, a Machine, 1748). During the Nineteenth century, automatism, combined with epiphenomenalism, was advanced by Hodgson, Huxley and Clifford. (Cf. W. James, The Principles of Psychology, Vol. I, ch. V.) Behaviorism, of the extreme sort, is the most recent version of automatism (See Behaviorism). (b) In psychology: Psychological automatism is the performance of apparently purposeful actions, like automatic writing without the superintendence of the conscious mind. L. C. Rosenfield, From Beast Machine to Man Machine, N. Y., 1941. --L.W. Automatism, Conscious: The automatism of Hodgson, Huxley, and Clifford which considers man a machine to which mind or consciousness is superadded; the mind of man is, however, causally ineffectual. See Automatism; Epiphenomenalism. --L.W. Autonomy: (Gr. autonomia, independence) Freedom consisting in self-determination and independence of all external constraint. See Freedom. Kant defines autonomy of the will as subjection of the will to its own law, the categorical imperative, in contrast to heteronomy, its subjection to a law or end outside the rational will. (Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals, § 2.) --L.W. Autonomy of ethics: A doctrine, usually propounded by intuitionists, that ethics is not a part of, and cannot be derived from, either metaphysics or any of the natural or social sciences. See Intuitionism, Metaphysical ethics, Naturalistic ethics. --W.K.F. Autonomy of the will: (in Kant's ethics) The freedom of the rational will to legislate to itself, which constitutes the basis for the autonomy of the moral law. --P.A.S. Autonymy: In the terminology introduced by Carnap, a word (phrase, symbol, expression) is autonymous if it is used as a name for itself --for the geometric shape, sound, etc. which it exemplifies, or for the word as a historical and grammatical unit. Autonymy is thus the same as the Scholastic suppositio matertalis (q. v.), although the viewpoint is different. --A.C. Autotelic: (from Gr. autos, self, and telos, end) Said of any absorbing activity engaged in for its own sake (cf. German Selbstzweck), such as higher mathematics, chess, etc. In aesthetics, applied to creative art and play which lack any conscious reference to the accomplishment of something useful. In the view of some, it may constitute something beneficent in itself of which the person following his art impulse (q.v.) or playing is unaware, thus approaching a heterotelic (q.v.) conception. --K.F.L. Avenarius, Richard: (1843-1896) German philosopher who expressed his thought in an elaborate and novel terminology in the hope of constructing a symbolic language for philosophy, like that of mathematics --the consequence of his Spinoza studies. As the most influential apostle of pure experience, the posltivistic motive reaches in him an extreme position. Insisting on the biologic and economic function of thought, he thought the true method of science is to cure speculative excesses by a return to pure experience devoid of all assumptions. Philosophy is the scientific effort to exclude from knowledge all ideas not included in the given. Its task is to expel all extraneous elements in the given. His uncritical use of the category of the given and the nominalistic view that logical relations are created rather than discovered by thought, leads him to banish not only animism but also all of the categories, substance, causality, etc., as inventions of the mind. Explaining the evolution and devolution of the problematization and deproblematization of numerous ideas, and aiming to give the natural history of problems, Avenarius sought to show physiologically, psychologically and historically under what conditions they emerge, are challenged and are solved. He hypothesized a System C, a bodily and central nervous system upon which consciousness depends. R-values are the stimuli received from the world of objects. E-values are the statements of experience. The brain changes that continually oscillate about an ideal point of balance are termed Vitalerhaltungsmaximum. The E-values are differentiated into elements, to which the sense-perceptions or the content of experience belong, and characters, to which belongs everything which psychology describes as feelings and attitudes. Avenarius describes in symbolic form a series of states from balance to balance, termed vital series, all describing a series of changes in System C. Inequalities in the vital balance give rise to vital differences. According to his theory there are two vital series. It assumes a series of brain changes because parallel series of conscious states can be observed. The independent vital series are physical, and the dependent vital series are psychological. The two together are practically covariants. In the case of a process as a dependent vital series three stages can be noted: first, the appearance of the problem, expressed as strain, restlessness, desire, fear, doubt, pain, repentance, delusion; the second, the continued effort and struggle to solve the problem; and finally, the appearance of the solution, characterized by abating anxiety, a feeling of triumph and enjoyment. Corresponding to these three stages of the dependent series are three stages of the independent series: the appearance of the vital difference and a departure from balance in the System C, the continuance with an approximate vital difference, and lastly, the reduction of the vital difference to zero, the return to stability. By making room for dependent and independent experiences, he showed that physics regards experience as independent of the experiencing indlvidual, and psychology views experience as dependent upon the individual. He greatly influenced Mach and James (q.v.). See Avenarius, Empirio-criticism, Experience, pure. Main works: Kritik der reinen Erfahrung; Der menschliche Weltbegriff. --H.H. Averroes: (Mohammed ibn Roshd) Known to the Scholastics as The Commentator, and mentioned as the author of il gran commento by Dante (Inf. IV. 68) he was born 1126 at Cordova (Spain), studied theology, law, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy, became after having been judge in Sevilla and Cordova, physician to the khalifah Jaqub Jusuf, and charged with writing a commentary on the works of Aristotle. Al-mansur, Jusuf's successor, deprived him of his place because of accusations of unorthodoxy. He died 1198 in Morocco. Averroes is not so much an original philosopher as the author of a minute commentary on the whole works of Aristotle. His procedure was imitated later by Aquinas. In his interpretation of Aristotelian metaphysics Averroes teaches the coeternity of a universe created ex nihilo. This doctrine formed together with the notion of a numerical unity of the active intellect became one of the controversial points in the discussions between the followers of Albert-Thomas and the Latin Averroists. Averroes assumed that man possesses only a disposition for receiving the intellect coming from without; he identifies this disposition with the possible intellect which thus is not truly intellectual by nature. The notion of one intellect common to all men does away with the doctrine of personal immortality. Another doctrine which probably was emphasized more by the Latin Averroists (and by the adversaries among Averroes' contemporaries) is the famous statement about "two-fold truth", viz. that a proposition may be theologically true and philosophically false and vice versa. Averroes taught that religion expresses the (higher) philosophical truth by means of religious imagery; the "two-truth notion" came apparently into the Latin text through a misinterpretation on the part of the translators. The works of Averroes were one of the main sources of medieval Aristotelianlsm, before and even after the original texts had been translated. The interpretation the Latin Averroists found in their texts of the "Commentator" spread in spite of opposition and condemnation. See Averroism, Latin. Averroes, Opera, Venetiis, 1553. M. Horten, Die Metaphysik des Averroes, 1912. P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin, 2d ed., Louvain, 1911. --R.A. Averroism, Latin: The commentaries on Aristotle written by Averroes (Ibn Roshd) in the 12th century became known to the Western scholars in translations by Michael Scottus, Hermannus Alemannus, and others at the beginning of the 13th century. Many works of Aristotle were also known first by such translations from Arabian texts, though there existed translations from the Greek originals at the same time (Grabmann). The Averroistic interpretation of Aristotle was held to be the true one by many; but already Albert the Great pointed out several notions which he felt to be incompatible with the principles of Christian philosophy, although he relied for the rest on the "Commentator" and apparently hardly used any other text. Aquinas, basing his studies mostly on a translation from the Greek texts, procured for him by William of Moerbecke, criticized the Averroistic interpretation in many points. But the teachings of the Commentator became the foundation for a whole school of philosophers, represented first by the Faculty of Arts at Paris. The most prominent of these scholars was Siger of Brabant. The philosophy of these men was condemned on March 7th, 1277 by Stephen Tempier, Bishop of Paris, after a first condemnation of Aristotelianism in 1210 had gradually come to be neglected. The 219 theses condemned in 1277, however, contain also some of Aquinas which later were generally recognized an orthodox. The Averroistic propositions which aroused the criticism of the ecclesiastic authorities and which had been opposed with great energy by Albert and Thomas refer mostly to the following points: The co-eternity of the created word; the numerical identity of the intellect in all men, the so-called two-fold-truth theory stating that a proposition may be philosophically true although theologically false. Regarding the first point Thomas argued that there is no philosophical proof, either for the co-eternity or against it; creation is an article of faith. The unity of intellect was rejected as incompatible with the true notion of person and with personal immortality. It is doubtful whether Averroes himself held the two-truths theory; it was, however, taught by the Latin Averroists who, notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Thomistic philosophers, gained a great influence and soon dominated many universities, especially in Italy. Thomas and his followers were convinced that they interpreted Aristotle correctly and that the Averroists were wrong; one has, however, to admit that certain passages in Aristotle allow for the Averroistic interpretation, especially in regard to the theory of intellect. Lit.: P. Mandonnet, Siger de Brabant et l'Averroisme Latin au XIIIe Siecle, 2d. ed. Louvain, 1911; M. Grabmann, Forschungen über die lateinischen Aristotelesübersetzungen des XIII. Jahrhunderts, Münster 1916 (Beitr. z. Gesch. Phil. d. MA. Vol. 17, H. 5-6). --R.A. Avesta: See Zendavesta. Avicehron: (or Avencebrol, Salomon ibn Gabirol) The first Jewish philosopher in Spain, born in Malaga 1020, died about 1070, poet, philosopher, and moralist. His main work, Fons vitae, became influential and was much quoted by the Scholastics. It has been preserved only in the Latin translation by Gundissalinus. His doctrine of a spiritual substance individualizing also the pure spirits or separate forms was opposed by Aquinas already in his first treatise De ente, but found favor with the medieval Augustinians also later in the 13th century. He also teaches the necessity of a mediator between God and the created world; such a mediator he finds in the Divine Will proceeding from God and creating, conserving, and moving the world. His cosmogony shows a definitely Neo-Platonic shade and assumes a series of emanations. Cl. Baeumker, Avencebrolis Fons vitae. Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Philos. d. MA. 1892-1895, Vol. I. Joh. Wittman, Die Stellung des hl. Thomas von Aquino zu Avencebrol, ibid. 1900. Vol. III. --R.A. Avicenna: (Abu Ali al Hosain ibn Abdallah ibn Sina) Born 980 in the country of Bocchara, began to write in young years, left more than 100 works, taught in Ispahan, was physician to several Persian princes, and died at Hamadan in 1037. His fame as physician survived his influence as philosopher in the Occident. His medical works were printed still in the 17th century. His philosophy is contained in 18 vols. of a comprehensive encyclopedia, following the tradition of Al Kindi and Al Farabi. Logic, Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics form the parts of this work. His philosophy is Aristotelian with noticeable Neo-Platonic influences. His doctrine of the universal existing ante res in God, in rebus as the universal nature of the particulars, and post res in the human mind by way of abstraction became a fundamental thesis of medieval Aristotelianism. He sharply distinguished between the logical and the ontological universal, denying to the latter the true nature of form in the composite. The principle of individuation is matter, eternally existent. Latin translations attributed to Avicenna the notion that existence is an accident to essence (see e.g. Guilelmus Parisiensis, De Universo). The process adopted by Avicenna was one of paraphrasis of the Aristotelian texts with many original thoughts interspersed. His works were translated into Latin by Dominicus Gundissalinus (Gondisalvi) with the assistance of Avendeath ibn Daud. This translation started, when it became more generally known, the "revival of Aristotle" at the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century. Albert the Great and Aquinas professed, notwithstanding their critical attitude, a great admiration for Avicenna whom the Arabs used to call the "third Aristotle". But in the Orient, Avicenna's influence declined soon, overcome by the opposition of the orthodox theologians. Avicenna, Opera, Venetiis, 1495; l508; 1546. M. Horten, Das Buch der Genesung der Seele, eine philosophische Enzyklopaedie Avicenna's; XIII. Teil: Die Metaphysik. Halle a. S. 1907-1909. R. de Vaux, Notes et textes sur l'Avicennisme Latin, Bibl. Thomiste XX, Paris, 1934. --R.A. Avidya: (Skr.) Nescience; ignorance; the state of mind unaware of true reality; an equivalent of maya (q.v.); also a condition of pure awareness prior to the universal process of evolution through gradual differentiation into the elements and factors of knowledge. --K.F.L. Avyakta: (Skr.) "Unmanifest", descriptive of or standing for brahman (q.v.) in one of its or "his" aspects, symbolizing the superabundance of the creative principle, or designating the condition of the universe not yet become phenomenal (aja, unborn). --K.F.L. Awareness: Consciousness considered in its aspect of act; an act of attentive awareness such as the sensing of a color patch or the feeling of pain is distinguished from the content attended to, the sensed color patch, the felt pain. The psychologlcal theory of intentional act was advanced by F. Brentano (Psychologie vom empirischen Standpunkte) and received its epistemological development by Meinong, Husserl, Moore, Laird and Broad. See Intentionalism. --L.W. Axiological: (Ger. axiologisch) In Husserl: Of or pertaining to value or theory of value (the latter term understood as including disvalue and value-indifference). --D.C. Axiological ethics: Any ethics which makes the theory of obligation entirely dependent on the theory of value, by making the determination of the rightness of an action wholly dependent on a consideration of the value or goodness of something, e.g. the action itself, its motive, or its consequences, actual or probable. Opposed to deontological ethics. See also teleological ethics. --W.K.F. Axiologic Realism: In metaphysics, theory that value as well as logic, qualities as well as relations, have their being and exist external to the mind and independently of it. Applicable to the philosophy of many though not all realists in the history of philosophy, from Plato to G. E. Moore, A. N. Whitehead, and N, Hartmann. --J.K.F. Axiology: (Gr. axios, of like value, worthy, and logos, account, reason, theory). Modern term for theory of value (the desired, preferred, good), investigation of its nature, criteria, and metaphysical status. Had its rise in Plato's theory of Forms or Ideas (Idea of the Good); was developed in Aristotle's Organon, Ethics, Poetics, and Metaphysics (Book Lambda). Stoics and Epicureans investigated the summum bonum. Christian philosophy (St. Thomas) built on Aristotle's identification of highest value with final cause in God as "a living being, eternal, most good." In modern thought, apart from scholasticism and the system of Spinoza (Ethica, 1677), in which values are metaphysically grounded, the various values were investigated in separate sciences, until Kant's Critiques, in which the relations of knowledge to moral, aesthetic, and religious values were examined. In Hegel's idealism, morality, art, religion, and philosophy were made the capstone of his dialectic. R. H. Lotze "sought in that which should be the ground of that which is" (Metaphysik, 1879). Nineteenth century evolutionary theory, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and economics subjected value experience to empirical analysis, and stress was again laid on the diversity and relativity of value phenomena rather than on their unity and metaphysical nature. F. Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra (1883-1885) and Zur Genealogie der Moral (1887) aroused new interest in the nature of value. F. Brentano, Vom Ursprung sittlicher Erkenntnis (1889), identified value with love. In the twentieth century the term axiology was apparently first applied by Paul Lapie (Logique de la volonte, 1902) and E. von Hartmann (Grundriss der Axiologie, 1908). Stimulated by Ehrenfels (System der Werttheorie, 1897), Meinong (Psychologisch-ethische Untersuchungen zur Werttheorie, 1894-1899), and Simmel (Philosophie des Geldes, 1900). W. M. Urban wrote the first systematic treatment of axiology in English (Valuation, 1909), phenomenological in method under J. M. Baldwin's influence. Meanwhile H. Münsterberg wrote a neo-Fichtean system of values (The Eternal Values, 1909). Among important recent contributions are: B. Bosanquet, The Principle of Individuality and Value (1912), a free reinterpretation of Hegelianism; W. R. Sorley, Moral Values and the Idea of God (1918, 1921), defending a metaphysical theism; S. Alexander, Space, Time, and Deity (1920), realistic and naturalistic; N. Hartmann, Ethik (1926), detailed analysis of types and laws of value; R. B. Perry's magnum opus, General Theory of Value (1926), "its meaning and basic principles construed in terms of interest"; and J. Laird, The Idea of Value (1929), noteworthy for historical exposition. A naturalistic theory has been developed by J. Dewey (Theory of Valuation, 1939), for which "not only is science itself a value . . . but it is the supreme means of the valid determination of all valuations." A. J. Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (1936) expounds the view of logical positivism that value is "nonsense." J. Hessen, Wertphilosophie (1937), provides an account of recent German axiology from a neo-scholastic standpoint. The problems of axiology fall into four main groups, namely, those concerning (1) the nature of value, (2) the types of value, (3) the criterion of value, and (4) the metaphysical status of value. (1) The nature of value experience. Is valuation fulfillment of desire (voluntarism: Spinoza, Ehrenfels), pleasure (hedonism: Epicurus, Bentham, Meinong), interest (Perry), preference (Martineau), pure rational will (formalism: Stoics, Kant, Royce), apprehension of tertiary qualities (Santayana), synoptic experience of the unity of personality (personalism: T. H. Green, Bowne), any experience that contributes to enhanced life (evolutionism: Nietzsche), or "the relation of things as means to the end or consequence actually reached" (pragmatism, instrumentalism: Dewey). (2) The types of value. Most axiologists distinguish between intrinsic (consummatory) values (ends), prized for their own sake, and instrumental (contributory) values (means), which are causes (whether as economic goods or as natural events) of intrinsic values. Most intrinsic values are also instrumental to further value experience; some instrumental values are neutral or even disvaluable intrinsically. Commonly recognized as intrinsic values are the (morally) good, the true, the beautiful, and the holy. Values of play, of work, of association, and of bodily well-being are also acknowledged. Some (with Montague) question whether the true is properly to be regarded as a value, since some truth is disvaluable, some neutral; but love of truth, regardless of consequences, seems to establish the value of truth. There is disagreement about whether the holy (religious value) is a unique type (Schleiermacher, Otto), or an attitude toward other values (Kant, Höffding), or a combination of the two (Hocking). There is also disagreement about whether the variety of values is irreducible (pluralism) or whether all values are rationally related in a hierarchy or system (Plato, Hegel, Sorley), in which values interpenetrate or coalesce into a total experience. (3) The criterion of value. The standard for testing values is influenced by both psychological and logical theory. Hedonists find the standard in the quantity of pleasure derived by the individual (Aristippus) or society (Bentham). Intuitionists appeal to an ultimate insight into preference (Martineau, Brentano). Some idealists recognize an objective system of rational norms or ideals as criterion (Plato, Windelband), while others lay more stress on rational wholeness and coherence (Hegel, Bosanquet, Paton) or inclusiveness (T. H. Green). Naturalists find biological survival or adjustment (Dewey) to be the standard. Despite differences, there is much in common in the results of the application of these criteria. (4) The metaphysical status of value. What is the relation of values to the facts investigated by natural science (Koehler), of Sein to Sollen (Lotze, Rickert), of human experience of value to reality independent of man (Hegel, Pringle-Pattlson, Spaulding)? There are three main answers: subjectivism (value is entirely dependent on and relative to human experience of it: so most hedonists, naturalists, positivists); logical objectivism (values are logical essences or subsistences, independent of their being known, yet with no existential status or action in reality); metaphysical objectivism (values --or norms or ideals --are integral, objective, and active constituents of the metaphysically real: so theists, absolutists, and certain realists and naturalists like S. Alexander and Wieman). --E.S.B. Axiom: See Mathematics. Axiomatic method: That method of constructing a deductive system consisting of deducing by specified rules all statements of the system save a given few from those given few, which are regarded as axioms or postulates of the system. See Mathematics. --C.A.B. Ayam atma brahma: (Skr.) "This self is brahman", famous quotation from Brhadaranyaka Upanishad 2.5.19, one of many alluding to the central theme of the Upanishads, i.e., the identity of the human and divine or cosmic. --K.F.L.
backing store 1. "storage" Computer memory, usually {magnetic disks}, storing data and programs. Sections of this information can then be copied into the main memory ({RAM}) for processing. Backing store is cheaper but RAM is faster. Such a hierarchy of memory devices allows a trade-off between performance and cost. 2. "text" Character storage in memory or on disk, as opposed to displayed or printed characters. This distinction is important where the visual ordering of characters differs from the order in which they are stored, e.g. bidirectional or non-spacing layout. In a {Unicode} encoding, text is stored in sequential order in the backing store. Logical or backing store order corresponds to the order in which text is typed on the keyboard (after corrections such as insertions, deletions, and overtyping). A text rendering process converts Unicode text in the backing store to readable text. ["The Unicode Standard: Worldwide Character Encoding", Version 1.0, Vol. 1. Addison-Wesley, 1991]. (2001-02-25)
backing store ::: 1. (storage) Computer memory, usually magnetic disks, storing data and programs. Sections of this information can then be copied into the main memory (RAM) for processing. Backing store is cheaper but RAM is faster. Such a hierarchy of memory devices allows a trade-off between performance and cost.2. (text) Character storage in memory or on disk, as opposed to displayed or printed characters. This distinction is important where the visual ordering of characters differs from the order in which they are stored, e.g. bidirectional or non-spacing layout.In a Unicode encoding, text is stored in sequential order in the backing store. Logical or backing store order corresponds to the order in which text is typed overtyping). A text rendering process converts Unicode text in the backing store to readable text.[The Unicode Standard: Worldwide Character Encoding, Version 1.0, Vol. 1. Addison-Wesley, 1991].(2001-02-25)
bang ::: 1. A common spoken name for ! (ASCII 33), especially when used in pronouncing a bang path in spoken hackish. In elder days this was considered a CMUish usage, possibly for humorous purposes), but if one wanted to specify the exact characters foo! one would speak Eff oh oh bang.See pling, shriek, ASCII.2. An exclamation signifying roughly I have achieved enlightenment!, or The dynamite has cleared out my brain! Often used to acknowledge that one has perpetrated a thinko immediately after one has been called on it.[Jargon File] (1995-01-31)
bang 1. A common spoken name for "!" (ASCII 33), especially when used in pronouncing a {bang path} in spoken hackish. In {elder days} this was considered a {CMU}ish usage, with {MIT} and {Stanford} hackers preferring {excl} or {shriek}; but the spread of {Unix} has carried "bang" with it (especially via the term {bang path}) and it is now certainly the most common spoken name for "!". Note that it is used exclusively for non-emphatic written "!"; one would not say "Congratulations bang" (except possibly for humorous purposes), but if one wanted to specify the exact characters "foo!" one would speak "Eff oh oh bang". See {pling}, {shriek}, {ASCII}. 2. An exclamation signifying roughly "I have achieved enlightenment!", or "The dynamite has cleared out my brain!" Often used to acknowledge that one has perpetrated a {thinko} immediately after one has been called on it. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-31)
base 64 ::: (file format, algorithm) A file format using 64 ASCII characters to encode the six bit binary data values 0-63.To convert data to base 64, the first byte is placed in the most significant eight bits of a 24-bit buffer, the next in the middle eight, and the third in extra bits being added to the reconstructed data. The process then repeats on the remaining input data.Base 64 is used when transmitting binary data through text-only media such as electronic mail, and has largely replaced the older uuencode encoding.(2004-07-17)
base 64 "file format, algorithm" A file format using 64 {ASCII} characters to encode the six bit {binary data} values 0-63. To convert data to base 64, the first byte is placed in the most significant eight bits of a 24-bit buffer, the next in the middle eight, and the third in the least significant eight bits. If there a fewer than three bytes to encode, the corresponding buffer bits will be zero. The buffer is then used, six bits at a time, most significant first, as indices into the string "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/" and the indicated character output. If there were only one or two input bytes, the output is padded with two or one "=" characters respectively. This prevents extra bits being added to the reconstructed data. The process then repeats on the remaining input data. Base 64 is used when transmitting binary data through text-only media such as {electronic mail}, and has largely replaced the older {uuencode} encoding. (2004-07-17)
BASIC ::: (language) Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. A simple language originally designed for ease of programming by students and beginners. Many dialects exist, and BASIC is popular on microcomputers with sound and graphics support. Most micro versions are interactive and interpreted.BASIC has become the leading cause of brain-damage in proto-hackers. This is another case (like Pascal) of the cascading lossage that happens when a language accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on low-end micros. As it is, it ruins thousands of potential wizards a year.Originally, all references to code, both GOTO and GOSUB (subroutine call) referred to the destination by its line number. This allowed for very simple programming with named procedures and functions, IF-THEN-ELSE
IF constructs and WHILE loops etc.Early BASICs had no graphic operations except with graphic characters. In the 1970s BASIC interpreters became standard features in mainframes and minicomputers. Some versions included matrix operations as language primitives.A public domain interpreter for a mixture of DEC's MU-Basic and Microsoft Basic is . A yacc parser and interpreter were in the comp.sources.unix archives volume 2.See also ANSI Minimal BASIC, bournebasic, bwBASIC, ubasic, Visual Basic.[Jargon File] (1995-03-15)
BASIC "language" Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. A simple language originally designed for ease of programming by students and beginners. Many dialects exist, and BASIC is popular on {microcomputers} with sound and graphics support. Most micro versions are {interactive} and {interpreted}. BASIC has become the leading cause of brain-damage in proto-hackers. This is another case (like {Pascal}) of the cascading lossage that happens when a language deliberately designed as an educational toy gets taken too seriously. A novice can write short BASIC programs (on the order of 10-20 lines) very easily; writing anything longer is painful and encourages bad habits that will make it harder to use more powerful languages. This wouldn't be so bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on low-end micros. As it is, it ruins thousands of potential wizards a year. Originally, all references to code, both {GOTO} and GOSUB (subroutine call) referred to the destination by its line number. This allowed for very simple editing in the days before {text editors} were considered essential. Just typing the line number deleted the line and to edit a line you just typed the new line with the same number. Programs were typically numbered in steps of ten to allow for insertions. Later versions, such as {BASIC V}, allow {GOTO}-less {structured programming} with named {procedures} and {functions}, IF-THEN-ELSE
IF constructs and {WHILE} loops etc. Early BASICs had no graphic operations except with graphic characters. In the 1970s BASIC {interpreters} became standard features in {mainframes} and {minicomputers}. Some versions included {matrix} operations as language {primitives}. A {public domain} {interpreter} for a mixture of {DEC}'s {MU-Basic} and {Microsoft Basic} is {here (ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/Unix-c/languages/basic/basic.tar-z)}. A {yacc} {parser} and {interpreter} were in the comp.sources.unix archives volume 2. See also {ANSI Minimal BASIC}, {bournebasic}, {bwBASIC}, {ubasic}, {Visual Basic}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-03-15)
Basic Multilingual Plane "text, standard" (BMP) The first plane defined in {Unicode}/{ISO 10646}, designed to include all {scripts} in active modern use. The BMP currently includes the Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Devangari, hiragana, katakana, and Cherokee scripts, among others, and a large body of mathematical, {APL}-related, and other miscellaneous {characters}. Most of the {Han} {ideographs} in current use are present in the BMP, but due to the large number of ideographs, many were placed in the {Supplementary Ideographic Plane}. {Unicode home (http://unicode.org)}. (2002-03-19)
baud "communications, unit" /bawd/ (plural "baud") The unit in which the information carrying capacity or "{signalling rate}" of a communication channel is measured. One baud is one symbol (state-transition or level-transition) per second. This coincides with bits per second only for two-level {modulation} with no {framing} or {stop bits}. A symbol is a unique state of the communication channel, distinguishable by the receiver from all other possible states. For example, it may be one of two voltage levels on a wire for a direct digital connection or it might be the phase or frequency of a carrier. The term "baud" was originally a unit of telegraph signalling speed, set at one {Morse code} dot per second. Or, more generally, the reciprocal of the duration of the shortest signalling element. It was proposed at the International Telegraph Conference of 1927, and named after {J.M.E. Baudot} (1845-1903), the French engineer who constructed the first successful teleprinter. The UK {PSTN} will support a maximum rate of 600 baud but each baud may carry between 1 and 16 bits depending on the coding (e.g. {QAM}). Where data is transmitted as {packets}, e.g. characters, the actual "data rate" of a channel is R D / P where R is the "raw" rate in bits per second, D is the number of data bits in a packet and P is the total number of bits in a packet (including packet overhead). The term "baud" causes much confusion and is usually best avoided. Use "bits per second" (bps), "bytes per second" or "characters per second" (cps) if that's what you mean. (1998-02-14)
baud ::: (communications, unit) /bawd/ (plural baud) The unit in which the information carrying capacity or signalling rate of a communication channel is second. This coincides with bits per second only for two-level modulation with no framing or stop bits.A symbol is a unique state of the communication channel, distinguishable by the receiver from all other possible states. For example, it may be one of two voltage levels on a wire for a direct digital connection or it might be the phase or frequency of a carrier.The term baud was originally a unit of telegraph signalling speed, set at one Morse code dot per second. Or, more generally, the reciprocal of the duration of Conference of 1927, and named after J.M.E. Baudot (1845-1903), the French engineer who constructed the first successful teleprinter.The UK PSTN will support a maximum rate of 600 baud but each baud may carry between 1 and 16 bits depending on the coding (e.g. QAM).Where data is transmitted as packets, e.g. characters, the actual data rate of a channel is R D / P in a packet and P is the total number of bits in a packet (including packet overhead).The term baud causes much confusion and is usually best avoided. Use bits per second (bps), bytes per second or characters per second (cps) if that's what you mean. (1998-02-14)
Baudotbetical order "algorithm" /baw do bet' i k*l/ Sorted into an order where numerics and special characters are intermixed by sorting a 5-bit {Baudot code} file ignoring the numeric shift and unshift codes. (1997-02-11)
Baudotbetical order ::: (algorithm) /baw do bet' i k*l/ Sorted into an order where numerics and special characters are intermixed by sorting a 5-bit Baudot code file ignoring the numeric shift and unshift codes. (1997-02-11)
Baudot code "communications" (For etymology, see {baud}) A {character set} predating {EBCDIC} and used originally and primarily on {paper tape}. Use of Baudot reportedly survives in {TDDs} and some HAM radio applications. In Baudot, characters are expressed using five {bits}. Baudot uses two code sub-sets, the "letter set" (LTRS), and the "figure set" (FIGS). The FIGS character (11011) signals that the following code is to be interpreted as being in the FIGS set, until this is reset by the LTRS (11111) character. binary hex LTRS FIGS -------------------------- 00011 03 A - 11001 19 B ? 01110 0E C : 01001 09 D $ 00001 01 E 3 01101 0D F ! 11010 1A G & 10100 14 H
Baudot code ::: (communications) (For etymology, see baud) A character set predating EBCDIC and used originally and primarily on paper tape. Use of Baudot reportedly survives in TDDs and some HAM radio applications.In Baudot, characters are expressed using five bits. Baudot uses two code sub-sets, the letter set (LTRS), and the figure set (FIGS). The FIGS character (11011) signals that the following code is to be interpreted as being in the FIGS set, until this is reset by the LTRS (11111) character. binary hex LTRS FIGS-------------------------- Where CR is carriage return, LF is linefeed, BELL is the bell, SP is space, and STOP is the stop character.Note: these bit values are often shown in inverse order, depending (presumably) which side of the paper tape you were looking at.Local implementations of Baudot may differ in the use of
characters ::: 1. The combination of qualities, features and traits that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another. 2. The marks or symbols used in writing systems such as the letters of the alphabet.
characters of Malachim” (angels) and invoked in
characters on the 1st pentacle of the planet Jupiter.
characters (tongue) of angels and invoked to
binary file "file format" Any {file format} for {digital} {data} that does not consist of a sequence of printable {characters} ({text}). The term is often used for executable {machine code}. All digital data, including characters, is actually binary data (unless it uses some (rare) system with more than two discrete levels) but the distinction between binary and text is well established. On modern {operating systems} a text file is simply a binary file that happens to contain only printable characters, but some older systems distinguish the two file types, requiring programs to handle them differently. A common class of binary files is programs in {machine language} ("{executable} files") ready to load into memory and execute. Binary files may also be used to store data output by a program, and intended to be read by that or another program but not by humans. Binary files are more efficient for this purpose because the data (e.g. numerical data) does not need to be converted between the binary form used by the {CPU} and a printable (ASCII) representation. The disadvantage is that it is usually necessary to write special purpose programs to manipulate such files since most general purpose utilities operate on text files. There is also a problem sharing binary numerical data between processors with different {endian}ness. Some communications {protocols} handle only text files, e.g. most {electronic mail} systems before {MIME} became widespread in about 1995. The {FTP} utility must be put into "binary" mode in order to copy a binary file since in its default "ascii" mode translates between the different {newline} characters used on the sending and receiving computers. Confusingly, some {word processor} files, and {rich text} files, are actually binary files because they contain non-printable characters and require special programs to view, edit and print them. (2005-02-21)
binary file ::: (file format) Any file format for digital data that does not consist of a sequence of printable characters (text). The term is often used for executable machine code.All digital data, including characters, is actually binary data (unless it uses some (rare) system with more than two discrete levels) but the distinction but some older systems distinguish the two file types, requiring programs to handle them differently.A common class of binary files is programs in machine language (executable files) ready to load into memory and execute. Binary files may also be used to files. There is also a problem sharing binary numerical data between processors with different endianness.Some communications protocols handle only text files, e.g. most electronic mail systems before MIME became widespread in about 1995. The FTP utility must be put mode translates between the different newline characters used on the sending and receiving computers.Confusingly, some word processor files, and rich text files, are actually binary files because they contain non-printable characters and require special programs to view, edit and print them.(2005-02-21)
BinHex "file format" A {Macintosh} format for representing a {binary file} using only {printable characters}. The file is converted to lines of letters, numbers and punctuation. Because BinHex files are simply text they can be sent through most {electronic mail} systems and stored on most computers. However the conversion to text makes the file larger, so it takes longer to transmit a file in BinHex format than if the file was represented some other way. {Filename extension}: .hqx. See also {BinHex 4.0}, {uuencode}. [Encoding algorithm?] (1994-11-30)
BinHex ::: (file format) A Macintosh format for representing a binary file using only printable characters. The file is converted to lines of letters, numbers conversion to text makes the file larger, so it takes longer to transmit a file in BinHex format than if the file was represented some other way.Filename extension: .hqx.See also BinHex 4.0, uuencode.[Encoding algorithm?] (1994-11-30)
bit-paired keyboard "hardware" (Obsolete, or "bit-shift keyboard") A non-standard keyboard layout that seems to have originated with the {Teletype} {ASR-33} and remained common for several years on early computer equipment. The ASR-33 was a mechanical device (see {EOU}), so the only way to generate the character codes from keystrokes was by some physical linkage. The design of the ASR-33 assigned each character key a basic pattern that could be modified by flipping bits if the SHIFT or the CTRL key was pressed. In order to avoid making the thing more of a Rube Goldberg {kluge} than it already was, the design had to group characters that shared the same basic {bit pattern} on one key. Looking at the {ASCII} chart, we find: high low bits bits 0000 0001 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111 1000 1001 010 ! "
bit-paired keyboard ::: (hardware) (Obsolete, or bit-shift keyboard) A non-standard keyboard layout that seems to have originated with the Teletype ASR-33 and remained of a Rube Goldberg kluge than it already was, the design had to group characters that shared the same basic bit pattern on one key.Looking at the ASCII chart, we find: high low bitsbits 0000 0001 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111 1000 1001 arrangements on IBM's even clunkier 026 and 029 card punches.When electronic terminals became popular, in the early 1970s, there was no agreement in the industry over how the keyboards should be laid out. Some touch-type, there was little pressure from the pioneering users to adapt keyboards to the typewriter standard.The doom of the bit-paired keyboard was the large-scale introduction of the computer terminal into the normal office environment, where out-and-out standard became universal, bit-paired hardware was quickly junked or relegated to dusty corners, and both terms passed into disuse.[Jargon File] (1995-02-20)
brain-damaged ::: 1. [generalisation of Honeywell Brain Damage (HBD), a theoretical disease invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in Honeywell Multics] Obviously its failure to work is due to poor design rather than some accident. Only six monocase characters per file name? Now *that's* brain-damaged!2. [especially in the Mac world] May refer to free demonstration software that has been deliberately crippled in some way so as not to compete with the commercial product it is intended to sell. Synonym crippleware.[Jargon File]
brain-damaged 1. [generalisation of "Honeywell Brain Damage" (HBD), a theoretical disease invented to explain certain utter cretinisms in Honeywell {Multics}] Obviously wrong; cretinous; {demented}. There is an implication that the person responsible must have suffered brain damage, because he should have known better. Calling something brain-damaged is really bad; it also implies it is unusable, and that its failure to work is due to poor design rather than some accident. "Only six monocase characters per file name? Now *that's* brain-damaged!" 2. [especially in the Mac world] May refer to free demonstration software that has been deliberately crippled in some way so as not to compete with the commercial product it is intended to sell. Synonym {crippleware}. [{Jargon File}] (2011-01-04)
broken arrow ::: (communications) The error code displayed on line 25 of a IBM 3270 terminal (or a terminal emulator emulating a 3270) for various kinds of protocol computer). On a PC, simulated with ->/_, with the two centre characters overstruck.Broken arrow is also military jargon for an accident involving nuclear weapons.[Jargon File] (1995-02-07)
broken arrow "communications" The error code displayed on line 25 of a {IBM 3270} {terminal} (or a {terminal emulator} emulating a 3270) for various kinds of {protocol} violations and "unexpected" error conditions (including connection to a {down} computer). On a PC, simulated with "-"/_", with the two centre characters overstruck. "Broken arrow" is also military jargon for an accident involving nuclear weapons. [{Jargon File}] (1995-02-07)
broket ::: (character) /broh'k*t/ or /broh'ket/ (From broken bracket) Either of the characters or > when used as paired enclosing delimiters (angle brackets).[Jargon File] (1997-07-21)
broket "character" /broh'k*t/ or /broh'ket/ (From broken bracket) Either of the characters """ or """ when used as paired enclosing {delimiters} ({angle brackets}). [{Jargon File}] (1997-07-21)
btoa "tool, messaging, algorithm, file format" /B too A/ A {binary} to {ASCII} conversion utility. btoa is a {uuencode} or {base 64} equivalent which addresses some of the problems with the uuencode standard but not as many as the base 64 standard. It avoids problems that some {hosts} have with spaces (e.g. conversion of groups of spaces to tabs) by not including them in its character set, but may still have problems on non-ASCII systems (e.g. {EBCDIC}). btoa is primarily used to transfer {binary files} between systems across connections which are not {eight-bit clean}, e.g. {electronic mail}. btoa takes adjacent sets of four binary {octets} and encodes them as five ASCII {octets} using ASCII characters '!' through to 'u'. Special characters are also used: 'x' marks the beginning or end of the archive; 'z' marks four consecutive zeros and 'y' (version 5.2) four consecutive spaces. Each group of four octets is processed as a 32-bit integer. Call this 'I'. Let 'D' = 85^4. Divide I by D. Call this result 'R'. Make I = I - (R * D) to avoid {overflow} on the next step. Repeat, for values of D = 85^3, 85^2, 85 and 1. At each step, to convert R to the output character add decimal 33 (output octet = R + ASCII value for '!'). Five output octets are produced. btoa provides some {integrity checking} in the form of a line {checksum}, and facilities for patching corrupted downloads. The {algorithm} used by btoa is more efficient than uuencode or base 64. ASCII files are encoded to about 120% the size of their binary sources. This compares with 135% for uuencode or base 64. {C source (ftp://hpux.csc.liv.ac.uk/hpux/Misc/btoa-5.2/)}. (version 5.2 - ~1994). Pre-compiled {MS-DOS} versions are also available. (1997-08-08)
btoa ::: (tool, messaging, algorithm, file format) /B too A/ A binary to ASCII conversion utility.btoa is a uuencode or base 64 equivalent which addresses some of the problems with the uuencode standard but not as many as the base 64 standard. It avoids to tabs) by not including them in its character set, but may still have problems on non-ASCII systems (e.g. EBCDIC).btoa is primarily used to transfer binary files between systems across connections which are not eight-bit clean, e.g. electronic mail.btoa takes adjacent sets of four binary octets and encodes them as five ASCII octets using ASCII characters '!' through to 'u'. Special characters are also used: 'x' marks the beginning or end of the archive; 'z' marks four consecutive zeros and 'y' (version 5.2) four consecutive spaces.Each group of four octets is processed as a 32-bit integer. Call this 'I'. Let 'D' = 85^4. Divide I by D. Call this result 'R'. Make I = I - (R * D) to avoid each step, to convert R to the output character add decimal 33 (output octet = R + ASCII value for '!'). Five output octets are produced.btoa provides some integrity checking in the form of a line checksum, and facilities for patching corrupted downloads.The algorithm used by btoa is more efficient than uuencode or base 64. ASCII files are encoded to about 120% the size of their binary sources. This compares with 135% for uuencode or base 64. . (version 5.2 - ~1994).Pre-compiled MS-DOS versions are also available. (1997-08-08)
by hand 1. Said of an operation (especially a repetitive, trivial, and/or tedious one) that ought to be performed automatically by the computer, but which a hacker instead has to step tediously through. "My mailer doesn't have a command to include the text of the message I'm replying to, so I have to do it by hand." This does not necessarily mean the speaker has to retype a copy of the message; it might refer to, say, dropping into a subshell from the mailer, making a copy of one's mailbox file, reading that into an editor, locating the top and bottom of the message in question, deleting the rest of the file, inserting """ characters on each line, writing the file, leaving the editor, returning to the mailer, reading the file in, and later remembering to delete the file. Compare {eyeball search}. 2. By extension, writing code which does something in an explicit or low-level way for which a presupplied library routine ought to have been available. "This cretinous {B-tree} library doesn't supply a decent iterator, so I'm having to walk the trees by hand." [{Jargon File}]
Cadmus, Cadmilus (Greek) Son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and brother of Europa, husband of Harmonia, and father of Semele; legendary founder of Thebes, who slew the dragon, planted its teeth, and built the city with the help of some of the soldiers that sprang from the teeth. He and his wife were finally turned into serpents by the gods. Said to have introduced into Greece an alphabet, possibly based upon 16 characters derived from either Egypt or Phoenicia. He belongs to the class of heroes, who succeeded the reigns of the gods and demigods on earth and who were parents and instructors of mortals.
CamelCase "programming" The practice of concatenating words with either all words capitalised (e.g. "ICantReadThis" - sometimes called "UpperCamelCase" or "PascalCase") or all except the first ("iCantReadThis" - called "lowerCamelCase"). It is used in contexts where space characters are not allowed, such as identifiers in {source code}. Modern best practice separates words in identifiers with {underscore} for readability (like_this_example). CamelCase is probably a historical throw-back to systems that had no underscore or when the length of identifiers was constrained either by the programming language or by the width of computer displays. Unfortunately it has infected many projects, origanisations and programming languages such as {Java} where the uniniated create identifiers like "MemberSubmissionAddressingWSDLParserExtension". (2014-12-02)
cerography ::: n. --> The art of making characters or designs in, or with, wax.
A method of making stereotype plates from inscribed sheets of wax.
chancroid ::: n. --> A venereal sore, resembling a chancre in its seat and some external characters, but differing from it in being the starting point of a purely local process and never of a systemic disease; -- called also soft chancre.
character "character" A {letter} of some alphabet (either upper case or lower case), a {digit}, a {punctuation} or other symbol or a {control character}. In a computer, a character is represented as an {integer}. What character is represented by what integer is determined by the current {character set}. For example, in the {ASCII} character set, "A" is 65. These integers are then stored as a sequence of {bytes} according to a {character encoding}. The character set and encoding is usually implicit in the environment in which the character is being interpreted but it may be specified explicitly, e.g. to convert input to some standard internal representation. A sequence of characters is a (character) {string}. Compare with {glyph}. (1998-10-18)
character encoding "character" (Or "character encoding scheme") A mapping between {binary} data values and character {code positions} (or "code points"). Early systems stored characters in a variety of ways, e.g. four six-bit characters in a 24-bit word, but around 1960, eight-bit bytes started to become the most common data storage layout, with each character stored in one byte, typically in the {ASCII} character set. In the case of {ASCII}, the character encoding is an {identity} mapping: code position 65 maps to the byte value 65. This is possible because ASCII uses only code positions representable as single {bytes}, i.e., values between 0 and 255. ({US-ASCII} only uses values 0 to 127, in fact.) From the late 1990s, there was increased use of larger character sets such as {Unicode} and many {CJK} {coded character sets}. These can represent characters from many languages and more symbols. {Unicode} uses many more than the 256 code positions that can be represented by one byte. It thus requires more complex mappings: sometimes the characters are mapped onto pairs of bytes (see {DBCS}). In many cases, this breaks programs that assume a one-to-one mapping of bytes to characters, and so, for example, treat any occurrance of the byte value 13 as a {carriage return}. To avoid this problem, character encodings such as {UTF-8} were devised. (2015-11-29)
character encoding ::: (character) (Or character encoding scheme) A mapping of binary values to code positions and back; generally a 1:1 (bijective) mapping.In the case of ASCII, this is generally a f(x)=x mapping: code point 65 maps to the byte value 65, and vice versa. This is possible because ASCII uses only code positions representable as single bytes, i.e., values between 0 and 255, at most. (US-ASCII only uses values 0 to 127, in fact.)Unicode and many CJK coded character sets use many more than 255 positions, requiring more complex mappings: sometimes the characters are mapped onto pairs occurrance of the byte value 13 as a carriage return. To avoid this problem, character encodings such as UTF-8 were devised. (1998-10-18)
Characteristica Universalis: The name given by Leibniz to his projected (but only partially realized) "universal language" for the formulation of knowledge. This language was to be ideographic, with simple characters standing for simple concepts, and combinations of them for compound ideas, so that all knowledge could be expressed in terms which all could easily learn to use and understand. It represents an adumbration of the more recent and more successful logistic treatment of mathematics and science. It is to be distinguished, however, from the "universal calculus," also projected by Leibniz, which was to be the instrument for the development and manipulation of systems in the universal language. -- W.K.F.
character repertoire ::: (character) The set of all characters onto which a coded character set maps integers (code positions).For example, consider these two simple coded character sets: Coded Character Set One:integer 0 -> the character A incompatible), these are different coded character sets. (1998-12-17)
character repertoire "character" The set of all {characters} onto which a {coded character set} maps {integers} ({code positions}). For example, consider these two simple coded character sets: Coded Character Set One: integer 0 -" the character "A" integer 1 -" the character "B" Coded Character Set Two: integer 0 -" the character "B" integer 1 -" the character "A" Both of these coded character sets map to the characters "A" and "B", so they have the same character repertoire. But since the mapping is different (and obviously incompatible), these are different coded character sets. (1998-12-17)
character set ::: (character) 1. A particular mapping between characters and byte strings, i.e. the combination of a particular character encoding (which maps between byte strings and integers) and a particular coded character set (which maps between integers and characters).For example: ASCII (the ASCII coded character set, encoded directly as single-byte values), or UTF-8 (the Unicode coded character set, encoded with an 8-bit transformation method).2. Occasionally: a character repertoire; or a coded character set. (1998-12-17)
character set "character" A particular {mapping} between {characters} and {byte strings}, i.e. the combination of a particular {character encoding} (which maps between byte strings and {integers}) and a particular {coded character set} (which maps between integers and characters). For example: {ASCII} (the ASCII coded character set, encoded directly as single-byte values), or {UTF-8} (the {Unicode} coded character set, encoded with an 8-bit transformation method). The {character repertoire} is the complete set of all characters in the character set. (2015-11-29)
Characters: Statements or E-values like pleasant, true, known; all possible ego attitudes and feelings are so termed. (See Avenarius). -- H.H.
charactery ::: n. --> The art or means of characterizing; a system of signs or characters; symbolism; distinctive mark.
That which is charactered; the meaning.
charm ::: n. --> A melody; a song.
A word or combination of words sung or spoken in the practice of magic; a magical combination of words, characters, etc.; an incantation.
That which exerts an irresistible power to please and attract; that which fascinates; any alluring quality.
Anything worn for its supposed efficacy to the wearer in averting ill or securing good fortune.
CJK ::: (character) In internationalisation, a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.The characters of these languages are all partly based on Han characters (i.e., hanzi or kanji), which require 16-bit character encodings. CJK character encodings should consist minimally of Han characters plus language-specific phonetic scripts such as pinyin, bopomofo, hiragana, hangul, etc.CJKV is CJK plus Vietnamese. .(2001-01-01)
CJK "character" In {internationalisation}, a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The characters of these languages are all partly based on {Han characters} (i.e., "hanzi" or "{kanji}"), which require 16-bit {character encodings}. CJK character encodings should consist minimally of {Han characters} plus language-specific phonetic scripts such as pinyin, bopomofo, hiragana, hangul, etc. {CJKV} is CJK plus {Vietnamese}. {(ftp://ftp.ora.com/pub/examples/nutshell/ujip/doc/cjk.inf)}. (2001-01-01)
CJKV ::: (character) CJK plus Vietnamese. Vietnamese, like the other three CJK languages, requires 16-bit character encodings but it does not use Han characters.[CJKV Information Processing: Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese Computing, Ken Lunde, pub. O'Reilly 1998, ].(2001-03-18)
CJKV "character" {CJK} plus {Vietnamese}. Vietnamese, like the other three CJK languages, requires 16-bit {character encodings} but it does not use {Han characters}. ["CJKV Information Processing: Chinese, Japanese, Korean & Vietnamese Computing", Ken Lunde, pub. O'Reilly 1998, {(http://oreilly.com/catalog/cjkvinfo/)}]. (2001-03-18)
classify ::: v. t. --> To distribute into classes; to arrange according to a system; to arrange in sets according to some method founded on common properties or characters.
coded character set ::: (character, standard) A mapping from a set of integers to a set of characters. This mapping is generally 1:1 (i.e., bijective), for example, the code position 65 in ASCII maps only to A, and it's the only position that maps to A.There are several standard coded character sets, the most widely used is ASCII, generally in its Latin-1 dialect, with Unicode becoming slowly more common; while EBCDIC and Baudot are extinct except in legacy systems.A coded character set may include letters, digits, punctuation, control codes, various mathematical and typographic symbols, and other characters. Each character in the set is represented by a unique character code (or code position). (1998-10-18)
coded character set "character, standard" A mapping, generally 1:1, from a set of {integers}, known as {character codes} or {code positions}, to a set of {characters} that may include letters, digits, punctuation, {control codes}, mathematical and typographic symbols. There are several {standard} coded character sets, the most widely used is {ASCII}, generally in its {Latin-1} dialect, with {Unicode} becoming slowly more common; while {EBCDIC} and {Baudot} are extinct except in {legacy systems}. (2009-01-06)
coin ::: n. --> A quoin; a corner or external angle; a wedge. See Coigne, and Quoin.
A piece of metal on which certain characters are stamped by government authority, making it legally current as money; -- much used in a collective sense.
That which serves for payment or recompense. ::: v. t.
comma separated values ::: (file format) (CSV) A file format used as a portable representation of a database. Each line is one entry or record and the fields in a record are characters which are ignored. If field includes a comma, the whole field must be surrounded with double quotes. (1995-05-06)
comma separated values "file format" (CSV) A {file format} used as a portable representation of a {database}. Each line is one entry or record and the fields in a record are separated by {commas}. Commas may be followed by arbitrary space and/or tab characters which are ignored. If field includes a comma, the whole field must be surrounded with {double quotes}. (1995-05-06)
Common Lisp ::: (language) A dialect of Lisp defined by a consortium of companies brought together in 1981 by the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Carnegie-Mellon University, Stanford University, Yale, MIT and USC Berkeley. Common Lisp is lexically scoped by default but can be dynamically scoped.Common Lisp is a large and complex language, fairly close to a superset of MacLisp. It features lexical binding, data structures using defstruct and setf, escape characters. Common LISP now includes CLOS, an extended LOOP macro, condition system, pretty printing and logical pathnames.Implementations include AKCL, CCL, CLiCC, CLISP, CLX, CMU Common Lisp, DCL, KCL, MCL and WCL.Mailing list: . .[Common LISP: The Language, Guy L. Steele, Digital Press 1984, ISBN 0-932376-41-X].[Common LISP: The Language, 2nd Edition, Guy L. Steele, Digital Press 1990, ISBN 1-55558-041-6]. (1994-09-29)
Common Lisp "language" A dialect of {Lisp} defined by a consortium of companies brought together in 1981 by the {Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency} (DARPA). Companies included {Symbolics}, {Lisp Machines, Inc.}, {Digital Equipment Corporation}, {Bell Labs}., {Xerox}, {Hewlett-Packard}, {Lawrence Livermore Labs}., {Carnegie-Mellon University}, {Stanford University}, {Yale}, {MIT} and {USC Berkeley}. Common Lisp is {lexically scoped} by default but can be {dynamically scoped}. Common Lisp is a large and complex language, fairly close to a superset of {MacLisp}. It features {lexical binding}, data structures using defstruct and setf, {closures}, multiple values, types using declare and a variety of numerical types. Function calls allow "&optional", keyword and "&rest" arguments. Generic sequence can either be a list or an {array}. It provides formatted printing using escape characters. Common LISP now includes {CLOS}, an extended LOOP {macro}, condition system, {pretty printing} and logical pathnames. Implementations include {AKCL}, {CCL}, {CLiCC}, {CLISP}, {CLX}, {CMU Common Lisp}, {DCL}, {KCL}, {MCL} and {WCL}. Mailing list: "common-lisp@ai.sri.com". {ANSI Common Lisp draft proposal (ftp://ftp.think.com/public/think/lisp:public-review.text)}. ["Common LISP: The Language", Guy L. Steele, Digital Press 1984, ISBN 0-932376-41-X]. ["Common LISP: The Language, 2nd Edition", Guy L. Steele, Digital Press 1990, ISBN 1-55558-041-6]. (1994-09-29)
compression 1. "application" (Or "compaction") The coding of data to save storage space or transmission time. Although data is already coded in digital form for computer processing, it can often be coded more efficiently (using fewer bits). For example, {run-length encoding} replaces strings of repeated characters (or other units of data) with a single character and a count. There are many compression {algorithms} and utilities. Compressed data must be decompressed before it can be used. The standard {Unix} compression utilty is called {compress} though {GNU}'s superior {gzip} has largely replaced it. Other compression utilties include {pack}, {zip} and {PKZIP}. When compressing several similar files, it is usually better to join the files together into an {archive} of some kind (using {tar} for example) and then compress them, rather than to join together individually compressed files. This is because some common compression {algorithms} build up tables based on the data from their current input which they have already compressed. They then use this table to compress subsequent data more efficiently. See also {TIFF}, {JPEG}, {MPEG}, {Lempel-Ziv Welch}, "{lossy}", "{lossless}". {Compression FAQ (ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/compression-faq/)}. {Web Content Compression FAQ (http://perl.apache.org/docs/tutorials/client/compression/compression.html)}. {Usenet} newsgroups: {news:comp.compression}, {news:comp.compression.research}. 2. "multimedia" Reducing the dynamic range of an audio signal, making quiet sounds louder and loud sounds quieter. Thus, when discussing digital audio, the preferred term for reducing the total amount of data is "compaction". Some advocate this term in all contexts. (2004-04-26)
Concomitance: (Latin concomitantia, accompaniment), literally the act or state of being associated, the term has received wide currency in logic, particularly since John Stuart Mill clearly formulated the method of concomitant variations, as the concurrent existence, appearance or disappearance of certain characters which, under circumstances, admit but do not necessarily postulate causal interrelatedness. -- K.F.L.
Conjunction: See Logic, formal, § 1. Connexity: A dyadic relation R is cilled connected if, for every two different members x, y of its field, at least one of xRy, yRx holds. Connotation: The sum of the constitutive notes of the essence of a concept as it is in itself and not as it is for us. This logical property is thus measured by the sum of the notes of the concept, of the higher genera it implies, of the various essential attributes of its nature as such. This term is synonymous with intension and comprehension; yet, the distinctions between them have been the object of controversies. J. S. Mill identifies connotation with signification and meaning, and includes in it much less than under comprehension or intension. The connotation of a general term (singular terms except descriptions are non-connotative) is the aggregate of all the other general terms necessarily implied by it is an abstract possibility and apart from exemplification in the actual world. It cannot be determined by denotation because necessity does not always refer to singular facts. Logicians who adopt this view distinguish connotation from comprehension by including in the latter contingent characters which do not enter in the former. Comprehension is thus the intensional reference of the concept, or the reference to universals of both general and singular terms. The determination of the comprehension of a concept is helped by its denotation, considering that reference is made also to singular, contingent, or particular objects exhibiting certain characteristics. In short, the connotation of a concept is its intensional reference determined intensionally; while its comprehension is its intensional reference extensionally determined. It may be observed that such a distinction and the view that the connotation of a concept contains only the notes which serve to define it, involves the nominalist principle that a concept may be reduced to what we are actually and explicitely thinking about the several notes we use to define it. Thus the connotation of a concept is much poorer than its actual content. Though the value of the concept seems to be saved by the recognition of its comprehension, it may be argued that the artificial introduction into the comprehension of both necessary and contingent notes, that is of actual and potential characteristics, confuses and perverts the notion of connotation as a logical property of our ideas. See Intension. -- T.G.
Contrast: In aesthetics: the term may refer either to the presence in the object contemplated of contrasting elements (colors, sounds, characters, etc.), or to the principle that the presence of such contrasting elements is a common feature of beautiful objects which, within limits, enhances their beauty. -- W.K.F.
control 1. "character, hardware" A {control key} on a {keyboard} used to input {control characters}. 2. "programming, operating system, graphics" A component in a {graphical user interface}, e.g. an {Active-X control}.
control character "character" Any of a number of special characters that exist in most {coded character sets} and that are input or output to cause some special action rather than as part of the normal textual data. Control characters are input by holding down a {control key} on the {keyboard} and simultaneously pressing a letter key or (depending on the keyboard and {operating system}) certain punctuation characters. Some control codes have their own special keys: {escape}, {tab}, {delete}, {backspace}, {return}, allowing them to be entered with a single key press. Control characters may be output for their effect on the output device, e.g. moving the {cursor} or {print head} to the start of a new line ({carriage return}, Control-M), advancing down to the next line ({line feed}, Control-J) or ringing the bell (Control-G). Different {operating systems} and {application programs} have different conventions for what effect typing certain control characters will have, such as interrupting the current process ({Unix} {Control-C}) or suspending or resuming output ({Control-S}, {Control-Q}). See {ASCII character table}. (2015-03-07)
control ::: (character) (Or ctrl, ^) One (or a pair) of modifier keys found on all modern keyboards. If the control key is held down while pressing and code for the control character is generally 64 less than that for the unmodified character.The control key does not generate any character on its own but most modern keyboards and operating systems allow a program to tell whether each of the individual keys on the keyboard (including modifier keys) is pressed at any time.Control characters mostly have some kind of non-printing effect on the output such as ringing the bell (Control-G) or advancing to the next line (Control-J). Most have alternative names suggesting these functions (Bell, Line Feed, etc.).See ASCII character table. (1997-07-10)
control code "character" A {character code} for a {control character}, normally including the values 0..31 or 127, inherited from {ASCII}, possibly extended to include other characters by the {operating system} or {application program}. (2017-07-30)
control code ::: (character) A character which is input or output to cause some special action rather than to appear as part of the data.Most control characters are input by holding down (either of) the Control key(s) on the keyboard and simultaneously pressing another key which may be a characters. Some control codes usually have their own special keys: escape, tab, delete, backspace, return and can thus be entered with a single keypress.Different operating systems and programs have different conventions for what effect typing certain control codes will have, such as interrupting the current process or suspending output.Control codes may be output for their effect on the output device, e.g. moving the cursor or print head to the start of a new line.See control-O, control-Q, control-S. (1995-03-23)
Copts [from Arab from Greek Aigyptioi] The early native Christians of Egypt and their successors of the Monophysite sect, and now racially the closest representatives of the population of ancient Egypt. The Coptic language is a mixture of ancient Egyptian with Semitic and Greek borrowings; in the inscriptions the older demotic characters were replaced by a Greek alphabet with supplementary letters from the Demotic. The Pistis Sophia was originally discovered as a Coptic manuscript.
crunch 1. "jargon" To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. Connotes an essentially trivial operation that is nonetheless painful to perform. The pain may be due to the triviality's being embedded in a loop from 1 to 1,000,000,000. "Fortran programs do mostly {number crunching}." 2. "compression" To reduce the size of a file without losing information by a scheme such as {Huffman coding}. Since such {lossless compression} usually takes more computations than simpler methods such as {run-length encoding}, the term is doubly appropriate. 3. The {hash character}. Used at {XEROX} and {CMU}, among other places. 4. To squeeze program source to the minimum size that will still compile or execute. The term came from a {BBC Microcomputer} program that crunched {BBC BASIC} {source} in order to make it run more quickly (apart from storing {keywords} as byte codes, the language was wholly interpreted, so the number of characters mattered). {Obfuscated C Contest} entries are often crunched; see the first example under that entry. [{Jargon File}] (2007-11-12)
cryptographer ::: n. --> One who writes in cipher, or secret characters.
cryptographical ::: a. --> Relating to cryptography; written in secret characters or in cipher, or with sympathetic ink.
cryptography "cryptography" The practise and study of {encryption} and {decryption} - encoding data so that it can only be decoded by specific individuals. A system for encrypting and decrypting data is a cryptosystem. These usually involve an {algorithm} for combining the original data ("{plaintext}") with one or more "keys" - numbers or strings of characters known only to the sender and/or recipient. The resulting output is known as "{ciphertext}". The security of a cryptosystem usually depends on the secrecy of (some of) the keys rather than with the supposed secrecy of the {algorithm}. A strong cryptosystem has a large range of possible keys so that it is not possible to just try all possible keys (a "{brute force}" approach). A strong cryptosystem will produce ciphertext which appears random to all standard statistical tests. A strong cryptosystem will resist all known previous methods for breaking codes ("{cryptanalysis}"). See also {cryptology}, {public-key encryption}, {RSA}. {Usenet} newsgroups: {news:sci.crypt}, {news:sci.crypt.research}. {FAQ} {MIT (ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/cryptography-faq/)}. {Cryptography glossary (http://io.com/~ritter/GLOSSARY.HTM
cryptography ::: (cryptography) The practise and study of encryption and decryption - encoding data so that it can only be decoded by specific individuals. A system - numbers or strings of characters known only to the sender and/or recipient. The resulting output is known as ciphertext.The security of a cryptosystem usually depends on the secrecy of (some of) the keys rather than with the supposed secrecy of the algorithm. A strong A strong cryptosystem will resist all known previous methods for breaking codes (cryptanalysis).See also cryptology, public-key encryption, RSA.Usenet newsgroups: sci.crypt, sci.crypt.research.FAQ . . . .(2000-01-16)
cryptography ::: n. --> The act or art of writing in secret characters; also, secret characters, or cipher.
cufic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the older characters of the Arabic language.
cuniform ::: a. --> Wedge-shaped; as, a cuneiform bone; -- especially applied to the wedge-shaped or arrowheaded characters of ancient Persian and Assyrian inscriptions. See Arrowheaded.
Pertaining to, or versed in, the ancient wedge-shaped characters, or the inscriptions in them. ::: n.
daisywheel printer "printer" A kind of {impact printer} where the characters are arranged on the ends of the spokes of a wheel (resembling the petals on a daisy). The wheel (usually made of plastic) is rotated to select the character to print and then an electrically operated hammer mechanism bends the selected spoke forward slightly, sandwiching an ink ribbon between the character and the paper, as in a typewriter. One advantage of this arrangement over that of a typewriter is that different wheels may be inserted to produce different {typefaces}. (1998-04-28)
daisywheel printer ::: (printer) A kind of impact printer where the characters are arranged on the ends of the spokes of a wheel (resembling the petals on a daisy).The wheel (usually made of plastic) is rotated to select the character to print and then an electrically operated hammer mechanism bends the selected spoke forward slightly, sandwiching an ink ribbon between the character and the paper, as in a typewriter.One advantage of this arrangement over that of a typewriter is that different wheels may be inserted to produce different typefaces. (1998-04-28)
Dasa-bhumi: Sanskrit for ten stages. In Buddhist terminology, the ten stages of the spiritual development of a Bodhisattva (q.v.) toward Buddhahood. Each school of Buddhism has its own dasa-bhumi, but the most widely accepted set in Mahayana Buddhism is that set forth in the Dasa-bhumi Sastra, viz.: (1) The Stage of Joy, in which the Bodhisattva develops his holy nature and discards wrong views; (2) the Stage of Purity, in which he attains the Perfection of Morality; (3) the Stage of Illumination, in which he attains the Perfection of Patience or Humility, and also the deepest introspective insight; (4) the Stage of Flaming Wisdom, in which he achieves the Perfection of Meditation and realizes the harmony of the Worldly Truth and the Supreme Truth; (5) the Stage of Presence, in which he achieves the Perfection of Wisdom; (7) the Stage of Far-going, in which he attains the Perfection of Expediency by going afar and to save all beings; (8) the Stage of Immovability, in which he attains the Perfection of Vow and realizes the principle that all specific characters of elements (dharmas) are unreal; (9) the Stage of Good Wisdom, in which he achieves the Perfection of Effort, attains the Ten Holy Powers, and preaches both to the redeemable and the unredeemable; (10) the Stage of the Cloud of the Law, in which he attains mastery of Perfect Knowledge and preaches the Law to save all creatures, “like the cloud drops rain over all.”
data "data, data processing, jargon" /day't*/ (Or "raw data") Numbers, {characters}, {images}, or other method of recording, in a form which can be assessed by a human or (especially) input into a {computer}, stored and {processed} there, or transmitted on some {digital channel}. Computers nearly always represent data in {binary}. Data on its own has no meaning, only when interpreted by some kind of {data processing} system does it take on meaning and become {information}. For example, the binary data 01110101 might represent the integer 117 or the {ASCII} lower case U character or the blue component of a pixel in some {video}. Which of these it represents is determined by the way it is processed (added, printed, displayed, etc.). Even these numbers, characters or pixels however are still not really information until their context is known, e.g. my bank balance is £117, there are two Us in "vacuum", you have blue eyes. (2007-09-10)
data ::: (data, data processing, jargon) /day't*/ (Or raw data) Numbers, characters, images, or other method of recording, in a form which can be there, or transmitted on some digital channel. Computers nearly always represent data in binary.Data on its own has no meaning, only when interpreted by some kind of data processing system does it take on meaning and become information.People or computers can find patterns in data to perceive information, and information can be used to enhance knowledge. Since knowledge is prerequisite to wisdom, we always want more data and information. But, as modern societies verge on information overload, we especially need better ways to find patterns.1234567.89 is data.Your bank balance has jumped 8087% to $1234567.89 is information.Nobody owes me that much money is knowledge.I'd better talk to the bank before I spend it, because of what has happened to other people is wisdom. (1999-04-30)
data hierarchy ::: The system of data objects which provide the methods for information storage and retrieval. Broadly, a data hierarchy may be considered to be either natural, information is expressed, or machine, which reflects the facilities of the computer, both hardware and software.A natural data hierarchy might consist of bits, characters, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. One might use components bound to an etc. On the other hand, a machine or software system might use bit, byte, word, block, partition, channel, and port.Programming languages often provide types or objects which can create data hierarchies of arbitrary complexity, thus allowing software system designers to model language structures described by the linguist to greater or lesser degree.The distinction between the natural form of data and the facilities provided by the machine may be obscure, because users force their needs into the molds data type character and the machine type byte are often used interchangably, because the latter has evolved to meet the need of representing the former. (1995-11-03)
data hierarchy The system of data objects which provide the {methods} for {information} storage and retrieval. Broadly, a data hierarchy may be considered to be either natural, which arises from the alphabet or syntax of the language in which the information is expressed, or machine, which reflects the facilities of the computer, both hardware and software. A natural data hierarchy might consist of {bits}, {characters}, words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and chapters. One might use components bound to an application, such as field, record, and file, and these would ordinarily be further specified by having {data descriptors} such as name field, address field, etc. On the other hand, a machine or software system might use {bit}, {byte}, {word}, {block}, {partition}, {channel}, and {port}. Programming languages often provide {types} or {objects} which can create data hierarchies of arbitrary complexity, thus allowing software system designers to model language structures described by the linguist to greater or lesser degree. The distinction between the natural form of data and the facilities provided by the machine may be obscure, because users force their needs into the molds provided, and programmers change machine designs. As an example, the natural data type "character" and the machine type "byte" are often used interchangeably, because the latter has evolved to meet the need of representing the former. (1995-11-03)
decipher ::: v. t. --> To translate from secret characters or ciphers into intelligible terms; as, to decipher a letter written in secret characters.
To find out, so as to be able to make known the meaning of; to make out or read, as words badly written or partly obliterated; to detect; to reveal; to unfold.
To stamp; to detect; to discover.
degraded ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Degrade ::: a. --> Reduced in rank, character, or reputation; debased; sunken; low; base.
Having the typical characters or organs in a partially developed condition, or lacking certain parts.
delete ::: 1. (operating system) (Or erase) To make a file inaccessible.Usually this operation only deletes information from the tables the file system uses to locate named files; the file's contents still exist on disk and can likely to reuse the same blocks and thus overwrite the deleted file's data permanently.2. (character) The control character with ASCII code 127. Usually entering this character from the keyboard deletes the last character typed from keyboard manufacturers as to whether this function should be assigned to the delete or backspace key/character.The choice of code 127 (binary 1111111) is not arbitrary but dates back to the use of paper tape for input. The delete key rewound the tape by one character and punched out all seven holes, thus obliterating whatever character was there before. The tape reading software ignored any delete characters in the input. (1996-12-01)
delete 1. "operating system" (Or "erase") To make a file inaccessible. Usually this operation only deletes information from the tables the {file system} uses to locate named files; the file's contents still exist on {disk} and can sometimes be recovered by scanning the whole disk for strings which are known to have been in the file. Files created subsequently on the same disk are quite likely to reuse the same blocks and thus overwrite the deleted file's data permanently. 2. "character" The {control character} with {ASCII} code 127. Usually entering this character from the keyboard deletes the last character typed from the {input buffer}. Sadly there is great confusion between {operating systems} and keyboard manufacturers as to whether this function should be assigned to the delete or {backspace} key/character. The choice of code 127 (binary 1111111) is not arbitrary but dates back to the use of {paper tape} for input. The delete key rewound the tape by one character and punched out all seven holes, thus obliterating whatever character was there before. The tape reading software ignored any delete characters in the input. (1996-12-01)
Demigods One of the orders of semi-divine instructors, spiritual beings in human form. Herodotus, among other Greek writers, speaks of humanity being ruled successively by gods, demigods, heroes, and men. The Lemuro-Atlanteans were among the first who had a dynasty of spirit-kings, highly evolved living devas or demigods. There are the Chinese demigods, Chin-nanga and Chan-gy, the Peruvian Manco-Capac, the Hindu rishis, and the demigods popularized among the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. In the Golden Age of Saturnus all people were said to have been demigods, and many of the figures in mythology who seem at one moment historical characters and at another gods or symbols, were actually demigods who once dwelt among mankind, founding new cultures, instructing and guiding humanity, and revealing all the arts and sciences. As examples of demigods who actually descended and taught the human race in historic and prehistoric times, one may cite Osiris, the first Zoroaster, Krishna, and Moses.
Devanagari: Literally, the letters of the gods; the characters of the Sanskrit script.
Devanagari (Sanskrit) Devanāgarī “Divine city writing,” the alphabetic script of Aryan India, in which the Sanskrit language is usually written. The Devanagari alphabet and the art of writing it were kept secret for ages, and the dvijas (twice-born) and the dikshitas (initiates) alone were originally permitted to use this literary art. In India, as in many other countries which have been the seat of archaic civilizations, sacred and secret records were committed to the tablets of the mind, rather than to material tablets. Alone the priesthood invariably had, in addition to the mnemonic records, an ideographic or syllabic script which was used when considered convenient or necessary, mainly for intercommunication between themselves and brother-initiates speaking other tongues. This applied to ideographic characters which can be read with equal facility by those acquainted with them, whatever their spoken mother-tongue may be, and to written characters imbodying an archaic or sacred language, as was the case with the ancient Sanskrit. This is the main reason why these ancient peoples have so few allusions — and sometimes no allusions at all — to writing; in the civilizations of those far past times writing was not found to be a need and was kept as a sacred art for the temple scribes.
Device Control 2 "character" (DC2) The {mnemonic} for {ASCII} character 18, one of the four {Device Control} characters. (1996-06-28)
Device Control 2 ::: (character) (DC2) The mnemonic for ASCII character 18, one of the four Device Control characters. (1996-06-28)
Device Control 4 "character" (DC4) The {mnemonic} for {ASCII} character 20, one of the four {Device Control} characters. (1996-06-28)
Device Control 4 ::: (character) (DC4) The mnemonic for ASCII character 20, one of the four Device Control characters. (1996-06-28)
Device Control "character" One of the four {ASCII} characters, {DC1}, {DC2}, {DC3}, and {DC4}, once used to remotely control equipment (e.g. a {paper tape} reader) via electromagnetic switches. The characters were usually paired, DC1/DC3 turning one device on/off, and DC2/DC4 another. [Other examples of equipment?] (1996-08-20)
Device Control ::: (character) One of the four ASCII characters, DC1, DC2, DC3, and DC4, once used to remotely control equipment (e.g. a paper tape reader) via electromagnetic switches. The characters were usually paired, DC1/DC3 turning one device on/off, and DC2/DC4 another.[Other examples of equipment?] (1996-08-20)
digraph ::: n. --> Two signs or characters combined to express a single articulated sound; as ea in head, or th in bath.
dinosauria ::: n. pl. --> An order of extinct mesozoic reptiles, mostly of large size (whence the name). Notwithstanding their size, they present birdlike characters in the skeleton, esp. in the pelvis and hind limbs. Some walked on their three-toed hind feet, thus producing the large "bird tracks," so-called, of mesozoic sandstones; others were five-toed and quadrupedal. See Illust. of Compsognathus, also Illustration of Dinosaur in Appendix.
domain 1. "networking" A group of computers whose {fully qualified domain names} (FQDN) share a common suffix, the "domain name". The {Domain Name System} maps {hostnames} to {Internet address} using a hierarchical {namespace} where each level in the hierarchy contributes one component to the FQDN. For example, the computer foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk is in the doc.ic.ac.uk domain, which is in the ic.ac.uk domain, which is in the ac.uk domain, which is in the uk {top-level domain}. A domain name can contain up to 67 characters including the dots that separate components. These can be letters, numbers and hyphens. 2. An {administrative domain} is something to do with {routing}. 3. {Distributed Operating Multi Access Interactive Network}. 4. "mathematics" In the theory of functions, the set of argument values for which a {function} is defined. See {domain theory}. 5. "programming" A specific phase of the {software life cycle} in which a developer works. Domains define developers' and users' areas of responsibility and the scope of possible relationships between products. 6. The subject or market in which a piece of software is designed to work. (2007-10-01)
double bucky Using both the CTRL and META keys. "The command to burn all LEDs is double bucky F." This term originated on the Stanford extended-ASCII keyboard, and was later taken up by users of the {space-cadet keyboard} at MIT. A typical MIT comment was that the Stanford {bucky bits} (control and meta shifting keys) were nice, but there weren't enough of them; you could type only 512 different characters on a Stanford keyboard. An obvious way to address this was simply to add more shifting keys, and this was eventually done; but a keyboard with that many shifting keys is hard on touch-typists, who don't like to move their hands away from the home position on the keyboard. It was half-seriously suggested that the extra shifting keys be implemented as pedals; typing on such a keyboard would be very much like playing a full pipe organ. This idea is mentioned in a parody of a very fine song by Jeffrey Moss called "Rubber Duckie", which was published in "The Sesame Street Songbook" (Simon and Schuster 1971, ISBN 0-671-21036-X). These lyrics were written on May 27, 1978, in celebration of the Stanford keyboard: Double Bucky Double bucky, you're the one! You make my keyboard lots of fun. Double bucky, an additional bit or two: (Vo-vo-de-o!) Control and meta, side by side, Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide! Double bucky! Half a thousand glyphs, plus a few! Oh, I sure wish that I Had a couple of Bits more! Perhaps a Set of pedals to Make the number of Bits four: Double double bucky! Double bucky, left and right OR'd together, outta sight! Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of Double bucky, I'm happy I heard of Double bucky, I'd like a whole word of you! - The Great Quux (With apologies to Jeffrey Moss. This, by the way, is an excellent example of computer {filk} --- ESR). See also {meta bit}, {cokebottle}, and {quadruple bucky}. [{Jargon File}] (1994-12-07)
dread high bit disease ::: (character) A condition endemic to PRIME (also known as PR1ME) minicomputers that results in all the characters having their high bit (0x80, cretinous design tradeoffs ever made. A few other machines have exhibited similar brain damage.[Jargon File](2002-04-09)
dread high bit disease "character" A condition endemic to {PRIME} (also known as "PR1ME") {minicomputers} that results in all the characters having their high bit (0x80, see {meta bit}) ON rather than OFF. This complicates transporting files to other systems and talking to true 8-bit devices. Folklore had it that PRIME adopted the convention in order to save 25 cents per {serial line} per machine; PRIME old-timers, on the other hand, claim they inherited the disease from {Honeywell} via customer NASA's compatibility requirements and struggled heroically to cure it. Whoever was responsible, this probably qualifies as one of the most cretinous design tradeoffs ever made. A few other machines have exhibited similar brain damage. [{Jargon File}] (2002-04-09)
drop-ins [analogy with {drop-outs}] Spurious characters appearing on a terminal or console as a result of {line noise} or a system malfunction of some sort. Especially used when these are interspersed with one's own typed input. [{Jargon File}]
drop-outs 1. A variety of "power glitch" (see {glitch}); momentary zero voltage on the electrical mains. 2. Missing characters in typed input due to software malfunction or system overload (one cause of such behaviour under {Unix} when a bad connection to a modem swamps the processor with spurious character interrupts; see {screaming tty}). 3. Mental glitches; used as a way of describing those occasions when the mind just seems to shut down for a couple of beats. See {glitch}, {fried}. [{Jargon File}] (2001-02-22)
Dvorak "hardware" A configuration of (computer) keyboard keys arranged to increase the speed and ease of typing over the normal {qwerty} layout; the most common characters (for English) have been put on the home row. The standard Dvorak International layout is: `~ 1! 2@ 3
eight-bit clean "software" A term which describes a system that deals correctly with extended {character sets} which (unlike ASCII) use all eight {bits} of a {byte}. Many programs and communications systems assume that all characters have codes in the range 0 to 127. This leaves the top bit of each byte free for use as a {parity} bit or some kind of {flag bit}. These assumptions break down when the program is used in some non-english-speaking countries with larger alphabets. If a binary file is transmitted via a communications link which is not eight-bit clean, it will be corrupted. To combat this you can encode it with {uuencode} which uses only {ASCII} characters. There are some links however which are not even "seven-bit clean" and cause problems even for uuencoded data. (1995-01-05)
enchoric ::: a. --> Belonging to, or used in, a country; native; domestic; popular; common; -- said especially of the written characters employed by the common people of ancient Egypt, in distinction from the hieroglyphics. See Demotic.
End Of Line "character" (EOL) Synonym for {newline}, derived perhaps from the original {CDC 6600} {Pascal}. The abbreviation "EOL" is now rare, but widely recognised and occasionally used for brevity. Used in the example entry under {BNF}. Out of context this would probably be (deliberately) ambiguous because different systems used different (combinations of) characters to mark the end of a line. {Unix} uses a {line feed}; DOS uses {carriage return}, line feed ({CRLF}) and the {Macintosh} uses carriage return. See also {EOF}. (2002-03-22)
engraving ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Engrave ::: n. --> The act or art of producing upon hard material incised or raised patterns, characters, lines, and the like; especially, the art of producing such lines, etc., in the surface of metal plates or blocks of wood. Engraving is used for the decoration of the surface
engrosser ::: n. --> One who copies a writing in large, fair characters.
One who takes the whole; a person who purchases such quantities of articles in a market as to raise the price; a forestaller.
engross ::: v. t. --> To make gross, thick, or large; to thicken; to increase in bulk or quantity.
To amass.
To copy or write in a large hand (en gross, i. e., in large); to write a fair copy of in distinct and legible characters; as, to engross a deed or like instrument on parchment.
To seize in the gross; to take the whole of; to occupy wholly; to absorb; as, the subject engrossed all his thoughts.
entropy "theory" A measure of the disorder of a system. Systems tend to go from a state of order (low entropy) to a state of maximum disorder (high entropy). The entropy of a system is related to the amount of {information} it contains. A highly ordered system can be described using fewer {bits} of information than a disordered one. For example, a string containing one million "0"s can be described using {run-length encoding} as [("0", 1000000)] whereas a string of random symbols (e.g. bits, or characters) will be much harder, if not impossible, to compress in this way. {Shannon}'s formula gives the entropy H(M) of a message M in bits: H(M) = -log2 p(M) Where p(M) is the probability of message M. (1998-11-23)
enumerated type "programming" (Or "enumeration") A {type} which includes in its definition an exhaustive list of possible values for variables of that type. Common examples include {Boolean}, which takes values from the list [true, false], and day-of-week which takes values [Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday]. Enumerated types are a feature of {strongly typed languages}, including {C} and {Ada}. Characters, (fixed-size) integers and even {floating-point} types could be (but are not usually) considered to be (large) enumerated types. (1996-11-28)
EOU "character, humour" The mnemonic of a mythical {ASCII} control character (End Of User) that would make an {ASR-33} {Teletype} explode on receipt. This construction parodies the numerous obscure {delimiter} and control characters left in ASCII from the days when it was associated more with wire-service teletypes than computers (e.g. {FS}, {GS}, {RS}, {US}, {EM}, {SUB}, {ETX}, and especially {EOT}). It is worth remembering that ASR-33s were big, noisy mechanical beasts with a lot of clattering parts; the notion that one might explode was nowhere near as ridiculous as it might seem to someone sitting in front of a {tube} or flatscreen today. [{Jargon File}] (1996-06-29)
equivocal ::: a. --> (Literally, called equally one thing or the other; hence:) Having two significations equally applicable; capable of double interpretation; of doubtful meaning; ambiguous; uncertain; as, equivocal words; an equivocal sentence.
Capable of being ascribed to different motives, or of signifying opposite feelings, purposes, or characters; deserving to be suspected; as, his actions are equivocal.
Uncertain, as an indication or sign; doubtful.
erase ::: v. t. --> To rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, or painted; to efface; to expunge; to cross out; as, to erase a word or a name.
Fig.: To obliterate; to expunge; to blot out; -- used of ideas in the mind or memory.
escape sequence "character" (Or "escape code") A series of characters starting with the {escape} character (ASCII 27). Escape sequences are often used to control display devices such as {VDUs}. An escape sequence might change the colour of subsequent text, reassign keys on the keyboard, change printer settings or reposition the cursor. The escape sequences of the {DEC} {vt100} {video terminal} have become a {de facto standard} for this purpose. The term is also used for any sequence of characters that temporarily suspends normal processing of a stream of characters to perform some special function. For example, the {Hayes} {modem} uses the sequence "+++" to escape to command mode in which characters are interpreted as commands to the modem itself rather than as data to pass through. [Was the character named after this use or vice versa?] (1997-11-27)
E-values: Every descriptive value in as far as it is a statement of another individual. E-values divide into elements and characters. They are basic values independent of the System C whose function they are. (Avenarius.) -- H.H.
Existential Philosophy arose from disappointment with Kant's "thing-in-itself" and Hegel's metaphysicism whose failure was traced back to a fundamental misrepresentation in psychology. It is strictly non-metaphysical, anti-hypothetical, and contends to give only a simple description of existent psychological realities. "Existence" is therefore not identical with the metaphysical correlative of "essence". Consciousness is influenced by our nerveous system, nutrition, and environment; these account for our experiences. Such terms as being, equal, similar, perceived, represented, have no logical or truth-value; they are merely biological "characters", a distinction between physical and psychological is unwarranted. Here lies the greatest weakness of the Existential Philosophy, which, however, did not hinder its spreading in both continents.
Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code "character, standard" /eb's*-dik/, /eb'see`dik/, /eb'k*-dik/, /ee`bik'dik`/, /*-bik'dik`/ (EBCDIC) A proprietary 8-bit {character set} used on {IBM} {dinosaurs}, the {AS/400}, and {e-Server}. EBCDIC is an extension to 8 bits of BCDIC (Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code), an earlier 6-bit character set used on IBM computers. EBCDIC was [first?] used on the successful {System/360}, anounced on 1964-04-07, and survived for many years despite the almost universal adoption of {ASCII} elsewhere. Was this concern for {backward compatibility} or, as many believe, a marketing strategy to lock in IBM customers? IBM created 57 national EBCDIC character sets and an International Reference Version (IRV) based on {ISO 646} (and hence ASCII compatible). Documentation on these was not easily accessible making international exchange of data even between IBM mainframes a tricky task. US EBCDIC uses more or less the same characters as {ASCII}, but different {code points}. It has non-contiguous letter sequences, some ASCII characters do not exist in EBCDIC (e.g. {square brackets}), and EBCDIC has some ({cent sign}, {not sign}) not in ASCII. As a consequence, the translation between ASCII and EBCDIC was never officially completely defined. Users defined one translation which resulted in a so-called de-facto EBCDIC containing all the characters of ASCII, that all ASCII-related programs use. Some printers, telex machines, and even electronic cash registers can speak EBCDIC, but only so they can converse with IBM mainframes. For an in-depth discussion of character code sets, and full translation tables, see {Guidelines on 8-bit character codes (ftp://ftp.ulg.ac.be/pub/docs/iso8859/iso8859.networking)}. {A history of character codes (http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/characcodehist.html)}. (2002-03-03)
External Machine Interface "protocol" (EMI) A {protocol} primarily used to connect to {short message service} centres for {mobile telephones}. EMI is an extension to Universal Computer Protocol (UCP). EMI was was developed by CMG, now a part of {LogicaCMG}, the current {SMSC} market leader. Each byte of the message is encoded as two {hexadecimal} characters using an encoding not quite like {ASCII}. {EMI specification (http://www.netfunitalia.it/downloads/SMSC_EMI_Specification.PDF)} (2007-09-10)
fence 1. A sequence of one or more distinguished ({out-of-band}) characters (or other data items), used to delimit a piece of data intended to be treated as a unit (the computer-science literature calls this a "sentinel"). The NUL (ASCII 0000000) character that terminates strings in C is a fence. {Hex} FF is also (though slightly less frequently) used this way. See {zigamorph}. 2. An extra data value inserted in an array or other data structure in order to allow some normal test on the array's contents also to function as a termination test. For example, a highly optimised routine for finding a value in an array might artificially place a copy of the value to be searched for after the last slot of the array, thus allowing the main search loop to search for the value without having to check at each pass whether the end of the array had been reached. 3. [among users of optimising compilers] Any technique, usually exploiting knowledge about the compiler, that blocks certain optimisations. Used when explicit mechanisms are not available or are overkill. Typically a hack: "I call a dummy procedure there to force a flush of the optimiser's register-colouring info" can be expressed by the shorter "That's a fence procedure". [{Jargon File}] (1999-01-08)
File Allocation Table "file system" (FAT) The component of an {MS-DOS} or {Windows 95} {file system} which describes the {files}, {directories}, and free space on a {hard disk} or {floppy disk}. A disk is divided into {partitions}. Under the FAT {file system} each partition is divided into {clusters}, each of which can be one or more {sectors}, depending on the size of the partition. Each cluster is either allocated to a file or directory or it is free (unused). A directory lists the name, size, modification time and starting cluster of each file or subdirectory it contains. At the start of the partition is a table (the FAT) with one entry for each cluster. Each entry gives the number of the next cluster in the same file or a special value for "not allocated" or a special value for "this is the last cluster in the chain". The first few clusters after the FAT contain the {root directory}. The FAT file system was originally created for the {CP/M}[?] {operating system} where files were catalogued using 8-bit addressing. {MS DOS}'s FAT allows only {8.3} filenames. With the introduction of MS-DOS 4 an incompatible 16-bit FAT (FAT16) with 32-kilobyte {clusters} was introduced that allowed {partitions} of up to 2 gigabytes. Microsoft later created {FAT32} to support partitions larger than two gigabytes and {pathnames} greater that 256 characters. It also allows more efficient use of disk space since {clusters} are four kilobytes rather than 32 kilobytes. FAT32 was first available in {OEM} Service Release 2 of {Windows 95} in 1996. It is not fully {backward compatible} with the 16-bit and 8-bit FATs. {IDG article (http://idg.net/idgframes/english/content.cgi?vc=docid_9-62525.html)}. {(http://home.c2i.net/tkjoerne/os/fat.htm)}. {(http://teleport.com/~brainy/)}. {(http://209.67.75.168/hardware/fatgen.htm)}. {(http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q154/9/97.asp)}. Compare: {NTFS}. [How big is a FAT? Is the term used outside MS DOS? How long is a FAT16 filename?] (2000-02-05)
flat ASCII "text" (Or "plain ASCII") Said of a text file that contains only 7-bit {ASCII} characters and uses only ASCII-standard {control characters} (that is, has no embedded codes specific to a particular text formatter {markup} language, or output device, and no {meta}-characters). Compare {flat file}. [{Jargon File}] (1996-01-26)
floral ::: a. --> Pertaining to Flora, or to flowers; made of flowers; as, floral games, wreaths.
Containing, or belonging to, a flower; as, a floral bud; a floral leaf; floral characters.
flush "data" To delete something, usually superfluous, or to abort an operation. "Flush" was standard {ITS} terminology for aborting an output operation. One spoke of the text that would have been printed, but was not, as having been flushed. It is speculated that this term arose from a vivid image of flushing unwanted characters by hosing down the internal output buffer, washing the characters away before they could be printed. Compare {drain}. 2. To force temporarily buffered data to be written to more permanent memory. E.g. flushing buffered disk writes to disk, as with {C}'s {standard I/O} library "fflush(3)" call. This sense was in use among {BLISS} programmers at {DEC} and on {Honeywell} and {IBM} machines as far back as 1965. Another example of this usage is flushing a {cache} on a {context switch} where modified data stored in the cace which belongs to one processes must be written out to main memory so that the cache can be used by another process. [{Jargon File}] (2005-07-18)
font "text" A set of {glyphs} ({images}) representing the {characters} from some particular {character set} in a particular size and {typeface}. The image of each character may be encoded either as a {bitmap} (in a {bitmap font}) or by a higher-level description in terms of lines and areas (an {outline font}). There are several different computer representations for fonts, the most widely known are {Adobe Systems, Inc.}'s {PostScript} font definitions and {Apple}'s {TrueType}. {Window systems} can display different fonts on the screen and print them. [Other types of font?] (2001-04-27)
Form: (Gr. eidos) The intelligible structure, characters constituting a substance or species of substances, as distinguished from the matter in which these characters are embodied; essence; formal cause. See Aristotelianism. -- G.RM.
FORTH 1. "language" An interactive extensible language using {postfix syntax} and a data stack, developed by Charles H. Moore in the 1960s. FORTH is highly user-configurable and there are many different implementations, the following description is of a typical default configuration. Forth programs are structured as lists of "words" - FORTH's term which encompasses language keywords, primitives and user-defined {subroutines}. Forth takes the idea of subroutines to an extreme - nearly everything is a subroutine. A word is any string of characters except the separator which defaults to space. Numbers are treated specially. Words are read one at a time from the input stream and either executed immediately ("interpretive execution") or compiled as part of the definition of a new word. The sequential nature of list execution and the implicit use of the data stack (numbers appearing in the lists are pushed to the stack as they are encountered) imply postfix syntax. Although postfix notation is initially difficult, experienced users find it simple and efficient. Words appearing in executable lists may be "{primitives}" (simple {assembly language} operations), names of previously compiled procedures or other special words. A procedure definition is introduced by ":" and ended with ";" and is compiled as it is read. Most Forth dialects include the source language structures BEGIN-AGAIN, BEGIN-WHILE-REPEAT, BEGIN-UNTIL, DO-LOOP, and IF-ELSE-THEN, and others can be added by the user. These are "compiling structures" which may only occur in a procedure definition. FORTH can include in-line {assembly language} between "CODE" and "ENDCODE" or similar constructs. Forth primitives are written entirely in {assembly language}, secondaries contain a mixture. In fact code in-lining is the basis of compilation in some implementations. Once assembled, primitives are used exactly like other words. A significant difference in behaviour can arise, however, from the fact that primitives end with a jump to "NEXT", the entry point of some code called the sequencer, whereas non-primitives end with the address of the "EXIT" primitive. The EXIT code includes the scheduler in some {multi-tasking} systems so a process can be {deschedule}d after executing a non-primitive, but not after a primitive. Forth implementations differ widely. Implementation techniques include {threaded code}, dedicated Forth processors, {macros} at various levels, or interpreters written in another language such as {C}. Some implementations provide {real-time} response, user-defined data structures, {multitasking}, {floating-point} arithmetic, and/or {virtual memory}. Some Forth systems support virtual memory without specific hardware support like {MMUs}. However, Forth virtual memory is usually only a sort of extended data space and does not usually support executable code. FORTH does not distinguish between {operating system} calls and the language. Commands relating to I/O, {file systems} and {virtual memory} are part of the same language as the words for arithmetic, memory access, loops, IF statements, and the user's application. Many Forth systems provide user-declared "vocabularies" which allow the same word to have different meanings in different contexts. Within one vocabulary, re-defining a word causes the previous definition to be hidden from the interpreter (and therefore the compiler), but not from previous definitions. FORTH was first used to guide the telescope at NRAO, Kitt Peak. Moore considered it to be a {fourth-generation language} but his {operating system} wouldn't let him use six letters in a program name, so FOURTH became FORTH. Versions include fig-FORTH, FORTH 79 and FORTH 83. {FAQs (http://complang.tuwien.ac.at/forth/faq/faq-general-2.html)}. {ANS Forth standard, dpANS6 (http://taygeta.com/forth/dpans.html)}. FORTH Interest Group, Box 1105, San Carlos CA 94070. See also {51forth}, {F68K}, {cforth}, {E-Forth}, {FORML}, {TILE Forth}. [Leo Brodie, "Starting Forth"]. [Leo Brodie, "Thinking Forth"]. [Jack Woehr, "Forth, the New Model"]. [R.G. Loeliger, "Threaded Interpretive Languages"]. 2. {FOundation for Research and Technology - Hellas}. (1997-04-16)
found inscribed in Hebrew characters on the 1st
Frame Check Sequence "communications" (FCS) The extra characters added to a {frame} for {error detection and correction}(?). FCS is used in {X.25}, {HDLC}, {Frame Relay}, and other {data link layer} {protocols}. (1998-02-27)
frogging ({University of Waterloo}) 1. Partial corruption of a text file or input stream by some bug or consistent glitch, as opposed to random events like line noise or media failures. Might occur, for example, if one bit of each incoming character on a tty were stuck, so that some characters were correct and others were not. See {terminak} for a historical example. 2. By extension, accidental display of text in a mode where the {output device} emits special symbols or {mnemonics} rather than conventional ASCII. This often happens, for example, when using a terminal or comm program on a device like an {IBM PC} with a special "high-half" character set and with the bit-parity assumption wrong. A hacker sufficiently familiar with ASCII bit patterns might be able to read the display anyway. [{Jargon File}]
Fu lu shou: In Chinese philosophy, the Three Plenties—blessing or happiness, official emolument and the honor which it brings, and longevity. They are also called the Three Stars, as each of them is believed to be dependent on a star-god. They are represented either by the three corresponding Chinese ideographic characters, or by a bat (fu) symbolizing happiness, a deer (lu) symbolizing honor, and a peach (shou) symbolizing longevity, or by a smiling figure, with or without children surrounding him, to represent happiness, an official to represent honor, and an old man to represent longevity. These representations are used as charms, as objects of worship, or simply as felicitations.
function key "hardware" (From the {IBM 3270} terminal's Programmed Function Keys (PF keys)) One of a set of special keys on a computer or {terminal} keyboard which can be programmed so as to cause an {application program} to perform certain actions. Function keys on a terminal may either generate short fixed sequences of characters, often beginning with the {escape} character ({ASCII} 27), or the characters they generate may be configured by sending special character sequences to the terminal. On a {microcomputer} keyboard, the function keys may generate a fixed, single byte code, outside the normal {ASCII} range, which is translated into some other configurable sequence by the keyboard {device driver} or interpreted directly by the {application program}. (1995-02-07)
furigana "human language, Japanese" (Or "rubi") Small {hiragana}, written above {kanji} (and these days sometimes above Latin characters) as a phonetic comment and reading aid. The singular and plural are both "furigana". (2000-12-30)
generalized ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Generalize ::: a. --> Comprising structural characters which are separated in more specialized forms; synthetic; as, a generalized type.
German "human language" \j*r'mn\ A human language written (in latin alphabet) and spoken in Germany, Austria and parts of Switzerland. German writing normally uses four non-{ASCII} characters: "ä", "ö" and "ü" have "umlauts" (two dots over the top) and "ß" is a double-S ("scharfes S") which looks like the Greek letter beta (except in capitalised words where it should be written "SS"). These can be written in ASCII in several ways, the most common are ae, oe ue AE OE UE ss or sz and the {TeX} versions "a "o "u "A "O "U "s. See also {ABEND}, {blinkenlights}, {DAU}, {DIN}, {gedanken}, {GMD}, {kluge}. {Usenet} newsgroup: {news:soc.culture.german}. {(ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/usenet/news-info/soc.answers/german-faq)}, {(ftp://alice.fmi.uni-passau.de/pub/dictionaries/german.dat.Z)}. (1995-03-31)
glob "file system, programming" /glob/ A mechanism that returns a list of {pathnames} that match a pattern containing {wild card} characters. Globbing was available in early versions of {Unix} and, in more limited form, in {Microsoft Windows}. The characters are: * = zero or more characters, e.g. "probab*" would match probabilistic, probabilistically, probabilities, probability, probable, probably. ? = any single character, e.g. "b?g" would match bag, big, bog, bug. [] any of the enclosed characters, e.g. "b[ao]g" would match bag, bog (not on Windows). These have become sufficiently pervasive that hackers use them in written messages. E.g. "He said his name was [KC]arl" (expresses ambiguity). "I don't read talk.politics.*" (any of the talk.politics subgroups on {Usenet}). Other examples are given under the entry for {X}. Later Unix shells introduced the {x,y,z} syntax which expands to a comma-separated list of alternatives, thus foo{baz,qux} would expand to "foobaz" and "fooqux". This differs from a glob because it generates a list of all possible expansions, rather than matching against existing files. Glob patterns are similar, but not identical, to {regular expressions}. "glob" was a subprogram that expanded wild cards in archaic pre-{Bourne} versions of the {Unix} {shell}. It is also a {bulit-in function} in {Perl}. (2014-08-22)
glyph "character" An {image} used in the visual representation of {characters}; roughly speaking, how a character looks. A {font} is a set of glyphs. In the simple case, for a given {font} ({typeface} and size), each character corresponds to a single glyph but this is not always the case, especially in a language with a large alphabet where one character may correspond to several glyphs or several characters to one glyph (a {character encoding}). Usually used in reference to {outline fonts}, in particular {TrueType}. (1998-05-31)
Gnostic amulets known as Abraxas gems depicted the god as a pantheos (all-god), with the head of a cock, herald of the sun, representing foresight and vigilance; a human body clothed in armor, suggestive of guardian power; legs in the form of sacred asps. In his right hand is a scourge, emblem of authority; on his left arm a shield emblazoned with a word of power. This pantheos is invariably inscribed with his proper name IAO and his epithets Abraxas and Sabaoth, and often accompanied with invocations such as SEMES EILAM, the eternal sun (Gnostics and Their Remains 246), which Blavatsky equates with “the central spiritual sun” of the Qabbalists (SD 2:214). Though written in Greek characters, the words SEMES EILAM ABRASAX are probably Semitic in origin: shemesh sun; ‘olam secret, occult, hid, eternity, world; Abrasax Abraxas. Hence in combination the phrase may be rendered “the eternal sun Abrasax.”
gobble "jargon" 1. To consume, usually used with "up". "The output spy gobbles characters out of a {tty} output buffer." 2. To obtain, usually used with "down". "I guess I'll gobble down a copy of the documentation tomorrow." See also {snarf}. [{Jargon File}] (2010-01-19)
graphic characters or figures that indicate the meaning of a thing without indicating the sounds used to express it.
greek 1. "text, graphics" To display text as abstract dots and lines in order to give a preview of layout without actually being legible. This is faster than drawing the characters correctly which may require scaling or other transformations. Greeking is particularly useful when displaying a reduced image of a document where the text would be too small to be legible on the display anyway. A related technique is {lorem ipsum}. (2006-09-18)
gynandromorphism ::: n. --> An abnormal condition of certain animals, in which one side has the external characters of the male, and the other those of the female.
HAKMEM "publication" /hak'mem/ MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972). A legendary collection of neat mathematical and programming hacks contributed by many people at MIT and elsewhere. (The title of the memo really is "HAKMEM", which is a 6-letterism for "hacks memo".) Some of them are very useful techniques, powerful theorems, or interesting unsolved problems, but most fall into the category of mathematical and computer trivia. Here is a sampling of the entries (with authors), slightly paraphrased: Item 41 (Gene Salamin): There are exactly 23,000 prime numbers less than 2^18. Item 46 (Rich Schroeppel): The most *probable* suit distribution in bridge hands is 4-4-3-2, as compared to 4-3-3-3, which is the most *evenly* distributed. This is because the world likes to have unequal numbers: a thermodynamic effect saying things will not be in the state of lowest energy, but in the state of lowest disordered energy. Item 81 (Rich Schroeppel): Count the magic squares of order 5 (that is, all the 5-by-5 arrangements of the numbers from 1 to 25 such that all rows, columns, and diagonals add up to the same number). There are about 320 million, not counting those that differ only by rotation and reflection. Item 154 (Bill Gosper): The myth that any given programming language is machine independent is easily exploded by computing the sum of powers of 2. If the result loops with period = 1 with sign +, you are on a sign-magnitude machine. If the result loops with period = 1 at -1, you are on a twos-complement machine. If the result loops with period greater than 1, including the beginning, you are on a ones-complement machine. If the result loops with period greater than 1, not including the beginning, your machine isn't binary - the pattern should tell you the base. If you run out of memory, you are on a string or bignum system. If arithmetic overflow is a fatal error, some fascist pig with a read-only mind is trying to enforce machine independence. But the very ability to trap overflow is machine dependent. By this strategy, consider the universe, or, more precisely, algebra: Let X = the sum of many powers of 2 = ...111111 (base 2). Now add X to itself: X + X = ...111110. Thus, 2X = X - 1, so X = -1. Therefore algebra is run on a machine (the universe) that is two's-complement. Item 174 (Bill Gosper and Stuart Nelson): 21963283741 is the only number such that if you represent it on the {PDP-10} as both an integer and a {floating-point} number, the bit patterns of the two representations are identical. Item 176 (Gosper): The "banana phenomenon" was encountered when processing a character string by taking the last 3 letters typed out, searching for a random occurrence of that sequence in the text, taking the letter following that occurrence, typing it out, and iterating. This ensures that every 4-letter string output occurs in the original. The program typed BANANANANANANANA.... We note an ambiguity in the phrase, "the Nth occurrence of." In one sense, there are five 00's in 0000000000; in another, there are nine. The editing program TECO finds five. Thus it finds only the first ANA in BANANA, and is thus obligated to type N next. By Murphy's Law, there is but one NAN, thus forcing A, and thus a loop. An option to find overlapped instances would be useful, although it would require backing up N - 1 characters before seeking the next N-character string. Note: This last item refers to a {Dissociated Press} implementation. See also {banana problem}. HAKMEM also contains some rather more complicated mathematical and technical items, but these examples show some of its fun flavour. HAKMEM is available from MIT Publications as a {TIFF} file. {(ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hb/hbaker)}. (1996-01-19)
hakspek "jargon" /hak'speek/ A shorthand method of spelling found on many British academic bulletin boards and {chat} systems. Syllables and whole words in a sentence are replaced by single {ASCII} characters the names of which are phonetically similar or equivalent, while multiple letters are usually dropped. Hence, "for" becomes "4"; "two", "too", and "to" become "2"; "ck" becomes "k". "Before I see you tomorrow" becomes "b4 i c u 2moro". First appeared in London about 1986, and was probably caused by the slowness of available {talk} systems, which operated on archaic machines with outdated {operating systems} and no standard methods of communication. Has become rarer since. See also {chat}, {B1FF}, {ASCIIbonics}. [{Jargon File}] (1998-01-25)
Han character "character" (From the Han dynasty, 206 B.C.E to 25 C.E.) One of the set of {glyphs} common to Chinese (where they are called "hanzi"), Japanese (where they are called {kanji}), and Korean (where they are called {hanja}). Han characters are generally described as "ideographic", i.e., picture-writing; but see the reference below. Modern Korean, Chinese and Japanese {fonts} may represent a given Han character as somewhat different glyphs. However, in the formulation of {Unicode}, these differences were {folded}, in order to conserve the number of {code positions} necessary for all of {CJK}. This unification is referred to as "Han Unification", with the resulting character repertoire sometimes referred to as "Unihan". {Unihan reference at the Unicode Consortium (http://charts.unicode.org/unihan.html)}. [John DeFrancis, "The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy", University of Hawaii Press, 1984]. (1998-10-18)
handshaking 1. Predetermined hardware or software activity designed to establish or maintain two machines or programs in synchronisation. Handshaking often concerns the exchange of messages or {packets} of data between two systems with limited {buffers}. A simple handshaking {protocol} might only involve the receiver sending a message meaning "I received your last message and I am ready for you to send me another one." A more complex handshaking {protocol} might allow the sender to ask the receiver if he is ready to receive or for the receiver to reply with a negative acknowledgement meaning "I did not receive your last message correctly, please resend it" (e.g. if the data was corrupted en route). {Hardware handshaking} uses voltage levels or pulses on wires to carry the handshaking signals whereas {software handshaking} uses data units (e.g. {ASCII} characters) carried by some underlying communication medium. {Flow control} in bit-serial data transmission such as {EIA-232} may use either hardware or software handshaking. 2. The method used by two {modems} to establish contact with each other and to agreee on {baud rate}, {error correction} and {compression} {protocols}. 3. The exchange of predetermined signals between agents connected by a communications channel to assure each that it is connected to the other (and not to an imposter). This may also include the use of passwords and codes by an operator. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-13)
hanja {Han characters}
hanzi {Han characters}
hardware handshaking "communications" A technique for regulating the flow of data across an interface by means of signals carried on separate wires. A common example is the RTS (Request to Send) and CTS (Clear to Send) signals on an {EIA-232} {serial line}. The alternative, {software handshaking}, uses two special characters inserted into the data stream to carry the same information. (1995-01-23)
H. B. Curry, Consistency and completeness of the theory of combinators, ibid , pp. 54-61. Comedy: In Aristotle (Poetics), a play in which chief characters behave worse than men do in daily life, as contrasted with tragedy, where the main characters act more nobly. In Plato's Symposium, Socrates argues at the end that a writer of good comedies is able to write good tragedies. See Comic. Metaphysically, comedy in Hegel consists of regarding reality as exhausted in a single category. Cf. Bergson, Le rire (Laughter). Commentator, The: Name usually used for Averroes by the medieval authors of the 13th century and later. In the writings of the grammarians (modistae, dealing with modis significandi) often used for Petrus Heliae. -- R.A.
Hebrew characters and invoked for protection
Hebrew characters on the 1st pentacle of the
Hebrew characters on the 3rd pentacle of the
Hebrew characters on the 5th pentacle of the
hieroglyphic ::: a. --> A sacred character; a character in picture writing, as of the ancient Egyptians, Mexicans, etc. Specifically, in the plural, the picture writing of the ancient Egyptian priests. It is made up of three, or, as some say, four classes of characters: first, the hieroglyphic proper, or figurative, in which the representation of the object conveys the idea of the object itself; second, the ideographic, consisting of symbols representing ideas, not sounds, as an ostrich feather is a symbol of truth; third, the phonetic, consisting of
hieroglyphical ::: a. --> Emblematic; expressive of some meaning by characters, pictures, or figures; as, hieroglyphic writing; a hieroglyphic obelisk.
Resembling hieroglyphics; not decipherable.
himyaritic ::: a. --> Pertaining to Himyar, an ancient king of Yemen, in Arabia, or to his successors or people; as, the Himjaritic characters, language, etc.; applied esp. to certain ancient inscriptions showing the primitive type of the oldest form of the Arabic, still spoken in Southern Arabia.
Hollerithabetical order "algorithm" Sorted into the order a standard {Hollerith} {card sorting machine} produces, with special characters interleaved within the alphabet. (1997-02-11)
homomorphy ::: n. --> Similarity of form; resemblance in external characters, while widely different in fundamental structure; resemblance in geometric ground form. See Homophyly, Promorphology.
hook "programming" A {software} or {hardware} feature included in order to simplify later additions or changes by a user. For example, a simple program that prints numbers might always print them in base 10, but a more flexible version would let a variable determine what base to use; setting the variable to 5 would make the program print numbers in base 5. The variable is a simple hook. An even more flexible program might examine the variable and treat a value of 16 or less as the base to use, but treat any other number as the address of a user-supplied routine for printing a number. This is a {hairy} but powerful hook; one can then write a routine to print numbers as Roman numerals, say, or as Hebrew characters, and plug it into the program through the hook. Often the difference between a good program and a superb one is that the latter has useful hooks in judiciously chosen places. Both may do the original job about equally well, but the one with the hooks is much more flexible for future expansion of capabilities. {Emacs}, for example, is *all* hooks. The term "user exit" is synonymous but much more formal and less hackish. (1997-06-25)
hostname 1. (Or "sitename"). The unique name by which a computer is known on a {network}, used to identify it in {electronic mail}, {Usenet} {news}, or other forms of electronic information interchange. On the {Internet} the hostname is an {ASCII} string, e.g. "foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk" which, consists of a local part (foldoc) and a {domain} name (doc.ic.ac.uk). The hostname is translated into an {Internet address} either via the {hosts file}, {NIS} or by the {Domain Name System} (DNS) or {resolver}. It is possible for one computer to have several hostnames (aliases) though one is designated as its {canonical} name. It is often possible to guess a hostname for a particular institution. This is useful if you want to know if they operate network services like {anonymous FTP}, {World-Wide Web} or {finger}. First try the institution's name or obvious abbreviations thereof, with the appropriate {domain} appended, e.g. "mit.edu". If this fails, prepend "ftp." or "www." as appropriate, e.g. "www.data-io.com". You can use the {ping} command as a quick way to test whether a hostname is valid. The folklore interest of hostnames stems from the creativity and humour they often display. Interpreting a sitename is not unlike interpreting a vanity licence plate; one has to mentally unpack it, allowing for mono-case and length restrictions and the lack of whitespace. Hacker tradition deprecates dull, institutional-sounding names in favour of punchy, humorous, and clever coinages (except that it is considered appropriate for the official public gateway machine of an organisation to bear the organisation's name or acronym). Mythological references, cartoon characters, animal names, and allusions to SF or fantasy literature are probably the most popular sources for sitenames (in roughly descending order). The obligatory comment is Harris's Lament: "All the good ones are taken!" See also {network address}. 2. {Berkeley} {Unix} command to set and get the application level name used by the host. {Unix manual page}: hostname(1). (1995-02-16)
Hypertext Markup Language "hypertext, web, standard" (HTML) A {hypertext} document format used on the {web}. HTML is built on top of {SGML}. "Tags" are embedded in the text. A tag consists of a """, a "directive" (in lower case), zero or more parameters and a """. Matched pairs of directives, like ""title"" and ""/title"" are used to delimit text which is to appear in a special place or style. Links to other documents are in the form "a href="http://machine.edu/subdir/file.html""foo"/a" where ""a"" and ""/a"" delimit an "anchor", "href" introduces a hypertext reference, which is most often a {Uniform Resource Locator} (URL) (the string in double quotes in the example above). The link will be represented in the browser by the text "foo" (typically shown underlined and in a different colour). A certain place within an HTML document can be marked with a named anchor, e.g.: "a name="baz"" The "fragment identifier", "baz", can be used in an href by appending "
IBM 2741 "printer" A slow, letter-quality printing device and {terminal} based on the {IBM Selectric} {typewriter}. The print head was a little sphere resembling a golf ball, bearing reversed embossed images of 88 different characters arranged on four parallels of latitude; one could change the font by changing the golf ball. The device communicated at 134.5 bits per second, {half duplex}. When the computer transmitted, it physically locked the keyboard. This was the technology that enabled {APL} to use a non-{EBCDIC}, non-{ASCII}, and in fact completely non-standard {character set}. This put it 10 years ahead of its time - where it stayed, firmly rooted, for the next 20, until {character displays} gave way to programmable {bit-mapped} devices with the flexibility to support other character sets. (2006-08-04)
IBM 704 "computer" A large, scientific computer made by {IBM} and used by the largest commercial, government and educational institutions. The IBM 704 had 36-bit memory words, 15-bit addresses and instructions with one address. A few {index register} instructions had the infamous 15-bit decrement field in addition to the 15-bit address. The 704, and {IBM 709} which had the same basic architecture, represented a substantial step forward from the {IBM 650}'s {magnetic drum} storage as they provided random access at electronic speed to {core storage}, typically 32k words of 36 bits each. [Or did the 704 actually come *before* the 650?] A typical 700 series installation would be in a specially built room of perhaps 1000 to 2000 square feet, with cables running under a raised floor and substantial air conditioning. There might be up to eight {magnetic tape} transports, each about 3 x 3 x 6 feet, on one or two "channels." The 1/2 inch tape had seven tracks and moved at 150 inches per second, giving a read/write speed of 15,000 six bit characters (plus parity) per second. In the centre would be the operator's {console} consisting of cabinets and tables for storage of tapes and boxes of cards; and a {card reader}, a {card punch}, and a {line printer}, each perhaps 4 x 4 x 5 feet in dimension. Small {jobs} could be entered via {punched cards} at the console, but as a rule the user jobs were transferred from cards to {magnetic tape} by {off-line} equipment and only control information was entered at the console (see {SPOOL}). Before each job, the {operating system} was loaded from a read-only system tape (because the system in {core} could have been corrupted by the previous user), and then the user's program, in the form of card images on the input tape, would be run. Program output would be written to another tape (typically on another channel) for printing off-line. Well run installations would transfer the user's cards to tape, run the job, and print the output tape with a turnaround time of one to four hours. The processing unit typically occupied a position symmetric but opposite the operator's console. Physically the largest of the units, it included a glass enclosure a few feet in dimension in which could be seen the "core" about one foot on each side. The 36-bit word could hold two 18-bit addresses called the "Contents of the Address Register" ({CAR}) and the "Contents of the Decrement Register" ({CDR}). On the opposite side of the floor from the tape drives and operator's console would be a desk and bookshelves for the ever-present (24 hours a day) "field engineer" dressed in, you guessed it, a grey flannel suit and tie. The maintenance of the many thousands of {vacuum tubes}, each with limited lifetime, and the cleaning, lubrication, and adjustment of mechanical equipment, was augmented by a constant flow of {bug} reports, change orders to both hardware and software, and hand-holding for worried users. The 704 was oriented toward scientific work and included {floating point} hardware and the first {Fortran} implementation. Its hardware was the basis for the requirement in some programming languages that loops must be executed at least once. The {IBM 705} was the business counterpart of the 704. The 705 was a decimal machine with a circular register which could hold several variables (numbers, values) at the same time. Very few 700 series computers remained in service by 1965, but the {IBM 7090}, using {transistors} but similar in logical structure, remained an important machine until the production of the earliest {integrated circuits}. [Was the 704 scientific, business or general purpose? Difference between 704 and 709?] (1996-01-24)
ideographics ::: n. --> The system of writing in ideographic characters; also, anything so written.
in-band signalling "communications" (Or CAS, channel associated signaling) Transmission of control signals in the same channel as data. This is commonly used in the {Public Switched Telephone Network} where the same pair of wires carry both voice and control signals (e.g. dialling, ringing). Another example is the use on a computer {serial line} of Control-S and Control-Q characters for {flow control} as opposed to {hardware flow control} which would be out-of-band signalling. In digital communications, in-band signalling often uses "bit-robbing" where, for example, one {bit} in each {frame} is used for signalling instead of data. This is the reason why a {D1} channel in the T-carrier system can only carry 56 Kbps of usable data instead of the 64 Kbps carried by the {D0} channel in the E-carrier system. (2007-01-26)
incorporates the 2 names in Hebrew characters.
indelible ::: a. --> That can not be removed, washed away, blotted out, or effaced; incapable of being canceled, lost, or forgotten; as, indelible characters; an indelible stain; an indelible impression on the memory.
That can not be annulled; indestructible.
indentation "text, programming" Space and/or {tab} characters added at the beginning of a line to indicate structure, e.g. indenting a quotation to make it stand out or indenting a {block} of code controlled by an {if statement}. Indentation is important in {source code} for readability. There are a number of different {indent styles}. Some programming languages go further and use indentation as the main method to represent block structure to the {compiler} or {interpreter}, see {off-side rule}. (2008-10-23)
in Hebrew characters dated circa lst-2nd cen¬
in Hebrew characters on the 5th pentacle of the
in Hebrew characters. [R/l Mathers, The Greater
inscribed in Hebrew characters on the 3rd pentacle
inscribe ::: to mark (a surface) with words, characters, etc., especially in a durable or conspicuous way. inscribed.
internal field separators "operating system" ($IFS) A predefined {environment variable} in the {Unix} {Bourne shell} whose default value is the three-character string containing {space}, {tab} and {line feed}. Any string of one or more of these characters separates the command and each of its arguments in a command line. $IFS also tells the shell's built-in read command where to split an input line when reading into multiple variables. E.g. setting IFS=: would be appropriate for reading a file with ':'-separated fields, such as /etc/passwd. (1999-04-07)
International Phonetic Alphabet "text, human language" (IPA) A system of symbols for representing pronunciation. There is no commonly agreed way to represent IPA in {ASCII} characters though it can be represented in {Unicode}. [Reference?] (1998-12-30)
In the Shah-namah of Firdusi, the figures in this myth become historical characters: “It is apparent, therefore, that by Zohak is meant the Assyrian dynasty, whose symbol was the purpureum signum draconis — the purple sign of the dragon. From a very remote antiquity (Genesis 14) this dynasty ruled Asia, Armenia, Syria, Arabia, Babylonia, Media, Persia, Bactria, and Afghanistan. It was finally overthrown by Cyrus and Darius Hystaspes, after ‘1,000 years’ rule. . . . Zohak probably imposed the Assyrian or Magian worship of fire upon the Persians” (IU 2:486).
ISO 9660 "standard, storage" The {ISO} {standard} {file system} for {CD-ROMs}, later extended by the {Joliet} standard to allow {Unicode} characters. (2006-09-25)
isochronous "communications" /i:-sok'rn-*s/ A form of {multiplexing} that guarantees to provide a certain minimum {data rate}, as required for time-dependent data such as {video} or {audio}. Isochronous transmission transmits asynchronous data over a synchronous data link so that individual characters are only separated by a whole number of bit-length intervals. This is in contrast to {asynchronous} transmission, in which the characters may be separated by arbitrary intervals, and with {synchronous} transmission [which does what?]. An isochronous message protocol assigns each data source a fixed amount of time to transmit (its "slot") within each cycle through the sources. That guarantees that each source will have regular opportunities to transmit the latest information. If a source has no more data to transmit, then the rest of its time slot is wasted. If it has more to send than will fit in its slot, it has to either store the excess data and transmit it in its next slot, or discard it. Note that whether messages are isochronous or asynchronous is independent of whether the transmision of individual bits is {synchronous} or {asynchronous}. Isochronous communication suits applications where a steady data stream is more important than completeness and accuracy, e.g. {video conferencing}. {Asynchronous Transfer Mode} and {High Performance Serial Bus} can provide isochronous service. Compare: {plesiochronous}. [ANIXTER, LAN Magazine 7.93] (2006-06-13)
italicize ::: v. t. & i. --> To print in Italic characters; to underline written letters or words with a single line; as, to Italicize a word; Italicizes too much.
It holds an intermediate position in pronunciation between the soft aleph text and the harsher heth text and consequently both in pronunciation and writing it is occasionally interchanged with these two other characters.
Jehovah (Hebrew) Yĕhovāh In the Bible, the god of the Hebrews; a modern mispronunciation of the Hebrew alphabetic characters, resulting from the combining by the Jews themselves of the Hebrew consonants of this word (YHVH) with the vowels of the word Adonai (my lords) because the Jews, while always writing or copying the alphabetic characters of the name correctly in their manuscripts, when reading it never pronounced the word YHVH, but read “Adonai” in its stead — writing the Massoretic points of Adonai to vocalize YHVH to produce Yahovah. Consequently when the Bible came to be studied by those unfamiliar with the real pronunciation of YHVH, it was read in various ways, commonly as Jehovah. It is now held by some scholars that YHVH should be pronounced yahweh or yave. It is also given as Yihweh (he will be, or it will be) (SD 2:129). However, Josephus, a priest who undoubtedly knew the correct pronunciation, wrote that it would be highly unlawful for him to divulge it as the Jews regarded it as too holy to pronounce aloud.
Jehovists one of the two main trends of ancient Jewish religious thought, the other being the Elohists. “The portions belonging to these respectively are so blended together, so completely mixed up by later hands, that often all external characteristics are lost. Yet it is also known that the two schools were antagonistic; that the one taught esoteric, the other exoteric, or theological doctrines; that the one, the Elohists, were Seers (Roeh), whereas the other, the Jehovists, were prophets (Nabi), and that the latter — who later became Rabbis — were generally only nominally prophets by virtue of their official position, . . . That, again, the Elohists meant by ‘Elohim’ ‘forces,’ identifying their Deity, as in the Secret Doctrine, with Nature; while the Jehovists made of Jehovah a personal God externally, and used the term simply as a phallic symbol — a number of them secretly disbelieving even in metaphysical, abstract Nature, and synthesizing all on the terrestrial scale. Finally, the Elohists made of man the divine incarnate image of the Elohim, emanated first in all Creation; and the Jehovists show him as the last, the crowing glory of the animal creation, instead of his being the head of all the sensible beings on earth” (BCW 14:183-4). David is said to have introduced this worship in Judea after living among the Tyrians and Philistines where such rites and beliefs were common: “David knew nothing of Moses, it seems, and if he introduced the Jehovah-worship, it was not in its monotheistic character, but simply as that of one of the many [Kabeirean] gods of the neighbouring nations — a tutelary deity of his own [hebrew characters]to whom he had given the preference, and chosen among ‘all other [Kabeiri] gods,” (IU 2:45). Blavatsky holds that the Jehovists altered the Mosaic texts. ( )
Joliet "standard, storage" An extension of the {ISO 9660:1988} {ISO} {standard} {file system} for {CD-ROMs} that allows {Unicode} characters in file names and other enhancements. Version 1 of Joliet was released on 1995-05-22. Joiliet supports file and directory names up to 128 bytes (64 unicode characters) long, directory names with file name extensions, a directory hierarchy deeper than 8 levels and the {volume recognition sequence} supports {multisession}. Joliet uses ISO 9660's "supplementary volume descriptor" (SVD) to specify Unicode files. Use of the previously unused escape sequence ISO 2022 means that Joliet is {backward compatible} with ISO 9660.. {(http://www-plateau.cs.berkeley.edu/people/chaffee/jolspec.html)}. (2006-09-25)
kamichi ::: n. --> A curious South American bird (Anhima, / Palamedea, cornuta), often domesticated by the natives and kept with poultry, which it defends against birds of prey. It has a long, slender, hornlike ornament on its head, and two sharp spurs on each wing. Although its beak, feet, and legs resemble those of gallinaceous birds, it is related in anatomical characters to the ducks and geese (Anseres). Called also horned screamer. The name is sometimes applied also to the chaja. See Chaja, and Screamer.
kanji "human language, character" /kahn'jee/ (From the Japanese "kan" - the Chinese Han dynasty, and "ji" - {glyph} or letter of the alphabet. Not capitalised. Plural "kanji") The Japanese word for a {Han character} used in Japanese. Kanji constitute a part of the {writing system} used to represent the Japanese language in written, printed and displayed form. The term is also used for the collection of all kanji {letters}. {US-ASCII} doesn't include kanji characters, but some {character encodings}, including {Unicode}, do. The Japanese writing system also uses hiragana, katakana, and sometimes romaji ({Roman alphabet} letters). These characters are distinct from, though commonly used in combination with, kanji. {Furigana} are also added sometimes. (2000-12-30)
kenogenesis ::: n. --> Modified evolution, in which nonprimitive characters make their appearance in consequence of a secondary adaptation of the embryo to the peculiar conditions of its environment; -- distinguished from palingenesis.
kerning "text" In {typography}, the process of adjusting the spacing between certain pairs of {characters} to improve the appearance of the text. Roughly speaking, this can be thought of as equalising the area of space between adjacent characters. Each {character} of a {proportional font} has a width that includes some space on either side so that adjacent letters don't touch. Some pairs of characters such as A and V, look better if the spaces overlap slightly, bringing the characters closer together (but still not touching). In most cases, kerning reduces the spacing ("negative kerning") but some pairs like "r" and "y" look better with extra space ("positive kerning"). See also {tracking}, {leading}. (2014-01-14)
keyboard "hardware" A {hardware} device consisting of a number of mechanical buttons (keys) which the user presses to input characters to a computer. Keyboards were originally part of {terminals} which were separate {peripheral} devices that performed both input and output and communicated with the computer via a {serial line}. Today a keyboard is more likely to be connected more directly to the processor, allowing the processor to scan it and detect which key or keys are currently pressed. Pressing a key sends a low-level {key code} to the keyboard input driver routine which translates this to one or more {characters} or special actions. Keyboards vary in the keys they have, most have keys to generate the {ASCII} {character set} as well as various {function keys} and special purpose keys, e.g. reset or volume control. (2003-07-04)
keypad "hardware" An input device with a small array of {push buttons} labeled with numbers or other symbols, designed to allow rapid entry of characters from a small set, e.g. decimal digits 0-9 or, historically, hexadecimal digits. The most common form of keypad is the {numeric keypad} found on a standard {PC} {keyboard}. (2008-10-10)
kilobyte "unit, data" (KB) A unit of {data} equal to 1000 {bytes} (but see {binary prefix} for other definitions). One kilobyte is the amount of data in 1000 {ASCII} (or {UTF-8}) characters or about 250 English words (whose average length is about four characters). 1000 kilobytes are one {megabyte}. (2014-07-21)
Kounboum, Kunbum, Kumbum [from Tibetan sku-‘bum] The sacred tree of Tibet, called the tree of the ten thousand images and characters. Tibetan tradition has it that this tree grew from the long hair of Tsong-kha-pa (14th century) who was buried in an enclosure of the lamasery of Kunbum where the tree is still growing. Said to be the only specimen of its kind to be found anywhere, although others deny this. Each of its leaves is said by some to bear a letter or a religious sentence written in perfect sacred characters. More recent travelers state that the tree is a noteworthy one whose leaves, twigs, or branches contain innumerable instances of strange lines or markings, though not alphabetic.
kyriological ::: a. --> Serving to denote objects by conventional signs or alphabetical characters; as, the original Greek alphabet of sixteen letters was called kyriologic, because it represented the pure elementary sounds. See Curiologic.
letter ::: n. --> One who lets or permits; one who lets anything for hire.
One who retards or hinders.
A mark or character used as the representative of a sound, or of an articulation of the human organs of speech; a first element of written language.
A written or printed communication; a message expressed in intelligible characters on something adapted to conveyance, as paper, parchment, etc.; an epistle.
lexical analysis "programming" (Or "linear analysis", "scanning") The first stage of processing a language. The stream of characters making up the source program or other input is read one at a time and grouped into {lexemes} (or "tokens") - word-like pieces such as keywords, identifiers, {literals} and punctuation. The lexemes are then passed to the {parser}. ["Compilers - Principles, Techniques and Tools", by Alfred V. Aho, Ravi Sethi and Jeffrey D. Ullman, pp. 4-5] (1995-04-05)
line noise "communications" 1. Spurious characters due to electrical {noise} in a communications link, especially an {EIA-232} serial connection. Line noise may be induced by poor connections, interference or {crosstalk} from other circuits, electrical storms, {cosmic rays}, or (notionally) birds crapping on the phone wires. 2. Any chunk of data in a file or elsewhere that looks like the results of electrical line noise. 3. Text that is theoretically a readable text or program source but employs {syntax} so bizarre that it looks like line noise. Yes, there are languages this ugly. The canonical example is {TECO}, whose input syntax is often said to be indistinguishable from line noise. Other non-{WYSIWYG} editors, such as {Multics} "{qed}" and {Unix} "{ed}", in the hands of a real hacker, also qualify easily, as do deliberately {obfuscate}d languages such as {INTERCAL}. [{Jargon File}] (1994-12-22)
liquid crystal display "hardware" (LCD) An electro-optical device used to display digits, characters or images, commonly used in digital watches, calculators, and portable computers. The heart of the liquid crystal display is a piece of {liquid crystal} material placed between a pair of transparent {electrodes}. The liquid crystal changes the phase of the light passing through it and this phase change can be controlled by the {voltage} applied between the electrodes. If such a unit is placed between a pair of {plane polariser} plates then light can pass through it only if the correct voltage is applied. Liquid crystal displays are formed by integrating a number of such cells, or more usually, by using a single liquid crystal plate and a pattern of electrodes. The simplest kind of liquid crystal displays, those used in digital watches and calculators, contain a common electrode plane covering one side and a pattern of electrodes on the other. These electrodes can be individually controlled to produce the appropriate display. Computer displays, however, require far too many pixels (typically between 50,000 and several millions) to make this scheme, in particular its wiring, feasible. The electrodes are therefore replaced by a number of row electrodes on one side and column electrodes on the other. By applying voltage to one row and several columns the {pixels} at the intersections are set. The pixels being set one row after the other, in {passive matrix} displays the number of rows is limited by the ratio of the setting and fading times. In the setup described above (known as "{twisted nematic}") the number of rows is limited to about 20. Using an alternative "{supertwisted nematic}" setup {VGA} quality displays (480 rows) can be easily built. As of 1995 most {notebook computers} used this technique. Fading can be slowed by putting an active element, such as a {transistor}, on the top of each pixel. This "remembers" the setting of that pixel. These {active matrix} displays are of much better quality (as good as {CRTs}) but are much more expensive than the passive matrix displays. LCDs are slimmer, lighter and consume less power than the previous dominant display type, the {cathode ray tube}, hence their importance for {portable computers}. (1995-12-09)
local echo "communications" (Obsolete: "{half-duplex}") A mode of operation of a communications program or device in which it displays the characters the user enters at the same time as it sends them to the remote system. In communications between computers or computing processes, particularly those involving human keyboarding and/or reading, duplex came to mean the re-transmission of a keyboard character to the output display. Early input device such as the Teletype {ASR-33} {teleprinter}, being descended from the electric typewriter, printed all input characters as they were typed (i.e. they did local echo). Local echo was typically optional on the {video terminals} that replaced them, and usually disabled in favour of {remote echo}. A disadvantage of local echo is that it will continue, even when the communication circuit has failed, which can be misleading. (2000-03-30)
longhand ::: n. --> The written characters used in the common method of writing; -- opposed to shorthand.
Longitudinal Redundancy Check "storage, communications" (LRC, Block Redundancy Check) An {error checking} method that generates a {longitudinal parity} {byte} from a specified {string} or block of {bytes} on a longitudinal track. The longitudinal parity byte is created by placing individual bytes of a string in a two-dimensional {array} and performing a {Vertical Redundancy Check} vertically and horizontally on the array, creating an extra byte. This is an improvement over the VRC because it will catch two errors in the individual characters of the string, beyond the odd errors. (2004-01-26)
LZ77 compression The first {algorithm} to use the {Lempel-Ziv} {substitutional compression} schemes, proposed in 1977. LZ77 compression keeps track of the last n bytes of data seen, and when a phrase is encountered that has already been seen, it outputs a pair of values corresponding to the position of the phrase in the previously-seen buffer of data, and the length of the phrase. In effect the compressor moves a fixed-size "window" over the data (generally referred to as a "sliding window"), with the position part of the (position, length) pair referring to the position of the phrase within the window. The most commonly used {algorithms} are derived from the {LZSS} scheme described by James Storer and Thomas Szymanski in 1982. In this the compressor maintains a window of size N bytes and a "lookahead buffer", the contents of which it tries to find a match for in the window: while (lookAheadBuffer not empty) { get a pointer (position, match) to the longest match in the window for the lookahead buffer; if (length " MINIMUM_MATCH_LENGTH) { output a (position, length) pair; shift the window length characters along; } else { output the first character in the lookahead buffer; shift the window 1 character along; } } Decompression is simple and fast: whenever a (POSITION, LENGTH) pair is encountered, go to that POSITION in the window and copy LENGTH bytes to the output. Sliding-window-based schemes can be simplified by numbering the input text characters mod N, in effect creating a circular buffer. The sliding window approach automatically creates the {LRU} effect which must be done explicitly in {LZ78} schemes. Variants of this method apply additional compression to the output of the LZSS compressor, which include a simple variable-length code ({LZB}), dynamic {Huffman coding} ({LZH}), and {Shannon-Fano} coding ({ZIP} 1.x), all of which result in a certain degree of improvement over the basic scheme, especially when the data are rather random and the LZSS compressor has little effect. An algorithm was developed which combines the ideas behind LZ77 and LZ78 to produce a hybrid called {LZFG}. LZFG uses the standard sliding window, but stores the data in a modified {trie} data structure and produces as output the position of the text in the trie. Since LZFG only inserts complete *phrases* into the dictionary, it should run faster than other LZ77-based compressors. All popular archivers ({arj}, {lha}, {zip}, {zoo}) are variations on LZ77. [comp.compression {FAQ}]. (1995-04-07)
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition "business, printer" (MICR) A {character recognition} system using special ink and characters which can be magnetised and read automatically. MICR is used almost exclusively in the banking industry where it is used to print details on cheques to enable automatic processing. (1995-04-13)
magnetic tape "storage" (Or "magtape", "tape" - {paper tape} is now obsolete) A data storage medium consisting of a magnetisable oxide coating on a thin plastic strip, commonly used for {backup} and {archiving}. Early industry-standard magnetic tape was half an inch wide and wound on removable reels 10.5 inches in diameter. Different lengths were available with 2400 feet and 4800 feet being common. {DECtape} was a variation on this "{round tape}". In modern magnetic tape systems the reels are much smaller and are fixed inside a {cartridge} to protect the tape and for ease of handling ("{square tape}" - though it's really rectangular). Cartridge formats include {QIC}, {DAT}, and {Exabyte}. Tape is read and written on a tape drive (or "deck") which winds the tape from one reel to the other causing it to move past a read/write head. Early tape had seven parallel tracks of data along the length of the tape allowing six bit characters plus {parity} written across the tape. A typical recording density was 556 characters per inch. The tape had reflective marks near its end which signaled beginning of tape (BOT) and end of tape (EOT) to the hardware. Data is written to tape in {blocks} with {inter-block gaps} between them. Each block is typically written in a single operation with the tape running continuously during the write. The larger the block the larger the data {buffer} required in order to supply or receive the data written to or read from the tape. The smaller the block the more tape is wasted as inter-block gaps. Several logical {records} may be combined into one physical block to reduce wastage ("{blocked records}"). Finding a certain block on the tape generally involved reading sequentially from the beginning, in contrast to {magnetic disks}. Tape is not suitable for {random access}. The exception to this is that some systems allow {tape marks} to be written which can be detected while winding the tape forward or rewinding it at high speed. These are typically used to separate logical files on a tape. Most tape drives now include some kind of {data compression}. There are several {algorithms} which provide similar results: {LZ} (most), {IDRC} ({Exabyte}), {ALDC} ({IBM}, {QIC}) and {DLZ1} ({DLT}). See also {cut a tape}, {flap}, {Group Code Recording}, {spool}, {macrotape}, {microtape}, {Non Return to Zero Inverted}, {Phase Encoded}. (1997-04-05)
maidmarian ::: n. --> The lady of the May games; one of the characters in a morris dance; a May queen. Afterward, a grotesque character personated in sports and buffoonery by a man in woman&
mask ::: n. --> A cover, or partial cover, for the face, used for disguise or protection; as, a dancer&
Matter, and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind Is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power ; if it acts it is through these Werior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arri- val of the descendiag Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal Itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being ::: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life. It is indeed so that life and mind involved In Matter have realised themselves here ; for only what is involved can evolve, otherwise there could be no emergence. ■■
Mediator An agent who stands or goes between, specifically one who acts as the conscious agent or intermediary of special spiritual power and knowledge. Most often applied to highly-evolved characters who mediate, not only between superhuman spiritual entities and ordinary men, but who also themselves consciously unite their own spiritual nature with their merely human souls. Such people attain to this lofty state by the great sanctity and wisdom of their lives, aided by frequent interior ecstatic contemplation. They radiate a pure and beneficent atmosphere which invites, and is congenial to, exalted spiritual beings of the solar system. Evil entities of the astral realms cannot endure their clean and highly magnetic aura, nor are they able to continue obsessing other unfortunate persons if the mediator be present and will their departure, or even approaches the sufferer. This powerful spiritual self-consciousness of the individual who is a mediator reaching upwards to superior spiritual realms, is in sharpest possible contrast with the passive, unconscious, weak-willed medium who, through ignorance or folly, becomes the agent for the use of any astral entity that may be attracted to the entranced body. Apollonius, Iamblichus, Plotinus, and Porphyry are examples of mediators: “but if the temple is defiled by the admission of an evil passion, thought or desire, the mediator falls into the sphere of sorcery. The door is opened; the pure spirits retire and the evil ones rush in. This is still mediatorship, evil as it is; the sorcerer, like the pure magician, forms his own aura and subjects to his will congenial inferior spirits” (IU 1:487).
megabyte "unit, data" (MB, colloquially "meg") A Unit of {data} equal to one million {bytes} but see {binary prefix} for other definitions. A megabyte is 1000^2 bytes or 1000 {kilobytes}. The text of a six hundred page paperback book stored as {ASCII} {characters} contains about one megabyte of data. The complete King James bible is 5.2 megabytes. 1000 megabytes are one {gigabyte}. See {prefix}. (2013-11-04)
mimencode (Originally distributed as "mmencode"). A replacement for {uuencode} for use in {electronic mail} and {news}. Part of {MIME}. uuencode uses characters that don"t translate well across all mail gateways (particularly those which convert between {ASCII} and {EBCDIC}). Also, different variants of uuencode encode data in different and incompatible ways, with no standard. Finally, few uuencode variants work well in a pipe. Mimencode implements the encodings which were defined for {MIME} as uuencode replacements, and should be considerably more robust for e-mail use. Written by Nathaniel S. Borenstein of Bell Communications Research, Inc. ({Bellcore}) in 1991.
misfeature /mis-fee'chr/ or /mis'fee"chr/ A feature that eventually causes lossage, possibly because it is not adequate for a new situation that has evolved. Since it results from a deliberate and properly implemented feature, a misfeature is not a bug. Nor is it a simple unforeseen side effect; the term implies that the feature in question was carefully planned, but its long-term consequences were not accurately or adequately predicted (which is quite different from not having thought ahead at all). A misfeature can be a particularly stubborn problem to resolve, because fixing it usually involves a substantial philosophical change to the structure of the system involved. Many misfeatures (especially in user-interface design) arise because the designers/implementors mistake their personal tastes for laws of nature. Often a former feature becomes a misfeature because trade-offs were made whose parameters subsequently change (possibly only in the judgment of the implementors). "Well, yeah, it is kind of a misfeature that file names are limited to six characters, but the original implementors wanted to save directory space and we"re stuck with it for now."
miswart /mis-wort/ [By analogy with {misbug}] A {feature} that superficially appears to be a {wart} but has been determined to be the {Right Thing}. For example, in some versions of the {Emacs} text editor, the "transpose characters" command exchanges the character under the cursor with the one before it on the screen, *except* when the cursor is at the end of a line, in which case the two characters before the cursor are exchanged. While this behaviour is perhaps surprising, and certainly inconsistent, it has been found through extensive experimentation to be what most users want. This feature is a miswart. [{Jargon File}]
mnemonic "programming" A word or string which is intended to be easier to remember than the thing it stands for. Most often used in "{instruction mnemonic}" which are so called because they are easier to remember than the {binary} patterns they stand for. Non-printing {ASCII} characters also have mnemonics like {NAK}, {ESC}, {DEL} intended to evoke their meaning on certain systems. (1995-05-11)
mode 1. A general state, usually used with an adjective describing the state. Use of the word "mode" rather than "state" implies that the state is extended over time, and probably also that some activity characteristic of that state is being carried out. "No time to hack; I'm in thesis mode." In its jargon sense, "mode" is most often attributed to people, though it is sometimes applied to programs and inanimate objects. In particular, see {hack mode}, {day mode}, {night mode}, {demo mode}, {fireworks mode}, and {yoyo mode}; also {chat}. 2. More technically, a mode is a special state that certain user interfaces must pass into in order to perform certain functions. For example, in order to insert characters into a document in the Unix editor "vi", one must type the "i" key, which invokes the "Insert" command. The effect of this command is to put vi into "insert mode", in which typing the "i" key has a quite different effect (to wit, it inserts an "i" into the document). One must then hit another special key, "ESC", in order to leave "insert mode". Nowadays, modeful interfaces are generally considered {losing} but survive in quite a few widely used tools built in less enlightened times. [{Jargon File}] 3. "hardware" {video mode}. (1994-12-22)
modem "hardware, communications" (Modulator/demodulator) An electronic device for converting between serial data (typically {EIA-232}) from a computer and an audio signal suitable for transmission over a telephone line connected to another modem. In one scheme the audio signal is composed of silence (no data) or one of two frequencies representing zero and one. Modems are distinguished primarily by the maximum data rate they support. Data rates can range from 75 bits per second up to 56000 and beyond. Data from the user (i.e. flowing from the local terminal or computer via the modem to the telephone line) is sometimes at a lower rate than the other direction, on the assumption that the user cannot type more than a few characters per second. Various data {compression} and error correction {algorithms} are required to support the highest speeds. Other optional features are {auto-dial} (auto-call) and {auto-answer} which allow the computer to initiate and accept calls without human intervention. Most modern modems support a number of different {protocols}, and two modems, when first connected, will automatically negotiate to find a common protocol (this process may be audible through the modem or computer's loudspeakers). Some modem protocols allow the two modems to renegotiate ("retrain") if the initial choice of data rate is too high and gives too many transmission errors. A modem may either be internal (connected to the computer's {bus}) or external ("stand-alone", connected to one of the computer's {serial ports}). The actual speed of transmission in characters per second depends not just the modem-to-modem data rate, but also on the speed with which the processor can transfer data to and from the modem, the kind of compression used and whether the data is compressed by the processor or the modem, the amount of noise on the telephone line (which causes retransmissions), the serial character format (typically {8N1}: one {start bit}, eight data bits, no {parity}, one {stop bit}). See also {acoustic coupler}, {adaptive answering}, {baud barf}, {Bulletin Board System}, {Caller ID}, {SoftModem}, {U.S. Robotics}, {UUCP}, {whalesong}. {Usenet} newsgroup: {news:comp.dcom.modems}. (2002-05-04)
monopolylogue ::: n. --> An exhibition in which an actor sustains many characters.
morris ::: n. --> A Moorish dance, usually performed by a single dancer, who accompanies the dance with castanets.
A dance formerly common in England, often performed in pagenats, processions, and May games. The dancers, grotesquely dressed and ornamented, took the parts of Robin Hood, Maidmarian, and other fictious characters.
An old game played with counters, or men, which are placed angles of a figure drawn on a board or on the ground; also, the board
Morse code "communications" A coding system invented by Samuel A. Morse, for use in sending character data over extremely low-quality pathways -- such as telegraphs and low-quality radio. Morse code expresses characters as pulses of different durations. Short signals are called "dots" and long signals are calles "dashes". The coding assigns shorter sequences to the most frequently used characters. American Morse code is the first and original Morse code {character set}. {Character sets} adapted to other languages were developed later. American Morse Code: A . __ J . . S . . . 1 . __ __ . B __ . . . K __ . __ T __ 2 . . __ . . C . . . L ___ U . . __ 3 . . . __ . D __ . . M __ __ V . . . __ 4 . . . . __ E . N __ . W . __ __ 5 __ __ __ F . __ . O . . X . __ . . 6 . . . . . . G __ __ . P . . . . . Y . . . . 7 __ __ . . H . . . . Q . . __ . Z . . . . 8 __ . . . . I . . R . . . 0 ____ 9 __ . . __ Where . is a short pulse, __ a long pulse, ___ a very long pulse and ____ a extra long pulse. There are also long and short spaces character-internal. Intercharacter spaces are very long and interword spaces are extra long. There is no standarisation in these durations, and they vary depending on the coder's preference and on the quality of the line. Continental Morse Code or International Morse Code is a widely used {de-facto standard}. This table summarises the Western European usage of Continental Morse Code: A .- G --. M -- S ... Y -.-- 4 ....- B -... H .... N -. T - Z --.. 5 ..... C -.-. I .. O --- U ..- 0 ----- 6 -.... D -.. J .--- P .--. V ...- 1 .---- 7 --... E . K -.- Q --.- W .-- 2 ..--- 8 ---.. F ..-. L .-.. R .-. X -..- 3 ...-- 9 ----. A-umlaut (1) .-.- E-acute ..-.. A-acute .--.- N-tilde --.-- A-corona (11) .--.- O-umlaut (1) ---. CH (2) ---- U-umlaut (1) ..-- Punctuation Marks: Other Signs: period .-.-.- warning .-..- comma --..-- error ........ question mark ..--.. repetition (ii ii) .. .. hyphen -....- wait (AS) .-... colon (3) ---... interruption (BK) -...-.- underline (4) ..--.- understood (VE) ...-. apostrophe .----. transmission received (R) .-. quotation mark .-..-. beginning of message (KA) -.-.- parenthesis open (5)-.--. end of message (AR) .-.-. parenthesis (close) -.--.- end of transmission (K) (6) -.- equal sign (7) -...- end of transmission (KN) (8) -.--. plus sign .-.-. closing mark (SK) (9) ...-.- multiplication sign -..- closing station (CL) -.-..-. fraction mark -..-. separator (10) .-..- (1) Note: 'umlaut' is also known as 'diaeresis' (2) Used only in German; not in Dutch. (3) also: 'divided by' (4) before and after the word to be underlined (5) purportedly replaced by -.--.- for both "(" and ")" (6) both and invitation to any station to start transmission (7) also used as spacing between parts of transmission (8) also an invitation to one station in particular to start transmission (9) connection will be closed. (10) in fractions, for example. (11) A-ring ? Where '.' is a short pulse, '-' a long one. A '-' is three times as long as a '.'; character-internal spaces are as long as '.'s. Intercharacter space are as long as -'s. Spaces between words are as long as seven '.'s. (1996-11-23)
Mudra (Sanskrit) Mudrā A symbol of power over invisible evil influences, whether as a simple posture or a posture considered as a talisman. Applied to certain positions of the fingers practiced in devotion, meditation, or exoteric religious worship, thought by some to imitate ancient Sanskrit characters, and therefore to have magic efficacy and to have a particular esoteric significance. Used both in the Northern Buddhist Yogacharya school and by the Hindu Tantrikas, with both symbolic and practical meanings.
Mule "text, tool" A multi-lingual enhancement of {GNU Emacs}. Mule can handle not only {ASCII} characters (7 bit) and {ISO Latin 1} characters (8 bit), but also {16-bit characters} like Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. Mule can have a mixture of languages in a single buffer. Mule runs under the {X window system}, or on a {Hangul terminal}, {mterm} or {exterm}. {(ftp://etlport.etl.go.jp/pub/mule)}. (1996-01-28)
Multi-User Dimension "games" (MUD) (Or Multi-User Domain, originally "Multi-User Dungeon") A class of multi-player interactive game, accessible via the {Internet} or a {modem}. A MUD is like a real-time {chat} forum with structure; it has multiple "locations" like an {adventure} game and may include combat, traps, puzzles, magic and a simple economic system. A MUD where characters can build more structure onto the database that represents the existing world is sometimes known as a "{MUSH}". Most MUDs allow you to log in as a guest to look around before you create your own character. Historically, MUDs (and their more recent progeny with names of MU- form) derive from a hack by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw on the University of Essex's {DEC-10} in 1979. It was a game similar to the classic {Colossal Cave} adventure, except that it allowed multiple people to play at the same time and interact with each other. Descendants of that game still exist today and are sometimes generically called BartleMUDs. There is a widespread myth that the name MUD was trademarked to the commercial MUD run by Bartle on {British Telecom} (the motto: "You haven't *lived* 'til you've *died* on MUD!"); however, this is false - Richard Bartle explicitly placed "MUD" in the {PD} in 1985. BT was upset at this, as they had already printed trademark claims on some maps and posters, which were released and created the myth. Students on the European academic networks quickly improved on the MUD concept, spawning several new MUDs ({VAXMUD}, {AberMUD}, {LPMUD}). Many of these had associated {bulletin-board systems} for social interaction. Because these had an image as "research" they often survived administrative hostility to {BBSs} in general. This, together with the fact that {Usenet} feeds have been spotty and difficult to get in the UK, made the MUDs major foci of hackish social interaction there. AberMUD and other variants crossed the Atlantic around 1988 and quickly gained popularity in the US; they became nuclei for large hacker communities with only loose ties to traditional hackerdom (some observers see parallels with the growth of {Usenet} in the early 1980s). The second wave of MUDs (TinyMUD and variants) tended to emphasise social interaction, puzzles, and cooperative world-building as opposed to combat and competition. In 1991, over 50% of MUD sites are of a third major variety, LPMUD, which synthesises the combat/puzzle aspects of AberMUD and older systems with the extensibility of TinyMud. The trend toward greater programmability and flexibility will doubtless continue. The state of the art in MUD design is still moving very rapidly, with new simulation designs appearing (seemingly) every month. There is now a move afoot to deprecate the term {MUD} itself, as newer designs exhibit an exploding variety of names corresponding to the different simulation styles being explored. {UMN MUD Gopher page (gopher://spinaltap.micro.umn.edu/11/fun/Games/MUDs/Links)}. {U Pennsylvania MUD Web page (http://cis.upenn.edu/~lwl/mudinfo.html)}. See also {bonk/oif}, {FOD}, {link-dead}, {mudhead}, {MOO}, {MUCK}, {MUG}, {MUSE}, {chat}. {Usenet} newsgroups: {news:rec.games.mud.announce}, {news:rec.games.mud.admin}, {news:rec.games.mud.diku}, {news:rec.games.mud.lp}, {news:rec.games.mud.misc}, {news:rec.games.mud.tiny}. (1994-08-10)
Name, Sacred Most names are labels, and according to ancient occult theory to disclose the real name of a being is to evoke the presence of that being, a knowledge which is made use of in magical evocations. To name the Deity would be an initiation, a revelation, fit only for ears prepared to receive it. Supreme deities are said to be ineffable — their names cannot or may not be spoken — as was the case with the Hebrew Tetragrammaton, IHVH, often written Jehovah, Jahveh, etc., but whose real pronunciation was secret and sacred. Qabbalists, in order to screen the real mystery-name of ’eyn soph (the boundless), substituted the name of one of the personal creative ’elohim, the hermaphrodite Jah-Eve; and the name was made sacred in order to conceal the deception (SD 2:126). As a substitute for Jehovah the name ’Adonai (my Lords), was afterwards used when reading the ancient Hebrew scriptures aloud for and instead of the characters, which appeared written on the manuscript, because YHVH was considered too holy for utterance.
national characters "character" {Characters} with accents and other diacritical marks that are used in certain written languages (that are based on the Roman alphabet) but not in others, particularly not in English. A standard list is {ISO} {Latin 1}. (1996-06-24)
netiquette "convention, networking" /net'ee-ket/ or /net'i-ket/ Network etiquette. The conventions of politeness recognised on {Usenet} and in {mailing lists}, such as not (cross-)posting to inappropriate groups and refraining from commercial advertising outside the biz groups. The most important rule of netiquette is "Think before you post". If what you intend to post will not make a positive contribution to the newsgroup and be of interest to several readers, don't post it! Personal messages to one or two individuals should not be posted to newsgroups, use private e-mail instead. When following up an article, quote the minimum necessary to give some context to your reply and be careful to attribute the quote to the right person. If the article you are responding to was posted to several groups, edit the distribution ("Newsgroups:") header to contain only those groups which are appropriate to your reply, especially if the original message was posted to one or more inappropriate groups in the first place. Re-read and edit your posting carefully before you post. Check the spelling and grammar. Keep your lines to less than 70 characters. Don't post test messages (except to test groups) - wait until you have something to say. When posting humorous or sarcastic comments, it is conventional to append a {smiley}, but don't overuse them. Before asking a question, read the messages already in the group and read the group's {FAQ} if it has one. When you do post a question, follow it with "please reply by mail and I will post a summary if requested" and make sure you DO post a summary if requested, or if only a few people were interested, send them a summary by mail. This avoids umpteen people posting the same answer to the group and umpteen others posting "me too"s. If you believe someone has violated netiquette, send them a message by __private e-mail__, DO NOT post a follow-up to the news. And be polite, they may not realise their mistake, they might be a beginner or may not even have been responsible for the "crime" - their account may have been used by someone else or their address forged. Be proud of your postings but don't post just to see your name in pixels. Remember: your future employer may be reading. {Netiquette for Usenet Site Administrators (http://ancho.ucs.indiana.edu/FAQ/USAGN/index.html)}. {"net.acceptable" (http://marketing.tenagra.com/net-acceptable.html)}. [{Jargon File}] (1999-10-18)
notation ::: n. --> The act or practice of recording anything by marks, figures, or characters.
Any particular system of characters, symbols, or abbreviated expressions used in art or science, to express briefly technical facts, quantities, etc. Esp., the system of figures, letters, and signs used in arithmetic and algebra to express number, quantity, or operations.
Literal or etymological signification.
numeral ::: n. --> Of or pertaining to number; consisting of number or numerals.
Expressing number; representing number; as, numeral letters or characters, as X or 10 for ten.
A figure or character used to express a number; as, the Arabic numerals, 1, 2, 3, etc.; the Roman numerals, I, V, X, L, etc.
A word expressing a number.
numerical ::: n. --> Belonging to number; denoting number; consisting in numbers; expressed by numbers, and not letters; as, numerical characters; a numerical equation; a numerical statement.
The same in number; hence, identically the same; identical; as, the same numerical body.
octal "mathematics" {Number base} eight. The octal number representation uses the digits 0-7 only, with the right-most digit counting ones, the next counting multiples of 8, then 8^2 = 64, etc. For example, octal 177 is digital 127: digit weight value 1 8^2 = 64 1* 64 = 64 7 8^1 = 8 7* 8 = 56 7 8^0 = 1 7* 1 = 7 --- 127 Octal representation used to be widespread back when many computers used six-bit {bytes}, as six-bits can be conveniently written as a two-digit octal number. Since nowadays a byte is almost always eight bits long, the octal system lost most of its appeal to the {hexadecimal} system. Octal is still found in the {C} programming language and its descendents where it is commonly to represent characters, as in 'A' = '\101', 101 being octal for 65, the {ASCII} {character code} for 'A'. For a brief discussion on the word `octal' see {hexadecimal}. (2017-12-18)
Oedipus (Greek) Oidipous. Swollen-footed; Theban hero, son of Laius, named by the shepherd who found him with his feet swollen from the holes bored in them when he was exposed by his father, as it was predicted that he would kill his father and marry his mother — which he subsequently did. In many cosmogonies there are characters who slay their fathers or who are represented as both husband and son of the same goddess. This symbolism, being interpreted literally in Oedipus’ case, has made a fine story of horror for the tragedians. Oedipus is also famous for having solved the riddle of the Theban Sphinx. Oedipus’ romantic and tragic history formed the theme of three plays by Sophocles and by Aeschylus. The essential significance of the story is the inescapable consequences following upon karmic causes, from which there is no escape once these causes have been set in motion by man.
Optical Character Recognition "text" (OCR, sometimes /oh'k*/) Recognition of printed or written characters by computer. Each page of text is converted to a digital using a {scanner} and OCR is then applied to this image to produce a text file. This involves complex {image processing} {algorithms} and rarely achieves 100% accuracy so manual proof reading is recommended. (1999-08-26)
organic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to an organ or its functions, or to objects composed of organs; consisting of organs, or containing them; as, the organic structure of animals and plants; exhibiting characters peculiar to living organisms; as, organic bodies, organic life, organic remains. Cf. Inorganic.
Produced by the organs; as, organic pleasure.
Instrumental; acting as instruments of nature or of art to a certain destined function or end.
osculant ::: a. --> Kissing; hence, meeting; clinging.
Adhering closely; embracing; -- applied to certain creeping animals, as caterpillars.
Intermediate in character, or on the border, between two genera, groups, families, etc., of animals or plants, and partaking somewhat of the characters of each, thus forming a connecting link; interosculant; as, the genera by which two families approximate are called osculant genera.
out-of-band 1. "communications" The exchange of {call control} information on a dedicated channel, separate from that used by the telephone call or data transmission. 2. Sometimes used to describe what communications people call "shift characters", such as the ESC that leads control sequences for many terminals, or the level shift indicators in the old 5-bit {Baudot} codes. 3. In personal communication, using methods other than {electronic mail}, such as telephone or {snail-mail}. 4. "software" Values returned by a {function} that are not in its "natural" {range} of return values, but rather signal some kind of {exception}. Many {C} functions that normally return a non-negative integer return -1 to indicate failure. This use confuses "out-of-band" with "out-of-range". It is actually a clear example of {in-band} signalling since it uses the same "channel" for control and data. Compare {hidden flag}, {green bytes}, {fence}. [{Jargon File}] (2001-04-08)
Out of the Greek ichthys (fish) has been made the acrostic Jesus Christos Theou Yios Soter (Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior). Jesus, Bacchus, the Chaldean Dagon and Oannes, the Akkadian Ea, the Babylonian Xisuthrus, and the Hindu Vishsu and Vaivasvata-Manu mystically are all fish characters, and hence connected with floods and avataras.
overhead 1. Resources (in computing usually processing time or storage space) consumed for purposes which are incidental to, but necessary to, the main one. Overheads are usually quantifiable "costs" of some kind. Examples: The overheads in running a business include the cost of heating the building. Keeping a program running all the time eliminates the overhead of loading and initialising it for each transaction. Turning a {subroutine} into {inline} code eliminates the call and return time overhead for each execution but introduces space overheads. 2. "communications" information, such as control, routing, and error checking characters, that is transmitted along with the user data. It also includes information such as network status or operational instructions, network routing information, and retransmissions of user data received in error. 3. Overhead transparencies or "slides" (usually 8-1/2" x 11") that are projected to an audience via an overhead (flatbed) projector. (1997-09-01)
overrun 1. A frequent consequence of data arriving faster than it can be consumed, especially in {serial line} communications. For example, at 9600 baud there is almost exactly one character per millisecond, so if a {silo} can hold only two characters and the machine takes longer than 2 milliseconds to get to service the interrupt, at least one character will be lost. 2. Also applied to non-serial-I/O communications. "I forgot to pay my electric bill due to mail overrun." "Sorry, I got four phone calls in 3 minutes last night and lost your message to overrun." When {thrash}ing at tasks, the next person to make a request might be told "Overrun!" Compare {firehose syndrome}. 3. More loosely, may refer to a {buffer overflow} not necessarily related to processing time (as in {overrun screw}). [{Jargon File}]
paged ::: indicated the sequence of pages in (a book, manuscript, etc.) by placing numbers or other characters on each leaf; Numbered the pages of; paginated.
pagination ::: n. --> The act or process of paging a book; also, the characters used in numbering the pages; page number.
palamedeae ::: n. pl. --> An order, or suborder, including the kamichi, and allied South American birds; -- called also screamers. In many anatomical characters they are allied to the Anseres, but they externally resemble the wading birds.
paleography ::: n. --> An ancient manner of writing; ancient writings, collectively; as, Punic paleography.
The study of ancient inscriptions and modes of writing; the art or science of deciphering ancient writings, and determining their origin, period, etc., from external characters; diplomatics.
palingenesy ::: n. --> A new birth; a re-creation; a regeneration; a continued existence in different manner or form.
That form of evolution in which the truly ancestral characters conserved by heredity are reproduced in development; original simple descent; -- distinguished from kenogenesis. Sometimes, in zoology, the abrupt metamorphosis of insects, crustaceans, etc.
paper tape "hardware, history" Punched paper tape. An early {input/output} and storage medium borrowed from {telegraph} and {teletype} systems. Data entered at the keyboard of the teletype could be directed to a perforator or punch which punched a pattern of holes across the width of a paper tape to represent the characters typed. The paper tape could be read by a tape reader feeding the computer. Computer output could be similarly punched onto tape and printed off-line. As well as storage of the program and data, use of paper tape enabled {batch processing}. The first units had five data hole positions plus a sprocket hole (for the driving wheel) across the width of the tape. These used commercial telegraph code ({ITA2} also known as {Murray}), {Baudot code} or proprietary codes such as {Elliott} which were more programmer-friendly. Later systems had eight data holes and used {ASCII} coding. (2003-12-02)
paramorphism ::: n. --> The change of one mineral species to another, so as to involve a change in physical characters without alteration of chemical composition.
paramorph ::: n. --> A kind of pseudomorph, in which there has been a change of physical characters without alteration of chemical composition, as the change of aragonite to calcite.
passphrase "operating system" A string of words and characters that you type in to authenticate yourself. Passphrases differ from passwords only in length. Passwords are usually short - six to ten characters. Passphrases are usually much longer - up to 100 characters or more. Modern passphrases were invented by Sigmund N. Porter in 1982. Their greater length makes passphrases more secure. Phil Zimmermann's popular encryption program {PGP}, for example, requires you to make up a passphrase that you then must enter whenever you sign or decrypt messages. {(http://world.std.com/~reinhold/diceware.page.html)}. (1996-12-21)
password "security" An arbitrary string of characters chosen by a user or {system administrator} and used to authenticate the user when he attempts to log on, in order to prevent unauthorised access to his account. A favourite activity among unimaginative {computer nerds} and {crackers} is writing programs which attempt to discover passwords by using lists of commonly chosen passwords such as people's names (spelled forward or backward). It is recommended that to defeat such methods passwords use a mixture of upper and lower case letters or digits and avoid proper names and real words. If you have trouble remembering random strings of characters, make up an acronym like "ihGr8trmP" ("I have great trouble remembering my password"). (1994-10-27)
perspective "games" In computer games, the {virtual} position from which the human player views the playing area. There are three different perspectives: first person, second person, and third person. First person perspective: Viewing the world through the eyes of the primary character in three dimensions. e.g. Doom, Quake. Second person perspective: Viewing the game through a spectator's eyes, in two or three dimensions. Depending on the game, the main character is always in view. e.g. Super Mario Bros., Tomb Raider. Third person perspective: a point of view which is independent of where characters or playing units are. The gaming world is viewed much as a satellite would view a battlefield. E.g. Warcraft, Command & Conquer. (1997-06-19)
PETSCII "character" /pet'skee/ {PET} {ASCII}. The variation (many would say perversion) of the ASCII {character set} used by the {Commodore Business Machines}' {PET} series of {personal computers} and the later {Commodore 64}, {Commodore 16}, and {Commodore 128} computers. The PETSCII set used left-arrow and up-arrow (as in old-style ASCII) instead of underscore and caret, placed the unshifted alphabet at positions 65--90, put the shifted alphabet at positions 193--218, and added {graphic characters}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-10-29)
phase of the moon Used humorously as a random parameter on which something is said to depend. Sometimes implies unreliability of whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on conditions nobody has been able to determine. "This feature depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon." See also {heisenbug}. True story: Once upon a time there was a {bug} that really did depend on the phase of the moon. There was a little subroutine that had traditionally been used in various programs at {MIT} to calculate an approximation to the moon's true phase. {GLS} incorporated this routine into a {Lisp} program that, when it wrote out a file, would print a timestamp line almost 80 characters long. Very occasionally the first line of the message would be too long and would overflow onto the next line, and when the file was later read back in the program would {barf}. The length of the first line depended on both the precise date and time and the length of the phase specification when the timestamp was printed, and so the bug literally depended on the phase of the moon! The first paper edition of the {Jargon File} (Steele-1983) included an example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug, but the typesetter "corrected" it. This has since been described as the phase-of-the-moon-bug bug. [{Jargon File}] (1995-02-22)
Philosophers have in the past been concerned with two questions covered by our definition, though attempts to organize the subject as an autonomous department of philosophy are of recent date. Enquiries into the origin of language (e.g. in Plato's Kratylos) once a favorite subject for speculation, are now out of fashion, both with philosophers and linguists. Enquiries as to the nature of language (as in Descartes, Leibniz, and many others) are, however, still central to all philosophical interest in language. Such questions as "What are the most general characters of symbolism?", "How is 'Language' to be defined?", "What is the essence of language?", "How is communication possible?", "What would be the nature of a perfect language?", are indicative of the varying modulations which this theme receives in the works of contemporaries. Current studies in the philosophy of language can be classified under five hends: Questions of method, relation to other disciplines, etc. Much discussion turns here upon the proposal to establish a science and art of symbolism, variously styled semiotic, semantics or logical syntax, The analysis of meaning. Problems arising here involve attention to those under the next heading. The formulation of general descriptive schemata. Topics of importance here include the identification and analysis of different ways in which language is used, and the definition of men crucial notions as "symbol'', "grammar", "form", "convention", "metaphor", etc. The study of fully formalized language systems or "calculi". An increasingly important and highly technical division which seeks to extend and adapt to all languages the methods first developed in "metamathematics" for the study of mathematical symbolism. Applications to problems in general philosophy. Notably the attempt made to show that necessary propositions are really verbal; or again, the study of the nature of the religious symbol. Advance here awaits more generally acceptable doctrine in the other divisions. References:
phonetic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the voice, or its use.
Representing sounds; as, phonetic characters; -- opposed to ideographic; as, a phonetic notation.
phonetics ::: n. --> The doctrine or science of sounds; especially those of the human voice; phonology.
The art of representing vocal sounds by signs and written characters.
phonography ::: n. --> A description of the laws of the human voice, or sounds uttered by the organs of speech.
A representation of sounds by distinctive characters; commonly, a system of shorthand writing invented by Isaac Pitman, or a modification of his system, much used by reporters.
The art of constructing, or using, the phonograph.
planchette ::: n. --> A circumferentor. See Circumferentor.
A small tablet of wood supported on casters and having a pencil attached. The characters produced by the pencil on paper, while the hand rests on the instrument and it is allowed to move, are sometimes translated as of oracular or supernatural import.
polymorphous ::: a. --> Having, or assuming, a variety of forms, characters, or styles; as, a polymorphous author.
Having, or occurring in, several distinct forms; -- opposed to monomorphic.
polyphonic ::: a. --> Having a multiplicity of sounds.
Characterized by polyphony; as, Assyrian polyphonic characters.
Consisting of several tone series, or melodic parts, progressing simultaneously according to the laws of counterpoint; contrapuntal; as, a polyphonic composition; -- opposed to homophonic, or monodic.
Portable Pixmap "file format" (PPM) A colour {image} {file format}. A PPM file contains the following: a two character "{magic number}" - "P3", the width in pixels, the height in pixels, the maximum colour component value, HEIGHT rows of WIDTH {pixels}. The rows are ordered from top to bottom with the pixels in each row ordered from left to right. Each pixel is represented as three values for red, green, and blue. All parts are separated by {whitespace} and numbers are in decimal {ASCIII} representation. A zero pixel component means that colour is absent. Characters from a "
Positional: The characters of perception are positional. The positional character of the thought is the idea. (Avenarius.) -- H.H.
Preformationism: (Lat. pre + formare, to form before) The doctrine, according to which, the organs and hereditary characters of living creatures are already contained in the germ either structurally or by subsequent differentiation. Cf. Leibniz (q.v.) (Monadology, sect. 74) who was influenced by Leeuwenhoek's microscopic discoveries and theory of the homunculus (little human contained in the sperm). Prediction:
printf "library" The standard function in the {C} programming language library for printing formatted output. The first argument is a format string which may contain ordinary characters which are just printed and "conversion specifications" - sequences beginning with '%' such as %6d which describe how the other arguments should be printed, in this case as a six-character decimal integer padded on the right with spaces. Possible conversion specifications are d, i or u (decimal integer), o ({octal}), x, X or p ({hexadecimal}), f ({floating-point}), e or E ({mantissa} and {exponent}, e.g. 1.23E-22), g or G (f or e format as appropriate to the value printed), c (a single character), s (a string), % (i.e. %% - print a % character). d, i, f, e, g are signed, the rest are unsigned. The variant {fprintf} prints to a given output stream and sprintf stores what would be printed in a string variable. {Unix manual page}: printf(3). (1996-12-08)
printing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Print ::: n. --> The act, art, or practice of impressing letters, characters, or figures on paper, cloth, or other material; the business of a printer, including typesetting and presswork, with their adjuncts; typography; also, the act of producing photographic prints.
Procrustean string "programming" A fixed-length {string}. If a string value is too long for the allocated space, it is truncated to fit; and if it is shorter, the empty space is padded, usually with space characters. This is an allusion to Procrustes, a legendary robber of ancient Attica. He bound his victims to a bed, and if they were shorter than the bed, he stretched their limbs until they would fit; if their limbs were longer, he lopped them off. (1997-09-12)
Pythagoras is famous for his use of numerical and geometrical keys, which he illustrated by reference to the geometrical figures, the musical scale, astronomy, etc. He is supposed to have “discovered” the Divine Section, the regular polyhedra, and the proposition relating to the square of the hypotenuse; what he did was to show that these were keys to the interpretation of mysteries. Porphyry reports that the numerals of Pythagoras were “hieroglyphical symbols” by means whereof he explained ideas concerning the nature of things: (Vita Pythag) or, Blavatsky adds, “the origin of the universe” (SD 1:361). His tetraktys is a gem of condensed esoteric symbolism. The influence of his school may be traced in subsequent Greek history, inspiring such characters as Epaminondas; “It was Pythagoras who was the first to teach the heliocentric system, and who was the greatest proficient in geometry of his century. It was he also who created the word ‘philosopher,’ composed of two words meaning a ‘lover of wisdom’ — philosophos. As the greatest mathematician, geometer and astronomer of historical antiquity, and also the highest of the metaphysicians and scholars, Pythagoras has won imperishable fame. He taught reincarnation as it is professed in India and much else of the Secret Wisdom” (TG 266).
randomness 1. An inexplicable misfeature; gratuitous inelegance. 2. A {hack} or {crock} that depends on a complex combination of coincidences (or, possibly, the combination upon which the crock depends for its accidental failure to malfunction). "This hack can output characters 40--57 by putting the character in the four bit accumulator field of an XCT and then extracting six bits - the low 2 bits of the XCT opcode are the right thing." "What randomness!" 3. Of people, synonymous with "flakiness". The connotation is that the person so described is behaving weirdly, incompetently, or inappropriately for reasons which are (a) too tiresome to bother inquiring into, (b) are probably as inscrutable as quantum phenomena anyway, and (c) are likely to pass with time. "Maybe he has a real complaint, or maybe it's just randomness. See if he calls back." [{Jargon File}]
reaction ::: n. --> Any action in resisting other action or force; counter tendency; movement in a contrary direction; reverse action.
The mutual or reciprocal action of chemical agents upon each other, or the action upon such chemical agents of some form of energy, as heat, light, or electricity, resulting in a chemical change in one or more of these agents, with the production of new compounds or the manifestation of distinctive characters. See Blowpipe reaction, Flame reaction, under Blowpipe, and Flame.
“Real Devanagari — non-phonetic characters — meant formerly the outward symbols, so to say, the signs used in the inter-communication between gods and initiated mortals. Hence their great sacredness and the silence maintained throughout the Vedic and the Brahmanical periods about any object concerned with, or referring to, reading and writing. It was the language of the gods” (ibid. 423).
Real: (Lat. realis, of the thing itself) Absoluteness of being. The immediate object of that which is true. Invented in the 13th century to signify having characters sufficient to identify their subject, whether attributed by men or not. Sometimes, the existential as opposed to mere possibility, or the physical as opposed to consciousness. Syn. with external (q.v), actual. Opposite of: figment. -- J.K.F.
Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal "humour" Back in the good old days - the "Golden Era" of computers, it was easy to separate the men from the boys (sometimes called "Real Men" and "Quiche Eaters" in the literature). During this period, the Real Men were the ones that understood computer programming, and the Quiche Eaters were the ones that didn't. A real computer programmer said things like "DO 10 I=1,10" and "ABEND" (they actually talked in capital letters, you understand), and the rest of the world said things like "computers are too complicated for me" and "I can't relate to computers - they're so impersonal". (A previous work [1] points out that Real Men don't "relate" to anything, and aren't afraid of being impersonal.) But, as usual, times change. We are faced today with a world in which little old ladies can get computers in their microwave ovens, 12-year-old kids can blow Real Men out of the water playing Asteroids and Pac-Man, and anyone can buy and even understand their very own Personal Computer. The Real Programmer is in danger of becoming extinct, of being replaced by high-school students with {TRASH-80s}. There is a clear need to point out the differences between the typical high-school junior Pac-Man player and a Real Programmer. If this difference is made clear, it will give these kids something to aspire to -- a role model, a Father Figure. It will also help explain to the employers of Real Programmers why it would be a mistake to replace the Real Programmers on their staff with 12-year-old Pac-Man players (at a considerable salary savings). LANGUAGES The easiest way to tell a Real Programmer from the crowd is by the programming language he (or she) uses. Real Programmers use {Fortran}. Quiche Eaters use {Pascal}. Nicklaus Wirth, the designer of Pascal, gave a talk once at which he was asked how to pronounce his name. He replied, "You can either call me by name, pronouncing it 'Veert', or call me by value, 'Worth'." One can tell immediately from this comment that Nicklaus Wirth is a Quiche Eater. The only parameter passing mechanism endorsed by Real Programmers is call-by-value-return, as implemented in the {IBM 370} {Fortran-G} and H compilers. Real programmers don't need all these abstract concepts to get their jobs done - they are perfectly happy with a {keypunch}, a {Fortran IV} {compiler}, and a beer. Real Programmers do List Processing in Fortran. Real Programmers do String Manipulation in Fortran. Real Programmers do Accounting (if they do it at all) in Fortran. Real Programmers do {Artificial Intelligence} programs in Fortran. If you can't do it in Fortran, do it in {assembly language}. If you can't do it in assembly language, it isn't worth doing. STRUCTURED PROGRAMMING The academics in computer science have gotten into the "structured programming" rut over the past several years. They claim that programs are more easily understood if the programmer uses some special language constructs and techniques. They don't all agree on exactly which constructs, of course, and the examples they use to show their particular point of view invariably fit on a single page of some obscure journal or another - clearly not enough of an example to convince anyone. When I got out of school, I thought I was the best programmer in the world. I could write an unbeatable tic-tac-toe program, use five different computer languages, and create 1000-line programs that WORKED. (Really!) Then I got out into the Real World. My first task in the Real World was to read and understand a 200,000-line Fortran program, then speed it up by a factor of two. Any Real Programmer will tell you that all the Structured Coding in the world won't help you solve a problem like that - it takes actual talent. Some quick observations on Real Programmers and Structured Programming: Real Programmers aren't afraid to use {GOTOs}. Real Programmers can write five-page-long DO loops without getting confused. Real Programmers like Arithmetic IF statements - they make the code more interesting. Real Programmers write self-modifying code, especially if they can save 20 {nanoseconds} in the middle of a tight loop. Real Programmers don't need comments - the code is obvious. Since Fortran doesn't have a structured IF, REPEAT ... UNTIL, or CASE statement, Real Programmers don't have to worry about not using them. Besides, they can be simulated when necessary using {assigned GOTOs}. Data Structures have also gotten a lot of press lately. Abstract Data Types, Structures, Pointers, Lists, and Strings have become popular in certain circles. Wirth (the above-mentioned Quiche Eater) actually wrote an entire book [2] contending that you could write a program based on data structures, instead of the other way around. As all Real Programmers know, the only useful data structure is the Array. Strings, lists, structures, sets - these are all special cases of arrays and can be treated that way just as easily without messing up your programing language with all sorts of complications. The worst thing about fancy data types is that you have to declare them, and Real Programming Languages, as we all know, have implicit typing based on the first letter of the (six character) variable name. OPERATING SYSTEMS What kind of operating system is used by a Real Programmer? CP/M? God forbid - CP/M, after all, is basically a toy operating system. Even little old ladies and grade school students can understand and use CP/M. Unix is a lot more complicated of course - the typical Unix hacker never can remember what the PRINT command is called this week - but when it gets right down to it, Unix is a glorified video game. People don't do Serious Work on Unix systems: they send jokes around the world on {UUCP}-net and write adventure games and research papers. No, your Real Programmer uses OS 370. A good programmer can find and understand the description of the IJK305I error he just got in his JCL manual. A great programmer can write JCL without referring to the manual at all. A truly outstanding programmer can find bugs buried in a 6 megabyte {core dump} without using a hex calculator. (I have actually seen this done.) OS is a truly remarkable operating system. It's possible to destroy days of work with a single misplaced space, so alertness in the programming staff is encouraged. The best way to approach the system is through a keypunch. Some people claim there is a Time Sharing system that runs on OS 370, but after careful study I have come to the conclusion that they were mistaken. PROGRAMMING TOOLS What kind of tools does a Real Programmer use? In theory, a Real Programmer could run his programs by keying them into the front panel of the computer. Back in the days when computers had front panels, this was actually done occasionally. Your typical Real Programmer knew the entire bootstrap loader by memory in hex, and toggled it in whenever it got destroyed by his program. (Back then, memory was memory - it didn't go away when the power went off. Today, memory either forgets things when you don't want it to, or remembers things long after they're better forgotten.) Legend has it that {Seymore Cray}, inventor of the Cray I supercomputer and most of Control Data's computers, actually toggled the first operating system for the CDC7600 in on the front panel from memory when it was first powered on. Seymore, needless to say, is a Real Programmer. One of my favorite Real Programmers was a systems programmer for Texas Instruments. One day he got a long distance call from a user whose system had crashed in the middle of saving some important work. Jim was able to repair the damage over the phone, getting the user to toggle in disk I/O instructions at the front panel, repairing system tables in hex, reading register contents back over the phone. The moral of this story: while a Real Programmer usually includes a keypunch and lineprinter in his toolkit, he can get along with just a front panel and a telephone in emergencies. In some companies, text editing no longer consists of ten engineers standing in line to use an 029 keypunch. In fact, the building I work in doesn't contain a single keypunch. The Real Programmer in this situation has to do his work with a "text editor" program. Most systems supply several text editors to select from, and the Real Programmer must be careful to pick one that reflects his personal style. Many people believe that the best text editors in the world were written at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center for use on their Alto and Dorado computers [3]. Unfortunately, no Real Programmer would ever use a computer whose operating system is called SmallTalk, and would certainly not talk to the computer with a mouse. Some of the concepts in these Xerox editors have been incorporated into editors running on more reasonably named operating systems - {Emacs} and {VI} being two. The problem with these editors is that Real Programmers consider "what you see is what you get" to be just as bad a concept in Text Editors as it is in women. No the Real Programmer wants a "you asked for it, you got it" text editor - complicated, cryptic, powerful, unforgiving, dangerous. TECO, to be precise. It has been observed that a TECO command sequence more closely resembles transmission line noise than readable text [4]. One of the more entertaining games to play with TECO is to type your name in as a command line and try to guess what it does. Just about any possible typing error while talking with TECO will probably destroy your program, or even worse - introduce subtle and mysterious bugs in a once working subroutine. For this reason, Real Programmers are reluctant to actually edit a program that is close to working. They find it much easier to just patch the binary {object code} directly, using a wonderful program called SUPERZAP (or its equivalent on non-IBM machines). This works so well that many working programs on IBM systems bear no relation to the original Fortran code. In many cases, the original source code is no longer available. When it comes time to fix a program like this, no manager would even think of sending anything less than a Real Programmer to do the job - no Quiche Eating structured programmer would even know where to start. This is called "job security". Some programming tools NOT used by Real Programmers: Fortran preprocessors like {MORTRAN} and {RATFOR}. The Cuisinarts of programming - great for making Quiche. See comments above on structured programming. Source language debuggers. Real Programmers can read core dumps. Compilers with array bounds checking. They stifle creativity, destroy most of the interesting uses for EQUIVALENCE, and make it impossible to modify the operating system code with negative subscripts. Worst of all, bounds checking is inefficient. Source code maintenance systems. A Real Programmer keeps his code locked up in a card file, because it implies that its owner cannot leave his important programs unguarded [5]. THE REAL PROGRAMMER AT WORK Where does the typical Real Programmer work? What kind of programs are worthy of the efforts of so talented an individual? You can be sure that no Real Programmer would be caught dead writing accounts-receivable programs in {COBOL}, or sorting {mailing lists} for People magazine. A Real Programmer wants tasks of earth-shaking importance (literally!). Real Programmers work for Los Alamos National Laboratory, writing atomic bomb simulations to run on Cray I supercomputers. Real Programmers work for the National Security Agency, decoding Russian transmissions. It was largely due to the efforts of thousands of Real Programmers working for NASA that our boys got to the moon and back before the Russkies. Real Programmers are at work for Boeing designing the operating systems for cruise missiles. Some of the most awesome Real Programmers of all work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Many of them know the entire operating system of the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft by heart. With a combination of large ground-based Fortran programs and small spacecraft-based assembly language programs, they are able to do incredible feats of navigation and improvisation - hitting ten-kilometer wide windows at Saturn after six years in space, repairing or bypassing damaged sensor platforms, radios, and batteries. Allegedly, one Real Programmer managed to tuck a pattern-matching program into a few hundred bytes of unused memory in a Voyager spacecraft that searched for, located, and photographed a new moon of Jupiter. The current plan for the Galileo spacecraft is to use a gravity assist trajectory past Mars on the way to Jupiter. This trajectory passes within 80 +/-3 kilometers of the surface of Mars. Nobody is going to trust a Pascal program (or a Pascal programmer) for navigation to these tolerances. As you can tell, many of the world's Real Programmers work for the U.S. Government - mainly the Defense Department. This is as it should be. Recently, however, a black cloud has formed on the Real Programmer horizon. It seems that some highly placed Quiche Eaters at the Defense Department decided that all Defense programs should be written in some grand unified language called "ADA" ((C), DoD). For a while, it seemed that ADA was destined to become a language that went against all the precepts of Real Programming - a language with structure, a language with data types, {strong typing}, and semicolons. In short, a language designed to cripple the creativity of the typical Real Programmer. Fortunately, the language adopted by DoD has enough interesting features to make it approachable -- it's incredibly complex, includes methods for messing with the operating system and rearranging memory, and Edsgar Dijkstra doesn't like it [6]. (Dijkstra, as I'm sure you know, was the author of "GoTos Considered Harmful" - a landmark work in programming methodology, applauded by Pascal programmers and Quiche Eaters alike.) Besides, the determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language. The Real Programmer might compromise his principles and work on something slightly more trivial than the destruction of life as we know it, providing there's enough money in it. There are several Real Programmers building video games at Atari, for example. (But not playing them - a Real Programmer knows how to beat the machine every time: no challenge in that.) Everyone working at LucasFilm is a Real Programmer. (It would be crazy to turn down the money of fifty million Star Trek fans.) The proportion of Real Programmers in Computer Graphics is somewhat lower than the norm, mostly because nobody has found a use for computer graphics yet. On the other hand, all computer graphics is done in Fortran, so there are a fair number of people doing graphics in order to avoid having to write COBOL programs. THE REAL PROGRAMMER AT PLAY Generally, the Real Programmer plays the same way he works - with computers. He is constantly amazed that his employer actually pays him to do what he would be doing for fun anyway (although he is careful not to express this opinion out loud). Occasionally, the Real Programmer does step out of the office for a breath of fresh air and a beer or two. Some tips on recognizing Real Programmers away from the computer room: At a party, the Real Programmers are the ones in the corner talking about operating system security and how to get around it. At a football game, the Real Programmer is the one comparing the plays against his simulations printed on 11 by 14 fanfold paper. At the beach, the Real Programmer is the one drawing flowcharts in the sand. At a funeral, the Real Programmer is the one saying "Poor George, he almost had the sort routine working before the coronary." In a grocery store, the Real Programmer is the one who insists on running the cans past the laser checkout scanner himself, because he never could trust keypunch operators to get it right the first time. THE REAL PROGRAMMER'S NATURAL HABITAT What sort of environment does the Real Programmer function best in? This is an important question for the managers of Real Programmers. Considering the amount of money it costs to keep one on the staff, it's best to put him (or her) in an environment where he can get his work done. The typical Real Programmer lives in front of a computer terminal. Surrounding this terminal are: Listings of all programs the Real Programmer has ever worked on, piled in roughly chronological order on every flat surface in the office. Some half-dozen or so partly filled cups of cold coffee. Occasionally, there will be cigarette butts floating in the coffee. In some cases, the cups will contain Orange Crush. Unless he is very good, there will be copies of the OS JCL manual and the Principles of Operation open to some particularly interesting pages. Taped to the wall is a line-printer Snoopy calendar for the year 1969. Strewn about the floor are several wrappers for peanut butter filled cheese bars - the type that are made pre-stale at the bakery so they can't get any worse while waiting in the vending machine. Hiding in the top left-hand drawer of the desk is a stash of double-stuff Oreos for special occasions. Underneath the Oreos is a flowcharting template, left there by the previous occupant of the office. (Real Programmers write programs, not documentation. Leave that to the maintenance people.) The Real Programmer is capable of working 30, 40, even 50 hours at a stretch, under intense pressure. In fact, he prefers it that way. Bad response time doesn't bother the Real Programmer - it gives him a chance to catch a little sleep between compiles. If there is not enough schedule pressure on the Real Programmer, he tends to make things more challenging by working on some small but interesting part of the problem for the first nine weeks, then finishing the rest in the last week, in two or three 50-hour marathons. This not only impresses the hell out of his manager, who was despairing of ever getting the project done on time, but creates a convenient excuse for not doing the documentation. In general: No Real Programmer works 9 to 5 (unless it's the ones at night). Real Programmers don't wear neckties. Real Programmers don't wear high-heeled shoes. Real Programmers arrive at work in time for lunch [9]. A Real Programmer might or might not know his wife's name. He does, however, know the entire {ASCII} (or EBCDIC) code table. Real Programmers don't know how to cook. Grocery stores aren't open at three in the morning. Real Programmers survive on Twinkies and coffee. THE FUTURE What of the future? It is a matter of some concern to Real Programmers that the latest generation of computer programmers are not being brought up with the same outlook on life as their elders. Many of them have never seen a computer with a front panel. Hardly anyone graduating from school these days can do hex arithmetic without a calculator. College graduates these days are soft - protected from the realities of programming by source level debuggers, text editors that count parentheses, and "user friendly" operating systems. Worst of all, some of these alleged "computer scientists" manage to get degrees without ever learning Fortran! Are we destined to become an industry of Unix hackers and Pascal programmers? From my experience, I can only report that the future is bright for Real Programmers everywhere. Neither OS 370 nor Fortran show any signs of dying out, despite all the efforts of Pascal programmers the world over. Even more subtle tricks, like adding structured coding constructs to Fortran have failed. Oh sure, some computer vendors have come out with Fortran 77 compilers, but every one of them has a way of converting itself back into a Fortran 66 compiler at the drop of an option card - to compile DO loops like God meant them to be. Even Unix might not be as bad on Real Programmers as it once was. The latest release of Unix has the potential of an operating system worthy of any Real Programmer - two different and subtly incompatible user interfaces, an arcane and complicated teletype driver, virtual memory. If you ignore the fact that it's "structured", even 'C' programming can be appreciated by the Real Programmer: after all, there's no type checking, variable names are seven (ten? eight?) characters long, and the added bonus of the Pointer data type is thrown in - like having the best parts of Fortran and assembly language in one place. (Not to mention some of the more creative uses for
record "data, database, programming" An {ordered set} of {fields}, usually stored contiguously. The term is used with similar meaning in several different contexts. In a file, a "record" probably has some fixed length, in contrast to a "line" which may have any length and is terminated by some {End Of Line} sequence). A {database} record is also called a "row". In a {spreadsheet} it is always called a "row". Some programming languages use the term to mean a type composed of fields of several other types ({C} calls this a "{struct}"). In all these cases, a record represents an entity with certain field values. Fields may be of a fixed width ({bits} or {characters}) or they may be separated by a {delimiter} character, often {comma} ({CSV}) or {HT} ({TSV}). In a database the list of values of a given field from all records is called a column. (2002-03-22)
regular expression 1. "text, operating system" (regexp, RE) One of the {wild card} patterns used by {Perl} and other languages, following {Unix} utilities such as {grep}, {sed}, and {awk} and editors such as {vi} and {Emacs}. Regular expressions use conventions similar to but more elaborate than those described under {glob}. A regular expression is a sequence of characters with the following meanings (in Perl, other flavours vary): An ordinary character (not one of the special characters discussed below) matches that character. A backslash (\) followed by any special character matches the special character itself. The special characters are: "." matches any character except {newline}; "RE*" (where RE is any regular expression and the "*" is called the "{Kleene star}") matches zero or more occurrences of RE. If there is any choice, the longest leftmost matching string is chosen. "^" at the beginning of an RE matches the start of a line and "$" at the end of an RE matches the end of a line. [CHARS] matches any one of the characters in CHARS. If the first character of the string is a "^" it matches any character except the remaining characters in the string (and also usually excluding newline). "-" may be used to indicate a range of consecutive {ASCII} characters. (RE) matches whatever RE matches and \N, where N is a digit, matches whatever was matched by the RE between the Nth "(" and its corresponding ")" earlier in the same RE. Many flavours use \(RE\) instead of just (RE). The concatenation of REs is a RE that matches the concatenation of the strings matched by each RE. RE1 | RE2 matches whatever RE1 or RE2 matches. \" matches the beginning of a word and \" matches the end of a word. Many flavours use "\b" instead as the special character for "word boundary". RE\{M\} matches M occurences of RE. RE\{M,\} matches M or more occurences of RE. RE\{M,N\} matches between M and N occurences. Other flavours use RE\\{M\\} etc. Perl provides several "quote-like" {operators} for writing REs, including the common // form and less common {??}. A comprehensive survey of regexp flavours is found in Friedl 1997 (see below). [Jeffrey E.F. Friedl, "{Mastering Regular Expressions (http://enterprise.ic.gc.ca/~jfriedl/regex/index.html)}, O'Reilly, 1997]. 2. Any description of a {pattern} composed from combinations of {symbols} and the three {operators}: Concatenation - pattern A concatenated with B matches a match for A followed by a match for B. Or - pattern A-or-B matches either a match for A or a match for B. Closure - zero or more matches for a pattern. The earliest form of regular expressions (and the term itself) were invented by mathematician {Stephen Cole Kleene} in the mid-1950s, as a notation to easily manipulate "regular sets", formal descriptions of the behaviour of {finite state machines}, in {regular algebra}. [S.C. Kleene, "Representation of events in nerve nets and finite automata", 1956, Automata Studies. Princeton]. [J.H. Conway, "Regular algebra and finite machines", 1971, Eds Chapman & Hall]. [Sedgewick, "Algorithms in C", page 294]. (2015-04-30)
remote echo "communications" (Obsolete: "full-duplex") A mode of operation of communicating programs or devices in which the sending system does not display the characters the user enters, but only sends them to the remote system which then "echoes" them back to be displayed to the user. This lets the operator see not only typing errors, but also transmission errors. This is now the usual mode of most systems with remote users. Contrast: {local echo}. (2000-03-30)
Renaissance: (Lat. re + nasci, to be born) Is a term used by historians to characterize various periods of intellectual revival, and especially that which took place in Italy and Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The term was coined by Michelet and developed into a historical concept by J. Burckhardt (1860) who considered individualism, the revival of classical antiquity, the "discovery" of the world and of man as the main characters of that period as opposed to the Middle Ages. The meaning, the temporal limits, and even the usefulness of the concept have been disputed ever since. For the emphasis placed by various historians on the different fields of culture and on the contribution of different countries must lead to different interpretations of the whole period, and attempts to express a complicated historical phenomenon in a simple, abstract definition are apt to fail. Historians are now inclined to admit a very considerable continuity between the "Renaissance" and the Middle Ages. Yet a sweeping rejection of the whole concept is excluded, for it expresses the view of the writers of the period itself, who considered their century a revival of ancient civilization after a penod of decay. While Burckhardt had paid no attention to philosophy, others began to speak of a "philosophy of the renaissance," regarding thought of those centuries not as an accidental accompaniment of renaissance culture, but as its characteristic philosophical manifestation. As yet this view has served as a fruitful guiding principle rather than as a verified hypothesis. Renaissance thought can be defined in a negative way as the period of transition from the medieval, theological to the modern, scientific interpretation of reality. It also displays a few common features, such as an emphasis on man and on his place in the universe, the rejection of certain medieval standards and methods of science, the increased influence of some newly discovered ancient sources, and a new style and literary form in the presentation of philosophical ideas. More obvious are the differences between the various schools and traditions which cannot easily be brought to a common denominator Humimsm, Platonism, Aristotelianism, scepticism and natural philosophy, to which may be added the group of the founders of modern science (Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo). -- P.O.K.
representative ::: a. --> Fitted to represent; exhibiting a similitude.
Bearing the character or power of another; acting for another or others; as, a council representative of the people.
Conducted by persons chosen to represent, or act as deputies for, the people; as, a representative government.
Serving or fitted to present the full characters of the type of a group; typical; as, a representative genus in a family.
Similar in general appearance, structure, and
retrocomputing /ret'-roh-k*m-pyoo'ting/ Refers to emulations of way-behind-the-state-of-the-art hardware or software, or implementations of never-was-state-of-the-art; especially if such implementations are elaborate practical jokes and/or parodies, written mostly for {hack value}, of more "serious" designs. Perhaps the most widely distributed retrocomputing utility was the "pnch(6)" or "bcd(6)" program on V7 and other early Unix versions, which would accept up to 80 characters of text argument and display the corresponding pattern in {punched card} code. Other well-known retrocomputing hacks have included the programming language {INTERCAL}, a {JCL}-emulating shell for Unix, the card-punch-emulating editor named 029, and various elaborate {PDP-11} hardware emulators and RT-11 OS emulators written just to keep an old, sourceless {Zork} binary running. [{Jargon File}]
Revelation: The communication to man of the Divine Will. This communication has taken, in the history of religions, almost every conceivable form, e.g., the results of lot casting, oracular declarations, dreams, visions, ecstatic experiences (induced by whatever means, such as intoxicants), books, prophets, unusual characters, revered traditional practices, storms, pestilence, etc. The general conception of revelation has been that the divine communication comes in ways unusual, by means not open to the ordinary channels of investigation.
Revelation: The communication to man of the Divine Will. This communication has taken, in the history of religions, almost every conceivable form, e.g., the results of lot casting, oracular declarations, dreams, visions, ecstatic experiences (induced by whatever means, such as intoxicants), books, prophets, unusual characters, revered traditional practices, storms, pestilence, etc. The general conception of revelation has been that the divine communication comes in ways unusual, by means not open to the ordinary channels of investigation. This, however, is not a necessary corollary, revelation of the Divine Will may well come through ordinary channels, the give-and-take of everyday experience, through reason and reflection and intuitive insight. -- V.F.
rhynchocephala ::: n. pl. --> An order of reptiles having biconcave vertebrae, immovable quadrate bones, and many other peculiar osteological characters. Hatteria is the only living genus, but numerous fossil genera are known, some of which are among the earliest of reptiles. See Hatteria. Called also Rhynchocephalia.
roman ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Rome, or the Roman people; like or characteristic of Rome, the Roman people, or things done by Romans; as, Roman fortitude; a Roman aqueduct; Roman art.
Of or pertaining to the Roman Catholic religion; professing that religion.
Upright; erect; -- said of the letters or kind of type ordinarily used, as distinguished from Italic characters.
Expressed in letters, not in figures, as I., IV., i., iv.,
ronde ::: n. --> A kind of script in which the heavy strokes are nearly upright, giving the characters when taken together a round look.
runes 1. Anything that requires {heavy wizardry} or {black art} to {parse}: core dumps, {JCL} commands, {APL} or code in a language you haven't a clue how to read. Not quite as bad as {line noise}, but close. Compare {casting the runes}, {Great Runes}. 2. Special display characters (for example, the high-half graphics on an {IBM PC}). [{Jargon File}]
run-length encoding A kind of {compression} {algorithm} which replaces sequences ("runs") of consecutive repeated characters (or other units of data) with a single character and the length of the run. This can either be applied to all input characters, including runs of length one, or a special character can be used to introduce a run-length encoded group. The longer and more frequent the runs are, the greater the compression that will be achieved. This technique is particularly useful for encoding black and white {images} where the data units would be single bit {pixels}. (1994-10-27)
Satan [from Hebrew śāṭān adversary, opposer from the verbal root śāṭan to lie in wait, oppose, be an adversary; or possibly from the verbal root shut to whip, scourge, run hither and thither on errands; Greek satan, satanas] Adversary; with the definite article (has-satan) the adversary in the Christian sense, as the Devil. This Satan of the exoteric Jewish and Christian books is a mere figment of the monkish theological imagination. From the second possible derivation many eminent Shemitic scholars have held that the Satan of the Book of Job was a good angel arranged by God to try the characters of men in order to help them; and therefore supposedly to be different from the Satan of other books of the Bible. The theosophist would not limit the good angel to the Book of Job alone, but would look upon the adversative or contrary forces of nature as being the means upon which each one tries his will, resolution, and determination to evolve and grow spiritually and intellectually. The Satan of this hypothesis is in a sense our own lower character combined with the lower forces of nature surrounding earth and elsewhere.
scalar 1. "mathematics" A single number, as opposed to a {vector} or {matrix} of numbers. Thus, for example, "scalar multiplication" refers to the operation of multiplying one number (one scalar) by another and is used to contrast this with "matrix multiplication" etc. 2. "architecture" In a {parallel processor} or {vector processor}, the "scalar processor" handles all the sequential operations - those which cannot be parallelised or vectorised. See also {superscalar}. 3. "programming" Any data type that stores a single value (e.g. a number or {Boolean}), as opposed to an {aggregate} data type that has many elements. A {string} is regarded as a scalar in some languages (e.g. {Perl}) and a vector of {characters} in others (e.g. {C}). (2002-06-12)
screaming tty [Unix] A terminal line which spews an infinite number of random characters at the operating system. This can happen if the terminal is either disconnected or connected to a powered-off terminal but still enabled for login; misconfiguration, misimplementation, or simple bad luck can start such a terminal screaming. A screaming tty or two can seriously degrade the performance of a vanilla Unix system; the arriving "characters" are treated as userid/password pairs and tested as such. The Unix password encryption algorithm is designed to be computationally intensive in order to foil brute-force crack attacks, so although none of the logins succeeds; the overhead of rejecting them all can be substantial. [{Jargon File}]
script ::: 1. A kind of writing, a system of alphabetical or other written characters. 2. Handwriting, esp. cursive writing, the characters used in hand-writing (as distinguished from print). 3. A manuscript or document. 4. A manuscript or written text of a play, motion picture, etc. scripts.
script ::: n. --> A writing; a written document.
Type made in imitation of handwriting.
An original instrument or document.
Written characters; style of writing.
scripture ::: 1. Any writing or book, esp. when of a sacred or religious nature. 2. Written characters.
sequence A collection of related things in a specific order. In mathematics, numbers are represented as sequences of {digits} e.g. {bits}, {decimal digits}, {hexadecimal} digits, etc. There are also sequences of numbers where each number is related to previous numbers, e.g. the {Fibonacci sequence}. In computing the sequence of {instructions} that a computer follows when executing a {program} is called {control flow}; a sequence of {characters} is also known as a "(character) string" (e.g. an {escape sequence}); a sequence of {images} forms a {video}; a sound recording is an example of a sequence of {samples} of an {analogue signal}. In {probability theory}, a sequence of events can be described by a {Markov chain}. (2015-09-01)
Seven-Segment Display "electronics" (SSD) A kind of display element consisting of seven independently controllable lines arranged as a rectangular figure eight. A seven-segment display is the simplest device that can display any of the digits zero to nine (and some other characters) by lighting different combinations of lines. They are often seen in electronic calculators or measuring equipment. (2013-04-27)
shorthand ::: n. --> A compendious and rapid method or writing by substituting characters, abbreviations, or symbols, for letters, words, etc.; short writing; stenography. See Illust. under Phonography.
Short Message Service "messaging" (SMS) A message service offered by the {GSM} digital {mobile telephone} system. Using SMS, a short alphanumeric message (160 alphanumeric characters) can be sent to a mobile phone to be displayed there, much like in an {alphanumeric pager} system. The message is buffered by the GSM network until the phone becomes active. (1996-02-18)
Shub-Internet /shuhb in't*r-net/ (MUD, from H. P. Lovecraft's evil fictional deity "Shub-Niggurath", the Black Goat with a Thousand Young) The harsh personification of the {Internet}, Beast of a Thousand Processes, Eater of Characters, Avatar of Line Noise, and Imp of Call Waiting; the hideous multi-tendriled entity formed of all the manifold connections of the net. A sect of {MUD}ders worships Shub-Internet, sacrificing objects and praying for good connections. To no avail - its purpose is malign and evil, and is the cause of all network slowdown. Often heard as in "Freela casts a tac nuke at Shub-Internet for slowing her down." (A forged response often follows along the lines of: "Shub-Internet gulps down the tac nuke and burps happily.") Also cursed by users of {FTP} and {telnet} when the system slows down. The dread name of Shub-Internet is seldom spoken aloud, as it is said that repeating it three times will cause the being to wake, deep within its lair beneath the Pentagon. [{Jargon File}] (1994-11-04)
sigla ::: n. pl. --> The signs, abbreviations, letters, or characters standing for words, shorthand, etc., in ancient manuscripts, or on coins, medals, etc.
signature ::: v. t. --> A sign, stamp, or mark impressed, as by a seal.
Especially, the name of any person, written with his own hand, employed to signify that the writing which precedes accords with his wishes or intentions; a sign manual; an autograph.
An outward mark by which internal characteristics were supposed to be indicated.
A resemblance between the external characters of a disease and those of some physical agent, for instance, that existing
&
smurf "jargon" /smerf/ (From the {news:soc.motss} {Usenet} newsgroup, after some obnoxiously gooey cartoon characters) A newsgroup regular with a habitual style that is irreverent, silly, and cute. Like many other hackish terms for people, this one may be praise or insult depending on who uses it. In general, being referred to as a smurf is probably not going to make your day unless you've previously adopted the label yourself in a spirit of irony. Compare {old fart}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-10-25)
software handshaking "communications" The transmission of extra data on a channel in order to control the device sending data in the other direction on that channel. For an {EIA-232} connection, this means sending {Control-S} and {Control-Q} characters to stop and start transmission. Since software handshaking requires the transmission and processing of extra data it can be less efficient than {hardware handshaking}. (1996-10-16)
soundex "algorithm, text" An {algorithm} for encoding a word so that similar sounding words encode the same. The first letter is copied unchanged then subsequent letters are encoded as follows: bfpv -" "1" cgjkqsxz -" "2" dt -" "3" l -" "4" mn -" "5" r -" "6" Other characters are ignored and repeated characters are encoded as though they were a single character. Encoding stops when the resulting string is four characters long, adding trailing "0"s if it is shorter. For example, "SMITH" or "SMYTHE" would both be encoded as "S530". (1995-01-05)
space-cadet keyboard "hardware, history" A now-legendary device used on {MIT} {Lisp} machines, which inspired several still-current jargon terms and influenced the design of {Emacs}. It was equipped with no fewer than *seven* shift keys: four keys for {bucky bits} ("control", "meta", "hyper", and "super") and three like regular shift keys, called "shift", "top", and "front". Many keys had three symbols on them: a letter and a symbol on the top, and a Greek letter on the front. For example, the "L" key had an "L" and a two-way arrow on the top, and the Greek letter lambda on the front. By pressing this key with the right hand while playing an appropriate "chord" with the left hand on the shift keys, you could get the following results: L lowercase l shift-L uppercase L front-L lowercase lambda front-shift-L uppercase lambda top-L two-way arrow (front and shift are ignored) And of course each of these might also be typed with any combination of the control, meta, hyper, and super keys. On this keyboard, you could type over 8000 different characters! This allowed the user to type very complicated mathematical text, and also to have thousands of single-character commands at his disposal. Many hackers were actually willing to memorise the command meanings of that many characters if it reduced typing time (this attitude obviously shaped the interface of {Emacs}). Other hackers, however, thought that many {bucky bits} was overkill, and objected that such a keyboard can require three or four hands to operate. See {cokebottle}, {double bucky}, {meta bit}, {quadruple bucky}. Note: early versions of this entry incorrectly identified the space-cadet keyboard with the "Knight keyboard". Though both were designed by Tom Knight, the latter term was properly applied only to a keyboard used for {ITS} on the {PDP-10} and modelled on the Stanford keyboard (as described under {bucky bits}). The true space-cadet keyboard evolved from the Knight keyboard. [{Jargon File}] (1994-12-05)
special-case To write unique code to handle input to or situations arising in a program that are somehow distinguished from normal processing. This would be used for processing of mode switches or interrupt characters in an interactive interface (as opposed, say, to text entry or normal commands), or for processing of {hidden flags} in the input of a batch program or {filter}. [{Jargon File}]
sphenography ::: n. --> The art of writing in cuneiform characters, or of deciphering inscriptions made in such characters.
Spirit (in reference to Matter) ::: The theosophist points out that what men call spirit is the summit or acme or root or seed or beginning ornoumenon -- call it by any name -- of any particular hierarchy existing in the innumerable hosts of thekosmic hierarchies, with all of which any such hierarchy is inextricably interblended and interworking.When theosophists speak of spirit and substance, of which matter and energy or force are thephysicalized expressions, we must remember that all these terms are abstractions, generalizedexpressions for certain entities manifesting aggregatively.Spirit, for instance, is not essentially different from matter, and is only relatively so different, orevolutionally so different: the difference not lying in the roots of these two where they become one in theunderlying consciousness-reality, but in their characters they are two evolutional forms of manifestationof that underlying reality. In other words, to use the terminology of modern scientific philosophy, spiritand matter are, each of them, respectively an "event" as the underlying reality passes through eternalduration.
spreadsheet "application, tool" (Or rarely "worksheet") A type of {application program} which manipulates numerical and string data in rows and columns of cells. The value in a cell can be calculated from a formula which can involve other cells. A value is recalculated automatically whenever a value on which it depends changes. Different cells may be displayed with different formats. Some spreadsheet support three-dimensional matrices and cyclic references which lead to iterative calculation. An essential feature of a spreadsheet is the copy function (often using {drag-and-drop}). A rectangular area may be copied to another which is a multiple of its size. References between cells may be either absolute or relative in either their horizontal or vertical index. All copies of an absolute reference will refer to the same row, column or cell whereas a relative reference refers to a cell with a given offset from the current cell. Many spreadsheets have a "What-if" feature. The user gives desired end conditions and assigns several input cells to be automatically varied. An area of the spreadsheet is assigned to show the result of various combinations of input values. Spreadsheets usually incorporate a {macro language}, which enables third-party writing of worksheet applications for commercial purposes. In the 1970s, a {screen editor} based calculation program called {Visi-Calc} was introduced. It was probably the first commercial spreadsheet program. Soon {Lotus Development Corporation} released the more sophisticated {Lotus 1-2-3}. Clones appeared, (for example {VP-Planner} from {Paperback Software} with {CGA} graphics, {Quattro} from {Borland}) but Lotus maintained its position with world-wide marketing and support - and lawyers! For example, Borland was forced to abandon its Lotus-like {pop-up menu}. While still developing 1-2-3, Lotus introduced {Symphony}, which had simultaneously active windows for the spreadsheet, graphs and a {word processor}. {Microsoft} produced {MultiPlan} for the {Macintosh}, which was followed by {Excel} for Macintosh, long before {Microsoft Windows} was developed. When {Microsoft Windows} arrived Lotus was still producing the {text-based} 1-2-3 and Symphony. Meanwhile, {Microsoft} launched its {Excel} spreadsheet with interactive graphics, graphic charcters, mouse support and {cut-and-paste} to and from other Windows applications. To compete with Windows spreadsheets, Lotus launched its {Allways} add-on for 1-2-3 - a post-processor that produced Windows-quality graphic characters on screen and printer. The release of Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows was late, slow and buggy. Today, Microsoft, Lotus, Borland and many other companies offer Windows-based spreadsheet programs. The main end-users of spreadsheets are business and science. Spreadsheets are an example of a non-algorithmic programming language. [Dates?] (1995-03-28)
stageplayer ::: n. --> An actor on the stage; one whose occupation is to represent characters on the stage; as, Garrick was a celebrated stageplayer.
stalactitical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to a stalactite; having the form or characters of a stalactite; stalactic.
Standard Generalized Markup Language "language, text" (SGML) A generic {markup} language for representing documents. SGML is an International Standard that describes the relationship between a document's content and its structure. SGML allows document-based information to be shared and re-used across applications and computer {platforms} in an open, vendor-neutral format. SGML is sometimes compared to {SQL}, in that it enables companies to structure information in documents in an open fashion, so that it can be accessed or re-used by any SGML-aware application across multiple platforms. SGML is defined in "ISO 8879:1986 Information processing -- Text and office systems -- Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)", an {ISO} standard produced by {JTC} 1/SC 18 and amended by "Amendment 1:1988". Unlike other common document file formats that represent both content and presentation, SGML represents a document's content {data} and structure (interrelationships among the data). Removing the presentation from content establishes a neutral format. SGML documents and the information in them can easily be re-used by publishing and non-publishing {applications}. SGML identifies document elements such as titles, paragraphs, tables, and chapters as distinct objects, allowing users to define the relationships between the objects for structuring data in documents. The relationships between document elements are defined in a {Document Type Definition} (DTD). This is roughly analogous to a collection of {field} definitions in a {database}. Once a document is converted into SGML and the information has been 'tagged', it becomes a database-like document. It can be searched, printed or even programmatically manipulated by SGML-aware applications. Companies are moving their documents into SGML for several reasons: Reuse - separation of content from presentation facilitates multiple delivery formats like {CD-ROM} and {electronic publishing}. Portability - SGML is an international, platform-independent, standard based on {ASCII} text, so companies can safely store their documents in SGML without being tied to any one vendor. Interchange - SGML is a core data standard that enables SGML-aware applications to inter-operate and share data seamlessly. A central SGML document store can feed multiple processes in a company, so managing and updating information is greatly simplified. For example, when an aeroplane is delivered to a customer, it comes with thousands of pages of documentation. Distributing these on paper is expensive, so companies are investigating publishing on CD-ROM. If a maintenance person needs a guide for adjusting a plane's flight surfaces, a viewing tool automatically assembles the relevant information from the document {repository} as a complete document. SGML can be used to define attributes to information stored in documents such as security levels. There are few clear leaders in the SGML industry which, in 1993, was estimated to be worth US $520 million and is projected to grow to over US $1.46 billion by 1998. A wide variety tools can be used to create SGML systems. The SGML industry can be separated into the following categories: Mainstream Authoring consists of the key {word processing} vendors like {Lotus}, {WordPerfect} and {Microsoft}. SGML Editing and Publishing includes traditional SGML authoring tools like {ArborText}, {Interleaf}, {FrameBuilder} and {SoftQuad Author}/Editor. SGML Conversions is one of the largest sectors in the market today because many companies are converting legacy data from mainframes, or documents created with mainstream word processors, into SGML. Electronic Delivery is widely regarded as the most compelling reason companies are moving to SGML. Electronic delivery enables users to retrieve information on-line using an intelligent document viewer. Document Management may one day drive a major part of the overall SGML industry. SGML Document Repositories is one of the cornerstone technologies that will affect the progress of SGML as a data standard. Since 1998, almost all development in SGML has been focussed on {XML} - a simple (and therefore easier to understand and implement) subset of SGML. {"ISO 8879:1986//ENTITIES Added Latin 1//EN" (http://ucc.ie/info/net/isolat1.html)} defines some characters. [How are these related to {ISO 8859}-1?]. {ISO catalogue entry (http://iso.ch/cate/d16387.html)}. SGML parsers are available from {VU, NL (ftp://star.cs.vu.nl/Sgml)}, {FSU (ftp://mailer.cc.fsu.edu/pub/sgml)}, {UIO, Norway (ftp://ifi.uio.no/pub/SGML/SGMLS)}. See also {sgmls}. {Usenet} newsgroup: {news:comp.text.sgml}. ["The SGML Handbook", Charles F. Goldfarb, Clarendon Press, 1991, ISBN 0198537379. (Full text of the ISO standard plus extensive commentary and cross-referencing. Somewhat cheaper than the ISO document)]. ["SGML - The User's Guide to ISO 8879", J.M. Smith et al, Ellis Harwood, 1988]. [Example of some SGML?] (2000-05-31)
statistical time division multiplexing "communications" (STDM, StatMUX) A system developed to overcome some inefficiencies of standard {time division multiplexing}, where {time slices} are still allocated to channels, even if they have no information to transmit. STDM uses a variable time slot length and by allowing channels to vie for any free slot space. It employs a buffer memory which temporarily stores the data during periods of peak traffic. This scheme allows STDM to waste no high-speed line time with inactive channels. STDM requires each transmission to carry identification information (i.e. a channel identifier). To reduce the cost of this overhead, a number of characters for each channel are grouped together for transmission. ["Data Communications, Computer Networks and Open Systems", Halsall & Fred, Addison Wesley, p160-161, 1995]. ["Digital, Analog, and Data Communication", Sinnema & McGovern, Prentice Hall, p245, 1986]. (1997-03-05)
steganography ::: n. --> The art of writing in cipher, or in characters which are not intelligible except to persons who have the key; cryptography.
stelography ::: n. --> The art of writing or inscribing characters on pillars.
stenograph ::: v. t. --> To write or report in stenographic characters. ::: n. --> A production of stenography; anything written in shorthand.
stenography ::: n. --> The art of writing in shorthand, by using abbreviations or characters for whole words; shorthand.
stop bit In serial communications, where each bit of the message is transmitted in sequence, stop bits are extra "1" bits which follow the data and any {parity} bit. They mark the end of a unit of transmission (normally a byte or character). For example, characters on an {EIA-232} {serial line} may have one or two stop bits added. Some {UARTs} even allow for 1.5 stop bits but one is probably the most commonly used. A serial connection may be described as, for example, "8N1" which means eight data bits, no {parity} and one stop bit. (1995-01-24)
stream 1. "communications" An {abstraction} referring to any flow of data from a source (or sender, producer) to a single sink (or receiver, consumer). A stream usually flows through a channel of some kind, as opposed to {packets} which may be addressed and routed independently, possibly to multiple recipients. Streams usually require some mechanism for establishing a channel or a "{connection}" between the sender and receiver. 2. "programming" In the {C} language's buffered input/ouput library functions, a stream is associated with a file or device which has been opened using {fopen}. Characters may be read from (written to) a stream without knowing their actual source (destination) and buffering is provided transparently by the library routines. 3. "operating system" Confusingly, {Sun} have called their modular {device driver} mechanism "{STREAMS}". 4. "operating system" In {IBM}'s {AIX} {operating system}, a stream is a {full-duplex} processing and data transfer path between a driver in {kernel space} and a process in {user space}. [IBM AIX 3.2 Communication Programming Concepts, SC23-2206-03]. 5. "communications" {streaming}. 6. "programming" {lazy list}. (1996-11-06)
string "programming" (Or "character string") A sequence of {characters}. Most {programming languages} consider characters and strings (e.g. "124:shabooya:\n", "hello world") to be distinct from numbers, which are typically stored in fixed-length {binary} or {floating-point} representation. A {bit string} is a sequence of {bits}. (2015-11-29)
Suka (Sanskrit) Śuka The bright one; applied to several Hindu mythological characters. In Buddhist literature, a Brahmin ascetic said to have been a maharshi, who became a jivanmukta.
"Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Supermind ::: The Supermind [Supramental consciousness] is in its very essence a truth-consciousness, a consciousness always free from the Ignorance which is the foundation of our present natural or evolutionary existence and from which nature in us is trying to arrive at self-knowledge and world-knowledge and a right consciousness and the right use of our existence in the universe. The Supermind, because it is a truth-consciousness, has this knowledge inherent in it and this power of true existence; its course is straight and can go direct to its aim, its field is wide and can even be made illimitable. This is because its very nature is knowledge: it has not to acquire knowledge but possesses it in its own right; its steps are not from nescience or ignorance into some imperfect light, but from truth to greater truth, from right perception to deeper perception, from intuition to intuition, from illumination to utter and boundless luminousness, from growing widenesses to the utter vasts and to very infinitude. On its summits it possesses the divine omniscience and omnipotence, but even in an evolutionary movement of its own graded self-manifestation by which it would eventually reveal its own highest heights, it must be in its very nature essentially free from ignorance and error: it starts from truth and light and moves always in truth and light. As its knowledge is always true, so too its will is always true; it does not fumble in its handling of things or stumble in its paces. In the Supermind feeling and emotion do not depart from their truth, make no slips or mistakes, do not swerve from the right and the real, cannot misuse beauty and delight or twist away from a divine rectitude. In the Supermind sense cannot mislead or deviate into the grossnesses which are here its natural imperfections and the cause of reproach, distrust and misuse by our ignorance. Even an incomplete statement made by the Supermind is a truth leading to a further truth, its incomplete action a step towards completeness. All the life and action and leading of the Supermind is guarded in its very nature from the falsehoods and uncertainties that are our lot; it moves in safety towards its perfection. Once the truth-consciousness was established here on its own sure foundation, the evolution of divine life would be a progress in felicity, a march through light to Ananda. Supermind is an eternal reality of the divine Being and the divine Nature. In its own plane it already and always exists and possesses its own essential law of being; it has not to be created or to emerge or evolve into existence out of involution in Matter or out of non-existence, as it might seem to the view of mind which itself seems to its own view to have so emerged from life and Matter or to have evolved out of an involution in life and Matter. The nature of Supermind is always the same, a being of knowledge, proceeding from truth to truth, creating or rather manifesting what has to be manifested by the power of a pre-existent knowledge, not by hazard but by a self-existent destiny in the being itself, a necessity of the thing in itself and th
refore inevitable. Its -manifestation of the divine life will also be inevitable; its own life on its own plane is divine and, if Supermind descends upon the earth, it will bring necessarily the divine life with it and establish it here. Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life. It is indeed so that life and mind involved in Matter have realised themselves here; for only what is involved can evolve, otherwise there could be no emergence. The manifestation of a supramental truth-consciousness is th
refore the capital reality that will make the divine life possible. It is when all the movements of thought, impulse and action are governed and directed by a self-existent and luminously automatic truth-consciousness and our whole nature comes to be constituted by it and made of its stuff that the life divine will be complete and absolute. Even as it is, in reality though not in the appearance of things, it is a secret self-existent knowledge and truth that is working to manifest itself in the creation here. The Divine is already there immanent within us, ourselves are that in our inmost reality and it is this reality that we have to manifest; it is that which constitutes the urge towards the divine living and makes necessary the creation of the life divine even in this material existence. A manifestation of the Supermind and its truth-consciousness is then inevitable; it must happen in this world sooner or later. But it has two aspects, a descent from above, an ascent from below, a self-revelation of the Spirit, an evolution in Nature. The ascent is necessarily an effort, a working of Nature, an urge or nisus on her side to raise her lower parts by an evolutionary or revolutionary change, conversion or transformation into the divine reality and it may happen by a process and progress or by a rapid miracle. The descent or self-revelation of the Spirit is an act of the supreme Reality from above which makes the realisation possible and it can appear either as the divine aid which brings about the fulfilment of the progress and process or as the sanction of the miracle. Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here. Even in the effort and progress from the Ignorance to Knowledge this must be in part if not wholly the endeavour to be made on the heights of the nature, and it must be wholly that in the final movement towards the spiritual change, realisation, transformation. It must be still more so when there is a transition across the dividing line between the Ignorance and the Knowledge and the evolution is from knowledge to greater knowledge, from consciousness to greater consciousness, from being to greater being. There is then no longer any necessity for the slow pace of the ordinary evolution; there can be rapid conversion, quick transformation after transformation, what would seem to our normal present mind a succession of miracles. An evolution on the supramental levels could well be of that nature; it could be equally, if the being so chose, a more leisurely passage of one supramental state or condition of things to something beyond but still supramental, from level to divine level, a building up of divine gradations, a free growth to the supreme Supermind or beyond it to yet undreamed levels of being, consciousness and Ananda.
Ref: CWSA Vol. 13, Page: 558-62
Supplementary Ideographic Plane "text, standard" (SIP) The third plane (plane 2) defined in {Unicode}/{ISO 10646}, designed to hold all the {ideographs} descended from Chinese writing (mainly found in Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese and Chinese) that aren't found in the {Basic Multilingual Plane}. The BMP was supposed to hold all ideographs in modern use; unfortunately, many Chinese dialects (like Cantonese and Hong Kong Chinese) were overlooked; to write these, characters from the SIP are necessary. This is one reason even non-academic software must support characters outside the BMP. {Unicode home (http://unicode.org)}. (2002-06-19)
Tao Teh Ching or Tao Te King (Chinese) [from tao path, way + te virtue + ching book] The canon of tao and virtue, or the Book of Taoistic virtue; the principal work on tao, attributed to Lao Tzu, consisting of 81 short chapters written in a terse, pithy style which makes its translation and explanation most difficult. When Lao Tsu was departing through the pass, it is said that at the request of its keeper, Yin Hsi (a famous Taoist), he wrote a book in regard to his ideas on tao and te running to somewhat over five thousand characters. Its teaching is principally imparted by means of paradoxes, the object being that by startling the mind one may perceive truth without ratiocinations.
TCVN 5773 "human language, standard" A 1993 {Vietnamese} character {standard} that includes {Han} characters. (2001-01-02)
TCVN 6056 "human language, standard" A 1995 {Vietnamese} character {standard} that includes {Han} characters. (2001-01-02)
TECO "editor, text" /tee'koh/ (Originally an acronym for "[paper] Tape Editor and COrrector"; later, "Text Editor and COrrector"]) A {text editor} developed at {MIT} and modified by just about everybody. With all the dialects included, TECO may have been the most prolific editor in use before {Emacs}, to which it was directly ancestral. The first {Emacs} editor was written in TECO. It was noted for its powerful programming-language-like features and its unspeakably {hairy} {syntax} (see {write-only language}). TECO programs are said to resemble {line noise}. Every string of characters is a valid TECO program (though probably not a useful one); one common game used to be predict what the TECO commands corresponding to human names did. As an example of TECO's obscurity, here is a TECO program that takes a list of names such as: Loser, J. Random Quux, The Great Dick, Moby sorts them alphabetically according to surname, and then puts the surname last, removing the comma, to produce the following: Moby Dick J. Random Loser The Great Quux The program is [1 J^P$L$$ J ".-Z; .,(S,$ -D .)FX1 @F^B $K :L I $ G1 L"$$ (where ^B means "Control-B" (ASCII 0000010) and $ is actually an {alt} or escape (ASCII 0011011) character). In fact, this very program was used to produce the second, sorted list from the first list. The first hack at it had a {bug}: GLS (the author) had accidentally omitted the "@" in front of "F^B", which as anyone can see is clearly the {Wrong Thing}. It worked fine the second time. There is no space to describe all the features of TECO, but "^P" means "sort" and "J".-Z; ... L"" is an idiomatic series of commands for "do once for every line". By 1991, {Emacs} had replaced TECO in hacker's affections but descendants of an early (and somewhat lobotomised) version adopted by {DEC} can still be found lurking on {VMS} and a couple of {crufty} {PDP-11} {operating systems}, and ports of the more advanced MIT versions remain the focus of some antiquarian interest. See also {retrocomputing}. {(ftp://usc.edu/)} for {VAX}/{VMS}, {Unix}, {MS-DOS}, {Macintosh}, {Amiga}. [Authro? Home page?] (2001-03-26)
terpri /ter'pree/ TERminate PRInt line. [{LISP 1.5} and later, {MacLISP}] To output a {newline}. Still used in {Common LISP}. On some early {operating systems} and hardware, no characters would be printed until a complete line was formed, so this operation terminated the line and emitted the output. [{Jargon File}] (1996-06-24)
Tetragrammaton [from Greek tetra four + gramma letter] Used by Qabbalists to designate the four Hebrew characters Hebrew characters — variously rendered in Roman letters YHVH, IHVH, JHVH, etc. — forming the word Jehovah (Yehovah). Present-day scholars regard this rendition of the four letters as erroneous, and some suggest that the proper reading should be Yahveh or Yahweh — depending on another manner of applying the vowel-points to the consonants. The Jews themselves, however, never pronounced the name when reading their sacred scriptures, but utter ’Adonai (the Lord) in its place. Nevertheless, the Qabbalists (more particularly medieval and modern authors) have attached special importance and significance to this four-lettered word, particularly to the Hebrew equivalent for Tetragrammaton, Shem-ham-Mephorash, sometimes called the mirific name.
text-based "jargon" Working under a non-window-based {operating system} (e.g. {MS-DOS}) as opposed to a {graphical user interface} (e.g. {Microsoft Windows}). An MS-DOS text-based program uses a screen with a fixed array of 80x25 or 80x40 characters. Examples are {WordPerfect} before version 5.1 and {Microsoft Word}. (1995-03-16)
text file "file format" A {file} containing no "invisible" {control characters}, only {printable} letters, numbers and symbols, usually from the {ASCII} {character set}. A text file can be produced with a {text editor} and can usually be imported into any {word processor} though it will probably appear unformatted. Compare {binary file}, {flat file}, {rich text file}. (1996-11-15)
The capital roman letters here denote arbitrary formulas of the propositional calculus (in the technical sense defined below) and the arrow is to be read "stands for" or "is an abbreviation for." Suppose that we have given some specific list of propositional symbols, which may be infinite in number, and to which we shall refer as the fundamental propositional symbols. These are not necessarily single letters or characters, but may be expressions taken from any language or system of notation; they may denote particular propositions, or they may contain variables and denote ambiguously any proposition of a certain form or class. Certain restrictions are also necessary upon the way in which the fundamental propositional symbols can contain square brackets [ ]; for the present purpose it will suffice to suppose that they do not contain square brackets at all, although they may contain parentheses or other kinds of brackets. We call formulas of the propositional calculus (relative to the given list of fundamental propositional symbols) all the expressions determined by the four following rules: all the fundamental propositional symbols are formulas if A is a formula, ∼[A] is a formula; if A and B are formulas [A][B] is a formula; if A and B are formulas [A] ∨ [B] is a formula. The formulas of the propositional calculus as thus defined will in general contain more brackets than are necessary for clarity or freedom from ambiguity; in practice we omit superfluous brackets and regard the shortened expressions as abbreviations for the full formulas. It will be noted also that, if A and B are formulas, we regard [A] | [B], [A] ⊃ [B], [A] ≡ [B], and [A] + [B], not as formulas, but as abbreviations for certain formulas in accordance with the above given definitions.
the cast of characters as one of 4 angels. Note: It is
The Devanagari characters as first used among initiates and privileged men were symbolic and ideographic in form. But these outlines by use gradually lost their mere picture-form, or idea-suggesting power, and through constant use and rapid writing continuously lost more and more of the details of the picture, until they finally became merely conventional signs or letters of the alphabet. The word devanagari is synonymous with the Hermetic and Hieratic Neter-Khari (divine speech) of the Egyptians.
The dual of a formula is obtained by interchanging conjunction and (inclusive) disjunction throughout and at the same time interchanging universal quantification and existential quantification throughout. (In doing this the different symbols, e.g., functional constants, although they may consist of several characters in succession rather than a single character, shall be treated as units, and no change shall be made inside a symbol. A similar remark, applies at all places where we speak of occurrences of a particular symbol or sequence of symbols in a formula, and the like.) It can be shown that the following principles of duality hold (where A* and B* denote the duals of. the formulas A and B respectively): if A is a theorem, then ∼A* is a theorem; if A ⊃ B is a theorem, then B* ⊃ A* is a theorem; if A ≡ B is a theorem, then A* ≡ B* is a theorem. A formula is said to be in prenex normal form if all the quantifiers which it contains stand together at the beginning, unseparated by negations (or other sentential connectives), and the scope of each quantifier (i.e., the extent of the bracket [ ] following the quantifier) is to the end of the entire formula. In the case of a formula in prenex normal form, the succession of quantifiers at the beginning is called the prefix; the remaining portion contains no quantifiers and is the matrix of the formula. It can be proved that for every formula A there is a formula B in prenex normal form such that A ≡ B is a theorem; and B is then called a prenex normal form of A.
The idea in this curious mixing of alphabetic characters and numbers with living beings, such as the world or man, is that just as alphabetic characters are the structure of vocal speech, words, sounds, and therefore of the communication of intelligence made by words built of the alphabetic characters, so these characters symbolically stand for the elements of the universe: in either case in, above, and around the elements and principles of the universe there is the divine hierarchy, of which the element-principles are the outward manifestations or expressions.
The kama-rupic shades, whether mere shells or not, are usually invisible but they are sometimes seen by clairvoyants. The more coherent ones are the shells of gross or wicked people and are influences of sensual or evil trend which instinctively haunt the atmosphere of persons and places whose characters or conditions are congenial to them and therefore magnetically attract them. Even well-meaning sensitives and persons of mediumistic or psychic type, being relatively negative physically because more or less aware on the astral plane, are susceptible, at times, to some of these strangely perverse and obsessing influences. The ancient teachings show why people’s instinctive dread of the ghostly dregs or remnants of the personal self is well founded.
Theophrastus: (370-287 B.C.), the most important disciple and friend of Aristotle, left voluminous writings of which only fragments are extant; they dealt with many topics of philosophy and science (notably, botany) and defended his master's philosophy against rival schools of thought, particularly against Stoics. Cf. Characters of Theophrastus. -- R.R.V.
The story of Mel, a Real Programmer "programming, person" A 1983 article by Ed Nather about {hacker} {Mel Kaye}. The full text follows. A recent article devoted to the macho side of programming made the bald and unvarnished statement, "Real Programmers write in FORTRAN". Maybe they do now, in this decadent era of Lite beer, hand calculators and "user-friendly" software but back in the Good Old Days, when the term "software" sounded funny and Real Computers were made out of {drums} and {vacuum tubes}, Real Programmers wrote in {machine code} - not {Fortran}, not {RATFOR}, not even {assembly language} - {Machine Code}, raw, unadorned, inscrutable {hexadecimal} numbers, directly. Lest a whole new generation of programmers grow up in ignorance of this glorious past, I feel duty-bound to describe, as best I can through the generation gap, how a Real Programmer wrote code. I'll call him Mel, because that was his name. I first met Mel when I went to work for {Royal McBee Computer Corporation}, a now-defunct subsidiary of the typewriter company. The firm manufactured the {LGP-30}, a small, cheap (by the standards of the day) {drum}-memory computer, and had just started to manufacture the RPC-4000, a much-improved, bigger, better, faster -- drum-memory computer. Cores cost too much, and weren't here to stay, anyway. (That's why you haven't heard of the company, or the computer.) I had been hired to write a {Fortran} compiler for this new marvel and Mel was my guide to its wonders. Mel didn't approve of compilers. "If a program can't rewrite its own code," he asked, "what good is it?" Mel had written, in {hexadecimal}, the most popular computer program the company owned. It ran on the {LGP-30} and played blackjack with potential customers at computer shows. Its effect was always dramatic. The LGP-30 booth was packed at every show, and the IBM salesmen stood around talking to each other. Whether or not this actually sold computers was a question we never discussed. Mel's job was to re-write the blackjack program for the {RPC-4000}. ({Port}? What does that mean?) The new computer had a one-plus-one addressing scheme, in which each machine instruction, in addition to the {operation code} and the address of the needed {operand}, had a second address that indicated where, on the revolving drum, the next instruction was located. In modern parlance, every single instruction was followed by a {GO TO}! Put *that* in {Pascal}'s pipe and smoke it. Mel loved the RPC-4000 because he could optimize his code: that is, locate instructions on the drum so that just as one finished its job, the next would be just arriving at the "read head" and available for immediate execution. There was a program to do that job, an "optimizing assembler", but Mel refused to use it. "You never know where its going to put things", he explained, "so you'd have to use separate constants". It was a long time before I understood that remark. Since Mel knew the numerical value of every operation code, and assigned his own drum addresses, every instruction he wrote could also be considered a numerical constant. He could pick up an earlier "add" instruction, say, and multiply by it, if it had the right numeric value. His code was not easy for someone else to modify. I compared Mel's hand-optimised programs with the same code massaged by the optimizing assembler program, and Mel's always ran faster. That was because the "{top-down}" method of program design hadn't been invented yet, and Mel wouldn't have used it anyway. He wrote the innermost parts of his program loops first, so they would get first choice of the optimum address locations on the drum. The optimizing assembler wasn't smart enough to do it that way. Mel never wrote time-delay loops, either, even when the balky {Flexowriter} required a delay between output characters to work right. He just located instructions on the drum so each successive one was just *past* the read head when it was needed; the drum had to execute another complete revolution to find the next instruction. He coined an unforgettable term for this procedure. Although "optimum" is an absolute term, like "unique", it became common verbal practice to make it relative: "not quite optimum" or "less optimum" or "not very optimum". Mel called the maximum time-delay locations the "most pessimum". After he finished the blackjack program and got it to run, ("Even the initialiser is optimised", he said proudly) he got a Change Request from the sales department. The program used an elegant (optimised) {random number generator} to shuffle the "cards" and deal from the "deck", and some of the salesmen felt it was too fair, since sometimes the customers lost. They wanted Mel to modify the program so, at the setting of a sense switch on the console, they could change the odds and let the customer win. Mel balked. He felt this was patently dishonest, which it was, and that it impinged on his personal integrity as a programmer, which it did, so he refused to do it. The Head Salesman talked to Mel, as did the Big Boss and, at the boss's urging, a few Fellow Programmers. Mel finally gave in and wrote the code, but he got the test backward, and, when the sense switch was turned on, the program would cheat, winning every time. Mel was delighted with this, claiming his subconscious was uncontrollably ethical, and adamantly refused to fix it. After Mel had left the company for greener pa$ture$, the Big Boss asked me to look at the code and see if I could find the test and reverse it. Somewhat reluctantly, I agreed to look. Tracking Mel's code was a real adventure. I have often felt that programming is an art form, whose real value can only be appreciated by another versed in the same arcane art; there are lovely gems and brilliant coups hidden from human view and admiration, sometimes forever, by the very nature of the process. You can learn a lot about an individual just by reading through his code, even in hexadecimal. Mel was, I think, an unsung genius. Perhaps my greatest shock came when I found an innocent loop that had no test in it. No test. *None*. Common sense said it had to be a closed loop, where the program would circle, forever, endlessly. Program control passed right through it, however, and safely out the other side. It took me two weeks to figure it out. The RPC-4000 computer had a really modern facility called an {index register}. It allowed the programmer to write a program loop that used an indexed instruction inside; each time through, the number in the index register was added to the address of that instruction, so it would refer to the next datum in a series. He had only to increment the index register each time through. Mel never used it. Instead, he would pull the instruction into a machine register, add one to its address, and store it back. He would then execute the modified instruction right from the register. The loop was written so this additional execution time was taken into account -- just as this instruction finished, the next one was right under the drum's read head, ready to go. But the loop had no test in it. The vital clue came when I noticed the index register bit, the bit that lay between the address and the operation code in the instruction word, was turned on-- yet Mel never used the index register, leaving it zero all the time. When the light went on it nearly blinded me. He had located the data he was working on near the top of memory -- the largest locations the instructions could address -- so, after the last datum was handled, incrementing the instruction address would make it overflow. The carry would add one to the operation code, changing it to the next one in the instruction set: a jump instruction. Sure enough, the next program instruction was in address location zero, and the program went happily on its way. I haven't kept in touch with Mel, so I don't know if he ever gave in to the flood of change that has washed over programming techniques since those long-gone days. I like to think he didn't. In any event, I was impressed enough that I quit looking for the offending test, telling the Big Boss I couldn't find it. He didn't seem surprised. When I left the company, the blackjack program would still cheat if you turned on the right sense switch, and I think that's how it should be. I didn't feel comfortable hacking up the code of a Real Programmer." [Posted to {Usenet} by its author, Ed Nather "utastro!nather", on 1983-05-21]. {Jargon File (http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/story-of-mel.html)}. [{On the trail of a Real Programmer (http://www.jamtronix.com/blog/2011/03/25/on-the-trail-of-a-real-programmer/)}, 2011-03-25 blog post by "jonno" at Jamtronix] [When did it happen? Did Mel use hexadecimal or octal?] (2003-09-12)
tions; but here there comes in the Overmind law of each Force working out its own possibilities. The natural possibilities of a world in which an original Inconscience and a division of consciousness are the main principles, would be the emergence of Forces of Darkness impelled to maintain the Ignorance by which they live, an ignorant struggle to know originative of falsehood and error, an ignorant struggle to live engendering wrong and evil, an egoistic struggle to enjoy, parent of fragmentary joys and pains and sufferings; these are therefore the inevitable first-imprinted characters, though not the sole possibilities of our evolutionary existence. Still, because the Non-Existence is a concealed Existence, the Inconscience a concealed Consciousness, the insensibility a masked and dormant Ananda, these secret realities must emerge; the hidden Overmind and Supermind too must in the end fulfil themselves in this apparently opposite organisation from a dark Infinite. …
tracking "text" The horizontal spacing between {characters} in a line of {text}. Tracking is set when a {font} is designed but can often be altered in order to change the appearance of the text or for special effects. It applies to both {proportional fonts} and {monospaced fonts}. Tracking should not be confused with {kerning} which deals with the spacing between certain pairs of characters in a proportional font. See also {leading}. (2013-12-05)
transliterate ::: v. t. --> To express or represent in the characters of another alphabet; as, to transliterate Sanskrit words by means of English letters.
transliteration ::: n. --> The act or product of transliterating, or of expressing words of a language by means of the characters of another alphabet.
triglyphical ::: a. --> Consisting of, or pertaining to, triglyphs.
Containing three sets of characters or sculptures.
trigrammatic ::: a. --> Containing three letters or characters, or three sets of letters or characters.
triphthong ::: n. --> A combination of three vowel sounds in a single syllable, forming a simple or compound sound; also, a union of three vowel characters, representing together a single sound; a trigraph; as, eye, -ieu in adieu, -eau in beau, are examples of triphthongs.
twip "unit, graphics" (TWentIeth of a Point) 1/20 of a {Postscript point}, or 1/1440th of an inch. There are thus 1440 twips to an inch or about 567 twips to a centimeter. Twips are used in {Microsoft} formats and products, notably {Rich Text Format}, {Visual BASIC}, {Visual C++}, and {printer drivers}; and in {IBM} {AFP} products. Twips were devised in the olden days to describe the sizes of characters produced by {dot matrix printers} that were constrained to multiples of either 12 or 10 dots per inch. [Is it definitely relative to a __Postscript__ point, as opposed to one of the other definitions of {point}?] (2002-03-11)
twirling baton "graphics" The overstrike sequence -/|\-/|\- which produces an animated twirling baton. If you output it with a single {backspace} between characters, the baton spins in place. If you output the sequence BS SP between characters, the baton spins from left to right. If you output BS SP BS BS between characters, the batton spins from right to left. The twirling baton was a popular component of animated signature files on the pioneering {PLATO} educational {time-sharing} system. The "{archie}" {Internet} service is perhaps the best-known baton program today; it uses the twirling baton as an idler indicating that the program is working on a query. [{Jargon File}] (1995-02-23)
type-ahead "operating system" The facility where the user can type more characters before the system has fully responded to those already typed. Type-ahead is common on most current systems. It allows the user to type without worrying that the computer may miss input because it is temporarily busy, e.g. reformating a page, checking spelling, or simply suffering from network latency. There is usually some limit to the amount of input the system can buffer, beyond which it __will__ lose input. [Equivalent term for {speech recognition}?] (2003-06-15)
typeface "text" The style or design of a {font}. Other independent parameters are size, boldness (thickness of lines), and obliqueness (a sheer transformation applied to the characters, not to be confused with a specifically designed italic font). (1996-08-02)
type "theory, programming" (Or "data type") A set of values from which a {variable}, {constant}, {function}, or other {expression} may take its value. A type is a classification of data that tells the {compiler} or {interpreter} how the programmer intends to use it. For example, the process and result of adding two variables differs greatly according to whether they are integers, floating point numbers, or strings. Types supported by most programming languages include {integers} (usually limited to some range so they will fit in one {word} of storage), {Booleans}, {floating point numbers}, and characters. {Strings} are also common, and are represented as {lists} of characters in some languages. If s and t are types, then so is s -" t, the type of {functions} from s to t; that is, give them a term of type s, functions of type s -" t will return a term of type t. Some types are {primitive} - built-in to the language, with no visible internal structure - e.g. Boolean; others are composite - constructed from one or more other types (of either kind) - e.g. {lists}, {arrays}, {structures}, {unions}. {Object-oriented programming} extends this with {classes} which encapsulate both the structure of a type and the operations that can be performed on it. Some languages provide {strong typing}, others allow {implicit type conversion} and/or {explicit type conversion}. (2003-12-22)
typewriter ::: n. --> An instrument for writing by means of type, a typewheel, or the like, in which the operator makes use of a sort of keyboard, in order to obtain printed impressions of the characters upon paper.
One who uses such an instrument.
typography "text" Arranging the {characters} in a peice of {text} to make it readable and appealing when displayed. Typography involves selecting {typefaces}, {point sizes}, line lengths, {line spacing}, {letter spacing} and {kerning}. {Type design} concerns the appearance of individual characters. [{Wikipedia}]. (2018-03-19)
UCS transformation format "standard, character" (UTF) A set of standard {character encodings} in accordance with {ISO 10646}. One of a set of standard character encodings, the most widely used of which are UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32. The code tables in ISO 10646 and in the {Unicode} standard are identical, although the Unicode standard includes additional material. UTF-8 is the most widely used encoding, at least on {Unix} systems. Since it does not include any bytes like '\0' or '/' which have a special meaning in filenames and other {C} library function parameters, and 7-bit ASCII characters have the same encoding under both {ASCII} and UTF-8, the required changes to existing software are minimised. Other UTFs: UTF-1 and UTF-7 are not widely used. {UTF-8 and Unicode FAQ for Unix/Linux (http://cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html
Ulfilas [from Gothic wulfila little wolf] A Gothic Christian bishop (311-81) who translated the Bible into Gothic, thus preserving the Gothic tongue even to our day. For his translation he invented a written alphabet by building upon the Greek alphabet and supplementing it for some of the Gothic runes. The principal manuscripts of his translation are preserved at the University of Upsala, called the Codex Argenteus (Silver Codex), as it is written in silver characters on a purple ground.
Unicode 1. "character" A 16-bit {character set} standard, designed and maintained by the non-profit consortium Unicode Inc. Originally Unicode was designed to be universal, unique, and uniform, i.e., the code was to cover all major modern written languages (universal), each character was to have exactly one encoding (unique), and each character was to be represented by a fixed width in bits (uniform). Parallel to the development of Unicode an {ISO}/{IEC} standard was being worked on that put a large emphasis on being compatible with existing character codes such as {ASCII} or {ISO Latin 1}. To avoid having two competing 16-bit standards, in 1992 the two teams compromised to define a common character code standard, known both as Unicode and {BMP}. Since the merger the character codes are the same but the two standards are not identical. The ISO/IEC standard covers only coding while Unicode includes additional specifications that help implementation. Unicode is not a {glyph encoding}. The same character can be displayed as a variety of {glyphs}, depending not only on the {font} and style, but also on the adjacent characters. A sequence of characters can be displayed as a single glyph or a character can be displayed as a sequence of glyphs. Which will be the case, is often font dependent. See also Jörgen Bettels and F. Avery Bishop's paper {Unicode: A universal character code (http://research.compaq.com/wrl/DECarchives/DTJ/DTJB02/DTJB02SC.TXT)}. (2002-08-06) 2. "language" A pre-{Fortran} on the {IBM 1130}, similar to {MATH-MATIC}. [Sammet 1969, p.137]. (2004-09-14)
Uniform Resource Locator "web" (URL, previously "Universal") A {standard} way of specifying the location of an object, typically a {web page}, on the {Internet}. Other types of object are described below. URLs are the form of address used on the {World-Wide Web}. They are used in {HTML} documents to specify the target of a {hypertext link} which is often another HTML document (possibly stored on another computer). Here are some example URLs: http://w3.org/default.html http://acme.co.uk:8080/images/map.gif http://foldoc.org/?Uniform+Resource+Locator http://w3.org/default.html
Unique ID Listing "messaging" (UIDL) A system used by {POP3} {electronic mail} {servers} to uniquely identify a mail message. Normally, a message is identified by its position in the list of messages but this will change when an earlier message is deleted. The UIDL is a fixed string of characters which is unique to the message. The UIDL of a message never changes and will never be reused, even when the message has been deleted from the user's {mailbox}. {RFC 1725 (http://ds0.internic.net/rfc/rfc1725.txt)}. (1997-04-16)
user name "operating system, security" (Or "logon") A unique name for each user of computer services which can be accessed by several persons. Users need to identify themselves for accounting, {security}, logging, and {resource management}. Usually a person must also enter a {password} in order to access a service. Once the user has logged on the {operating system} will often use a (short) {user identifier}, e.g. an integer, to refer to them rather than their user name. User names can usually be any short string of alphanumeric characters. Common choices are first name, initials, or some combination of first name, last name, initials and an arbitrary number. User names are often assigned by {system administrators} according to some local policy, or they may be chosen by the users themselves. User names are often also used as {mailbox} names in {electronic mail} addresses. (1997-03-16)
UTF-8 "character" (UCS transformation format 8) An {ASCII}-compatible multibyte {Unicode} and {UCS} encoding, used by {Java} and {Plan 9}. The {Unicode character} set occupies a 16-bit code space. The most obvious Unicode encoding (known as UCS-2) consists of a sequence of 16-bit words. Such strings can contain bytes like '\0' or '/' which have a special meaning in filenames and other {C} library function parameters. In addition, the majority of {Unix} tools expects ASCII files and can't read 16-bit words as characters without major modifications. For these reasons, UCS-2 is not a suitable external encoding of Unicode in filenames, text files, environment variables, etc. The {ISO 10646} {Universal Character Set} (UCS), a superset of Unicode, occupies a 31-bit code space and the obvious UCS-4 encoding for it (a sequence of 32-bit words) has the same problems. The UTF-8 encoding of Unicode and UCS avoids the problems of fixed-length Unicode encodings because an ASCII file encoded in UTF is exactly same as the original ASCII file and all non-ASCII characters are guaranteed to have the most significant bit set (bit 0x80). This means that normal tools for text searching etc. work as expected. UTF-8 is defined in {RFC 2279}. ["File System Safe UCS Transformation Format (FSS_UTF)", X/Open Preliminary Specification, X/Open Company Ltd., Document Number: P316. This information also appears in ISO/IEC 10646, Annex P]. {Plan 9 UTF manual entry (ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/obi/Bell.Labs/plan9pm/09utf.ps.Z)}. (1998-07-29)
uuencode "communications" (Unix-to-Unix encode) A {Unix} program for encoding {binary} data as {ASCII}. Uuencode was originally used with {uucp} to transfer binary files over {serial lines} which did not preserve the top bit of characters, but is now used for sending binary files by {e-mail} and posting to {Usenet} newsgroups etc. The program uudecode reverses the effect of uuencode, recreating the original binary file exactly. Uuencoded data starts with a line of the form begin "mode" "file" where "mode" is the files read/write/execute permissions as three {octal} digits and "file" is the name to be used when recreating the binary data. Uuencode repeatedly takes in a group of three bytes, adding trailing zeros if there are less than three bytes left. These 24 bits are split into four groups of six which are treated as numbers between 0 and 63. Decimal 32 is added to each number and they are output as ASCII characters from 32 (space) to 32+63 = 95 (underscore). Each group of sixty output characters (corresponding to 45 input bytes) is output as a separate line preceded by an 'M' (ASCII code 77 = 32+45). At the end of the input, if there are N output characters left after the last group of sixty and N"0 then they will be preceded by the character whose code is 32+N. Finally, a line containing just a single space is output, followed by one containing just "end". Sometimes each data line has an extra dummy character added to avoid problems which mailers that strip trailing spaces. These characters are ignored by uudecode. Despite using this limited range of characters, there are still some problems encountered when uuencoded data passes through certain old computers. The worst offenders are computers using non-ASCII character sets such as EBCDIC. {Base 64} encoding is probably now more commonly used than uuencode. (2004-07-17)
vaxocentrism /vak"soh-sen"trizm/ [analogy with "ethnocentrism"] A notional disease said to afflict C programmers who persist in coding according to certain assumptions that are valid (especially under Unix) on {VAXen} but false elsewhere. Among these are: 1. The assumption that dereferencing a null pointer is safe because it is all bits 0, and location 0 is readable and 0. Problem: this may instead cause an illegal-address trap on non-VAXen, and even on VAXen under OSes other than BSD Unix. Usually this is an implicit assumption of sloppy code (forgetting to check the pointer before using it), rather than deliberate exploitation of a misfeature. 2. The assumption that characters are signed. 3. The assumption that a pointer to any one type can freely be cast into a pointer to any other type. A stronger form of this is the assumption that all pointers are the same size and format, which means you don't have to worry about getting the casts or types correct in calls. Problem: this fails on word-oriented machines or others with multiple pointer formats. 4. The assumption that the parameters of a routine are stored in memory, on a stack, contiguously, and in strictly ascending or descending order. Problem: this fails on many RISC architectures. 5. The assumption that pointer and integer types are the same size, and that pointers can be stuffed into integer variables (and vice-versa) and drawn back out without being truncated or mangled. Problem: this fails on segmented architectures or word-oriented machines with funny pointer formats. 6. The assumption that a data type of any size may begin at any byte address in memory (for example, that you can freely construct and dereference a pointer to a word- or greater-sized object at an odd char address). Problem: this fails on many (especially RISC) architectures better optimised for {HLL} execution speed, and can cause an illegal address fault or bus error. 7. The (related) assumption that there is no padding at the end of types and that in an array you can thus step right from the last byte of a previous component to the first byte of the next one. This is not only machine- but compiler-dependent. 8. The assumption that memory address space is globally flat and that the array reference "foo[-1]" is necessarily valid. Problem: this fails at 0, or other places on segment-addressed machines like Intel chips (yes, segmentation is universally considered a {brain-damaged} way to design machines (see {moby}), but that is a separate issue). 9. The assumption that objects can be arbitrarily large with no special considerations. Problem: this fails on segmented architectures and under non-virtual-addressing environments. 10. The assumption that the stack can be as large as memory. Problem: this fails on segmented architectures or almost anything else without virtual addressing and a paged stack. 11. The assumption that bits and addressable units within an object are ordered in the same way and that this order is a constant of nature. Problem: this fails on {big-endian} machines. 12. The assumption that it is meaningful to compare pointers to different objects not located within the same array, or to objects of different types. Problem: the former fails on segmented architectures, the latter on word-oriented machines or others with multiple pointer formats. 13. The assumption that an "int" is 32 bits, or (nearly equivalently) the assumption that "sizeof(int) == sizeof(long)". Problem: this fails on {PDP-11s}, {Intel 80286}-based systems and even on {Intel 80386} and {Motorola 68000} systems under some compilers. 14. The assumption that "argv[]" is writable. Problem: this fails in many embedded-systems C environments and even under a few flavours of Unix. Note that a programmer can validly be accused of vaxocentrism even if he or she has never seen a VAX. Some of these assumptions (especially 2--5) were valid on the {PDP-11}, the original {C} machine, and became endemic years before the VAX. The terms "vaxocentricity" and "all-the-world"s-a-VAX syndrome' have been used synonymously. [{Jargon File}]
Vietnamese "human language" An Asian language that, like other {CJKV} languages, requires 16-bit {character encodings} but, unlike them, does not use {Han characters}. While normal Vietnamese has not used Han characters since the 18th century, the {standards} {TCVN 5773} and {TCVN 6056} contain Han characters and may be used by computers and academics. (2001-01-01)
virtual reality (VR) 1. "application" Computer simulations that use 3D graphics and devices such as the {data glove} to allow the user to interact with the simulation. 2. "games" A form of network interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing games, interactive theater, improvisational comedy, and "true confessions" magazines. In a virtual reality forum (such as {Usenet}'s {news:alt.callahans} newsgroup or the {MUD} experiments on {Internet} and elsewhere), interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel complete with scenery, "foreground characters" that may be personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common "background characters" manipulable by all parties. The one iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a character without the consent of the person who "owns" it, otherwise, anything goes. See {bamf}, {cyberspace}. [{Jargon File}] (1995-01-30)
Visual Display Unit "hardware" (VDU, or "video terminal", "video display terminal", VDT, "display terminal") A device incorporating a {cathode ray tube} (CRT) display, a keyboard and a {serial port}. A VDU usually also includes its own display electronics which store the received data and convert it into electrical waveforms to drive the CRT. VDUs fall into two categories: {dumb terminals} and {intelligent terminals} (sometimes called "programmable terminals"). Early VDUs could only display characters in a single preset {font}, and these were confined to being layed out in a rectangular grid, reproducing the functionality of the paper-based {teletypes} they were designed to replace. Later models added graphics facilities but were still driven via serial communications, typically with several VDUs attached to a single multi-user computer. This contrasts with the much faster single {bitmap displays} integrated into most modern single-user {personal computers} and {workstations}. The term "Display Screen Equipment" (DSE) is used almost exclusively in connection with the health and safety issues concerning VDUs. {Working with VDUs - UK Heath and Safety Executive (http://hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg36.pdf)}. (2002-11-09)
visual programming language "language" (VPL) Any programming language that allows the user to specify a program in a two-(or more)-dimensionsional way. Conventional textual languages are not considered two-dimensional since the {compiler} or {interpreter} processes them as one-dimensional streams of characters. A VPL allows programming with visual expressions - spatial arrangements of textual and graphical symbols. VPLs may be further classified, according to the type and extent of visual expression used, into {icon}-based languages, {form}-based languages and {diagram languages}. {Visual programming environments} provide graphical or iconic elements which can be manipulated by the user in an interactive way according to some specific spatial grammar for program construction. A visually transformed language is a non-visual language with a superimposed visual representation. Naturally visual languages have an inherent visual expression for which there is no obvious textual equivalent. {Visual Basic}, {Visual C++} and the entire {Microsoft} Visual family are not, despite their names, visual programming languages. They are textual languages which use a graphical {GUI builder} to make programming interfaces easier. The user interface portion of the programming environment is visual, the languages are not. Because of the confusion caused by the multiple meanings of the term "{visual programming}", Fred Lakin has proposed the term "executable graphics" as an alternative to VPL. Some examples of visual programming languages are {Prograph}, {Pict}, {Tinkertoy}, {Fabrik}, {CODE 2.0} and {Hyperpascal}. {(http://cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/ianr/vpl.html)}. {(http://cuiwww.unige.ch/eao/www/readme.html)}. {Usenet} newsgroup: {news:comp.lang.visual} (NOT for {Visual Basic} or {Visual C++}). (1995-02-10)
wardialer "security" Almost certainly a shortened version of "WarGames dialer", from the film {WarGames}. 1. {carrier scanner} 2. A program which attempts to break a {password} of known length by iterating thru all possible combinations of characters that could make up that password. This approach is not feasable for cracking most passwords these days. However, as late as the mid-1980s, some long-distance companies required only very short numeric access codes (e.g. five digits) to verify the identity of their customers. Wardialers were created which would, running unattended, call up long-distance providers' local connect numbers and iteratively try possible access codes. Codes which worked were logged for later illicit use. These wardialers had a high success rate because of the small range of possibilities to iterate through, e.g. 10000 for a five digit access code, compared to hundreds of trillions of combinations for an eight-character alphanumeric code. Long-distance providers soon required longer passwords and took advantage of technology for rapidly tracing the phone numbers that wardialers were being run from, such that running wardialers became pointless and dangerous. (1997-03-16)
wart A small, {crock}y {feature} that sticks out of an otherwise {clean} design. Something conspicuous for localised ugliness, especially a special-case exception to a general rule. For example, in some versions of "csh(1)", single quotes literalise every character inside them except "!". In ANSI C, the "?" syntax used for obtaining ASCII characters in a foreign environment is a wart. See also {miswart}. [{Jargon File}]
wernerian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to A. G. Werner, The German mineralogist and geologist, who classified minerals according to their external characters, and advocated the theory that the strata of the earth&
whitespace "character" (From the colour it produces on white paper) Any contiguous sequence of {spaces}, {tabs}, {carriage returns}, and/or {line feeds}. Whitespace might also possibly include {form feed} characters. The term is common on {Unix}. See also {non-printing character}. (1996-09-04)
wild card "operating system, programming, text" (From card games in which certain cards, often the joker, can act as any other card) A special character or character sequence which matches any character in a string comparison, like ellipsis ("...") in ordinary written text. In {Unix} filenames '?' matches any single character and '*' matches any zero or more characters. In {regular expressions}, '.' matches any one character and "[...]" matches any one of the enclosed characters. See also {Backus-Naur Form}. (1997-07-16)
WISCII "character, data" A version of {ASCII} used by {Wang} on their {personal computers} and {mini computers} in the 1980s. WISCII was used on the {Wang PC}, {APC}, {OIS}, {Alliance} and {VS}. The 7-bit characters were the same as ASCII, but the extended 8-bit characters were Wang-specific. (2008-05-28)
word ::: n. --> The spoken sign of a conception or an idea; an articulate or vocal sound, or a combination of articulate and vocal sounds, uttered by the human voice, and by custom expressing an idea or ideas; a single component part of human speech or language; a constituent part of a sentence; a term; a vocable.
Hence, the written or printed character, or combination of characters, expressing such a term; as, the words on a page.
Talk; discourse; speech; language.
word "storage" A fundamental unit of storage in a computer. The size of a word in a particular computer architecture is one of its chief distinguishing characteristics. The size of a word is usually the same as the width of the computer's {data bus} so it is possible to read or write a word in a single operation. An instruction is usually one or more words long and a word can be used to hold a whole number of characters. These days, this nearly always means a whole number of {bytes} (eight bits), most often 32 or 64 bits. In the past when six bit {character sets} were used, a word might be a multiple of six bits, e.g. 24 bits (four characters) in the {ICL 1900} series. (1994-11-11)
write ::: v. t. --> To set down, as legible characters; to form the conveyance of meaning; to inscribe on any material by a suitable instrument; as, to write the characters called letters; to write figures.
To set down for reading; to express in legible or intelligible characters; to inscribe; as, to write a deed; to write a bill of divorcement; hence, specifically, to set down in an epistle; to communicate by letter.
writing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Write ::: n. --> The act or art of forming letters and characters on paper, wood, stone, or other material, for the purpose of recording the ideas which characters and words express, or of communicating them to others by visible signs.
X.21 "communications, standard" A digital signaling interface recommended by {ITU-T} that includes specifications for {DTE}/{DCE} physical interface elements, alignment of {call control} characters and error checking, elements of the call control phase for {circuit switched} services, data transfer at up to 2 {Mbps}, and {test loops}. 64 {kbps} is the most commonly used transfer rate. (2000-02-28)
xanthoproteic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or derived from, xanthoprotein; showing the characters of xanthoprotein; as, xanthoproteic acid; the xanthoproteic reaction for albumin.
XMODEM "communications" {Ward Christensen}'s file transfer {protocol}, probably the most widely available protocol used for file transfer over {serial lines} (e.g. between {modems}). XMODEM uses 128-byte {packets} with {error detection}, allowing the receiver to request retransmission of a corrupted packet. XModem is fairly slow but reliable. Several variations have been proposed with increasing packet sizes (e.g. {XMODEM-1K}) and different error detection ({CRC} instead of {checksum}) to take advantage of faster modems. Sending and receiving programs can negotiate to establish the best protocol they both support. John Mahr wrote the original XMODEM CRC error correction code. This implementation was backward compatible with Christensen's original checksum code. It improved the error detection from 98% to 99.97% and improved the reliability of transmitting {binary files}. Standard XMODEM specifies a one-second {timeout} during the reception of characters in the data block portion of a packet. Chuck Forsberg improved upon XMODEM by developing {YMODEM} and {ZMODEM}. [Chuck Forsberg, "XMODEM/YMODEM Protocol Reference"]. (2005-09-16)
YAML Ain't Markup Language "data, language" (YAML) A data {serialisation} language designed to be readable and writable by humans and to work well with modern programming languages. YAML uses printable {Unicode} characters to represent both structure and data. The structural syntax is simple and terse. For example, indentation is used for structure, colons separate pairs, and dashes are used for list items. YAML can represent mappings ({hashes} or dictionaries), sequences ({arrays} or lists), {scalars} (strings or numbers), or any combination of the above. It has a simple {typing system} and {reference} syntax. Its structures will be particularly familiar to programmers using {Perl}, {Python}, {PHP}, {Ruby}, or {Javascript}, but YAML can be used with any programming language. YAML is, in some respects, a simpler alternative to XML, though it does not share the constraints imposed by XML's {SGML} legacy and has somewhat different aims. {YAML Home (http://yaml.org/)}. (2004-02-02)
zebu ::: n. --> A bovine mammal (Ros Indicus) extensively domesticated in India, China, the East Indies, and East Africa. It usually has short horns, large pendulous ears, slender legs, a large dewlap, and a large, prominent hump over the shoulders; but these characters vary in different domestic breeds, which range in size from that of the common ox to that of a large mastiff.
zip 1. "tool, compression, file format" A compressed {archive} containing one or more files, the act of creating it and its {filename extension}. Originally, such a "zip file" was created using {PKWare, Inc.}'s {PKZIP} {utility program} for {MS-DOS}. Due to the popularity of the original program, the format has spread to {Windows}, {Unix} and other {operating systems} and the function is often built into {file managers}. {unzip} is the corresponding de-archiver or the act of extracting files from an archive. The first two {bytes} of a zip file are the {ASCII} characters "PK" after {Phil Katz} who developed the original PKZIP. See also {gzip}, {tar and feather}. (1996-08-26) 2. "storage" {Zip Drive}. [{Jargon File}] 3. "functional programming" {zip function}. (2017-02-26)
ZX-80 "computer" {Sinclair}'s cheap {personal computer} with built-in {BASIC}, launched at the end of January 1980 at a computer fair in Wembley, UK. The processor was an {NEC 780-C} running at 3.25 MHz. It had 1KB of {RAM}, externally expandable to 16KB, and 4KB of ROM. It had RF video output to a TV, displaying 24 lines by 32 characters of monochrome text. An audio cassette recorder was used to save programs. The ZX-80 was sold in kit form for £79.95 or ready-built for £99.95. It was used by many UK hobbyists as a means of learning the basics of computing. Some remember the 1KB ZX-80 for the claim in its advertising that you could control a nuclear power station with it. The ZX-80 was succeeded by the {ZX-81}. {(http://home.t-online.de/home/p.liebert/zx80_eng.htm)}. {Planet Sinclair (http://nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/)}. {The Sinclair Story (http://sincuser.f9.co.uk/046/sstory.htm)}. (2002-08-30)
ZyXEL A {modem} manufacturer. {(ftp://ftp.zyxel.com/pub/other/zyxel)}. E-mail: "tech@zyxel.com", "sales@zyxel.com". Telephone: +1 800-255-4101 (Sales), +1 714-693-0808 (tech), +1 714-693-0762 (BBS), +1 714-693-8811 (fax). Address: 4920 E. La Palma, Anaheim, CA 92807, USA. (1994-10-31){ {left brace}{$formKeywords} "web" The placeholder or {variable} showing where the user's {search terms} should go in an {Open Journal Systems} query. {Open Journal Systems Help (https://casit.illinoisstate.edu/obsidian/index.php/index/help/view/journal/topic/000028)} (2018-05-25){IDF} "networking" {Intermediate Distribution Frame}.{log} ["{log}: A Logic Programming Language with Finite Sets", A Dovier et al, Proc 8th Intl Conf Logic Prog, June 1991, pp.111-124].{searchTerms} "web" The placeholder or {variable} used in the "Url" element of an {OpenSearchDescription} {XML} file to show where the user's actual {search terms} should go. For example, this dictionary's {Open Search} description, {(/search.xml)} includes the following element: "Url type="text/html" template="http://foldoc.org/{searchTerms}" /" meaning that to search for, e.g., "foo", you should go to {(http://foldoc.org/foo)}. You may have reached this page because you were trying to use some system based on {Open Search} and failed to supply any search term to substitute into the URL. (2018-04-08)| {vertical bar}} {right brace}~ 1. "character" {tilde}. 2. "language" An {esoteric programming language} created in 2006 by Tim Pettit. Various {operators}, represented by single characters, {push}, {pop} or {peek} at {integer} values on the front or back of a {double-ended queue} or perform loops or {input/output}. {Esoteric programming languages wiki entry (http://esolangs.org/wiki/~)}. (2014-12-03)~
KEYS (10k)
2 Stephen King
1 William Gibson
1 William Blake
1 Whitehead
1 Waking Life
1 The Hashish Eater
1 Saint Thomas Aquinas
1 really fast. I'm puzzling over something
1 Nicola Yoon
1 M Alan Kazlev
1 Khalil Gibran
1 Henry David Thoreau
1 Friedrich Nietzsche
1 Albert Camus
1 Sri Aurobindo
1 Agrippa
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
14 Stephen King
6 Nicolas Cage
6 Jane Austen
5 Ray Bradbury
5 Quentin Tarantino
5 Paul Auster
5 Michael K Williams
5 George R R Martin
5 E M Forster
5 Charlize Theron
4 Vladimir Nabokov
4 Tina Fey
4 Roxane Gay
4 Robert Englund
4 Nicholas Sparks
4 Michael Sheen
4 Leonardo DiCaprio
4 John Green
4 Henry David Thoreau
4 Geena Davis
1:Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #KEYS
2:the most massive characters are seared with scars.
~ Khalil Gibran,#KEYS
3:I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
4:A good novelist does not lead his characters, he follows them. A good novelist does not create events, he watches them happen and then writes down what he sees. ~ Stephen King, #KEYS
5:Moebius for characters, Foss for ships, Syd Meade for hard SF, Barlowe for aliens, and Chesley Bonestell for the original interplanetary age optimism (could doubtless come up with more) ~ M Alan Kazlev, #KEYS
6:Our intellect may be compared to a tablet on which nothing has been written, but that of an angel, to a painted tablet or to a mirror in which the intelligible characters of things shine forth. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, #KEYS
7:As one age falls, another rises, different to mortal sight, but to immortals only the same; for we see the same characters repeated again & again, in animals, vegetables, minerals, and in men; nothing new occurs. Substance can never suffer change nor decay.
~ William Blake,#KEYS
8:The doctrine of Law as immanent [claims] that the order of nature expresses the characters of the real things which jointly compose the existences to be found in nature. When we understand the essences of...things, we thereby know their mutual relations to each other. ~ Whitehead, #KEYS
9:Sometimes I reread my favorite books from back to front. I start with the last chapter and read backward until I get to the beginning. When you read this way, characters go from hope to despair, from self-knowledge to doubt. In love stories, couples start out as lovers and end as strangers. Coming-of-age books become stories of losing your way. Your favorite characters come back to life. ~ Nicola Yoon, Everything, Everything #KEYS
10:When I start writing a new imaginary future, I have no idea what it is. The characters arrive first. They help me figure out where they are living and I get to fill in the gaps with that and where we are. So when I get to the end of the process of composition, if I feel that I have really done my job, I have no idea what I've got - and I then spend essentially the rest of my life figuring out what it might mean. ~ William Gibson, #KEYS
11:It's a wonderful thing to be able to create your own world whenever you want to. Writing is very pleasurable, very seductive, and very therapeutic. Time passes very fast when I'm writing~really fast. I'm puzzling over something, and time just flies by. It's an exhilarating feeling. How bad can it be? It's sitting alone with fictional characters. You're escaping from the world in your own way and that's fine. Why not? ~ Woody Allen, #KEYS
12:In that daily effort in which intelligence and passion mingle and delight each other, the absurd man discovers a discipline that will make up the greatest of his strengths. The required diligence and doggedness and lucidity thus resemble the conqueror's attitude. To create is likewise to give a shape to one's fate. For all these characters, their work defines them at least as much as it is defined by them. The actor taught us this: There is no frontier between being and appearing. ~ Albert Camus, #KEYS
13: But we now come to speak of the holy and sacred Pentacles and Sigils. Now these pentacles, are as it were certain holy signes preserving us from evil chances and events, and helping and assisting us to binde, exterminate, and drive away evil spirits, and alluring the good spirits, and reconciling them unto us. And these pentacles do consist either of Characters of the good spirits of the superiour order, or of sacred pictures of holy letters or revelations, with apt and fit versicles, which are composed either of Geometrical figures and holy names of God, according to the course and maner of many of them; or they are compounded of all of them, or very many of them mixt. ~ Agrippa, A Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, #KEYS
14:Drugs are able to bring humans into the neighborhood of divine experience and can thus carry us up from our personal fate and the everyday circumstances of our life into a higher form of reality. It is, however, necessary to understand precisely what is meant by the use of drugs. We do not mean the purely physical craving...That of which we speak is something much higher, namely the knowledge of the possibility of the soul to enter into a lighter being, and to catch a glimpse of deeper insights and more magnificent visions of the beauty, truth, and the divine than we are normally able to spy through the cracks in our prison cell. But there are not many drugs which have the power of stilling such craving. The entire catalog, at least to the extent that research has thus far written it, may include only opium, hashish, and in rarer cases alcohol, which has enlightening effects only upon very particular characters. ~ The Hashish Eater, (1857) pg. 181 #KEYS
15:One thing is needful. -- To "give style" to one's character-- a great and rare art! It is practiced by those who survey all the strengths and weaknesses of their nature and then fit them into an artistic plan until every one of them appears as art and reason and even weaknesses delight the eye. Here a large mass of second nature has been added; there a piece of original nature has been removed -- both times through long practice and daily work at it. Here the ugly that could not be removed is concealed; there it has been reinterpreted and made sublime. Much that is vague and resisted shaping has been saved and exploited for distant views; it is meant to beckon toward the far and immeasurable. In the end, when the work is finished, it becomes evident how the constraint of a single taste governed and formed everything large and small. Whether this taste was good or bad is less important than one might suppose, if only it was a single taste!
It will be the strong and domineering natures that enjoy their finest gaiety in such constraint and perfection under a law of their own; the passion of their tremendous will relaxes in the face of all stylized nature, of all conquered and serving nature. Even when they have to build palaces and design gardens they demur at giving nature freedom.
Conversely, it is the weak characters without power over themselves that hate the constraint of style. They feel that if this bitter and evil constraint were imposed upon them they would be demeaned; they become slaves as soon as they serve; they hate to serve. Such spirits -- and they may be of the first rank -- are always out to shape and interpret their environment as free nature: wild, arbitrary, fantastic, disorderly, and surprising. And they are well advised because it is only in this way that they can give pleasure to themselves. For one thing is needful: that a human being should attain satisfaction with himself, whether it be by means of this or that poetry or art; only then is a human being at all tolerable to behold. Whoever is dissatisfied with himself is continually ready for revenge, and we others will be his victims, if only by having to endure his ugly sight. For the sight of what is ugly makes one bad and gloomy. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, mod trans. Walter Kaufmann,#KEYS
16:The Supermind [Supramental consciousness] is in its very essence a truth-consciousness, a consciousness always free from the Ignorance which is the foundation of our present natural or evolutionary existence and from which nature in us is trying to arrive at self-knowledge and world-knowledge and a right consciousness and the right use of our existence in the universe. The Supermind, because it is a truth-consciousness, has this knowledge inherent in it and this power of true existence; its course is straight and can go direct to its aim, its field is wide and can even be made illimitable. This is because its very nature is knowledge: it has not to acquire knowledge but possesses it in its own right; its steps are not from nescience or ignorance into some imperfect light, but from truth to greater truth, from right perception to deeper perception, from intuition to intuition, from illumination to utter and boundless luminousness, from growing widenesses to the utter vasts and to very infinitude. On its summits it possesses the divine omniscience and omnipotence, but even in an evolutionary movement of its own graded self-manifestation by which it would eventually reveal its own highest heights, it must be in its very nature essentially free from ignorance and error: it starts from truth and light and moves always in truth and light. As its knowledge is always true, so too its will is always true; it does not fumble in its handling of things or stumble in its paces. In the Supermind feeling and emotion do not depart from their truth, make no slips or mistakes, do not swerve from the right and the real, cannot misuse beauty and delight or twist away from a divine rectitude. In the Supermind sense cannot mislead or deviate into the grossnesses which are here its natural imperfections and the cause of reproach, distrust and misuse by our ignorance. Even an incomplete statement made by the Supermind is a truth leading to a further truth, its incomplete action a step towards completeness. All the life and action and leading of the Supermind is guarded in its very nature from the falsehoods and uncertainties that are our lot; it moves in safety towards its perfection. Once the truth-consciousness was established here on its own sure foundation, the evolution of divine life would be a progress in felicity, a march through light to Ananda. Supermind is an eternal reality of the divine Being and the divine Nature. In its own plane it already and always exists and possesses its own essential law of being; it has not to be created or to emerge or evolve into existence out of involution in Matter or out of non-existence, as it might seem to the view of mind which itself seems to its own view to have so emerged from life and Matter or to have evolved out of an involution in life and Matter. The nature of Supermind is always the same, a being of knowledge, proceeding from truth to truth, creating or rather manifesting what has to be manifested by the power of a pre-existent knowledge, not by hazard but by a self-existent destiny in the being itself, a necessity of the thing in itself and therefore inevitable. Its -manifestation of the divine life will also be inevitable; its own life on its own plane is divine and, if Supermind descends upon the earth, it will bring necessarily the divine life with it and establish it here. Supermind is the grade of existence beyond mind, life and Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life. It is indeed so that life and mind involved in Matter have realised themselves here; for only what is involved can evolve, otherwise there could be no emergence. The manifestation of a supramental truth-consciousness is therefore the capital reality that will make the divine life possible. It is when all the movements of thought, impulse and action are governed and directed by a self-existent and luminously automatic truth-consciousness and our whole nature comes to be constituted by it and made of its stuff that the life divine will be complete and absolute. Even as it is, in reality though not in the appearance of things, it is a secret self-existent knowledge and truth that is working to manifest itself in the creation here. The Divine is already there immanent within us, ourselves are that in our inmost reality and it is this reality that we have to manifest; it is that which constitutes the urge towards the divine living and makes necessary the creation of the life divine even in this material existence. A manifestation of the Supermind and its truth-consciousness is then inevitable; it must happen in this world sooner or lateR But it has two aspects, a descent from above, an ascent from below, a self-revelation of the Spirit, an evolution in Nature. The ascent is necessarily an effort, a working of Nature, an urge or nisus on her side to raise her lower parts by an evolutionary or revolutionary change, conversion or transformation into the divine reality and it may happen by a process and progress or by a rapid miracle. The descent or self-revelation of the Spirit is an act of the supreme Reality from above which makes the realisation possible and it can appear either as the divine aid which brings about the fulfilment of the progress and process or as the sanction of the miracle. Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here. Even in the effort and progress from the Ignorance to Knowledge this must be in part if not wholly the endeavour to be made on the heights of the nature, and it must be wholly that in the final movement towards the spiritual change, realisation, transformation. It must be still more so when there is a transition across the dividing line between the Ignorance and the Knowledge and the evolution is from knowledge to greater knowledge, from consciousness to greater consciousness, from being to greater being. There is then no longer any necessity for the slow pace of the ordinary evolution; there can be rapid conversion, quick transformation after transformation, what would seem to our normal present mind a succession of miracles. An evolution on the supramental levels could well be of that nature; it could be equally, if the being so chose, a more leisurely passage of one supramental state or condition of things to something beyond but still supramental, from level to divine level, a building up of divine gradations, a free growth to the supreme Supermind or beyond it to yet undreamed levels of being, consciousness and Ananda.
~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, 558,#KEYS
17:Chapter 18 - Trapped in a Dream
(A guy is playing a pinball machine, seemingly the same guy who rode with him in the back of the boat car. This part is played by Richard Linklater, aka, the director.)
Hey, man.
Hey.
Weren't you in a boat car? You know, the guy, the guy with the hat? He gave me a ride in his car, or boat thing, and you were in the back seat with me?
I mean, I'm not saying that you don't know what you're talking about, but I don't know what you're talking about.
No, you see, you guys let me off at this really specific spot that you gave him directions to let me off at, I get out, and end up getting hit by a car, but then, I just woke up because I was dreaming, and later than that, I found out that I was still dreaming, dreaming that I'd woken up.
Oh yeah, those are called false awakenings. I used to have those all the time.
Yeah, but I'm still in it now. I, I can't get out of it. It's been going on forever, I keep waking up, but, but I'm just waking up into another dream. I'm starting to get creeped out, too. Like I'm talking to dead people. This woman on TV's telling me about how death is this dreamtime that exists outside of life. I mean, (desperate sigh) I'm starting to think that I'm dead.
I'm gonna tell you about a dream I once had. I know that's, when someone says that, then usually you're in for a very boring next few minutes, and you might be, but it sounds like, you know, what else are you going to do, right? Anyway, I read this essay by Philip K. Dick.
What, you read it in your dream?
No, no. I read it before the dream. It was the preamble to the dream. It was about that book, um Flow My Tears the Policeman Said. You know that one?
Uh, yeah yeah, he won an award for that one.
Right, right. That's the one he wrote really fast. It just like flowed right out of him. He felt he was sort of channeling it, or something. But anyway, about four years after it was published, he was at this party, and he met this woman who had the same name as the woman character in the book. And she had a boyfriend with the same name as the boyfriend character in the book, and she was having an affair with this guy, the chief of police, and he had the same name as the chief of police in his book. So she's telling him all of this stuff from her life, and everything she's saying is right out of his book. So that's totally freaking him out, but, what can he do?
And then shortly after that, he was going to mail a letter, and he saw this kind of, um, you know, dangerous, shady looking guy standing by his car, but instead of avoiding him, which he says he would have usually done, he just walked right up to him and said, "Can I help you?" And the guy said, "Yeah. I, I ran out of gas." So he pulls out his wallet, and he hands him some money, which he says he never would have done, and then he gets home and thinks, wait a second, this guy, you know, he can't get to a gas station, he's out of gas. So he gets back in his car, he goes and finds the guy, takes him to the gas station, and as he's pulling up at the gas station, he realizes, "Hey, this is in my book too. This exact station, this exact guy. Everything."
So this whole episode is kind of creepy, right? And he's telling his priest about it, you know, describing how he wrote this book, and then four years later all these things happened to him. And as he's telling it to him, the priest says, "That's the Book of Acts. You're describing the Book of Acts." And he's like, "I've never read the Book of Acts." So he, you know, goes home and reads the Book of Acts, and it's like uncanny. Even the characters' names are the same as in the Bible. And the Book of Acts takes place in 50 A.D., when it was written, supposedly. So Philip K. Dick had this theory that time was an illusion and that we were all actually in 50 A.D., and the reason he had written this book was that he had somehow momentarily punctured through this illusion, this veil of time, and what he had seen there was what was going on in the Book of Acts.
And he was really into Gnosticism, and this idea that this demiurge, or demon, had created this illusion of time to make us forget that Christ was about to return, and the kingdom of God was about to arrive. And that we're all in 50 A.D., and there's someone trying to make us forget that God is imminent. And that's what time is. That's what all of history is. It's just this kind of continuous, you know, daydream, or distraction.
And so I read that, and I was like, well that's weird. And than that night I had a dream and there was this guy in the dream who was supposed to be a psychic. But I was skeptical. I was like, you know, he's not really a psychic, you know I'm thinking to myself. And then suddenly I start floating, like levitating, up to the ceiling. And as I almost go through the roof, I'm like, "Okay, Mr. Psychic. I believe you. You're a psychic. Put me down please." And I float down, and as my feet touch the ground, the psychic turns into this woman in a green dress. And this woman is Lady Gregory.
Now Lady Gregory was Yeats' patron, this, you know, Irish person. And though I'd never seen her image, I was just sure that this was the face of Lady Gregory. So we're walking along, and Lady Gregory turns to me and says, "Let me explain to you the nature of the universe. Now Philip K. Dick is right about time, but he's wrong that it's 50 A.D. Actually, there's only one instant, and it's right now, and it's eternity. And it's an instant in which God is posing a question, and that question is basically, 'Do you want to, you know, be one with eternity? Do you want to be in heaven?' And we're all saying, 'No thank you. Not just yet.' And so time is actually just this constant saying 'No' to God's invitation. I mean that's what time is. I mean, and it's no more 50 A.D. than it's two thousand and one. And there's just this one instant, and that's what we're always in."
And then she tells me that actually this is the narrative of everyone's life. That, you know, behind the phenomenal difference, there is but one story, and that's the story of moving from the "no" to the "yes." All of life is like, "No thank you. No thank you. No thank you." then ultimately it's, "Yes, I give in. Yes, I accept. Yes, I embrace." I mean, that's the journey. I mean, everyone gets to the "yes" in the end, right?
Right.
So we continue walking, and my dog runs over to me. And so I'm petting him, really happy to see him, you know, he's been dead for years. So I'm petting him and I realize there's this kind of gross oozing stuff coming out of his stomach. And I look over at Lady Gregory, and she sort of coughs. She's like [cough] [cough] "Oh, excuse me." And there's vomit, like dribbling down her chin, and it smells really bad. And I think, "Well, wait a second, that's not just the smell of vomit," which is, doesn't smell very good, "that's the smell of like dead person vomit." You know, so it's like doubly foul. And then I realize I'm actually in the land of the dead, and everyone around me is dead. My dog had been dead for over ten years, Lady Gregory had been dead a lot longer than that. When I finally woke up, I was like, whoa, that wasn't a dream, that was a visitation to this real place, the land of the dead.
So what happened? I mean how did you finally get out of it?
Oh man. It was just like one of those like life altering experiences. I mean I could never really look at the world the same way again, after that.
Yeah, but I mean like how did you, how did you finally get out of the dream? See, that's my problem. I'm like trapped. I keep, I keep thinking that I'm waking up, but I'm still in a dream. It seems like it's going on forever. I can't get out of it, and I want to wake up for real. How do you really wake up?
I don't know, I don't know. I'm not very good at that anymore. But, um, if that's what you're thinking, I mean you, you probably should. I mean, you know if you can wake up, you should, because you know someday, you know, you won't be able to. So just, um ... But it's easy. You know. Just, just wake up. ~ Waking Life,#KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:We may divide characters into flat and round. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 2:There are as many characters in men As there are shapes in nature. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 3:You can never know enough about your characters ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 4:Malice delights to blacken the characters of prominent men. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 5:As if they were our own handiwork we place a high value on our characters. ~ epicurus, @wisdomtrove 6:My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 7:I do not use profanity in my novels. My characters all go to church. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 8:If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn't show up. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 9:I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 10:It is to be lamented that great characters are seldom without a blot. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 11:Age, habits of business and experience have modified many characters. ~ napoleon-bonaparte, @wisdomtrove 12:Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 13:Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed. ~ benjamin-disraeli, @wisdomtrove 14:I think, above all, the characters in my novels feel universal to the readers. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 15:There is no more interesting place in the world to meet characters than a movie set. ~ will-rogers, @wisdomtrove 16:Even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 17:If women were particular about men's characters, they would never get married at all. ~ george-bernard-shaw, @wisdomtrove 18:Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold. ~ euripedes, @wisdomtrove 19:When we own our stories, we avoid being trapped as characters in stories someone else is telling. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove 20:I try to build a full personality for each of our cartoon characters - to make them personalities. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 21:The reader can't take much for granted in a fiction where the scenery can eat the characters. ~ ursula-k-le-guin, @wisdomtrove 22:Many of the characters are fools and they're always playing tricks on me and treating me badly. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 23:The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too. ~ arthur-schopenhauer, @wisdomtrove 24:It is in their & 25:Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 26:I take great pride in the artistic development of cartoons. Our characters are made to go through emotions. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 27:Adults need more complex narratives. They have their own narratives. The main characters are themselves. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 28:Characters must not brood too long. They must not waste time running up and down ladders in their own insides. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 29:All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 30:None of my characters are rich or famous, and the situations they find themselves in could happen to anyone. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 31:A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record the blameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors. ~ ambrose-bierce, @wisdomtrove 32:When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 33:Our minds are shaped by the books we read. Our characters, by the people we meet. Our spirits by the love we give. ~ robin-sharma, @wisdomtrove 34:When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 35:A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters. ~ albert-camus, @wisdomtrove 36:Envy, slothful vice, Never makes its way in lofty characters, But, like the skulking viper, creeps and crawls Close to the ground. ~ ovid, @wisdomtrove 37:I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their good intellects. ~ oscar-wilde, @wisdomtrove 38:Written in Chinese, the word crisis, is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represent opportunity. ~ john-f-kennedy, @wisdomtrove 39:In every great novel, who is the hero all the time? Not any of the characters, but some unnamed and nameless flame behind them all. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove 40:All characters come from people I know, but after the initial inspiration, I tend to modify the characters so they fit with the story. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 41:Poe was the first writer to write about main characters who were bad guys or who were mad guys, and those are some of my favorite stories. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 42:For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 43:It's the writer's job to stage confrontations, so the characters will say surprising and revealing things, and educate and entertain us all. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 44:Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it. ~ ayn-rand, @wisdomtrove 45:When written in Chinese, the word & 46:Neither sex, without some fertilization of the complimentary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor. ~ jean-paul-sartre, @wisdomtrove 47:The idea for a novel is like a little tiny fire in a dark night. And, one by one, the characters come and stand around it and warm their hands. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 48:[On Edna Ferber's Ice Palace] ... the book, which is going to be a movie, has the plot and characters of a book which is going to be a movie. ~ dorothy-parker, @wisdomtrove 49:If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 50:And if you are honest about the words coming out of your characters' mouths, you'll find that you've let yourself in for a fair amount of criticism. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 51:I start drawing, and eventually the characters involve themselves in a situation. Then in the end, I go back and try to cut out most of the preachments. ~ dr-seuss, @wisdomtrove 52:The hand of our parents traces on our feeble hearts those first characters to which example and time give firmness, and which perhaps God alone can efface. ~ voltaire, @wisdomtrove 53:I've always wanted to explore characters of all races, all genders, all ages. It just seems to me to be a natural way to approach any kind of storytelling. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 54:In our animation we must show only the actions and reactions of a character, but we must picture also with the action. . . the feeling of those characters. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 55:The greatest characters the world has known, have rose on the democratic floor. Aristocracy has not been able to keep a proportionate pace with democracy. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 56:Politics and self-interest have been so uniformly connected, that the world, from being so often deceived, has a right to be suspicious of public characters. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 57:Believe it or not, I don't collaborate with women, though my agent and editor are both females. For the most part, they do little editing on my characters. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 58:If you will practice being fictional for a while, you will understand that fictional characters are sometimes more real than people with bodies and heartbeats. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 59:Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them in order that the reader may see what they are made of. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 60:Looking for God-or Heaven-by exploring space is like reading or seeing all Shakespeare's plays in the hope that you will find Shakespeare as one of the characters. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 61:The value of liberty was thus enhanced in our estimation by the difficulty of its attainment, and the worth of characters appreciated by the trial of adversity. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 62:It may be true that the only reason the comic book industry now exists is for this purpose, to create characters for movies, board games and other types of merchandise. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 63:Most characters are composed of snippets here and there of people I've known, and all rolled into the character I've created. They do become like their own people. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 64:In my books, I never portray violence as a reasonable solution to a problem. If the lead characters in the story are driven to it, it's at the extreme end of their experience. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 65:I suppose all fictional characters, especially in adventure or heroic fiction, at the end of the day are our dreams about ourselves. And sometimes they can be really revealing. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 66:speaks very truthfully. ... I loved the fact that it felt so honest. I respond to scripts regardless of where or when they're set; for me, it's about whether the characters ring true. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 67:For the devil is better pleased with coarse blockheads and with folks who are useful to nobody; because where such characters abound, then things do not go on prosperously here on earth. ~ martin-luther, @wisdomtrove 68:What interests me so much about the characters of the Bible is that they make mistakes but God uses them anyway, in important ways. Nobody's perfect, but God can even use our imperfection. ~ fred-rogers, @wisdomtrove 69:Oblivion is the dark page, whereon Memory writes her light-beam characters, and makes them legible; were it all light, nothing could be read there, any more than if it were all darkness. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 70:A creative person has to be alive. He can't borrow from things he's done in the past. He can't let his method choose his subjects or his characters. They can't be warped to fit his style. ~ john-steinbeck, @wisdomtrove 71:No, none of us seem so very real. We're only supporting characters in the lives of each other. Any real truth, any precious fact will always be lost in a mountain of shattered make-believe. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 72:One should not wish anyone disagreeable conditions of life; but for him who is involved in them by chance, they are touchstones of characters and of the most decisive value to man. ~ johann-wolfgang-von-goethe, @wisdomtrove 73:All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us. ~ immanuel-kant, @wisdomtrove 74:In the appointments to the great offices of the government, my aim has been to combine geographical situation, and sometimes other considerations, with abilities and fitness of known characters. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 75:We have created characters and animated them in the dimension of depth, revealing through them to our perturbed world that the things we have in common far outnumber and outweigh those that divide us. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 76:It's always a challenge bringing a great story classic to the screen. Giving visual form to the characters and places that have only existed in the imagination. But it's the kind of challenge we enjoy. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 77:In desperate love, we always invent the characters of our partners, demanding they be what we need of them, and then feeling devastated when they refuse to perform the role we created in the first place. ~ elizabeth-gilbert, @wisdomtrove 78:Horror movies often work better when we have a stake in the game. The more we care about the characters, the more human they are to us, the more appealing they are to us and the more effective the horror tends to be. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 79:When you dream, all the scenery, characters, events, perils, and outcomes are built from your own consciousness, the darks and oppressions as well as the delights. Same with the world awake, though it takes you longer to build it. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 80:The notion of this universe, its heavens, hells, and everything within it, as a great dream dreamed by a single being in which all the dream characters are dreaming too, has in India enchanted and shaped the entire civilization. ~ joseph-campbell, @wisdomtrove 81:Time has a doomsday book, upon whose pages he is continually recording illustrious names. But as often as a new name is written there, an old one disappears. Only a few stand in illuminated characters never to be effaced. ~ henry-wadsworth-longfellow, @wisdomtrove 82:If there was the same propensity in mankind for investigating the motives, as there is for censuring the conduct, of public characters, it would be found that the censure so freely bestowed is oftentimes unmerited and uncharitable. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 83:Low consciousness people hold you back from reaching greater heights. These include energy vampires, critical people, dishonest characters, and people with temperament issues. Let them go from your life and send them love as you do that. ~ celestine-chua, @wisdomtrove 84:I just make what I like - warm and human stories, ones about historic characters and events, and about animals. If there is a secret, I guess it's that I never make the pictures too childish, but always try to get in a little satire of adult foibles. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 85:I wish we could sometimes love the characters in real life as we love the characters in romances. There are a great many human souls whom we should accept more kindly, and even appreciate more clearly, if we simply thought of them as people in a story. ~ g-k-chesterton, @wisdomtrove 86:Well, finally, the events I've been through have been tremendously complicated. All kinds of characters have come on the scene, and strange things have happened one after another, to the point where, if I try to think about them in order, I lose track. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 87:A farce is that in poetry which grotesque (caricature) is in painting. The persons and actions of a farce are all unnatural, and the manners false, that is, inconsistent with the characters of mankind; and grotesque painting is the just resemblance of this. ~ john-dryden, @wisdomtrove 88:My remembrance of the past is a novel I am constantly recomposing; and it would not be a historical novel, but sheer fiction, if the material events which mark and ballast my career had not their public dates and characters scientifically discoverable. ~ george-santayana, @wisdomtrove 89:You and I are experiencing the life-dream right now. But this isn’t my dream or your dream, because we are characters in the dream. The life-dream is God’s dream. The primal awareness is dreaming itself to be you and me, and experiencing the dream through us. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 90:Now is the seedtime of continental union, faith and honor. The least fracture now, will be like a name engraved with the point of a pin on the tender rind of a young oak; the wound would enlarge with the tree, and posterity read in it full grown characters. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 91:The first glance at History convinces us that the actions of men proceed from their needs, their passions, their characters and talents; and impresses us with the belief that such needs, passions and interests are the sole spring of actions. ~ georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel, @wisdomtrove 92:When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away - even if it's only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 93:My main point about films is that I don't like the adaptation process, and I particularly don't like the modern way of comic book-film adaptations, where, essentially, the central characters are just franchises that can be worked endlessly to no apparent point. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 94:Authors can write stories without people assuming that they are autobiographies, but songwriters and poets are often considered to be the characters in their works. I like Michelangelo's vision, & 95:Writers must be fair and remember even bad guys (most of them, anyway) see themselves as good‚ they are the heroes of their own lives. Giving them a fair chance as characters can create some interesting shades of gray‚ and shades of gray are also a part of life. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 96:But how can the characters in a play guess the plot? We are not the playwright, we are not the producer, we are not even the audience. We are on the stage. To play well the scenes in which we are "on" concerns us much more than to guess about the scenes that follow it. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 97:But I have seen my obstacles: trivialities, learning and poetry. This last needs explaining: the old artist's readiness to dissolve characters into a haze. Characters cannot come alive and fight and guide the world unless the novelist wants them to remain characters. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 98:History fades into fable; fact becomes clouded with doubt and controversy; the inscription molders from the tablet; the statue falls from the pedestal. Columns, arches, pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand—and their epitaphs, but characters written in the dust? ~ washington-irving, @wisdomtrove 99:Do you see that kitten chasing so prettily her own tail? If you could look with her eyes, you might see her surrounded with hundreds of figures performing complex dramas, with tragic and comic issues, long conversations, many characters, many ups and downs of fate. ~ ralph-waldo-emerson, @wisdomtrove 100:Death and resurrection are what the story is about and had we but eyes to see it, this has been hinted on every page, met us, in some disguise, at every turn, and even been muttered in conversations between such minor characters (if they are minor characters) as the vegetables. ~ c-s-lewis, @wisdomtrove 101:There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters. ~ kurt-vonnegut, @wisdomtrove 102:The family. We are a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms. . . and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. ~ erma-bombeck, @wisdomtrove 103:If you ask any ordinary reader which of Dickens's proletarian characters he can remember, the three he is almost certain to mention are Bill Sykes, Sam Weller and Mrs. Gamp. A burglar, a valet and a drunken midwife-not exactly a representative cross-section of the English working class. ~ george-orwell, @wisdomtrove 104:I've done a number of films. I've been around this. I think the biggest challenge is just getting the script right, the way that you want the script to be. It's really about capturing the complexity of emotions and creating the kind of characters that people will want to watch every week. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 105:Have fun, entertain yourself with your work, make yourself laugh and cry with your own stories, make yourself shiver in suspense along with your characters. If you can do that, then you will most likely find a large audience; but even if a large audience is never found, you'll have a happy life. ~ dean-koontz, @wisdomtrove 106:Although I'm very lazy when it comes to writing, I'm not that lazy when it comes to thinking. I like to develop the plan of a short story, then cut it as short as possible, try to evolve all the necessary details. I know far more about the characters than what actually comes out of the writing. ~ jorge-luis-borges, @wisdomtrove 107:I was always fond of visiting new scenes, and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began my travels, and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city, to the frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town-crier. ~ washington-irving, @wisdomtrove 108:How could politics be a science, if laws and forms of government had not a uniform influence upon society? Where would be the foundation of morals, if particular characters had no certain or determinate power to produce particular sentiments, and if these sentiments had no constant operation on actions? ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 109:There are few people whom I really love, and still fewer of whom I think well. The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense. ~ jane-austen, @wisdomtrove 110:You know lots of criticism is written by characters who are very academic and think it is a sign you are worthless if you make jokes or kid or even clown. I wouldn't kid Our Lord if he was on the cross. But I would attempt a joke with him if I ran into him chasing the money changers out of the temple. ~ ernest-hemingway, @wisdomtrove 111:Our easiest approach to a definition of any aspect of fiction is always by considering the sort of demand it makes on the reader. Curiosity for the story, human feelings and a sense of value for the characters, intelligence and memory for the plot. What does fantasy ask of us? It asks us to pay something extra. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 112:There's a big difference between "not caring" or being "nihilistic" about a topic and simply not being enrolled by the drama presented by other people. Just because my characters choose not to react in standard, socially-appropriate ways - that does not mean they don't care. They just reject ordinary dramas. ~ chuck-palahniuk, @wisdomtrove 113:Writers write because they cannot allow the characters that inhabit them to suffocate them. These characters want to get out, to breathe fresh air and partake of the wine of friendship; were they to remain locked in, they would forcibly break down the walls. It is they who force the writer to tell their stories. ~ elie-wiesel, @wisdomtrove 114:If you look at that incredible burst of fantastic characters that emerged in the late 19th century/early 20th century, you can see so many of the fears and hopes of those times embedded in those characters. Even in throwaway bits of contemporary culture you can often find some penetrating insights into the real world around us. ~ alan-moore, @wisdomtrove 115:It is true that we shall not be able to reach perfection, but in our struggle toward it we shall strengthen our characters and give stability to our ideas, so that, whilst ever advancing calmly in the same direction, we shall be rendered capable of applying the faculties with which we have been gifted to the best possible account. ~ confucius, @wisdomtrove 116:I stood willingly and gladly in the characters of everything - other people, trees, clouds. And this is what I learned, that the world's otherness is antidote to confusion - that standing within this otherness - the beauty and the mystery of the world, out in the fields or deep inside books - can re-dignify the worst-stung heart. ~ mary-oliver, @wisdomtrove 117:When I'm writing it's as if I'm the observer. It's as if that computer screen there -it used to be the typewriter - just kind of dissolves and there's this whirling tunnel of mist and there's a kind of proscenium arch, and then there are my characters, and they say what they say, and I laugh sometimes in surprise at what they say. ~ richard-bach, @wisdomtrove 118:In a word, acts of any kind produce habits or characters of the same kind. Hence, we ought to make sure that our acts are of a certain kind; for the resulting character varies as they vary. It makes no small difference, therefore, whether a man be trained in his youth up in this way or that, but a great difference, or rather all the difference. ~ aristotle, @wisdomtrove 119:People come, people go ì they'll drift in and out of your life, almost like characters in a favorite book. When you finally close the cover, the characters have told their story and you start up again with another book, complete with new characters and adventures. Then you find yourself focusing on the new ones, not the ones from the past. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 120:I want characters to have voices that feel authentic, unique, honest, fresh and original - all at once. Part of that authenticity is evoking genuine emotion across life - the sadness, passion, love, sense of loss, missed opportunities, and confusion even. All of this helps us realize that our choices do impact the lives that we eventually lead. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 121:When we dream we appear to be one of many characters in the dream-drama. However, everyone and everything in the dream is being imagined by one dreaming awareness. I want to suggest it is the same right now. We appear to be many separate individuals. However, we are all different characters in the life-dream that is being dreamt by the one life-dreamer. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 122:When we dream, we appear to be one of many characters in the dream-drama. However, everyone and everything in the dream is being imagined by one dreaming awareness. I want to suggest it is the same right now. We appear to be many separate individuals. However, we are all different characters in the life-dream that is being dreamt by the one life-dreamer. ~ tim-freke, @wisdomtrove 123:I've made the decision to adhere to three general truths when it comes to my novels: There will be a love-story element to the story, the novel will be set in eastern North Carolina, and the characters will be likeable. Then, I make each novel unique through differences in voice, perspective, age and personalities of the characters, and of course, plot. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 124:Just as the screen does not share the qualities, characteristics, or limitations of any of the objects or characters in a movie, although it is their sole reality, so the knowing with which all knowledge and experience are known does not share the qualities, characteristics, or limitations of whatever is known or experienced. Thus, it is unlimited or infinite. ~ rupert-spira, @wisdomtrove 125:Listen, remember and understand - the mind is both the actor and the stage. All is of the mind and you are not the mind. The mind is born and reborn, not you. The mind creates the world and all the wonderful variety of it. Just like in a good play you have all sorts of characters and situations, so you need a little of everything to make a world. ~ sri-nisargadatta-maharaj, @wisdomtrove 126:and in that recurring dream, I found myself trapped in some sort of gigantic game of which I was unfamiliar with the rules; lost in a labyrinthine town of dark and damp, criss-crossing streets, ambiguous characters of uncertain authority having no idea of why I was there nor what I had to do, and where the first sign of the beginning of understanding was the wish to die. ~ franz-kafka, @wisdomtrove 127:People do tell a writer things that they don't tell others. I don't know why, unless it is that having read one or two of his books they feel on peculiarly intimate terms with him; or it may be that they dramatize themselves and, seeing themselves as it were as characters in a novel, are ready to be as open with him as they imagine the characters of his invention are. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 128:Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction; it is, in great part, a protest against Paganism. Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than action; innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good: in its precepts (as has been well said) "thou shalt not" predominates unduly over "thou shalt. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 129:We never know how much one loves till we know how much he is willing to endure and suffer for us; and it is the suffering element that measures love. The characters that are great must, of necessity, be characters that shall be willing, patient and strong to endure for others. To hold our nature in the willing service of another is the divine idea of manhood, of the human character. ~ henry-ward-beecher, @wisdomtrove 130:The present representative of the Dedlocks is an excellent master.He supposes all his dependents to be utterly bereft of individual characters, intentions or opinions, and is persuaded that he was born to supersede the necessity of their having any.If he were to make a discovery to the contrary, he would be simply stunned - would never recover himself, most likely, except to gasp and die. ~ charles-dickens, @wisdomtrove 131:You only learn when you give your whole being to something. When you give your whole being to mathematics,you learn; but when you are in a state of contradiction, when you do not want to learn but are forced to learn, then it becomes merely a process of accumulation. To learn is like reading a novel with innumerable characters; it requires your full attention, not contradictory attention. ~ jiddu-krishnamurti, @wisdomtrove 132:Someone who can search for something is happy. Searching gives a meaning to life. Nowadays it’s not so easy to find something you might be looking for. The most important thing, however, is the search itself, the way you take. It’s not so important where it leads. that’s why my characters are always looking for something, maybe only a cat, a sheep or a wife, but that is at least the beginning of a story. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove 133:We read Charlotte Bronte not for exquisite observation of character - her characters are vigorous and elementary; not for comedy - hers is grim and crude; not for a philosophic view of life - hers is that of a country parson's daughter; but for her poetry. Probably that is so with all writers who have, as she has, an overpowering personality, so that, as we say in real life, they have only to open the door to make themselves felt. ~ virginia-woolf, @wisdomtrove 134:A book is maybe about 350 pages, and the prose allows for readers to get a glimpse into the internal lives of the characters. A screenplay is 120 pages, and it's all dialogue and action. The pacing of films is different, the structure is often different, and the internal lives of the characters must come across through the acting. Movies are just a different experience than reading - so it just depends on what an individual prefers. ~ nicholas-sparks, @wisdomtrove 135:The story man must see clearly in his own mind how every piece of business will be put over. He should feel every expression, every reaction. He get far enough from his story to take a second look at it... to see whether there is any dead phase... to see whether the personalities are going to be interesting and appealing to the audience. He should also try to see that the things that his characters are doing are of an interesting nature. ~ walt-disney, @wisdomtrove 136:Racism is the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism. It is the notion of ascribing moral, social or political significance to a man's genetic lineage& 137:I wish to say seriously to all the daily newspapers, to the Republicans, the Democrat, and Socialist parties, that they cannot, month in month out and year in and year out, make the kind of untruthful, of bitter assault that they have made and not expect that brutal, violent natures, or brutal and violent characters, especially when the brutality is accompanied by a not very strong mind; they cannot expect that such natures will be unaffected by it. ~ theodore-roosevelt, @wisdomtrove 138:Had the news of salvation by Jesus Christ been inscribed on the face of the sun and the moon, in characters that all nations would have understood, the whole earth had known it in twenty-four hours, and all nations would have believed it; whereas, though it is now almost two thousand years since, as they tell us, Christ came upon earth, not a twentieth part of the people of the earth know anything of it, and among those who do, the wiser part do not believe it. ~ thomas-paine, @wisdomtrove 139:No one can write a best seller by trying to. He must write with complete sincerity; the clich√©s that make you laugh, the hackneyed characters, the well-worn situations, the commonplace story that excites your derision, seem neither hackneyed, well worn nor commonplace to him. ... The conclusion is obvious: you cannot write anything that will convince unless you are yourself convinced. The best seller sells because he writes with his heart's blood. ~ william-somerset-maugham, @wisdomtrove 140:I don't think there is anything wrong with a man who wants to give credit to the Lord, but I don't think the team with the most Christians on it is necessarily going to win. The Lord may be helping their characters and souls, but I don't think he's any more for the Dodgers than he is for the Braves. More than being concerned with who's going to win the Super Bowl, I feel the Lord is probably more concerned that they might find a day other than Sunday to play it on. ~ billy-graham, @wisdomtrove 141:A state of things in which a large portion of the most active and inquiring intellects find it advisable to keep the genuine principles and grounds of their convictions within their own breasts, and attempt, in what they address to the public, to fit as much as they can of their own conclusions to premises which they have internally renounced, cannot send forth the open, fearless characters, and logical, consistent intellects who once adorned the thinking world. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 142:How unutterably sweet is the knowledge that our Heavenly Father knows us completely. No talebearer can inform on us; no enemy can make an accusation stick; no forgotten skeleton can come tumbling out of some hidden closet to abash us and expose out past; no unsuspected weakness in our characters can come to light to turn God away from us, since He knew us utterly before we knew him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us. ~ aiden-wilson-tozer, @wisdomtrove 143:A man who has cured himself of all ridiculous prepossessions, and is fully, sincerely, and steadily convinced, from experience as well as philosophy, that the difference of fortune makes less difference in happiness than is vulgarly imagined; such a one does not measure out degrees of esteem according to the rent-rolls of his acquaintance. ... his internal sentiments are more regulated by the personal characters of men, than by the accidental and capricious favors of fortune. ~ david-hume, @wisdomtrove 144:The fault with all religions like Christianity is that they have one set of rules for all. But Hindu religion is suited to all grades of religious aspiration and progress. It contains all the ideals in their perfect form. For example, the ideal of Shanta or blessedness is to be found in Vasishtha; that of love in Krishna; that of duty in Rama and Sita; and that of intellect in Shukadeva. Study the characters of these and of other ideal men. Adopt one which suits you best. ~ swami-vivekananda, @wisdomtrove 145:That perhaps is your task& 146:The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never surprises it is flat. Flat characters ... in their purest form ... are constructed round a single idea or quality; when there is more than one factor to them, we get the beginning of the curve toward the round. The really flat character can be experessed in one sentence such as, "I will never desert Mr Micawber." There is Mrs Micawber - she says she won't desert Mr Micawber; she doesn't, and there she is. ~ e-m-forster, @wisdomtrove 147:What are the characters that I discern most clearly in the so-called Anglo-Saxon type of man? I may answer at once that two stickout above all others. One is his curious and apparently incurable incompetence& 148:The story is the only thing that's important. Everything else will take care of itself. It's like what bowlers say. You hear writers talk about character or theme or mood or mode or tense or person. But bowlers say, if you make the spares, the strikes will take care of themselves. If you can tell a story, everything else becomes possible. But without story, nothing is possible, because nobody wants to hear about your sensitive characters if there's nothing happening in the story. And the same is true with mood. Story is the only thing that's important. ~ stephen-king, @wisdomtrove 149:We were wise indeed, could we discern truly the signs of our own time; and by knowledge of its wants and advantages, wisely adjust our own position in it. Let us, instead of gazing idly into the obscure distance, look calmly around us, for a little, on the perplexed scene where we stand. Perhaps, on a more serious inspection, something of its perplexity will disappear, some of its distinctive characters and deeper tendencies more clearly reveal themselves; whereby our own relations to it, our own true aims and endeavors in it, may also become clearer. ~ thomas-carlyle, @wisdomtrove 150:The tribute that is due to the talents, the rectitude, and the patriotism which adorn the characters selected to devise and adopt them. In these honorable qualifications, I behold the surest pledges, that as on one side, no local prejudices, or attachments; no seperate views, nor party animosities, will misdirect the comprehensive and equal eye which ought to watch over this great assemblage of communities and interests: so, on another, that the foundations of our National policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality... ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 151:Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction... . In its horror of sensuality, it made an idol of asceticism, which has been gradually compromised away into one of legality. It holds out the hope of heaven and the threat of hell, as the appointed and appropriate motives to a virtuous life - in this falling far below the best of the ancients, and doing what lies in it to give to human morality an essentially selfish character... . It is essentially a doctrine of passive obedience; it inculcates submission to all authorities found established. ~ john-stuart-mill, @wisdomtrove 152:What astonishing changes a few years are capable of producing! I am told that even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. From thinking proceeds speaking, thence to acting is often but a single step. But how irrevocable and tremendous! What a triumph for the advocates of despotism to find that we are incapable of governing ourselves, and that systems founded on the basis of equal liberty are merely ideal and falacious! Would to God that wise measures may be taken in time to avert the consequences we have but too much reason to apprehend. ~ george-washington, @wisdomtrove 153:MANIFESTO OF THE BRAVE AND BROKENHEARTED There is no greater threat to the critics and cynics and fearmongers Than those of us who are willing to fall Because we have learned how to rise With skinned knees and bruised hearts; We choose owning our stories of struggle, Over hiding, over hustling, over pretending. When we deny our stories, they define us. When we run from struggle, we are never free. So we turn toward truth and look it in the eye. We will not be characters in our stories. Not villains, not victims, not even heroes. We are the authors of our lives. We write our own daring endings. We craft love from heartbreak, Compassion from shame, Grace from disappointment, Courage from failure. Showing up is our power. Story is our way home. Truth is our song. We are the brave and brokenhearted. We are rising strong. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:I like naming characters. ~ Roddy Doyle, #NFDB
2:I'm about my characters. ~ Abel Ferrara, #NFDB
3:There are as many characters in men ~ Ovid, #NFDB
4:I like complicated characters. ~ Greg Kinnear, #NFDB
5:Sublime characters are stubborn. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
6:I always liked strange characters. ~ Tim Burton, #NFDB
7:I love con-men characters in film. ~ Simon Baker, #NFDB
8:I'm my characters' galley slave. ~ Chloe Thurlow, #NFDB
9:My characters are not plastic. ~ Karen Kingsbury, #NFDB
10:I meet a lot of characters in the ~ Kenny Chesney, #NFDB
11:My characters come from a good place. ~ Seth Rogen, #NFDB
12:I base all my characters on hair. ~ Patrick Dempsey, #NFDB
13:My characters are galley slaves. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
14:I don't like sympathetic characters. ~ Howard Barker, #NFDB
15:I don't take characters home with me. ~ Sissy Spacek, #NFDB
16:Sometimes my characters are not myself. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
17:All my characters have playlists. ~ Michael K Williams, #NFDB
18:I want to play many different characters. ~ Demi Moore, #NFDB
19:Most women have no characters at all. ~ Alexander Pope, #NFDB
20:I never act my characters - I am them. ~ Drew Barrymore, #NFDB
21:I spend a lot of time with my characters. ~ R Lee Ermey, #NFDB
22:I'm attracted to the underrated characters. ~ Tim Crouch, #NFDB
23:You have to like the characters you play. ~ Ted McGinley, #NFDB
24:Characters are born from necessity. ~ Christopher Paolini, #NFDB
25:I love playing confused, broken characters. ~ Nina Dobrev, #NFDB
26:Our characters are the result of our conduct. ~ Aristotle, #NFDB
27:Every sport has its own cast of characters. ~ Randy Savage, #NFDB
28:I really believe in the characters I play. ~ Minnie Driver, #NFDB
29:screaming at characters to go ahead already ~ Adam Haslett, #NFDB
30:Star Trek characters never go shopping. ~ Douglas Coupland, #NFDB
31:I'd like to play nothing but good characters. ~ Joan Leslie, #NFDB
32:I enjoy being characters rather than myself. ~ Kristen Wiig, #NFDB
33:I'm drawn to damaged, complicated characters. ~ Ruth Wilson, #NFDB
34:None of my characters have really had jobs. ~ Lauren Graham, #NFDB
35:Outside books, we avoid colorful characters. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
36:TV is a safe place to develop real characters. ~ Doug Liman, #NFDB
37:We may divide characters into flat and round. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
38:All of my characters have a glint of madness. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
39:In a way, the characters often do take over. ~ Margaret Mahy, #NFDB
40:I was the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters. ~ Bob Woodward, #NFDB
41:The maxims of men reveal their characters. ~ Luc de Clapiers, #NFDB
42:I like to hide behind the characters I play. ~ Angelina Jolie, #NFDB
43:I love flawed female characters, duking it out. ~ Lena Dunham, #NFDB
44:her dearest friends are characters in books. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
45:...her dearest friends are characters in books. ~ Sarah J Maas, #NFDB
46:I always believed in my characters. I lived them ~ Irene Dunne, #NFDB
47:It is fun to explore these kick-butt characters. ~ Liam Neeson, #NFDB
48:It is true that my characters have sex. ~ Shirley Geok lin Lim, #NFDB
49:I try to distinguish my characters from each other. ~ Lucy Liu, #NFDB
50:But we're all characters in our own stories, Iggy. ~ Kate Klise, #NFDB
51:I look for characters who are emotionally driven. ~ Stacy Keach, #NFDB
52:intricate characters are the most amusing. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
53:The best characters are always wretchedly flawed ~ Danai Gurira, #NFDB
54:There are great characters on television. ~ Penelope Ann Miller, #NFDB
55:I like playing dark, offbeat, quirky characters. ~ Mischa Barton, #NFDB
56:I've done literally 100, 150 different characters. ~ Hank Azaria, #NFDB
57:Voice is really about letting your characters loose. ~ C S Lakin, #NFDB
58:characters, #1 New York Times best-selling author ~ Fern Michaels, #NFDB
59:I say, without characters, fame lives long. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
60:It's fun making new skills for new characters. ~ Masahiro Sakurai, #NFDB
61:I've always played very human sort of characters. ~ Michael Caine, #NFDB
62:My characters are always utterly sympathetic to me. ~ Donal Logue, #NFDB
63:States are as the men, they grow out of human characters. ~ Plato, #NFDB
64:There are no such things as fictional characters. ~ Matthew Quick, #NFDB
65:You have to play your characters, not like them. ~ John Malkovich, #NFDB
66:I always find stuff in my characters to relate to. ~ Gerard Butler, #NFDB
67:The characters I write about are very internal. ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
68:An author's characters do what he wants them to do. ~ W E B Griffin, #NFDB
69:Dreams are the touchstones of our characters. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
70:Few characters in history are indispensable. ~ Albert Bushnell Hart, #NFDB
71:I enjoy playing characters where the silence is loud. ~ Gary Oldman, #NFDB
72:I like characters who remind me of someone I know. ~ Mia Wasikowska, #NFDB
73:Our characters are forged in fires we didn't build. ~ Patricia Ryan, #NFDB
74:We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters ~ Ashlee Vance, #NFDB
75:We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters. ~ Peter Thiel, #NFDB
76:I enjoy bringing humanity to complex characters. ~ Isaiah Washington, #NFDB
77:I let my characters do the talking, simple as that. ~ Terry McMillan, #NFDB
78:I've always had difficulties with female characters. ~ John le Carre, #NFDB
79:Kids are more drawn to animal characters than human. ~ Brian Jacques, #NFDB
80:You can never know enough about your characters ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
81:Benevolence is one of the distinguishing characters of man. ~ Mencius, #NFDB
82:I don't have acknowledged preferences of characters. ~ Christian Bale, #NFDB
83:I'm much more low-key than the characters I've played. ~ Matt LeBlanc, #NFDB
84:I want to play characters that are interesting to watch. ~ Ben Barnes, #NFDB
85:Jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle, #NFDB
86:Novels without female characters were a lifeless desert. ~ Ian McEwan, #NFDB
87:Novels without female characters were a lifeless desert. ~ Ian Mcewan, #NFDB
88:the most massive characters are seared with scars.
~ Khalil Gibran,#NFDB
89:You can't blame a writer for what the characters say. ~ Truman Capote, #NFDB
90:Although it features several characters from my other ~ Sloane Kennedy, #NFDB
91:As a Southerner, I love obstacles for my characters. ~ Karin Slaughter, #NFDB
92:I love playing characters who are opposite of who I am. ~ Maiara Walsh, #NFDB
93:I'm interested in characters that are complex people. ~ Jehane Noujaim, #NFDB
94:I've always been drawn to dark, disturbing characters. ~ Chad Lindberg, #NFDB
95:Modest fame is not to be despised by the highest characters. ~ Tacitus, #NFDB
96:Music is always a part of my characters' make-up. ~ Michael K Williams, #NFDB
97:Usually most characters I play are quite realistic. ~ Virginie Ledoyen, #NFDB
98:I am like my characters - sometimes even the female ones. ~ Jorge Amado, #NFDB
99:I was always inventing characters and making up stories. ~ Suzanne Vega, #NFDB
100:Normally, I name my characters after famous comedians. ~ Paula Danziger, #NFDB
101:The characters and events in this book are fictitious. ~ Daniel Abraham, #NFDB
102:We are all but characters in the books of God's library. ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
103:Emotions serve characters' purposes. That is their motivation. ~ Ang Lee, #NFDB
104:Human beings are glorious and preposterous characters. ~ Tommy Lee Jones, #NFDB
105:I love comic books, comic book characters and superheroes. ~ Jon Huertas, #NFDB
106:Let them cant about decorum, who have characters to lose! ~ Robert Burns, #NFDB
107:Television lets audiences deeply connect with characters. ~ Claire Danes, #NFDB
108:Characters who love loneliness walk on lonely roads! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan, #NFDB
109:I've been lucky to play characters that are really broad. ~ Anton Yelchin, #NFDB
110:Notable characters do not alone bear trouble; they use it. ~ Hugh B Brown, #NFDB
111:Your characters should be as smart as you are, if not smarter. ~ Tina Fey, #NFDB
112:characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents ~ Barbara Longley, #NFDB
113:Fiction is about intimacy with characters, events, places. ~ Robert Morgan, #NFDB
114:For the most part, there's so much of me in my characters. ~ Rashida Jones, #NFDB
115:I don't know why, but I respond well to tortured characters. ~ Halle Berry, #NFDB
116:Scent has become a way for me to differentiate characters. ~ Margot Robbie, #NFDB
117:The art of fiction is freedom of will for your characters. ~ Cynthia Ozick, #NFDB
118:The audience can feel the subtleties of the characters. ~ Robert Downey Jr, #NFDB
119:The genre of fantasy is about magic and occult characters. ~ Shawn Ashmore, #NFDB
120:Usually my characters, though young, tend to be street-wise. ~ Rachel Cohn, #NFDB
121:...you mean you don't fit characters into a plot? excatly... ~ John Geddes, #NFDB
122:Characters begin as your children and become your teachers. ~ Chloe Thurlow, #NFDB
123:Dialogue in fiction is what characters do to one another. ~ Elizabeth Bowen, #NFDB
124:I don't do special effects. I do characters. I do creatures. ~ Stan Winston, #NFDB
125:I like playing flawed characters, people who aren't perfect. ~ Tom Berenger, #NFDB
126:I've auditioned for normal characters. But I never get cast. ~ Jared Harris, #NFDB
127:Two characters and sexy banter do not a book make, damn it. ~ Sherry Thomas, #NFDB
128:You can live vicariously through the characters you play. ~ Charlize Theron, #NFDB
129:You live like comfortable strangers. Like characters in a play. ~ Aryn Kyle, #NFDB
130:I always talk about my characters like they're real people. ~ Dakota Fanning, #NFDB
131:I assume most of the characters I play are exactly like me. ~ Jack Nicholson, #NFDB
132:I had an obsession that I was male characters from movies. ~ Illeana Douglas, #NFDB
133:I'm first and foremost interested in the story, the characters. ~ David Lean, #NFDB
134:I'm sure there's pieces of me in all the characters I play. ~ John Krasinski, #NFDB
135:I see bits and pieces of me in all the characters in my films. ~ Neil LaBute, #NFDB
136:I want to tell authentic, real stories with real characters. ~ Adepero Oduye, #NFDB
137:Put your characters where they are the most interesting. ~ James D Macdonald, #NFDB
138:When I do film, I really take on roles and I take on characters. ~ Meat Loaf, #NFDB
139:Yes, I love playing cartoony characters. Been known for that. ~ Joan Collins, #NFDB
140:I just want to play strong characters, whatever that is in. ~ Paula Malcomson, #NFDB
141:I know there are only so many characters I'll be able to play. ~ Ryan Gosling, #NFDB
142:I'm more interested in characters who are a little difficult. ~ Daniel Clowes, #NFDB
143:It always takes awhile to find out who the characters are. ~ Rene Auberjonois, #NFDB
144:I trust my characters. They know their stories better than I do. ~ Rayne Hall, #NFDB
145:I've always played characters that were younger than myself. ~ Carey Mulligan, #NFDB
146:I've played many characters that have consumed me and owned me. ~ Irrfan Khan, #NFDB
147:Woman's faith and woman's trust, Write the characters in dust. ~ Walter Scott, #NFDB
148:I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality. ~ Clint Eastwood, #NFDB
149:I can always see something of myself in the characters I play. ~ Mark Wahlberg, #NFDB
150:I don't agree with the idea that my characters are unlikeable. ~ Noah Baumbach, #NFDB
151:If Greek and Latin characters are paving stones, Arabic is rain. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
152:I like characters who have faults. I'm drawn to darker people. ~ Hayley Atwell, #NFDB
153:I think all characters that we play are facets of ourselves. ~ Gugu Mbatha Raw, #NFDB
154:My characters are actually usually pretty smart and admirable. ~ Michael Lewis, #NFDB
155:People like the comedy more when they care about the characters. ~ Judd Apatow, #NFDB
156:When complicated characters aren't well drawn, they're boring. ~ Rebecca Eaton, #NFDB
157:All I want to do is write songs about funny characters I made up. ~ Wes Borland, #NFDB
158:Characters for me are born on page one and they die on page 100. ~ Brady Corbet, #NFDB
159:Don’t interrupt when your characters take a flight of their own. ~ Pawan Mishra, #NFDB
160:I often wonder if we were all characters in one of God's dreams. ~ Muriel Spark, #NFDB
161:It is easier to influence strong than weak characters in life. ~ Margot Asquith, #NFDB
162:The more varied the characters, the better, as far as I'm concerned. ~ Tim Roth, #NFDB
163:Anything with a good story and characters I think would be great. ~ Kara Hayward, #NFDB
164:If you spend enough time with your characters, plot simply happens. ~ Chris Baty, #NFDB
165:I'm not crazy. I play a lot of crazy characters, but I'm an actor. ~ Randy Quaid, #NFDB
166:I was like, "Everybody sees my characters. Nobody sees me!" ~ June Diane Raphael, #NFDB
167:Malice delights to blacken the characters of prominent men. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
168:Sometimes I want to slap some of the characters with their own book. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
169:When you deal with nonfiction you deal with human characters. ~ Marya Hornbacher, #NFDB
170:Aaron Echolls is one of the best characters that I've ever played. ~ Harry Hamlin, #NFDB
171:Excessively passionate characters have a tendency to behave poorly. ~ Osamu Dazai, #NFDB
172:... it's always determined characters who make the greatest fools. ~ Fanny Kemble, #NFDB
173:It's important to collect unusual characters. It keeps you sharp. ~ Billy Gibbons, #NFDB
174:The world is full of fictional characters looking for their stories ~ Diane Arbus, #NFDB
175:You can't help parts of yourself leaking into other characters. ~ Joanna Trollope, #NFDB
176:You have to love the characters you play, even if no one else does. ~ Glenn Close, #NFDB
177:Shakespeare’s characters, they cannot help but engage in an analysis ~ Laura Bates, #NFDB
178:Sketches have characters, exits, entrances and are vastly different. ~ David Cross, #NFDB
179:When your characters are really living they tell you what they do. ~ Andrea Arnold, #NFDB
180:All the great writers root their characters in true human behaviour. ~ Ben Kingsley, #NFDB
181:As the story unfolded, the cast of characters changed to match it. ~ Warren Spector, #NFDB
182:I like it when actors depart from the script to find their characters. ~ Fatih Ak n, #NFDB
183:I like the idea of characters without shame, who hold nothing back. ~ Matthew Healy, #NFDB
184:I like to try to make the characters I play be as human as possible. ~ Beau Bridges, #NFDB
185:I'm drawn to dark characters, and to things that are really weighty. ~ Tony Vincent, #NFDB
186:Loud-dressing men and women have also loud characters. ~ Thomas Chandler Haliburton, #NFDB
187:Most men like in women what is most opposite their own characters. ~ Henry Fielding, #NFDB
188:Twitter is my happy place. I am not there to overthink 140 characters. ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
189:Women are interesting characters. Their very nature breeds mystery. ~ Susan Wingate, #NFDB
190:You treat characters like people you meet in life-friends or mentors. ~ Wes Bentley, #NFDB
191:Characters are often revealed by the ways they misapprehend others. ~ Robert Boswell, #NFDB
192:characters as rich and complex as those we believe ourselves to be ~ Thomas C Foster, #NFDB
193:I feel I should never do passive characters. They don't work for me. ~ Emraan Hashmi, #NFDB
194:I love inventing worlds and characters and settings and scenarios. ~ Jerry B Jenkins, #NFDB
195:I love Norse mythology - Thor and Odin and Loki - amazing characters. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
196:I write about relationships and I try to create real-life characters. ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
197:Like anything, you've gotta find the humanity in the characters. ~ Holliday Grainger, #NFDB
198:Multiple characters make it more difficult to showcase each character. ~ David Finch, #NFDB
199:Playing characters that speak a very violent language was my livelihood. ~ Greg Bryk, #NFDB
200:As if they were our own handiwork we place a high value on our characters. ~ Epicurus, #NFDB
201:I don't judge my characters, and that's my job not to judge them. ~ Quentin Tarantino, #NFDB
202:I just want to challenge myself and play some different characters. ~ Bridgit Mendler, #NFDB
203:I like the early comic book characters more than the new ones. ~ Nicolas Winding Refn, #NFDB
204:My characters shall have, after a little trouble, all that they desire. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
205:You don't buy evil characters lattes. That's not normal behavior. ~ Rob James Collier, #NFDB
206:A reader doesn't really see the characters in a story; he feels them. ~ Cornelia Funke, #NFDB
207:I believe we need to do a duel of the young adult book characters. ~ Elizabeth Eulberg, #NFDB
208:I do not use profanity in my novels. My characters all go to church. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
209:If I were invited to a dinner party with my characters, I wouldn't show up. ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
210:If you care about [the characters] as if they were real, that always helps. ~ Tina Fey, #NFDB
211:I prefer to work with grey characters rather than black and white. ~ George R R Martin, #NFDB
212:I've tried most of my career to transform myself towards characters. ~ Charlize Theron, #NFDB
213:please,Tana,please.' -lots of characters in The Coldest Girl in Coldtown ~ Holly Black, #NFDB
214:some Haitian gangster-cum-political bigwig. He had seen such characters ~ Ruth Rendell, #NFDB
215:Very few of my characters are totally heroic or totally villainous. ~ Charlaine Harris, #NFDB
216:For each book, I do end up making a kind of playlist to fit the characters. ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
217:I believe locations should try to be and evoke the characters in a movie. ~ Brad Furman, #NFDB
218:I quote fictional characters, because I'm a fictional character myself! ~ Carrie Fisher, #NFDB
219:I want things to be characters and not me. Why would I want to play me? ~ Anton Yelchin, #NFDB
220:I want to play challenging characters. You should never be satisfied. ~ Bryan Greenberg, #NFDB
221:I write characters and stories that move me, and I write from the heart. ~ Robert Crais, #NFDB
222:qualities results in the production of corresponding characters, ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, #NFDB
223:Take characters that Nicholson or De Niro play: they're not always tough ~ Tom Berenger, #NFDB
224:Talking out loud to fictional characters is just the tip of the iceberg. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
225:The only characters I've made to resemble real people have been grotesques. ~ Glen Cook, #NFDB
226:The town is as full as ever of 'characters,' all created by each other. ~ Wilfrid Sheed, #NFDB
227:And how characters face the challenges at hand is what makes them heroes. ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
228:For people who are invested in these characters and the back-story of the ~ Casey Hudson, #NFDB
229:High aims form high characters, and great objects bring out great minds. ~ Tryon Edwards, #NFDB
230:I don't think male characters are as one-dimensional as female characters. ~ Geena Davis, #NFDB
231:I like characters who don't change, who don't learn from their mistakes. ~ David Fincher, #NFDB
232:I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
233:Men are funny characters, they must always have something to bemuse them. ~ Henrik Ibsen, #NFDB
234:My work is to know the characters intimately and to tell their story. ~ Julianna Baggott, #NFDB
235:One of the ways I think I gain fodder for characters is by watching people. ~ Edie Falco, #NFDB
236:The kind of actors I admire move through different characters and genres. ~ Andrew Scott, #NFDB
237:The loves of all hearts are so many mirrors revealing their characters. ~ Fulton J Sheen, #NFDB
238:The most fun characters to work with are characters that are complicated. ~ Drew Goddard, #NFDB
239:The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men. ~ Samuel Adams, #NFDB
240:They share a steady friendship in spite of great opposition of characters. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
241:You don't write for actors. Actors come for characters you've made up. ~ William Monahan, #NFDB
242:Characters don't belong to anyone, not even the person who plays them. ~ Antonio Banderas, #NFDB
243:Every time I make a movie I have too many characters and too many locations. ~ Rob Zombie, #NFDB
244:Guilty characters might escape prosecution, but they never escaped justice. ~ Kate Morton, #NFDB
245:I like risky parts - abrasive characters the audience won't necessarily like. ~ Tim Curry, #NFDB
246:It is to be lamented that great characters are seldom without a blot. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
247:One believes in Stephen Dedalus as one believes in few characters in fiction. ~ H G Wells, #NFDB
248:There are characters that become more popular as we fall in love with them. ~ Dan Scanlon, #NFDB
249:Writing can give full meaning to characters and avoid pure stereotype. ~ James Earl Jones, #NFDB
250:Age, habits of business and experience have modified many characters. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte, #NFDB
251:All characters are based on elements of a writer's personal experience. ~ Robert Holdstock, #NFDB
252:Characters only take action after they are challenged by an outside force. ~ Donald Miller, #NFDB
253:Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters. ~ John Stuart Mill, #NFDB
254:Ever since I was really little, I've had characters that were in my mind. ~ Terry Goodkind, #NFDB
255:Generally, the bigger the budget, the less interesting the characters become. ~ Matt Damon, #NFDB
256:I always get inspiration from whatever characters say about my character. ~ Robert Englund, #NFDB
257:I don't like characters that are left being jerks at the end of the movie. ~ Jeremy London, #NFDB
258:I frequently gravitate toward characters that have some urgency or soul. ~ Peter Sarsgaard, #NFDB
259:I gravitate towards sort of broken characters who try to be better people. ~ Matthew Perry, #NFDB
260:I like to think of characters in relation to other cinematic characters. ~ Leslye Headland, #NFDB
261:In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
262:I relate to most of the characters I play, because I do feel like an outsider. ~ Jon Heder, #NFDB
263:It's almost a work-shopping process to create the characters with the actors. ~ Doug Liman, #NFDB
264:My job is to be a blank canvas & embody the characters that I'm playing. ~ Charlize Theron, #NFDB
265:Our politics are overrun with characters acting at the behest of shadows. ~ Charles M Blow, #NFDB
266:The best characters to play are the ones who have deep internal conflict. ~ George Blagden, #NFDB
267:Generous in spirit, richly poetic, and packed with memorable characters. ~ Lawrence Millman, #NFDB
268:I'd be lying if I said killing off characters wasn't therapeutic in some way. ~ Eliza Green, #NFDB
269:I don't always understand my characters. I write to understand them better. ~ Dacia Maraini, #NFDB
270:I don't mind what the role is at all; I just want to play cool characters. ~ Daniel Cudmore, #NFDB
271:I only work with actors who take full responsibility for their characters. ~ Jonathan Demme, #NFDB
272:I seem to voice a lot of sweet, kind of dumb yellow characters for some reason. ~ Tom Kenny, #NFDB
273:Only strong characters can resist the temptation of superficial analysis. ~ Albert Einstein, #NFDB
274:Situation seems to be the mould in which men's characters are formed. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft, #NFDB
275:Anyone could identify with the human aspect of the characters. ~ Gilberto Hernandez Guerrero, #NFDB
276:By the hairy ass of lord hell." Many characters in the Deverry Cycle Novels ~ Katharine Kerr, #NFDB
277:Good characters are rare. As long as I find one or two a year, I'm happy. ~ Ludivine Sagnier, #NFDB
278:I don't like having characters as props. I never want a character to be a prop. ~ Will Gluck, #NFDB
279:If I was like some of the characters I played, I'd probably be dead by now. ~ Jennifer Tilly, #NFDB
280:I'm trying to broaden my range and get different characters in each film. ~ Jodi Lyn O Keefe, #NFDB
281:In Hollywood I thought I was large and klutzy, like the characters I played. ~ Madeline Kahn, #NFDB
282:I think the characters are supposed to be an open book, blank canvas. ~ Benedict Cumberbatch, #NFDB
283:I think what good television does well is that it shows characters evolving. ~ Mike O Malley, #NFDB
284:I try to always stretch myself to fit the characters that have been presented. ~ Kathy Bates, #NFDB
285:Larger-than-life characters make up about .01 percent of the world's population. ~ Tom Hanks, #NFDB
286:Portraying emotionally ill characters gives me the chance to really act. ~ Leonardo DiCaprio, #NFDB
287:Characters are not created by writers. They pre-exist and have to be found. ~ Elizabeth Bowen, #NFDB
288:Characters carrying the playwright's disapproval is a un-Shakespearian burden. ~ Harold Bloom, #NFDB
289:Characters who experience great trauma will sometimes create an escape. ~ Geoffrey S Fletcher, #NFDB
290:Holding unconventional opinions makes people feel they have strong characters. ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
291:I became an actor so I can show you characters and never have to show you me. ~ Margot Robbie, #NFDB
292:I do have characters who are more well known than I am, which suits me fine. ~ Jeffrey Wright, #NFDB
293:I don't think I like characters who are afraid and ashamed of who they are. ~ Christina Ricci, #NFDB
294:I had tears coming out of my eyes. And it was the characters that got me there. ~ Jean M Auel, #NFDB
295:I mean I tried to transform myself through characters throughout my career. ~ Charlize Theron, #NFDB
296:My job is to focus on bringing characters to life in an honest and personal way. ~ Danny Pudi, #NFDB
297:Once you have your characters, they tell you what to write, you don't tell them. ~ Alan Furst, #NFDB
298:Sometimes I miss the people my characters were before I ruined their lives. ~ Victoria Schwab, #NFDB
299:The literal meaning of the Chinese characters for revolution is elimination of life ~ Ma Jian, #NFDB
300:These are characters in a fairy tale for grown-ups. Wouldn't it be lovely? Yes. ~ Diane Arbus, #NFDB
301:We can bring to characters dark and bright sides that nobody even dreams about. ~ Sonia Braga, #NFDB
302:You do look at a lot of movies and many characters seem to be interchangeable. ~ Duncan Jones, #NFDB
303:You're living through your characters when you need to be living in real life. ~ Meghan Quinn, #NFDB
304:...and everyday confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
305:Any time two characters are talking about a third, the scene is a crock of s***. ~ David Mamet, #NFDB
306:Fairy tales are life lessons disguised with colorful characters and situations. ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
307:George Lucas puts those types of characters in for the kids. Same with Jar Jar. ~ Peter Mayhew, #NFDB
308:Get too conceptual, too cute and remote, and your characters die on the page. ~ Thomas Pynchon, #NFDB
309:I always try to make my characters people, and yet I always want to entertain. ~ Jeffrey Combs, #NFDB
310:I like characters who have strong facades and then have secrets. They have cracks. ~ Eva Green, #NFDB
311:In many films, as many different characters, I've killed many different people. ~ Daniel Craig, #NFDB
312:I tend to play characters that arent supposed to black or written black. ~ Megalyn Echikunwoke, #NFDB
313:Listen to the way people talk. If your characters sound real the rest is easy. ~ David Eddings, #NFDB
314:Love makes people irrational, so write irrationally great characters in love. ~ Erik Christian, #NFDB
315:My films do have characters who have trouble escaping the world around them. ~ Lasse Hallstrom, #NFDB
316:Never argue with your characters; they know themselves better than you do ~ Laurell K Hamilton, #NFDB
317:Places have their own characters. . . . But the people begin to look the same. ~ Joanne Harris, #NFDB
318:Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no other writer can. ~ Julian Barnes, #NFDB
319:good storytelling is good because the characters — not the author — are in charge. ~ Sean Platt, #NFDB
320:Good writing is made up of characters who are bigger than their circumstances. ~ Michael Knight, #NFDB
321:I'm always being asked to play roles or characters that I don't really resemble. ~ John Lithgow, #NFDB
322:I'm not going to say it's laziness, but I'm not a grand creator of new characters. ~ Lore Segal, #NFDB
323:I'm not particularly interested in playing characters that think the way I do. ~ Cate Blanchett, #NFDB
324:It is three and a half hours long, four characters wide and a cesspool deep. ~ John Jay Chapman, #NFDB
325:I try to write about real women, real people - in other words flawed characters. ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
326:It was easy for viewers to identify with our show. The characters were believable. ~ Desi Arnaz, #NFDB
327:Shows should just be able to be shows without hyphenating their lead characters. ~ George Lopez, #NFDB
328:The more you are known, the more difficult it is to hide behind characters. ~ Vincent D Onofrio, #NFDB
329:You can’t live with literary characters no matter how much you might like to. ~ Henning Mankell, #NFDB
330:Characters do not change. Opinions alter, but characters are only developed. ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #NFDB
331:Dialogue comes naturally to me and I can hear the characters' voices in the scenes. ~ Wally Lamb, #NFDB
332:I don't have a very clear idea of who the characters are until they start talking. ~ Joan Didion, #NFDB
333:I love the opportunity to tell the story about the characters through the music. ~ Alex Kurtzman, #NFDB
334:In a weird way, I live vicariously through the characters I play as an actor. ~ James Badge Dale, #NFDB
335:I never used to kill characters, because I thought killing characters was cheating. ~ David Hare, #NFDB
336:In what we think of as bad dialogue, the characters talk directly to each other. ~ Diane Johnson, #NFDB
337:I really do like working very closely with a director and developing characters. ~ Morgan Saylor, #NFDB
338:I think, above all, the characters in my novels feel universal to the readers. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
339:I wanted to give readers the feeling of knowing the characters, a mental image. ~ Michael Chabon, #NFDB
340:I want to play a variety of different characters in different genres of film. ~ Victoria Justice, #NFDB
341:Storylines are how characters create the plots involved in their stories. ~ Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, #NFDB
342:The more characters you have, the bigger the book, the more flaming chain saws. ~ Benjamin Percy, #NFDB
343:The situation comes first...the characters...come next...[then] begin to narrate. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
344:What's the difference between Hollywood characters and my characters? Mine are real. ~ Spike Lee, #NFDB
345:All my best stuff is stolen by characters in my books, especially Phil
Crawford. ~ Den Warren,#NFDB
346:I don't think about the characters I choose to play, analytically or consciously. ~ Steve Buscemi, #NFDB
347:If any of my characters require me to blacken my beard I do it, otherwise I don't. ~ Akshay Kumar, #NFDB
348:I have this wholesome disposition in a lot of my characters. A certain earnestness. ~ Matt Lauria, #NFDB
349:I just have my characters say my controversial opinions and then hide behind them. ~ Mindy Kaling, #NFDB
350:I'm someone who loves to play. I make films so I can have fun with the characters. ~ Jane Campion, #NFDB
351:I think having funny characters is just one way of having three-dimensional characters. ~ Ti West, #NFDB
352:I wanted to have the strongest band. I was always looking for the strongest characters. ~ Yoshiki, #NFDB
353:I was about two years old when I first started drawing recognizable characters. ~ Seth MacFarlane, #NFDB
354:My only obligation is to my characters. And they came from where I have been. ~ Quentin Tarantino, #NFDB
355:Pathologizing the unlikable in fictional characters is an almost Pavlovian response. ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
356:Readers need to stop assuming characters are white if race isn't explicitly defined. ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
357:The characters are, by their nature, archetypes that can serve different metaphors. ~ Kurt Busiek, #NFDB
358:They [my characters]speak to me all the time! In fact some of them never shut up! ~ Michael Scott, #NFDB
359:Very few of my characters are based on people I've known. It is too constricting. ~ Julian Barnes, #NFDB
360:Because I'm a synesthete I see characters in colors and I perceive a W as green. ~ Robert Cailliau, #NFDB
361:I appear to be drawn to iconic characters and what they reflect back to our cultures. ~ Tom Hooper, #NFDB
362:I believe in characters that can be tangible, and that you can actually relate to. ~ Demian Bichir, #NFDB
363:I had no intention of pursuing either the characters or the setting further. ~ Stephen R Donaldson, #NFDB
364:I love making characters real and believable, through my own experience and choices. ~ Minka Kelly, #NFDB
365:I'm an actor's director. I love it when talented actors can bring characters to life. ~ Fred Durst, #NFDB
366:I'm very attracted to characters who don't necessarily make it easy to be loved. ~ Charlize Theron, #NFDB
367:In all ranks and all stations of life, how strangely characters and manners differ! ~ Fanny Burney, #NFDB
368:I never really like the characters I play. I only come to love them afterwards. ~ Gerard Depardieu, #NFDB
369:It is the size of the characters’ desires that helps to make a sad story a tragedy. ~ Jean Hegland, #NFDB
370:I've played a heroin addict and a speed freak and dark characters throughout my career. ~ Meg Ryan, #NFDB
371:I was the nerdy one. I always played those kind of characters until Mad Men. ~ Christina Hendricks, #NFDB
372:The way of creating believable characters is not by conforming to a set of PC rules. ~ Mark Haddon, #NFDB
373:Twitter is most suitable for me. In the Chinese language, 140 characters is a novella. ~ Ai Weiwei, #NFDB
374:What if the characters in a book had lives of their own after the cover was closed? ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
375:I don't think that the feminist movement has done much for the characters of women. ~ Doris Lessing, #NFDB
376:I don't think you can teach someone how to come up with good characters or a story. ~ Thomas Lennon, #NFDB
377:If you wrote your own characters, they didn't disappoint you like real people did. ~ Laurie Frankel, #NFDB
378:I'm a big fan of vampire movies generally and that sort of tradition of characters. ~ Michael Sheen, #NFDB
379:I'm drawn to emotionally damaged characters because there is more to unlock. ~ Helena Bonham Carter, #NFDB
380:Incredible, that characters could live so much longer than the people who wrote them. ~ Aubrey Dark, #NFDB
381:I need to get lost and sometimes my characters lead me to places I don't expect to go. ~ Wally Lamb, #NFDB
382:I never base characters on real people - you can get into so much trouble that way! ~ Michael Scott, #NFDB
383:It's a combination of yes - making a movie about the characters - and then, also, budget. ~ Ti West, #NFDB
384:It was a story filled with the most unhappy, mean characters that I’ve ever seen. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
385:Most of Ayn Rand's major characters are already formed at the start of the stories. ~ Jeff Britting, #NFDB
386:What does it say about me that I'm jealous of the lives of fictional characters? ~ Alyssa Goodnight, #NFDB
387:...a novelist...we dream non-living characters and animate them with out words... ~ Marianne Wiggins, #NFDB
388:As for dream roles, they usually just speak to you. I just crave complex characters. ~ Kirsten Prout, #NFDB
389:A writer should bury his thoughts deep and convey them through the characters in his novel. ~ Mo Yan, #NFDB
390:In the music industry, you meet some not very nice people, some very strange characters. ~ Midge Ure, #NFDB
391:I remember pretending to be the characters in the movies when I was a little kid. ~ Alden Ehrenreich, #NFDB
392:It is only when our characters and events begin to disobey us that they begin to live. ~ John Fowles, #NFDB
393:Killing characters on television has become an easy short cut to cathartic emotion. ~ Nic Pizzolatto, #NFDB
394:Mine is really - Ziggy Stardust, characters, "Let's Dance." That's me in the American. ~ David Bowie, #NFDB
395:No author has created with less emphasis such pathetic characters as Chekhov has. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
396:Opera is a musical scenery, a musical atmosphere in which the characters move and talk. ~ Erik Satie, #NFDB
397:So if u shorten words to get what u want in within 140 characters it makes u a twit? ~ Rio Ferdinand, #NFDB
398:Strong characters are brought out by change of situation, and gentle ones by permanence. ~ Jean Paul, #NFDB
399:the glory of the protagonist is always paid for
by a lot of secondary characters ~ Tony Hoagland,#NFDB
400:You see so many earnest characters in movies all the time, everyone has a purpose. ~ Joaquin Phoenix, #NFDB
401:Are we not all a thousand characters in millions of plays throughout our lifetime? ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
402:But keep characters in propinquity long enough and a story will always develop a plot. ~ Keith Miller, #NFDB
403:Every story is ultimately about characters, and how they are affected by their adventure. ~ Chris Fox, #NFDB
404:I don't even like to show midriff - it's my characters who are always showing midriff. ~ Jennifer Sky, #NFDB
405:I feel like women have an easier time separating from their characters than men do. ~ Vanessa Hudgens, #NFDB
406:I miss the days when I was alone with my characters and no one else knew them except me. ~ Lian Hearn, #NFDB
407:It’s harder to write a story with just two people in a room than with 50 characters. ~ Michael Haneke, #NFDB
408:I've always been attracted to characters that were interesting to me, and different. ~ Milla Jovovich, #NFDB
409:The characters' lives were so much more interesting than the lonely hearbeat of my own ~ Ruta Sepetys, #NFDB
410:What an amusing drama life is when one is not obliged to be one of the characters! ~ Robertson Davies, #NFDB
411:You can truly miss characters. Not like you miss people, but you can still miss them. ~ Will Schwalbe, #NFDB
412:Every story starts with an idea, but it is the characters that move this idea forward. ~ Michael Scott, #NFDB
413:I don't live vicariously through my characters, they live vicariously through me. ~ Angel M B Chadwick, #NFDB
414:If a plot is a novel's skeleton, and characters are the muscle, then theme is its soul. ~ Janice Hardy, #NFDB
415:I like to play characters that are convincing, that aren't just straightforward and nice. ~ Clive Owen, #NFDB
416:I live more than a thousand lives... through the eyes of the characters I read in books. ~ C M Okonkwo, #NFDB
417:It is the genus that gives the characters, and not the characters that make the genus. ~ Carl Linnaeus, #NFDB
418:It's exciting to get to write characters that love each other and fight for each other. ~ Ilana Glazer, #NFDB
419:men strike out their permanent characters; or have those characters struck into them ~ Patrick O Brian, #NFDB
420:Nerd Girl Problem # 235
That unexplainable crush you have on fictional characters. ~ Ella Frank,#NFDB
421:Theater is a dance of a different kind, a dance of rawness and characters stripped down. ~ Ian McShane, #NFDB
422:The principle that characters do not want to change applies to more than just fiction. ~ Donald Miller, #NFDB
423:When you create a show, and create characters, these people are like children to you. ~ David E Kelley, #NFDB
424:While 140 characters may not seem like a lot, we will never run out of things to say. ~ Randall Munroe, #NFDB
425:Yeah, you know, within the context of TV families, these are pretty unsavory characters. ~ Will Arnett, #NFDB
426:As an actor, I've been drawn to those characters that are further away from who I may be. ~ Kurt Sutter, #NFDB
427:If you look at Marvel Comics, there are very few Marvel characters I would like to write. ~ Garth Ennis, #NFDB
428:I love playing characters that are strong, when there's physicality involved. ~ Mary Elizabeth Winstead, #NFDB
429:I'm so into playing different characters, even when I was on Nickelodeon. I just observe. ~ Nick Cannon, #NFDB
430:It always helps me connect with characters, to think about what music they respond to ~ Charles Frazier, #NFDB
431:I think there is a wonderful trend of strong female characters on television right now. ~ Amanda Schull, #NFDB
432:It's strange that ''Evangelion'' has become such a hit - all the characters are so sick! ~ Hideaki Anno, #NFDB
433:I've been inspired by dreams - I've even stolen scenes or images or characters from them. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
434:Mammootty sir is an idol for me.. His uniqueness in developing characters is quite amazing ~ Aamir Khan, #NFDB
435:Most TV shows are about strong characters and strong actors, and we certainly have those. ~ Darren Star, #NFDB
436:Occasionally, characters simply walk into the plot uninvited and behave as if they belong. ~ Rayne Hall, #NFDB
437:Often my characters have some kind of idealism or grand belief that they're pursuing. ~ Joshuah Bearman, #NFDB
438:There's just a deeper level of sophistication in the writing of female characters on TV. ~ Vera Farmiga, #NFDB
439:Those are always fun characters to play, the ones who are stupid but speak with authority. ~ Alan Tudyk, #NFDB
440:Women perform great in the box office. Audiences want to see lead female characters. ~ Jessica Chastain, #NFDB
441:But I guess I like playing flawed guys 'cause it gives a place for the characters to go. ~ Aaron Eckhart, #NFDB
442:Doing makeup was a way to create characters, only I got tired of doing it for other people. ~ Debi Mazar, #NFDB
443:Every actress hopes to play a wide range of characters because not often you dont. ~ Megalyn Echikunwoke, #NFDB
444:Good writers may “tell” about almost anything in fiction except the characters’ feelings. ~ John Gardner, #NFDB
445:His characters are ravaged, beaten. They walk through infernos and emerge charred doves. ~ Marisha Pessl, #NFDB
446:I'm drawn to characters who bear similarities to the protagonists in myths and legends. (...) ~ Alan Lee, #NFDB
447:In theater, there's a lot of work to do to build the characters. It's a great experience. ~ Tcheky Karyo, #NFDB
448:I try to trace the connection between the characters and that way a story or plot emerges. ~ Anita Desai, #NFDB
449:I've always wanted to be an actor that explores different genres and different characters. ~ Rose McIver, #NFDB
450:I want people to like me. They don't have to always like my characters, you understand ~ Kathleen Turner, #NFDB
451:No matter who the characters are, you can strip them down and find small universal truths. ~ Jena Malone, #NFDB
452:People always love and respect characters who speak the truth, even if the truth hurts. ~ David Duchovny, #NFDB
453:their true characters were shown not in the war they fought but in the peace they made. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
454:The reading part of her feels private, between her and the characters in a book. ~ Christina Baker Kline, #NFDB
455:There will always be dark characters, but her life is good; it is as she wishes it to be. ~ John O Brien, #NFDB
456:Traditionally, lots of vagrants and unemployable characters wind up working in kitchens. ~ Alex Kapranos, #NFDB
457:We must be what we wish our children to be. They will form their characters from ours. ~ John S C Abbott, #NFDB
458:Whenever I do a movie I always like to base my character off of a couple different characters. ~ The Miz, #NFDB
459:When I watch medical shows or other shows where characters die, it kind of bums me out. ~ Alan Sepinwall, #NFDB
460:Even respectable characters speak of a monarchical form of government without horror. ~ George Washington, #NFDB
461:I am simply not interested, at this point, in creating narrative scenes between characters. ~ Lydia Davis, #NFDB
462:I sometimes surprise myself when one of my characters says something I would never say. ~ Mark Rubinstein, #NFDB
463:It's very important to keep the emotions grounded, to keep the characters in some real place. ~ Marc Webb, #NFDB
464:So I work hard to present the human side of my characters while not neglecting the plot. ~ Jeffery Deaver, #NFDB
465:Talking about the characters in a book she had enjoyed felt like gossiping about friends. ~ Laura Lippman, #NFDB
466:Their true characters were shown not in the war they fought, but in the peace they made. ~ Salman Rushdie, #NFDB
467:The problem lies not with the characters within the novel, but with the reader itself. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
468:Usually the characters I play are men of few words, who communicate in non-verbal ways. ~ Viggo Mortensen, #NFDB
469:Was this how the characters in Harry Potter felt when the spoke the name of You-Know-Who? ~ Lisi Harrison, #NFDB
470:We have audiences that seem to be embracing whether they've heard of the characters or not. ~ Kevin Feige, #NFDB
471:What stories are new? All types of all characters march through all fables. ~ William Makepeace Thackeray, #NFDB
472:When I started to allow the characters to go where they wanted to go, I just had to follow. ~ Paul Haggis, #NFDB
473:Why do you write strong female characters?
Because you're still asking me that question. ~ Joss Whedon,#NFDB
474:All my ships, straight-up kissing: Inej and Nina, Percabeth, a few original characters. ~ Becky Albertalli, #NFDB
475:A lot of characters now on TV have moved into being anti-heroes, but I wanted to be the hero. ~ Kieran Bew, #NFDB
476:Because I'm stern and scolding [the characters] sometimes, I'm sure I'll get a ton of grief. ~ Clark Gregg, #NFDB
477:He admires as a lover, not as a connoisseur. To satisfy me, those characters must be united. ~ Jane Austen, #NFDB
478:How I would describe my characters is absolutely different from how I would describe myself. ~ Salma Hayek, #NFDB
479:I don't want to be known for anything other than the fact that I play characters in movies. ~ Sophia Myles, #NFDB
480:I enjoy working on new, different types of characters. Playing a range is what excites me. ~ Juliet Landau, #NFDB
481:I like my characters to be ones I think about long after I've finished reading the script. ~ Saoirse Ronan, #NFDB
482:I'm a geeky toy collector, and to have toys of your own characters is unbelievably cool. ~ Craig McCracken, #NFDB
483:In "Faithful," Ray Bradbury is discussed a lot. The characters read "The Illustrated Man." ~ Alice Hoffman, #NFDB
484:Look at Jane Austen. Her characters derive in a reasonably straight line from fairy tales. ~ Andrew Davies, #NFDB
485:Most country songs, certainly all the stuff I've written, are stories driven by characters. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
486:Readers embrace all kinds of characters as long as they are written with emotional truth. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
487:Some days being a writer consists of telling yourself you aren't insane, your characters are. ~ Nevea Lane, #NFDB
488:Sometimes I think that people's characters get forged, at least in part, from their names. ~ Jeff Goldblum, #NFDB
489:The novel is a meditation on existence as seen through the medium of imaginary characters. ~ Milan Kundera, #NFDB
490:While others were out living their lives, I lived mine through fictional characters. ~ Aimee Nicole Walker, #NFDB
491:I certainly have played a lot of strong characters, and I love playing a strong character. ~ Peter Jacobson, #NFDB
492:I do just love the characters in sci-fi, but not necessarily the fact that it's sci-fi. ~ Laura Vandervoort, #NFDB
493:If we show fictional characters doing cool stuff, then girls will want to be it in real life. ~ Geena Davis, #NFDB
494:I have been told, both in approval and in accusation, that I seem to love all my characters. ~ Eudora Welty, #NFDB
495:I have trouble describing characters because there is just too much going on in human beings. ~ Lisa Kudrow, #NFDB
496:I love playing different characters all the time, so I'm concentrating on doing other stuff. ~ Monica Keena, #NFDB
497:I love to put my characters in the dark, it's only then that I can see exactly who they are ~ Marisha Pessl, #NFDB
498:In my older songs, I used to hide behind fictional characters to deflect attention away from myself. ~ Mika, #NFDB
499:Keeping your characters consistent and believable is a very important part of good storytelling ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
500:Most artists like to think of themselves as rugged individualists, as independent characters. ~ Jack Levine, #NFDB
501:Music so wishes to be heard that it sometimes calls on unlikely characters to give it voice. ~ Robert Fripp, #NFDB
502:Once you're involved in the work, it's really just you and the characters and the words. ~ Edwidge Danticat, #NFDB
503:Sympathetic characters usually have a voice. They usually don't have any trouble being heard. ~ Steve Earle, #NFDB
504:The most striking characters are sometimes the product of an infinity of little accidents. ~ Georges Danton, #NFDB
505:There are a lot of characters that you can get into that don't exist in the studio world. ~ Josh Hutcherson, #NFDB
506:Another friend of mine defines writing as: Torturing your characters for fun and profit. ~ William Bernhardt, #NFDB
507:Characters with no integrity are just as interesting as characters with lots of integrity. ~ Tommy Lee Jones, #NFDB
508:I always love to do something different and new and be challenged by different characters. ~ Emilie de Ravin, #NFDB
509:I don't like nihilistic characters. As bad guys they're great, but as heroes they don't work. ~ Drew Goddard, #NFDB
510:I don't think there is a guy that played more gay characters than I have done in my life. ~ Antonio Banderas, #NFDB
511:I like characters that do big things boldly and are driven by intensely personal feelings. ~ Mark Pellegrino, #NFDB
512:I like fearless characters, people just not afraid to do anything it takes to make people laugh. ~ Dane Cook, #NFDB
513:I like to make all my characters interesting. Be they male, female or creatures unknown. ~ Rhianna Pratchett, #NFDB
514:I really wanted our male characters to be a lot stronger. We gave them careers, lives. ~ Catherine Hardwicke, #NFDB
515:I think I was always interested in darker characters just because there was a lot more to do. ~ Brady Corbet, #NFDB
516:I think I would much rather push the boundaries of the degradation that the characters face. ~ Dave Rowntree, #NFDB
517:I think the main thing to remember when writing a novel is to stay true to the characters. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
518:It's dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
519:Some stories would grip me to the point that the characters continued to live on in my mind. ~ Elisa S Amore, #NFDB
520:The fun thing about doing origin stories is you are introducing the audience to characters. ~ Damon Lindelof, #NFDB
521:There's 54 years of X-Men comics by now, so there are a lot of characters to explore. ~ Lauren Shuler Donner, #NFDB
522:Wealth stays with us a little moment if at all: only our characters are steadfast, not our gold. ~ Euripides, #NFDB
523:We give you characters we'd feel very comfortable judging, and then go: 'Oh yeah? Watch this'. ~ Paul Haggis, #NFDB
524:When you get into individual characters certainly there's been things that have been updated . ~ Kevin Feige, #NFDB
525:You also need love. Your characters need to love something, otherwise they will be unlovable. ~ James Franco, #NFDB
526:You can fake your age or mask it, but the passion that moves the characters has to be real. ~ Victoria Abril, #NFDB
527:A comedy is about characters who dare to know that they may choose a happy ending after all. ~ Gary D Schmidt, #NFDB
528:As time goes on, I will play characters who get older: I don't want to be some Botoxed weirdo. ~ Jodie Foster, #NFDB
529:I believe in books. I believe more in cross-media - how characters are adapting across mediums. ~ Bing Gordon, #NFDB
530:I don't really mind playing tabloid monster. I always liked those characters in the old movies. ~ Nick Denton, #NFDB
531:If there is a connection between Harry Potter and my new novel, it's my interest in characters. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
532:If we women were particular about men's characters, we should never get married at all. ~ George Bernard Shaw, #NFDB
533:I like to play a wide range of characters. The more they're unlike me, the better I like it. ~ Laurie Metcalf, #NFDB
534:I wanted to play incredibly challenging, multifaceted characters. Because we are all a puzzle. ~ Kate Winslet, #NFDB
535:I write characters that are based on elements of people I know and experiences I've really had. ~ Aziz Ansari, #NFDB
536:Organization and method mean much, but contagious human characters mean more in a university. ~ William James, #NFDB
537:technology industry had let people down. “We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters ~ Ashlee Vance, #NFDB
538:When I am writing, I'm very much on the ground, on the same ground my characters are treading. ~ Graham Swift, #NFDB
539:Who sneers? wondered Eliza, fadingly. She'd thought it was something only book characters did. ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
540:Hindered characters / seldom have mothers / in Irish stories, but they all have grandmothers. ~ Marianne Moore, #NFDB
541:I am attracted to characters who think they are in control, but their situation is uncontrollable. ~ Eric Bana, #NFDB
542:I don't like to play characters that are one note, and just the attractive girl in the film. ~ Elisha Cuthbert, #NFDB
543:I had a love affair with books, with the characters and their worlds. Books kept me company ~ Marya Hornbacher, #NFDB
544:I like to make definite choices and give my characters as many unique edges as possible. ~ Keegan Connor Tracy, #NFDB
545:I like to play unpredictable characters, and I like to be unpredictable in what movie I'll do. ~ Jeremy Renner, #NFDB
546:I'm blessed and proud and privileged to have played two wonderful characters on television. ~ Colin Cunningham, #NFDB
547:I've always said, I prefer the opera to the soap - those extreme characters and circumstances. ~ Anthony Geary, #NFDB
548:My characters tend to be people who are looking back on a life lived, their joys, their regrets. ~ Peter Orner, #NFDB
549:species of the same genus would occasionally exhibit reversions to lost ancestral characters. ~ Charles Darwin, #NFDB
550:Susan Rebecca White has a keen sense for how her characters talk and think. An impressive debut. ~ Tom Barbash, #NFDB
551:The characters are trapped within the lifestyle. It's about what goes on before the movie starts. ~ Sam Mendes, #NFDB
552:There are lots of unlikable characters in literature. It doesn't mean they're not fascinating. ~ Lynne Tillman, #NFDB
553:There are too many souls of wood not to love those wooden characters who do indeed have a soul. ~ Jean Cocteau, #NFDB
554:There was no difference between my characters and the life my readers were going to have to face. ~ Carl Barks, #NFDB
555:To create characters, one must build background. And one of the tools we use is improvisation. ~ Harvey Keitel, #NFDB
556:Very few people are able to discount the effect of circumstances upon their own characters. ~ Bertrand Russell, #NFDB
557:When we own our stories, we avoid being trapped as characters in stories someone else is telling. ~ Bren Brown, #NFDB
558:You have to make sure you have the characters you want. That's really the most complicated part. ~ Joan Didion, #NFDB
559:Character development is vital when writing a strong story. Weak characters make for weak stories. ~ Beem Weeks, #NFDB
560:Every reader knows about the feeling that characters in books seem more real than real people. ~ Cornelia Funke, #NFDB
561:I create women characters by watching the female staff at my studio. Half the staff are women. ~ Hayao Miyazaki, #NFDB
562:I project myself so deeply into the characters in novels that I'm not thinking about my own life. ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
563:It's a real challenge to complete a story arc and end up with a cool punchline in 120 characters. ~ Mark Hoppus, #NFDB
564:I've been lucky and have played some interesting characters - I'd quite like to play Sweeny Todd. ~ David Essex, #NFDB
565:I want the chance to play very different characters, and I've always wanted to do more films. ~ Joanne Froggatt, #NFDB
566:Naina is one of the most special films & special characters that I've played in recent times ~ Deepika Padukone, #NFDB
567:The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
568:Wills aren't really strong or weak; it is the characters that they express and serve that are. ~ William H Gass, #NFDB
569:Characters make their own plot. The dimensions of the characters determine the action of the novel. ~ Harper Lee, #NFDB
570:God constantly uses the lives of Bible characters to teach us, to encourage us, to warn us. ~ Charles R Swindoll, #NFDB
571:I am drawn to characters that go on journeys, characters that are real people, that have life. ~ Penelope Wilton, #NFDB
572:I don't think I'm like any of the characters I've played. They're all really far from who I am. ~ Christian Bale, #NFDB
573:I'm lookin' at these Disney characters, these young girls coming out looking like, little whores. ~ Sharon Jones, #NFDB
574:I'm very, very attracted to morally ambiguous characters, not just pure bad guys or pure good guys. ~ Jonah Hill, #NFDB
575:In 20 years I want to look back and see a collection of crazy characters that I made - a menagerie. ~ Dan Fogler, #NFDB
576:It is in their 'good' characters that novelists make, unawares, the most shocking self- revelations. ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
577:I try to build a full personality for each of our cartoon characters - to make them personalities. ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
578:Just when I think I have nothing to say, the characters start to speak. Writing is funny like that. ~ J D Barker, #NFDB
579:Miss Lea, it doesn't do to get attached to these secondary characters. It's not their story. ~ Diane Setterfield, #NFDB
580:One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
581:Sometimes I don't know whether Zelda and I are real or just characters in one of my novels. ~ F Scott Fitzgerald, #NFDB
582:The reader can't take much for granted in a fiction where the scenery can eat the characters. ~ Ursula K Le Guin, #NFDB
583:Act one: put your characters in a tree. Act two: throw rocks at them. Act three: get them down again. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
584:...although stories are about characters, they're mostly about "character". There's a difference. ~ Morgan Parker, #NFDB
585:And well historically it's never been a good thing to compare yourself to biblical characters. ~ Daniel Radcliffe, #NFDB
586:Confession: I don't want to be one of my characters. I'm mean to them sometimes. Really mean. ~ Michelle M Pillow, #NFDB
587:Every writer knows a lot more about their characters and story than actually makes it onto the page. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
588:Fiction brings salvation to characters in stories that would otherwise have no salvation at all. ~ Hiromu Arakawa, #NFDB
589:I also try very hard to create characters - both heroes and villains - with psychological depth. ~ Jeffery Deaver, #NFDB
590:I like down-to-Earth characters, but I also like being able to get outside my box of knowledge. ~ Britt Robertson, #NFDB
591:I'm not that much of a researcher. I'm good at channeling characters, and I'm good at structure. ~ Jami Attenberg, #NFDB
592:In general, I think my freedom of invention is not limited when I use historical characters. ~ Mario Vargas Llosa, #NFDB
593:I think it's a novelty for cartoon characters to cross over into another strip or panel occasionally. ~ Bil Keane, #NFDB
594:I try to create characters that I am fascinated by on some level or intrigued by or can't stand. ~ Terry McMillan, #NFDB
595:Many of my characters first came through to me as voices. That's why I use a tape recorder. ~ William S Burroughs, #NFDB
596:Men show their characters in nothing more clearly than in what they think laughable. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #NFDB
597:Psychology is the science of the intellects, characters and behavior of animals including man. ~ Edward Thorndike, #NFDB
598:Science fiction writers put characters into a world with arbitrary rules and work out what happens. ~ Rudy Rucker, #NFDB
599:The characters have their own lives and their own logic, and you have to act accordingly. ~ Isaac Bashevis Singer, #NFDB
600:The writer's original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader's. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
601:Very often the characters people respond to best have little parts of reality they can relate to. ~ Sara Sheridan, #NFDB
602:Every person has contributed to me as a human, but a lot of the characters I do are ones I created. ~ Tracy Morgan, #NFDB
603:I do like characters that have flaws, some sort of pathos to them that they are trying to sort out. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
604:I find the characters in my head and the more I write about them, the better I get to know them. ~ Charles de Lint, #NFDB
605:IF YOU PRETEND THE CHARACTERS CANT SPEAK, AND WRITE A SILENT MOVIE, YOU WILL BE WRITING GREAT DRAMA. ~ David Mamet, #NFDB
606:I'm hopefully making the reader feel a lot about the characters and then about their own life. ~ Jeffrey Eugenides, #NFDB
607:I seem to have to make my characters family before I can access their hearts in any way that matters. ~ Junot Diaz, #NFDB
608:I sometimes lose interest in the characters and get much more interested in the trees and animals. ~ Toni Morrison, #NFDB
609:I think everybody likes to play the villain. Theyre always much more interesting characters. ~ Maria Doyle Kennedy, #NFDB
610:It is very grand and sumptuous and awesome to look at but it was really about the characters for me. ~ Emmy Rossum, #NFDB
611:I've always enjoyed playing a little left of center characters. Otherwise I'd be on a soap opera. ~ Bruce Campbell, #NFDB
612:She spun the car through a right turn that would have killed us all had we been minor characters. ~ Daniel Handler, #NFDB
613:Supporting characters add depth to a story, and great actors leave their imprint with the audience. ~ Nicholas Lea, #NFDB
614:The language fictional characters use is chosen for effect, at least if the author is concentrating. ~ John M Ford, #NFDB
615:To say that Agatha Christie’s characters are cardboard cut-outs is an insult to cardboard cut-outs. ~ Ruth Rendell, #NFDB
616:A lot of times characters are combinations of people I come across in life. I people-watch a lot. ~ Taraji P Henson, #NFDB
617:Although I'm not particularly troubled myself, I do have a lot of empathy for troubled characters. ~ Mia Wasikowska, #NFDB
618:As an actor, I have to watch people and observe their behaviors - this is how I create characters. ~ Josh McDermitt, #NFDB
619:At 50 I find there is a long line of characters and shapes demanding words just outside my window. ~ Carlos Fuentes, #NFDB
620:Casting ethnic characters is a very hard thing to do, but it's important. It's also interesting. ~ Darren Aronofsky, #NFDB
621:Children pay little attention to their parents' teachings, but reproduce their characters faithfully ~ Mason Cooley, #NFDB
622:Every human being has a fascinating existence, with a big cast of good and evil characters in each. ~ Lucinda Riley, #NFDB
623:I begin by assembling notes on characters. Large swaths of the plot become clear to me as I do this. ~ James Ellroy, #NFDB
624:I'd like to play characters who are older - I don't want to be playing 14-year-olds too much longer ~ Alison Lohman, #NFDB
625:I like doing sequels. Basically, I think it's a fun thing to follow characters in time. In real time. ~ Julie Delpy, #NFDB
626:I loved the Romeo and Juliet of the whole thing; this forbidden love between these two characters. ~ Tyler Hoechlin, #NFDB
627:I've always been drawn to playing characters that are a completely the opposite of myself. ~ Alexandra Breckenridge, #NFDB
628:I've gotten to play some pretty intense characters and I tend to think it's therapeutic for me. ~ Leonardo DiCaprio, #NFDB
629:Many of the characters are fools and they're always playing tricks on me and treating me badly. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
630:Many of us may not know too much about our characters, but we tell the reader altogether too much. ~ Lawrence Block, #NFDB
631:One of my complaints with American TV characters is that they all have a particular schtick, a hook. ~ Kevin McKidd, #NFDB
632:The best shows are always the ones that are very, very low-concept and just about great characters. ~ Michael Schur, #NFDB
633:The constrained lives of his characters made me wonder how my own existence might appear in his hands. ~ Ian McEwan, #NFDB
634:The story line, the comparisons to this show and the Bible Ends after the names of the characters. ~ George Jackson, #NFDB
635:The Universe is a dream dreamed by a single dreamer where all the dream characters dream too. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer, #NFDB
636:Thrillers have been traditionally very masculine books; the women characters often rather decorative. ~ Ken Follett, #NFDB
637:We were characters out of a movie. We were thoroughly alive. And we were absolutely beautiful. ~ Krystal Sutherland, #NFDB
638:What I remember myself from films, and what I love about films, is specific scenes and characters. ~ Harmony Korine, #NFDB
639:When I work, I live in a fantasy world. It's great. I get to play different characters who inspire me. ~ Cary Elwes, #NFDB
640:When people come to see my stand-up, they get a chance to see my characters interact with each other. ~ Dana Carvey, #NFDB
641:You can have a very intense relationship with fictional characters because they are in your own head. ~ J K Rowling, #NFDB
642:You cannot base a whole movie on just the imagery alone. It has to be the story and the characters. ~ John Lasseter, #NFDB
643:All the characters on the album are inside me, though none are me. They are sides of me or who I was. ~ David Berman, #NFDB
644:A lot of the characters I play are very naive, and I don't think I'm like that. And I'm not stupid! ~ Ashton Kutcher, #NFDB
645:As a kid, I drew cartoon characters and comic book heroes. Spiderman and the X-Men were my favorites. ~ Kadir Nelson, #NFDB
646:Attention! Your characters' lives and your real lives will be endangered while you fulfill the quest. ~ Arthur Stone, #NFDB
647:Gravity Falls is a show about mysteries and magic but first and foremost it's a show about characters. ~ Alex Hirsch, #NFDB
648:I never really thought about what characters I play. I always just wanted different characters. ~ Stephanie Leonidas, #NFDB
649:I tend to favour films that have multiple plot and story lines, multiple characters and ensemble pieces. ~ Spike Lee, #NFDB
650:I want to be inspired by the characters that I play and excited by the projects that I do. ~ Mary Elizabeth Winstead, #NFDB
651:Most of the characters I'd played were so different from me, so far from me that I had to transform. ~ Lance Reddick, #NFDB
652:Otherness is a big thing for me. I'm always drawn to characters that live lives that I couldn't lead. ~ Jodie Foster, #NFDB
653:Watergate is an immensely complicated scandal with a cast of characters as varied as a Tolstoy novel. ~ Bob Woodward, #NFDB
654:You have to be involved and relate to the characters in order to make a film that is true emotionally. ~ Spike Jonze, #NFDB
655:He would not allow these female characters to be defined by men and their relationships. ~ Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, #NFDB
656:How much did you read?’ Sophia said.
‘Not much. I found your characters a bit two-dimensional. ~ Nathan M Farrugia,#NFDB
657:I find it very difficult to be two different characters at the same time - actress and mother. ~ Kristin Scott Thomas, #NFDB
658:In New York, I much prefer playing older because as characters get older, they get more interesting. ~ Danny Pintauro, #NFDB
659:In terms of scope, and in terms of sheer number of characters, we went beyond our limits long ago. ~ Masahiro Sakurai, #NFDB
660:I often think of the space of a page as a stage, with words, letters, syllable characters moving across. ~ Susan Howe, #NFDB
661:I probably read 100 times more than I write, but that way when I move my characters through it, I know. ~ Jean M Auel, #NFDB
662:...it is composed of two characters. The first means pain; the second means love. That is a mother's love. ~ Lisa See, #NFDB
663:It was a big deal to me to play characters and feel things and connect to somebody in a fake world. ~ Amanda Seyfried, #NFDB
664:Many masochistic characters engage in the game of failure to cover an inner feeling of superiority. ~ Alexander Lowen, #NFDB
665:My characters are always on the outside; the spotlight's not on them. But they do get somewhere. ~ Jeanette Winterson, #NFDB
666:Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. ~ Kahlil Gibran, #NFDB
667:Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. ~ Khalil Gibran, #NFDB
668:Because I just loved to spend two years of my life in the company of Andy Kaufman and other characters. ~ Milos Forman, #NFDB
669:I like unformed characters. This may be because, no matter how old I get, I am still unformed myself. ~ Akira Kurosawa, #NFDB
670:I love characters songs and I love to fit into a story. I love singing through a character's journey. ~ Katie Finneran, #NFDB
671:I'm always playing these mendacious characters who end up hoisting themselves by their own petard. ~ Maxwell Caulfield, #NFDB
672:In drama, the characters should determine the story. In melodrama, the story determines the characters. ~ Sidney Lumet, #NFDB
673:I suppose I've got a reputation for playing quite extreme characters and making them quite believable. ~ Michael Sheen, #NFDB
674:It is for the latter that I always wanted to be an actor: to play characters who are always on the move. ~ Tony Curtis, #NFDB
675:I wanted characters I could believe in, and I wanted to be made curious about what was to happen to them. ~ Ian McEwan, #NFDB
676:I write stories about conspiracies and paranoid characters while I am, in fact, a very skeptical person. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
677:Many of the characters are fools and they're always playing tricks on me
and treating me badly. ~ Jorge Luis Borges,#NFDB
678:Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses. ~ Isabel Allende, #NFDB
679:That's the main thing that attracts me - characters who have big journeys. I like playing those people. ~ James McAvoy, #NFDB
680:The best part of the fiction in many novels is the notice that the characters are purely imaginary. ~ Franklin P Adams, #NFDB
681:You never feel lonely if you're writing, because you're living with all these characters in your head. ~ Julie Andrews, #NFDB
682:Anyone can read comics, and if you don't it's perfectly okay to enjoy the characters in other mediums. ~ Krista Ritchie, #NFDB
683:Characters, as most writers understand, are truly developed through their relationships with others. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
684:Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
685:From wrestling to my hip-hop thing, I've just been able to do so much and meet so many crazy characters. ~ Randy Savage, #NFDB
686:I can play characters who sing, but I don't like singing in a nightclub or something. It's not my metier. ~ Kevin Kline, #NFDB
687:I feel like my responsibility as an actor is to make characters as compelling and believable as possible. ~ Kevin Bacon, #NFDB
688:I have a huge emotional attachment to characters I've created, especially the viewpoint characters. ~ George R R Martin, #NFDB
689:I just want to play interesting characters, and I want to work with the best directors I can work with. ~ Andre Holland, #NFDB
690:I'm a character-driven director, and I tend to fall in love with the characters in my movies and TV shows. ~ Doug Liman, #NFDB
691:I'm really lucky because my goal, as an actor, is to disappear into the characters that I'm playing. ~ Jessica Chastain, #NFDB
692:In my books, I make up the experiences and the characters, but the emotional life is real. It is my own. ~ Ann Patchett, #NFDB
693:It seems to me that most people are interested in reading about characters who are richer than they are. ~ Stuart Woods, #NFDB
694:It's just lovely to be involved in a movie that does go back to the basics - characters and great writing. ~ Clive Owen, #NFDB
695:My characters are driven by a passionate desire for justice. They are rebellious and incorruptible. ~ Tahar Ben Jelloun, #NFDB
696:My characters aren't losers. They're rebels. They win by their refusal to play by everyone else's rules. ~ Harold Ramis, #NFDB
697:My publisher feels that my readers are loyal to the voice of my stories, the characters I'm creating. ~ Jennifer Weiner, #NFDB
698:Oh, I’m following President Obama on Twitter. I like my black history in 140 characters or less. ~ Baratunde R Thurston, #NFDB
699:Sometimes I make my life a living hell by writing complex stories with complex characters. But I love it. ~ Kevin James, #NFDB
700:That's why I like old monster movie actors, because they transform into different characters or creatures. ~ Tim Burton, #NFDB
701:The less someone knows about me, the better, because my intention is to play a variety of characters. ~ Joaquin Phoenix, #NFDB
702:The vampire was a complete change from the usual romantic characters I was playing, but it was a success. ~ Bela Lugosi, #NFDB
703:When two characters or two actresses are together for a while there is bound to be chemistry developing. ~ Joan Van Ark, #NFDB
704:You have to understand that I'm not just some guy who voices characters in animated movie and TV shows. ~ Jack McBrayer, #NFDB
705:All non-printable characters have either the first three bits as zero or all seven lowest bits as one. ~ Steven S Skiena, #NFDB
706:Any jokes I make I try to make sure it's on story and helps the characters and makes sense with the movie. ~ Aziz Ansari, #NFDB
707:Characters are not people or things, they are forces…arcs of transformation caused by high-stakes choices. ~ Damon Suede, #NFDB
708:Cultural constraints condition and limit our choices, shaping our characters with their imperatives. ~ Jeane Kirkpatrick, #NFDB
709:Every man has three characters: that which he shows, that which he has, and that which he thinks he has. ~ Alphonse Karr, #NFDB
710:Finally the world would see my full range of comedy characters - from grouchy librarian to Russian librarian. ~ Tina Fey, #NFDB
711:I happen to still like really dark, dramatic, fractured characters. They're the reason I got into movies. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
712:I never base characters on real people. There are people who do that but I really don't know how to do it. ~ Peter Carey, #NFDB
713:I really want to try to explore the characters from angles you've never seen and keep them classic and iconic. ~ Jim Lee, #NFDB
714:It's always hard for the first movie because you have to spend so much time introducing the characters. ~ Todd Lieberman, #NFDB
715:I've played so many historical characters because most horrible dictators are short, fat, middle-aged men. ~ Bob Hoskins, #NFDB
716:Many great horror stories are period pieces and English actors have a facility for historic characters. ~ Robert Englund, #NFDB
717:There are characters in [punk] that do deliberately go as far as they can in certain kind of taboo areas. ~ Richard Hell, #NFDB
718:All characters have a voice but not all voices have character. And it's all about character and personality. ~ Bob Bergen, #NFDB
719:All the characters of the Passion agree to the year 34; and that is the only year to which they all agree. ~ Isaac Newton, #NFDB
720:As an author you hope your characters have sparks but truly in the end they have minds of their own! ~ Melissa de la Cruz, #NFDB
721:But it wasn’t possible, of course, that his characters kept poisoning themselves and then having children. ~ John Freeman, #NFDB
722:Certain characters, mostly heroes, have to be the straight silent type; that is part of the make-up. ~ Sylvester Stallone, #NFDB
723:Good characters the reader cares about combined with an intriguing plot. Do those two and you've got it made. ~ Bob Mayer, #NFDB
724:I enjoy doing everything, comedy and drama. I just look for the characters really and what they offer. ~ Chiwetel Ejiofor, #NFDB
725:I enjoy playing evil, but not one-dimensional evil characters. I like the ebbs and cracks in the armor. ~ Rodrigo Santoro, #NFDB
726:I take great pride in the artistic development of cartoons. Our characters are made to go through emotions. ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
727:I've had some marvelous parts, but I'm also asked to play characters who are kind of superficial people. ~ Holland Taylor, #NFDB
728:Suspense is achieved by information control: What you know. What the reader knows. What the characters know. ~ Tom Clancy, #NFDB
729:The advantage of literature over life is that its characters are clearly defined, and act consistently. ~ Jerome K Jerome, #NFDB
730:The Major Arcana cards are the big-picture cards. They're dramatic: the characters are larger than life. ~ Corrine Kenner, #NFDB
731:Thou shalt not use the 140 characters limit as an excuse for bad grammar and/or incorrect spelling. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana, #NFDB
732:To adorn our characters by the charm of an amiable nature shows at once a lover of beauty and a lover of man. ~ Epictetus, #NFDB
733:Writing sketches, youre also learning about a journey and characters, and you translate that to bigger things. ~ Jim Rash, #NFDB
734:A certain luxury when you get to writing a novel is to have the space to have your characters just banter. ~ David Benioff, #NFDB
735:Adults need more complex narratives. They have their own narratives. The main characters are themselves. ~ Haruki Murakami, #NFDB
736:A lot of my characters are underdogs or sad or lonely, but I had a comfortable, golden sort of childhood. ~ Anthony Browne, #NFDB
737:Don't put your characters on a treadmill. They need to go new places, face new challenges and do new things. ~ Ally Carter, #NFDB
738:'Evil' is quite a blanket term. People aren't the demonic characters we would like them to be sometimes. ~ David Morrissey, #NFDB
739:I always begin with a character or characters, and then try to think up as much action for them as possible. ~ John Irving, #NFDB
740:I collect names for characters. Names are valuable; they can be your first source of insight into a character. ~ Spike Lee, #NFDB
741:I craft everything in the beginning. I know where the characters are going before I start writing the book. ~ Ann Patchett, #NFDB
742:I'd love to play more challenging roles, characters that would stretch my comfort zone and imagination. ~ Isabelle Fuhrman, #NFDB
743:I don't make fun of my characters. I just like to laugh and I think people are funny and the world is funny. ~ Micah Perks, #NFDB
744:I do that with all of my characters. They have one of the flaws I have, and I zero in on that flaw. ~ Benjamin Alire Saenz, #NFDB
745:I feel like one of those cartoon characters helplessly following the scent of something yummy when I’m near him. ~ J Saman, #NFDB
746:If you don't invest in the characters, you don't care if they get killed. It's more fun if you know them. ~ Robert Englund, #NFDB
747:I get very invested in characters, it's the only way I find that I can write a book and really make it work. ~ Gail Simone, #NFDB
748:I love finding the vulnerability in characters. There's truth there. There's beauty in vulnerability. ~ Juan Pablo Di Pace, #NFDB
749:Is it the freedom of characters in fiction that we find so inspiring, or the way that freedom transforms them? ~ Marc Levy, #NFDB
750:It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. ~ Abigail Adams, #NFDB
751:It's good to know that other people think differently, and that's what makes the characters interesting. ~ Keira Knightley, #NFDB
752:It turns up the heat under a narrative when you limit the characters in their movements or their freedoms. ~ Emma Donoghue, #NFDB
753:I've always been drawn to writing historical characters. The best stories are the ones you find in history. ~ Tony Kushner, #NFDB
754:I want to continually play characters that speak to me, but also are different than what I've just done. ~ Santino Fontana, #NFDB
755:Once we start seeing video games that have more memorable characters, you'll see better movie adaptations. ~ David S Goyer, #NFDB
756:Sometimes I like to think that characters you play are all the other people you could've been in a lifetime. ~ Mia Maestro, #NFDB
757:The actors I looked up to when I was a teenager, they all just disappeared into different characters. ~ Michael Fassbender, #NFDB
758:When I'm happiest writing is just not knowing where it goes and just let the characters bring you there. ~ Martin McDonagh, #NFDB
759:When I write a book, I actually write the biographies of my characters. I can't write them till I live them. ~ Shikha Kaul, #NFDB
760:For a documentary it's so important to find the characters and to find people who will give you access to film ~ Adam McKay, #NFDB
761:I am a tremendous 'Star Wars' fan; I know the story means an enormous love to me. I love the characters. ~ Richard Marquand, #NFDB
762:I like involved projects. I'm driven by the idea of characters and the song-cycle form is similar to a musical. ~ Tori Amos, #NFDB
763:I like shows that are surprising and not predictable. That have deep, rich characters that are fully formed. ~ David Nevins, #NFDB
764:I'm always perversely attracted to characters that seem one thing, but are ultimately revealed as another... ~ Tony Goldwyn, #NFDB
765:I started doing standup when I was in college, and I would incorporate a lot of characters into my act. ~ Roger Craig Smith, #NFDB
766:I think the world is a place for oddballs and freaks. I'm only interested in oddballs and freaks as characters. ~ Alan Ball, #NFDB
767:I've always been interesting in characters that challenge people and who are not always that easy to like. ~ Julian McMahon, #NFDB
768:Life isn't just about major characters and the big events. It's about everyone, everything, in between. ~ Michelle Richmond, #NFDB
769:One of the benefits to television is that you're with these characters for years, you know them so well. ~ Aleksa Palladino, #NFDB
770:The reason why Absurdist plays take place in No Man's Land with only two characters is primarily financial. ~ Arthur Adamov, #NFDB
771:You have to be able to get inside the heads of the characters and completely sympathize and understand them. ~ Carlton Cuse, #NFDB
772:A male author can write about unlikable male characters. They’re called anti-heroes and it’s called a novel. ~ Gillian Flynn, #NFDB
773:Characters must not brood too long. They must not waste time running up and down ladders in their own insides. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
774:Characters who are on screen from start to finish are not necessarily the ones who have the greatest impact. ~ Jeanne Moreau, #NFDB
775:How many of us count fictional characters, or those we've never met, among our closest friends? My hand's up. ~ Richard Bach, #NFDB
776:I feel like all of my characters now take this congested situation, they clash, and from there you purge yourself. ~ Ang Lee, #NFDB
777:If I showed you scripts from my first few movies, the descriptions of my characters all said 'the ugly girl'. ~ Winona Ryder, #NFDB
778:I get very involved in my characters. Sometimes I have a very hard time separating my characters from my life. ~ Alexia Fast, #NFDB
779:I have always been drawn to coming-of-age stories and books and movies featuring compelling young characters. ~ Emily Giffin, #NFDB
780:I like grey characters; fantasy for too long has been focused on very stereotypical heroes and villains. ~ George R R Martin, #NFDB
781:I’m infinitely more involved in the reality of the characters and their situation than I am in everyday life. ~ Edward Albee, #NFDB
782:I tell about some of the female characters from the Bible so girls can be inspired and empowered and uplifted. ~ Roma Downey, #NFDB
783:I think because I write so many short stories, it's not that hard to come up with characters that are not me. ~ Miranda July, #NFDB
784:Look, don't just stare at the pages," I used to tell my students. "Become the characters. Live inside the book. ~ Wally Lamb, #NFDB
785:My comedy does not come from a place of deep cynicism, and I tend to play characters who are naive in some way. ~ Anna Faris, #NFDB
786:Perhaps, then, unlikable characters, the ones who are the most human, are also the ones who are the most alive. ~ Roxane Gay, #NFDB
787:Sometimes I scare myself at how easily I slip inside my mind and live vicariously through these characters. ~ Teresa Mummert, #NFDB
788:The discussing the characters and foibles of common friends is a great sweetness and cement of friendship. ~ William Hazlitt, #NFDB
789:Their situation was becoming ever harder to deny: they were characters in someone's story. This whole world-- ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
790:To create tension, dialogue needs to be stretched out. That is, characters should not be immediately responsive. ~ Sol Stein, #NFDB
791:As a filmmaker, you're always supposed to be with your characters, in all movies, even if they're villains. ~ Robert Zemeckis, #NFDB
792:For me as a storyteller, I want to follow the characters and the story through what they organically demand. ~ Nic Pizzolatto, #NFDB
793:For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you at home? ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, #NFDB
794:I always look for good stories and good characters, and if they're placed in a whodunit, then I'm interested. ~ Joel Kinnaman, #NFDB
795:I love writing about Oklahoma. I love writing Oklahoma characters; I love playing Southwestern characters. ~ Tim Blake Nelson, #NFDB
796:I suppose the longer anyone spends on earth, the closer we all get to becoming superfluous characters. ~ Joseph Gordon Levitt, #NFDB
797:I think that the best characters are the ones who both manage to be attractive and repulsive at the same time. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
798:I want to be like Robin Williams, really. It's all the different characters he does, all the different voices. ~ Karen Gillan, #NFDB
799:Metaphorically speaking, I always make room for any evidence of scurvy in my characters, any mitigating ailments. ~ Mary Karr, #NFDB
800:Promise? Ooh, I like that smolder, it’s very Flynn Ryder.” “You’re comparing me to cartoon characters now? ~ Kristen Callihan, #NFDB
801:Remember, if you don't feel passionate about the characters and subject of your story, your readers won't either. ~ Meg Cabot, #NFDB
802:Remembering the past is like watching a Hollywood movie, in that you never see the characters go to the toilet. ~ Steve Toltz, #NFDB
803:The art of the novel is to arrive at that artless point where your characters become more real than yourself. ~ Norman Mailer, #NFDB
804:The comedy really comes from how badly you want these characters to succeed and with a comedy that's often hard. ~ Jonah Hill, #NFDB
805:Trish "Patsy" Walker is just one of my favorite characters and she was a big comic character in the '40s. ~ Melissa Rosenberg, #NFDB
806:What I love to do requires portraying different characters, and you have to separate your life from the role. ~ Natasha Calis, #NFDB
807:What's best for business is just continue to have an entertaining product with great, interesting characters. ~ Chris Jericho, #NFDB
808:A character to me can't be contrived. I don't like to contrive characters. They have to have an element of truth. ~ Jack Kirby, #NFDB
809:All cartoon characters and fables must be exaggeration, caricatures. It is the very nature of fantasy and fable. ~ Walt Disney, #NFDB
810:Architecture concerns itself only with those characters of an edifice which are above and beyond its common use. ~ John Ruskin, #NFDB
811:Clever's not enough to hold me - I want characters who are more than devices to be moved about for Effect. ~ Laura Anne Gilman, #NFDB
812:For me the most interesting characters are outwardly static, but inwardly charged by an overriding passion. ~ Andrei Tarkovsky, #NFDB
813:From Ernest Hemingway's stories I learned to listen within my stories for what went unsaid by my characters. ~ Nadine Gordimer, #NFDB
814:I don't care about the rules of grammar so long as my characters' words sound true to life and bite heavily. ~ Mark Rubinstein, #NFDB
815:if an author would have us feel a strong degree of compassion, his characters must not be too perfect. ~ Anna Letitia Barbauld, #NFDB
816:In each of my characters there is a little of me. Not strictly autobiographical but a little piece of my soul. ~ Dario Argento, #NFDB
817:None of my characters are rich or famous, and the situations they find themselves in could happen to anyone. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
818:Sometimes I make my life a living hell by writing complex stories with complex characters. But I love it. ~ Kevin James Breaux, #NFDB
819:Sometimes your characters in films do things that you wouldn't do. You're not playing yourself all the time. ~ Kristen Stewart, #NFDB
820:The number 1 thing that I don't want to see in a story is when characters exist simply to be proven wrong. ~ Brandon Sanderson, #NFDB
821:We're characters not of this world, so our knowledge about stuff, that other character's don't have, is quite fun. ~ Tom Ellis, #NFDB
822:You have to get rid of characters to make room for new ones, but you also have to recognize when things are done. ~ Matt Lucas, #NFDB
823:All characters appearing in this work are you. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely you. ~ Chelsea Hodson, #NFDB
824:I can't imagine writing a book without some strong female characters, unless that was a demand of the setting. ~ William Gibson, #NFDB
825:I feel very fortunate to be an actor on a network whose tag line is Characters Welcome and not Procedurals Welcome. ~ Tim DeKay, #NFDB
826:If [the characters] grow a lot, they begin to influence the course of the story instead of the other way around. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
827:I'm attracted to films that have strong female characters because there are strong female characters in my life. ~ Ryan Gosling, #NFDB
828:I never play characters that are like me because I'm a boring person. I wouldn't want to see me in a movie. ~ Jennifer Lawrence, #NFDB
829:I think having my life be as private and quiet as possible is a way in which then I can go and play characters. ~ Nicole Kidman, #NFDB
830:I think many people have contradictions to them and I love characters that deal with those contradictions. ~ Giancarlo Esposito, #NFDB
831:It's a good thing," Trump said, "but it's a bit of a shame because I was the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters. ~ Bob Woodward, #NFDB
832:It’s a good thing,” Trump said, “but it’s a bit of a shame because I was the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters. ~ Bob Woodward, #NFDB
833:It's always hard to wrap up a series. The longer I spend with the characters, the more they become like friends. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
834:It’s just funny, isn’t it? How the main characters never know about the adventures they’re about to go on. ~ Brittainy C Cherry, #NFDB
835:One of Those Poorly Written Stories That Are Impossible to Follow Because There Are Too Many Goddamn Characters ~ Bradley Sands, #NFDB
836:One thing I hate in movies is when the camera starts circling around the characters. I find that totally fake. ~ Takeshi Kitano, #NFDB
837:The thrill of doing television versus features is in television you get to focus more on the characters. ~ Lauren Shuler Donner, #NFDB
838:And don’t forget, if you are very intelligent but load yourself with bad characters, nobody will follow you. ~ Israelmore Ayivor, #NFDB
839:Books can change your life. Some of the most influential people in our lives are characters we meet in books. ~ David McCullough, #NFDB
840:Compelling characters are not cogs in the machine of your plot; they are human beings to whom the story happens. ~ David Corbett, #NFDB
841:Everything is a story, a narrative, a sequence of events with characters communicating an emotional content. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
842:I believe that the writer should tell a story. I believe in plot. I believe in creating characters and suspense. ~ Ernest Gaines, #NFDB
843:I think that my fascination with clothes generally was motivated by trying to create the characters for the stage. ~ David Bowie, #NFDB
844:It is more important to just be as honest as I can about my characters than to write some really great sentence. ~ Molly Antopol, #NFDB
845:I've lived the lives of all the characters in all my books, and all their mighty wisdom thunders in my head. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky, #NFDB
846:James Patterson has a way with female characters. He understands women in a way that a lot of male writers don't. ~ Tracy Pollan, #NFDB
847:People watch me when I get into these characters that I have in my head, so perhaps I should try acting. So I did. ~ John Boyega, #NFDB
848:The cast of characters of War and Peace almost exceeds 600, including roughly 160 historical figures. Sympathizing ~ Leo Tolstoy, #NFDB
849:There are likable characters in prison. Sometimes the worst criminals are also some of the most charming people. ~ Taryn Manning, #NFDB
850:The stories that I like to tell and the movies I like are always grounded in the emotional arc of the characters. ~ Eric Balfour, #NFDB
851:Well, thanks, but I think I’ll go back to dating fictional characters. Everyone knows boys in books are better. ~ Charleigh Rose, #NFDB
852:When I'm watching TV, I'm always drawn to those female characters who are doing something that I would want to do. ~ Gina Holden, #NFDB
853:When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
854:With classic sitcoms like MASH, the characters all drove each other crazy, and that's what you loved to see. ~ David Alan Basche, #NFDB
855:You may actually be the only person who gets more than 140 characters from me. That's kind of awesome, right? ~ Becky Albertalli, #NFDB
856:Your lyrics lack subtlety! You can't just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry! ~ Matt Groening, #NFDB
857:All you need to know about plotting is twofold. 1. Give your characters goals. 2. Don't let them reach those goals. ~ J A Konrath, #NFDB
858:Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
859:Every director is different. And all the movies are very different, and the characters are very different. ~ Joseph Gordon Levitt, #NFDB
860:I am a passionate, not an intellectual writer, which means my characters must plunge ahead of me to live the story ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
861:I enjoy films where two characters are coming of age, just different ages. That's why I love 'Paper Moon' so much. ~ Emma Forrest, #NFDB
862:I have always written about characters who fall somewhere in the spectrum between solitary and totally alienated. ~ Nicole Krauss, #NFDB
863:I have a very healthy appetite for good writing and good characters. Having weak writing is my biggest fear. ~ Michael K Williams, #NFDB
864:I love a large cast of characters. That's the way life is: it's flooded with people and we keep them all straight. ~ Ann Patchett, #NFDB
865:I try to pick characters that I find interesting and complex and that I feel I can bring something of myself to. ~ Aaron Stanford, #NFDB
866:I write about real people in disguise. If anything, my characters are toned down-the truth is much more bizarre. ~ Jackie Collins, #NFDB
867:One of the troubles of our times is that we are all, I think, precocious as personalities and backward as characters. ~ W H Auden, #NFDB
868:Some of my favorite characters that I've played have been very pompous because I love making fun of pompous people. ~ Kevin Kline, #NFDB
869:Television is what we're all very attracted to because that's where the best writing and the best characters are. ~ Ioan Gruffudd, #NFDB
870:The characters emerge from my rather twisted mind. That's another enjoyable part of the job making stuff up. ~ Jonathan Kellerman, #NFDB
871:The Chinese character for “crisis,” he pointed out to me, combines the characters for “danger” and “opportunity. ~ Roger L Martin, #NFDB
872:There is a great deal of hard lying in the world; especially among people whose characters are above suspicion. ~ Benjamin Jowett, #NFDB
873:The world is a stage we walk upon. We are all in a way fictional characters who write ourselves with our beliefs. ~ Louis Theroux, #NFDB
874:When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people not characters. A character is a caricature. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
875:When you know psychologically what [characters] are feeling, then that plays out on how you dress a lot of times. ~ Nicole Kidman, #NFDB
876:You can't play history and you can't play historical characters. You just have to reduce it to the ordinary. ~ Lorraine Toussaint, #NFDB
877:Character is half the reason we read. We're excited because of the plot, but we care because of the characters. ~ Patrick Rothfuss, #NFDB
878:Characters last. Beautiful writing lasts. A compelling narrative lasts. Art survives long after ideas go extinct. ~ Joel Achenbach, #NFDB
879:Disney has a bible for their characters, so that people who draw Disney characters have to make them look correct. ~ Trina Robbins, #NFDB
880:Every paragraph should accomplish two goals: advance the story, and develop your characters as complex human beings. ~ Nancy Kress, #NFDB
881:I don't write books for people to be friends with the characters. If you want to find friends, go to a cocktail party. ~ Zo Heller, #NFDB
882:If I had a clear vision, none of my books would be what they are. I've got to let the characters show me the way. ~ Shandy L Kurth, #NFDB
883:I have noticed that in plays where the characters on stage laugh a great deal, the people out front laugh very little. ~ Jean Kerr, #NFDB
884:I just like playing interesting, complex, complicated characters. I like films that also have an element of humor. ~ Steve Buscemi, #NFDB
885:I like repressed characters. That gives me a lot of freedom to make a lot of different choices through subtleties. ~ Jeremy Renner, #NFDB
886:In a book you can really talk about ideas and themes and characters in a deeper way than you can even on the screen. ~ Noah Hawley, #NFDB
887:I put my heart and soul into my book - great story and awesome characters... yet people are trying to pull me down. ~ Nick Simmons, #NFDB
888:I think I'm drawn to characters with complexity or who are under duress in some way and have some conflict going on. ~ Emily Blunt, #NFDB
889:My characters are fictional. I get ideas from real people, sometimes, but my characters always exist only in my head. ~ S E Hinton, #NFDB
890:The readers are very similar. The books they know, the questions they ask, the characters they like. That is similar. ~ Gabriel Ba, #NFDB
891:When writing a novel a writer should create living people; people, not characters. A character is a caricature. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
892:When you have a set of characters, you have to fall in love with them and care about them as each individual character. ~ Tina Fey, #NFDB
893:You always miss them [characters you've played] once you've walked away, but part of them always stays with you too. ~ Johnny Depp, #NFDB
894:alphabetic scripts tend to have between 20 and 40 characters (Russian, for example, has 36 signs, and Arabic has 28). ~ Simon Singh, #NFDB
895:I allow my characters to have their say, then I cry, because they say what I've been wanting to say all along. ~ Angel M B Chadwick, #NFDB
896:I believe in storytelling, not story-selling. I want people to believe the characters are real. So I'm a realist. ~ Morgan Spurlock, #NFDB
897:I don't enter into particulars with [Ennio Morricone]. I give him the feeling and the suggestions of the characters. ~ Sergio Leone, #NFDB
898:I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own. ~ Ruta Sepetys, #NFDB
899:I'm trying to show I'm a trained actress - I can transform myself into different characters. I'm not just an ingenue. ~ Ming Na Wen, #NFDB
900:I thought of happy endings, how novelists usually flinched. To admit your characters are doomed means you are too. ~ Darcey Steinke, #NFDB
901:I will never do Pulp [Fiction] 2 but having said that, I could very well do other movies with these characters. ~ Quentin Tarantino, #NFDB
902:Now the books are arranged according to which characters I believe ought to be talking to each other. That’s ~ Sarah Ladipo Manyika, #NFDB
903:That's one of the best things about characters like Indiana Jones. I mean, he's funny. He's done really wicked things. ~ Rhys Darby, #NFDB
904:The main reason for rewriting is not to achieve a smooth surface, but to discover the inner truth of your characters. ~ Saul Bellow, #NFDB
905:The only form of fiction in which real characters do not seem out of place is history. In novels they are detestable. ~ Oscar Wilde, #NFDB
906:The only way we can be of use to God is to let Him take us through the crooks and crannies of our own characters. ~ Oswald Chambers, #NFDB
907:[Townies] was a huge cast. It was a bit ungainly, I think with 12 regular characters they had to keep writing for. ~ Eric McCormack, #NFDB
908:Trying to identify and understand, as opposed to judging, is very important for me, in approaching characters. ~ Michael Fassbender, #NFDB
909:We have many Lisas, Marks, Dennys, Johnnys, and other characters from 'The Room' in America and in the entire world. ~ Tommy Wiseau, #NFDB
910:When you have love in a story, it gives you the freedom to really take the characters to very interesting places. ~ Josh Hutcherson, #NFDB
911:ELANTRIS is a new BEN HUR for the fantasy genre, with a sweeping, epic storyline and closely personal characters. ~ Kevin J Anderson, #NFDB
912:For some reason, all my characters come to me with their names attached to them. I never have to search for the names. ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
913:I do what I do because of Walt Disney - his films and his theme park and his characters and his joy in entertaining. ~ John Lasseter, #NFDB
914:I had the good fortune early on to cast some really great people that were not just characters, they had character. ~ Don Coscarelli, #NFDB
915:I'm just looking always for characters that change, because I want to get better, as an actor and as a person. ~ Jeffrey Dean Morgan, #NFDB
916:It is one great dream dreamed by a single Being, but in such a way that all the
dream characters dream too. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer,#NFDB
917:It's a convention, but in horror movies the female characters usually tend to believe easier in a supernatural event. ~ Fede Alvarez, #NFDB
918:I wish stories were kinder to their characters," Maddie said. "But I guess trouble is more interesting to read about. ~ Shannon Hale, #NFDB
919:Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars. Kahlil Gibran ~ Cecilia London, #NFDB
920:Russell Crowe is normally an actor who disappears so far into his characters you'd swear his DNA has been altered. ~ David Edelstein, #NFDB
921:Sometimes we’re so wrapped up in our own story that we don’t see how we’re supporting characters in someone else’s. So ~ Nathan Hill, #NFDB
922:The characters that I create are parts of myself and I send them on little missions to find out what I don’t know yet. ~ Gail Godwin, #NFDB
923:There's the theory that nudity doesn't really make something sexy; the characters and their relationship make it sexy. ~ Tim Robbins, #NFDB
924:Well, I'm also like 23 and playing 16. So maybe when I'm 30 I'll be playing characters in their early 20s. I don't know. ~ Amy Smart, #NFDB
925:When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
926:Who would have thought that a means of communication limited to 140 characters would ever create misunderstanding? ~ Stephen Colbert, #NFDB
927:Algebra looked like Chinese characters to me, and I could never get into reading Shakespeare. I just did not get it. ~ Tommy Hilfiger, #NFDB
928:All people have three characters, that which they exhibit, that which they have, and that which they think they have. ~ Alphonse Karr, #NFDB
929:Anything you write, even if you have to start over, is valuable. I let the story write itself through the characters. ~ Steve Buscemi, #NFDB
930:Characters reflect psychology as a matter of coherence, but they cannot have psychology because they do not have lives. ~ Damon Suede, #NFDB
931:If you want to go, Sloane…I’ll make it happen. For you, I can switch characters. I will be Prince Charming for a night. ~ Callie Hart, #NFDB
932:I had played many gay characters before, but they were finite - guest characters in TV shows or characters in plays. ~ Eric McCormack, #NFDB
933:I'm just looking for characters that continue to make me stretch and grow and learn more about the human condition. ~ Forest Whitaker, #NFDB
934:I prefer playing characters that are going through turmoil. Most movie characters are just in service to the story. ~ Jesse Eisenberg, #NFDB
935:Make sure your main characters are likeable. They can be flawed, but your readers need to be able to root for them. ~ Janet Evanovich, #NFDB
936:One of the great things that you should never do that I learned from John Malkovich is to never judge your characters. ~ Jeremy Piven, #NFDB
937:People think I'm thick because of the characters I play. I think I'm brighter than the characters. Well, I hope I am. ~ Kevin Whately, #NFDB
938:People with really weak characters cause an immense amount of suffering in the world. They destroy whole civilisations. ~ Bessie Head, #NFDB
939:You establish a technique on how to develop characters. Everyone does it their own way, and that's what makes it fun. ~ Frank Vincent, #NFDB
940:And as much as I love the gritty characters, I like to play all sorts of characters. I'm an actor. I love to create. ~ Brittany Murphy, #NFDB
941:But, how do you know if an ending is truly good for the characters unless you've traveled with them through every page? ~ Shannon Hale, #NFDB
942:I do have some kind of gravitational pull towards young characters with more responsibility than they should have. ~ Jennifer Lawrence, #NFDB
943:I dont categorize characters into one syllable. These are fully-rounded characters that I dont judge; I just play them. ~ Kevin Spacey, #NFDB
944:In dreams we see ourselves naked and acting out our real characters, even more clearly than we see others awake. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
945:In the old-fashioned sitcoms, to be gay was, in itself, funny, and you laughed at the characters rather than with them. ~ Ian Mckellen, #NFDB
946:Millions of characters, each with their own epic narratives singing it’s hard to be an angel until you’ve been a demon. ~ Kate Tempest, #NFDB
947:Reading is a creative activity. You have to visualize the characters, you have to hear what the voices sound like. ~ Madeleine L Engle, #NFDB
948:Two distinct elements are included under the term "inheritance"— the transmission, and the development of characters; ~ Charles Darwin, #NFDB
949:As a rule, I don't worry about genre. I just want to tell a good story, with characters that interest me and my readers. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
950:As a writer, I challenge myself not to tell the same story - to tackle different characters with different issues. ~ Eric Jerome Dickey, #NFDB
951:Dan Harmon has this idea that characters on TV are allowed to talk about their favorite movies and TV shows and songs. ~ Gillian Jacobs, #NFDB
952:Georgia Author Brenda Sutton Rose captures some of the conflicted and captivating characters of a rapidly changing South. ~ Janisse Ray, #NFDB
953:I always tend to like the characters that I play. I'm convinced that I am this person and I'm OK with whatever they do. ~ Mark Wahlberg, #NFDB
954:I do always feel very proud and flattered by being asked to be a part of American productions playing American characters. ~ Toby Jones, #NFDB
955:I don't think about the stories so much, as the characters themselves. They live on, and they are almost as real as I am. ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
956:If the characters of a fictional work can be readers or spectators, we, its readers or spectators, can be fictions. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
957:I look for characters that interest me, and a story that keeps me involved and makes me want to know what happens next. ~ Curtis Hanson, #NFDB
958:I love the process of auditioning and having the chance to play a million different characters in one week - it's great. ~ Will Poulter, #NFDB
959:I'm not going to experience the reality of hardship that sometimes my characters live in. I'm very cautious about that. ~ Colin Farrell, #NFDB
960:I must point out - Sarah Jessica Parker is not a diva - she's one of these pop culture characters that everybody likes. ~ Philip Treacy, #NFDB
961:I think it's really important to depict complex, flawed LGBT characters, because we are all connected by our humanity. ~ Kit Williamson, #NFDB
962:Joan Ashby is one of our most astonishing writers, a master of words whose profound characters slip free of the page... ~ Cherise Wolas, #NFDB
963:Over the years, I have been asked to play these sort of scary frenetic characters that express their emotions physically. ~ Gary Oldman, #NFDB
964:Parents can only advise their children or point them in the right direction. Ultimately people shape their own characters. ~ Anne Frank, #NFDB
965:That means life itself is a fairy tale. Like the characters, we all live and love and search for a happily-ever-after. ~ Gena Showalter, #NFDB
966:The Defiant Ones and 48 Hours, in which two characters with different attitudes are thrown together and have to bond. ~ Walter Isaacson, #NFDB
967:There are three ways to learn about a character: What he says. What he does. What other characters say about him. ~ Claire Vaye Watkins, #NFDB
968:There are wolves hiding in the gray flock; characters who still know what freedom is. This is a ruler's worst nightmare. ~ Ernst J nger, #NFDB
969:A setting, a narrative, characters who live and breathe—he was able to make the story come to life in someone else’s mind. ~ Kate Morton, #NFDB
970:Everything we do is about the emotion of the characters. We believe the better the emotion, the better the movie. ~ Nicolas Winding Refn, #NFDB
971:I express things through characters because I have a fear that my own voice is irritating because thats been said to me. ~ Maria Bamford, #NFDB
972:I like playing characters who are out there on the edge, where they can explode at any moment or fall off the precipice. ~ Jessica Lange, #NFDB
973:I'm looking for richness, complexity, and characters that have different layers and that you don't really get bored of. ~ Julian Jarrold, #NFDB
974:I'm often moved by the circumstances around some of my characters, but I don't think I've actually cried watching myself. ~ Kate Winslet, #NFDB
975:Maybe the grand gestures don’t matter nearly as much as all the inconsequential things between the two main characters. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
976:Novelists are evil psychopomps, basically. We treat a few characters as real, but the rest of them are cannon fodder. ~ Scott Westerfeld, #NFDB
977:Something that I really enjoy doing is creating and being a part of very different characters and very different projects. ~ Noel Fisher, #NFDB
978:Tell stories that matter. Diction is about characters who don’t exist, but their pain and sorrow and joy are very real. ~ Brenda Rothert, #NFDB
979:The policy of prohibition summoned these characters into existence, because it needs them. So long as it lives, they live. ~ Johann Hari, #NFDB
980:The power of movies lies in the fact that it enables the viewer to enter the reality, to some extent, of the characters. ~ Eckhart Tolle, #NFDB
981:There are so many quirky characters, its easy to fall in love with any number of the characters on The Carrie Diaries. ~ Brendan Dooling, #NFDB
982:The story line of my novel [The Kite Runner] is largely fictional. The characters were invented and the plot imagined. ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
983:tis true that tho' People can transcend their Characters in Times of Tranquillity, they can ne'er do so in Times of Tumult. ~ Erica Jong, #NFDB
984:When I read scripts and when I read books, it's more of an emotional response and I was really drawn to these characters. ~ Katie Holmes, #NFDB
985:Writing fiction means putting a lot of what you believe about the world at risk, because you have to follow your characters. ~ Phil Klay, #NFDB
986:You might get to know characters in books, Ollie thought, but getting to know a human was an entirely different thing. ~ Katherine Arden, #NFDB
987:After a while, the characters I'm writing begin to feel real to me. That's when I know I'm heading in the right direction ~ Alice Hoffman, #NFDB
988:Any similarity between existing people and certain characters in this book is due solely to insight into human nature. ~ Dimitri Verhulst, #NFDB
989:From a director's point of view, if I can create different characters which impress the audience, that's fantastic for me. ~ Stephen Chow, #NFDB
990:Get to know your characters as well as you can let there be something at stake, and then let the chips fall where they may. ~ Anne Lamott, #NFDB
991:I am created for fiction but I am real. As is Kane. As are all the characters created by Scribblers in the realm of Octava! ~ Lucian Bane, #NFDB
992:I'm an actor and I love to find new collaborations and new characters where I can grow as an actor and human being. ~ Alexander Skarsgard, #NFDB
993:I'm not interested in cutting the feet off my characters or stretching them to make them fit my certain political view. ~ Margaret Atwood, #NFDB
994:It's a luxury to be able to tell a long form story. I love novels, and I love to have a long relationship with characters. ~ Jane Campion, #NFDB
995:I've played a baseball player a few times, but in my career I've been blessed to have played a wide range of characters. ~ Daniel Sunjata, #NFDB
996:Our minds are shaped by the books we read.
Our characters, by the people we meet.
Our spirits by the love we give. ~ Robin S Sharma,#NFDB
997:The characters [of The Tempest] have always been favorites of mine. It is one of his meditations on art - what it does. ~ Margaret Atwood, #NFDB
998:What characters do must grow out of who they are, and who they are is, in turn, influenced by what you make happen to them. ~ Nancy Kress, #NFDB
999:What did the truth matter? All characters once dead, if they continue to exist in memory at all, tend to become fictions. ~ Graham Greene, #NFDB
1000:When I read a script, I try not to judge the characters. I try to have an open mind and really see what it makes me feel. ~ Penelope Cruz, #NFDB
1001:You'll work hard to create characters that are compelling and unforgettable. But in the end, it's the story that matters. ~ James Dashner, #NFDB
1002:A general philosophy of the female characters in my films is they all want something to believe in, and not having anything. ~ Woody Allen, #NFDB
1003:Being an actor opened doors for me to explore my emotions as different people and characters, and expand my own inner soul. ~ Scott Bakula, #NFDB
1004:Everyone's different. I mean, some people write journals for their characters and stuff, but that was never really my area. ~ Brady Corbet, #NFDB
1005:I am most proud of the development of the characters as personalities that game players could relate to and care about. ~ Roberta Williams, #NFDB
1006:I feel my characters are valid, my characters are people, my characters have hope. Hope is the thing that'll take us through. ~ Jack Kirby, #NFDB
1007:I liked "Superman/Batman: The Search for Kryptonite" because I really enjoyed the interaction between those two characters. ~ Henry Cavill, #NFDB
1008:In displaying the psychology of your characters, minute particulars are essential. God save us from vague generalizations! ~ Anton Chekhov, #NFDB
1009:I suppose with any good writing and interesting characters, you can have that awfully overused word [...] - a jouuuuuurney. ~ Alan Rickman, #NFDB
1010:I understand that I may make mistakes with characters who don't share my own background, but I commit to doing my best. ~ Kelley Armstrong, #NFDB
1011:Life is crueller than art, for the latter usually assures that physical surroundings reflect characters' mental states". ~ Alain de Botton, #NFDB
1012:My only conclusion about structure is that nothing works if you don't have interesting characters and a good story to tell. ~ Harold Ramis, #NFDB
1013:Never try to fit a target audience. Write what is true to the characters in their settings and the audience will find you. ~ Alex Borstein, #NFDB
1014:Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1015:Sometimes you have to search for inspiration with characters, and other times, they just drop out of the sky and arrive. ~ Dylan McDermott, #NFDB
1016:Terrific! A successful blend of genres, complex and fascinating characters, and loads of suspense make 24 Bones a must-read. ~ Nate Kenyon, #NFDB
1017:The author can always delve into his own personality and find aspects of himself with which he can dress his characters. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
1018:The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few esteemed characters. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
1019:The opportunities I've had to play really complex characters - which haven't been a lot, but some - you never get over them. ~ Sally Field, #NFDB
1020:There are lots and lots of different films that I love, and watching different characters and how different people play them. ~ Cher Lloyd, #NFDB
1021:The "Toy Story" films accomplish what timeless classics aim for - innocent characters who face an endless trail of adventures. ~ Tom Hanks, #NFDB
1022:The writer that you are, I guess you’re used to being a kind of dictator, telling the characters in your stories what to do. ~ Dean Koontz, #NFDB
1023:Truth is not exciting enough to those who depend on the characters and lives of their neighbors for all their amusement. ~ George Bancroft, #NFDB
1024:When you have satire, it has to be real. No matter how outrageous the comedy becomes, you have to believe in the characters. ~ Kevin Kline, #NFDB
1025:You know what I like? I like classic stuff. I like 'The Andy Griffith Show' - the variety of characters was so amazing to me. ~ J B Smoove, #NFDB
1026:All strong characters and peoples are race conscious and are instinctively averse to marriage outside their own racial group. ~ Will Durant, #NFDB
1027:All words that are important in history have been picked up and used by all kind of characters, for all kinds of reasons. ~ Richard D Wolff, #NFDB
1028:As a child, I was a clown. I didn't hesitate to make a fool of myself and I would love to completely take on wacky characters. ~ Gemma Ward, #NFDB
1029:Everybody has their different tastes with television - there are some characters people like, some characters people hate. ~ Jake M Johnson, #NFDB
1030:I could almost hear the characters inside, murmuring and jostling, impatient for me to open the cover and let them out. ~ Jennifer Donnelly, #NFDB
1031:I dont want to just play gay characters, ... I think it would get boring to play the same thing again and again and again. ~ Rupert Everett, #NFDB
1032:I don't want to play high schoolers anymore. I guess I don't feel that way. I just want to play characters who are really good. ~ Nat Wolff, #NFDB
1033:I'm not writing great literature. I'm writing commercial fiction for people to enjoy the stories and to like the characters. ~ Kathy Reichs, #NFDB
1034:I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of. ~ Joss Whedon, #NFDB
1035:The writer of stories or of novels settles on men and imitates them; he exhausts the possibilities of his characters. ~ Salvatore Quasimodo, #NFDB
1036:Vulnerability is huge. I love to see that in characters. It's something I feel like a lot of my comedic heroes have always done. ~ Ed Helms, #NFDB
1037:What a trajedy to be a martyr for love, yet we worship the characters anyways because they remind us of how we struggled. ~ Shannon L Alder, #NFDB
1038:What's interesting about the movie and characters is that they're one thing to the world and another thing in their heads. ~ Milla Jovovich, #NFDB
1039:Anything which retains interest is optimistic. When the characters become disinterested, it's pessimistic. Does that make sense? ~ John Hurt, #NFDB
1040:I have a tendency as an actress in general to ground my characters. Even when doing outlandish characters, that's my instinct. ~ Kate Burton, #NFDB
1041:I love the feeling I get when I'm on a set; I love reading the scripts, playing the characters, getting to be someone else. ~ Dakota Fanning, #NFDB
1042:I'm fond of all my characters so every time one doesn't make the cut I'm a little disappointed although I understand it. ~ George R R Martin, #NFDB
1043:I'm not one of these 'the characters write themselves; the story just fell out of me' kind of writers. Wish it was like that. ~ Markus Zusak, #NFDB
1044:I've had the opportunity to do a wide range of stuff, a lot of different characters and they've all had their own kind of thing. ~ Tony Hale, #NFDB
1045:I would write of the universal, not the provincial, in human nature.... I would write of characters, not of characteristics. ~ Ellen Glasgow, #NFDB
1046:One has very little influence upon one's children. Their characters are what they are and one can do nothing to change them. ~ Andre Maurois, #NFDB
1047:The most important is that the writer’s original perception of a character or characters may be as erroneous as the reader’s. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1048:When my books were translated, it was always about the characters, because the unique language aspect was lost in translation. ~ Etgar Keret, #NFDB
1049:A piece of art really works when you see yourself in the main characters and you see a glimpse of yourself in the villains ~ Colson Whitehead, #NFDB
1050:I enjoy pushing my characters to the limit. No matter how far out there I go, I look for things that make the characters human. ~ Dana Carvey, #NFDB
1051:In all my characters, I try to find an iota of myself, and in Castle, I found a lot. He gets away with a lot, so that's fun. ~ Nathan Fillion, #NFDB
1052:My job as a dramatist is to find out where these characters want to go, and make it as hard as possible for them to get there. ~ Peter Hedges, #NFDB
1053:[My work is] maybe about me maybe not wanting to be me and wanting to be all these other characters. Or at least try them on. ~ Cindy Sherman, #NFDB
1054:No more movie references. No more fictional characters to relate to. This was real. It was destiny. I was…a thing, a commodity. ~ C J Roberts, #NFDB
1055:Some characters in the world are marked down for self-destruction, and to these no amount of rational argument can appeal. ~ Lawrence Durrell, #NFDB
1056:The alphabet will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls. They will trust the written characters and not remember themselves. ~ Socrates, #NFDB
1057:The most important thing, when playing characters with chemistry, is being able to work off the other actor and be supported. ~ Tricia Helfer, #NFDB
1058:We are real black characters with real character, not the stars of American racist spectacle. Blackness is not probable cause. ~ Kiese Laymon, #NFDB
1059:What do you do in a novel? You take recognizable characters from your own life, and you fantasize about what they're really like. ~ Joe Klein, #NFDB
1060:When we read, even if the characters are tragic or sad or disturbing, these are our brothers and sisters in the human family. ~ Julia Alvarez, #NFDB
1061:You should make sure that the quotable lines of dialogue in your book never exceed a hundred and forty characters!” seemed ~ Scott Westerfeld, #NFDB
1062:All topics, issues, and subjects in 'The Room' add to the depth of the characters in the movie, and they are equally important. ~ Tommy Wiseau, #NFDB
1063:Don't think for a moment that I'm really like any of the characters I've played. I'm not. That's why it's called 'acting'. ~ Leonardo DiCaprio, #NFDB
1064:If you look at me in 'Ride Along,' even though I'm playing two different characters, my demeanor and my tone were not aggressive. ~ Kevin Hart, #NFDB
1065:I immediately noticed there were far more male characters than female characters in the programs, even now, in the 21st century. ~ Geena Davis, #NFDB
1066:I know people think that I always play these characters who are in control and can chop someone's head off with a look. ~ Kristin Scott Thomas, #NFDB
1067:I spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
1068:I spent my life folded between the pages of books. In the absence of human relationships, I formed bonds with paper characters. ~ Tahereh Mafi, #NFDB
1069:I steal things from people, characteristics, and I just stock them in my head like a library to use for characters in the future. ~ Luke Mably, #NFDB
1070:It behooves every man to see that his influence is on the side of justice, and let the courts make their own characters. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
1071:I've gotten pretty good at leaving characters on the set. I go home and try to relax and regroup and be ready for the next day. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
1072:Now, all the movies are for teenagers. It's very difficult for an actress to find really deep, beautiful characters to play. ~ Monica Bellucci, #NFDB
1073:That's the main thing, looking for interesting characters, good directors, and experiences where you're growing and learning. ~ Nicholas Hoult, #NFDB
1074:the chief offense in bad fiction: we sense that characters are being manipulated, forced to do things they would not really do. ~ John Gardner, #NFDB
1075:The fall of man is written in too legible characters not to be understood: Those that deny it, by their denying, prove it. ~ George Whitefield, #NFDB
1076:The most complicated letters in English, like E and W, have four strokes. Many Japanese characters have more than 15 strokes ~ Timothy Ferriss, #NFDB
1077:The movies I make tend not to be quite reality but the characters are inspired by real people and they're always very personal. ~ Wes Anderson, #NFDB
1078:There's not a woman in the book, the plot hinges on unkindness to animals, and the black characters mostly drown by Chapter 29. ~ P J O Rourke, #NFDB
1079:But I do believe that in all my shows, I really enjoy the quirky, the eccentric characters, the ones you don't meet every day. ~ David E Kelley, #NFDB
1080:Cool? Am I cool? I don't know, but I hope my characters are cool, in the sense of iconic. That's my job, at its very essence. ~ Jacques Audiard, #NFDB
1081:I can't bear shopping. I can choose clothes for my characters, but not for myself. I've got no dress sense. Or I've lost it. ~ Richard Armitage, #NFDB
1082:If you cant laugh at your own characters, or shed a tear for them, or even get angry at one of them, no one else will either. ~ Johanna Lindsey, #NFDB
1083:Im always practicing lines, researching, trying to be fresh, and fully trying to become the characters I play. Thats how I roll. ~ Ariel Winter, #NFDB
1084:I pretty much always choose characters. That's what I do. That's what I look for. I look for dynamics in a script and potential. ~ Grant Bowler, #NFDB
1085:People are writing shorter jokes. The style I've started with was almost trying to keep jokes under 140 characters before Twitter. ~ Nick Thune, #NFDB
1086:The girl starts crying even harder, but helpful posts in 140 characters or less don’t appear. Life should be more like Twitter. ~ Janet Gurtler, #NFDB
1087:The reader wants to see something happen between pages one and four hundred, and nothing happens if the characters don't change. ~ Terry Brooks, #NFDB
1088:There is a kind of dreary monotony about there characters, an American sameness about them that never varies and is always dull. ~ Jack Kerouac, #NFDB
1089:With the Internet, characters like Drudge could pursue—without the constraints and rules imposed by editors and institutions— ~ Jeannette Walls, #NFDB
1090:A comedy isn’t about being funny...a comedy is about characters who dare to know that they may choose a happy ending after all. ~ Gary D Schmidt, #NFDB
1091:Acting is still, of course, what I love to do most. The beauty of it is that by changing characters, it never gets boring. ~ Christopher Lambert, #NFDB
1092:All of the negativity and unsavory characters in this environment only serve to make the exceptions shine all the more brightly. ~ Damien Echols, #NFDB
1093:Beautifully drawn, solid, compelling characters against a background so real and scary I left the lights on all night. It was great! ~ P N Elrod, #NFDB
1094:I always try to get as personal as I can with the characters that I play, which is a reason why I don't play a lot of characters. ~ Romany Malco, #NFDB
1095:I choose to write characters from the inside because I feel like that's the way I'm gonna get the most honest version of them. ~ Charlie Kaufman, #NFDB
1096:I like being part of good movies and telling stories that mean something to me. I also like playing characters that I look up to. ~ Katie Holmes, #NFDB
1097:I think there's a dishonorable tradition in Hollywood to give the idea, particularly to children, that evil characters are dark. ~ Tilda Swinton, #NFDB
1098:I try to give all my characters a sense of humor, so I guess I feel like I have done comedy, but maybe I'm better known for drama. ~ Kathy Baker, #NFDB
1099:I've worked with a lot of characters that are unhinged. I've played characters that are unhinged. That's, like, my job. ~ Philip Seymour Hoffman, #NFDB
1100:I wanted to create a game (EarthBound) with real characters; characters whom players would recognize in the people around them. ~ Shigesato Itoi, #NFDB
1101:I wouldn't be surprised if some day, they put the Simpsons in the Smithsonian. It's become part of our culture, those characters. ~ Joe Mantegna, #NFDB
1102:The failures of other genres to provide an emotional connection with some of their characters and narratives gives memoir a toehold. ~ Mary Karr, #NFDB
1103:This goes to prove yet again that few people stick to the articles of their characters, and will keep breaking away from them. ~ Sebastian Barry, #NFDB
1104:All of my characters tend to be montages of different people I've met: little bits and pieces of their personalities put together. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
1105:A lot of comedies fall apart because they just go from joke to joke, and the characters are all sort of being crazy off on their own. ~ Paul Feig, #NFDB
1106:Before I started to make films, I didn't give much thought to the way the characters were physically positioned in the story world. ~ Etgar Keret, #NFDB
1107:Dickens writes that one of his characters, "listened to everything without seeming to, which showed he understood his business. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
1108:I don't think anybody deals well with tragedy or grief, but maybe my characters are particularly bad at it. Which is why I love them. ~ Dan Chaon, #NFDB
1109:I just want to keep laying down really great, strong characters, and the more I go unrecognized, the better job I feel I'm doing. ~ Scoot McNairy, #NFDB
1110:In drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters. ~ Lance Reddick, #NFDB
1111:In Garden Party or 40 Days and 40 Nights, I played characters who people dont necessarily like; I just find some humanity in them. ~ Vinessa Shaw, #NFDB
1112:In life's journey, you will meet all sorts of characters. Always remember, never shed a tear for the heartless, corrupt or insensitive. ~ Krystal, #NFDB
1113:I think much has been made of this alter ego business. I mean, I actually stopped creating characters in 1975 - for albums, anyway. ~ David Bowie, #NFDB
1114:I thought, I loved Batman, I loved Spider-Man, I love all these characters, but Catwoman is really different from any other one. ~ Denise Di Novi, #NFDB
1115:I've certainly seen stats that if you have a woman director or a woman screenwriter, the number of female characters goes way up. ~ Emma Donoghue, #NFDB
1116:Let your characters talk to each other and do things. Spend time with them - they'll tell you who they are and what they're up to. ~ Greta Gerwig, #NFDB
1117:People keep asking me, 'What evil lurks in you to play such bad characters?' There is no evil in me, I just wear tight underwear. ~ Dennis Hopper, #NFDB
1118:So many characters are governed by the consequences of their actions, and I wanted to have a character who is the exact opposite. ~ Matthew Healy, #NFDB
1119:Theatre within theatre, when characters sees themselves on stage, always raises philosophical questions of choice and free will. ~ Mark Ravenhill, #NFDB
1120:The characters are complicated. The people you think are bad, may not be so bad, and the ones you think are good, may not be so good. ~ Neal Baer, #NFDB
1121:The funny thing is that I feel close to all my characters. Deep, deep inside them all. I can't describe how deeply I love them all. ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
1122:The reason I never want a book to end is that I start to feel like the characters are my friends. I'll miss them when they're gone. ~ Miley Cyrus, #NFDB
1123:There's so many characters they [studios] are not letting me play. And I thought, "Why don't you just go produce it yourself?". ~ George Hamilton, #NFDB
1124:The word “to grieve” or “lament” in Japanese is actually made up of two different kanji characters — “sadness” and “resentment. ~ Takashi Hiraide, #NFDB
1125:When you're directing, I feel like I'm playing all the parts, without the make-up. I really get into the heads of the characters. ~ Griffin Dunne, #NFDB
1126:Actors want to work. Give them characters they want to play, or a story they want to tell, and hopefully the budget will follow. ~ Lorene Scafaria, #NFDB
1127:During my career I’ve enjoyed re-invigorating and contextualizing classic characters that are relatable to contemporary audiences. ~ David S Goyer, #NFDB
1128:...ending a book with a sequel in such a way that the reader still has faith in the characters and in the writer. That's finesse. ~ Shandy L Kurth, #NFDB
1129:... except when I get down and write...then I let my imagination go to places I never knew existed and my characters invade my mind. ~ Mark Alders, #NFDB
1130:I like when people question if the characters are really villains or protagonists. These types are very interesting to write about. ~ Jack Higgins, #NFDB
1131:I love being able to play as many different characters, in as many different worlds as I possibly can. That's what I really enjoy. ~ Michael Sheen, #NFDB
1132:I loved being on stage. I was in elementary school when I started, so I couldn't say that it was about the building of characters. ~ Katie Cassidy, #NFDB
1133:I'm always on the side of the characters, rather than the side of the people attacking them. I get realistic. It's not gratuitous. ~ Alexandre Aja, #NFDB
1134:I'm not going to let people who work in the United States Department of Justice have their characters be assailed without any basis. ~ Eric Holder, #NFDB
1135:I never went after character payments. I'm pretty much terrible at naming characters, so I usually name them after people I know. ~ Billy Lawrence, #NFDB
1136:In every great novel, who is the hero all the time? Not any of the characters, but some unnamed and nameless flame behind them all. ~ D H Lawrence, #NFDB
1137:I prefer to play English characters. They have a knack for dying well. I have made my career superbly playing well-died Englishmen. ~ Dacre Stoker, #NFDB
1138:I think part of my reputation has to do with the difficult roles I've played. Actors do tend to get identified with their characters. ~ Val Kilmer, #NFDB
1139:I would tell any actress that the trick is to play all the female characters on your show, and then all the men are yours. ~ Sarah Michelle Gellar, #NFDB
1140:One of my pet peeves about biblical epics was that the characters' costumes always looked like they're just out of the dry cleaners. ~ Roma Downey, #NFDB
1141:So the characters that I choose, I like to make sure that they have depth and that they have some sort of bite. It's more fun. ~ Heather Matarazzo, #NFDB
1142:When you start writing the magic comes when the characters seem to take on a life of their own and write the words for themselves. ~ Alice Hoffman, #NFDB
1143:Writers are like actors too. For every story we create, we must get under the skin of the characters and role play with our writing. ~ Jyoti Arora, #NFDB
1144:You know, I have some issues. But I just love to play different characters all the time, and I try not to repeat myself too much. ~ Rachel McAdams, #NFDB
1145:Generally my instinct is to not do biographical movies. I want to build characters and not be locked into playing a part in history. ~ Nicolas Cage, #NFDB
1146:I always aspire to that, where it feels like the film was made by the characters as opposed to the filmmakers. I try to be invisible. ~ Spike Jonze, #NFDB
1147:I can create countries just as I can create the actions of my characters. That is why a lot of travel seems to me a waste of time. ~ Jerzy Kosinski, #NFDB
1148:I like playing characters that, you know, a couple could go see the movie and one person could love him and one person could hate him. ~ Jonah Hill, #NFDB
1149:I like playing characters with as many emotions as possible. I'd love to play a really crazy person - someone truly out of her mind. ~ Elle Fanning, #NFDB
1150:I love all my characters. I love their weaknesses and flaws. I feel like they're all my best friends and I adore being with them. ~ Sophie Kinsella, #NFDB
1151:I'm off for two weeks, so until I get back, take the characters in this tweet and parcel them out one per day. Use this Q wisely. ~ Stephen Colbert, #NFDB
1152:In independent film you tend to have stories that involve more of a community, and the smaller characters are important to the story. ~ David Morse, #NFDB
1153:Introduce no more than two new characters at a time. Otherwise your readers will get confused and forget their names and who they are. ~ Rayne Hall, #NFDB
1154:I really become the characters when I'm writing them. I'll become one or two of them more than others, I'm consistent that way. ~ Quentin Tarantino, #NFDB
1155:Noble characters and pure affections and happy scenes are very comforting things. They're a refuge from life's disillusionments. ~ Gustave Flaubert, #NFDB
1156:The dark book has been terribly popular. Dark characters, dysfunction, and all sorts of things from reality that are true in our world. ~ Jan Karon, #NFDB
1157:The Russian famous actors involved [into The Darkest Hour], they are very creative and they will create sympathetic characters. ~ Timur Bekmambetov, #NFDB
1158:Twitter is very impulsive and impermanent and you only have 140 characters. There is no greater 'Emperor' of Twitter than Stephen Fry. ~ David Tang, #NFDB
1159:Anchorman' is my favorite movie of all time and Ron Burgundy is one of my favorite characters of all time. It's my 'Gone With the Wind. ~ Eva Mendes, #NFDB
1160:Don't let yourself slip and get any perfect characters... keep them people, people, people, and don't let them get to be symbols. ~ Ernest Hemingway, #NFDB
1161:I always play these rodent type characters - skittish and hyper like a chipmunk. It's a complete act though. I'm a very normal person. ~ Ethan Embry, #NFDB
1162:I don't ever want to get boxed in, playing the same characters, over and over again. That's why I prefer features over television. ~ Taraji P Henson, #NFDB
1163:I'm always determined that as a novelist I'm going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing. ~ Chris Cleave, #NFDB
1164:Im not one of those authors who claims to hear voices in my head or let the characters speak through me, whatever that might mean. ~ Robin Wasserman, #NFDB
1165:I really am a character actor, in my heart of hearts, because I really do like developing characters and painting a past for them. ~ Dylan McDermott, #NFDB
1166:It interests me to imagine characters shifting from one situation and one location to another for whatever the circumstances may be. ~ Jhumpa Lahiri, #NFDB
1167:I want to do my Blade Runner, which is like a future Berlin film, which is like a thriller, but it's much deeper characters, I think. ~ Duncan Jones, #NFDB
1168:Musical numbers should carry the action of the play and should be representative of the personalities of the characters who sing them. ~ Jerome Kern, #NFDB
1169:My characters are never heroic. They are mostly lost and trying to find the right door to open and they end up opening the wrong doors. ~ Gaspar Noe, #NFDB
1170:Remember: Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1171:The technology actually seemed to come at just the right time to make the Hulk - Mark Ruffalo was really able to play both characters. ~ Clark Gregg, #NFDB
1172:Usually the characters are where I start. Then I continually ask myself, 'What's the worst thing that could happen to this character?' ~ Paul Haggis, #NFDB
1173:When you write a book, you want to have fidelity to the character. Characters and their emotions guide the structure of the novel. ~ David Bezmozgis, #NFDB
1174:Yes, I can play younger than my age. But I can play characters older than I am, too. I'm not an actor who can just play the kid. ~ Leonardo DiCaprio, #NFDB
1175:A character is never the author who created him. It is quite likely, however, that an author may be all his characters simultaneously. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
1176:As an actor, you're used to putting on characters, taking them off, becoming someone else, doing your research, and working on that. ~ Angela Bassett, #NFDB
1177:Authors have odd relationships with their creations They owe their fame and fortune to their characters but feel enslaved by them. ~ Anthony Horowitz, #NFDB
1178:Before I thought there was a common denominator between my films - as if all my characters were sisters - but I'm not so sure now. ~ Juliette Binoche, #NFDB
1179:Customs are made for customary circumstances, and customary characters: and his circumstances or his character may be uncustomary. ~ John Stuart Mill, #NFDB
1180:I care more about making sure the story is correct and the characters are behaving in character than I do about the individual jokes. ~ Michael Schur, #NFDB
1181:I dont really like simple characters too much; its too easy. I like a challenge, and I like characters you connect with on screen. ~ Kodi Smit McPhee, #NFDB
1182:I love complex characters - strong females who are vulnerable but have a life and soul. That's what I'm drawn to and what I enjoy most. ~ Ruth Wilson, #NFDB
1183:I love fantasy. I love thrillers. I love action. I'm all over the place. As long as the story and characters are good, I'll love it. ~ Julianne Hough, #NFDB
1184:I start with a tingle, a kind of feeling of the story I will write. Then come the characters, and they take over, they make the story. ~ Isak Dinesen, #NFDB
1185:I start with a tingle, a kind of feeling of the story I will write. Then come the characters, and they take over, they make the story. ~ Karen Blixen, #NFDB
1186:I think you can always find interesting, complex and fascinating characters to play in different kinds of movies. It's in your hands. ~ Anton Yelchin, #NFDB
1187:No matter what the characters you play, you have to find the differences in them, especially when you are doing a political movie. ~ Jessica Chastain, #NFDB
1188:Playing different characters in different films helps keep you excited about what you do. It always seems like a whole new adventure. ~ Abbie Cornish, #NFDB
1189:she loathed writing about characters—hair color, type, eye color, body build, and last but not least, the dreaded clothing—all missing! ~ Lucian Bane, #NFDB
1190:Somehow I find it easier to inhabit characters if they are a little bit pathetic. I do seem to have an affinity with pathetic people. ~ Tom Hollander, #NFDB
1191:The movies that are really big, at least in my experience, oftentimes don't have characters that I feel as personally connected to. ~ Jesse Eisenberg, #NFDB
1192:Truly great actors carry their characters in silence with them. They communicate without words the relationships that predate the movie. ~ Sam Mendes, #NFDB
1193:Well, I don't think characters change. I think they become more revealed. I don't think you really can change a character on a show. ~ Lisa Edelstein, #NFDB
1194:All my characters have got a big slice of me in them. A big piece of me, because it's my dialogue and this is the way I think and talk. ~ Wilbur Smith, #NFDB
1195:I became, and remain, my characters' close and intent watcher: their director, never. Their creator I cannot feel that I was, or am. ~ Elizabeth Bowen, #NFDB
1196:If a movie has more characters than an audience can keep track of, the audience will get confused and lose interest in the story. ~ Seth Grahame Smith, #NFDB
1197:I think the most important technique is to ground everything, to make fantasy world grounded and relatable, just great characters. ~ Timur Bekmambetov, #NFDB
1198:I was always fascinated by the fact that you could take paper and ink and create worlds, images, characters. It seemed like magic. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zafon, #NFDB
1199:Just because we're fictional characters doesn't mean you can pick us up and move us anywhere you want.--the people of Lake Woebegon ~ Garrison Keillor, #NFDB
1200:Most mainstream male fiction is littered with heroines, and female characters are basically so great, you want to fall in love with them. ~ Iain Banks, #NFDB
1201:Music will save your life, but may leave you with a life not worth saving. The characters Phonogram tends to follow are extreme cases. ~ Kieron Gillen, #NFDB
1202:Second, once inside this alien world, we find ourselves. Deep within these characters and their conflicts we discover our own humanity. ~ Robert McKee, #NFDB
1203:The more gifted and talkative one's characters are, the greater the chances of their resembling the author in tone or tint of mind. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
1204:The pornographer? He is concerned with what the characters do, while the artist, the artist is concerned with who the characters are. ~ Steve Erickson, #NFDB
1205:There are two movies where I keep my clothes on. My parents will be very proud. They're challenging characters, which I'm excited about. ~ Juno Temple, #NFDB
1206:What interests me in writing a novel is taking really remote voices, characters, and stories and beginning to create some kind of web. ~ Nicole Krauss, #NFDB
1207:When I tried to play characters that strayed from who I am it ended in disaster. People didn't expect me in comedies or musicals. ~ Sylvester Stallone, #NFDB
1208:When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
1209:When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity. ~ John F Kennedy, #NFDB
1210:At any age it does us no harm to look over our past shortcomings and plan to improve our characters and actions in the coming year. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, #NFDB
1211:Exposing characters and their shortcomings gives me great comfort. Its always great to write about someone more mixed up than yourself. ~ Matthew Nable, #NFDB
1212:Horror is when you know and love the characters, but you also know something very bad is going to happen to them. It's not the monsters! ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1213:If I'm doing my job right, then I'm not writing the dialogue; the characters are saying the dialogue, and I'm just jotting it down. ~ Quentin Tarantino, #NFDB
1214:I had lived in France before graduate school, but because of Spain, I had a lot of the characters go and spend a good bit of time in Spain. ~ Lily King, #NFDB
1215:In every story, there’s the moment when the characters go from act one, the old world, into act two, the new world. You know this. ~ Brittainy C Cherry, #NFDB
1216:I think it’s very important to write a demythologized woman character. My characters are flawed. They are no better than they should be. ~ Anne Enright, #NFDB
1217:My impulse is to create an aesthetic that's about a humanistic approach to a world and trying to create compassion for all the characters. ~ Mike White, #NFDB
1218:Of course I'd sometimes have characters from downstate living upstate, but it took a while for me to start writing about where I grew up. ~ Tom Barbash, #NFDB
1219:One must not put trust in novelists, Beth; they create worlds to fit their own needs and drive their characters mad in doing it. ~ Mary Robinette Kowal, #NFDB
1220:One of the things I really like about Ford's films is how there is always a focus on the way characters live, and not just the male heroes. ~ Ken Burns, #NFDB
1221:Prison makes an interesting context for so many different characters to come together. You get to see what lines get drawn between people. ~ Yael Stone, #NFDB
1222:Strength and independence are always something that I'm drawn to in all my characters, no matter how different they are from one another. ~ Amber Heard, #NFDB
1223:There is something comforting about losing myself in a different world, where the characters are strong and brave and follow their hearts. ~ Erica Cope, #NFDB
1224:What I wanted to do [in Allied] was get two characters who fall in love for real, across the barricade, and then it transcends the war. ~ Steven Knight, #NFDB
1225:All characters come from people I know, but after the initial inspiration, I tend to modify the characters so they fit with the story. ~ Nicholas Sparks, #NFDB
1226:All the characters I play are all inside of me in a way, and they're all different, the darkness, the lightness, whatever that is. ~ Alexander Skarsgard, #NFDB
1227:But gossip must see its characters in black and white, equip them with sins and motives easily conveyed in the shorthand of conversation. ~ John le Carr, #NFDB
1228:I'm really just playing when I write. I feel like I'm a kid again. I want my characters to do and say things like when I played with dolls! ~ Lori Lesko, #NFDB
1229:I usually play characters that are a lot different than me. I mean, I'm never in a fight in a movie and if I'm in them, I'm usually losing. ~ Matt Damon, #NFDB
1230:My characters have to talk, or they're out. They audition in early scenes. If they can't talk, they're given less to do, or thrown out. ~ Elmore Leonard, #NFDB
1231:Sometimes minor characters are based on people I know, on friends of mine. But I'm not writing a thinly veiled version of my own life. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1232:The Big Bang Theory: When geeky scientists can be main characters in a hit prime time series, you know there's hope for the world. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #NFDB
1233:The characters were not unknown because they were illegal or didn't have the documents but because people didn't want to know them. ~ Cristina Henriquez, #NFDB
1234:Think of every character as a main character. They believe they're the main characters in their stories. No one should just be an obstacle. ~ Ben Edlund, #NFDB
1235:Those characters existed in my mind, they made me smile, they gave me hope, made my heart beat—wasn’t that enough to consider them real? ~ Elisa S Amore, #NFDB
1236:What has emerged as I've gotten older is simplifying the characters I play, unless the role calls for something that is arcane or ornate. ~ Stephen Lang, #NFDB
1237:Writing fiction is a solitary occupation but not really a lonely one. The writer's head is mobbed with characters, images and language. ~ Hilma Wolitzer, #NFDB
1238:A clean slate, did he say? As if the initial word of each our destiny were not graven in imperishable characters upon the face of a rock. ~ Joseph Conrad, #NFDB
1239:Apprentices and servants are characters perfectly distinct: the one receives instruction, the other a stipulated price for his labour. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
1240:Charm of personality is a divine gift that sways the strongest characters, and sometimes even controls the destinies of nations. We ~ Orison Swett Marden, #NFDB
1241:Historical fiction is not history. You're blending real events and actual historical personages with characters of your own creation. ~ George R R Martin, #NFDB
1242:I don't have to prove anything to anyone. As a result, I am ready to take up again the characters who are closer to what I really am. ~ Christopher Reeve, #NFDB
1243:If you over-plot your book you strangle your characters. Your characters have to have enough freedom and life to be able to surprise you. ~ Alan Lightman, #NFDB
1244:I keep to a minimum dialect, in-jokes about football (soccer) teams and soap opera characters, so as not to lose North American readers. ~ Peter Robinson, #NFDB
1245:I love playing characters that are bigger than life and maybe have a darker side that they present to the world. Those are good characters. ~ Randy Quaid, #NFDB
1246:In general, I'm always interested in characters who have kind of extreme aspects to them, who are in some ways larger than typical people. ~ Fred Melamed, #NFDB
1247:...it is a truth of historical fiction that all the characters are long dead; all the lives and stories have ended, and usually not well. ~ Conn Iggulden, #NFDB
1248:It's very important to me to find ways to relate the audience to the characters. This is the first thing to go in most mainstream horror films. ~ Ti West, #NFDB
1249:My first duty to write a gripping yarn. Second is to convey credible characters who make you feel what they feel. Only third comes the idea. ~ David Brin, #NFDB
1250:Poe was the first writer to write about main characters who were bad guys or who were mad guys, and those are some of my favorite stories. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1251:Redford builds a riveting, resonant political thriller that values the complexity of its characters and the intelligence of its audience. ~ Peter Travers, #NFDB
1252:Shooting at night in Los Angeles is amazing. The city shuts down at 10 P.M. every night, and a whole different cast of characters comes out. ~ Dan Gilroy, #NFDB
1253:To my earlier self I would like to say, “Relax. The story will come in due time. Trust your characters. Let them tell you what happens next. ~ Anne Tyler, #NFDB
1254:Certainly, I look for different characters 'cause I always like to keep people guessing, and I also don't like to get typecast. ~ Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje, #NFDB
1255:I definitely did not play myself. As the writer of the script, I have traits of all the characters. I can relate to all of the characters. ~ Cherien Dabis, #NFDB
1256:I don't try to intellectualize characters too much. But I always think of the audience. I always make sure that my characters are likeable. ~ Paula Patton, #NFDB
1257:If you can tell stories, create characters, devise incidents, and have sincerity and passion, it doesn't matter a damn how you write. ~ W Somerset Maugham, #NFDB
1258:I hope that doing truthful portrayals of people in a variety of circumstances gives people a kind of subterranean link to those characters. ~ Mira Sorvino, #NFDB
1259:I promptly said that life was a random series of beautifully composed vignettes, loosely tied together by a string of characters and time. ~ Mahbod Seraji, #NFDB
1260:Ive never thought of my characters as being sad. On the contrary, they are full of life. They didnt choose tragedy. Tragedy chose them. ~ Juliette Binoche, #NFDB
1261:Johnny Depp is somebody I really love working with because he doesn't care how he looks. He wants to become weird characters and I like that. ~ Tim Burton, #NFDB
1262:kept all passwords in a file on an encrypted SD card, with one character in each swapped around. Only he knew which characters were swapped. ~ Parmy Olson, #NFDB
1263:leaving me an orphan like those characters I had spoken of the night before, if one can truly be called an orphan at twenty-one years of age. ~ John Boyne, #NFDB
1264:Most men have no purpose but to exist, Abraham; to pass quietly through history as minor characters upon a stage they cannot even see ~ Seth Grahame Smith, #NFDB
1265:Sometimes I pretend not to look at my own characters, because that's like different people getting off with your girlfriend or something. ~ Grant Morrison, #NFDB
1266:We are all potentially characters in a novel--with the difference that characters in a novel really get to live their lives to the full. ~ Georges Simenon, #NFDB
1267:All a writer's characters are imaginary, no matter whether they are based on real people or not. They are people as one imagines them to be. ~ Allan Massie, #NFDB
1268:And let me make the radical statement that I don’t believe that you can say something profound in the 140 characters that make up a tweet. ~ Bernie Sanders, #NFDB
1269:As a general principle you should not force young men to do their duty, but let them do it voluntarily and thereby develop their characters. ~ Robert E Lee, #NFDB
1270:As a writer, my main objective is to tell the story urgently - as if whispering it into one ear - and to know the characters intimately. ~ Julianna Baggott, #NFDB
1271:A world of words where the black characters printed on the parchment he held meant more to this monk than the people or places around him. ~ Marina Fiorato, #NFDB
1272:Characters I've played, they used to impact my paintings, like 80 percent of the time, and especially when I was doing an action film. ~ Sylvester Stallone, #NFDB
1273:For our vanity is such that we hold our own characters immutable, and we are slow to acknowledge that they have changed, even for the better. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
1274:I like to push characters to extremes so they have to make really tough decisions and there is no life more extreme than that of an athlete. ~ Chris Cleave, #NFDB
1275:I mean we all played as kids. You play games, you take on different characters, you imitate; the fun and the love of play has never left me. ~ Kevin Spacey, #NFDB
1276:In all my songs, I take on roles and play characters. It's a unique way to explore ideas and decisions I might not think or make in real life. ~ Jack White, #NFDB
1277:In general, watching children's television is a dark and surreal descent into madness where the characters on the screen talk directly to you. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1278:It feels like I'm starting to come into my own in terms of where I want to go artistically, toward more complicated, interesting characters. ~ Jessica Alba, #NFDB
1279:It's the characters, mostly, not the world. It's how people are when they've lost everything or when it's dangerous to think for themselves. ~ Cath Crowley, #NFDB
1280:I've always enjoyed watching characters that aren't aware that they're doing anything funny. And I think that inherently makes them funnier. ~ Steve Carell, #NFDB
1281:I would love to do some more comedy. I would love to do some silliness. I would love to do some characters that have greater vulnerability. ~ Kari Matchett, #NFDB
1282:I wouldnt call acting a job - its a pleasure. I love getting to play different characters, getting to play dress up, and getting paid for it. ~ Rooney Mara, #NFDB
1283:Most of those characters with all the answers couldn't poor piss out of a rubber boot if they read the instructions printed on the sole. ~ Guy Vanderhaeghe, #NFDB
1284:Movies and acting are so much fun. I love playing different characters and doing different genres. It's all still very interesting to me. ~ Vanessa Hudgens, #NFDB
1285:One of the beauties of 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' is the very delicate and strange relationship between the two main characters. ~ Stellan Skarsgard, #NFDB
1286:Psychopaths... people who know the differences between right and wrong, but don't give a shit. That's what most of my characters are like. ~ Elmore Leonard, #NFDB
1287:Vladimir Nabokov, contemning readers who "identified" with characters in fiction, remarked that the best readers identify with the artist. ~ Joseph Epstein, #NFDB
1288:You spend your life training to be an actor, observing people's characteristics so that you can design characters around what you've seen. ~ Clint Eastwood, #NFDB
1289:Acting allows me to explore new worlds, to discover characters by delving into their lives, and ultimately to become someone else entirely. ~ Pierce Brosnan, #NFDB
1290:As an actor, you get to sort of bounce back and forth in terms of the age range you play and the life experience that your characters have. ~ Jonathan Keltz, #NFDB
1291:Certain songs I feel different people should be on different tracks, you know it's emotional. I put myself into characters for certain records. ~ Kool Keith, #NFDB
1292:Here's my take on Instagram: It's so ridiculous that people can go on and play characters, and none of it [should be] taken too seriously. ~ Nico Tortorella, #NFDB
1293:I have often noticed that we are inclined to endow our friends with the stability of type that literary characters acquire in the reader’s mind. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
1294:I may be the only actress in Hollywood who won't need a face lift, because when I take off my makeup, I look so great compared to my characters! ~ Lin Shaye, #NFDB
1295:I think Bret Easton Ellis has said that he doesn't completely identify with his characters. And I think he has referred to them as immoral before. ~ Tao Lin, #NFDB
1296:Let me give you a tip on a clue to men's characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it. ~ Ayn Rand, #NFDB
1297:Most movies, once the action starts there's no more characters. You say a couple of dumb lines and then there's just explosions until the end. ~ John Cusack, #NFDB
1298:My cats I have Luna who's just had kittens recently and we called one of them Dumbledore. They're nice but they're not like their characters. ~ Evanna Lynch, #NFDB
1299:My work is always more emotional than I am. My characters say things to each other that I get accused of not being able to say to my girlfriend. ~ Adam Rapp, #NFDB
1300:Special effects are characters. Special effects are essential elements. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there. ~ Laurence Fishburne, #NFDB
1301:The finest quality of our characters do not come from trying but from the mysterious and yet most effective capacity to be inspired. ~ Harry Emerson Fosdick, #NFDB
1302:These characters might not have wed, but their lack of husbands constrained and defined them, just as surely as marriage would have. They ~ Rebecca Traister, #NFDB
1303:This is Ahab, that's Jezebel," said Evie, who was one of those who name animals after the less successful characters of Old Testament history. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
1304:When I write fiction, I create characters whose views are not my own, and I allow them to be eloquent in defense of their, not my, views. ~ Orson Scott Card, #NFDB
1305:You want to tell a great story. You want these characters to become part of people's lives. And then, hopefully, that generates discussion. ~ Todd Lieberman, #NFDB
1306:All the Democrats do is bicker. They're not concerned about the war or the fate of the United States of America. They're desperate characters. ~ Jackie Mason, #NFDB
1307:Here [in Wonder Boys] I had this group of characters where you didn't know which were the important ones or what direction they were heading. ~ Curtis Hanson, #NFDB
1308:Historical romance characters often benefit from the possible, which gives much more scope for storytelling than the likely or the everyday. ~ Theresa Romain, #NFDB
1309:I always have humour in my action movies. I think characters that make jokes under fire are more real. It somehow helps put you in their shoes. ~ Shane Black, #NFDB
1310:I'd learned enough about circuitry in high school electronics to know how to drive a TV and get it to draw - shapes of characters and things. ~ Steve Wozniak, #NFDB
1311:I enjoy receiving and giving realistic fiction, for both children and adults, with strong characters, beautiful language, and humane visions. ~ Sharon Creech, #NFDB
1312:I know that shorter messages are better in terms of reply rate. The optimal length is something like 50 characters. Characters, not words. ~ Christian Rudder, #NFDB
1313:I love accents - I wish I could find an accent for every one of my characters. It makes it so much easier when I don't have to hear my own voice. ~ Amy Adams, #NFDB
1314:I'm from the East Coast. I love the city. I love the characters. I love the kind of people we are, the kind other people look at in amazement. ~ Ralph Bakshi, #NFDB
1315:I naturally gravitate to darker characters. Gotham. Batman's suit. It's all dark; he's very interesting. It all comes from his builds and guts. ~ David Finch, #NFDB
1316:It doesn't matter how complex your plot or your characters are; you have to be able to express the big idea of a film in a sentence or two. ~ Gurinder Chadha, #NFDB
1317:I think if you're able to do over the course of your career 20, 30, 50 very wonderful rich characters, you'd rather have that than an Oscar. ~ Angela Bassett, #NFDB
1318:I think the beauty of the writing of 'Game of Thrones' is not that the characters are fearless; it's how they overcome their fear, you know? ~ Natalie Dormer, #NFDB
1319:I've always been drawn to stories and characters facing some sort of struggle against forces beyond our control, be it love, loss, betrayal. ~ Nathan Parsons, #NFDB
1320:Neither sex, without some fertilization of the complimentary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
1321:There are a million little things, but one of the best ways to get to know characters is to just put them in situations and see what they say. ~ Greta Gerwig, #NFDB
1322:There is the need for someone against which our characters can measure themselves. Without a ruler, you won't make the crooked straight. ~ Seneca the Younger, #NFDB
1323:The truth is that creative activity is one that involves the entire self - our emotions, our levels of energy, our characters, and our minds. ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
1324:You try to make characters you care about, and I think realism helps. Even though this is a high concept, the characters have got to be real. ~ Ricky Gervais, #NFDB
1325:A story happens when two equally appealing forces, or characters, or ideas try to occupy the same place at the same time, and they're both right. ~ Amy Hempel, #NFDB
1326:Batman and Superman are very different characters but they're both iconic and elemental. Finding the right story for them both is the key. ~ Christopher Nolan, #NFDB
1327:I am not just my hair; I proved to myself that I am a cast of characters. I'm feeling freer to venture out of the 'look' people know me for. ~ Pamela Anderson, #NFDB
1328:I have never thought of myself as an actor, thought I play about 500 different characters in the show. Actors play someone else I play myself. ~ Noel Fielding, #NFDB
1329:I'm usually working on my own mythology, my own realm of created characters. Stories in mythology inspire me, though I may not be conscious of it. ~ Anne Rice, #NFDB
1330:Men are limited by the knowledge of their minds, the worth of their characters and the principles upon which they are building their lives. ~ Edwin Louis Cole, #NFDB
1331:[On Edna Ferber's Ice Palace] ... the book, which is going to be a movie, has the plot and characters of a book which is going to be a movie. ~ Dorothy Parker, #NFDB
1332:Only the most pleasant characters in this book are portraits of living people and the events here recorded unfortunately never took place. ~ Margery Allingham, #NFDB
1333:The characters and events depicted in the damn bible are fictitious. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. ~ Penn Jillette, #NFDB
1334:The easiest way for readers to connect with characters and feel sympathy is to make the character entertaining, sympathetic and likeable. ~ Randa Abdel Fattah, #NFDB
1335:The idea for a novel is like a little tiny fire in a dark night. And, one by one, the characters come and stand around it and warm their hands. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1336:...Tolstoy's characters seem to come forward to meet you, very conscious of the impression they are making on one another and on the reader. ~ Stephen Spender, #NFDB
1337:When characters got up and moved on their own I found it so unnerving that I would stop writing for days. Glue eventually held them down. ~ John Elder Robison, #NFDB
1338:Whoa, I've really got to stop making plans with fictional characters. It can't be healthy to develop relationships with people who don't exist. ~ Chris Colfer, #NFDB
1339:a man who had destroyed an indifferent world in order to recreate it again in his head, this time with new colours, new characters, new stories. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
1340:As a general thing, I've always been drawn to characters who appear to be one thing on the surface, but are actually something else underneath. ~ Michael Sheen, #NFDB
1341:I admire the world of the books and the characters that she's created, but I'm not an addict of Harry Potter. I don't feel possessive about it. ~ Ralph Fiennes, #NFDB
1342:I do listen to myself sometimes and think, 'Is my moral compass so easily swayed by the characters I play, or is it me growing as a human being?' ~ Andy Serkis, #NFDB
1343:I enjoy playing characters where I get to sort of change my look, my voice. It's not about what she wears, it's about what she's got inside. ~ Linda Cardellini, #NFDB
1344:I feel that we live in an age where everyone's trying to reduce, and soundbite, and cut it down to140 characters, and that's not what life is. ~ Natalie Dormer, #NFDB
1345:I have specific playlists for different books and characters. So, I need to have those with me. It helps me get into the mindset of the book. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
1346:I just thinks it's interesting what it takes an actor to find their characters through the wardrobe, or the hair, or the way a character walks. ~ Todd Phillips, #NFDB
1347:I love characters that are very layered and complex. It's more exciting and different than any simple role- plus, I love a good challenge. ~ Lorraine Toussaint, #NFDB
1348:I'm looking for diversity, all my characters may or may not be on the wrong side of the tracks. It doesn't mean that they're all the same. ~ Michael K Williams, #NFDB
1349:I think that you can sort of have your own personal journey and you know, you can just kind of apply that to whatever characters you're playing. ~ Ryan Gosling, #NFDB
1350:Just like the characters of a movie, you are a character in the show called “Life.” Are you in a starring role? Or are you a supporting actor? ~ Shannon Kaiser, #NFDB
1351:The Big Chill is one of those things that everybody can identify with. Between eight characters, they can pick somebody who's somewhat like them ~ Tom Berenger, #NFDB
1352:This is what love does. It makes you want to rewrite the world. It makes you want to choose the characters, build the scenery, guide the plot. ~ David Levithan, #NFDB
1353:You can't go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people will pretend that they do. ~ Fran Lebowitz, #NFDB
1354:You read about somebody, and doesn't really matter whether or not they really exist - the point is that you get into them like real characters. ~ John Hartford, #NFDB
1355:But to be perfectly frank, this childish idea that the author of a novel has some special insight into the characters in the novel…it’s ridiculous. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1356:Completely committed to adapting 'Fifty Shades of Grey'. This is not a joke. Christian Grey and Ana: potentially great cinematic characters. ~ Bret Easton Ellis, #NFDB
1357:I have adapted the whole book [Candid] into tweets of 140 characters, and these are being sent out daily, at the rate of eight tweets per day . ~ Mark Ravenhill, #NFDB
1358:I like the fact that a modern television and modern drama on cable has characters that are really intricate and deep and have multiple layers. ~ Matthew Lillard, #NFDB
1359:I like to hide behind the characters I play. Despite the public perception, I am a very private person who has a hard time with the fame thing. ~ Angelina Jolie, #NFDB
1360:I'm writing about real things. Real people. Real characters. You have to believe what I write about is true or you wouldn't pay any attention at all. ~ Lou Reed, #NFDB
1361:Merrick belonged to that class of reader who was able to forget with amazing ease the hand moving the characters behind the scenes of the novel. ~ F lix J Palma, #NFDB
1362:My characters seem real because they are drawn from the realities of my life. I didn't have to research their pain; I just tapped into my own. ~ Charles de Lint, #NFDB
1363:My interest is always to get as deeply as I can into the minds and spirits of the characters and let the readers empathize or judge as they will. ~ Adam Haslett, #NFDB
1364:One of the things that makes Hamlet unique among Shakespeare's characters is his courage to face up to the darker elements of his personality. ~ Kenneth Branagh, #NFDB
1365:Only the Strong is a lushly atmospheric and passionately written piece of work, bursting with colorful characters that shine on every page. ~ Bernice L McFadden, #NFDB
1366:Our anxieties were driving us to become other people—he was Earner; I was
Mother, like characters in some phenomenally boring Ionesco play. ~ Claire Dederer,#NFDB
1367:Support Group featured a rotating cast of characters in various states of tumor-driven unwellness. Why did the cast rotate? A side effect of dying. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1368:The best books come from someplace deep inside.... Become emotionally involved. If you don't care about your characters, your readers won't either. ~ Judy Blume, #NFDB
1369:Well, I think in my own work the subject matter usually deals with characters I know, aspects of myself, friends of mine - that sort of thing. ~ Martin Scorsese, #NFDB
1370:When you adapt a book to a film, you take all the best parts and put them into an hour and 15 minutes and have to compromise on the characters. ~ Channing Tatum, #NFDB
1371:When you write for a show that's not yours, your job is to hear the voices of the characters and write as best you can for those voices. ~ Amy Sherman Palladino, #NFDB
1372:You relate to a character and you find that character within yourself. It's all parts of me. I don't leave characters behind. I just let them go. ~ Sissy Spacek, #NFDB
1373:As an actor, you're supposed to be able to form yourself into different characters and different roles. It's a transformation, and it is awesome. ~ Katie Cassidy, #NFDB
1374:As women, we are the protagonists of our own personal novels. We are called upon to be the heroines of our own lives, not supporting characters. ~ Erin Blakemore, #NFDB
1375:For we must indeed have someone according to whom we may regulate our characters; you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler. ~ Seneca, #NFDB
1376:Harmony was the soul of our companionship, and the diversity and contrast that subsisted in our characters drew us nearer together. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, #NFDB
1377:In a show that has so many neurotic, broken beta characters, it's always fun to bring in a character who's really confident in themselves. ~ Elizabeth Meriwether, #NFDB
1378:It doesn't do to get attached to these secondary characters. It's not their story. They come and go, and when they go, they're gone for good. ~ Diane Setterfield, #NFDB
1379:It is simply wrong to begin with a theme, symbol or other abstract unifying agent, and then try to force characters and events to conform to it. ~ Thomas Pynchon, #NFDB
1380:I try to have all my characters have a sense of humor. To me the most interesting thing is a desperate character. I think desperation is funny. ~ Bobby Cannavale, #NFDB
1381:I've learned to let my characters speak and act the way they want to! I've tried to interfere but they just get angry at me and throw big rocks. ~ Shandy L Kurth, #NFDB
1382:I would love for people to think that I am as quick, clever, smart and heroic as the characters that I write, but those characters are characters. ~ Aaron Sorkin, #NFDB
1383:My characters talk to one another, and when it reaches a certain pitch of excitement I jump out of bed and run and trap them before they are gone. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1384:Ten years of doing everything wrong suddenly became the right idea, the right scene, the right characters, the right day, the right creative time. ~ Ray Bradbury, #NFDB
1385:The one thing I could do was voices and impersonations and weird characters, and there was really no call for that, except on Saturday Night Live. ~ Phil Hartman, #NFDB
1386:When you write a novel you have to live with the characters for a long time. So I prefer short stories. I never wrote anything more than 250 pages. ~ Ruskin Bond, #NFDB
1387:Because we think it improves our characters. But he is kind to people because he loves them; and they find him out, and are offended, or frightened. ~ E M Forster, #NFDB
1388:But to be perfectly frank, this childish idea that the author of a novel has some special insight into the characters in the novel.. it's ridiculous. ~ John Green, #NFDB
1389:Everyone in those days expected that art students were wild, licentious characters. We didn't know how to be, but we sure were anxious to learn. ~ Norman Rockwell, #NFDB
1390:God is good. He is way more interested in developing our characters to match our calling than in manipulating our circumstances to make us happy. ~ Lysa TerKeurst, #NFDB
1391:I do feel there's certainly some films where you can feel that the directors don't care about the genre and they don't care about their characters. ~ Drew Goddard, #NFDB
1392:I don't want people to know anything about me, because that's not important. I'm more interested in the me that takes shape through the characters. ~ Willem Dafoe, #NFDB
1393:I fall in love with characters when they're out of their element or are uncomfortable and you really feel for them in a knee-jerk sympathetic way. ~ Anna Kendrick, #NFDB
1394:I find that, maybe because I'm also a singer, I hear music in characters all the time, even if they don't sing. I hear what affects me in my heart. ~ Idina Menzel, #NFDB
1395:If you look at my body of work, my characters drastically vary, and so I typically don't play the same role. It makes me feel reborn with each role. ~ Toni Trucks, #NFDB
1396:I love writing every song I can like a little mini movie. I like to have a character, or some characters, and really paint a picture with the song. ~ Dolly Parton, #NFDB
1397:I think one of the things you have to learn if you're going to create believable characters is never to make generalizations about groups of people. ~ Mark Haddon, #NFDB
1398:It's fun to play characters in songs. I can just cheat a little bit... be this person for just a small amount of time and just help vent that idea. ~ Brendon Urie, #NFDB
1399:It's like having children. You give birth, but then they take on a life of their own. That's what actors do for characters. It's pretty amazing. ~ Kelly Masterson, #NFDB
1400:Just like the characters of a movie, you are a character in the show called “Life.” Are you in a starring role? Or are you a supporting actor? If ~ Shannon Kaiser, #NFDB
1401:My characters, I find them as I'm writing. It's quite incredible how fully realized they are in my mind, how many details I know about each of them. ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
1402:What is their potential for evil; what is their potential for wickedness? That's the only time that those characters become interesting to watch. ~ Jennifer Beals, #NFDB
1403:When I work on a piece I always think if there is an abundance of male characters which one could we change to a woman or a minority character. ~ Barbara Crampton, #NFDB
1404:When we read, we are doing more than delectating words on a page stories, characters, images, notions. We are communing with the mind of the author. ~ Martin Amis, #NFDB
1405:You are always working towards the moments in which characters experience reckonings or insight or change. I like to track them past those moments. ~ Dana Spiotta, #NFDB
1406:And if you are honest about the words coming out of your characters' mouths, you'll find that you've let yourself in for a fair amount of criticism. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1407:A novelist's characters must be with him as he lies down to sleep, and as he wakes from his dreams. He must learn to hate them and to love them. ~ Anthony Trollope, #NFDB
1408:Bad guys are complicated characters. It's always fun to play them. You get away with a lot more. You don't have a heroic code you have to live by. ~ Peter Dinklage, #NFDB
1409:Call anguish--anguish, and despair--despair; write both down in strong characters with a resolute pen: you will the better pay your debt to Doom. ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
1410:I often have scripts sent to me with allegedly Scottish characters where I end up telling them, 'You're going to have to rethink this whole thing! ~ Robert Carlyle, #NFDB
1411:I start drawing, and eventually the characters involve themselves in a situation. Then in the end, I go back and try to cut out most of the preachments. ~ Dr Seuss, #NFDB
1412:I suppose in a way most of my characters are non-consumers, not terribly interested in all the little baubles and artifacts of contemporary life. ~ Jonathan Lethem, #NFDB
1413:I think there's a great connection between these two characters for sure. I mean, I don't know if she's coming over for dinner on the Barton ranch. ~ Jeremy Renner, #NFDB
1414:I've always maintained that all characters and all personalities are in all of us. The whole thing is available. You're not this or that, no one is. ~ Richard Gere, #NFDB
1415:I've been very lucky in the characters I've chosen. Up until last year I was a nobody. I did jobs I booked because I needed to put food in my mouth. ~ Kristen Bell, #NFDB
1416:I've played a lot of really smarmy people in film, and it can be real fun, don't get me wrong. But it can be characters I'm not as excited to explore. ~ Ty Burrell, #NFDB
1417:Like most people, Im fascinated by characters who are completely flawed personalities, riven by anguish and doubt, and are psychologically suspect. ~ Chang Rae Lee, #NFDB
1418:My characters never die screaming in rage. They attempt to pull themselves back together and go on. And that's basically a conservative view of life. ~ Jane Smiley, #NFDB
1419:People can rock together, people can do great things together, and that's what you love when you're working with characters and it's all going well. ~ Jamie Lidell, #NFDB
1420:Syllabic scripts occupy the middle ground, with between 50 and 100 syllabic characters. Beyond these two facts, Linear B was an unfathomable mystery. ~ Simon Singh, #NFDB
1421:The brevity of text messages, for example, and the fact that we are able to communicate with less than 140 characters at a time work because people ~ Gregory Berns, #NFDB
1422:The characters are telling you the story. I'm not telling you the story, they're going to do it. If I do it right, you will get the whole story. ~ George V Higgins, #NFDB
1423:The score is always the wonderful icing. The score tells you the emotional content of the film. What the characters don't say, the music can say. ~ Taylor Hackford, #NFDB
1424:Those are more universal things than some of the characters I play, who are slightly sociopathic. I keep reminding people I can do ordinary. ~ Benedict Cumberbatch, #NFDB
1425:When I look at female characters, I want to recognize myself in them - my trials, my tribulations as a mother, as a wife, as a lover, as a daughter. ~ Vera Farmiga, #NFDB
1426:When I write songs, I try to remove myself a little bit. Obviously they're very personal to me, but it feels easier if I feel like I'm writing characters. ~ Hozier, #NFDB
1427:Actors, it's very hard for them to make value judgments when they play characters. It's very dangerous if you start thinking of yourself as a bad guy. ~ Stacy Keach, #NFDB
1428:Ash liked his characters at or over the edge of madness, constructing systems of belief and survival from the fragments of experience available to them. ~ A S Byatt, #NFDB
1429:But gossip must see its characters
in black and white, equip them with
sins and motives easily conveyed in
the shorthand of conversation. ~ John le Carr,#NFDB
1430:For me, my past characters been hard, the way they died, being murdered, the sadness that goes around, the death. It's a very hard thing to do. ~ Michael K Williams, #NFDB
1431:Her interest in these people was more than a business interest. She carried them all in her mind as if they were characters in a book or a play. When ~ Willa Cather, #NFDB
1432:I always liked those characters in 'True Blood' who could turn into animals. I'd love to be an animal of some kind and run quickly through a forest. ~ Jonathan Ames, #NFDB
1433:I believe that an author who cannot control her characters is, like a mother who cannot control her children, not really fit to look after them. ~ Margery Allingham, #NFDB
1434:I don't know what the character is going to be. We sit down and we create a character, and all of the characters in all of my films are made like that. ~ Mike Leigh, #NFDB
1435:I love the characters not knowing everything and the reader knowing more than them. There's more mischief in that and more room for seriousness, too. ~ Anne Enright, #NFDB
1436:I love weird man, when you get to do something that you don't necessarily get to do in real life, play characters that are a little bit outlandish. ~ David Koechner, #NFDB
1437:I'm more influenced by characters than standups. I love strong, comic women, because it's so hard and I have so much respect for anyone who can do it. ~ Amy Hoggart, #NFDB
1438:It is hard work to give life to new characters every single day. It is not as if I am God. I am just a tired, middle-aged woman trying to keep going. ~ Karin Fossum, #NFDB
1439:I've sold 11 of my books to Hollywood. There are all kinds of my books on shelves in Hollywood because the scripts didn't capture the characters. ~ Michael Connelly, #NFDB
1440:I always think that the most interesting characters are those that are trying to cover something or those that have some sense of bravado or composure. ~ Emily Blunt, #NFDB
1441:I identify with the characters very closely. At the same time that I`m outside, writing, I`m also inside, experiencing, and it can be very unsettling. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1442:I like it when you read a script and there's the part that you show to the other characters and then there's the part that only the audience knows. ~ Anjelica Huston, #NFDB
1443:I love characters who are clever and smart, and you have to run to catch up with. I think there's something very appealing and rather heroic in that. ~ David Tennant, #NFDB
1444:I really like directors who give you a certain amount of autonomy because I think a lot about my characters and I think a lot about scenes and choices. ~ Sarah Gadon, #NFDB
1445:It's funny, because in drama school, my greatest strength was my range. So my early career was like that: I played all kinds of different characters. ~ Lance Reddick, #NFDB
1446:I watched so many comic book movies where the actors weren't as built as the characters in the book. It made me mad because they didn't look right. ~ Joe Manganiello, #NFDB
1447:Life was theater, and impressions one made on spectators were what counted. Public leaders had to become actors or characters, masters of masquerade. ~ Gordon S Wood, #NFDB
1448:My books are primarily plot driven but the best plot in the world is useless if you don't populate them with characters that readers can care about. ~ Jeffery Deaver, #NFDB
1449:My favorite novels allow me to imagine the characters afterward and what happened, and that I've witnessed a really great story, where the world goes on. ~ J H Wyman, #NFDB
1450:One of the things I love, more than anything, is jumping around and playing lots of different parts. I love the variety of playing different characters. ~ Clive Owen, #NFDB
1451:So when things start going badly, you're invested in the characters in a way I think amplifies the horror and the fear because you're invested. ~ Katherine Waterston, #NFDB
1452:So, yes, the five years that we've been working on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has evidenced a real deepening of all the characters, not only mine. ~ Rene Auberjonois, #NFDB
1453:The Johnny Depp generation has this kind of brooding, weighty, introspective quality, very James Deanish. Which is nice, great for a lot of characters. ~ Todd Haynes, #NFDB
1454:The tricky or boastful gods of ancient myths and primitive folk tales are characters of the same kind that turn up in Faulkner or Tennessee Williams. ~ Northrop Frye, #NFDB
1455:Whats great about Freddy in this is when he gets to comment and manipulate the back stories and the fears of the characters - especially with Jason. ~ Robert Englund, #NFDB
1456:Every human being has a fascinating existence, with a big cast of good and evil characters in each. And almost always, somewhere along the way, magic. ~ Lucinda Riley, #NFDB
1457:great animators carefully craft the movements that elicit an emotional response, convincing us that these characters have feelings, emotions, intentions. ~ Ed Catmull, #NFDB
1458:I admire directors so much, I find them incredible: they manage such a huge number of people of different characters, think of the money involved. ~ Catherine Deneuve, #NFDB
1459:I am attracted to the diversity of different characters. I like doing things that test the boundaries of character and genres, outside the comfort zone. ~ Jack Lowden, #NFDB
1460:I do characters. I believe in that. I think people are interesting. Now, everybody that you meet in New York City thinks that their life is a movie. ~ Jerry Weintraub, #NFDB
1461:If a scene doesn't work on three levels - it's not advancing the story, the characters, and telling me something new - then put it in the trash. ~ Catherine Hardwicke, #NFDB
1462:I love playing different characters and things that are challenging. I'm not interested in safety at all. That's what makes me get up in the morning. ~ Aunjanue Ellis, #NFDB
1463:I'm never going to tell the reader what to believe; I'm going to examine these characters that believe different ways, and examine their motives. ~ Barbara Kingsolver, #NFDB
1464:I sometimes feel like I could do another job. Anything. Maybe because as an actress you're playing different characters, everything feels possible. ~ Juliette Binoche, #NFDB
1465:It’s dialogue that gives your cast their voices, and is crucial in defining their characters—only what people do tells us more about what they’re like, ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
1466:It's funny, people talk about the characters they play and who do you sort of see yourself as or which ones maybe were closest to you and in some ways. ~ Gabriel Mann, #NFDB
1467:It's much easier to conjure characters strictly from your imagination than to have to think about whether you're representing people in a truthful way. ~ Lynn Nottage, #NFDB
1468:It was such a paradox for me that the only thing I know how to do is act, but that the first thing I abandoned while writing were the characters ~ Bryce Dallas Howard, #NFDB
1469:I’ve always existed, for the most part, in the fantasies I’ve enjoyed in fiction—living vicariously through movie and book characters since I was a child. ~ L V Lewis, #NFDB
1470:I've got to tell you, I've played real characters before and people always bring up this word 'impersonation,' and I'm never entirely sure what it means. ~ Toby Jones, #NFDB
1471:The really good thing about my career is that I never went through a phase where I played characters who had names like "Partygoer," "Waiter," or "Guy #1." ~ Rob Lowe, #NFDB
1472:There are fewer and fewer Jews in Ireland, but we still have one of the most famous Jewish characters in literary history, of course, in Leopold Bloom. ~ Colum McCann, #NFDB
1473:We can tell a lot about these two characters just from the dialogue. Who talks like Cairo? Someone of "breeding" and a certain air of snobbishness. ~ James Scott Bell, #NFDB
1474:You can't write a sory until you've felt. Breathe it in. Walked with your characters. Talked with them. That's why you come here. To live your story. ~ Angelica Banks, #NFDB
1475:You create your characters, set things in motion, and then let those characters and the situations they encounter tell you how they’re going to end up. ~ Laird Barron, #NFDB
1476:Animals are stylized characters in a kind of old saga - stylized because even the most acute of them have little leeway as they play out their parts. ~ Edward Hoagland, #NFDB
1477:Flawed characters... a ticking clock... morally questionable acts on all sides... moody, evocative art... oh yeah, this the stuff crime noir fans love! ~ Christos Gage, #NFDB
1478:For me and my storytelling and the way that I embrace stories in the way that I embrace characters, I desperately needed to know that everything was okay. ~ Will Smith, #NFDB
1479:for the book. Discuss the novel in light of this poem. What do you think he is saying about rightdoing and wrongdoing in the lives of his characters, ~ Khaled Hosseini, #NFDB
1480:He was one of those characters who felt that a weak handshake could somehow damage his authority, which meant that every handshake had to bloody hurt. ~ Adrian McKinty, #NFDB
1481:History isn't just what happened, but what happened to whom and why and what would have been different if the cast of characters had been different. ~ David McCullough, #NFDB
1482:If you write a bunch of different characters with a bunch of different opinions, you end up with these long scenes of everyone standing around talking. ~ Michael Arndt, #NFDB
1483:I know, we can barely fit them in. That is a big challenge. Treating four lead characters equally, within a 30-minute format, is definitely challenging. ~ Mark Duplass, #NFDB
1484:In the writing phase, normally I try not to envisage any particular actors because I like to let the characters sort of reveal themselves in that process. ~ David Ayer, #NFDB
1485:I've always been attracted to the characters that I didn't know anything about. If you do anything in life with passion and love, then it's worth trying. ~ Geoff Johns, #NFDB
1486:I was a repertory actor, which meant that I did a play every week. I was a different character every week; for a year, I was doing 40 or 50 characters. ~ Michael Caine, #NFDB
1487:I was lucky enough to be in some movies where I had powerful characters or I got to be the president on TV for a little while. Very short administration. ~ Geena Davis, #NFDB
1488:Television provides the opportunity for an ongoing story - the opportunity to meld the cast and the characters and a world, and to spend more time there. ~ David Lynch, #NFDB
1489:The distinguished dead are clay in the hands of writers, and chance determines the shapes that their characters assume in the books written about them. ~ Janet Malcolm, #NFDB
1490:There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot'. ~ Larry Niven, #NFDB
1491:To be honest, I don't think of any of my characters as minor characters - they're all the main characters in a story that I don't necessarily get to tell. ~ Robin Hobb, #NFDB
1492:We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live. ~ Joseph Joubert, #NFDB
1493:When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away even if it's only a glass of water. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, #NFDB
1494:For me, casting is critical. It's nice that social media and the passionate fans really corroborated choices and embraced kids to be characters. ~ Joseph McGinty Nichol, #NFDB
1495:I don't really mess with Instagram much, but I get why people love it. Because to me, it's better to tell a story through a picture than 140 characters. ~ Rashida Jones, #NFDB
1496:I'm such a fan of anime and manga to this day, but I never really like got to know all the characters and everything, so I don't think I'd be able to pick one. ~ Lights, #NFDB
1497:I suppose every reader does this: creates images of the characters in your head, then for the rest of the book you see them like the lead actors in a movie. ~ Dan Walsh, #NFDB
1498:I think there are a lot more relationship scenes in my movies that people tend to overlook. A lot of scenes really feel real and are about the characters. ~ Jan de Bont, #NFDB
1499:I thought that I could do some kind of vehicle involving rock musicals and presenting rock and characters and storyline in a completely different fashion. ~ David Bowie, #NFDB
1500:I've always wanted to explore characters of all races, all genders, all ages. It just seems to me to be a natural way to approach any kind of storytelling. ~ Alan Moore, #NFDB
48 Integral Yoga
33 Poetry
27 Fiction
23 Philosophy
17 Yoga
17 Christianity
15 Occultism
7 Psychology
6 Integral Theory
3 Mysticism
3 Hinduism
1 Sufism
1 Philsophy
1 Mythology
1 Kabbalah
1 Education
1 Cybernetics
1 Baha i Faith
1 Alchemy
35 Sri Aurobindo
32 The Mother
22 Satprem
22 H P Lovecraft
13 Swami Krishnananda
10 William Wordsworth
9 Nolini Kanta Gupta
7 Aleister Crowley
6 Robert Browning
6 Plotinus
6 Plato
6 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
6 Jorge Luis Borges
6 James George Frazer
5 Walt Whitman
5 Saint Augustine of Hippo
5 Percy Bysshe Shelley
5 Jordan Peterson
5 Aristotle
4 Aldous Huxley
3 William Butler Yeats
3 Vyasa
2 Swami Vivekananda
2 Sri Ramakrishna
2 Carl Jung
2 A B Purani
22 Lovecraft - Poems
13 The Study and Practice of Yoga
12 The Life Divine
10 Wordsworth - Poems
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 The Phenomenon of Man
6 The Golden Bough
6 Labyrinths
6 Browning - Poems
5 Whitman - Poems
5 Shelley - Poems
5 Poetics
5 Maps of Meaning
5 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
5 City of God
5 Agenda Vol 13
4 The Synthesis Of Yoga
4 The Perennial Philosophy
4 Savitri
4 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
4 Liber ABA
3 Yeats - Poems
3 Vishnu Purana
3 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
3 Magick Without Tears
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
3 Agenda Vol 06
2 The Problems of Philosophy
2 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
2 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
2 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
2 Essays On The Gita
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
2 Bhakti-Yoga
2 Agenda Vol 11
2 Agenda Vol 10
2 Agenda Vol 07
2 Agenda Vol 04
2 Agenda Vol 03
2 Agenda Vol 02
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
But, all doctrinal writing is in some measure formal and impersonal, while the autobiographer tends to omit what he regards as trifling matters and suffers from the further disadvantage of being unable to say how he strikes other people and in what way he affects their lives. Moreover, most saints have left neither writings nor self-portraits, and for knowledge of their lives, their characters and their teachings, we are forced to rely upon the records made by their disciples who, in most cases, have proved themselves singularly incompetent as reporters and biographers. Hence the special interest attaching to this enormously detailed account of the daily life and conversations of Sri Ramakrishna.
"M", as the author modestly styles himself, was peculiarly qualified for his task. To a reverent love for his master, to a deep and experiential knowledge of that master's teaching, he added a prodigious memory for the small happenings of each day and a happy gift for recording them in an interesting and realistic way. Making good use of his natural gifts and of the circumstances in which he found himself, "M" produced a book unique, so far as my knowledge goes, in the literature of hagiography. No other saint has had so able and indefatigable a Boswell. Never have the small events of a contemplative's daily life been described with such a wealth of intimate detail. Never have the casual and unstudied utterances of a great religious teacher been set down with so minute a fidelity. To Western readers, it is true, this fidelity and this wealth of detail are sometimes a trifle disconcerting; for the social, religious and intellectual frames of reference within which Sri Ramakrishna did his thinking and expressed his feelings were entirely Indian. But after the first few surprises and bewilderments, we begin to find something peculiarly stimulating and instructive about the very strangeness and, to our eyes, the eccentricity of the man revealed to us in "M's" narrative. What a scholastic philosopher would call the "accidents" of Ramakrishna's life were intensely Hindu and therefore, so far as we in the West are concerned, unfamiliar and hard to understand; its "essence", however, was intensely mystical and therefore universal. To read through these conversations in which mystical doctrine alternates with an unfamiliar kind of humour, and where discussions of the oddest aspects of Hindu mythology give place to the most profound and subtle utterances about the nature of Ultimate Reality, is in itself a liberal, education in humility, tolerance and suspense of judgment. We must be grateful to the translator for his excellent version of a book so curious and delightful as a biographical document, so precious, at the same time, for what it teaches us of the life of the spirit.
0.13 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the characters and if the film is tragic or full of suspense,
we get so involved that we cry or feel frightened. And if
0 1961-01-24, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Satprem later asked Mother what she meant by these 'things,' and Mother replied: 'For example, there was a certain man's attitude with respect to life and to the Divine, and what he thought of himself, and so forth. You see, what came was a whole range of characters and one particular action of one man, and then something else came up.... How to explain? ... These are POINTS OF WORK which come to me, things that present themselves in the atmosphere for me to seethings I see and which have to be acted upon.'
A few days later, Mother rectified: 'I have looked at the experience again and realized that it's not Vedic but pre-Vedic. The experience put me into contact with a civilization prior to the Vedas the Rishis and the Vedas are a kind of transition between that vanished civilization and the Indian civilization which grew out of the Vedic Age. It was yesterday [January 26] that I perceived this, and it was quite interesting.'
0 1961-11-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Anyway, it was because of Theon that I first found the Mantra of Life, the mantra that gives life, and he wanted me to give it to him, he wanted to possess itit was something formidable! It was the mantra that gives life (it can make anyone at all come back into life, but thats only a small part of its power). And it was shut away in a particular place,2 sealed up, with my name in Sanskrit on it. I didnt know Sanskrit at that time, but he did, and when he led me to that place, I told him what I saw: Theres a sort of design, it must be Sanskrit. (I could recognize the characters as Sanskrit). He told me to reproduce what I was seeing, and I did so. It was my name, Mirra, written in Sanskrit the mantra was for me and I alone could open it. Open it and tell me whats there, he said. (All this was going on while I was in a cataleptic trance.) Then immediately something in me KNEW, and I answered, No, and did not read it.
I found it again when I was with Sri Aurobindo and I gave it to Sri Aurobindo.
0 1962-06-02, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then someone came. There are symbolic people in these dreams; they seem to be made up of various parts of the beings of those around me, people who have a particular relationship with me and bring a particular help to the Work. They are symbolic characters and always the same: one of them is tall and thin, some are small, there are young ones, old ones. I cant say its this person or that person, but rather that something IN this or that person is represented in these characters. And one of them is like a big brotherhe helps out in certain circumstances; if theres a boat, for instance, the big brother steers it. So he came up to me and said, Yes, I know the method, and began to try. Stop, for heavens sake! I said. Youll spoil everything; to make it work I have to say: I WANT TO GO THERE. When he began trying to bring me across with his own methods, the water grew muddy again and I started to sink! No no no! I protested. Dont do that, thats notit at all! THAT has to (although I wasnt formulating it to myself, what I meant was the sense of a certain higher Will) THAT has to say: I WANT TO GO THERE; then it works.
After that, the experience changed, other things happened. But what I have just related is certainly part and parcel of that experience the other day [the two rooms, one inside the other], because the two were coexistent.1
--
What he represents might be partly manifested by somebody here. A beautiful face a man around fifty. Or it may be symbolic: such characters are sometimes put together with features from several people, to make it very clear that they represent a state of consciousness and not an individual. Its far more often a state of consciousness than an individual.
But this experience left me with a true sense of satisfaction, of fullness: his work had been perfect and his response to the divine Force, to the Grace that came to him, was magnificent. It may be several people,3 it may be one particular person I dont know. It happened just last night.
0 1962-10-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
H.S.1 has written to me, and there was a sentence in his letter that brought a certain problem to my attention. He said, I have done so many hours of translationits a mechanical task. I wondered what he meant by mechanical task because, as far as I am concerned, you cant translate unless you have the experienceif you start translating word for word, it no longer means anything at all. Unless you have the experience of what you translate, you cant translate it. Then I suddenly realized that the Chinese cant translate the way we do! In Chinese, each character represents an idea rather than a separate word; the basis is ideas, not words and their meanings, so translation must be a completely different kind of work for them. So I started identifying with H.S., to understand how he is translating Sri Aurobindos Synthesis of Yoga into Chinese charactershes had to find new characters! It was very interesting. He must have invented characters. Chinese characters are made up of root-signs, and the meaning changes according to the positions of the root-signs. Each root-sign can be simplified, depending on where its placed in combination with other root-signsat the top of the character, at the bottom, or to one side or the other. And so, finding the right combination for new ideas must be a fascinating task! (I dont know how many root-signs can be put in one character, but some characters are quite large and must contain a lot of them; as a matter of fact, I have been shown characters expressing new scientific discoveries, and they were very big.) But how interesting it must be to work with new ideas that way! And H.S. calls it a mechanical task.
The mans a genius!
0 1963-07-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother looks at the Time magazine photo again:) With these photos its very interesting, I have intriguing experiences: all at once Ill see crystal clear (much clearer than I see physically), Ill see the individual very clearlyhe comes alive, the eyes speak to meand Ill say, Oh, hes like this and like that. Everybody brings me photos, because I am used to reading peoples characters in their photos, thats very easy for me, elementary; but sometimes when I am given a photo, suddenly I see somebody and I say, Oh, but its such and such person, hes like this and like that. But if I am shown the SAME photo a few days afterwards, its just a photo and I see nothing. Its a method thats used to let me know certain things, and once I know them, its finished. For instance, the first time I saw this photo of the Pope, when they brought it to me, I saw the man (I know him, you see) JUST AS I see him over there. But if I look at it nowit doesnt evoke anything in me any more, only the kind of things you see in a photo: a mouth thats not good, far from it. Certainly, that he chose this photo means he LIKES authorityhe wants to be seen in his aspect of authority.
The odd thing is that he is seated [in the photo], while all the time I see him standing. He is seated with his hand on the armrest, but I keep seeing him standingholding his head high, facing life, standing. He must be fairly tall: the man I know is fairly tall, he looks very much like this one. Its unmistakable, I mean, when I saw the photo I saw the man I knew.
0 1963-10-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Another time, a fellow (there are some demented characters of that kind) had come from Australia: he was a teacher and had been given classes in the School. He started to preach unbelievable thingshe was God incarnate, you see! Until the day it began to be a pain in the neck. And he had declared he would stay here forever. People were annoyed, everyone was annoyed, they didnt know what to do. I was in my room here (it was three years ago, maybe four). I remember: I was sitting on my bed (at the time I used to work on my bed, over there), and I received a letter in which I was told in short, that it had become impossible, intolerable, that he could not be kept here. So I concentrated for a minute and Kali arrivedKali in her battling mood, a black, dancing Kali. I told her, Why dont you go on his head? (Laughing) She went and did her dance on his head the next day, he wrote he was leaving the Ashram. In this case, it was very clear: the day before, he had declared that he wouldnt budge, that he intended to stay here and continue his lessons, and that we would have to send him away forcibly for him to go (they had told me all this quite tearfully). Kalis dance convinced him he had better go!
But all that, you see, its the play of the world. What is going on now is something else, altogether something else.
0 1964-10-14, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
These last few nights, an experience has been developing. There is a sort of objectification, like scenes unfolding in which I am one of the characters; but it isnt me, it is some character or other that I play in order to have the double consciousness, the ordinary consciousness and the true consciousness at the same time. There was a whole series of experiences to show simultaneously the True Thing and the sort of half-death (its his word that makes me think of this I am too dead), the half-death of the mind. In those experiences, the state of ordinary mentality is something dry (not exactly hard because its crumbly), lifeless, without vibrationdry, cold; and as a color, its always grayish. And then, there is a maximum tension, an effort to understand and remember and knowknow what you should do; when you go somewhere, know how you should go there; know what people are going to do, know Everything, you see, is a perpetual question of the mind (its subconscious in the mindsome are conscious of it, but even in those who are apparently quiet, its there constantly that tension to know). And its a sort of superficial thing, shallow, cold and dry, WITHOUT VIBRATION. At the same time, as if in gusts, the true consciousness comes, as a contrast. And it happens in almost cinematographic circumstances (there is always a story, to make it more living). For instance, last night (its one story among many, many others), the I that was conscious then (which isnt me, you understand), the I that was playing had to go somewhere: it was with other people in a certain place and had to go through the town to another place. And she knew nothing, neither the way nor the name of the place she was going to, nor the person she had to seeshe knew nothing. She knew nothing, but she knew she had to go. So then, that tension: how, how can you know? How can you know? And questioning people, asking questions, trying to explain, You know, its like this and like that, innumerable details (it lasts for hours). And now and then, a flood of lighta warm, golden, living, comfortable lightand the feeling that everything is prearranged, that all that will have to be known will be known, that the way has been prepared beforeh and that all you have to do is let yourself live! It comes like that, in gusts. But then, there is an intensity of contrast between that constant effort of the mind, which is an enormous effort of tension and concentrated will, and then and then that glory. That comfortable glory, you know, in which you let yourself go in trusting happiness: But everything is ready, everything is luminous, everything is known! All you have to do is let yourself live. All you have to do is let yourself live.
Its as if a play were performed to make it more living, more realone subject, another subject, this, that. If you enter a certain state, then another time enter the other state, you can remember the difference and its useful, but in this form of a play, with the double consciousness, the opposition becomes so real, so concrete that you come out of it wondering, How can you go on living in this aberration when you have once TOUCHEDtouched, experienced the True Thing?
0 1965-05-08, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Every time Mother receives Satprem, she translates one line from "Savitri" that has been copied for her in large characters. Today's line is from the debate between Death and Savitri's heart:)
And never lose the white spiritual touch
0 1965-05-29, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For instance, Ive had the opportunity of studying this: For me, circumstances, characters, all events and all beings move about according to certain laws, if I may say so, which arent rigid, but which I perceive and because of which I can see: This will lead to that, and that will lead there, and this person being like that, such-and-such a thing is going to happen to him, and Its growing increasingly precise. I could, if it were necessary, make predictions based on that. But the relation of cause and effect in that domain is, for me, absolutely obvious and corroborated by facts. While for them, who do not have that vision and that consciousness of the soul, as Sri Aurobindo says, circumstances unfold according to other, superficial laws, which they consider to be the natural consequences of things; quite superficial laws that do not stand up to a deeper analysis, but they dont have the inner capacity, so that doesnt bother them, they find it obvious.
I mean that this inner knowledge doesnt have the power to convince them, thats an experience I have almost every day. So that when, concerning some event or other, I see, Oh, but its perfectly, perfectly obvious (for me): I saw the Lords Force act there, I saw such-and-such a thing happen, and so, quite naturally, this is what must take place, for me, its as obvious as could be, but I dont tell what I know, because it doesnt correspond to anything in their experience, so to them its raving or pretension. Which means that when you havent had the experience yourself, anothers experience isnt convincing, it cannot convince you.
--
When Satprem asked Mother whether this "something" was indeed the supramental Force, Mother answered this: "I'd rather not name it, because they will make a dogma out of it. It [this "something"] is what happened when what we called 'the first supramental manifestation' took place in 1956. I tried my best to prevent it from being turned into a dogma. But if I say, 'On such-and-such date, such-and-such a thing took place,' it will be printed in big characters, and if someone says something else, he will be told, 'You are a heretic.' So I don't want that. But it's undeniable that the atmosphere has changed, there is something new in the atmospherewe can call it 'the descent of the supramental Truth' because for us these words have a meaning, but I don't want to make a declaration about it, because I don't want it to be THE classic or 'true' way to describe the event. That's why I keep it vague, deliberately."
"After all India with her mentality and method has done a hundred times more in the spiritual field than Europe with her intellectual doubts and questionings. Even when a European overcomes the doubt and questioning, he does not find it as easy to go as fast and far as an Indian with the same force of personality because the stir of mind is still greater. It is only when he can get beyond that that he arrives, but for him it is not so easy.
0 1965-06-14, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So I put as first condition (I wrote it in English): the sole aim of life is to dedicate oneself to the divine realization (I didnt put it in these terms, but thats the idea). You must first (you may deceive yourself, but that doesnt make any difference), first be convinced that this is what you want and you want this aloneprimo. Then Nolini told me that the second condition should be that my absolute authority had to be recognized. I said, Not like that!, we should put that Sri Aurobindos absolute authority is recognized (we can add [laughing], represented by me, because he cannot speak, of course, except to meto me he speaks very clearly, but others dont hear!). Then there are many other things, I dont remember, and finally a last paragraph that goes like this (Mother looks for a note). Previously, I remember, Sri Aurobindo had also put together a little paper to give people, but its outdated (it was about not quarreling with the police! And what else, I dont rememberits outdated). But I didnt want to put prohibitions in, because prohibitions first of all, its an encouragement to revolt, always, and then there is a good proportion of characters who, when they are forbidden to do something, immediately feel an urge to do itthey might not even have thought of it otherwise, but they just have to be told about it to Ah, but I do as I like. All right.
(Mother starts reading) To those I am making a distinction: there are people who come here and want to dedicate themselves to divine life, but they come to do work and they will work (they wont do an intensive yoga because not one in fifty is capable of doing it, but they are capable of dedicating their life and of working and doing good work disinterestedly, as a service to the Divine thats very good), but in particular, To those who want to practice the integral yoga, it is strongly advised to abstain from three things. So, the three things ([laughing] you put your fingers in your ears): sexual intercourse (it comes third) and drinking alcohol and [whispering] smoking.
0 1966-06-29, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It would be far easier if those things were written in large characters. Its a pity about my eyes. I waste a lot of time, quite a lot. I am forced to ask, or else to take a magnifying glass. What I used to do in three minutes takes me half an hour. Thats how it is. But to recover my sight (that would be possible, nothing is damaged, its only worn), I would have to spend a lot of time on it; it would take me a lot of time in exercises, concentrations. I dont have the time.
But the promptness of the consciousness when I used to see! I dont find it with other eyes. That was so convenient.
0 1966-10-22, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The work keeps increasing (for everyone); the mail is something unbelievable! Its pouring in from everywhere. I got (Mother laughs) a letter from America, from someone I dont know at all, who listened to phonograph records of my voice. And, I dont know, its people who seem to have occult experiences or perhaps practice spiritualism, and he writes to tell me that he hears my voice and I am giving him revelations about himself. But then (laughing) fantastic revelations! He says its my voice, he doesnt doubt it (he accepts even the seemingly most fanciful things), but still, for safetys sake hed like to ask me (!) if I am indeed the one who has told him those things. And among the things I am supposed to have told him, I seem to have declared that he is a combined reincarnation of Buddha, Christ, Archangel Gabriel, Napoleon and Charlemagne! I am going to answer him that those five characters belong to different lines of manifestation and therefore they are rather unlikely to be combined in a single being (a single human being)!
Its obviously little vital entities having fun. They have fun, and the more fanciful, the greater the fun, of course!
0 1969-08-23, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its for the education of children, taken very small. They are left free in a place, they do what they likeabsolutely free, with all they need at their disposal. So those who spend their time fighting are said to have a fighting character! (Mother laughs) Some remain all alone, others come togetherfrom all that their characters are determined. So she wants to do that in Auroville. I told her, How are they prevented from injuring themselves or having serious accidents? She said they should be put in a place where they can fall without hurting themselves I found it a bit flimsy! But anyway, theres the idea. She wants to have that garden by the sea. I asked her (laughing), How will you prevent them from getting drowned?! She replied, Oh, well put a barrier in the sea to stop them from going too far. (Shes already chosen the spot, near Fs hut, they even want to appropriate one of the places F has bought: theyll put the children there.) I said, There are sharks in the sea. So theyre counting on their barrier to stop the sharksit will have to be strong! These people seem to me to be living in their imagination.
And theyre so convinced that they know that you have nothing to tell them. Now and then I tell a joke just to seeoh, brrr!
--
And to crown it all, whos going to live there and watch over the children but A.A.!! A. is the one who has learned in Switzerl and this new method to describe peoples characters, its he who brought it back, and it interests him furiously I just said to Y., I hope there wont be any accidents. Then she told me, Oh, later, when we have enough money, well make a garden in Auromodle, and then well do it with all the necessary precautions. I thought they should rather wait. But to get money, they have to do something (thats how it is: you must start doing something, and afterwards youre given the money to do it). Me, of course, I dont say anything (Mother crosses her fingers on her lips). Ive named her responsible for the direction of education in Auroville (Mother laughs heartily). She told me, by the way, that she wants to have a bank account in the name of Auroeducationdo you know why? Because those young Americans who came here on a visit (did you hear about them?), a dozen or so I saw them all: quite ordinary people. They asked me, Whats responsibility?! Things of that sort.
Yes, you told me about them.
0 1969-12-24, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its the exact indication of people when they are displeased (displeased with what I said or with what I did, or with the way the Divine treats them through someone else, or), and its their displeasure which causes that. People with quite different characters, all three of them, quite a different position, quite different thoughts . So I wondered: is this really the action of whats conventionally called the adverse forces through people?
I am studying that.
0 1970-10-28, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother tries to read with difficulty a few lines from Savitri written in large characters. These passages are meant to be set to music.)
At times I read very clearly, and at other times
0 1970-10-31, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Mother tries to read with difficulty a few lines from Savitri specially written for her in large characters.)
Its a curious phenomenon: its F. who writes this, and she doesnt understand well: for her its just wordsand I cant read!
0 1972-03-29a, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I seem to find in Sri Aurobindos work an answer that meets yours and develops it for the question is indeed to reinstate the gods IN man after having reinstated the demons, as you rightly stated in the Swedish article but I also find there an answer to the agonizing question constantly raised by your characters from The Royal Way to The Walnut Trees of Altenburg. Indeed, all of them seek a deeper notion in man that will deliver them from death and solitudethis is THE question of the West, to which Sri Aurobindo brings a solution at once dynamic and illuminating. Hence, I am taking the liberty of sending by surface mail one of Sri Aurobindos books in the original English entitled The Human Cycle. I hope it will interest you.
I call on you rather than any other contemporary writer because I think your works embody the very anguish of the West, an anguish I have bitterly experienced all the way to the German concentration camps at the age of twenty, and then in a long and uneasy wandering around the world. Insofar as I have always turned to you, daring and searching with each of your characters what surpasses man, I am again turning to you because I have a feeling that, more than anyone else, you can understand Sri Aurobindos message and perhaps draw a new impetus from it. I am also thinking of a whole generation of young people who expect much from you: more than an ideal of pure heroism, which only opens the doors (as does all self-offering) on another realm of man we have yet to explore, and more than a fascination with death, which also is only a means and not an end, although its brutal nakedness can sometimes open a luminous breach in the bodily prisonwhere we seem to have been immured alive and we emerge into a new dimension of our being. For we tend too often to forget that it is for living that your heroes think so constantly of death; also I think that the young people I mentioned want the truth of Tchen and Katow, the truth of Hernandez, Perken and Moreno [ characters in Malrauxs novels] beyond their death.
It may seem strange to speak of you in an Indian Ashram that one would consider far removed from the world and the agonizing problems and struggles of the Human Condition, but as a matter of fact Sri Aurobindos Ashram is concerned with this earthly life; it wants to transform it instead of fleeing it as all traditional Indian and Western religions do, forever proclaiming that His kingdom is not of this world. Knowing that there exists a fundamental reality beyond man, religions have focussed on that other realm to find the key to man just as your heroes focus on their death to discover the fundamental reality that will be able to stand in the face of death. But religion has not justified this life, except as a transition toward a Beyond which is supposedly the supreme goal; and your heroesthough so close to lifes throbbing heart that at times it seems to explode and reveal its poignant secretfinally plunge into death, as if to free themselves from an Absolute they cannot live in the flesh.
--
That contradiction is powerfully expressed in your books, it is striking to my Indian students. And they are surprised, for the urge to do something at all coststo do anything at all, as long as we do something, as one often hears in Europewithout this action being based on a being which it expresses and of which it is but the material translation, appears to them a strange attitude. Neither the despair, the silence or the revolt, nor the absurd pointlessness that sometimes surrounds the death of many of your heroes escape them. They feel that your heroes flee from themselves rather than express themselves. This torment between being and doing can be found in each one of them. They have apparently renounced to be something in order to do something, as one character stresses in Hope, but are they not desperately seeking to be through their actions, a being that they will capture only as time is abolished, in death? The same obsession seems to run through each of them: from Perken, who wants to leave his scar on the map, to outlive himself through twenty tribes, who fights against time as one fights against cancer, to Tchen, who shuts himself in the world of terrorism: an eternal world where time does not exist, and to Katow, who whispers to himself, O prisons, where time stops. In that respect, these characters clearly symbolize the impotence of a religion that has not been able to give the earth its meaning and plenitude.
To the question raised by the Swedish magazine and to the one many characters in your books ask themselves, I believe that Sri Aurobindo and his vast synthesis bring the key to a reconciliation and long-sought answer, a reconciliation between being and doing, which religion is incapable of supplying. Through our Yoga, Sri Aurobindo wrote, we propose nothing less than to break totally the past and present formations which make up the ordinary mental and material man and create a new centre of vision, a new universe of activities in ourselves, which will form a divine humanity or a superhuman nature. This is not an idea but an experience to be lived, which Sri Aurobindo has minutely described in his extensive body of works. It is what some thousand men and women from all over the world are trying to do at the Pondicherry Ashram.
In your reply to the Swedish magazine, you emphasize, The major obstacle to tolerance is not agnosticism but Manichaeism. That is also why religions will never be able to unite humanity, because they have remained Manichaean in their principle, because they are founded on morality, on a sense of good and evil, necessarily varying from one country to the next. Religions will not reconcile men with one another any more than they have reconciled men with themselves, or reconciled their aspiration to be with their need for action and for the same reasons, for in both cases they have dug an abyss between an ideal good, a being they have relegated to heaven, and an evil, a becoming, which reigns supreme in a world where all is vanity. I would like to quote here a passage from Sri Aurobindos Essays on the Gita which throws a clear light on the problem: To put away the responsibility for all that seems to us evil or terrible on the shoulders of a semi-omnipotent Devil, or to put it aside as part of Nature, making an unbridgeable opposition between world-nature and God-Nature, as if Nature were independent of God, or to throw the responsibility on man and his sins, as if he had a preponderant voice in the making of this world or could create anything against the will of God, are clumsily comfortable devices in which the religious thought of India has never taken refuge. We have to look courageously in the face of the reality and see that it is God and none else who has made this world in his being and that so he has made it. We have to see that Nature devouring her children, Time eating up the lives of creatures, Death universal and ineluctable and the violence of the Rudra forces in man and Nature are also the supreme Godhead in one of his cosmic figures. We have to see that God the bountiful and prodigal creator, God the helpful, strong and benignant preserver is also God the devourer and destroyer. The torment of the couch of pain and evil on which we are racked is his touch as much as happiness and sweetness and pleasure. It is only when we see with the eye of the complete union and feel this truth in the depths of our being that we can entirely discover behind that mask too the calm and beautiful face of the all-blissful Godhead and in this touch that tests our imperfection the touch of the friend and builder of the spirit in man. The discords of the worlds are Gods discords and it is only by accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater concords of his supreme harmony.2 I believe that the characters of your books would not be seeking sacrifice and death so intensely if they did not feel the side of light and joy behind the mask of darkness in which they so passionately lose themselves.
Sri Aurobindo has constantly stressed that, through progressive evolutionary cycles, humanity must go beyond the purely ethical and religious stage, just as it must go beyond the infrarational and rational stage, in order to reach a new spiritual and suprarational ageotherwise we will simply remain doomed to the upheavals, conflicts and bloody sacrifices that shake our times, for living according to a code of morality is always a tragedy, as one of the characters in Hope notes.
The tragedies we are experiencingcommunism, Nazismare not rooted, as the Swedish magazine implies, in the weakening or disappearance of religion, it is religion itself which is the source of the disequilibrium insofar as it is fossilized in dogmas, as it clings to a power it possesses in a human cycle drawing to its close, and as it refuses to open itself to a new deeper notion in man which would at long last reconcile heaven and earth. As a result, men go elsewhere to seek what religion is unable to provide: in communism or any other ism, so great and persistent is their thirst for the Absolute for that? abides under one name or another and that very thirst is the surest sign of a fullness to come.
0 1972-04-05, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The characters in the Play
The following conversation makes it necessary to explain the physical conditions Mother was living in. Alas, at the time I was still half-blind to these conditions, for Mother had wrapped me in such a cocoon of light that I could not really see what was happeningshe knew my impetuous nature, she knew I would never have tolerated the situation in her room nor peoples petty intrigues had I known what was really happening there. But gradually I did become aware of certain things.
0 1972-07-22, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Thus, I sent to SABDA and All India Press the note signed by Mother. As was to be expected, the reaction was swift: I was accused of being after money. Mother well knew the hornets nest I was about to stir up, and the day before she had written me a letterwhich I did not understandto try and tell me to move to a higher plateau, to another consciousness, instead of struggling against crooks. The following conversation is the saddest memory of my seventeen years of meetings with Mother. It was so painful to see her weariness yet have to fight to unmask that falsehoodas if she didnt know it! But we are writing History here and we are trying to give as factual an account as possible and to describe the characters just as they were.)
What did I write you?
0 1972-08-02, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Herein, we are therefore trying to find out what happened on November 17, 1973: the why of things. A tragedy does not occur at a particular minute or hour in History. It is the result of all the hours and little minutes that have prepared that particular minute or made it inevitable. As I said earlier, I was thunderstruck on that November 18, 1973. I was certainly the blindest of all the characters taking part in the tragedy, for they all seemed to know in advance that she was going to dieat least those in her immediate entourage. But that knowing in advance bears a terrible implication. Here we put our finger on the formation of death Mother was imbibing dailya perpetual discomfort, she used to say. In those repeated little minutes we can pinpoint the cause of what happened at 7:25 p.m. on November 17,1973.
There is no better eyewitness than Pranab, Mothers bodyguard since he was almost constantly physically present and even slept in Mothers room. Asked about the cause of Mothers departure, this is what he stated in a public speech on December 4, 1973 [in English]:
0 1973-04-14, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
A particular fact has haunted me for the past seven years, a particular passage in Pranabs speech which he delivered a few days after Mothers departure. (Once again, I am not accusing anyone: I am chronicling History; I would like to report the facts, the words, the characters as accurately as I can I am Mothers scribe, that is all and I love her, because its lovely to love.) Now, in that speech, we find a small remark, the kind of remark one makes in passing, as the most natural thing in the world. Pranab is describing the last days. You call them the last days AFTERWARDS, when the story is overin the meantime, its just life as usual:
(original English)
02.02 - Lines of the Descent of Consciousness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
These characters, it is true, are not clear and pronounced, do not lie in front, at the beginning of the human personality. The normal human person has his psyche very much behind; but it is still there as antarymin, as the secret Inner Controller. And whatever the vagaries of the outer instruments or their slavery to the mode of Ignorance, in and through all that, it is this Inner Guide that holds the reins and drives upward in the end.
Thus naturally there appear gradations of the human personality; as the consciousness in the human being rises higher and higher, the psychic centre organises a higher and higher a richer, wider, deeper personality. The first great conversion, the first turning of the human personality to a new mode of life and living, that is to say, living even externally according to the inner truth and reality, the first attempt at a conscious harmonisation of the psychic consciousness with its surface agents and vehicles is what is known as spiritual initiation. This may happen and it does happen even when man lives in his normal mental consciousness. But there is the possibility of growth and evolution and transformation of personality in higher and a higher spiritual degree through the upper reaches of the higher Mind, the varying degrees of the Overmind and finally the Supermind. These are the spheres, the fields, even the continents of the personality, but the stuff, the substance of the personality, the inner nucleus of consciousness-force is formed, first, by the flaming aspiration, the upward drive within the developing and increasing psychic being itself, and secondly, by the descent, to a greater and greater degree, of the original Being from which it emanated. The final coalescence of the fully and integrally developed psychic being with the supreme splendour of its very source, the Jivatman, occurs in the Supermind. When this happens the supramental personality becomes incarnate in the physical body: Matter in the material plane is transformed into a radiant substance made of pure consciousness, the human personality becomes a living form of the Divine. Thus the wheel comes full circle: creation returns to the point from which it started but with an added significance, a new fulfilment.
02.06 - The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Life, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
As if thought-out eternal characters,
Entire, not pulled as we by contrary tides,
--
As one who spells illumined characters,
The key-book of a crabbed magician text,
02.08 - The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And in their place grew luminous characters.
The skilful Penman's unseen finger wrote
02.10 - The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
She pens in clear demotic characters
The vast encyclopaedia of her thoughts;
02.14 - Appendix, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This poetry belongs to the type once characterised as follows by our humorous novelist Prabhat Mukherji through one of his characters, asdhu, describing the charms of the Divine Name:
It has the sweetness and the sugar
05.01 - Man and the Gods, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Man possesses characters that mark him as an entity sui generis and give him the value that is his. First, toil and suffering and more failures than success have given him the quality of endurance and patience, of humility and quietness. That is the quality of earth-natureearth is always spoken of by the poets and seers as all-bearing and all-forgiving. She never protests under any load put upon her, never rises in revolt, never in a hurry or in worry, she goes on with her appointed labour silently, steadily, calmly, unflinchingly. Human consciousness can take infinite pains, go through the infinite details of execution, through countless repetitions and mazes: patience and perseverance are the very badge and blazon of the tribe. Ribhus, the artisans of immortalitychildren of Mahasaraswatiwere originally men, men who have laboured into godhood. Human nature knows to wait, wait infinitely, as it has all the eternity before it and can afford and is prepared to continue and persist life after life. I do not say that all men can do it and are of this nature; but there is this essential capacity in human nature. The gods, who are usually described as the very embodiment of calmness and firmness, of a serene and concentrated will to achieve, nevertheless suffer ill any delay or hindrance to their work. Man has not perhaps the even tenor, the steadiness of their movement, even though intense and fast flowing; but what man possesses is persistence through ups and downshis path is rugged with rise and fall, as the poet says. The steadiness or the staying power of the gods contains something of the nature of indifference, something hard in its grain, not unlike a crystal or a diamond. But human patience, when it has formed and taken shape, possesses a mellowness, an understanding, a sweet reasonableness and a resilience all its own. And because of its intimacy with the tears of things, because of its long travail and calvary, human consciousness is suffused with a quality that is peculiarly human and humane that of sympathy, compassion, comprehension, the psychic feeling of closeness and oneness. The gods are, after all, egoistic; unless in their supreme supramental status where they are one and identical with the Divine himself; on the lower levels, in their own domains, they are separate, more or less immiscible entities, as it were; greater stress is laid here upon their individual functioning and fulfilment than upon their solidarity. Even if they have not the egoism of the Asuras that sets itself in revolt and antagonism to the Divine, still they have to the fullest extent the sense of a separate mission that each has to fulfil, which none else can fulfil and so each is bound rigidly to its own orbit of activity. There is no mixture in their workingsna me thate, as the Vedas say; the conflict of the later gods, the apple of discord that drove each to establish his hegemony over the rest, as narrated in the mythologies and popular legends, carry the difference to a degree natural to the human level and human modes and reactions. The egoism of the gods may have the gait of aristocracy about it, it has the aloofness and indifference and calm nonchalance that go often with nobility: it has a family likeness to the egoism of an ascetic, of a saintit is sttwic; still it is egoism. It may prove even more difficult to break and dissolve than the violent and ebullient rjasicpride of a vital being. Human failings in this respect are generally more complex and contain all shades and rhythms. And yet that is not the whole or dominant mystery of man's nature. His egoism is thwarted at every stepfrom outside, by, the force of circumstances, the force of counter-egoisms, and from inside, for there is there the thin little voice that always cuts across egoism's play and takes away from it something of its elemental blind momentum. The gods know not of this division in their nature, this schizophrenia, as the malady is termed nowadays, which is the source of the eternal strain of melancholy in human nature of which Matthew Arnold speaks, of the Shelleyan saddest thoughts: Nietzsche need not have gone elsewhere in his quest for the origin and birth of Tragedy. A Socrates discontented, the Christ as the Man of Sorrows, and Amitabha, the soul of pity and compassion are peculiarly human phenomena. They are not merely human weaknesses and failings that are to be brushed aside with a godlike disdain; but they contain and yield a deeper sap of life and out of them a richer fulfilment is being elaborated.
Human understanding, we know, is a tangled skein of light and shademore shade perhaps than lightof knowledge and ignorance, of ignorance straining towards knowledge. And yet this limited and earthly frame that mind is has something to give which even the overmind of the gods does not possess and needs. It is indeed a frame, even though perhaps a steel frame, to hold and fix the pattern of knowledge, that arranges, classifies, consolidates effective ideas, as they are translated into facts and events. It has not the initiative, the creative power of the vision of a god, but it is an indispensable aid, a precious instrument for the canalisation and expression of that vision, for the intimate application of the divine inspiration to physical life and external conduct. If nothing else, it is a sort of blue print which an engineer of life cannot forego if he has to execute his work of building a new life accurately and beautifully and perfectly.
05.34 - Light, more Light, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
But where is to be found this inner light? How is it to be recognised? 'Does it truly require no introduction like the outer light? What are its characters and attributes, its signs and signals? The light is in one's own consciousness, one has simply to become aware of it. It is mixed p with darkness, imbedded in obscurity, as diamond or gold lies concealed in its ore. But, as I have said, light carries its own au thenticity. One cannot fail to recognise it, provided and that is the sole arid sufficient provisionone is genuinely willing to recognise. A sincere good-will is all that is required in this apparently arduous labour.
Here is a significant mystery and of capital importance. We refer to an activity of the consciousness which is not completely .hidden or behind the veil: it appears covered, because we do not care to look at it, because it is likely to be of an uncomfortable kind and that because we feel safe and cosy at the lowest level of our consciousness and to mount and rise or to be vigilant and straight means effort and trouble.
06.02 - The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
As if characters of an unwritten tongue
Had left in its breadth the inscriptions of the gods.
06.13 - Body, the Occult Agent, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The body is an epitome of the world. It encases within its frame the whole world, particularly the earthearth itself being an epitome of the worldon a miniature scale, the mikros reproducing all the features and characters of the makros.
Such being the case, a wholly conscious body governed and inspired by the supreme Consciousness lives and moves in the cosmic rhythm: not only does it register in itself the world happenings, but also possesses an active power to control and even to change those happenings by its individual movement. We may imagine the body to be a kind of map or chart of the earth. Each spot on the earth is represented by a particular spota certain group of cells, for examplein the body. If the consciousness ruling the body concentrates itself upon that point and induces a change there, a corresponding change can be brought about automatically on a larger scale in the part and conditions of the earth with which it is connected. Thus without going out and moving about, without being the man on the spot to know things at first hand, one can, sitting, in one's room, by switching on a key, as it were, in one corner of the body, set in movement a whole process of happenings in a particular region of the earth. By a conscious re-disposition of a few cells in your body, you can bring about a desired change in world circumstances. The body is thus a control room for the consciousness in respect of happenings upon earth. Naturally, anybody cannot do that, but only a body destined and trained for that purpose.
06.31 - Identification of Consciousness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Another instance will show another kind of identification. It is an experience to which I have often referred. I was seated, drawn in and meditating. I felt that my physical body was I dissolving or changing: it was becoming wider and wider, losing its human characters and taking gradually the shape of a globe. Arms, legs, head were no longer there: it became spherical, having exactly the form of the earth. I felt I had become the earth. I was the earth in form and substance and all terrestrial objects were in me, animals and people, living and moving in me, trees and plants and even inanimate objects as part of myself, limbs of my body: I was the earth-consciousness incarnate.
But the point is to be this individual consciousness anywhere I or everywhere and still to maintain the higher, the universal and transcendent, the supreme consciousness, to be simultaneously conscious in both the modes to the utmost degree.
1.009 - Perception and Reality, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Ultimately it comes to this, that our perceptions are our problems. They become a problem because we pass judgements on these perceptions. Mere perceptions as they are, left alone to themselves, would be a different matter altogether. But we do not simply perceive an object and keep quiet. The moment we perceive something, we pass a judgement on it. "Oh, this is something. This is a snake." This is a perception. "Oh, it is dangerous." This is a judgement. "I have to run away from it." This is another judgement. "This is a mango." This is one judgement. "It is very sweet." This is a second judgement. "I must eat it." This is a third judgement. We go on passing judgement after judgement of various complex characters on an object of perception. So, judgements become subsequent effects of the perception of an object.
Now, perceptions are of two kinds: real perceptions and unreal perceptions. When we perceive an object in the world, like a tree, it appears to be real; we cannot say it is unreal. Why is it real? What is the definition of reality? This is another very interesting philosophical subject. How do we know that any object is real? If we are asked how we define reality, what we mean by 'real', what is our idea? If we are asked to define reality, define the character of anything being real, we will find that it is difficult to define it. If I project my fingers and attempt to touch it, I must have a sensation of touch then it is real, isn't it? The sensation of touch should say there is a hard object, and then I say it is real. Is this the definition of reality? So we want only a sensation of hardness. The moment that sensation comes, it is real. And it has to be corroborated by the eyes; they must also say, "Yes, we are seeing a shape." The eyes can see only a shape. But how do we know that the shape is real? The fingers will tell us, "We are feeling solidity a hardness and concreteness." If it has a smell and a taste, etc., then it becomes real. We have passed judgement it is real. So, the nose should smell, the fingers should feel the concreteness and solidity, the eyes should see a shape, etc.; then, the thing is real. Is this a definition? This is a dangerous definition, but we cannot have any other definition.
1.00 - PREFACE - DESCENSUS AD INFERNOS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
of divine characters, much as the objective world. The fact of this adaptation implies that the
environment is in reality a forum for action, as well as a place of things.
1.01 - Prayer, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
It is not given to all of us to be harmonious in the building up of our characters in this life: yet we know that that character is of the noblest type in which all these three knowledge and love and Yoga are harmoniously fused. Three things are necessary for a bird to fly the two wings and the tail as a rudder for steering. Jnana (Knowledge) is the one wing, Bhakti (Love) is the other, and Yoga is the tail that keeps up the balance. For those who cannot pursue all these three forms of worship together in harmony and take up, therefore, Bhakti alone as their way, it is necessary always to remember that forms and ceremonials, though absolutely necessary for the progressive soul, have no other value than taking us on to that state in which we feel the most intense love to God.
There is a little difference in opinion between the teachers of knowledge and those of love, though both admit the power of Bhakti. The Jnanis hold Bhakti to be an instrument of liberation, the Bhaktas look upon it both as the instrument and the thing to be attained. To my mind this is a distinction without much difference. In fact, Bhakti, when used as an instrument, really means a lower form of worship, and the higher form becomes inseparable from the lower form of realisation at a later stage. Each seems to lay a great stress upon his own peculiar method of worship, forgetting that with perfect love true knowledge is bound to come even unsought, and that from perfect knowledge true love is inseparable.
1.01 - THAT ARE THOU, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
I live, yet not I, but Christ in me. Or perhaps it might be more accurate to use the verb transitively and say, I live, yet not I; for it is the Logos who lives melives me as an actor lives his part. In such a case, of course, the actor is always infinitely superior to the rle. Where real life is concerned, there are no Shakespearean characters, there are only Addisonian Catos or, more often, grotesque Monsieur Perrichons and Charlies Aunts mistaking themselves for Julius Caesar or the Prince of Denmark. But by a merciful dispensation it is always in the power of every dramatis persona to get his low, stupid lines pronounced and supernaturally transfigured by the divine equivalent of a Garrick.
O my God, how does it happen in this poor old world that Thou art so great and yet nobody finds Thee, that Thou callest so loudly and nobody hears Thee, that Thou art so near and nobody feels Thee, that Thou givest Thyself to everybody and nobody knows Thy name? Men flee from Thee and say they cannot find Thee; they turn their backs and say they cannot see Thee; they stop their ears and say they cannot hear Thee.
1.01 - To Watanabe Sukefusa, #Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin, #unset, #Zen
Now, on happy and auspicious occasions, Sukefusa puts on a clean robe, clears his desk, takes out the letter, and slowly and carefully rereads it, treasuring it as a precious jewel. After I returned home from my pilgrimage in my early thirties and took up residence in Shin-ji, a strong friendship formed between us. We became closer than brothers. He kept the letter inside a fabric slipcase on which I had inscribed the characters nuno-tsutsumi (the "cloth drum") [something that is utterly useless].
One day during a conversation he said, "You know, at first the words 'cloth drum' seemed strange to me. But now, after having read and reread the letter with great care, I have come to understand what a welcome and valuable work it is." Seeing the joy beam from his face as he spoke, I was filled with joy as well.
1.020 - The World and Our World, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
What is an individual, which we call the percipient? It is an abstracted group of characters, tentatively isolated from a larger set or group of characters to which these former really belong an act that has been perpetrated mysteriously for the purpose of playing a drama, we may say. We have falsely isolated ourselves. Even that isolation is not a real isolation, because a mere abstraction of a few characters from a group of larger characters cannot be regarded as real. It is only a closing of one's eyes to certain existent conditions. We can ignore the presence of things and conditions which are not conducive to our present purpose, but why this purpose itself has arisen is a very difficult thing to answer. This is maya, as they call it, a peculiar jugglery that has been projected by no one. Neither can we say that God created it, nor can we say that we created it. It is somewhere; and how it has come, neither can we say, nor can anyone else say. The inscrutability of the relationship between the individual and the cosmic, the difficulty in ascertaining the connection between appearance and reality this is called maya. To put it in more plain terms, the relationship between the subject and the object is itself difficult to understand.
We cannot understand what our connection is with anything at all, and so we are in a helpless condition. Therefore we cannot even control the mind, because controlling the mind is an adjustment of the modifications of the mind in respect of the object of its cognition, and the object of its cognition is not properly understood because of its unintelligible character. Everything then becomes difficult, and our efforts become a source of failure in the end. Success does not seem to be forthcoming, because it is not clear to us what is the right direction that we have to take.
1.024 - Affiliation With Larger Wholes, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
It is, therefore, essential for the mind to affiliate itself with the characters of larger wholes, so that in these larger experiences it not only gains greater control over the environment and its own self, but also experiences a greater intensity of happiness, which follows automatically with the experience of larger dimensions of being.
1.02 - Groups and Statistical Mechanics, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
are group characters, clearly f(x)g(x) is one also, as is [f(x)] −1 . If
we can represent any function h(x) defined over the group as a
linear combination of the characters of the group, in some such
form as
--
acters, we can develop h(Tx) for all T in terms of the characters.
We have seen that the characters of a group generate other
characters under multiplication and inversion, and it may simi-
--
the group characters themselves, which is known as the character
group of the original group.
--
which is satisfied if f(x) = e iλx , α(T) = e iλT . The characters will be
the functions e iλx , and the character group will be the group of
1.02 - In the Beginning, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
If, restoring to the Hebrew characters their numerical value and hidden sense, we analyse the text, then we must thus read the first word of Genesis, The primary duality was in the beginning. For the sign B which corresponds to the second figure in our numerical system, represents a double original principle which the succeeding letter Resh characterises as the very head and supreme Cause of formation. And by a remarkable, though fortuitous coincidence, we find that the sacred book of Islam, like the sacred book of Judaism commences, in the initial of its first word, with the sign of duality. The first word B-Sem-Lillah (Bismillah) placed at the head of the Koran can, when its elements are decomposed, be interpreted, Two is the name of Allah.
And this name, Allah, itself contains the symbol of that union between the two complementary poles of being out of which the Universe is generated. Formed of twin syllables of which the first has for its initial letter Alif, the characteristic sign of the Masculine, and the second for its final letter He, the constant symbol of the Feminine, it seems to be merely the inversion in combination of one and the same essential article and can be mystically translated, as indeed it is translated by some of the Sufis,by the two pronouns He and She.
1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
The central features of our (socially-determined) behavior thus become key elements characters in
our stories (just like the procedural elements of the emergent games of interacting children become explicit
--
interplay of these personalities. This myth features four main characters, or sets of characters; Tiamat,
the feminine dragon of chaos, primordial goddess of creation (the uroboros and the Great Mother are
--
higher level of resolution, as seven universal characters (who may take on any of a variety of culturespecific identities). Myth describes the interactions of these characters. The great dragon of chaos the
uroboros, the self-devouring serpent might be conceptualized as pure (latent) information, before it is
--
The bivalent Great Mother (second and third characters) is creation and destruction, simultaneously
the source of all new things, the benevolent bearer and lover of the hero; the destructive forces of the
--
literature are always polysemic, in this manner: the characters within the story stand in the same
relationship to one another as things of more general significance stand to one another, in the broader
--
imagination, which take embodied form, in the shape of dramatic characters. The characters have a
predictable nature, and play out their relationships in an eternally fascinating patterned fashion, time and
--
This archetypal environment was (is) composed of three domains, which easily become three characters:
The unknown is unexplored territory, nature, the unconscious, dionysian force, the id, the Great Mother
--
Lahamu and Kishar and Anshar are incidental characters, serving only as intermediaries between the real
protagonists of the drama Marduk, a late-born individual-like god, and Tiamat, his turncoat mother.
--
description of the mythological characters whose essence and interactions constitute the world. The
totality of the world, which includes the significance of experienced things, as well as the things
1.02 - On the Knowledge of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
It has been shown that man from his own existence, knows the existence of his creator, that from his analysis of the materials of which his body is composed and of its distinctive characters he understands the almighty power of God, that from the uses, the arrangement and the combination of his organs, he knows the omniscient wisdom of God, and that his clemency and compassion extend to [45] all. He knows, also, that these many mercies and bounties are bestowed upon him without his seeking or care, from God's rich and overflowing grace. Now in this way it is possible that the knowledge of the soul should become the key to the knowledge of God. For just as from a survey of your own being and attributes, you have in a contracted form learned the being and attributes of God, it is also possible to understand how the freedom and the holiness of God, bear a resemblance to the freedom of your soul.
Know, that God exists exempt from and independent of the notions that enter the mind, and the forms that are produced in the imagination, that he is not subjected to reasoning, and time and place cannot be ascribed to him. Still his exercise of power and the manifestation of his glory are not independent of place. But in the same manner, this independence and freedom is possible in your soul. The spirit, for example, which we call heart is exempt from the entrance of fancies and imaginations, and also from size and divisibility. Nor has it form or color, for if it had, it could be seen by the eye, and would enter into the sphere of fancy and imagination, and its beauty or ugliness, its greatness or littleness would be known. If any one ask you about your soul, you may answer, "It exists by the will of God: it has neither quantity or physical quality; it is exempt from being known." Beloved, since you are incapable of knowing the spirit which is in your body, how should it be possible for you to know God, who created spirits, bodies and all things, who is himself foreign to all of them, and who is not of their class and kind ? It is one of the most important things, yea, a most necessary duty, to treat of God as holy, independent and free.
1.02 - Prayer of Parashara to Vishnu, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
kara Siva. The Viṣṇu who is the subject of our text is the supreme being in all these three divinities or hypostases, in his different characters of creator, preserver and destroyer. Thus in the Mārkaṇḍeya: 'Accordingly, as the primal all-pervading spirit is distinguished by attributes in creation and the rest, so he obtains the denomination of Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Śiva. In the capacity of Brahmā he creates the worlds; in that of Rudra he destroys them; in that of Viṣṇu he is quiescent. These are the three Avasthās (ht. hypostases) of the self-born. Brahmā is the quality of activity; Rudra that of darkness; Viṣṇu, the lord of the world, is goodness: so, therefore, the three gods are the three qualities. They are ever combined with, and dependent upon one another; and they are never for an instant separate; they never quit each other.' The notion is one common to all antiquity, although less philosophically conceived, or perhaps less distinctly expressed, in the passages which have come down to us. The τρεῖς ἀρχικὰς ὑποστάσεις of Plato are said by Cudworth (I. 111), upon the authority of Plotinus, to be an ancient doctrine, παλαιὰ δόξα: and he also observes, "Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Plato have all of them asserted a trinity of divine hypostases; and as they unquestionably derived much of their doctrine from the Egyptians, it may reasonably be suspected that the Egyptians did the like before them." As however the Grecian accounts, and those of the Egyptians, are much more perplexed and unsatisfactory than those of the Hindus, it is most probable that we find amongst them the doctrine in its most original as well as most methodical and significant form.
[2]: This address to Viṣṇu pursues the notion that he, as the supreme being, is one, whilst he is all: he is Avikāra, not subject to change; Sadaikarūpa, one invariable nature: he is the liberator (tāra), or he who bears mortals across the ocean of existence: he is both single and manifold (ekānekarūpa): and he is the indiscrete (avyakta) cause of the world, as well as the discrete (vyakta) effect; or the invisible cause, and visible creation.
--
[31]: Here is another analogy to the doctrines of antiquity relating to the mundane egg: and as the first visible male being, who, as we shall hereafter see, united in himself the nature of either sex, abode in the egg, and issued from it; so "this firstborn of the world, whom they represented under two shapes and characters, and who sprung from the mundane egg, was the person from whom the mortals and immortals were derived. He was the same as Dionusus, whom they styled, πρωτόγονον διφνῆ τρίγονον Βακχεῖον Ἄνακτα Ἄγριον ἀρρητὸν κρύφιον δικέρωτα δίμοφον:" or, with the omission of one epithet, , ###.
[32]: Janārddana is derived from Jana, 'men,' and Arddana, 'worship;' 'the object of adoration to mankind.'
1.02 - The Divine Teacher, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Mahabharata, we may fairly conclude that they were actually contemporaries and that the epic is to a great extent dealing with historical characters and in the war of Kurukshetra with a historical occurrence imprinted firmly on the memory of the race. We know too that Krishna and Arjuna were the object of religious worship in the pre-Christian centuries; and there is some reason to suppose that they were so in connection with a religious and philosophical tradition from which the Gita may have gathered many of its elements and even the foundation of its synthesis of knowledge, devotion and works, and perhaps also that the human Krishna was the founder, restorer or at the least one of the early teachers of this school. The Gita may well in spite of its later form represent the outcome in Indian thought of the teaching of Krishna and the connection of that teaching with the historical Krishna, with Arjuna and with the war of
Kurukshetra may be something more than a dramatic fiction. In the Mahabharata Krishna is represented both as the historical character and the Avatar; his worship and Avatarhood must therefore have been well established by the time - apparently from the fifth to the first centuries B.C. - when the old story and poem or epic tradition of the Bharatas took its present form. There is a hint also in the poem of the story or legend of the Avatar's early life in Vrindavan which, as developed by the Puranas into an intense and powerful spiritual symbol, has exercised so profound an influence on the religious mind of
1.02 - The Necessity of Magick for All, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
But this is only part of the story. As things are, we have all adventured into an Universe of immeasurable, of incalculable, possibilities, of situations never contemplated by the trend of Evolution. Man is a marine monster; when he decided that it would be better for him somehow to live on land, he had to grow lungs instead of gills. When we want to travel over soft snow, we have to invent ski; when we wish to exchange thoughts, we must arrange a conventional code of sounds, of knots in string, of carved or written characters in a word embark upon the boundless ocean of hieroglyphics or symbols of one sort or another. (Presently I shall have to explain the supreme importance of such systems; in fact, the Universe itself is not, and cannot be, anything but an arrangement of symbolic characters!)
Here we are, then, caught in a net of circumstances; if we are to do anything at all beyond automatic vegetative living, we must consciously apply ourselves to Magick, "the Science and Art" (let me remind you!) "of causing change to occur in conformity with the Will." Observe that the least slackness or error means that things happen which do not thus conform; when this is so despite our efforts, we are (temporarily) baffled; when it is our own ignorance of what we ought to will, or lack of skill in adapting our means to the right end, then we set up a conflict in our own Nature: our act is suicidal. Such interior struggle is at the base of nearly all neuroses, as Freud recently "discovered" as if this had not been taught, and taught without his massed errors, by the great teachers of the past! The Taoist doctrine, in particular, is most precise and most emphatic on this point; indeed, it may seem to some of us to overshoot the mark; for nothing is permissible in that scheme but frictionless adjustment and adaptation to circumstance. "Benevolence and righteousness" are actually deprecated! That any such ideas should ever have existed (says Lao-tse) is merely evidence of the universal disorder.
1.02 - The Stages of Initiation, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
like the characters of a writing. This strength, with the experience it brings of the corresponding trial, might possibly awaken in the soul as though of its own accord, as the soul continually develops, but it will be found safer to follow the instructions of those who are spiritually experienced, and who have some proficiency in deciphering the occult script.
The signs of the occult script are not arbitrarily invented; they correspond to the forces actively engaged in the world. They teach us the language of things. It becomes immediately apparent to the candidate that the signs he is now learning correspond to the forms, colors, and tones which he learned to perceive during his preparation and enlightenment. He realizes that all he learned previously was only like learning to spell, and that he is only now beginning to read in the higher worlds. All the isolated figures, tones, and colors reveal themselves to him now in one great connected whole. Now for the first time he attains complete certainty in observing the higher worlds. Hitherto he could never know positively whether the things he saw were rightly seen. A regular understanding, too, is now at last possible
1.02 - Where I Lived, and What I Lived For, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of king Tching-thang to this effect: Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again. I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages. I was as much affected by the faint hum of a mosquito making its invisible and unimaginable tour through my apartment at earliest dawn, when I was sitting with door and windows open, as I could be by any trumpet that ever sang of fame. It was Homers requiem; itself an Iliad and Odyssey in the air, singing its own wrath and wanderings. There was something cosmical about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night. Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly-acquired force and aspirations from within, accompanied by the undulations of celestial music, instead of factory bells, and a fragrance filling the airto a higher life than we fell asleep from; and thus the darkness bear its fruit, and prove itself to be good, no less than the light. That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way. After a partial cessation of his sensuous life, the soul of man, or its organs rather, are reinvigorated each day, and his Genius tries again what noble life it can make. All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere. The Vedas say, All intelligences awake with the morning. Poetry and art, and the fairest and most memorable of the actions of men, date from such an hour. All poets and heroes, like Memnon, are the children of Aurora, and emit their music at sunrise. To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep.
Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness, they would have performed something.
1.036 - The Rise of Obstacles in Yoga Practice, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
There is a sudden rising into the wakefulness of reality from the dream of world perception. All instruments of knowing are hushed forever. We begin to be aware of the presence of objects by a sympathy of 'being' rather than by a relatedness of sensory cognition. At present we are repelled by objects due to the egoism of personalities, and as one ego cannot tolerate another ego, there is an automatic repulsion of objects, one throwing the other out into a remote distance. But when this interior consciousness arises, the repulsion that is consequent to the presence of egoism ceases, and the reverse action takes place, namely, a friendliness of attitude, not in the sense of an emotional affection that we are used to in this world, but the urge of kindred characters towards a fraternal embrace for a permanent union of their essential being.
This experience is uncommon, and humanly it is not possible, and we cannot call it human understanding, human awareness, or human relationship it is super-human, super-physical, super-psychical, super-intellectual, super- logical and super-relational. Such knowledge will rise as an emanation of being rather than as a faculty of understanding. This knowledge is a light that is shed by our essential being, and it is not merely a function of the psychological organ. This subject is explained in more detail in another sutra of Patanjali, which we shall study when we come to it later on. When this knowledge arises, there is a cessation of obstacles. Enmity ceases when the causes of enmity cease. The obstacles on the path to the realisation of Truth appear only as long as there is a hidden tendency of the individual to maintain itself in contradistinction with other individuals.
1.03 - APPRENTICESHIP AND ENCULTURATION - ADOPTION OF A SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
individual and the society of the machine. The plot is solid, the characters believable but Mother Nature
is also malarial mosquitoes, parasitical worms, cancer and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The story of
1.03 - PERSONALITY, SANCTITY, DIVINE INCARNATION, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
In the West, the mystics went some way towards liberating Christianity from its unfortunate servitude to historic fact. (or, to be more accurate, to those various mixtures of contemporary record with subsequent inference and phantasy, which have, at different epochs, been accepted as historic fact). From the writings of Eckhart, Tauler and Ruysbroeck, of Boehme, William Law and the Quakers, it would be possible to extract a spiritualized and universalized Christianity, whose narratives should refer, not to history as it was, or as someone afterwards thought it ought to be, but to processes forever unfolded in the heart of man. But unfortunately the influence of the mystics was never powerful enough to bring about a radical Mahayanist revolution in the West. In spite of them, Christianity has remained a religion in which the pure Perennial Philosophy has been overlaid, now more, now less, by an idolatrous preoccupation with events and things in timeevents and things regarded not merely as useful means, but as ends, intrinsically sacred and indeed divine. Moreover such improvements on history as were made in the course of centuries were, most imprudently, treated as though they themselves were a part of historya procedure which put a powerful weapon into the hands of Protestant and, later, of Rationalist controversialists. How much wiser it would have been to admit the perfectly avowable fact that, when the sternness of Christ the Judge had been unduly emphasized, men and women felt the need of personifying the divine compassion in a new form, with the result that the figure of the Virgin, mediatrix to the mediator, came into increased prominence. And when, in course of time, the Queen of Heaven was felt to be too awe-inspiring, compassion was re-personified in the homely figure of St. Joseph, who thus became me thator to the me thatrix to the me thator. In exactly the same way Buddhist worshippers felt that the historic Sakyamuni, with his insistence on recollectedness, discrimination and a total dying to self as the principal means of liberation, was too stern and too intellectual. The result was that the love and compassion which Sakyamuni had also inculcated came to be personified in Buddhas such as Amida and Maitreyadivine characters completely removed from history, inasmuch as their temporal career was situated somewhere in the distant past or distant future. Here it may be remarked that the vast numbers of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, of whom the Mahayanist theologians speak, are commensurate with the vastness of their cosmology. Time, for them, is beginningless, and the innumerable universes, every one of them supporting sentient beings of every possible variety, are born, evolve, decay and the, only to repeat the same cycleagain and again, until the final inconceivably remote consummation, when every sentient being in all the worlds shall have won to deliverance out of time into eternal Suchness or Buddhahood This cosmological background to Buddhism has affinities with the world picture of modern astronomyespecially with that version of it offered in the recently published theory of Dr. Weiszcker regarding the formation of planets. If the Weiszcker hypothesis is correct, the production of a planetary system would be a normal episode in the life of every star. There are forty thousand million stars in our own galactic system alone, and beyond our galaxy other galaxies, indefinitely. If, as we have no choice but to believe, spiritual laws governing consciousness are uniform throughout the whole planet-bearing and presumably life-supporting universe, then certainly there is plenty of room, and at the same time, no doubt, the most agonizing and desperate need, for those innumerable redemptive incarnations of Suchness, upon whose shining multitudes the Mahayanists love to dwell.
For my part, I think the chief reason which prompted the invisible God to become visible in the flesh and to hold converse with men was to lead carnal men, who are only able to love carnally, to the healthful love of his flesh, and afterwards, little by little, to spiritual love.
1.03 - The Manner of Imitation., #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
There is still a third difference--the manner in which each of these objects may be imitated. For the medium being the same, and the objects the same, the poet may imitate by narration--in which case he can either take another personality as Homer does, or speak in his own person, unchanged--or he may present all his characters as living and moving before us.
These, then, as we said at the beginning, are the three differences which distinguish artistic imitation,--the medium, the objects, and the manner. So that from one point of view, Sophocles is an imitator of the same kind as Homer--for both imitate higher types of character; from another point of view, of the same kind as Aristophanes--for both imitate persons acting and doing. Hence, some say, the name of 'drama' is given to such poems, as representing action. For the same reason the Dorians claim the invention both of Tragedy and Comedy. The claim to Comedy is put forward by the Megarians,--not only by those of Greece proper, who allege that it originated under their democracy, but also by the Megarians of Sicily, for the poet Epicharmus, who is much earlier than Chionides and Magnes, belonged to that country. Tragedy too is claimed by certain Dorians of the Peloponnese. In each case they appeal to the evidence of language. The outlying villages, they say, are by them called {kappa omega mu alpha iota}, by the Athenians {delta eta mu iota}: and they assume that Comedians were so named not from {kappa omega mu 'alpha zeta epsilon iota nu}, 'to revel,' but because they wandered from village to village (kappa alpha tau alpha / kappa omega mu alpha sigma), being excluded contemptuously from the city. They add also that the Dorian word for 'doing' is {delta rho alpha nu}, and the Athenian, {pi rho alpha tau tau epsilon iota nu}.
1.040 - Re-Educating the Mind, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
It is not true that our inward life is the same as our outward life. They are two different things altogether, and this is perhaps the case in 99.9% of people. For various reasons, psychological as well as social, it becomes difficult for the individual to express his real nature outwardly. Whatever the reason behind it, the fact is there the outward relationships and inward characters do not coincide with each other; therefore there is irreconcilability, obviously. So, there is no friendship. Friendship is not a matter of writing a letter or speaking a word, but a matter of feeling. This feeling is impossible unless there is the capacity to appreciate the condition or circumstance of the person or the object with whom we are related, or with which we are related, and finally, to enter into the very feeling of that very person and the being of that object which is alone, ultimately speaking, real fraternity of feeling or friendship.
We have a subtle distractedness in our mind on account of the presence of an absence of friendliness with things. This will cut at the root of all the yogic practice, because yoga is the attempt to contact Ultimate Reality. It is not a mere social contact that we are trying here, but a contact of utter being the basic reality that is in everything. So there is a requisition for a complete transformation of our personality, inwardly as well as outwardly, even on the unconscious level not merely outwardly so that we get attuned to the structure of anything and everything in the world, under every condition.
--
Any particular object can be taken for the purpose of concentration, because any particular has the elements of the universal present in it. For instance, we can approach the government through any officer. He may be an officer from Madras, or from Punjab, it makes no difference. He is an officer of the government of India. So to touch the government we need not run about from place to place in search of it, because a government is like the universal it is pervading everything, and it is everywhere. We can contact this universal, called the government, through an individual or a particular that is the officer he may be any officer. Through him we can find our way to that universal principle called the government. When that officer expresses a view, is it the officer's view or is it the government's view? It is not his individual view, but it is the expression of the universal that is behind him. It is the force of the government that works through the individual, and at that time he is not an individual he is a representation of the universal. Likewise, even an idol, or an image, or a picture, or a concept can become a representation of the universal characters behind it, provided we are able to visualise these characters with sincerity of purpose.
As I mentioned, the main point to be remembered here is that while concentrating on any object, no external thought should be allowed, because the thought of an external object is the distraction which prevents concentration. The mind cannot be wholly present in the given object if there is another thing side by side or along with it. This is then vyabhicharini bhakti or divided devotion, as they call it. When we think of two things at the same time because of the presence of another thing outside that given object, the devotion is split. The force of the mind gets diminished on account of a channelisation of the mental energy in two directions. In the beginning, the mind will refuse to concentrate like this because it is fed by diverse food. So what is essential in the beginning is to diminish the directions in which the mind moves to the minimum possible. Though it is not possible to bring the mind to a single point, we can bring it to the minimum possible or conceivable number of items of concentration.
1.045 - Piercing the Structure of the Object, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The entire process of meditation is nothing but this peculiar technique of the absorption of the characteristics of the object into one's own self, stage by stage, though it may take years - sometimes it takes births. But the purpose is the same, and the method is this: namely, that the spatial isolation and the temporal distance of the object from the meditating consciousness should be diminished gradually, by repeated concentration. After repeated practise it will be realised that the object will reveal certain characters which are sympathetic with the constitution of the meditating consciousness. In the beginning stages, however, the sympathy that exists between the subject and the object cannot be visualised.
This impossibility of visualising the sympathy between the two arises on account of the intensity of the activity of the senses. The senses are very powerful, and the only business of the senses is to intensify the isolated condition of the object from the subject and to emphasise excessively the distance that the object maintains in respect of the subject the materiality of the object, the desirability of the object, and so on and so forth. This is the work of the senses, which is an activity that is quite opposed to the attempt that the mind proposes in its meditations.
1.04 - GOD IN THE WORLD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Before going on to discuss the means whereby it is possible to come to the fulness as well as the height of spiritual knowledge, let us briefly consider the experience of those who have been privileged to behold the One in all things, but have made no efforts to perceive it within themselves. A great deal of interesting material on this subject may be found in Bucks Cosmic Consciousness. All that need be said here is that such cosmic consciousness may come unsought and is in the nature of what Catholic theologians call a gratuitous grace. One may have a gratuitous grace (the power of healing, for example, or foreknowledge) while in a state of mortal sin, and the gift is neither necessary to, nor sufficient for, salvation. At the best such sudden accessions of cosmic consciousness as are described by Buck are merely unusual invitations to further personal effort in the direction of the inner height as well as the external fulness of knowledge. In a great many cases the invitation is not accepted; the gift is prized for the ecstatic pleasure it brings; its coming is remembered nostalgically and, if the recipient happens to be a poet, written about with eloquenceas Byron, for example, wrote in a splendid passage of Childe Harold, as Wordsworth wrote in Tintern Abbey and The Prelude. In these matters no human being may presume to pass definitive judgment upon another human being; but it is at least permissible to say that, on the basis of the biographical evidence, there is no reason to suppose that either Wordsworth or Byron ever seriously did anything about the theophanies they described; nor is there any evidence that these theophanies were of themselves sufficient to transform their characters. That enormous egotism, to which De Quincey and Keats and Haydon bear witness, seems to have remained with Wordsworth to the end. And Byron was as fascinatingly and tragi-comically Byronic after he had beheld the One in all things as he was before.
In this context it is interesting to compare Wordsworth with another great nature lover and man of letters, St. Bernard. Let Nature be your teacher, says the first; and he goes on to affirm that
1.04 - Te Shan Carrying His Bundle, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
fusion arose from the similarity between the Chinese characters
used for "cat" and for "reason."
1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
The fictional characters of Shakespeare and Dostoevski respond like the flesh-and-blood man, Tolstoy, to
the same historically-determined set of circumstances to the death of god, in Nietzsches terminology,
1.052 - Yoga Practice - A Series of Positive Steps, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Also, there is another self which is known as the mithyatman the false self which is the body. The body is not the Self. Everyone knows it very well, for various reasons, because the character of Self-identity indestructibility, indivisibility, etc. does not apply to the body. And yet, these characters are superimposed upon the body and we shift or transfer the qualities of the perishable body to what we really are in our consciousness, and vice versa. On the other hand, conversely, we transfer the indivisible character of consciousness to the body and regard the body itself as indivisible Selfhood.
The third step of self is the Absolute, as I mentioned, which is the goal of the practice of yoga and the goal of life itself. Self-restraint is, therefore, the limitation of the false self to the minimum of self-affirmation. Here, again, one has to exercise caution. We should not mortify this self too much. We cannot whip it beyond the prescribed limit; otherwise, it will revolt. Though it is true that false relationships have to be overcome by wisdom, philosophical analysis, etc., this achievement cannot be successful at one stroke, because even a false relationship appears to be a real relationship when it has got identified with consciousness. That is why there is so much intensity and so much attachment so much significance is seen in that relationship. There is nothing unreal in this world as long as it has become part of our experience. It becomes unreal only when we are in a different state of experience and we compare the earlier state with it and then make a judgement about it.
1.057 - The Four Manifestations of Ignorance, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The not-Self means the anatman that is to say, that which is not ones own Self. Inasmuch as there is something in this world which is not myself, I have naturally to face it in some proper manner. The way in which I face an object in this world is called the relationship that I establish with it. This is the cause of my likes and dislikes in respect of the object; and where there is an intense like or a dislike for anything, that particular thing is invested with certain characteristics that do not really belong to it. Why does ones own child look so beautiful? Well, it has to look beautiful merely because it is mine. If it is not mine, then it must be ugly. It is stupid merely because it is not mine. characters which do not really inhere in an object can be visualised due to a prejudice of emotion. The likes and dislikes are the causative factors behind this investment of characters which are false.
Thus, there is perception of beauty and ugliness, loveableness, etc. due to the peculiar emotional like and dislike caused, again, by the perception of not-Self which is the central forte of ignorance. So we can imagine how many difficulties have cropped up on account of a single mistake that we have committed originally. Then, the pain that is involved in the action of the mind desiring the objects for their possession and enjoyment is mistaken for pleasure. What toil the householder undergoes, but he thinks it is a pleasure. He has to work hard for the maintenance of the family, but is it a pleasure? He works hard because he enjoys it; otherwise, why does he work?
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The peculiar differentiating character of space, time and cause interferes with the character of Being which is in Consciousness, and then there is the rise of the phenomenal individuality, which is asmita. The I am-ness of an individual, the feeling of the individuality of a person the egoism, or the isolated existence of anyone is, therefore, the effect of two factors coming together into activity. A new feature is made to rise due to the mix-up of these two peculiar characters. Space and time act on one side, and Pure Consciousness acts on the other side. The spatial character of the way in which the mind works goes hand in hand with the Being character of Consciousness, and then there is the conviction I am. Well, this is an effect of ignorance because space is nothing but the not-Self, and it was pointed out that the not-Self is perceived on account of an action of ignorance.
Space, time, cause mean one and the same thing they are three aspects of a single phenomenon. It is the principle of externality, if one would like to call it so. The principle of externality is what is called maya in Vedantic language the appearance, as philosophers put it a peculiar thing which nobody can understand. Something is there, and no one can know how it is there, or why it is there. This is the principle of externality which manifests itself as what we call space-time-causal relationship, etc. This feature of externality gets mixed up with the being of Consciousness, and then we have an externalised personality; that is the individuality of ours. This is the I am-ness we are speaking of.
1.05 - Definition of the Ludicrous, and a brief sketch of the rise of Comedy., #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
Comedy is, as we have said, an imitation of characters of a lower type, not, however, in the full sense of the word bad, the Ludicrous being merely a subdivision of the ugly. It consists in some defect or ugliness which is not painful or destructive. To take an obvious example, the comic mask is ugly and distorted, but does not imply pain.
The successive changes through which Tragedy passed, and the authors of these changes, are well known, whereas Comedy has had no history, because it was not at first treated seriously. It was late before the Archon granted a comic chorus to a poet; the performers were till then voluntary. Comedy had already taken definite shape when comic poets, distinctively so called, are heard of. Who furnished it with masks, or prologues, or increased the number of actors,--these and other similar details remain unknown. As for the plot, it came originally from Sicily; but of Athenian writers Crates was the first who, abandoning the 'iambic' or lampooning form, generalised his themes and plots.
Epic poetry agrees with Tragedy in so far as it is an imitation in verse of characters of a higher type. They differ, in that Epic poetry admits but one kind of metre, and is narrative in form. They differ, again, in their length: for Tragedy endeavours, as far as possible, to confine itself to a single revolution of the sun, or but slightly to exceed this limit; whereas the Epic action has no limits of time. This, then, is a second point of difference; though at first the same freedom was admitted in Tragedy as in Epic poetry.
Of their constituent parts some are common to both, some peculiar to Tragedy, whoever, therefore, knows what is good or bad Tragedy, knows also about Epic poetry. All the elements of an Epic poem are found in Tragedy, but the elements of a Tragedy are not all found in the Epic poem.
1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
our own characters which makes the necessary tragic conditions of existence appear evil.
But why is life tragic? Why are we subject to unbearable limitation to pain, disease, and death; to
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the world if we left our own characters intact, and developed them to the fullest; if we took full advantage
of every gift we have been granted. Perhaps the world would not look horrible then.
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it is more important to streng then our characters, than to repair the world. So much of that reparation seems
selfish, anyway; is selfishness and intellectual pride masquerading as love, creating a world polluted with
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or partial personalities. These include dreams, in which characters appear within experience in known and unknown
guise, and follow what are apparently their own intrinsic and often incomprehensible laws of behaviour [see Jung, C.G.
1.06 - Definition of Tragedy., #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
Third in order is Thought,--that is, the faculty of saying what is possible and pertinent in given circumstances. In the case of oratory, this is the function of the Political art and of the art of rhetoric: and so indeed the older poets make their characters speak the language of civic life; the poets of our time, the language of the rhetoricians.
Character is that which reveals moral purpose, showing what kind of things a man chooses or avoids. Speeches, therefore, which do not make this manifest, or in which the speaker does not choose or avoid anything whatever, are not expressive of character. Thought, on the other hand, is found where something is proved to be, or not to be, or a general maxim is enunciated.
1.06 - Incarnate Teachers and Incarnation, #Bhakti-Yoga, #Swami Vivekananda, #Hinduism
Higher and nobler than all ordinary ones are another set of teachers, the Avatras of Ishvara, in the world. They can transmit spirituality with a touch, even with a mere wish. The lowest and the most degraded characters become in one second saints at their command. They are the Teachers of all teachers, the highest manifestations of God through man. We cannot see God except through them. We cannot help worshipping them; and indeed they are the only ones whom we are bound to worship.
No man can really see God except through these human manifestations. If we try to see God otherwise, we make for ourselves a hideous caricature of Him and believe the caricature to be no worse than the original. There is a story of an ignorant man who was asked to make an image of the God Shiva, and who, after days of hard struggle, manufactured only the image of a monkey. So whenever we try to think of God as He is in His absolute perfection, we invariably meet with the most miserable failure, because as long as we are men, we cannot conceive Him as anything higher than man. The time will come when we shall transcend our human nature and know Him as He is; but as long as we are men, we must worship Him in man and as man. Talk as you may, try as you may, you cannot think of God except as a man. You may deliver great intellectual discourses on God and on all things under the sun, become great rationalists and prove to your satisfaction that all these accounts of the Avataras of God as man are nonsense. But let us come for a moment to practical common sense. What is there behind this kind of remarkable intellect? Zero, nothing, simply so much froth. When next you hear a man delivering a great intellectual lecture against this worship of the Avataras of God, get hold of him and ask what his idea of God is, what he understands by "omnipotence", "omnipresence", and all similar terms, beyond the spelling of the words. He really means nothing by them; he cannot formulate as their meaning any idea unaffected by his own human nature; he is no better off in this matter than the man in the street who has not read a single book. That man in the street, however, is quiet and does not disturb the peace of the world, while this big talker creates disturbance and misery among mankind.
1.075 - Self-Control, Study and Devotion to God, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
These three methods tapas, svadhyaya and Ishvara pranidhana are really the training of the will, the intellect and the emotion. It requires tremendous will to practise tapas, great understanding or intellectual capacity to probe into the meaning of the scriptures, and emotional purity to love God. These three are emphasised in the canons of tapas, svadhyaya and Ishvara pranidhana. By svadhyaya there is ishtadevata samprayogah,says the sutra; there is union of oneself with the deity of ones worship and adoration by a daily brooding over its characters.
Whatever we think in our mind, that we will become, and that we will get. But, this thinking should not be a shallow thinking; it should be a very deep absorption of oneself in what one expects. The whole of us should be saturated with our longing for the ideal which is in our mind. There should be no other thought except of the qualities, characters and nature of the ideal which is in our mind. Anything and everything can be obtained in this world if only there is a will behind it. If the force of thought is intense enough, there is nothing which is impossible. This is the point made out in this sutra.
The svadhyaya that is referred to here is not reading in a library. It is not going to the library and reading any book that is there on the shelf. It is a holy resort to a concentrated form of study of a chosen scripture. It may be even two or three texts it does not matter which will become the object of ones daily concentration and meditation, because what is known as svadhyaya,or Self-study, or holy study, or sacred study is a form of meditation itself in a little diffused form.
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Samdhisiddhi varapraidhnt (II.45): The mind gets inclined to samadhi by the love of God. There is an inclination of our entire being to self-absorption, due to the daily adoration of God. Inasmuch as God is universal omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent a surrender of oneself to God, a daily adoration of God, a worship of God, and a daily thought and feeling and will directed to God will naturally compel the mind to adopt characters which are of the nature of this ideal. There will be, therefore, a mood generated in the mind to sink into itself, rather than move out of itself. Distractions will cease. The contemplation on the nature of the All-pervading Being is supposed to be the best form of meditation, inclusive of every other means. All objects of meditation are comprehended here, included here. This is the ocean of all things.
If only we can direct the mind to All-Being, the supreme nature of the Almighty, there would be no need of searching for objects of meditation. Everything is here. The result that follows is a resting of the mind in itself, inasmuch as the omnipresence of God prevents the mind from going to objects of sense. That is the first stroke which the contemplation of universality deals to the cravings of sense. The deep feeling for God, Who is everywhere, is an antidote to the restlessness of the senses which ask for things outside. A daily hammering into the mind of the idea of all-existence, omnipresence, will not only withdraw the senses from their objects, energise them and bring joy to them, but will also turn the mind inward and make it visualise the cause of its activities, the purpose of its movements, and its ultimate intentions. Thus, the yoga sutra tells us that Isvara pranidhana, or surrender of oneself to God, is an ultimate method and, finally, it must be regarded as the best of all methods of concentration, meditation and Self-absorption.
1.07 - Savitri, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
The earliest extant draft of Savitri is in an exercise book that came from Madras to Pondicherry evidently in the early years of Sri Aurobindo's stay in Pondicherry, years in which his habit of writing the English e like the Greek persisted. This copy appears to have been made from some version already with him, which is lost to us. The draft exists in two sections. The first comprising Book I and a few pages of Book II are in ink which has become brown now. The second is in light greenish-blue ink. Some corrections in this ink occur in the first section. Both the sections have been revised in places in darker blue ink with a thicker nib. The revisions are clear in some places, but unclear and inconclusive in others. Book I is complete. Book II unfinished. The spelling of the three chief characters is: Savithri, Uswapathy, Suthyavan. In the first Book, after a short description of Night and Dawn, there is a very brief account of the Yoga done by Uswapathy, then Savithri is born, grows up and goes out, at Uswapathy's prompting, to find her mate. She finds Suthyavan. In the meantime Narad comes down to earth and visits Uswapathy's palace. There is a talk between the two; Savithri returns from her quest and discovery, and a talk takes place among the three. The opening lines of this earliest draft run:
In a huge forest where the listening Night
1.08 - The Depths of the Divine, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
And those persons through whom the soul shines, through whom the "soul has its way," are not therefore weak characters, timid personalities, meek presences among us. They are personal plus, not personal minus. Precisely because they are no longer exclusively identified with the individual personality, and yet because they still preserve the personality, then through that personality flows the force and fire of the soul. They may be soft-spoken and often remain in silence, but it is a thunderous silence that veritably drowns out the egos chattering loudly all around them. Or they may be animated and very outgoing, but their dynamism is magnetic, and people are drawn somehow to the presence, fascinated. Make no mistake: these are strong characters, these souls, sometimes wildly exaggerated characters, sometimes world-historical, precisely because their personalities are plugged into a universal source that rumbles through their veins and rudely rattles those around them.
I believe, for example, that it was precisely this fire and force that allowed Emerson, more than any other person in American history, to actually define the intellectual character of America itself. One of his essays, "The American Scholar," had, as one historian put it, "an influence greater than that of any single work in the nineteenth century."
1.094 - Understanding the Structure of Things, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
The object that we see with the eyes, for instance, is therefore, on a deeper probe, revealed to be an index of a condition which is cosmical in nature. It is not isolated as it appears. The vast prakriti, being universal in its operations, focuses itself on a pinpoint in the form of an object of sense. And every object has the background of a universal pressure which prakriti exerts at any given moment of time. This pressure is exerted by prakriti on any object, whatever be the shape of that object. The different characters exhibited by different objects do not in any way mean a difference in the nature of the pressure exerted by prakriti on these objects. It has a uniform pressure communicated to everything and anything, and that pressure is the pattern which prakriti wants to maintain in the form of this manifested universe. That is called the laksana.
As it was mentioned previously, this universe is only one of the forms which prakriti can take. In every kalpa, or age-cycle, the form of the universe changes. Kalpa means a cycle of time beginning with the manifestation of the universe and ending with its dissolution, or pralaya. Between the kalpas is a condition of equipoise called samyavastha which contains the potentialities for creation of the next kalpa. In every kalpa, prakriti takes a particular time-form for the projection of a universe determined by the potentialities existing originally in the condition of equipoise called samyavastha. All schools of thought tell us that the nature of the universe manifested in any particular kalpa is equivalent to the requisite conditions necessary for the fulfilment of the unfulfilled desires of individuals who lay buried, unconscious, at the time of the dissolution of the world prior to this particular manifestation.
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We are all present here as human beings with different personalities. We have a body; we have a mind; we have our own individuality. Each individuality of each person sitting here is a present condition assumed by the characters of a substance of which we are made. It is not the entirety of our nature that is manifest here, because we have a past, and we also have a future. The past has been submerged by the preponderance of the forces that have become present, and similarly, the characters that are going to be manifest in the future are also put down, for the time being, by the force of the characters that are manifest in the present. There are potentialities, latent powers, potencies present in each form in you, in me, in everything which have the peculiarity in them of releasing only certain particular features at a particular time, and pressing down, not allowing to manifest, other features which are not required to manifest at that time. These features which are not manifest may be either past or future. This is a very strange thing, and is also something very terrible.
What the sutra intends to tell us is that it is stupid on the part of any person to imagine that he is this personality which is manifest now at the present moment. He or she, as appearing now at the present moment, is only one feature that is manifest by the potentialities that are inside. There are so many potentialities which are yet to be manifested in the future. We will become another person altogether after some time, and we will be thinking that we are another person this person has gone. We were another person in the past, we are one thing now in the present, and we will be some third thing in the future. So, to which form are we going to be attached? Or, to put it more concretely, do we know what we were in our previous birth? Man, woman, king or beggar, rich or poor, tall or short, from the West or the East what were we? Nobody can say anything. We were something quite different from what we are today. We have completely ignored that which we were in the past, and now we are clinging to that which we are at present. How is it that we have completely ignored what we were in the past? We were clinging to that, once upon a time, as our real personality. How is it that we have completely forgotten that and now we are fixing our attention on something which is present? And do we know what we will be in our future? Nobody knows. We will be something else, and afterwards we will cling to that, forgetting the present.
1.096 - Powers that Accrue in the Practice, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Thus, this grahsya samapatti, or the mastery one acquires over the object, brings such powers as these. Incidentally, it has a result on the body of the person also. There is a perfection that follows in respect of ones own body, which is described in another sutra: rpa lvaya bala vajra sahananatvni kyasapat (III.47). It appears that one becomes very handsome in ones personality, beautiful in complexion, radiant in the skin, and so on; these are qualities described. Apart from that, great strength follows. One becomes vajrasamhana adamantine in ones energy so that one will become indefatigable and unapproachable by the forces of nature. These perfections of the body are subsidiary consequences that follow the mastery one gains over the elements. The third result that follows, as the sutra tells us, is that the elements do not any more obstruct the person. We will not sink into water, or get burnt by fire, etc. These are the non-obstructing characters revealed by the elements. One can pierce through a wall and pass through it, by the entry of the subtle body through these apparently gross objects. The non-obstructive character of the elements in respect of the yogi is the third aspect.
These are, generally speaking, the objective powers that one gains. The subjective powers are mastery over the senses and the mind. Just as there are five aspects mentioned in connection with the control of the elements, five aspects are also mentioned in respect of the control of the senses. Grahaa svarpa asmit anvaya arthavattva sayamt indriyajaya (III.48). The senses can be controlled if we can understand their structure. Just as the five gradations of the manifestation of prakriti through the elements were mentioned, similar gradations are mentioned in respect of the senses.
1.097 - Sublimation of Object-Consciousness, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
There is a total disparity of character between the pure state of the purusha and the conditions of ordinary perception through the mind. In other words, there is a great difference between the status of consciousness in the state of the pure purusha and the condition of consciousness in ordinary world awareness. The present state of our mind is quite different and utterly opposed to the state of consciousness expected in the state of the purusha, or the Ultimate Subject. It is difficult to conceive the nature of the two types of awareness and, therefore, we cannot understand what the difference is. Even the best of minds can fumble here on account of a subtle desire to transpose the characters of world perception to spiritual consciousness.
Spiritual consciousness is different from world perception, but many people do not understand this. They are, again and again, brought to the wrong conviction by the habits of the mind that, somehow or other, the conditions of world experience will persist even in God-consciousness. This is exactly what is denied in this sutra. World experience is different in character from spiritual experience, and those conditions which are necessary to rouse a spiritual experience in oneself are to be acquired before a meditation in this direction can be attempted.
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The sutra which I stated just now is a precise statement of the conditions of spiritual meditation. What the sutra literally means is: sattva and the purusha namely, the mind and the ultimate consciousness, purusha are opposed to each other in their characters. In what way are they opposed? That is not mentioned here. We have to understand what this difference is by studying the meaning of the implications provided in other sutras. The purusha is infinite, whereas the mind is externalised. This is the primary distinction. The mind cannot have infinite awareness. It is always projected outwardly through the senses, whereas the purusha is eternally aware of an infinitude of being. This is a great difference indeed.
Further, in certain other sutras we will be told as to what the differences are between purusha-consciousness and mind-consciousness, or object-consciousness, or world-consciousness, as we may call them. Externality and eternity cannot go together; they are different intrinsically. Eternity is not externality. Though linguistically we are able to understand what this difference is, the mind cannot comprehend the meaning of this. The externality that is the character of mind perception, or any kind of world perception, is involved in a time process, which is what is called duration a passage or a movement of time whereas there is no such passage or duration in eternity. It is an eternal now, a word with which we are familiar but which meaning is not clear to us.
1.099 - The Entry of the Eternal into the Individual, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
To sum up the teaching of these two sutras cited just now, the present state of existence of a human individual is unnatural, and we should not make the mistake of thinking that we are living a normal life. Our present way of life is abnormal in the sense that it does not harmonise with what eternally exists. The temporal features that we are manifesting in our personal lives are the opposites of the eternal features of prakriti. Hence, yoga is an instrumental agent in bringing about conditions by which there is a spontaneity of entry of eternal laws into our personality. And in this process of the entry of the eternal characters of prakriti into us, we develop various powers. Thus, the powers, or siddhis, are nothing but experiences which are incumbent upon our gradual proximity to the ultimate nature of prakriti. This is what the sutra tells us.
1.10 - BOOK THE TENTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
Ai, Ai, inscrib'd in funeral characters.
Nor are the Spartans, who so much are fam'd
11.15 - Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Such then are the stages in the progression of consciousness; they are clearly observable and admitted practically on all hands. Only Sri Aurobindo points out two crucial characters of this movement. First: Matter, Life, Mind-Intelligence these are not distinct or separate entities, one coming after another, the succeeding one simply adding itself to the preceding, coming we do now know from where. Not so, for something cannot come out of nothing. If life came out of Matter, it is because life was there hidden in Matter, Matter was secretly housing, was instinct with life. That only can evolve which was involved. So, again, if Mind came out of life, it is because Mind was involved in life and therefore also in Matter although at a farther remove. Yet again, vital mind developed into Intelligence and consciousness proper, and it could be only because that too was its secret nature and hence the secret nature of Life and even brute Matter. Thus the whole chain of gradation is linked together indissolubly and the binding reality that runs through all is consciousness, overt or covert. It is indeed consciousness that lies at the root of existence the basic substance, Matter is nothing but consciousness become unconscious; and the whole scheme or processus of the cosmos is the increasing manifestation and expression of that consciousness. Secondly, the other character is that at each cross-over, there is not only a rise in consciousness but also a reversal of consciousness, that is to say, the level attained turns back upon the preceding levels, influencing and moulding them as far as possible in its own mode and law of existence. When life appeared in Matter, wherever there was material life, the matter thus taken up by life behaved differently from dead matter: an organic body does not follow the strict mechanical laws of inanimate bodies. Likewise a life endowed with mind has a different functioning than mere life. And a body which houses a life and mind, which has, as it were, flowered into life and mind moves and acts in another way than an inert body or even a vitalised body. Man's intelligence and reason have reoriented or tend to reorient his vital instincts and reactions, even his bodily functions and forms. A conscious regulation, even refashioning of his life and body is the very essence of human consciousness, the urge of his nature, instead of a spontaneous laissez-faire movement of pure vitality or the mechanical go-round of the material base. These three major provinces or layers of consciousness Matter, Life and Mindman has taken up into himself and in the light of his consciousness his Intelligencehas studied and classified them arranging them serially as the well-known sciences of Physics Biology and Psychology.
Now, Sri Aurobindo says, evolution marches onward and will rise beyond mind to another status of consciousness which he calls Supermind. In the earthly scheme there will thus manifest a new type, a higher functioning of consciousness and a new race or species will appear on earth with this new consciousness as the ruling principle. Out of the rock and mineral came the plant, out of the plant the animal, out of the mere animal man has come and out of man the Superman will come inevitably.
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It may not be out of place here just to mention a few characters proper to this supramental over-border consciousness. First of all, it is the seat and organon of complete knowledge: knowledge here is not the result of the deductive and inductive process of reason, it does not balance pros and cons and out of uncertain possibilities strike out an average probability: it is direct, straight, immediate, certain and absolute. Knowledge here comes by identity the knower and the known are one and what is known is therefore self-knowledge, Secondly, the will too is not an effort or striving and struggling, but the spontaneous expression of the self-power of the consciousness; willing means achieving, one wills the inevitable truth for, knowledge and will too are one. Thirdly, it is the status of perfect delight, for one has passed beyond the vale of tears and entered the peace that passeth understanding, one has found that Joy is the source of creation and the truth of existence is held in Ecstasy.
It is in other words at bottom the Vedantic status of Sat-chit-ananda (perfect Being, Consciousness-energy and Beatitude), but individualised serving as the basic reality of the world-life and existence: it is this that seeks to manifest and embody itself in its own dharmasupreme lawin and through the physical forms and modes of that life and existence. Beyond this it is not possible here to enter into the further mysteries of the Arcanum.
1.11 - The Change of Power, #On the Way to Supermanhood, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
For a long time now the seeker has got rid of the mental machinery. He has also brought order to the vital machinery. And if old desires, wills or reactions still come to muddy his clearing, they are rather on the order of a motion-picture images projected onto a screen, out of habit, but without real substance. The seeker has lost the habit of sitting in the screen and identifying with the characters he looks; he is clear; he observes everything; he is centered in his fire which dissipates all those clouds. From then on, another level of entanglement comes more and more to light, another degree of the machine (this is truly a path of descent): a material, subconscious mechanism. But so long as he is not clear, he sees nothing; he cannot unravel those threads which are so intertwined with his habitual activities, and mentalized like all the rest, that they make up an altogether natural web. This material, subconscious mechanism then becomes extremely concrete, like the whirlings of the goldfish in its glass bowl. But let us emphasize that this is not the subconscious small fry of the psychoanalysts those fry belong to the mental bubble; they are merely the reverse of the little surface fellow, the action of his reactions, the knot of his desires, the constriction of his nurtured smallness, the past of his old little story inside a bubble, the goat tether of his small separate ego tied to the social and familial and religious stake, and the countless stakes that tie men inside a bubble. And we strongly suspect that those dreamers simply go on dreaming inside a psychoanalytical bubble, the way others dream inside a religious one of hells and paradises that exist only in man's mental imagination. But, as long as one is inside the bubble, it is implacable and irrefutable; its hells are real hells, its filth real filth, and one is the prisoner of a little bright or dark cloud. So let us say, in passing, that one does not free oneself from the mud by digging in the mud and unwholesomely plowing up the byways of the frontal fellow (one might as well take a bath in dirty water to get clean), one does not free oneself from the bubble by the lights of the bubble, or from evil by a good that is only its reverse, but by a something else that is not of the bubble: a very simple little fire within and everywhere, which is the key to freedom, all freedoms, and to the world.
This subconscious resistance is very difficult to describe. It has a thousand faces, as many as there are individuals, and for each the color is different, the syndrome, so to say, is different. Each one of us has his particular drama, with its staging, preferred situations, puppetry of Grand Guignol. But it is one and the same puppet show under all colors, one and the same story behind all the words and the same resistance everywhere. It is the resistance, the point that says no. It does not reveal itself immediately; it is elusive, cunning. In fact, we really believe it loves drama. It is its raison d'tre and the salt of its life, and, if it no longer had any drama to grind out, it would make up some it is the dramatist of all excellence. It is perhaps even the great dramatist of all this chaotic and painful life that we see. But each of us harbors his little man of the big man of sorrow,27 as Sri Aurobindo used to call him. The drama of the world will stop when we begin to put a stop to our own little drama. But the clever puppet slips between our fingers. Driven off the mental stage where it ran its explanatory and questioning machinery it is a tireless questioner; it asks questions for the pleasure of asking, and if all its questions were answered, it would come up with more, for it is also a great doubter ousted from the mind, it sinks down one degree further to play its number on the vital stage. There it is on more solid ground. (The further it descends, the stronger it becomes, and all the way down at the bottom, it is the very image of strength, the knot par excellence, the irreducible point, the absolute NO.) We are all more or less familiar with its tricks on the vital stage: its great game of passion and desire, sympathy and antipathy, hate and love but in fact they are the two faces of the same food, and it savors evil as much as good, suffering as much as joy; it is just a way of swallowing in one direction or another. Even charity and philanthropy serves its purpose. It grows fatter either way. The more virtuous it is, the harder it is. Idealism and patriotism, sacred or less sacred causes are its clever victuals. It has mastered the art of dressing itself in superb motives; it can be found at the parties of charity volunteers and Peace conferences but of course Peace never comes, for if by some miracle Peace ever came, or the eradication of all poverty on earth, what would it do for a living? Driven off that stage, it sinks one degree lower and disappears into the dungeons of the subconscious. Not for long. There it begins to become clear, so to say, and show its real face. It has grown very small, very hard, a sort of grinning caricature: the grisly Elf, as Sri Aurobindo calls it.
1.14 - The Limits of Philosophical Knowledge, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
It follows that we cannot prove that the universe as a whole forms a single harmonious system such as Hegel believes that it forms. And if we cannot prove this, we also cannot prove the unreality of space and time and matter and evil, for this is deduced by Hegel from the fragmentary and relational character of these things. Thus we are left to the piecemeal investigation of the world, and are unable to know the characters of those parts of the universe that are remote from our experience. This result, disappointing as it is to those whose hopes have been raised by the systems of philosophers, is in harmony with the inductive and scientific temper of our age, and is borne out by the whole examination of human knowledge which has occupied our previous chapters.
Most of the great ambitious attempts of metaphysicians have proceeded by the attempt to prove that such and such apparent features of the actual world were self-contradictory, and therefore could not be real. The whole tendency of modern thought, however, is more and more in the direction of showing that the supposed contradictions were illusory, and that very little can be proved _a priori_ from considerations of what
1.15 - The Value of Philosophy, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
One way of escape is by philosophic contemplation. Philosophic contemplation does not, in its widest survey, divide the universe into two hostile camps--friends and foes, helpful and hostile, good and bad--it views the whole impartially. Philosophic contemplation, when it is unalloyed, does not aim at proving that the rest of the universe is akin to man. All acquisition of knowledge is an enlargement of the Self, but this enlargement is best attained when it is not directly sought. It is obtained when the desire for knowledge is alone operative, by a study which does not wish in advance that its objects should have this or that character, but adapts the Self to the characters which it finds in its objects. This enlargement of Self is not obtained when, taking the Self as it is, we try to show that the world is so similar to this Self that knowledge of it is possible without any admission of what seems alien.
The desire to prove this is a form of self-assertion and, like all self-assertion, it is an obstacle to the growth of Self which it desires, and of which the Self knows that it is capable. Self-assertion, in philosophic speculation as elsewhere, views the world as a means to its own ends; thus it makes the world of less account than Self, and the
1.15 - The world overrun with trees; they are destroyed by the Pracetasas, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
The world overrun with trees: they are destroyed by the Pracetasas. Soma pacifies them, and gives them Māṛṣā to wife: her story: the daughter of the nymph Pramlocā. Legend of Kaṇḍu. Māṛṣā's former history. Dakṣa the son of the Pracetasas: his different characters: his sons: his daughters: their marriages and progeny: allusion to Prahlāda, his descendant.
WHILST the Pracetasas were thus absorbed in their devotions, the trees spread and overshadowed the unprotected earth, and the people perished: the winds could not blow; the sky was shut out by the forests; and mankind was unable to labour for ten thousand years. When the sages, coming forth from the deep, beheld this, they were angry, and, being incensed, wind and flame issued from their mouths. The strong wind tore up the trees by their roots, and left them sear and dry, and the fierce fire consumed them, and the forests were cleared away. When Soma (the moon), the sovereign of the vegetable world, beheld all except a few of the trees destroyed, he went to the patriarchs, the Pracetasas, and said, "Restrain your indignation, princes, and listen to me. I will form an alliance between you and the trees. Prescient of futurity, I have nourished with my rays this precious maiden, the daughter of the woods. She is called Māṛṣā, and is assuredly the offspring of the trees. She shall be your bride, and the multiplier of the race of Dhruva. From a portion of your lustre and a portion of mine, oh mighty sages, the patriarch Dakṣa shall be born of her, who, endowed with a part of me, and composed of your vigour, shall be as resplendent as fire, and shall multiply the human race.
1.16 - (Plot continued.) Recognition its various kinds, with examples, #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
I lose my own life.' So too in the Phineidae: the women, on seeing the place, inferred their fate:--'Here we are doomed to die, for here we were cast forth.' Again, there is a composite kind of recognition involving false inference on the part of one of the characters, as in the Odysseus Disguised as a Messenger. A saidrecognise the bow which, in fact, he had not seen; and to bring about a recognition by this means that the expectation A would recognise the bow is false inference.
But, of all recognitions, the best is that which arises from the incidents themselves, where the startling discovery is made by natural means. Such is that in the Oedipus of Sophocles, and in the Iphigenia; for it was natural that Iphigenia should wish to dispatch a letter.
1.16 - The Process of Avatarhood, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is this truth which lies behind the natural human tendency to the deification of great minds and heroic characters; it comes out clearly enough in the Indian habit of mind which easily sees a partial (amsa) Avatar in great saints, teachers, founders, or most significantly in the belief of southern Vaishnavas that some of their saints were incarnations of the symbolic living weapons of Vishnu, - for that is what all great spirits are, living powers and weapons of the Divine in the upward march and battle. This idea is innate and inevitable in any mystic or spiritual view of life which does not draw an inexorable line between the being and nature of the Divine and our human being and nature; it is the sense of the divine in humanity. But still the Vibhuti is not the Avatar; otherwise Arjuna, Vyasa, Ushanas would be Avatars as well as Krishna, even if in a less degree of the power of
Avatarhood. The divine quality is not enough; there must be the inner consciousness of the Lord and Self governing the human nature by his divine presence. The heightening of the power of the qualities is part of the becoming, bhutagrama, an ascent in the ordinary manifestation; in the Avatar there is the special manifestation, the divine birth from above, the eternal and universal Godhead descended into a form of individual humanity, atmanam sr.jami, and conscious not only behind the veil but in the outward nature.
1.17 - Practical rules for the Tragic Poet., #Poetics, #Aristotle, #Philosophy
Again, the poet should work out his play, to the best of his power, with appropriate gestures; for those who feel emotion are most convincing through natural sympathy with the characters they represent; and one who is agitated storms, one who is angry rages, with the most life-like reality. Hence poetry implies either a happy gift of nature or a strain of madness. In the one case a man can take the mould of any character; in the other, he is lifted out of his proper self.
As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready made or constructs it for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in the episodes and amplify in detail. The general plan may be illustrated by the Iphigenia. A young girl is sacrificed; she disappears mysteriously from the eyes of those who sacrificed her; She is transported to another country, where the custom is to offer up all strangers to the goddess. To this ministry she is appointed. Some time later her own brother chances to arrive. The fact that the oracle for some reason ordered him to go there, is outside the general plan of the play. The purpose, again, of his coming is outside the action proper.
1.20 - Tabooed Persons, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
human gods and other dangerous characters. Thus when the Maoris went
out on the war-path they were sacred or taboo in the highest degree,
1.21 - Families of the Daityas, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
ga, Agni, Padma, and Vāyu Purāṇas agree generally with our text in the description of Kaśyapa's wives and progeny. The Vāyu enters most into details, and contains very long catalogues of the names of the different characters descended from the sage. The Padma and Matsya and the Hari Vaṃśa repeat the story, but admit several variations, some of which have been adverted to in the preceding notes.
[23]: We have a considerable variation here in the commentary, and it may be doubted if the allusion in the text is accurately explained by either of the versions. In one it is said that 'Brahmā, the grandsire of p. 151 the Gandharvas, &c., appointed the seven Ṛṣis, who were born in a former Manvantara, to be his sons, or to be the intermediate agents in creation: he created no other beings himself, being engrossed by the sacrificial ceremony.' Instead of "putratwe," 'in the state of sons,' the reading is sometimes "pitratwe," 'in the character of fathers;' that is, to all other beings. Thus the gods and the rest, who in a former Manvantara originated from Kaśyapa, were created in the present period as the offspring of the seven Ṛṣis. The other explanation agrees with the preceding in ascribing the birth of all creatures to the intermediate agency of the seven Ṛṣis, but calls them the actual sons of Brahmā, begotten at the sacrifice of Vanilla, in the sacrificial fire. The authority for the story is not given, beyond its being in other Purāṇas, it has the air of a modern mystification. The latter member of the passage is separated altogether from the foregoing, and carried on to what follows: thus; "In the war of the Gandharvas, serpents, gods, and demons, Diti having lost her children," &c.; the word 'virodha' being understood, it is said, This is defended by the authority of the Hari Vaṃśa, where the passage occurs word for word, except in the last half stanza, which, instead of ### occurs ###. The parallel passages are thus rendered by M. Langlois: 'Le Mouni Swarotchicha avoit cessé de régner quand cette création eut lieu: c'était sous l'empire du Menou Vevaswata le sacrifice de Varouna avait commencé. La première création fut celle de Brahmā, quand il jugea qu'il était temps de procéder à son sacrifice, et que, souverain aïeul du monde, il forma lui-meme dans sa pensée et enfanta les sept Brahmarchis.'
1.21 - The Spiritual Aim and Life, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The same law holds good in Art; the aesthetic being of man rises similarly on its own curve towards its diviner possibilities. The highest aim of the aesthetic being is to find the Divine through beauty; the highest Art is that which by an inspired use of significant and interpretative form unseals the doors of the spirit. But in order that it may come to do this greatest thing largely and sincerely, it must first endeavour to see and depict man and Nature and life for their own sake, in their own characteristic truth and beauty; for behind these first characters lies always the beauty of the Divine in life and man and Nature and it is through their just transformation that what was at first veiled by them has to be revealed. The dogma that Art must be religious or not be at all, is a false dogma, just as is the claim that it must be subservient to ethics or utility or scientific truth or philosophic ideas. Art may make use of these things as elements, but it has its own svadharma, essential law, and it will rise to the widest spirituality by following out its own natural lines with no other yoke than the intimate law of its own being.
Even with the lower nature of man, though here we are naturally led to suppose that compulsion is the only remedy, the spiritual aim will seek for a free self-rule and development from within rather than a repression of his dynamic and vital being from without. All experience shows that man must be given a certain freedom to stumble in action as well as to err in knowledge so long as he does not get from within himself his freedom from wrong movement and error; otherwise he cannot grow. Society for its own sake has to coerce the dynamic and vital man, but coercion only chains up the devil and alters at best his form of action into more mitigated and civilised movements; it does not and cannot eliminate him. The real virtue of the dynamic and vital being, the Life Purusha, can only come by his finding a higher law and spirit for his activity within himself; to give him that, to illuminate and transform and not to destroy his impulse is the true spiritual means of regeneration.
1.28 - Supermind, Mind and the Overmind Maya, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
15:Yet, as in our subliminal or inner Mind, so in this Mind also a larger power of communication and mutuality still remains, a freer play of mentality and sense than human mind possesses, and the Ignorance is not complete; a conscious harmony, an interdependent organisation of right relations is more possible: mind is not yet perturbed by blind Life forces or obscured by irresponsive Matter. It is a plane of Ignorance, but not yet of falsehood or error, - or at least the lapse into falsehood and error is not yet inevitable; this Ignorance is limitative, but not necessarily falsificative. There is limitation of knowledge, an organisation of partial truths, but not a denial or opposite of truth or knowledge. This character of an organisation of partial truths on a basis of separative knowledge persists in Life and subtle Matter, for the exclusive concentration of Consciousness-Force which puts them into separative action does not entirely sever or veil Mind from Life or Mind and Life from Matter. The complete separation can take place only when the stage of Inconscience has been reached and our world of manifold Ignorance arises out of that tenebrous matrix. These other still conscient stages of the involution are indeed organisations of Conscious Force in which each lives from his own centre, follows out his own possibilities, and the predominant principle itself, whether Mind, Life or Matter, works out things on its own independent basis; but what is worked out are truths of itself, not illusions or a tangle of truth and falsehood, knowledge and ignorance. But when by an exclusive concentration on Force and Form Consciousness-Force seems phenomenally to separate Consciousness from Force, or when it absorbs Consciousness in a blind sleep lost in Form and Force, then Consciousness has to struggle back to itself by a fragmentary evolution which necessitates error and makes falsehood inevitable. Nevertheless, these things too are not illusions that have sprung out of an original Non-Existence; they are, we might say, the unavoidable truths of a world born out of Inconscience. For the Ignorance is still in reality a knowledge seeking for itself behind the original mask of Inconscience; it misses and finds; its results, natural and even inevitable on their own line, are the true consequence of the lapse, - in a way, even, the right working of the recovery from the lapse. Existence plunging into an apparent Non-Existence, Consciousness into an apparent Inconscience, Delight of existence into a vast cosmic insensibility are the first result of the fall and, in the return from it by a struggling fragmentary experience, the rendering of Consciousness into the dual terms of truth and falsehood, knowledge and error, of Existence into the dual terms of life and death, of Delight of existence into the dual terms of pain and pleasure are the necessary process of the labour of self-discovery. A pure experience of Truth, Knowledge, Delight, imperishable existence would here be itself a contradiction of the truth of things. It could only be otherwise if all beings in the evolution were quiescently responsive to the psychic element within them and to the Supermind underlying Nature's operations; but here there comes in the Overmind law of each Force working out its own possibilities. The natural possibilities of a world in which an original Inconscience and a division of consciousness are the main principles, would be the emergence of Forces of Darkness impelled to maintain the Ignorance by which they live, an ignorant struggle to know originative of falsehood and error, an ignorant struggle to live engendering wrong and evil, an egoistic struggle to enjoy, parent of fragmentary joys and pains and sufferings; these are therefore the inevitable first-imprinted characters, though not the sole possibilities of our evolutionary existence. Still, because the Non-Existence is a concealed Existence, the Inconscience a concealed Consciousness, the insensibility a masked and dormant Ananda, these secret realities must emerge; the hidden Overmind and Supermind too must in the end fulfil themselves in this apparently opposite organisation from a dark Infinite.
16:Two things render that culmination more facile than it would otherwise be. Overmind in the descent towards material creation has originated modifications of itself, - Intuition especially with its penetrative lightning flashes of truth lighting up local points and stretches of country in our consciousness, - which can bring the concealed truth of things nearer to our comprehension, and, by opening ourselves more widely first in the inner being and then as a result in the outer surface self also to the messages of these higher ranges of consciousness, by growing into them, we can become ourselves also intuitive and overmental beings, not limited by the intellect and sense, but capable of a more universal comprehension and a direct touch of truth in its very self and body. In fact flashes of enlightenment from these higher ranges already come to us, but this intervention is mostly fragmentary, casual or partial; we have still to begin to enlarge ourselves into their likeness and organise in us the greater Truth activities of which we are potentially capable. But, secondly, Overmind, Intuition, even Supermind not only must be, as we have seen, principles inherent and involved in the Inconscience from which we arise in the evolution and inevitably destined to evolve, but are secretly present, occult actively with flashes of intuitive emergence in the cosmic activity of Mind, Life and Matter. It is true that their action is concealed and, even when they emerge, it is modified by the medium, material, vital, mental in which they work and not easily recognisable. Supermind cannot manifest itself as the Creator Power in the universe from the beginning, for if it did, the Ignorance and Inconscience would be impossible or else the slow evolution necessary would change into a rapid transformation scene. Yet at every step of the material energy we can see the stamp of inevitability given by a supramental creator, in all the development of life and mind the play of the lines of possibility and their combination which is the stamp of Overmind intervention. As Life and Mind have been released in Matter, so too must in their time these greater powers of the concealed Godhead emerge from the involution and their supreme Light descend into us from above.
1.28 - The Killing of the Tree-Spirit, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
green, and each of the characters makes a speech in rhyme. The
executioner announces that the leaf-clad man has been condemned to
--
by a judge, an executioner, and other characters, and followed by a
train of soldiers, all mounted, he rides to the village square,
1.31 - Adonis in Cyprus, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
Carthage; the characters of the inscription are of the earliest
type. As the custom of religious prostitution at Paphos is said to
1.42 - This Self Introversion, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
We must add Malkuth as the medium which crystallizes the characters of our respective "Selves."
This is all horribly, hatefully difficult to put into words; there is bound to be misunderstanding, however cleverly I concoct the potion. But we understand pretty well for all that, at least so far as is necessary for most practical purposes.
1.45 - The Corn-Mother and the Corn-Maiden in Northern Europe, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
Dionysus; and their individual characters and histories are fixed by
current myths and the representations of art.
--
but their individual histories and characters are not the subject of
myths. For they exist in classes rather than as individuals, and the
1.58 - Human Scapegoats in Classical Antiquity, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
sarcophagus bearing a Greek inscription, in characters of the age of
Justinian, to the following effect: "Here lies the holy martyr
1.69 - Farewell to Nemi, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
does *not* contain characters other than those
intended by the author of the work, although tilde
(~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
be used to convey punctuation intended by the
author, and additional characters may be used to
indicate hypertext links; OR
1.78 - Sore Spots, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Here is a case in point from recent experience. In my play "The Three Wishes" one of the characters is a rich selfish woman who has exhausted every source of vicious pleasure. In here abject despair her last resource is addiction to morphine.
I gave the play to an actor, a man of the highest intelligence and the broadest views on life; he said that I could not hope to get a play licensed if it dealt with drugs, unless as a warning against their abuse which is exactly what the play imports. The mere mention of morphine had so disturbed his judgement that he failed to realize that fact.
1954-07-28 - Money - Ego and individuality - The shadow, #Questions And Answers 1954, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Some days ago I received a letter from someone who told me that he was very hesitant about reading books of ordinary literatures, for example, novels or dramas, because his nature had an almost insuperable tendency to receive imprints of the characters in these books and to begin living the feelings and thoughts of these characters, the nature of these persons. There are many more people than one would think who are like that. They read a book and while they are reading it they feel within themselves all kinds of emotions, thoughts, desires, intentions, plans, even ideals. They are simply just absorbed in the reading of the book. They are not even aware of it, because at least ninety-nine parts of an individuals character are made of soft butterinedible of course but on which if one presses ones thumb, an imprint is made.
Now, everything is a thumb: an expressed thought, a sentence read, an object looked at, an observation of what someone else does, and of ones neighbours will. And all these wills you know, when one sees them they are all there, like this, intermingled (Mother intercrosses her fingers), each one trying to get the uppermost and causing a kind of perpetual conflict within, outside It goes in and out of people like that, you see, like electric currents. One is not at all aware of all this, and it is a perpetual conflict of all the wills which are trying to express themselves; and the strongest one will succeed. But as there are many of these and as one has to fight alone against a great number, it is not easy.
1955-09-21 - Literature and the taste for forms - The characters of The Great Secret - How literature helps us to progress - Reading to learn - The commercial mentality - How to choose ones books - Learning to enrich ones possibilities ..., #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
object:1955-09-21 - Literature and the taste for forms - The characters of The Great Secret - How literature helps us to progress - Reading to learn - The commercial mentality - How to choose ones books - Learning to enrich ones possibilities ...
class:chapter
--
You see, there is no excuse for reading any odd novels except when they are remarkably written and you want to learn the languageif they are written either in your own language or in another one and you want to study this language, then you may read anything at all provided that it is well written. Its not what is said thats interesting, its the way of saying it. And so the way to read it is exactly to be concerned only with the way it has been said, and not with what is said, which is uninteresting. Only, for instance, in a book, there are always descriptions; well, you see how these descriptions are made and how the author has chosen the words to express things. And for ideas it is the same thing: how he has made his characters speak; you take no interest in what they say but in how they say it. If you take certain books like study books, to learn just how to write sentences well and express things as you should, because these books are very well written, what the story is has not much importance. But if you start reading books for what they narrate, then in that case you must be much stricter and not take things which darken your consciousness, because thats a waste of time; its worse than a waste of time. So, things like vulgar stories which are written in a vulgar way, about these, you see, theres no longer any question. These things you should never touch. And yet this is the currency which circulates everywhere, above all in our times, it seems, because men have invented methods for cheap printing, for making cheap illustrations. So they flood the country and all other countries with worthless literature, which is badly written, ill-conceived, and which expresses vulgar things and coarsens you with vulgar ideas and completely spoils your taste through vulgar pictures. All this happens because from the point of view of production they succeed in making things very cheap, what are called popular editions accessible to all. But as the aim of these people is not at all either to educate or to help men to progress, far from thatthey hope on the contrary that people dont progress, because if they did they would no longer buy their waresso their intention is to make money at the expense of those who read their literature, and so the more it sells, the better it is. It may be frightful, but its very good if it sells well. Its the same thing with art, the same thing with music, the same thing with drama.
The latest scientific discoveries, applied to life, have put within the reach of everyone all kinds of things which formerly were reserved only for the intellectual and artistic lite; and to justify their effort and profit by their work, they have made things which can sell most, that is, the lowest, most ordinary, most vulgar things, the easiest to understand because they require no effort and no education. And the whole world is drowned under these things, to such an extent that when theres someone who has written a good book or a fine play, there is no longer any place for him anywhere, because the whole place has been taken up by these things.
1956-05-02 - Threefold union - Manifestation of the Supramental - Profiting from the Divine - Recognition of the Supramental Force - Ascent, descent, manifestation, #Questions And Answers 1956, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the constant miracle of the intervention of forces which changes circumstances and characters and has a very widespread result, this they do not call a miracle, for only the mere appearance is seen and this seems quite natural. But, truly speaking, if you were to reflect upon the least little thing that happens, you would be obliged to acknowledge that it is miraculous.
It is simply because you dont reflect upon it that you take things as they are, for what they are, without questioning; otherwise every day you would have any number of occasions to tell yourself, Really, but this is quite astonishing! How did it happen?
1957-07-24 - The involved supermind - The new world and the old - Will for progress indispensable, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life. It is indeed so that life and mind involved in Matter have realised themselves here; for only what is involved can evolve, otherwise there could be no emergence.
The Supramental Manifestation, SABCL, Vol. 16, p. 43
1958-02-05 - The great voyage of the Supreme - Freedom and determinism, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The metaphysical objection [to a teleological cosmos] is more serious; for it seems self-evident that the Absolute can have no purpose in manifestation except the delight of manifestation itself: an evolutionary movement in Matter as part of the manifestation must fall within this universal statement; it can be there only for the delight of the unfolding, the progressive execution, the objectless seried self-revelation. A universal totality may also be considered as something complete in itself; as a totality, it has nothing to gain or to add to its fullness of being. But here the material world is not an integral totality, it is part of a whole, a grade in a gradation; it may admit in it, therefore, not only the presence of undeveloped immaterial principles or powers belonging to the whole that are involved within its Matter, but also a descent into it of the same powers from the higher gradations of the system to deliver their kindred movements here from the strictness of a material limitation. A manifestation of the greater powers of Existence till the whole being itself is manifest in the material world in the terms of a higher, a spiritual creation, may be considered as the teleology of the evolution. This teleology does not bring in any factor that does not belong to the totality; it proposes only the realisation of the totality in the part. There can be no objection to the admission of a teleological factor in a part movement of the universal totality, if the purpose,not a purpose in the human sense, but the urge of an intrinsic Truth-necessity conscious in the will of the indwelling Spirit,is the perfect manifestation there of all the possibilities inherent in the total movement. All exists here, no doubt, for the delight of existence, all is a game or Lila; but a game too carries within itself an object to be accomplished and without the fulfilment of that object would have no completeness of significance. A drama without denouement may be an artistic possibility,existing only for the pleasure of watching the characters and the pleasure in problems posed without a solution or with a forever suspended dubious balance of solution; the drama of the earth evolution might conceivably be of that character, but an intended or inherently predetermined denouement is also and more convincingly possible. Ananda is the secret principle of all being and the support of all activity of being: but Ananda does not exclude a delight in the working out of a Truth inherent in being, immanent in the Force or Will of being, upheld in the hidden self-awareness of its Consciousness-Force which is the dynamic and executive agent of all its activities and the knower of their significance.
The Life Divine, SABCL, Vol. 19, pp. 834-35
1958-07-16 - Is religion a necessity?, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Religions real business is to prepare mans mind, life and bodily existence for the spiritual consciousness to take it up; it has to lead him to that point where the inner spiritual light begins fully to emerge. It is at this point that religion must learn to subordinate itself, not to insist on its outer characters, but give full scope to the inner spirit itself to develop its own truth and reality. In the meanwhile it has to take up as much of mans mentality, vitality, physicality as it can and give all his activities a turn towards the spiritual direction, the revelation of a spiritual meaning in them, the imprint of a spiritual refinement, the beginning of a spiritual character. It is in this attempt that the errors of religion come in, for they are caused by the very nature of the matter with which it is dealing,that inferior stuff invades the very forms that are meant to serve as intermediaries between the spiritual and the mental, vital or physical consciousness, and often it this attempt that lies religions greatest utility as an intercessor between spirit and nature. Truth and error live always together in the human evolution and the truth is not to be rejected because of its accompanying errors, though these have to be eliminated,often a difficult business and, if crudely done, resulting in surgical harm inflicted on the body of religion; for what we see as error is very frequently the symbol or a disguise or a corruption or malformation of a truth which is lost in the brutal radicality of the operation,the truth is cut out along with the error. Nature herself very commonly permits the good corn and the tares and weeds to grow together for a long time, because only so is her own growth, her free evolution possible.
The Life Divine, SABCL, Vol. 19, pp. 864-65
1958 11 14, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So there seems to be only one way out and that is to go in search of ones soul and to find it. It is there, it does not make a point of hiding itself, it does not play with you just to make things difficult; on the contrary, it makes great efforts to help you find it and to make itself heard. Only, between your soul and your active consciousness there are two characters who are in the habit of making a lot of noise, the mind and the vital. And because they make a lot of noise, while the soul does not, or, rather, makes as little as possible, their noise prevents you from hearing the voice of the soul.
When you want to know what your soul knows, you have to make an inner effort, to be very attentive; and indeed, if you are attentive, behind the outer noise of the mind and the vital, you can discern something very subtle, very quiet, very peaceful, which knows and says what it knows. But the insistence of the others is so imperious, while that is so quiet, that you are very easily misled into listening to the one that makes the most noise; most often you become aware only afterwards that the other one was right. It does not impose itself, it does not compel you to listen, for it is without violence.
1965 05 29, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For example, I have had the opportunity to study this. For me, circumstances, characters, all events and all beings move according to certain laws, so to say, which are not rigid, but which I can perceive and which enable me to see: this will lead to that and that will lead there, and since this person is like that, this will happen to him. It is more and more precise. Because of this, I could, if necessary, make predictions. But this relation of cause and effect in that domain is quite obvious for me and it is corroborated by the facts; for themthose who do not have this vision and consciousness of the soul, as Sri Aurobindo sayscircumstances unfold according to other superficial laws, which they consider as the natural consequences of things, completely superficial laws that do not stand up to deep analysis. But they do not have the inner capacity, so it does not worry them, it seems obvious to them.
I mean that this inner knowledge does not have the power to convince them. So that when in connection with any particular event I see: Oh, but it is quite, quite obvious for me I have seen the Force of the Lord at work here, I have seen such and such a thing happen and of course that is what is going to occur for me, it is quite obvious, but I do not say what I know, because it does not correspond to anything in their experience; to them it would sound like rambling or pretension. That is to say, when you do not have the experience yourself, another persons experience is not convincing, it cannot convince you.
1.A - ANTHROPOLOGY, THE SOUL, #Philosophy of Mind, #unset, #Zen
In recent times a good deal has been said of the cosmical, sidereal, and telluric life of man. In such a sympathy with nature the animals essentially live: their specific characters and their particular phases of growth depend, in many cases completely, and always more or less, upon it. In the case of man these points of dependence lose importance, just in proportion to his civilization, and the more his whole frame of soul is based upon a sub-structure of mental freedom. The history of the world is not bound up with revolutions in the solar system, any more than the destinies of individuals with the positions of the planets.
The difference of climate has a more solid and vigorous influence. But the response to the changes of the seasons and hours of the day is found only in faint changes of mood, which come expressly to the fore only in morbid states (including insanity) and at periods when the self-conscious life suffers depression.
--
To mould such an aim in the organic body is to bring out and express the 'ideality' which is implicit in matter always, and especially so in the specific bodily part, and thus to enable the soul, under its volitional and conceptual characters, to exist as substance in its corporeity. In this way an aptitude shows the corporeity rendered completely pervious, made into an instrument, so that when the conception (e.g. a series of musical notes) is in me, then without resistance and with ease the body gives them correct utterance.
The form of habit applies to all kinds and grades of mental action. The most external of them, i.e. the spatial direction of an individual, viz. his upright posture, has been by will made a habit - a position taken without adjustment and without consciousness - which continues to be an affair of his persistent will; for the man stands only because and in so far as he wills to stand, and only so long as he wills it without consciousness. Similarly our eyesight is the concrete habit which, without an express adjustment, combines in a single act the several modifications of sensation, consciousness, intuition, intelligence, etc., which make it up. Thinking, too, however free and active in its own pure element it becomes, no less requires habit and familiarity (this impromptuity or form of immediacy), by which it is the property of my single self where I can freely and in all directions range. It is through this habit that I come to realize my existence as a thinking being. Even here, in this spontaneity of self-centred thought, there is a partnership of soul and body (hence, want of habit and too-long-continued thinking cause headache); habit diminishes this feeling, by making the natural function an immediacy of the
1f.lovecraft - Dagon, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
octopi, crustaceans, molluscs, whales, and the like. Several characters
obviously represented marine things which are unknown to the modern
1f.lovecraft - Herbert West-Reanimator, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
characters, whose worst real vice is timidity, and who are ultimately
punished by general ridicule for their intellectual sinssins like
1f.lovecraft - Out of the Aeons, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
unknown nature, inscribed with peculiar characters in a greyish,
indeterminable pigment. In the centre of the vast stone floor was a
--
characters on the scroll, and the whole account teemed with details
having vague, irritating suggestions of resemblance to things connected
1f.lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
CTHULHU CULT in characters painstakingly printed to avoid the
erroneous reading of a word so unheard-of. The manuscript was divided
--
pedestal covered with undecipherable characters. The tips of the wings
touched the back edge of the block, the seat occupied the centre,
--
characters along the base were equally baffling; and no member present,
despite a representation of half the worlds expert learning in this
1f.lovecraft - The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
oft-repeated combination of characters is clumsily copied; and
authorities at Brown University have pronounced the alphabet Amharic or
--
represented in his epistle by the characters WaaaahrrrrrRwaaahrrr.
This cry, however, had possessed a quality which no mere writing could
--
Certain documents by and about all of these strange characters were
available at the Essex Institute, the Court House, and the Registry of
--
characters.
He also opened the diary at a page carefully selected for its
--
characters at all except with great difficulty; and could prove it by
the fact that he had been forced to type all his recent letters, even
--
in an attempt to pose as the bygone characters reincarnation. Allen
himself was perhaps a similar case, and may have persuaded the youth
1f.lovecraft - The Challenge from Beyond, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
little disc of a pale and nameless substance with characters incised
deep upon its quartz-enclosed surface. Wedge-shaped characters, faintly
reminiscent of cuneiform writing.
--
And yetthat writing. Man-made, surely, although its characters were
unfamiliar save in their faint hinting at cuneiform shapes. Or could
1f.lovecraft - The Diary of Alonzo Typer, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
odd characters from abroad. Among the latter was a mysterious Eurasian,
probably from Cochin-China, whose later appearance with blank mind and
--
characters, their kinship to the symbols on that ominous lock in the
cellar became more and more manifest. I left the picture in the attic,
1f.lovecraft - The Dunwich Horror, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
An almost interminable manuscript in strange characters, written in a
huge ledger and adjudged a sort of diary because of the spacing and the
1f.lovecraft - The Green Meadow, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
characters are in a cursive hand used about the second century B. C.
There is little in the text to determine the date. The mechanical
1f.lovecraft - The Haunter of the Dark, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
and a crumbling volume in wholly unidentifiable characters yet with
certain symbols and diagrams shudderingly recognisable to the occult
1f.lovecraft - The Hound, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
characters which neither St. John nor I could identify; and on the
bottom, like a makers seal, was graven a grotesque and formidable
1f.lovecraft - The Last Test, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
characters, and as Dalton marshalled his linguistic memory for their
translation he gave a sudden start, and wished his college struggles
1f.lovecraft - The Mound, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
yellowish, paper-like substance inscribed in greenish characters, and
for a second I had the supreme thrill of fancying that I held a written
1f.lovecraft - The Rats in the Walls, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
The worst characters, apparently, were the barons and their direct
heirs; at least, most was whispered about these. If of healthier
1f.lovecraft - The Shadow out of Time, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
were chiselled inscriptions in the same characters that the huge books
bore. The dark granite masonry was of a monstrous megalithic type, with
--
these hieroglyphs were closely and unmistakably akin to the characters
constantly met with in my dreams characters whose meaning I would
--
seemed to my cloudy vision a vast variety of charactersnever the
typical curvilinear hieroglyphs of the majority. A few, I fancied, used
--
arrangement of the characters seemed subtly unusual. The odd mechanism
of the hooked fastener was perfectly well known to me, and I snapped up
1f.lovecraft - The Shadow over Innsmouth, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
sometimes kept certain especially repulsive characters out of sight
when government agents and others from the outside world came to town.
1f.lovecraft - The Silver Key, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
characters, while the myth of an important reality and significant
human events and emotions debased all his high fantasy into thin-veiled
--
antique reed. Carter recognised the characters as those he had seen on
a certain papyrus scroll belonging to that terrible scholar of the
--
characters no linguist or palaeographer has been able to decipher or
identify. Rain had long effaced any possible footprints, though Boston
1f.lovecraft - The Statement of Randolph Carter, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
characters whose like I never saw elsewhere. Warren would never tell me
just what was in that book. As to the nature of our studiesmust I say
--
carried with himthat ancient book in undecipherable characters which
had come to him from India a month beforebut I swear I do not know
1f.lovecraft - The Street, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
unknown characters upon most of the musty houses. Push-carts crowded
the gutters. A sordid, undefinable stench settled over the place, and
--
tongues and in many characters, yet all bearing messages of crime and
rebellion. In these writings the people were urged to tear down the
1f.lovecraft - The Tree on the Hill, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
opened it reverently, and peered over the odd characters.
What do you call that? I inquired.
1f.lovecraft - Through the Gates of the Silver Key, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
parchment charactersnotice how all the letters seem to hang down from
horizontal word-barsis the writing in a book poor Harley Warren once
--
recollection of one who had taken a book of like characters into a
vault and never returned. Or perhaps it was really immaterial to what
1f.lovecraft - Winged Death, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
whiteness a series of huge, faltering alphabetical characters had
somehow been scrawled in ink; and every now and then Dr. Van Keulen
1.jk - On Receiving A Curious Shell, #Keats - Poems, #John Keats, #Poetry
On this scroll thou seest written in characters fair
A sun-beamy tale of a wreath, and a chain;
1.pbs - On The Medusa Of Leonardo da Vinci In The Florentine Gallery, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Are graven, till the characters be grown
Into itself, and thought no more can trace;
1.pbs - Prometheus Unbound, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
Note from Mrs. Shelley: 'On the 12th of March, 1818, Shelley quitted England, never to return. His principal motive was the hope that his health would be improved by a milder climate; he suffered very much during the winter previous to his emigration, and this decided his vacillating purpose. .....Through the whole poem there reigns a sort of calm and holy spirit of love; it soothes the tortured, and is hope to the expectant, till the prophecy is fulfilled, and Love, untainted by any evil, becomes the law of the world. ....And, as he wandered among the ruins made one with Nature in their decay, or gaed on the Praxitelean shapes that throng the Vatican, the Capitol, and the palaces of Rome, his soul imbibed forms of loveliness which became a portion of itself. There are many passages in the Prometheus which show the intense delight he received from such studies, and give back the impression with a beauty of poetical description peculiarly his own. He felt this, as a poet must feel when he satisfies himself by the result of his labours; and he wrote from Rome, ''My Prometheus Unbound is just finished, and in a month or two I shall send it. It is a drama, with characters and mechanism of a kind yet unattempted; and I think the execution is better than any of my former attempts.'''
1.pbs - Saint Edmonds Eve, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
In characters fresh and clear--
'The guilty Black Canon of Elmham's dead,
1.pbs - Similes For Two Political Characters of 1819, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
object:1.pbs - Similes For Two Political characters of 1819
author class:Percy Bysshe Shelley
1.pbs - The Revolt Of Islam - Canto I-XII, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
In characters of cloud which wither not.
The change was like a dream to them; but soon
1.rb - Cleon, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
imaginary characters.
sprinkled isles: the Sporades, near Crete.
1.rb - Paracelsus - Part III - Paracelsus, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
Dimly the characters a simpler man
Might read distinct enough. Old Eastern books
1.rb - Paracelsus - Part II - Paracelsus Attains, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
A few blurred characters suffice to note
A stranger wandered long through many lands
1.rb - Paracelsus - Part IV - Paracelsus Aspires, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
Some characters remain, too! While we read,
The sharp salt wind, impatient for the last
1.rb - Rhyme for a Child Viewing a Naked Venus in a Painting of 'The Judgement of Paris', #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
``In great characters cut by the scribe,-Such was Saul, so he did;
``With the sages directing the work, by the populace chid,-
1.rb - Sordello - Book the First, #Browning - Poems, #Robert Browning, #Poetry
And in light-graven characters unfold
The Arab's wisdom everywhere; what shade
1.rwe - Song of Nature, #Emerson - Poems, #Ralph Waldo Emerson, #Philosophy
I wrote the past in characters
Of rock and fire the scroll,
1.wby - Alternative Song For The Severed Head In The King Of The Great Clock Tower, #Yeats - Poems, #William Butler Yeats, #Poetry
All those tragic characters ride
But turn from Rosses' crawling tide,
1.wby - Ego Dominus Tuus, #Yeats - Poems, #William Butler Yeats, #Poetry
And trace these characters upon the sands?
A style is found by sedentary toil
--
And, standing by these characters, disclose
All that I seek; and whisper it as though
1.wby - To Be Carved On A Stone At Thoor Ballylee, #Yeats - Poems, #William Butler Yeats, #Poetry
And may these characters remain
When all is ruin once again.
1.whitman - American Feuillage, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
All characters, movements, growthsa few noticed, myriads unnoticed,
Through Mannahatta's streets I walking, these things gathering;
1.whitman - As I Sat Alone By Blue Ontarios Shores, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
America, curious toward foreign characters, stands by its own at all
hazards,
1.whitman - Poems Of Joys, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
through materials, and loving themobserving characters, and
absorbing them;
1.whitman - Song Of The Broad-Axe, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
gatherings, the characters and fun,
Dwellers up north in Minnesota and by the Yellowstone riverdwellers
1.whitman - Starting From Paumanok, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Enjoining you to acts, characters, spectacles, with me.
With me, with firm holdingyet haste, haste on.
1.ww - 1- The White Doe Of Rylstone, Or, The Fate Of The Nortons, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
The characters of every face,
There lack not strange delusion here,
1.ww - Book Eighth- Retrospect--Love Of Nature Leading To Love Of Man, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Manners and characters discriminate,
And little bustling passions that eclipse,
1.ww - Book First [Introduction-Childhood and School Time], #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Impressed, upon all forms, the characters
Of danger or desire; and thus did make
1.ww - Book Second [School-Time Continued], #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The threshold, and large golden characters,
Spread o'er the spangled sign-board, had dislodged
1.ww - Book Seventh [Residence in London], #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Of well-formed characters, with chalk inscribed
Upon the smooth flint stones: the Nurse is here,
1.ww - Book Twelfth [Imagination And Taste, How Impaired And Restored ], #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The characters are fresh and visible:
A casual glance had shown them, and I fled,
1.ww - The Excursion- IX- Book Eighth- The Parsonage, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Versed in the characters of men; and bound,
By ties of daily interest, to maintain
1.ww - The Prelude, Book 1- Childhood And School-Time, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
Impress'd upon all forms the characters
Of danger or desire, and thus did make
1.ww - The Simplon Pass, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
characters of the great Apocalypse,
The types and symbols of Eternity,
1.ww - To Joanna, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
, like a Runic Priest, in characters
Of formidable size had chiselled out
--
I chiselled out in those rude characters
Joanna's name deep in the living stone:--
2.00 - BIBLIOGRAPHY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
LAW, WILLIAM. Several modern editions of the Serious Call are available; but many of Laws finest works, such as The Spirit of Love and The Spirit of Prayer, have not been reprinted in recent years and are hard to come by. An excellent anthology of Laws writings, characters and Characteristics of William Law, was compiled by Alexander Whyte towards the end of last century (3rd ed., London, 1898).
LEEN, EDWARD. Progress through Mental Prayer (London, 1940).
2.01 - Indeterminates, Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Infinite existence, infinite non-being or boundless finite, all are to us original indeterminates or indeterminables; we can assign to them no distinct characters or features, nothing which would predetermine their determinations. To describe the fundamental character of the universe as Space or Time or Space-Time does not help us; for even if these are not abstractions of our intelligence which we impose by our mental view on the cosmos, the mind's necessary perspective of its picture, these too are indeterminates and carry in themselves no clue to the origin of the determinations that take place in them; there is still no explanation of the strange process by which things are determined or of their powers, qualities and properties, no revelation of their true nature, origin and significance.
Actually to our Science this infinite or indeterminate Existence reveals itself as an Energy, known not by itself but by its works, which throws up in its motion waves of energism and in them a multitude of infinitesimals; these, grouping themselves to form larger infinitesimals, become a basis for all the creations of the Energy, even those farthest away from the material basis, for the emergence of a world of organised Matter, for the emergence of Life, for the emergence of Consciousness, for all the still unexplained activities of evolutionary Nature. On the original process are erected a multitude of processes which we can observe, follow, can take advantage of many of them, utilise; but they are none of them, fundamentally, explicable. We know now that different groupings and a varying number of electric infinitesimals can produce or serve as the constituent occasion - miscalled the cause, for here there seems to be only a necessary antecedent condition - for the appearance of larger atomic infinitesimals of different natures, qualities, powers; but we fail to discover how these different dispositions can come to constitute these different atoms, - how the differentiae in the constituent occasion or cause necessitate the differentiae in the constituted outcome or result. We know also that certain combinations of certain invisible atomic infinitesimals produce or occasion new and visible determinations quite different in nature, quality and power from the constituent infinitesimals; but we fail to discover, for instance, how a fixed formula for the combination of oxygen and hydrogen comes to determine the appearance of water which is evidently something more than a combination of gases, a new creation, a new form of substance, a material manifestation of a quite new character. We see that a seed develops into a tree, we follow the line of the process of production and we utilise it; but we do not discover how a tree can grow out of a seed, how the life and form of the tree come to be implied in the substance or energy of the seed or, if that be rather the fact, how the seed can develop into a tree. We know that genes and chromosomes are the cause of hereditary transmissions, not only of physical but of psychological variations; but we do not discover how psychological characteristics can be contained and transmitted in this inconscient material vehicle. We do not see or know, but it is expounded to us as a cogent account of Nature-process, that a play of electrons, of atoms and their resultant molecules, of cells, glands, chemical secretions and physiological processes manages by their activity on the nerves and brain of a Shakespeare or a Plato to produce or could be perhaps the dynamic occasion for the production of a Hamlet or a Symposium or a Republic; but we fail to discover or appreciate how such material movements could have composed or necessitated the composition of these highest points of thought and literature: the divergence here of the determinants and the determination becomes so wide that we are no longer able to follow the process, much less understand or utilise. These formulae of Science may be pragmatically correct and infallible, they may govern the practical how of Nature's processes, but they do not disclose the intrinsic how or why; rather they have the air of the formulae of a cosmic Magician, precise, irresistible, automatically successful each in its field, but their rationale is fundamentally unintelligible.
--
This opens the way for other explanations which make Consciousness the creator of this world out of an apparent original Inconscience. A Mind, a Will seems to have imagined and organised the universe, but it has veiled itself behind its creation; its first erection has been this screen of an inconscient Energy and a material form of substance, at once a disguise of its presence and a plastic creative basis on which it could work as an artisan uses for his production of forms and patterns a dumb and obedient material. All these things we see around us are then the thoughts of an extra-cosmic Divinity, a Being with an omnipotent and omniscient Mind and Will, who is responsible for the mathematical law of the physical universe, for its artistry of beauty, for its strange play of samenesses and variations, of concordances and discords, of combining and intermingling opposites, for the drama of consciousness struggling to exist and seeking to affirm itself in an inconscient universal order. The fact that this Divinity is invisible to us, undiscoverable by our mind and senses, offers no difficulty, since self-evidence or direct sign of an extra-cosmic Creator could not be expected in a cosmos which is void of his presence: the patent signals everywhere of the works of an Intelligence, of law, design, formula, adaptation of means to end, constant and inexhaustible invention, fantasy even but restrained by an ordering Reason might be considered sufficient proof of this origin of things. Or if this Creator is not entirely supracosmic, but is also immanent in his works, even then there need be no other sign of him, - except indeed to some consciousness evolving in this inconscient world, but only when its evolution reached a point at which it could become aware of the indwelling Presence. The intervention of this evolving consciousness would not be a difficulty, since there would be no contradiction of the basic nature of things in its appearance; an omnipotent Mind could easily infuse something of itself into its creatures. One difficulty remains; it is the arbitrary nature of the creation, the incomprehensibility of its purpose, the crude meaninglessness of its law of unnecessary ignorance, strife and suffering, its ending without a denouement or issue. A play? But why this stamp of so many undivine elements and characters in the play of One whose nature must be supposed to be divine?
To the suggestion that what we see worked out in the world is the thoughts of God, the retort can be made that God could well have had better thoughts and the best thought of all would have been to refrain from the creation of an unhappy and unintelligible universe. All theistic explanations of existence starting from an extra-cosmic Deity stumble over this difficulty and can only evade it; it would disappear only if the Creator were, even though exceeding the creation, yet immanent in it, himself in some sort both the player and the play, an Infinite casting infinite possibilities into the form of an evolutionary cosmic order.
2.01 - THE ADVENT OF LIFE, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
general features and characters taken as a whole. That is what
should have been expected and we must be resigned to it. Follow-
2.02 - Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The same conciliation occurs everywhere, when we look with a straight and accurate look on the truth of the Reality. In our experience of it we become aware of an Infinite essentially free from all limitation by qualities, properties, features; on the other hand, we are aware of an Infinite teeming with innumerable qualities, properties, features. Here again the statement of illimitable freedom is positive, not negative; it does not negate what we see, but on the contrary provides the indispensable condition for it, it makes possible a free and infinite self-expression in quality and feature. A quality is the character of a power of conscious being; or we may say that the consciousness of being expressing what is in it makes the power it brings out recognisable by a native stamp on it which we call quality or character. Courage as a quality is such a power of being, it is a certain character of my consciousness expressing a formulated force of my being, bringing out or creating a definite kind of force of my nature in action. So too the power of a drug to cure is its property, a special force of being native to the herb or mineral from which it is produced, and this speciality is determined by the Real-Idea concealed in the involved consciousness which dwells in the plant or mineral; the idea brings out in it what was there at the root of its manifestation and has now come out thus empowered as the force of its being. All qualities, properties, features are such powers of conscious being thus put forth from itself by the Absolute; It has everything within It, It has the free power to put all forth;6 yet we cannot define the Absolute as a quality of courage or a power of healing, we cannot even say that these are a characteristic feature of the Absolute, nor can we make up a sum of qualities and say "that is the Absolute". But neither can we speak of the Absolute as a pure blank incapable of manifesting these things; on the contrary, all capacity is there, the powers of all qualities and characters are there inherent within it. The mind is in a difficulty because it has to say, "The Absolute or Infinite is none of these things, these things are not the Absolute or Infinite" and at the same time it has to say, "The Absolute is all these things, they are not something else than That, for That is the sole existence and the all-existence." Here it is evident that it is an undue finiteness of thought conception and verbal expression which creates the difficulty, but there is in reality none; for it would be evidently absurd to say that the Absolute is courage or curing-power, or to say that courage and curing-power are the Absolute, but it would be equally absurd to deny the capacity of the Absolute to put forth courage or curingpower as self-expressions in its manifestation. When the logic of the finite fails us, we have to see with a direct and unbound vision what is behind in the logic of the Infinite. We can then realise that the Infinite is infinite in quality, feature, power, but that no sum of qualities, features, powers can describe the Infinite.
6 The word for creation in Sanskrit means a loosing or putting forth of what is in the being.
2.02 - THE EXPANSION OF LIFE, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
combinations of ' characters ' so dear to modern geneticists.
Instead of simply radiating from each centre in process of division,
--
crossing of characters. One example is the mutation we call
Mendelian. But when we look deeper and more generally we
--
To accumulate characters in stable and coherent aggregates,
life has to be very clever indeed. Not only has it to invent the
--
by the accentuation of certain characters. By their construction
these lines diverge and tend to separate. Yet, so far, we have no
--
beginning. As long as a zoological group is young, its characters
remain indeterminate, its structure precarious and its dimensions
--
non-transmission of acquired characters. The truth is that at
the point I have reached in my inquiry, these questions do not
2.03 - DEMETER, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
ball. It piles characters upon characters in its protoplasm. It
becomes more and more complex. But, taken as a whole, what
--
that burrow, swim or fly. There is an evolution of characters
certainly ; but on condition that this word is taken in the
--
ornamentation of the integument all these ' visible characters '
form merely the outward garment round something deeper
--
Chinese characters, yet give the impression of being unable to
change their plan as if their impetus or fundamental meta-
2.04 - Positive Aspects of the Mother-Complex, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
tradictions as are their moral characters. In the West, the para-
doxical behaviour and moral ambivalence of the gods scandal-
2.05 - On Poetry, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Disciple: He says that Satan and Christ are living characters created by Milton.
Sri Aurobindo: Satan is the only character he has created. His first four books are full of creative force. But Christ? Well, I object to the claim that he ever created Christ.
2.07 - The Knowledge and the Ignorance, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Ignorance or of anything in the universe in the sense of defining it, because the mind can only know things in that sense by their signs, characters, forms, properties, functionings, relations to other things, not in their occult self-being and essence. But we can pursue farther and farther, clarify more and more accurately our observation of the phenomenal character and operation of the Ignorance until we get the right revealing word, the right
506
2.08 - The Branches of The Archetypal Man, #General Principles of Kabbalah, #Rabbi Moses Luzzatto, #Kabbalah
The presence of characters (letters) points either
to the presence of a vessel or to the source of one.
2.09 - The Pantacle, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
74:We can engrave characters upon it with the dagger, but they will scarcely come to more than did the statue of Ozymandias, King of Kings, in the midst of the unending desert.
75:We cut a figure on the ice; it is effaced in a morning by the tracks of other skaters; nor did that figure do more than scratch the surface of the ice, and the ice itself must melt before the sun. Indeed the Magician may despair when hie comes to make the Pantacle! Everyone has the material, one man's pretty well as good as his brother's; but for that Pantacle to be in any way fashioned to a willed end, or even to an intelligible end, or even to a known end: "Hoc opus, Hic labor est." It is indeed the toil of ascending from Avernus, and escaping to the upper air.
2.14 - ON THE LAND OF EDUCATION, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
With the characters of the past written all over you,
and these characters in turn painted over with new
characters: thus have you concealed yourselves perfectly from all interpreters of characters. And even if
one could try the reins, who would be fool enough to
2.14 - The Origin and Remedy of Falsehood, Error, Wrong and Evil, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
when they appear, are involved in these automatisms, they occur as a subordinate mental notation within the predominant vital sense-notation. But slowly mind starts its task of disengaging itself; it still works for the life-instinct, life-need and life-desire, but its own special characters emerge, observation, invention, device, intention, execution of purpose, while sensation and impulse add to themselves emotion and bring a subtler and finer affective urge and value into the crude vital reaction. Mind is still much involved in life and its highest purely mental operations are not in evidence; it accepts a large background of instinct and vital intuition as its support, and the intelligence developed, though always growing as the animal life-scale rises, is an added superstructure.
When human intelligence adds itself to the animal basis, this basis still remains present and active, but it is largely changed, subtilised and uplifted by conscious will and intention; the automatic life of instinct and vital intuition diminishes and cannot keep its original predominant proportion to the self-aware mental intelligence. Intuition becomes less purely intuitive: even when there is still a strong vital intuition, its vital character is concealed by mentalisation, and mental intuition is most often a mixture, not the pure article, for an alloy is added to make it mentally current and serviceable. In the animal also the surface consciousness can obstruct or alter the intuition but, because its capacity is less, it interferes less with the automatic, mechanical or instinctive action of Nature: in mental man when the intuition rises towards the surface, it is caught at once before it reaches and is translated into terms of mind-intelligence with a gloss or mental interpretation added which conceals the origin of the knowledge. Instinct also is deprived of its intuitive character by being taken up and mentalised and by that change becomes less sure, though more assisted, when not replaced, by the plastic power of adaptation of things and self-adaptation proper to the intelligence. The emergence of mind in life brings an immense increase of the range and capacity of the evolving consciousness-force; but it also brings an immense increase in the range and capacity of error. For evolving mind trails constantly error as
2.1.5.4 - Arts, #On Education, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How should one see a film? If one identifies oneself with the characters and if it is a tragic or detective film, one is so much involved that one weeps or is frightened. And if one keeps aloof one cannot appreciate it very well. What is to be done then?
It is the vital that is affected and moved.
--
This picture is in three sections, two black and one, the most extensive, in colour. The two black sections (first and last) show how things appear in the physical world; the coloured one expresses a similar sequence of events and similar characters in the vital world, the world where one can go when the body is in deep sleep, when one gets out of the body. So long as you have a physical body, no true harm can happen to you in the vital world, for the physical body acts as a protection, and you can always return into it at will. This is shown in the picture in a classical way. You will see that the little girl wears on her feet some magic ruby-red slippers, and so long as she keeps the slippers on her feet nothing wrong can happen to her. The ruby-red slippers are the sign and the symbol of the connection with the physical body, and as long as the slippers are on her feet, she can, at will, return to her body and find shelter therein.
Two other details can be noted with interest. One is the snow shower that saves the party from the influence of the wicked witch who by her black magic has stopped their advance towards the emerald castle of beneficent vitality. In the vital world, snow is the symbol of purity. It is the purity of their feelings and intentions that saves them from the great danger. Note also that to go to the castle of the good wizard they must follow the broad path of golden bricks, the path of luminous confidence and joy.
2.1.7.06 - On the Characters of the Poem, #Letters On Poetry And Art, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
object:2.1.7.06 - On the characters of the Poem
author class:Sri Aurobindo
2.18 - The Evolutionary Process - Ascent and Integration, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But it must be observed that this ascent, this successive fixing in higher and higher principles, does not carry with it the abandonment of the lower grades, any more than a status of existence in the lower grades means the entire absence of the higher principles. This heals the objection against the evolutionary theory created by these sharp lines of difference; for if the rudiments of the higher are present in the lower creation and the lower characters are taken up into the higher evolved being, that of itself constitutes an indubitable evolutionary process. What is necessary is a working that brings the lower gradation of being to a point at which the higher can manifest in it; at that point a pressure from some superior plane where the new power is dominant may assist towards a more or less rapid and decisive transition by a bound or a series of bounds, - a slow, creeping, imperceptible or even occult action is followed by a run and an evolutionary saltus across the border. It is in some such way that the transition from the lower to higher grades of consciousness seems to have been made in Nature.
In fact, life, mind, supermind are present in the atom, are at work there, but invisible, occult, latent in a subconscious or apparently unconscious action of the Energy; there is an informing Spirit, but the outer force and figure of being, what we might call the formal or form existence as distinguished from the immanent or secretly governing consciousness, is lost in the physical action, is so absorbed into it as to be fixed in a stereotyped self-oblivion unaware of what it is and what it is doing.
2.19 - THE MASTER AND DR. SARKAR, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
O Thou Poet, great and primal, in the rhythm of Thy thought The sun and moon arise and move toward their setting; The stars, shining like bits of gems, are the fair characters In which Thy song is written across the blue expanse of sky; The year, with its six seasons, in tune with the happy earth, Proclaims Thy glory to the end of time.
The colours of the flowers reveal Thy sovereign Beauty, The waters in their stillness, Thy deep Serenity; The thunder-clap unveils to us the terror of Thy Law.
2.21 - 1940, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo: Yes, all sorts of things that are not native to the purpose of the novel are being put into it by the moderns. So, instead of writing a pamphlet they write a novel, instead of delivering a sermon they write a story they write a story even for journalistic purposes! It is like Shaw's dramas. All his characters are meant only to represent different sides of the questions which he takes up in his drama.
15 SEPTEMBER 1940
2.22 - Rebirth and Other Worlds; Karma, the Soul and Immortality, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This resort must continue in the internatal stage; for a new birth, a new life is not a taking up of the development exactly where it stopped in the last, it does not merely repeat and continue our past surface personality and formation of nature. There is an assimilation, a discarding and streng thening and rearrangement of the old characters and motives, a new ordering of the developments of the past and a selection for the purposes of the future without which the new start cannot be fruitful or carry forward the evolution. For each birth is a new start; it develops indeed from the past, but is not its mechanical continuation: rebirth is not a constant reiteration but a progression, it is the machinery of an evolutionary process.
Part of this rearrangement, the discarding especially of past strong vibrations of the personality, can only be effected by an exhaustion of the push of previous mental, vital, physical motives after death, and this internatal liberation or lightening of impedimenta must be put through on the planes proper to the motives that are to be discarded or otherwise manipulated, those planes which are themselves of that nature; for it is only there that the soul can still continue the activities which have to be exhausted and rejected from the consciousness so that it can pass on to a new formation. It is probable also that the integrating positive preparation would be carried out and the character of the new life would be decided by the soul itself in a resort to its native habitat, a plane of psychic repose, where it would draw all back into itself and await its new stage in the evolution.
2.23 - Man and the Evolution, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The metaphysical objection is more serious; for it seems selfevident that the Absolute can have no purpose in manifestation except the delight of manifestation itself: an evolutionary movement in Matter as part of the manifestation must fall within this universal statement; it can be there only for the delight of the unfolding, the progressive execution, the objectless seried self-revelation. A universal totality may also be considered as something complete in itself; as a totality, it has nothing to gain or to add to its fullness of being. But here the material world is not an integral totality, it is part of a whole, a grade in a gradation; it may admit in it, therefore, not only the presence of undeveloped immaterial principles or powers belonging to the whole that are involved within its matter, but also a descent into it of the same powers from the higher gradations of the system to deliver their kindred movements here from the strictness of a material limitation. A manifestation of the greater powers of Existence till the whole being itself is manifest in the material world in the terms of a higher, a spiritual creation, may be considered as the teleology of the evolution. This teleology does not bring in any factor that does not belong to the totality; it proposes only the realisation of the totality in the part. There can be no objection to the admission of a teleological factor in a part movement of the universal totality, if the purpose, - not a purpose in the human sense, but the urge of an intrinsic Truth necessity conscious in the will of the indwelling Spirit, - is the perfect manifestation there of all the possibilities inherent in the total movement. All exists here, no doubt, for the delight of existence, all is a game or Lila; but a game too carries within itself an object to be accomplished and without the fulfilment of that object would have no completeness of significance. A drama without denouement may be an artistic possibility - existing only for the pleasure of watching the characters and the pleasure in problems posed without a solution or with a forever suspended dubious balance of solution; the drama of the earth evolution might conceivably be of that character, but an intended or inherently predetermined denouement is also and more convincingly possible. Ananda is the secret principle of all being and the support of all activity of being; but Ananda does not exclude a delight in the working out of a Truth inherent in being, immanent in the Force or Will of being, upheld in the hidden self-awareness of its Consciousness-Force which is the dynamic and executive agent of all its activities and the knower of their significance.
A theory of spiritual evolution is not identical with a scientific theory of form-evolution and physical life-evolution; it must stand on its own inherent justification: it may accept the scientific account of physical evolution as a support or an element, but the support is not indispensable. The scientific theory is concerned only with the outward and visible machinery and process, with the detail of Nature's execution, with the physical development of things in Matter and the law of development of life and mind in Matter; its account of the process may have to be considerably changed or may be dropped altogether in the light of new discovery, but that will not affect the self-evident fact of a spiritual evolution, an evolution of Consciousness, a progression of the soul's manifestation in material existence. In its outward aspects this is what the theory of evolution comes to, - there is in the scale of terrestrial existence a development of forms, of bodies, a progressively complex and competent organisation of matter, of life in matter, of consciousness in living matter; in this scale, the better organised the form, the more it is capable of housing a better organised, a more complex and capable, a more developed or evolved life and consciousness. Once the evolutionary hypothesis is put forward and the facts supporting it are marshalled, this aspect of the terrestrial existence becomes so striking as to appear indisputable. The precise machinery by which this is done or the exact genealogy or chronological succession of types of being is a secondary, though in itself an interesting and important question; the development of one form of life out of a precedent less evolved form, natural selection, the struggle for life, the survival of acquired characteristics may or may not be accepted, but the fact of a successive creation with a developing plan in it is the one conclusion which is of primary consequence. Another self-evident conclusion is that there is a graduated necessary succession in the evolution, first the evolution of Matter, next the evolution of Life in Matter, then the evolution of Mind in living Matter, and in this last stage an animal evolution followed by a human evolution.
2.24 - Gnosis and Ananda, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The Purusha in mind, life and body is divided from Nature and in conflict with her. He labours to control and coerce what he can embody of her by his masculine force and is yet subject to her afflicting dualities and in fact her plaything from top to bottom, beginning to end. In the gnosis he is biune with her, finds as master of his own nature their reconciliation and harmony by their essential oneness even while he accepts an infinite blissful subjection, the condition of his mastery and his liberties, to the Supreme in his sovereign divine Nature. In the tops of the gnosis and in the Ananda he is one with the prakriti and no longer solely biune with her. There is no longer the baffling play of Nature with the soul in the Ignorance; all is the conscious play of the soul with itself and all its selves and the Supreme and the divine shakti in its own and the infinite bliss nature. This is the supreme mystery, the highest secret, simple to our experience, however difficult and complex to our mental conceptions and the effort of our limited intelligence to understand what is beyond it. In the free infinity of the self-delight of Sachchidananda there is a play of the divine Child, a rasa lila of the infinite Lover, and its mystic soul-symbols repeat themselves in characters of beauty and movements and harmonies of delight in a timeless forever.
author class:Sri Aurobindo
2.24 - The Evolution of the Spiritual Man, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The wide and supple method of evolutionary Nature providing the amplest scope and preserving the true intention of the religious seeking of the human being can be recognised in the development of religion in India, where any number of religious formulations, cults and disciplines have been allowed, even encouraged to subsist side by side and each man was free to accept and follow that which was congenial to his thought, feeling, temperament, build of the nature. It is right and reasonable that there should be this plasticity, proper to an experimental evolution: for religion's real business is to prepare man's mind, life and bodily existence for the spiritual consciousness to take it up; it has to lead him to that point where the inner spiritual light begins fully to emerge. It is at this point that religion must learn to subordinate itself, not to insist on its outer characters, but give full scope to the inner spirit itself to develop its own truth and reality. In the meanwhile it has to take up as much of man's mentality, vitality, physicality as it can and give all his activities a turn towards the spiritual direction, the revelation of a spiritual meaning in them, the imprint of a spiritual refinement, the beginning of a spiritual character. It is in this attempt that the errors of religion come in, for they are caused by the very nature of the matter with which it is dealing, - that inferior stuff invades the very forms that are meant to serve as intermediaries between the spiritual and the mental, vital or physical consciousness, and often it diminishes, degrades and corrupts them: but it is in this attempt that lies religion's greatest utility as an intercessor between spirit and nature. Truth and error live always together in the human evolution and the truth is not to be rejected because of its accompanying errors, though these have to be eliminated, - often a difficult business and, if crudely done, resulting in surgical harm inflicted on the body of religion; for what we see as error is very frequently the symbol or a disguise or a corruption or malformation of a truth which is lost in the brutal radicality of the operation, - the truth is cut out along with the error. Nature herself very commonly permits the good corn and the tares and weeds to grow together for a long time, because only so is her own growth, her free evolution possible.
Evolutionary Nature in her first awakening of man to a rudimentary spiritual consciousness must begin with a vague sense of the Infinite and the Invisible surrounding the physical being, a sense of the limitation and impotence of human mind and will and of something greater than himself concealed in the world, of Potencies beneficent or maleficent which determine the results of his action, a Power that is behind the physical world he lives in and has perhaps created it and him, or Powers that inform and rule her movements while they themselves perhaps are ruled by the greater Unknown that is beyond them. He had to determine what they are and find means of communication so that he might propitiate them or call them to his aid; he sought also for means by which he could find out and control the springs of the hidden movements of Nature. This he could not do at once by his reason because his reason could at first deal only with physical facts, but this was the domain of the Invisible and needed a supraphysical vision and knowledge; he had to do it by an extension of the faculty of intuition and instinct which was already there in the animal. This faculty, prolonged in the thinking being and mentalised, must have been more sensitive and active in early man, though still mostly on a lower scale, for he had to rely on it largely for all his first necessary discoveries: he had to rely also on the aid of subliminal experience; for the subliminal too must have been more active, more ready to upsurge in him, more capable of formulating its phenomena on the surface, before he learned to depend completely on his intellect and senses. The intuitions that he thus received by contact with Nature, his mind systematised and so created the early forms of religion. This active and ready power of intuition also gave him the sense of supraphysical forces behind the physical, and his instinct and a certain subliminal or supernormal experience of supraphysical beings with whom he could somehow communicate turned him towards the discovery of effective and canalising means for a dynamic utilisation of this knowledge; so were created magic and the other early forms of occultism. At some time it must have dawned on him that he had something in him which was not physical, a soul that survived the body; certain supernormal experiences which became active because of the pressure to know the invisible, must have helped to formulate his first crude ideas of this entity within him. It would only be later that he began to realise that what he perceived in the action of the universe was also there in some form within him and that in him also were elements that responded to invisible powers and forces for good or for evil; so would begin his religio-ethical formations and his possibilities of spiritual experience. An amalgam of primitive intuitions, occult ritual, religio-social ethics, mystical knowledge or experiences symbolised in myth but with their sense preserved by a secret initiation and discipline is the early, at first very superficial and external stage of human religion. In the beginning these elements were, no doubt, crude and poor and defective, but they acquired depth and range and increased in some cultures to a great amplitude and significance.
2.25 - The Triple Transformation, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A first condition of the soul's complete emergence is a direct contact in the surface being with the spiritual Reality. Because it comes from that, the psychic element in us turns always towards whatever in phenomenal Nature seems to belong to a higher Reality and can be accepted as its sign and character. At first, it seeks this Reality through the good, the true, the beautiful, through all that is pure and fine and high and noble: but although this touch through outer signs and characters can modify and prepare the nature, it cannot entirely or most inwardly and profoundly change it. For such an inmost change the direct contact with the Reality itself is indispensable since nothing else can so deeply touch the foundations of our being and stir it or cast the nature by its stir into a ferment of transmutation. Mental representations, emotional and dynamic figures have their use and value; Truth, Good and Beauty are in themselves primary and potent figures of the Reality, and even in their forms as seen by the mind, as felt by the heart, as realised in the life can be lines of an ascent: but it is in a spiritual substance and being of them and of itself that That which they represent has to come into our experience.
The soul may attempt to achieve this contact mainly through the thinking mind as intermediary and instrument; it puts a psychic impression on the intellect and the larger mind of insight and intuitional intelligence and turns them in that direction.
At its highest the thinking mind is drawn always towards the impersonal; in its search it becomes conscious of a spiritual essence, an impersonal Reality which expresses itself in all these outward signs and characters but is more than any formation or manifesting figure. It feels something of which it becomes intimately and invisibly aware, - a supreme Truth, a supreme Good, a supreme Beauty, a supreme Purity, a supreme Bliss; it bears the increasing touch, less and less impalpable and abstract, more and more spiritually real and concrete, the touch and pressure of an Eternity and Infinity which is all this that is and more. There is a pressure from this Impersonality that seeks to mould the whole mind into a form of itself; at the same time the impersonal secret and law of things becomes more and more visible. The mind develops into the mind of the sage, at first the high mental thinker, then the spiritual sage who has gone beyond the abstractions of thought to the beginnings of a direct experience. As a result the mind becomes pure, large, tranquil, impersonal; there is a similar tranquillising influence on the parts of life: but otherwise the result may remain incomplete; for the mental change leads more naturally towards an inner status and an outer quietude, but, poised in this purifying quietism, not drawn like the vital parts towards a discovery of new life-energies, does not press for a full dynamic effect on the nature.
A higher endeavour through the mind does not change this balance; for the tendency of the spiritualised mind is to go on upwards and, since above itself the mind loses its hold on forms, it is into a vast formless and featureless impersonality that it enters.
2.26 - The Ascent towards Supermind, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A supramental change of the whole substance of the being and therefore necessarily of all its characters, powers, movements takes place when the involved supermind in Nature emerges to meet and join with the supramental light and power descending from Supernature. The individual must be the instrument and first field of the transformation; but an isolated individual transformation is not enough and may not be wholly feasible. Even when achieved, the individual change will have a permanent and cosmic significance only if the individual becomes a centre and a sign for the establishment of the supramental Consciousness-Force as an overtly operative power in the terrestrial workings of Nature, - in the same way in which thinking Mind has been established through the human evolution as an overtly operative power in Life and Matter. This would mean the appearance in the evolution of a gnostic being or Purusha and a gnostic Prakriti, a gnostic Nature. There must be an emergent supramental Consciousness-Force liberated and active within the terrestrial whole and an organised supramental instrumentation of the Spirit in the life and the body, - for the body consciousness also must become sufficiently awake to be a fit instrument of the workings of the new supramental Force and its new order. Till then any intermediate change could be only partial or insecure; an overmind or intuitive instrumentation of Nature could be developed, but it would be a luminous formation imposed on a fundamental and environmental Inconscience. A supramental principle and its cosmic operation once established permanently on its own basis, the intervening powers of Overmind and spiritual Mind could found themselves securely upon it and reach their own perfection; they would become in the earth-existence a hierarchy of states of consciousness rising out of Mind and physical life to the supreme spiritual level. Mind and mental humanity would remain as one step in the spiritual evolution; but other degrees above it would be there formed and accessible by which the embodied mental being, as it became ready, could climb into the gnosis and change into an embodied supramental and spiritual being. On this basis the principle of a divine life in terrestrial Nature would be manifested; even the world of ignorance and inconscience might discover its own submerged secret and begin to realise in each lower degree its divine significance.
2.27 - The Gnostic Being, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In the Self-Existence of which supermind is the dynamic Truth-consciousness, there can be no aim of being except to be, no aim of consciousness except to be conscious of being, no aim of delight of being other than its delight; all is a self-existent and self-sufficient Eternity. Manifestation, becoming, has in its original supramental movement the same character; it sustains in a self-existent and self-sufficient rhythm an activity of being which sees itself as a manifold becoming, an activity of consciousness which takes the form of a manifold self-knowledge, an activity of force of conscious existence which exists for the glory and beauty of its own manifold power of being, an activity of delight which assumes innumerable forms of delight. The existence and consciousness of the supramental being here in Matter will have fundamentally the same nature, but with subordinate characters which mark the difference between supermind in its own plane and supermind working in its manifested power in the earth existence. For here there will be an evolving being, an evolving consciousness, an evolving delight of existence. The gnostic being will appear as the sign of an evolution from the consciousness of the Ignorance into the consciousness of Sachchidananda. In the Ignorance one is there primarily to grow, to know and to do, or, more exactly, to grow into something, to arrive by knowledge at something, to get something done.
Imperfect, we have no satisfaction of our being, we must perforce strive with labour and difficulty to grow into something we are not; ignorant and burdened with a consciousness of our ignorance, we have to arrive at something by which we can feel that we know; bounded with incapacity, we have to hunt after strength and power; afflicted with a consciousness of suffering, we have to try to get something done by which we catch at some pleasure or lay hold on some satisfying reality of life. To maintain existence is, indeed, our first occupation and necessity, but it is only a starting-point: for the mere maintenance of an imperfect existence chequered with suffering cannot be sufficient as an aim of our being; the instinctive will of existence, the pleasure of existence, which is all that the Ignorance can make out of the secret underlying Power and Ananda, has to be supplemented by the need to do and become. But what to do and what to become is not clearly known to us; we get what knowledge we can, what power, strength, purity, peace we can, what delight we The Gnostic Being can, become what we can. But our aims and our effort towards their achievement and the little we can hold as our gains turn into meshes by which we are bound; it is these things that become for us the object of life: to know our souls and to be our selves, which must be the foundation of our true way of being, is a secret that escapes us in our preoccupation with an external learning, an external construction of knowledge, the achievement of an external action, an external delight and pleasure. The spiritual man is one who has discovered his soul: he has found his self and lives in that, is conscious of it, has the joy of it; he needs nothing external for his completeness of existence. The gnostic being starting from this new basis takes up our ignorant becoming and turns it into a luminous becoming of knowledge and a realised power of being. All therefore that is our attempt to be in the Ignorance, he will fulfil in the Knowledge. All knowledge he will turn into a manifestation of the self-knowledge of being, all power and action into a power and action of the self-force of being, all delight into a universal delight of self-existence. Attachment and bondage will fall away, because at each step and in each thing there will be the full satisfaction of self-existence, the light of the consciousness fulfilling itself, the ecstasy of delight of existence finding itself. Each stage of the evolution in the knowledge will be an unfolding of this power and will of being and this joy to be, a free becoming supported by the sense of the Infinite, the bliss of the Brahman, the luminous sanction of the Transcendence.
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But flux of nature and fixity of nature are two aspects of being neither of which, nor indeed both together, can be a definition of personality. For in all men there is a double element, the unformed though limited flux of being or Nature out of which personality is fashioned and the personal formation out of that flux. The formation may become rigid and ossify or it may remain sufficiently plastic to change constantly and develop; but it develops out of the formative flux, by a modification or enlargement or remoulding of the personality, not, ordinarily, by an abolition of the formation already made and the substitution of a new form of being, - this can only occur in an abnormal turn or a supernormal conversion. But besides this flux and this fixity there is also a third and occult element, the Person behind of whom the personality is a self-expression; the Person puts forward the personality as his role, character, persona, in the present act of his long drama of manifested existence. But the Person is larger than his personality, and it may happen that this inner largeness overflows into the surface formation; the result is a self-expression of being which can no longer be described The Gnostic Being by fixed qualities, normalities of mood, exact lineaments, or marked out by any structural limits. But neither is it a mere indistinguishable, quite amorphous and unseizable flux: though its acts of nature can be characterised but not itself, still it can be distinctively felt, followed in its action, it can be recognised, though it cannot easily be described; for it is a power of being rather than a structure. The ordinary restricted personality can be grasped by a description of the characters stamped on its life and thought and action, its very definite surface building and expression of self; even if we may miss whatever was not so expressed, that might seem to detract little from the general adequacy of our understanding, because the element missed is usually little more than an amorphous raw material, part of the flux, not used to form a significant part of the personality. But such a description would be pitifully inadequate to express the Person when its Power of Self within manifests more amply and puts forward its hidden daemonic force in the surface composition and the life. We feel ourselves in presence of a light of consciousness, a potency, a sea of energy, can distinguish and describe its free waves of action and quality, but not fix itself; and yet there is an impression of personality, the presence of a powerful being, a strong, high or beautiful recognisable Someone, a Person, not a limited creature of Nature but a Self or Soul, a Purusha. The gnostic Individual would be such an inner Person unveiled, occupying both the depths - no longer selfhidden - and the surface in a unified self-awareness; he would not be a surface personality partly expressive of a larger secret being, he would be not the wave but the ocean: he would be the Purusha, the inner conscious Existence self-revealed, and would have no need of a carved expressive mask or persona.
This, then, would be the nature of the gnostic Person, an infinite and universal being revealing - or, to our mental ignorance, suggesting - its eternal self through the significant form and expressive power of an individual and temporal selfmanifestation. But the individual nature-manifestation, whether strong and distinct in outline or multitudinous and protean but still harmonic, would be there as an index of the being, not as the whole being: that would be felt behind, recognisable but indefinable, infinite. The consciousness also of the gnostic Person would be an infinite consciousness throwing up forms of self-expression, but aware always of its unbound infinity and universality and conveying the power and sense of its infinity and universality even in the finiteness of the expression, - by which, moreover, it would not be bound in the next movement of farther self-revelation. But this would still not be an unregulated unrecognisable flux but a process of self-revelation making visible the inherent truth of its powers of existence according to the harmonic law natural to all manifestation of the Infinite.
3.01 - THE BIRTH OF THOUGHT, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
and transmission of acquired characters. As we know, the
biologist tended, and still tends, to be sceptical and evasive ; and
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the characters of a phylum may be, it is never found to be alto-
gether simple, like a pure radiation. On the contrary, as far
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active mutation) in which a whole scries of hominoid characters overlay a
basis still clearly simian, we can see an image perhaps, or call it a faint echo,
--
fixed on them, like essential characters, certain traits whose origin
is plainly peculiar and accidental such as the tritubercular teeth
3.02 - THE DEPLOYMENT OF THE NOOSPHERE, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
various characters, in no way teratologicai, but expressing a
well-established, well-balanced architecture, seem to suggest, ana-
3.02 - The Great Secret, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
In my lyrics I sought to uncover the yearnings of the heart, in man or in nature, what things cry for, what their tears are for. On a larger canvas, through legends and parables, I portrayed the various facets of life's moods and urges, its rare wisdoms and common foolishnesses, gave a pulsating accent and a meaningful concreteness to episodes that constitute history, the history of man's and nature's consciousness. The tragedies and comedies of life I cast in the dramatic form too, and it is not for me to say how pleased you were to see the ancient form serving magnificently the needs and demands of the modern temperament. I moulded in unforgettable individualities figures and characters of living forces. A wider and still more explicit instrument is the novel which is perhaps more agreeable to the scientific and enquiring spirit of the age. For it is both illustrative and explanatory. I have given you the life history of individuals and social aggregates and I have attempted to give you too something of the life history of humanity taken as a whole, the massive aggregate in its circling, coiling, mounting movements. But I knew and I felt that it is not mere extension, largeness - the wide commonalty - that is enough for the human spirit. It needs uplift. It needs the grand style. So I gave you my epic. It was indeed a whole life's labour. Well, many of you do not and did not understand, more were overawed, but all felt its magic vibration. Yes, it was my desperate attempt to tear open the veil.
I have varied the theme and I have varied the manner. Like a consummate scientist I juggled with my words, I knew how to change their constitution and transmute them as it were, make them carry a new sense, a new tone, a new value. I could comm and something of the Ciceronian swell, something of the Miltonic amplitude, something of the Racinian suavity; I was not incapable of the simplicity of Wordsworth at his best, nor was even the Shakespearean magic quite unknown to me. The sublimity of Valmiki and the nobility of Vyasa were not peaks too high for me to compass.
3.03 - THE MODERN EARTH, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
how characters are formed, accumulated and transmitted in the
224
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thanks to the characters of this new milieu, it is reduced in its
finest part to the pure and simple transmission of acquired spiritual
3.07 - The Formula of the Holy Grail, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
6. The characters of the two men present subtle identities in many
points. Both seem to be constantly trying to reconcile insuperable
3.09 - The Return of the Soul, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
He gives a clear hint that he himself is the father of his characters and gets
the king to confirm this. The voluntarily proffered information about the
3.1.01 - The Problem of Suffering and Evil, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
All spiritual experience affirms that there is a Permanent above the transience of this manifested world we live in and this limited consciousness in whose narrow borders we grope and struggle, and that its characters are infinity, self-existence,
254
31.10 - East and West, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Let us try to throw more light on this difference so that we may comprehend the synthetic ideal more clearly. We wilt now compare and contrast, for example, the genius of Valmiki and that of Shakespeare in the field of literature. On reading Shakespeare a stamp of characters that are human is left on our mind, and Valmiki impresses us with characters that are superhuman. Shakespeare has depicted men solely as human beings, while Valmiki read into men the symbol of some larger and higher truth. In the works of Shakespeare we feel the touch of material life and enjoy the savour of earthly pleasure, the embrace of physical bodies with each other, as it were. But Valmiki deals with experiences and realities that exceed the bounds of ordinary earthly life. Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear are the highlights of Shakespearae's creation. Valmiki's heroes and heroine are Rama, Ravana and Sita. The characters depicted by Shakespeare are men as men are or would be. But even the human characters of Valmiki contain something of the super-human, they overflow the bounds of humanity. It is not so difficult for us to grasp the clashes of sentiments that go to make up the character of Hamlet, for we are already quite familiar with them in our life; whereas the character of Rama which is not at all complex can yet hardly be adequately measured. There is a mystic vastness behind the character which can never be classed with human traits. Indeed, Rama and Ravana both are two aspects of the same Infinite. Even the drama of their earthly life is not merely founded on human qualities. The East wants to explore the Infinite, while the West wants to delve into the finite. Homer, the father of Western literature, is an illustrative example. The men of Homer's world, however mighty and powerful they may be, are after all human beings. Achilles and Hector are but the royal editions or dignified versions of our frail human nature. Never do they reflect the Infinite. The gift of the West is to bring to the fore the speciality of the finite through the senses. Plato himself did not like very much the Homerian god who to him was only "human - all too human." The gift of the East on the other hand is to manifest the Infinite and the Truth beyond the grasp of the senses with the aid of the finite, with the senses as a means.
Our object will be served better if we compare Oriental painting and sculpture with the Occidental. Let us compare the image of Venus with that of the Buddha. Wherein lies the difference? The goddess Venus is in no way superior to a human being. A finely modelled face, well-formed limbs, beautifully chiselled nose, eyes, ears, forehead - in one word, she is the paragon of beauty. Softness and loveliness are reflected in her every limb. The Greek goddess marks the highest human conception of beauty and love. But the image of the Buddha is not entirely flawless. No doubt, it is the figure of a human being, but an anatomist will certainly be able to point out many defects and flaws of composition in it. The image of the Buddha in the state of deep self-absorption does not represent a manin contemplation, but it is a symbol of concentration; it is meditation personified. This is the special character of Oriental Art. Oriental Art does not try to express sentiment and emotion through an exact portrayal. Its object is to give an adequate form to the idea itself. The Buddhist sculptor gives an expression to the supernatural state of realisation which the Buddha attained when he was on the verge of losing himself in Nirvana. The sculptor is not concerned with the elegance or correctness of the bodily limbs; his only care is to see how far the abstract idea has been expressed. Wrinkles of thought or the smoothness of peace on the forehead, fire of anger or spark of love in the eyes, the extraordinarily robust and highly muscular limbs of a man, and smooth and soft creeper-like flowing arms of a woman - such are the elements on which the Occidental artist has laid emphasis to show or demonstrate the play of psychological factors. The Oriental artist looked to the eternal truth that lies behind the attitudes of the mind and the body; he has not laboured to manifest the external gestures, the physical changes that are visible in our day-to-day life; the little that had to be done in this connection was executed in such a manner as to make it coincide with or merge into the idea of the truth itself - it became the very body of the idea. The Oriental sculptor has perpetuated in stone the eternal concepts of knowledge, compassion, energy, etc. - various glimpses of the infinite - through the images of Bodhisattwa, Avalokiteshwar, Nataraj and other deities. Raphael has succeeded in imparting a divine expression to motherhood in the visage of his Madonna, but that too is not Oriental Art. The image of the Madonna represents an ideal mother, and not motherhood. The Madonna may be called the acme of the emotional creation, but in the image of the Buddha the percepts of a suprasensual consciousness have been heaped up. The East wants to discover the true nature, the truth of things present in the ultimate unity, the Infinite. The West dwells in the finite, the diverse, the duality.
3.11 - Spells, #Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E, #unset, #Zen
Casting the spell requires one round per two creatures in the mindnet. The spell's duration begins after all affected creatures have been linked. characters of any class may take part in this linkage, benefiting from several effects.
First, each member of the mindnet benefits from Intelligence, Wisdom, and Dexterity bonuses. The bonuses are equal to the bonuses held by the member of the mindnet with the highest ability score. For example, if five creatures in a mindnet have Wisdom scores of 15, 15, 16, 17, and 18, each creature would make saving throws, ability checks, and the like as if he had a Wisdom score of 18. Bonus spells are not gained due to enhanced
--
The reversion spell affects only creatures and characters. Equipment and magical items are not affected.
Casting this spell ages the priest one year.
--
When this spell is cast, all persons and intelligent creatures within 10 feet of the caster are instantly transported 24 hours into the future. Creatures outside the area of effect will believe that the affected characters have disappeared. Unwilling creatures can attempt a saving throw vs. spell to resist the effect of skip day.
No time passes for creatures affected by skip day; they are in the exact condition that they were in before the spell was cast. They are fatigued, have recovered no hit points, and carry the same spells. Wizards must wait for actual time to pass before they can memorize spells.
--
Although skip day is a possible substitute for teleporting out of a dangerous situation, it is not without risk; characters could reappear in a situation more threatening than the one they left behind (for instance, a forest fire may have started or a pack of hungry wolves may have arrived).
Simulacrum ::: (Illusion/Phantasm)
--
Solipsism is the opposite of normal illusions in that anyone other than the caster must make an active effort to believe (rather than dis believe) the illusion. characters trying to believe the reality of a solipsistic illusion must make a saving throw vs. breath weapon, modified by the magical defense adjustment for Wisdom. A successful save means that the character believes the illusion and it is part of reality for him. A failed save means that the character cannot convince himself of the illusion's reality, and the illusion has no effect on him. A character can make a single attempt to believe each round.
Unlike true illusions, the image created by this spell does more than just duplicate reality. The image formed is real for those who believe in it. The illusion has all the normal properties that its form and function allow. Thus, a solipsistic bridge spanning a chasm could be crossed by the priest and those who believed. All others would see the priest apparently walking out onto nothingness. Likewise, a solipsistic giant would cause real damage to those who believed it.
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30 feet from the center. It takes him longer to fall to the center, so the orc is already there when he arrives, and the two characters collide forcefully. The bandit suffers 3d6 hit points of damage--the falling damage associated with a 30-foot fall. The orc must save vs. paralyzation or suffer half that amount.
Other things are caught in the effect as well. The bandit's horse was 50 feet away from the center of effect, so it arrives at the center after the orc and the bandit. It falls 50 feet, suffering 5d6 points of damage, and potentially inflicting half that amount on both the orc and the bandit.
--
When the spell terminates, gravity returns to normal. If the spell has lifted any characters or objects off the ground, they immediately fall back to the ground, suffering the appropriate amount of falling damage.
The material components are a lodestone and a sphere of obsidian, both of which are consumed in the casting.
--
In this manner, the six characters become a single being with all the powers and abilities allowed to that avatar. The only stipulation is that the priests' deity cannot have created all avatars allowed to it at that moment. If this has happened, the spell fails and the priests are drained as described below.
If the spell succeeds, the priests have completely given their wills over to their deity, essentially forming the vessel into which it funnels power. In becoming the avatar, the priests retain the ability to make most of their own decisions. (The six must work in harmony or allow one of their number to decide all actions.) However, the deity can assume direct control of the avatar at any time it desires--the avatar is, after all, an earthly manifestation of the deity.
--
The priests have no idea what might be happening to their real bodies (unless the avatar can observe them). Any damage to a priest's body requires an instant system shock roll. If successful, the damage is recorded normally, but the damage does not take effect until the spell ends (at which point the priest will almost certainly die). If the system shock roll is failed, the character instantly dies and the spell ends. characters who die in this manner cannot be raised, resurrected, or reincarnated. They have been taken to the ultimate reward (or punishment) for the service they have rendered. If the bodies are moved from their positions, the spell ends.
Even if the deity releases the priests, they are left severely drained. All spells memorized are lost until the priest can rest and perform his prayers once again. The physical drain leaves each priest with only 1 hit point upon awakening, regardless of the number of hit points the character had when the spell was cast. Since damage suffered during the spell takes effect instantly, any priest who is hurt dies immediately (although quick action by others might save him).
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The caster can designate as many as ten persons to receive this message, provided they can all be specifically named or grouped in a general category. Thus, the caster could designate a group of characters by name or could target "fellow priests,"
"superiors," "adventuring companions," "knights of Lord Harcourt," or "villagers of
--
The spell can also be cast by more than one priest, allowing them to either contact greater numbers of individuals or increase the intensity of the message. If greater numbers are desired, ten characters are contacted per priest involved in the casting.
Increasing the intensity of the message makes it more compelling. Doubling the intensity (requiring at least three priests) causes the message to act as a suggestion. In this case, the effect is limited to a single target. Tripling the intensity (requiring at least five priests) gives the spell the force of a quest. This effect is also limited to a single target. In both cases, the target is allowed a saving throw to avoid the effect of the suggestion or quest.
3.14 - Of the Consecrations, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
arbitrary characters according to a meaningless convention in order
to enable his reader, by retranslating them, to obtain an approximation to his idea.
3.20 - Of the Eucharist, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
must apprehend the essential characters in each case, select suitable
Elements, and devise proper processes.
33.13 - My Professors, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This poetry belongs to the type once graphically characterised by our humorous novelist Prabhat Mukherji through one of his characters, a sadhu,describing the charms of the Divine Name:
It has the sweetness and the sugar
3-5 Full Circle, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The students learn the Majority's languages, idioms, and ways of thinking; enormously important things that even top-notch college professors rarely know, and which they could not teach, even if they did. The students learn the meaning of grinding physical work, of physical working conditions, of occupational hazards, brutality, hopelessness as no books, films, or courses can teach them. The foremen and workers among, and under, whom these students labor spot them and educate their characters in ways that can't be read; that have to be experienced. How to talk, to respond, to be respectful to people who expertly control plants, animals, things.--The university must be academic in order to think clearly and disinterestedly, as George Pake points out in "Whither United States Universities?"14
FIGURE IV-7 A web-of-mind: Non-academic institution for the transformation of top genotypic potentials into phenotypic actualities. The "real" world: a school of hard knocks.
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Are there genetically conditioned differences among population groups both in the overall average level of mental development and in the pattern of relative strengths of various mental abilities ? Subgroups of the population which are relatively isolated geographically, culturally, or socially can be regarded as breeding populations to varying degrees (i.e. breeding within groups has a higher occurrence than breeding between groups). To the extent that breeding populations have been subjected to differential selective pressures from the environment, both physically and culturally, differences in gene frequencies can be expected to exist, especially for adaptive characteristics, physical and behavioral, but also for possibly nonadaptive pleiotropic characters (i.e. seemingly unrelated phenotypic effects caused by the same gene). Racial groups and, to a lesser degree, social classes within a society can be regarded as breeding populations.
Social classes as defined largely in terms of educational and occupational status are subject to differential selection for mental abilities. Since these have genetic as well as environmental components, they are transmitted to the offspring, and because of a high degree of assortative mating for mental traits in Western cultures, the gene pools for difFerent social classes will differ in the genetic factors related to ability. The evidence for phenotypic mental ability differences among social classes, along with evidence for genotypic differences, has been reviewed extensively elsewhere (Eckland, 1967; Jensen, 1970). It is now generally accepted by geneticists, psychologists, and sociologists who have reviewed the evidence that social class differences in mental abilities have a substantial genetic component. This genetic component should be expected to increase in an open society that permits and encourages social mobility. Phenotypically, of course, social class differences in patterns of mental ability are firmly established. Jensen (1968) has found that lower-class and middle-class population samples differ much less in abilities that are lower in the ontogenetic hierarchy, such as associative learning and memory span, than in higher cognitive abilities, such as conceptual learning and abstract reasoning. A different pattern of correlations between lower and higher abilities also is found in lower-class and middle-class groups, implying a hierarchical relationship among abilities, such that lower-level abilities are necessary-but-not-sufficient for the development or utilization of higher-level abilities.1
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"If," Leibniz had written, "we could find characters or signs appropriate for expressing all our thoughts as definitely and as exactly as arithmetic expresses numbers or geometric analysis expresses lines, we could in all subjects insofar as they are amenable to reasoning accomplish what is done in Arithmetic and Geometry . . . . That would be an admirable help, even in political science and medicine, to steady and perfect reasoning . . . .For even while there will not be enough given circumstances to form an infallible judgement, we shall always be able to determine what is most probable on the data given. And that is all that reason can do." pp. 15-16.21
FIGURE V-3 Geometric mapping of the Marxist theory of human coactions. Transmutation of society from exploitation (quadrant 2) is afhrmed to occur by "liquidation of the system's controller" (quadrant 3 or 4), and this to result in "classless" society.--The possibility of class cooperation (quadrant 1) is denied.
3.7.1.03 - Rebirth, Evolution, Heredity, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
But even if we admit the most scrupulous and rigorous continuity of successive determination, the question arises whether the process of evolution has been indeed so exclusively physical and biological as at first sight it looks. If it is, we must admit not only a rigorous principle of class heredity, but a law of hereditary progressive variation and a purely physical cause of all mental and spiritual phenomena. Heredity by itself means simply the constant transmission of physical form and biological characteristics from a previous life to its posterity. There is very evidently such a general force of hereditary transmission within the genus or species itself, as the tree so the seed, as the seed so the tree, so that a lion generates a lion and not a cat or a rhinoceros, a man a human being and not an ourang-outang,though one reads now of a curious and startling speculation, turning the old theory topsy-turvy, that certain ape kinds may be, not ancestors, but degenerate descendants of man! But farther, if a physical evolution is the whole fact, there must be a capacity for the hereditary transmission of variations by which new species are or have been created,not merely in the process of a mixture or crossing, but by an internal development which is stored up and handed down in the seed. That too may very well be admitted, even though its real process and rationale are not yet understood, since the transmission of family and individual characteristics is a well-observed phenomenon. But then the things transmitted are not only physical and biological, but psychological or at least bio-psychic characters, repetitions of customary nervous experience and mental tendency, powers. We have to suppose that the physical seed transmits these things. We are called upon to admit that the human seed for instance, which does not contain a developed human consciousness, yet carries with it the powers of such a consciousness so that they reproduce themselves automatically in the thinking and organised mentality of the offspring. This, even if we have to accept it, is an inexplicable paradox unless we suppose either that there is something more behind, a psychical power behind the veil of material process, or else that mind is only a process of life and life only a process of matter. Therefore finally we have to suppose the physical theory capable of explaining by purely material causes and a material constitution the mystery of the emergence of life in matter and the equal mystery of the emergence of mind in life. It is here that difficulties begin to crowd in which convict it, so far at least, of a hopeless inadequacy, and the nature of that inadequacy, its crux, its stumbling-point leave room for just that something behind, something psychical, a hidden soul process and for a more complex and less materialistic account of the truth of evolution.
The materialistic assumptionit is no more than a hypothetical assumption, for it has never been provedis that development of non-living matter results under certain unknown conditions in a phenomenon of unconscious life which is in its real nature only an action and reaction of material energy, and the development of that again under certain unknown conditions in a phenomenon of conscious mind which is again in its real nature only an action and reaction of material energy. The thing is not proved, but that, it is argued, does not matter; it only means that we do not yet know enough; but one day we shall know,the necessary physiological reaction called by us an intuition or train of reasoning crowned by discovery having, I suppose, taken place in a properly constituted nervous body and the more richly convoluted brain of a Galileo of biology, and then this great and simple truth will be proved, like many other things once scoffed at by the shallow common sense of humanity. But the difficulty is that it seems incapable of proof. Even with regard to life, which is by a great deal the lesser difficulty, the discovery of certain chemical or other physical and mechanical conditions under which life can be stimulated to appear, will prove no more than that these are the favourable or necessary conditions for the manifestation of life in body,such conditions there must be in the nature of things,but not that life is not another new and higher power of the force of universal being. The connection of life responses with physical conditions and stimuli proves very clearly that life and matter are connected and that, as indeed they must do to coexist, the two kinds of energy act on each other,a very ancient knowledge; but it does not get rid of the fact that the physical response is accompanied by an element which seems to be of the nature of a nervous excitement and an incipient or suppressed consciousness and is not the same thing as the companion physical reaction.
3.7.1.06 - The Ascending Unity, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Man began this familiar process of simple cuttings by emphasising his sense of himself as man; he made of himself a being separate, unique and peculiar in this world, for whom or round whom everything else was supposed to be created, - and all the rest, the subhuman existence, animal, plant, inanimate object, everything to the original atom seemed to him a creation different from himself, separate, of another nature; he condemned all to be without a soul, he was the one ensouled being. He saw life, defined it by certain characters that struck his mind, and set apart all other existence as non-living, inanimate. He looked at his earth, made it the centre of the universe, because the one inhabited scene of embodied souls or living beings; but the innumerable other heavenly bodies were only lights to illumine earth's day or to relieve her night. He perceived the insufficiency of this one earthly life only to create another opposite definition of a perfect heavenly existence and set it in the skies he saw above him. He perceived his "I" or self and conceived of it as a
The Ascending Unity
3.7.1.10 - Karma, Will and Consequence, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The births of the soul are the series of a constant spiritual evolution, and it might well seem that when the evolution is finished, and that must be, it might at first appear, when the soul involved in ignorance returns to self-knowledge, the series of our births too ought to come to a termination. But that is only one side of the matter, one long act here of the eternal drama, doing, karma. The spirit we are is not only an eternal consciousness and eternal being; its characters are an eternal power of being and an eternal Ananda. Creation is not to the spirit a trouble and an anguish, but a delight expressed, even though in the entirety of its depths inexpressible, fathomless, endless, inexhaustible. It is only the limited action of mind in the ignorance straining after possession and discovery and unable to find the concealed power of the spirit that makes of the delight of action and creation a passion or suffering: for, limited in capacity and embarrassed by life and body, it has yet desires beyond its capacity, because it is the instrument of a growth and the seed of an illimitable self-expression and it has the pain of the growth and the pain of the obstacle and the pain of the insufficiency of its action and delight. But let this struggling self-creator and doer of works once grow into the consciousness and power of the secret infinite spirit within it and all this passion and suffering passes away into an immeasurable delight of liberated being and its liberated action.
The Buddhist perception of karma and suffering as inseparable, that which drove the Buddha to the search for a means of the extinction of the will to be, is only a first phase and partial appearance. To find self is the cure of suffering, because self is infinite possession and perfect satisfaction. But to find self in quiescence is not the whole meaning of the spiritual evolution, but to find it too in its power of being; for being is not only eternal status, but also eternal movement, not only rest, but also action. There is a delight of rest and a delight of action, but in the wholeness of the spirit these two things are no longer contraries, but one and inseparable. The status of the spirit is an eternal calm, but also its self-expression in world-being is without any beginning or end, because eternal power means an eternal creation. When we gain the one, we need not lose its counterpart and consequence. To get to a foundation is not to destroy all capacity for superstructure.
4.1.2 - The Difficulties of Human Nature, #Letters On Yoga IV, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
There are always two sides to every human being. In Western occultism they call them the good and the evil Persona (personality). X has a strong personality and a formed, forceful and independent vital. It is a kind of character with great possibilities in it, but not liked by most people because they prefer girls to be soft, butterlike and docile and full of gushing affection and sweetness. Such characters, if badly used by life, may develop great vital difficulties. Y and Z probably see only this side; the other side is too unusual for them to appreciate.
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4.22 - The supramental Thought and Knowledge, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It would be to go altogether outside present limits to attempt anything like an adequate presentation of the whole character of the supermind; and it would not be possible to give a complete presentation, since the supermind carries in it the unity, but also the largeness and multiplicities of the infinite. All that need now be done is to present some salient characters from the point of view of the actual process of the conversion in the Yoga, the relation to the action of mind and the principle of some of the phenomena of the change. This is the fundamental relation that all the action of the mind is a derivation from the secret supermind, although we do not know this until we come to know our higher self, and draws from that source all it has of truth and value. All our thoughts, willings, feelings, sense representations have in them or at their roots an element of truth, which originates and sustains their existence, however in the actuality they may be perverted or false, and behind them a greater ungrasped truth, which if they could grasp it, would make them soon unified, harmonious and at least relatively complete. Actually, however, such truth as they have is diminished in scope, degraded into a lower movement, divided and falsified by fragmentation, afflicted with incompleteness, marred by perversion. Mental knowledge is not an integral but always a partial knowledge. It adds constantly detail to detail, but has a difficulty in relating them aright; its wholes too are not real but incomplete wholes which it tends to substitute for the more real and integral knowledge. And even if it arrived at a kind of integral knowledge, it would still be by a sort of putting together, a mental and intellectual arrangement, all artificial unity and not an essential and real oneness. If that were all, the mind might conceivably arrive at some kind of half reflection half translation of an integral knowledge, but the radical malady would still be that it would not be the real thing, but only at best an intellectual representation. That the mental truth must always be, an intellectual, emotional and sensational representation, not the direct truth, not truth itself in its body and essence.
The supermind can do all that the mind does, present and combine details and what might be called aspects or subordinate wholes, but it does it in a different way and on another basis. It does not like the mind bring In the element of deviation, false extension and imposed error, but even when it gives a partial knowledge, gives it in a firm and exact light, and always there is behind implied or opened to the consciousness the essential truth on which the details and subordinate wholes or aspects depend. The supermind has also a power of representation, but its representations are not of the intellectual kind, they are filled with the body and substance of light of the truth in its essence, they are its vehicles and not substituted figures. There is such an infinite power of representation of the supermind and that is the divine power of which the mental action is a sort of fallen representative. This representative supermind has a lower action in what I have called the supramental reason, nearest to the mental and into which the mental can most easily be taken up, and a higher action in the integral supermind that sees all things in the unity and infinity of the divine consciousness and self-existence. But on whatever level, it is a different thing from the corresponding mental action, direct, luminous, secure. The whole inferiority of the mind comes from its being the action of the soul after it has fallen into the nescience and the ignorance and is trying to get back to self-knowledge but doing it still on the basis of the nescience and the ignorance. The mind is the ignorance attempting to know or it is the ignorance receiving a derivative knowledge: it is the action of Avidya. The supermind is always the disclosure of an inherent and self-existent knowledge; it is the action of Vidya.
5.01 - The Dakini, Salgye Du Dalma, #The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep, #Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, #Buddhism
Unfortunately there are only too many weak characters who
can, like sheep, be driven by a mere bark.
5.04 - Supermind and the Life Divine, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Matter and, as mind, life and Matter have manifested on the earth, so too must Supermind in the inevitable course of things manifest in this world of Matter. In fact, a supermind is already here but it is involved, concealed behind this manifest mind, life and Matter and not yet acting overtly or in its own power: if it acts, it is through these inferior powers and modified by their characters and so not yet recognisable. It is only by the approach and arrival of the descending Supermind that it can be liberated upon earth and reveal itself in the action of our material, vital and mental parts so that these lower powers can become portions of a total divinised activity of our whole being: it is that that will bring to us a completely realised divinity or the divine life. It is indeed so that life and mind involved in
Matter have realised themselves here; for only what is involved can evolve, otherwise there could be no emergence.
5.07 - Mind of Light, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Nature itself the inevitable force of the principle compelling the process of emergence of its inherent powers and characters, the essential features which constitute its reality. As the evolutionary principle emerges, there are also two constant features of the process of the emergence: there are the gradations by which it climbs out of the involution and manifests more and more of its power, its possibilities, the force of the Godhead within it, and there is a constant manifestation of all types and forms of its being which are the visible, indicative and efficient embodiments of its essential nature. There appear in the evolutionary process organised forms and activities of Matter, the types of life and the living beings, the types of mind and the thinking beings, the luminosities and greatnesses of the spiritual principle and the spiritual beings whose nature, character, personality, mark the stages of the ascent towards the highest heights of the evolution and the ultimate largest manifestation of what it is in itself and must become by the force of time and the allrevealing Spirit. This is the real sense and drive of what we see as evolution: the multiplication and variation of forms is only the means of its process. Each gradation contains the possibility and the certainty of the grades beyond it: the emergence of more and more developed forms and powers points to more perfected forms and greater powers beyond them, and each emergence of consciousness and the conscious beings proper to it enables the rise to a greater consciousness beyond and the greater order of beings up to the ultimate godheads of which Nature is striving and is destined to show herself capable. Matter developed its organised forms until it became capable of embodying living
Mind of Light
Appendix 4 - Priest Spells, #Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E, #unset, #Zen
This spell discovers emanations of evil, or of good in the case of the reverse spell, from any creature, object, or area. Character alignment, however, is revealed only under unusual circumstances: characters who are strongly aligned, who do not stray from their faith, and who are of at least 9th level might radiate good or evil if intent upon appropriate actions. Powerful monsters, such as rakshasas or ki-rin, send forth emanations of evil or good, even if polymorphed. Aligned undead radiate evil, for it is this power and negative force that enable them to continue existing. An evilly cursed object or unholy water radiates evil, but a hidden trap or an unintelligent viper does not.
The degree of evil (dim, faint, moderate, strong, or overwhelming) and possibly its general nature (expectant, malignant, gloating, etc.) can be noted. If the evil is overwhelming, the priest has a 10% chance per level of detecting its general bent (lawful, neutral, or chaotic). The duration of a detect evil (or detect good) spell is one turn plus five rounds per level of the priest. Thus, a 1st-level priest can cast a spell with a 15-round duration, a 2nd-level priest can cast a spell with a 20-round duration, etc. The spell has a path of detection 10 feet wide in the direction the priest is facing. The priest must concentrate--stop, have quiet, and intently seek to detect the aura--for at least one round to receive a reading.
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The recipient of a water breathing spell is able to brea the under water freely for the duration of the spell--i.e., one hour for each experience level of the caster. The priest can divide the base duration between multiple characters. Thus, an 8th-level priest can confer this ability to two characters for four hours, four for two hours, eight for one hour, etc., to a minimum of one half-hour per character.
The reverse, air breathing, enables water-breathing creatures to survive comfortably in the atmosphere for an equal duration. Note that neither version prevents the recipient creature from breathing in its natural element.
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The reverse of this spell, cloak of fear, empowers a single creature touched to radiate a personal aura of fear, at will, out to a 3-foot radius. All other characters and creatures within this aura must roll successful saving throws vs. spell or run away in panic for 2d8 rounds. Affected individuals may or may not drop items, at the DM's option.
The spell has no effect upon undead of any sort. The effect can be used only once, and the spell expires after eight hours if not brought down sooner. Members of the recipient's party are not immune to the effects of the spell.
Averroes Search, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
gardens of Hindustan and whose petals, of a blood red, exhibit characters
which read: "There is no god but the God, Mohammed is the Apostle of
BOOK III. - The external calamities of Rome, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Where, then, were those gods who are supposed to be justly worshipped for the slender and delusive prosperity of this world, when the Romans, who were seduced to their service by lying wiles, were harassed by such calamities? Where were they when Valerius the consul was killed while defending the Capitol, that had been fired by exiles and slaves? He was himself better able to defend the temple of Jupiter, than that crowd of divinities with their most high and mighty king, whose temple he came to the rescue of, were able to defend him. Where were they when the city, worn out with unceasing seditions, was waiting in some kind of calm for the return of the ambassadors who had been sent to Athens to borrow laws, and was desolated by dreadful famine and pestilence? Where were they when the people, again distressed with[Pg 115] famine, created for the first time a prefect of the market; and when Spurius Melius, who, as the famine increased, distributed corn to the famishing masses, was accused of aspiring to royalty, and at the instance of this same prefect, and on the authority of the superannuated dictator L. Quintius, was put to death by Quintus Servilius, master of the horse,an event which occasioned a serious and dangerous riot? Where were they when that very severe pestilence visited Rome, on account of which the people, after long and wearisome and useless supplications of the helpless gods, conceived the idea of celebrating Lectisternia, which had never been done before; that is to say, they set couches in honour of the gods, which accounts for the name of this sacred rite, or rather sacrilege?[147] Where were they when, during ten successive years of reverses, the Roman army suffered frequent and great losses among the Veians, and would have been destroyed but for the succour of Furius Camillus, who was afterwards banished by an ungrateful country? Where were they when the Gauls took, sacked, burned, and desolated Rome? Where were they when that memorable pestilence wrought such destruction, in which Furius Camillus too perished, who first defended the ungrateful republic from the Veians, and afterwards saved it from the Gauls? Nay, during this plague they introduced a new pestilence of scenic entertainments, which spread its more fatal contagion, not to the bodies, but the morals of the Romans? Where were they when another frightful pestilence visited the city I mean the poisonings imputed to an incredible number of noble Roman matrons, whose characters were infected with a disease more fatal than any plague? Or when both consuls at the head of the army were beset by the Samnites in the Caudine Forks, and forced to strike a shameful treaty, 600 Roman knights being kept as hostages; while the troops, having laid down their arms, and being stripped of everything, were made to pass under the yoke with one garment each? Or when, in the midst of a serious pestilence, lightning struck the Roman camp and killed many? Or when Rome was driven, by the violence of another intolerable plague, to send to Epidaurus for sculapius as a god of medicine; since the[Pg 116] frequent adulteries of Jupiter in his youth had not perhaps left this king of all who so long reigned in the Capitol, any leisure for the study of medicine? Or when, at one time, the Lucanians, Brutians, Samnites, Tuscans, and Senonian Gauls conspired against Rome, and first slew her ambassadors, then overthrew an army under the prtor, putting to the sword 13,000 men, besides the commander and seven tribunes? Or when the people, after the serious and long-continued disturbances at Rome, at last plundered the city and withdrew to Janiculus; a danger so grave, that Hortensius was created dictator,an office which they had recourse to only in extreme emergencies; and he, having brought back the people, died while yet he retained his office,an event without precedent in the case of any dictator, and which was a shame to those gods who had now sculapius among them?
At that time, indeed, so many wars were everywhere engaged in, that through scarcity of soldiers they enrolled for military service the proletarii, who received this name, because, being too poor to equip for military service, they had leisure to beget offspring.[148] Pyrrhus, king of Greece, and at that time of wide-spread renown, was invited by the Tarentines to enlist himself against Rome. It was to him that Apollo, when consulted regarding the issue of his enterprise, uttered with some pleasantry so ambiguous an oracle, that whichever alternative happened, the god himself should be counted divine. For he so worded the oracle,[149] that whether Pyrrhus was conquered by the Romans, or the Romans by Pyrrhus, the soothsaying god would securely await the issue. And then what frightful massacres of both armies ensued! Yet Pyrrhus remained conqueror, and would have been able now to proclaim Apollo a true diviner, as he understood the oracle, had not the Romans been the conquerors in the next engagement. And while such disastrous wars were being waged, a terrible disease broke out among the women. For the pregnant women died before delivery. And sculapius, I fancy, excused himself in this matter on the ground that he professed to be arch-physician, not midwife. Cattle, too, similarly perished;[Pg 117] so that it was believed that the whole race of animals was destined to become extinct. Then what shall I say of that memorable winter in which the weather was so incredibly severe, that in the Forum frightfully deep snow lay for forty days together, and the Tiber was frozen? Had such things happened in our time, what accusations we should have heard from our enemies! And that other great pestilence, which raged so long and carried off so many; what shall I say of it? Spite of all the drugs of sculapius, it only grew worse in its second year, till at last recourse was had to the Sibylline books,a kind of oracle which, as Cicero says in his De Divinatione, owes significance to its interpreters, who make doubtful conjectures as they can or as they wish. In this instance, the cause of the plague was said to be that so many temples had been used as private residences. And thus sculapius for the present escaped the charge of either ignominious negligence or want of skill. But why were so many allowed to occupy sacred tenements without interference, unless because supplication had long been addressed in vain to such a crowd of gods, and so by degrees the sacred places were deserted of worshippers, and being thus vacant, could without offence be put at least to some human uses? And the temples, which were at that time laboriously recognised and restored that the plague might be stayed, fell afterwards into disuse, and were again devoted to the same human uses. Had they not thus lapsed into obscurity, it could not have been pointed to as proof of Varro's great erudition, that in his work on sacred places he cites so many that were unknown. Meanwhile, the restoration of the temples procured no cure of the plague, but only a fine excuse for the gods.
BOOK II. -- PART I. ANTHROPOGENESIS., #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
But one ought to discriminate between the characters of this symbol. For instance: Zoroastrian
Esotericism is identical with that of the Secret Doctrine; and when, as an example, we read in the
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terrestrial works, does not prevent them from being, in their original divine characters, the beneficent
Entities who, symbolized in Prometheus, brought light to the world, and endowed humanity with
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several different characters. In the Burham-i-Kati he is mentioned as "Hormig," a name of the planet
Mercury or Budha; and Wednes[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
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under whichever of these characters, he is always credited with having transferred all the sciences from
latent to active potency, i.e., with having been the first to teach magic to Egypt and to Greece, before
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Strange to say, the Occult teaching reverses the characters; it is the anthropomorphous archangel with
the Christians, and the man-like God with the Hindus, which represent matter in this case; and the
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of the Red Indians, and even the Chinese characters -- as "attempts of the early races of mankind to
express their untutored thoughts," will decidedly object to our statement, that writing was invented by
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and (b), excavated on that site ear thenware vessels with inscriptions in characters unknown to the
paleontologists and the all-denying Sanskritists. Who will now deny Troy, or these Archaic
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* It is an historical fact that Sanchoniathon compiled and wrote in Phoenician characters -- from annals
and State documents in the archives of the older Phoenician cities -- the full record of their religion in
BOOK II. -- PART III. ADDENDA. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
level of the present rivers -- must have combined the characters of the Turanian and the negro. The
Canstadt, or La Naulette, man, may have been black, and had nothing to do with the Aryan type whose
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stone weapons, we find all those craniological characters generally considered as the
sign of great intellectual development" (de Quatrefages, "The Human Species, p. 312.)
BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
welcome to these, had they not cunningly distorted the original characters, perverted the philosophical
meaning, and taking advantage of the ignorance of Christendom -- the result of long ages of mental
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Makara, and with some other Puranic characters connected with the Zodiacal signs. This is done in
order to veil what was one of the most suggestive glyphs of the primitive Temples. They are mixed up
BOOK I. -- PART I. COSMIC EVOLUTION, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
and type: all the works, in fact, that have ever been written, in whatever language or characters, since
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-0-in.htm (5 von 24) [06.05.2003 03:30:27]
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Mary is Mare, the Sea, the great illusion symbolically) -- yet these three characters have no
connection, nor can they have any, since Bopp, has "laid down his code of phonetic laws."
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purposely perverted, and for great characters slandered by posterity, mangled out of recognition,
between the two cars of Jagannatha -- Bigotry and Materialism; one accepting too much, the other
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great characters, who were preceded and followed by a long and interminable line of other famous
Antediluvian and Post-diluvian Masters in the arts. Thus only could be shown, on semi-traditional and
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didymium. Here was a body betraying all the recognised characters of an element. It had been
separated with much difficulty from other bodies which approximated closely to it in their properties,
BOOK I. -- PART III. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
physical characters of it have been little studied. Whether it moves in currents, we do
not know; whether it circulates, we do not know; whether it is formed in the centres and
BOOK I. -- PART II. THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
. . Very remarkable also is the line of characters, apparently Palmyrene, upon the legs of
the first Anubis. As for the figure of the serpent, supposing these talismans to emanate
BOOK IX. - Of those who allege a distinction among demons, some being good and others evil, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
The definition which Apuleius gives of demons, and in which he of course includes all demons, is that they are in nature animals, in soul subject to passion, in mind reasonable, in body aerial, in duration eternal. Now in these five qualities he has named absolutely nothing which is proper to good men and not also to bad. For when Apuleius had spoken of the celestials first, and had then extended his description so as to include an account of those who dwell far below on the earth, that, after describing the two extremes of rational being, he might proceed to speak of the intermediate demons, he says, "Men, therefore, who are endowed with the faculty of reason and speech, whose soul is immortal and their members mortal, who have weak and anxious spirits, dull and corruptible bodies, dissimilar characters, similar ignorance, who are obstinate in their audacity, and persistent in their hope, whose labour is vain, and whose fortune is ever on the wane, their race immortal, themselves perishing, each generation replenished with creatures whose life is swift and their wisdom slow, their death sudden and their life a wail,these are the men who dwell on the earth."[341] In recounting so many qualities which belong to the large proportion of men, did he forget that which is the property of the few when he speaks of their wisdom being slow? If this had been omitted, this his description of the human race, so carefully elaborated, would have been defective. And when he commended the excellence of the gods, he affirmed that they excelled in that very blessedness to which he thinks men must attain by wisdom. And therefore, if he had wished us to believe that some of the demons[Pg 363] are good, he should have inserted in his description something by which we might see that they have, in common with the gods, some share of blessedness, or, in common with men, some wisdom. But, as it is, he has mentioned no good quality by which the good may be distinguished from the bad. For although he refrained from giving a full account of their wickedness, through fear of offending, not themselves but their worshippers, for whom he was writing, yet he sufficiently indicated to discerning readers what opinion he had of them; for only in the one article of the eternity of their bodies does he assimilate them to the gods, all of whom, he asserts, are good and blessed, and absolutely free from what he himself calls the stormy passions of the demons; and as to the soul, he quite plainly affirms that they resemble men and not the gods, and that this resemblance lies not in the possession of wisdom, which even men can attain to, but in the perturbation of passions which sway the foolish and wicked, but is so ruled by the good and wise that they prefer not to admit rather than to conquer it. For if he had wished it to be understood that the demons resembled the gods in the eternity not of their bodies but of their souls, he would certainly have admitted men to share in this privilege, because, as a Platonist, he of course must hold that the human soul is eternal. Accordingly, when describing this race of living beings, he said that their souls were immortal, their members mortal. And, consequently, if men have not eternity in common with the gods because they have mortal bodies, demons have eternity in common with the gods because their bodies are immortal.
9. Whether the intercession of the demons can secure for men the friendship of the celestial gods.
Book of Imaginary Beings (text), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
because written characters were regarded as a mystery
known to the few. Perhaps, more simply, the idea of a visible mark standing for a sound baffled the Nordic mind, and
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two characters, the better known is the imaginary, and the
Salamanders inclusion in this book will surprise no one.
BOOK VI. - Of Varros threefold division of theology, and of the inability of the gods to contri bute anything to the happiness of the future life, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Now had these things been feigned by the poets and acted by the mimics, they would without any doubt have been said to pertain to the fabulous theology, and would have been judged worthy to be separated from the dignity of the civil theology. But when these shameful things,not of the poets, but of the people; not of the mimics, but of the sacred things; not of the theatres, but of the temples, that is, not of the fabulous, but of the civil theology,are reported by so great an author, not in vain do the actors represent with theatrical art the baseness of the gods, which is so great; but surely in vain do the priests attempt, by rites called sacred, to represent their nobleness of character, which has no existence. There are sacred rites of Juno; and these are celebrated in her beloved island, Samos, where she was given in marriage to Jupiter. There are sacred rites of Ceres, in which Proserpine is sought for, having been carried off by Pluto. There are sacred rites Venus, in which, her beloved Adonis being slain by a boar's tooth, the lovely youth is lamented. There are sacred rites of the mother of the gods, in which the beautiful youth Atys, loved by her, and castrated by her through a woman's jealousy, is deplored by men who have suffered the like calamity, whom they call Galli. Since, then, these things are more unseemly than all scenic abomination, why is it that they strive to separate, as it were, the fabulous fictions of the poet concerning the gods, as, forsooth, pertaining to the theatre, from the civil theology which they wish to belong to the city, as though they were separating from noble and worthy things, things unworthy and base? Wherefore there is more reason to thank the stage-actors, who have spared the eyes of men, and have not laid bare by theatrical exhibition all the things which are hid by the walls of the temples. What good is to be thought of their sacred rites which are concealed in darkness, when[Pg 246] those which are brought forth into the light are so detestable? And certainly they themselves have seen what they transact in secret through the agency of mutilated and effeminate men. Yet they have not been able to conceal those same men miserably and vilely enervated and corrupted. Let them persuade whom they can that they transact anything holy through such men, who, they cannot deny, are numbered, and live among their sacred things. We know not what they transact, but we know through whom they transact; for we know what things are transacted on the stage, where never, even in a chorus of harlots, hath one who is mutilated or an effeminate appeared. And, nevertheless, even these things are acted by vile and infamous characters; for, indeed, they ought not to be acted by men of good character. What, then, are those sacred rites, for the performance of which holiness has chosen such men as not even the obscenity of the stage has admitted?
8. Concerning the interpretations, consisting of natural explanations, which the pagan teachers attempt to show for their gods.
BOOK XIX. - A review of the philosophical opinions regarding the Supreme Good, and a comparison of these opinions with the Christian belief regarding happiness, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
We give a much more unlimited approval to their idea that the life of the wise man must be social. For how could the city of God (concerning which we are already writing no less than the nineteenth book of this work) either take a beginning or be developed, or attain its proper destiny, if the life of the saints were not a social life? But who can enumerate all the great grievances with which human society abounds in[Pg 308] the misery of this mortal state? Who can weigh them? Hear how one of their comic writers makes one of his characters express the common feelings of all men in this matter: "I am married; this is one misery. Children are born to me; they are additional cares."[629] What shall I say of the miseries of love which Terence also recounts"slights, suspicions, quarrels, war to-day, peace to-morrow?"[630] Is not human life full of such things? Do they not often occur even in honourable friendships? On all hands we experience these slights, suspicions, quarrels, war, all of which are undoubted evils; while, on the other hand, peace is a doubtful good, because we do not know the heart of our friend, and though we did know it to-day, we should be as ignorant of what it might be to-morrow. Who ought to be, or who are more friendly than those who live in the same family? And yet who can rely even upon this friendship, seeing that secret treachery has often broken it up, and produced enmity as bitter as the amity was sweet, or seemed sweet by the most perfect dissimulation? It is on this account that the words of Cicero so move the heart of every one, and provoke a sigh: "There are no snares more dangerous than those which lurk under the guise of duty or the name of relationship. For the man who is your declared foe you can easily baffle by precaution; but this hidden, intestine, and domestic danger not merely exists, but overwhelms you before you can foresee and examine it."[631] It is also to this that allusion is made by the divine saying, "A man's foes are those of his own household,"[632]words which one cannot hear without pain; for though a man have sufficient fortitude to endure it with equanimity, and sufficient sagacity to baffle the malice of a pretended friend, yet if he himself is a good man, he cannot but be greatly pained at the discovery of the perfidy of wicked men, whether they have always been wicked and merely feigned goodness, or have fallen from a better to a malicious disposition. If, then, home, the natural refuge from the ills of life, is itself not safe, what shall we say of the city, which, as it is larger, is so much the more filled with lawsuits civil and criminal, and is never[Pg 309] free from the fear, if sometimes from the actual outbreak, of disturbing and bloody insurrections and civil wars?
6. Of the error of human judgments when the truth is hidden.
--
For in his book called , in which he collects and comments upon the responses which he pretends were uttered by the gods concerning divine things, he says I give his own words as they have been translated from the Greek: "To one who inquired what god he should propitiate in order to recall his wife from Christianity, Apollo replied in the following verses." Then the following words are given as those of Apollo: "You will probably find it easier to write lasting characters on the water, or lightly fly like a bird through the air, than to restore right feeling in your impious wife once she has polluted herself. Let her remain as she pleases in her foolish deception, and sing false laments to her dead God, who was condemned by right-minded judges, and perished ignominiously by a violent death." Then after these verses of Apollo (which we have given in a Latin version that does not preserve the metrical form), he goes on to say: "In these verses Apollo exposed the incurable corruption of the Christians, saying that the Jews, rather than the Christians, recognised God." See how he misrepresents Christ, giving the Jews the preference to the Christians in the recognition of God. This was his explanation of Apollo's verses, in which he says that Christ was put to death by right-minded or just judges,in other words, that He deserved to die. I leave the responsibility of this oracle regarding Christ on the lying interpreter of Apollo, or on this philosopher who believed it or possibly himself invented it; as to its agreement with Porphyry's opinions or with other oracles, we shall in a little have something to say. In this passage, however, he says that the Jews, as the interpreters of God, judged justly in pronouncing Christ to be worthy of the most shameful death. He should have listened, then, to this God of the Jews to whom he bears this testimony, when that God says, "He that sacrificeth to any other god save to the Lord alone shall be utterly destroyed." But let us come to still plainer expressions, and hear how great a God Porphyry thinks the God of the Jews is. Apollo, he says, when asked whether word, i.e. reason, or law is the better thing, replied in the following verses. Then[Pg 335] he gives the verses of Apollo, from which I select the following as sufficient: "God, the Generator, and the King prior to all things, before whom heaven and earth, and the sea, and the hidden places of hell tremble, and the deities themselves are afraid, for their law is the Father whom the holy Hebrews honour." In this oracle of his god Apollo, Porphyry avowed that the God of the Hebrews is so great that the deities themselves are afraid before Him. I am surprised, therefore, that when God said, He that sacrificeth to other gods shall be utterly destroyed, Porphyry himself was not afraid lest he should be destroyed for sacrificing to other gods.
This philosopher, however, has also some good to say of Christ, oblivious, as it were, of that contumely of his of which we have just been speaking; or as if his gods spoke evil of Christ only while asleep, and recognised Him to be good, and gave Him His deserved praise, when they awoke. For, as if he were about to proclaim some marvellous thing passing belief, he says, "What we are going to say will certainly take some by surprise. For the gods have declared that Christ was very pious, and has become immortal, and that they cherish his memory: that the Christians, however, are polluted, contaminated, and involved in error. And many other such things," he says, "do the gods say against the Christians." Then he gives specimens of the accusations made, as he says, by the gods against them, and then goes on: "But to some who asked Hecate whether Christ were a God, she replied, You know the condition of the disembodied immortal soul, and that if it has been severed from wisdom it always errs. The soul you refer to is that of a man foremost in piety: they worship it because they mistake the truth." To this so-called oracular response he adds the following words of his own: "Of this very pious man, then, Hecate said that the soul, like the souls of other good men, was after death dowered with immortality, and that the Christians through ignorance worship it. And to those who ask why he was condemned to die, the oracle of the goddess replied, The body, indeed, is always exposed to torments, but the souls of the pious abide in heaven. And the soul you inquire about has been the fatal cause of error to other souls which were not fated to receive the gifts[Pg 336] of the gods, and to have the knowledge of immortal Jove. Such souls are therefore hated by the gods; for they who were fated not to receive the gifts of the gods, and not to know God, were fated to be involved in error by means of him you speak of. He himself, however, was good, and heaven has been opened to him as to other good men. You are not, then, to speak evil of him, but to pity the folly of men: and through him men's danger is imminent."
BOOK XVIII. - A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
39. About the Hebrew written characters which that language always possessed.
Now we must not believe that Heber, from whose name the word Hebrew is derived, preserved and transmitted the Hebrew language to Abraham only as a spoken language, and that the Hebrew letters began with the giving of the law through Moses; but rather that this language, along with its letters, was preserved by that succession of fathers. Moses, indeed, appointed some among the people of God to teach letters, before they could know any letters of the divine law.[Pg 266] The Scripture calls these men , who may be called in Latin inductores or introductores of letters, because they, as it were, introduce them into the hearts of the learners, or rather lead those whom they teach into them. Therefore no nation could vaunt itself over our patriarchs and prophets by any wicked vanity for the antiquity of its wisdom; since not even Egypt, which is wont falsely and vainly to glory in the antiquity of her doctrines, is found to have preceded in time the wisdom of our patriarchs in her own wisdom, such as it is. Neither will any one dare to say that they were most skilful in wonderful sciences before they knew letters, that is, before Isis came and taught them there. Besides, what, for the most part, was that memorable doctrine of theirs which was called wisdom but astronomy, and it may be some other sciences of that kind, which usually have more power to exercise men's wit than to enlighten their minds with true wisdom? As regards philosophy, which professes to teach men something which shall make them happy, studies of that kind flourished in those lands about the times of Mercury whom they called Trismegistus, long before the sages and philosophers of Greece, but yet after Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and even after Moses himself. At that time, indeed, when Moses was born, Atlas is found to have lived, that great astronomer, the brother of Prometheus, and maternal grandson of the elder Mercury, of whom that Mercury Trismegistus was the grandson.
ENNEAD 02.03 - Whether Astrology is of any Value., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
7. In fact, we would still have to ask ourselves for the cause of the events (in our world) even if the stars, like many other things, really prognosticated future events. We would still have to wonder at the maintenance of the order without which no events could be prefigured. We might, therefore, liken the stars to letters, at every moment flung along the heavens, and which, after having been displayed, continued in ceaseless motion, so that, while exercising another function in the universe, they would still possess significance.212 Thus in a being animated by a single principle it is possible to judge one part by another; as it is possible, by the study of the eyes or some other organ of an individual, to conclude as to his characters, to the dangers to which he is exposed, and how he may escape them. Just as our members are parts of our bodies, so are we ourselves parts of the universe. Things, therefore, are made for each other. Everything is significant, and the wise man can conclude from one thing to another. Indeed many habitual occurrences are foreseen by men generally. In the universe everything is reduced to a single system.213 To1173 this co-ordination is due the possibility of birds furnishing us with omens, and other animals furnishing us with presages. All things mutually depend from each other. Everything conspires to a single purpose,214 not only in each individual, whose parts are perfectly related; but also in the universe, and that in a higher degree, and far earlier. This multiple being could be turned into a single universal Living organism only by a single principle. As in the human body every organ has its individual function, likewise in the universe each being plays its individual part; so much the more that they not only form part of the universe, but that they themselves also form universes not without importance.215 All things, therefore, proceed from a single principle, each plays its individual part, and lends each other mutual assistance. Neither are they separate from the universe, but they act and react on each other, each assisting or hindering the other. But their progress is not fortuitous, nor is it the result of chance. They form a series, where each, by a natural bond, is the effect of the preceding one, and the cause of the following one.216
THERE IS A NATURAL LAW WHICH DIRECTS THE SOUL.
ENNEAD 03.01 - Concerning Fate., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01, #Plotinus, #Christianity
2. To stop, on arriving at these causes, and to refuse further analysis, is to exhibit superficiality. This is against the advice of the sages, who advise ascending to the primary causes, to the supreme principles. For example, why, during the full moon, should the one man steal, and the other one not steal? Or, why, under the same influence of the heavens, has the one, and not the other, been sick? Why, by use of the same means, has the one become rich, and the other poor? The difference of dispositions, characters, and fortunes force us to seek ulterior causes, as indeed the sages have always done.
MATERIALISTS SUPPORT DETERMINISM.
ENNEAD 03.02 - Of Providence., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
Besides, if this world contain both bad and good people, and if the latter play the greater part in the world, there will take place that which is seen in dramas where the poet, at times, imposes his ideas on the actors, and again at others relies on their ingenuity. The obtaining of the first, second or third rank by an actor does not depend on the poet. The poet only assigns to each the part he is capable of filling, and assigns to him a suitable place. Likewise (in the world), each one occupies his assigned place, and the bad man, as well as the good one, has the place that suits him. Each one, according to his nature and character, comes to occupy the place that suits him, and that he had chosen, and then speaks and acts with piety if he be good, and impiously, if he be evil. Before the beginning of the drama, the actors already had their proper characters; they only developed it. In dramas composed by men, it is the poet who assigns their parts to the actors; and the latter are responsible only for the efficiency or inefficiency of their acting; for they have nothing to do but repeat the words of the poet. But in this drama (of life), of which men imitate certain parts when their nature is poetic, it is the soul that is the actor. This actor receives his part from the creator, as stage-actors receive from the poet their masks, garments, their purple robe, or their rags. Thus in the drama of the world it is not from chance that the soul receives her part.
1072
ENNEAD 03.03 - Continuation of That on Providence., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
1. The question (why some reasons are souls, while others are reasons merely, when at the same time universal Reason is a certain Soul), may be answered as follows. Universal Reason (which proceeds from the universal Soul) embraces both good and bad things, which equally belong to its parts; it does not engender them, but exists with them in its universality. In fact, these "logoses" (or reasons) (or, particular souls), are the acts of the universal Soul; and these reasons being parts (of the universal Soul) have parts (of the operations) as their acts (or energies). Therefore, just as the universal Soul, which is one, has different parts, so this difference occurs again in the reasons and in the operations they effect. Just as their works (harmonize), so do the souls themselves mutually harmonize; they harmonize in this, that their very diversity, or even opposition, forms an unity. By a natural necessity does everything proceed from, and return to unity; thus creatures which are different, or even opposed, are not any the less co-ordinated in the same system, and that because they proceed from the same principle. Thus horses or human beings are subsumed under the unity of the animal species, even though animals of any1078 kind, such as horses, for example, bite each other, and struggle against each other with a jealousy which rises to fury; and though animals of either species, including man, do as much. Likewise, with inanimate things; they form divers species, and should likewise be subsumed under the genus of inanimate things; and, if you go further, to essence, and further still, to super-Essence (the One). Having thus related or subsumed everything to this principle, let us again descend, by dividing it. We shall see unity splitting, as it penetrates and embraces everything simultaneously in a unique (or all-embracing system). Thus divided, the unity constitutes a multiple organism; each of its constituent parts acts according to its nature, without ceasing to form part of the universal Being; thus is it that the fire burns, the horse behaves as a horse should, and men perform deeds as various as their characters. In short, every being acts, lives well or badly, according to its own nature.
APPARENT CHANCE REALLY IS THE PLAN OF A DIVINE GENERAL PROVIDENCE.
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Besides, our individual characters might be derived from pre-existences. In this case we would say that our ("seminal) reason" has degenerated as a result of our antecedents, that our soul has lost her force by irradiating what was below her. Besides, our ("seminal) reason" contains within itself the very reason of our constituent matter, a matter which it discovered, or conformed to its own nature.87 In fact, the ("seminal) reason" of an ox resides in no matter other than that of an ox. Thus, as said (Plato88), the soul finds herself destined to pass into the bodies of animals other than men, because, just like the ("seminal) reason," she has altered, and has become such as to animate an ox, instead of a man. By this decree of divine justice she becomes still worse than she was.
CAUSES OF DETERIORATION.
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In fact, the function of the diviner is not to distinguish the cause, but the fact; his art consists in reading the characters traced by nature, and which invariably indicate the order and concatenation of facts; or rather, in studying the signs of the universal movement, which designate the character of each being before its revelation in himself. All beings, in fact, exercise upon each other a reciprocal influence, and concur together in the constitution and perpetuity of the world.92 To him who studies, analogy reveals the march of events, because all kinds of divination are founded on its laws; for things were not to depend on each other, but to have relations founded on their resemblance.93 This no doubt is that which94 is meant by the expression that "analogy embraces everything."
ANALOGY DEMANDED BY THE UNITY OF GOD.
ENNEAD 04.06a - Of Sensation and Memory., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03, #Plotinus, #Christianity
The case of hearing is similar to that of sight. The impression is in the air; the sounds consist in a series of distinct vibrations, similar to letters traced by some person who is speaking. By virtue of her power and her being, the soul reads the characters traced in the air, when they present themselves to the faculty which is suitable to reception of them. As to taste and smell also, we must distinguish between the experience and the cognition of it; this latter cognition constitutes sensation, or a judgment of the experience, and differs therefrom entirely.832228
COGNITION OF INTELLIGIBLE OBJECTS STILL LESS ADMITS OF AN IMPRESSION.
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In general all the processes of the soul occur in a manner very different from that conceived by unobservant men. Psychic phenomena occur very differently from sense-phenomena, the analogy of which may lead to very serious errors. Hence the above unobservant men imagine that sensations and memories resemble characters inscribed on tablets or sheets of paper.235 Whether they consider the soul material (as do the Stoics), or as immaterial (as do the Peripatetics), they certainly do not realize the absurd consequences which would result from the above hypothesis.
837
ENNEAD 06.05 - The One and Identical Being is Everywhere Present In Its Entirety.345, #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04, #Plotinus, #Christianity
Beauty not in physical characters, but in color form, v. 8.2 (31-553).
Beauty of body need not imply attachment thereto, ii. 9.17 (33-634).
Euthyphro, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The subtle connection with the Apology and the Crito; the holding back of the conclusion, as in the Charmides, Lysis, Laches, Protagoras, and other Dialogues; the deep insight into the religious world; the dramatic power and play of the two characters; the inimitable irony, are reasons for believing that the Euthyphro is a genuine Platonic writing. The spirit in which the popular representations of mythology are denounced recalls Republic II. The virtue of piety has been already mentioned as one of five in the Protagoras, but is not reckoned among the four cardinal virtues of Republic IV. The figure of Daedalus has occurred in the Meno; that of Proteus in the Euthydemus and Io. The kingly science has already appeared in the Euthydemus, and will reappear in the Republic and Statesman. But neither from these nor any other indications of similarity or difference, and still less from arguments respecting the suitableness of this little work to aid Socrates at the time of his trial or the reverse, can any evidence of the date be obtained.
EUTHYPHRO
Gorgias, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The dialogue naturally falls into three divisions, to which the three characters of Gorgias, Polus, and Callicles respectively correspond; and the form and manner change with the stages of the argument. Socrates is deferential towards Gorgias, playful and yet cutting in dealing with the youthful Polus, ironical and sarcastic in his encounter with Callicles. In the first division the question is askedWhat is rhetoric? To this there is no answer given, for Gorgias is soon made to contradict himself by Socrates, and the argument is transferred to the hands of his disciple Polus, who rushes to the defence of his master. The answer has at last to be given by Socrates himself, but before he can even explain his meaning to Polus, he must enlighten him upon the great subject of shams or flatteries. When Polus finds his favourite art reduced to the level of cookery, he replies that at any rate rhetoricians, like despots, have great power. Socrates denies that they have any real power, and hence arise the three paradoxes already mentioned. Although they are strange to him, Polus is at last convinced of their truth; at least, they seem to him to follow legitimately from the premises. Thus the second act of the dialogue closes. Then Callicles appears on the scene, at first maintaining that pleasure is good, and that might is right, and that law is nothing but the combination of the many weak against the few strong. When he is confuted he withdraws from the argument, and leaves Socrates to arrive at the conclusion by himself. The conclusion is that there are two kinds of statesmanship, a higher and a lowerthat which makes the people better, and that which only flatters them, and he exhorts Callicles to choose the higher. The dialogue terminates with a mythus of a final judgment, in which there will be no more flattery or disguise, and no further use for the teaching of rhetoric.
The characters of the three interlocutors also correspond to the parts which are assigned to them. Gorgias is the great rhetorician, now advanced in years, who goes from city to city displaying his talents, and is celebrated throughout Greece. Like all the Sophists in the dialogues of Plato, he is vain and boastful, yet he has also a certain dignity, and is treated by Socrates with considerable respect. But he is no match for him in dialectics. Although he has been teaching rhetoric all his life, he is still incapable of defining his own art. When his ideas begin to clear up, he is unwilling to admit that rhetoric can be wholly separated from justice and injustice, and this lingering sentiment of morality, or regard for public opinion, enables Socrates to detect him in a contradiction. Like Protagoras, he is described as of a generous nature; he expresses his approbation of Socrates' manner of approaching a question; he is quite 'one of Socrates' sort, ready to be refuted as well as to refute,' and very eager that Callicles and Socrates should have the game out. He knows by experience that rhetoric exercises great influence over other men, but he is unable to explain the puzzle how rhetoric can teach everything and know nothing.
Polus is an impetuous youth, a runaway 'colt,' as Socrates describes him, who wanted originally to have taken the place of Gorgias under the pretext that the old man was tired, and now avails himself of the earliest opportunity to enter the lists. He is said to be the author of a work on rhetoric, and is again mentioned in the Phaedrus, as the inventor of balanced or double forms of speech (compare Gorg.; Symp.). At first he is violent and ill-mannered, and is angry at seeing his master overthrown. But in the judicious hands of Socrates he is soon restored to good-humour, and compelled to assent to the required conclusion. Like Gorgias, he is overthrown because he compromises; he is unwilling to say that to do is fairer or more honourable than to suffer injustice. Though he is fascinated by the power of rhetoric, and dazzled by the splendour of success, he is not insensible to higher arguments. Plato may have felt that there would be an incongruity in a youth maintaining the cause of injustice against the world. He has never heard the other side of the question, and he listens to the paradoxes, as they appear to him, of Socrates with evident astonishment. He can hardly understand the meaning of Archelaus being miserable, or of rhetoric being only useful in self-accusation. When the argument with him has fairly run out.
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It is scarcely necessary to repeat that Plato is playing 'both sides of the game,' and that in criticising the characters of Gorgias and Polus, we are not passing any judgment on historical individuals, but only attempting to analyze the 'dramatis personae' as they were conceived by him. Neither is it necessary to enlarge upon the obvious fact that Plato is a dramatic writer, whose real opinions cannot always be assumed to be those which he puts into the mouth of Socrates, or any other speaker who appears to have the best of the argument; or to repeat the observation that he is a poet as well as a philosopher; or to remark that he is not to be tried by a modern standard, but interpreted with reference to his place in the history of thought and the opinion of his time.
It has been said that the most characteristic feature of the Gorgias is the assertion of the right of dissent, or private judgment. But this mode of stating the question is really opposed both to the spirit of Plato and of ancient philosophy generally. For Plato is not asserting any abstract right or duty of toleration, or advantage to be derived from freedom of thought; indeed, in some other parts of his writings (e.g. Laws), he has fairly laid himself open to the charge of intolerance. No speculations had as yet arisen respecting the 'liberty of prophesying;' and Plato is not affirming any abstract right of this nature: but he is asserting the duty and right of the one wise and true man to dissent from the folly and falsehood of the many. At the same time he acknowledges the natural result, which he hardly seeks to avert, that he who speaks the truth to a multitude, regardless of consequences, will probably share the fate of Socrates.
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There might have been a condition of human life in which the penalty followed at once, and was proportioned to the offence. Moral evil would then be scarcely distinguishable from physical; mankind would avoid vice as they avoid pain or death. But nature, with a view of deepening and enlarging our characters, has for the most part hidden from us the consequences of our actions, and we can only foresee them by an effort of reflection. To awaken in us this habit of reflection is the business of early education, which is continued in maturer years by observation and experience. The spoilt child is in later life said to be unfortunatehe had better have suffered when he was young, and been saved from suffering afterwards. But is not the sovereign equally unfortunate whose education and manner of life are always concealing from him the consequences of his own actions, until at length they are revealed to him in some terrible downfall, which may, perhaps, have been caused not by his own fault? Another illustration is afforded by the pauper and criminal classes, who scarcely reflect at all, except on the means by which they can compass their immediate ends. We pity them, and make allowances for them; but we do not consider that the same principle applies to human actions generally. Not to have been found out in some dishonesty or folly, regarded from a moral or religious point of view, is the greatest of misfortunes. The success of our evil doings is a proof that the gods have ceased to strive with us, and have given us over to ourselves. There is nothing to remind us of our sins, and therefore nothing to correct them. Like our sorrows, they are healed by time;
'While rank corruption, mining all within,
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Socrates would teach us a lesson which we are slow to learnthat good intentions, and even benevolent actions, when they are not prompted by wisdom, are of no value. We believe something to be for our good which we afterwards find out not to be for our good. The consequences may be inevitable, for they may follow an invariable law, yet they may often be the very opposite of what is expected by us. When we increase pauperism by almsgiving; when we tie up property without regard to changes of circumstances; when we say hastily what we deliberately disapprove; when we do in a moment of passion what upon reflection we regret; when from any want of self-control we give another an advantage over uswe are doing not what we will, but what we wish. All actions of which the consequences are not weighed and foreseen, are of this impotent and paralytic sort; and the author of them has 'the least possible power' while seeming to have the greatest. For he is actually bringing about the reverse of what he intended. And yet the book of nature is open to him, in which he who runs may read if he will exercise ordinary attention; every day offers him experiences of his own and of other men's characters, and he passes them unheeded by. The contemplation of the consequences of actions, and the ignorance of men in regard to them, seems to have led Socrates to his famous thesis:'Virtue is knowledge;' which is not so much an error or paradox as a half truth, seen first in the twilight of ethical philosophy, but also the half of the truth which is especially needed in the present age. For as the world has grown older men have been too apt to imagine a right and wrong apart from consequences; while a few, on the other hand, have sought to resolve them wholly into their consequences. But Socrates, or Plato for him, neither divides nor identifies them; though the time has not yet arrived either for utilitarian or transcendental systems of moral philosophy, he recognizes the two elements which seem to lie at the basis of morality. (Compare the following: 'Now, and for us, it is a time to Hellenize and to praise knowing; for we have Hebraized too much and have overvalued doing. But the habits and discipline received from Hebraism remain for our race an eternal possession. And as humanity is constituted, one must never assign the second rank to-day without being ready to restore them to the first to-morrow.' Sir William W. Hunter, Preface to Orissa.)
Fourth Thesis:
Kafka and His Precursors, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
the arrow and Achilles are the first Kafkian characters in literature. In the
second text which chance laid before me, the affinity is not one of form but
Liber 46 - The Key of the Mysteries, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
We shall exhibit true religion with such characters, that no one,
believer or unbeliever, can fail to recognize it; that will be the
--
characters of that Truth, which is in science, "reality;" in judgment,
"reason;" and in ethics, "justice." Finally, we shall acquaint you with
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truths for faith; but it must recognize by unmistakable {72} characters
the one true religion, that is to say, that which alone merits the name
of religion in that it unites all the characters which agree with that
great and universal aspiration of the human soul.
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these characters. The investigators accordingly kept them, and took
them to that Professor of High {134} Magic whose approach had been so
--
characters of the divine world.
"The second pertains to philosophical hieroglyphs, it represents the
--
and sometimes flows from the hosts, imprinting mysterious characters on
the altars! I am talking to you of what I have seen, of what I have
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characters and hearts in blood. ... Must one believe that God abandons
the holiest objects to the false miracles of the devil? Should not one
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bleeding characters which had been observed upon hosts since the
beginning of the ecstasies and miracles of Vintras.
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There is what was written in characters of blood upon the pretended
miraculous hosts of Vintras!
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have stated, and that we ourselves saw and explained the characters
according to magical science and the true keys of the Qabalah.
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characters of light upon a page of shadow.
The page of shadows consists of blind beliefs.
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with each other in manoeuvring the hieroglyphic characters across the
numbers.<--
interpret its characters. But there should be an exact correspondence
of one obelisk with the other, and each sign should receive its
--
far as despotism; short thumbs, on the contrary, show characters gentle
and easily controlled.
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what we have understood through deciphering the qabalistic characters,
and the allegories of which he makes use in his work:
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As to the reproduction of signs and characters by that universal fluid,
which we call astral light, to deny its possibility would be to take
--
The diabolical signatures and characters, which are produced without
the knowledge of the medium, are evidently not proofs of a tacit or
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characters upon the hosts of Vintras, regularly consecrated by Charvoz,
were those which, in {229} Black Magic, are absolutely recognized for
--
not doubt, presents the double characters of a mirage, and of a sudden
projection of astral larvae, occasioned by the heat of the atmosphere,
LUX.07 - ENCHANTMENT, #Liber Null, #Peter J Carroll, #Occultism
In practice, many difficulties can be gotten around by using various types of sigil. The desire is represented by some pictorial glyph, by a wax image to be wounded, bound, or healed, by the characters of a magical alphabet, or by some image in the mind's eye.
All these serve as a focus for the will. Concentration on these spells should be augmented by some form of gnostic exaltation to cast the enchantment.
Meno, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Anytus is the type of the narrow-minded man of the world, who is indignant at innovation, and equally detests the popular teacher and the true philosopher. He seems, like Aristophanes, to regard the new opinions, whether of Socrates or the Sophists, as fatal to Athenian greatness. He is of the same class as Callicles in the Gorgias, but of a different variety; the immoral and sophistical doctrines of Callicles are not attributed to him. The moderation with which he is described is remarkable, if he be the accuser of Socrates, as is apparently indicated by his parting words. Perhaps Plato may have been desirous of showing that the accusation of Socrates was not to be attri buted to badness or malevolence, but rather to a tendency in men's minds. Or he may have been regardless of the historical truth of the characters of his dialogue, as in the case of Meno and Critias. Like Chaerephon (Apol.) the real Anytus was a democrat, and had joined Thrasybulus in the conflict with the thirty.
The Protagoras arrived at a sort of hypothetical conclusion, that if 'virtue is knowledge, it can be taught.' In the Euthydemus, Socrates himself offered an example of the manner in which the true teacher may draw out the mind of youth; this was in contrast to the quibbling follies of the Sophists. In the Meno the subject is more developed; the foundations of the enquiry are laid deeper, and the nature of knowledge is more distinctly explained. There is a progression by antagonism of two opposite aspects of philosophy. But at the moment when we approach nearest, the truth doubles upon us and passes out of our reach. We seem to find that the ideal of knowledge is irreconcilable with experience. In human life there is indeed the profession of knowledge, but right opinion is our actual guide. There is another sort of progress from the general notions of Socrates, who asked simply, 'what is friendship?' 'what is temperance?' 'what is courage?' as in the Lysis, Charmides, Laches, to the transcendentalism of Plato, who, in the second stage of his philosophy, sought to find the nature of knowledge in a prior and future state of existence.
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We cannot argue that Plato was more likely to have written, as he has done, of Meno before than after his miserable death; for we have already seen, in the examples of Charmides and Critias, that the characters in Plato are very far from resembling the same characters in history. The repulsive picture which is given of him in the Anabasis of Xenophon, where he also appears as the friend of Aristippus 'and a fair youth having lovers,' has no other trait of likeness to the Meno of Plato.
The place of the Meno in the series is doubtfully indicated by internal evidence. The main character of the Dialogue is Socrates; but to the 'general definitions' of Socrates is added the Platonic doctrine of reminiscence. The problems of virtue and knowledge have been discussed in the Lysis, Laches, Charmides, and Protagoras; the puzzle about knowing and learning has already appeared in the Euthydemus. The doctrines of immortality and pre-existence are carried further in the Phaedrus and Phaedo; the distinction between opinion and knowledge is more fully developed in the Theaetetus. The lessons of Prodicus, whom he facetiously calls his master, are still running in the mind of Socrates. Unlike the later Platonic Dialogues, the Meno arrives at no conclusion. Hence we are led to place the Dialogue at some point of time later than the Protagoras, and earlier than the Phaedrus and Gorgias. The place which is assigned to it in this work is due mainly to the desire to bring together in a single volume all the Dialogues which contain allusions to the trial and death of Socrates.
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SOCRATES: If they had been, there would assuredly have been discerners of characters among us who would have known our future great men; and on their showing we should have adopted them, and when we had got them, we should have kept them in the citadel out of the way of harm, and set a stamp upon them far rather than upon a piece of gold, in order that no one might tamper with them; and when they grew up they would have been useful to the state?
MENO: Yes, Socrates, that would have been the right way.
Partial Magic in the Quixote, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
suggest that if the characters of a fictional work can be readers or spectators,
we, its readers or spectators, can be fictitious. In 1833, Carlyle observed that
Sophist, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
There is little worthy of remark in the characters of the Sophist. The most noticeable point is the final retirement of Socrates from the field of argument, and the substitution for him of an Eleatic stranger, who is described as a pupil of Parmenides and Zeno, and is supposed to have descended from a higher world in order to convict the Socratic circle of error. As in the Timaeus, Plato seems to intimate by the withdrawal of Socrates that he is passing beyond the limits of his teaching; and in the Sophist and Statesman, as well as in the Parmenides, he probably means to imply that he is making a closer approach to the schools of Elea and Megara. He had much in common with them, but he must first submit their ideas to criticism and revision. He had once thought as he says, speaking by the mouth of the Eleatic, that he understood their doctrine of Not-being; but now he does not even comprehend the nature of Being. The friends of ideas (Soph.) are alluded to by him as distant acquaintances, whom he criticizes ab extra; we do not recognize at first sight that he is criticizing himself. The character of the Eleatic stranger is colourless; he is to a certain extent the reflection of his father and master, Parmenides, who is the protagonist in the dialogue which is called by his name. Theaetetus himself is not distinguished by the remarkable traits which are attributed to him in the preceding dialogue. He is no longer under the spell of Socrates, or subject to the operation of his midwifery, though the fiction of question and answer is still maintained, and the necessity of taking Theaetetus along with him is several times insisted upon by his partner in the discussion. There is a reminiscence of the old Theaetetus in his remark that he will not tire of the argument, and in his conviction, which the Eleatic thinks likely to be permanent, that the course of events is governed by the will of God. Throughout the two dialogues Socrates continues a silent auditor, in the Statesman just reminding us of his presence, at the commencement, by a characteristic jest about the statesman and the philosopher, and by an allusion to his namesake, with whom on that ground he claims relationship, as he had already claimed an affinity with Theaetetus, grounded on the likeness of his ugly face. But in neither dialogue, any more than in the Timaeus, does he offer any criticism on the views which are propounded by another.
The style, though wanting in dramatic power,in this respect resembling the Philebus and the Laws,is very clear and accurate, and has several touches of humour and satire. The language is less fanciful and imaginative than that of the earlier dialogues; and there is more of bitterness, as in the Laws, though traces of a similar temper may also be observed in the description of the 'great brute' in the Republic, and in the contrast of the lawyer and philosopher in the Theaetetus. The following are characteristic passages: 'The ancient philosophers, of whom we may say, without offence, that they went on their way rather regardless of whether we understood them or not;' the picture of the materialists, or earth-born giants, 'who grasped oaks and rocks in their hands,' and who must be improved before they can be reasoned with; and the equally humourous delineation of the friends of ideas, who defend themselves from a fastness in the invisible world; or the comparison of the Sophist to a painter or maker (compare Republic), and the hunt after him in the rich meadow-lands of youth and wealth; or, again, the light and graceful touch with which the older philosophies are painted ('Ionian and Sicilian muses'), the comparison of them to mythological tales, and the fear of the Eleatic that he will be counted a parricide if he ventures to lay hands on his father Parmenides; or, once more, the likening of the Eleatic stranger to a god from heaven.All these passages, notwithstanding the decline of the style, retain the impress of the great master of language. But the equably diffused grace is gone; instead of the endless variety of the early dialogues, traces of the rhythmical monotonous cadence of the Laws begin to appear; and already an approach is made to the technical language of Aristotle, in the frequent use of the words 'essence,' 'power,' 'generation,' 'motion,' 'rest,' 'action,' 'passion,' and the like.
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The term 'Sophist' is one of those words of which the meaning has been both contracted and enlarged. Passages may be quoted from Herodotus and the tragedians, in which the word is used in a neutral sense for a contriver or deviser or inventor, without including any ethical idea of goodness or badness. Poets as well as philosophers were called Sophists in the fifth century before Christ. In Plato himself the term is applied in the sense of a 'master in art,' without any bad meaning attaching to it (Symp.; Meno). In the later Greek, again, 'sophist' and 'philosopher' became almost indistinguishable. There was no reproach conveyed by the word; the additional association, if any, was only that of rhetorician or teacher. Philosophy had become eclecticism and imitation: in the decline of Greek thought there was no original voice lifted up 'which reached to a thousand years because of the god.' Hence the two words, like the characters represented by them, tended to pass into one another. Yet even here some differences appeared; for the term 'Sophist' would hardly have been applied to the greater names, such as Plotinus, and would have been more often used of a professor of philosophy in general than of a maintainer of particular tenets.
But the real question is, not whether the word 'Sophist' has all these senses, but whether there is not also a specific bad sense in which the term is applied to certain contemporaries of Socrates. Would an Athenian, as Mr. Grote supposes, in the fifth century before Christ, have included Socrates and Plato, as well as Gorgias and Protagoras, under the specific class of Sophists? To this question we must answer, No: if ever the term is applied to Socrates and Plato, either the application is made by an enemy out of mere spite, or the sense in which it is used is neutral. Plato, Xenophon, Isocrates, Aristotle, all give a bad import to the word; and the Sophists are regarded as a separate class in all of them. And in later Greek literature, the distinction is quite marked between the succession of philosophers from Thales to Aristotle, and the Sophists of the age of Socrates, who appeared like meteors for a short time in different parts of Greece. For the purposes of comedy, Socrates may have been identified with the Sophists, and he seems to complain of this in the Apology. But there is no reason to suppose that Socrates, differing by so many outward marks, would really have been confounded in the mind of Anytus, or Callicles, or of any intelligent Athenian, with the splendid foreigners who from time to time visited Athens, or appeared at the Olympic games. The man of genius, the great original thinker, the disinterested seeker after truth, the master of repartee whom no one ever defeated in an argument, was separated, even in the mind of the vulgar Athenian, by an 'interval which no geometry can express,' from the balancer of sentences, the interpreter and reciter of the poets, the divider of the meanings of words, the teacher of rhetoric, the professor of morals and manners.
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3. There is no ground for disbelieving that the principal Sophists, Gorgias, Protagoras, Prodicus, Hippias, were good and honourable men. The notion that they were corrupters of the Athenian youth has no real foundation, and partly arises out of the use of the term 'Sophist' in modern times. The truth is, that we know little about them; and the witness of Plato in their favour is probably not much more historical than his witness against them. Of that national decline of genius, unity, political force, which has been sometimes described as the corruption of youth, the Sophists were one among many signs;in these respects Athens may have degenerated; but, as Mr. Grote remarks, there is no reason to suspect any greater moral corruption in the age of Demos thenes than in the age of Pericles. The Athenian youth were not corrupted in this sense, and therefore the Sophists could not have corrupted them. It is remarkable, and may be fairly set down to their credit, that Plato nowhere attri butes to them that peculiar Greek sympathy with youth, which he ascribes to Parmenides, and which was evidently common in the Socratic circle. Plato delights to exhibit them in a ludicrous point of view, and to show them always rather at a disadvantage in the company of Socrates. But he has no quarrel with their characters, and does not deny that they are respectable men.
The Sophist, in the dialogue which is called after him, is exhibited in many different lights, and appears and reappears in a variety of forms. There is some want of the higher Platonic art in the Eleatic Stranger eliciting his true character by a labourious process of enquiry, when he had already admitted that he knew quite well the difference between the Sophist and the Philosopher, and had often heard the question discussed;such an anticipation would hardly have occurred in the earlier dialogues. But Plato could not altogether give up his Socratic method, of which another trace may be thought to be discerned in his adoption of a common instance before he proceeds to the greater matter in hand. Yet the example is also chosen in order to damage the 'hooker of men' as much as possible; each step in the pedigree of the angler suggests some injurious reflection about the Sophist. They are both hunters after a living prey, nearly related to tyrants and thieves, and the Sophist is the cousin of the parasite and flatterer. The effect of this is heightened by the accidental manner in which the discovery is made, as the result of a scientific division. His descent in another branch affords the opportunity of more 'unsavoury comparisons.' For he is a retail trader, and his wares are either imported or home-made, like those of other retail traders; his art is thus deprived of the character of a liberal profession. But the most distinguishing characteristic of him is, that he is a disputant, and higgles over an argument. A feature of the Eristic here seems to blend with Plato's usual description of the Sophists, who in the early dialogues, and in the Republic, are frequently depicted as endeavouring to save themselves from disputing with Socrates by making long orations. In this character he parts company from the vain and impertinent talker in private life, who is a loser of money, while he is a maker of it.
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The influence of opposites is felt in practical life. The understanding sees one side of a question onlythe common sense of mankind joins one of two parties in politics, in religion, in philosophy. Yet, as everybody knows, truth is not wholly the possession of either. But the characters of men are one-sided and accept this or that aspect of the truth. The understanding is strong in a single abstract principle and with this lever moves mankind. Few attain to a balance of principles or recognize truly how in all human things there is a thesis and antithesis, a law of action and of reaction. In politics we require order as well as liberty, and have to consider the proportions in which under given circumstances they may be safely combined. In religion there is a tendency to lose sight of morality, to separate goodness from the love of truth, to worship God without attempting to know him. In philosophy again there are two opposite principles, of immediate experience and of those general or a priori truths which are supposed to transcend experience. But the common sense or common opinion of mankind is incapable of apprehending these opposite sides or viewsmen are determined by their natural bent to one or other of them; they go straight on for a time in a single line, and may be many things by turns but not at once.
Hence the importance of familiarizing the mind with forms which will assist us in conceiving or expressing the complex or contrary aspects of life and nature. The danger is that they may be too much for us, and obscure our appreciation of facts. As the complexity of mechanics cannot be understood without mathematics, so neither can the many-sidedness of the mental and moral world be truly apprehended without the assistance of new forms of thought. One of these forms is the unity of opposites. Abstractions have a great power over us, but they are apt to be partial and one-sided, and only when modified by other abstractions do they make an approach to the truth. Many a man has become a fatalist because he has fallen under the dominion of a single idea. He says to himself, for example, that he must be either free or necessaryhe cannot be both. Thus in the ancient world whole schools of philosophy passed away in the vain attempt to solve the problem of the continuity or divisibility of matter. And in comparatively modern times, though in the spirit of an ancient philosopher, Bishop Berkeley, feeling a similar perplexity, is inclined to deny the truth of infinitesimals in mathematics. Many difficulties arise in practical religion from the impossibility of conceiving body and mind at once and in adjusting their movements to one another. There is a border ground between them which seems to belong to both; and there is as much difficulty in conceiving the body without the soul as the soul without the body. To the 'either' and 'or' philosophy ('Everything is either A or not A') should at least be added the clause 'or neither,' 'or both.' The double form makes reflection easier and more conformable to experience, and also more comprehensive. But in order to avoid paradox and the danger of giving offence to the unmetaphysical part of mankind, we may speak of it as due to the imperfection of language or the limitation of human faculties. It is nevertheless a discovery which, in Platonic language, may be termed a 'most gracious aid to thought.'
Symposium translated by B Jowett, #Symposium, #Plato, #Philosophy
He professes to open a new vein of discourse, in which he begins by treating of the origin of human nature. The sexes were originally three, men, women, and the union of the two; and they were made roundhaving four hands, four feet, two faces on a round neck, and the rest to correspond. Terrible was their strength and swiftness; and they were essaying to scale heaven and attack the gods. Doubt reigned in the celestial councils; the gods were divided between the desire of quelling the pride of man and the fear of losing the sacrifices. At last Zeus hit upon an expedient. Let us cut them in two, he said; then they will only have half their strength, and we shall have twice as many sacrifices. He spake, and split them as you might split an egg with an hair; and when this was done, he told Apollo to give their faces a twist and re-arrange their persons, taking out the wrinkles and tying the skin in a knot about the navel. The two halves went about looking for one another, and were ready to die of hunger in one another's arms. Then Zeus invented an adjustment of the sexes, which enabled them to marry and go their way to the business of life. Now the characters of men differ accordingly as they are derived from the original man or the original woman, or the original man-woman. Those who come from the man-woman are lascivious and adulterous; those who come from the woman form female attachments; those who are a section of the male follow the male and embrace him, and in him all their desires centre. The pair are inseparable and live together in pure and manly affection; yet they cannot tell what they want of one another. But if Hephaestus were to come to them with his instruments and propose that they should be melted into one and remain one here and hereafter, they would acknowledge that this was the very expression of their want. For love is the desire of the whole, and the pursuit of the whole is called love. There was a time when the two sexes were only one, but now God has halved them,much as the Lacedaemonians have cut up the Arcadians,and if they do not behave themselves he will divide them again, and they will hop about with half a nose and face in basso relievo. Wherefore let us exhort all men to piety, that we may obtain the goods of which love is the author, and be reconciled to God, and find our own true loves, which rarely happens in this world. And now I must beg you not to suppose that I am alluding to Pausanias and Agathon (compare Protag.), for my words refer to all mankind everywhere.
Some raillery ensues first between Aristophanes and Eryximachus, and then between Agathon, who fears a few select friends more than any number of spectators at the theatre, and Socrates, who is disposed to begin an argument. This is speedily repressed by Phaedrus, who reminds the disputants of their tri bute to the god. Agathon's speech follows:
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The charactersof Phaedrus, who has been the cause of more philosophical discussions than any other man, with the exception of Simmias the Theban (Phaedrus); of Aristophanes, who disguises under comic imagery a serious purpose; of Agathon, who in later life is satirized by Aristophanes in the Thesmophoriazusae, for his effeminate manners and the feeble rhythms of his verse; of Alcibiades, who is the same strange contrast of great powers and great vices, which meets us in historyare drawn to the life; and we may suppose the less-known characters of Pausanias and Eryximachus to be also true to the traditional recollection of them (compare Phaedr., Protag.; and compare Sympos. with Phaedr.). We may also remark that Aristodemus is called 'the little' in Xenophon's Memorabilia (compare Symp.).
The speeches have been said to follow each other in pairs: Phaedrus and Pausanias being the ethical, Eryximachus and Aristophanes the physical speakers, while in Agathon and Socrates poetry and philosophy blend together. The speech of Phaedrus is also described as the mythological, that of Pausanias as the political, that of Eryximachus as the scientific, that of Aristophanes as the artistic (!), that of Socrates as the philosophical. But these and similar distinctions are not found in Plato;they are the points of view of his critics, and seem to impede rather than to assist us in understanding him.
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This, or something like this, was the speech of Phaedrus; and some other speeches followed which Aristodemus did not remember; the next which he repeated was that of Pausanias. Phaedrus, he said, the argument has not been set before us, I think, quite in the right form;we should not be called upon to praise Love in such an indiscriminate manner. If there were only one Love, then what you said would be well enough; but since there are more Loves than one,should have begun by determining which of them was to be the theme of our praises. I will amend this defect; and first of all I will tell you which Love is deserving of praise, and then try to hymn the praiseworthy one in a manner worthy of him. For we all know that Love is inseparable from Aphrodite, and if there were only one Aphrodite there would be only one Love; but as there are two goddesses there must be two Loves. And am I not right in asserting that there are two goddesses? The elder one, having no mother, who is called the heavenly Aphroditeshe is the daughter of Uranus; the younger, who is the daughter of Zeus and Dioneher we call common; and the Love who is her fellow-worker is rightly named common, as the other love is called heavenly. All the gods ought to have praise given to them, but not without distinction of their natures; and therefore I must try to distinguish the characters of the two Loves. Now actions vary according to the manner of their performance. Take, for example, that which we are now doing, drinking, singing and talkingthese actions are not in themselves either good or evil, but they turn out in this or that way according to the mode of performing them; and when well done they are good, and when wrongly done they are evil; and in like manner not every love, but only that which has a noble purpose, is noble and worthy of praise. The Love who is the offspring of the common Aphrodite is essentially common, and has no discrimination, being such as the meaner sort of men feel, and is apt to be of women as well as of youths, and is of the body rather than of the soulthe most foolish beings are the objects of this love which desires only to gain an end, but never thinks of accomplishing the end nobly, and therefore does good and evil quite indiscriminately. The goddess who is his mother is far younger than the other, and she was born of the union of the male and female, and partakes of both. But the offspring of the heavenly Aphrodite is derived from a mother in whose birth the female has no part,she is from the male only; this is that love which is of youths, and the goddess being older, there is nothing of wantonness in her. Those who are inspired by this love turn to the male, and delight in him who is the more valiant and intelligent nature; any one may recognise the pure enthusiasts in the very character of their attachments. For they love not boys, but intelligent beings whose reason is beginning to be developed, much about the time at which their beards begin to grow. And in choosing young men to be their companions, they mean to be faithful to them, and pass their whole life in company with them, not to take them in their inexperience, and deceive them, and play the fool with them, or run away from one to another of them. But the love of young boys should be forbidden by law, because their future is uncertain; they may turn out good or bad, either in body or soul, and much noble enthusiasm may be thrown away upon them; in this matter the good are a law to themselves, and the coarser sort of lovers ought to be restrained by force; as we restrain or attempt to restrain them from fixing their affections on women of free birth. These are the persons who bring a reproach on love; and some have been led to deny the lawfulness of such attachments because they see the impropriety and evil of them; for surely nothing that is decorously and lawfully done can justly be censured. Now here and in Lacedaemon the rules about love are perplexing, but in most cities they are simple and easily intelligible; in Elis and Boeotia, and in countries having no gifts of eloquence, they are very straightforward; the law is simply in favour of these connexions, and no one, whether young or old, has anything to say to their discredit; the reason being, as I suppose, that they are men of few words in those parts, and therefore the lovers do not like the trouble of pleading their suit. In Ionia and other places, and generally in countries which are subject to the barbarians, the custom is held to be dishonourable; loves of youths share the evil repute in which philosophy and gymnastics are held, because they are inimical to tyranny; for the interests of rulers require that their subjects should be poor in spirit (compare Arist. Politics), and that there should be no strong bond of friendship or society among them, which love, above all other motives, is likely to inspire, as our Athenian tyrants learned by experience; for the love of Aristogeiton and the constancy of Harmodius had a strength which undid their power. And, therefore, the ill-repute into which these attachments have fallen is to be ascribed to the evil condition of those who make them to be ill-reputed; that is to say, to the self-seeking of the governors and the cowardice of the governed; on the other hand, the indiscriminate honour which is given to them in some countries is attri butable to the laziness of those who hold this opinion of them. In our own country a far better principle prevails, but, as I was saying, the explanation of it is rather perplexing. For, observe that open loves are held to be more honourable than secret ones, and that the love of the noblest and highest, even if their persons are less beautiful than others, is especially honourable. Consider, too, how great is the encouragement which all the world gives to the lover; neither is he supposed to be doing anything dishonourable; but if he succeeds he is praised, and if he fail he is blamed. And in the pursuit of his love the custom of mankind allows him to do many strange things, which philosophy would bitterly censure if they were done from any motive of interest, or wish for office or power. He may pray, and entreat, and supplicate, and swear, and lie on a mat at the door, and endure a slavery worse than that of any slavein any other case friends and enemies would be equally ready to prevent him, but now there is no friend who will be ashamed of him and admonish him, and no enemy will charge him with meanness or flattery; the actions of a lover have a grace which ennobles them; and custom has decided that they are highly commendable and that there no loss of character in them; and, what is strangest of all, he only may swear and forswear himself (so men say), and the gods will forgive his transgression, for there is no such thing as a lover's oath. Such is the entire liberty which gods and men have allowed the lover, according to the custom which prevails in our part of the world. From this point of view a man fairly argues that in Athens to love and to be loved is held to be a very honourable thing. But when parents forbid their sons to talk with their lovers, and place them under a tutor's care, who is appointed to see to these things, and their companions and equals cast in their teeth anything of the sort which they may observe, and their elders refuse to silence the reprovers and do not rebuke themany one who reflects on all this will, on the contrary, think that we hold these practices to be most disgraceful. But, as I was saying at first, the truth as I imagine is, that whether such practices are honourable or whether they are dishonourable is not a simple question; they are honourable to him who follows them honourably, dishonourable to him who follows them dishonourably. There is dishonour in yielding to the evil, or in an evil manner; but there is honour in yielding to the good, or in an honourable manner. Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul, inasmuch as he is not even stable, because he loves a thing which is in itself unstable, and therefore when the bloom of youth which he was desiring is over, he takes wing and flies away, in spite of all his words and promises; whereas the love of the noble disposition is life-long, for it becomes one with the everlasting. The custom of our country would have both of them proven well and truly, and would have us yield to the one sort of lover and avoid the other, and therefore encourages some to pursue, and others to fly; testing both the lover and beloved in contests and trials, until they show to which of the two classes they respectively belong. And this is the reason why, in the first place, a hasty attachment is held to be dishonourable, because time is the true test of this as of most other things; and secondly there is a dishonour in being overcome by the love of money, or of wealth, or of political power, whether a man is frightened into surrender by the loss of them, or, having experienced the benefits of money and political corruption, is unable to rise above the seductions of them. For none of these things are of a permanent or lasting nature; not to mention that no generous friendship ever sprang from them. There remains, then, only one way of honourable attachment which custom allows in the beloved, and this is the way of virtue; for as we admitted that any service which the lover does to him is not to be accounted flattery or a dishonour to himself, so the beloved has one way only of voluntary service which is not dishonourable, and this is virtuous service.
For we have a custom, and according to our custom any one who does service to another under the idea that he will be improved by him either in wisdom, or in some other particular of virtuesuch a voluntary service, I say, is not to be regarded as a dishonour, and is not open to the charge of flattery. And these two customs, one the love of youth, and the other the practice of philosophy and virtue in general, ought to meet in one, and then the beloved may honourably indulge the lover. For when the lover and beloved come together, having each of them a law, and the lover thinks that he is right in doing any service which he can to his gracious loving one; and the other that he is right in showing any kindness which he can to him who is making him wise and good; the one capable of communicating wisdom and virtue, the other seeking to acquire them with a view to education and wisdom, when the two laws of love are fulfilled and meet in onethen, and then only, may the beloved yield with honour to the lover. Nor when love is of this disinterested sort is there any disgrace in being deceived, but in every other case there is equal disgrace in being or not being deceived. For he who is gracious to his lover under the impression that he is rich, and is disappointed of his gains because he turns out to be poor, is disgraced all the same: for he has done his best to show that he would give himself up to any one's 'uses base' for the sake of money; but this is not honourable. And on the same principle he who gives himself to a lover because he is a good man, and in the hope that he will be improved by his company, shows himself to be virtuous, even though the object of his affection turn out to be a villain, and to have no virtue; and if he is deceived he has committed a noble error. For he has proved that for his part he will do anything for anybody with a view to virtue and improvement, than which there can be nothing nobler. Thus noble in every case is the acceptance of another for the sake of virtue. This is that love which is the love of the heavenly godess, and is heavenly, and of great price to individuals and cities, making the lover and the beloved alike eager in the work of their own improvement. But all other loves are the offspring of the other, who is the common goddess. To you, Phaedrus, I offer this my contri bution in praise of love, which is as good as I could make extempore.
Talks 225-239, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
M.: That is what is: the others are only appearances. Diversity is not its nature. We are reading the printed characters on paper but ignore the paper which is the background. Similarly you are taken up by the manifestations of the mind and let go the background.
Whose fault is it?
Talks With Sri Aurobindo 1, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Goering are together, that the characters of the three come out very well. In
other photos the disclosure is not so striking: the expressions get hidden. But
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for Vyasa's universal sympathy, one has to understand an important distinction in art. Every creator has to identify himself with his characters in order
338
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through the mouths of his characters in dialogue form and there is little left
of the story itself. That is the difficulty with intellectual novels. They may
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NIRODBARAN: X puts in a lot of incidents and most of characters are rich people.
SRI AUROBINDO: There may be a lot of incidents, but everything depends on
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"Sacrifice". Of course, that is the best of the lot, but there too the characters
are not living. They have all come out of his mind. He has the idea that
Talks With Sri Aurobindo 2, #Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
of you. In drama one is concerned with drawing characters with life and its
reactions. I suppose what he wants is something more like Francis Thompson's poetry.
The Act of Creation text, #The Act of Creation, #Arthur Koestler, #Psychology
operation, the literary critic of 'two-dimensional' characters. Science
is said to aim at Truth, Art at Beauty; but the criteria of Truth (such
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windmills. The stock characters in the farce the cuckold, the miser,
the stutterer, the hunchback, the foreigner appear as comic, intel-
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tragedy out of the repetitive, inarticulate stammer of his characters;
Chekhov focussing the reader's attention on a fly crawling on a lump
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child, the dramatist who speaks through his characters' voices, employ
the same procedure with the opposite intent and effect.
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manners, or characters. In his discussion of the first, Bergson came
closest to the essence of humour: 'A situation is always comic', he
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when he tries to describe what his characters feel (as distinct from what
they think or do). He can write streams of what goes on in the cranial
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destiny. In later forms of literature, it is characters which are made to
stand on their heads, or are turned inside out like a glove. Prince
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The characters have devotees who insist on believing in their
reality. When the buxom Elsie Tanner was involved with a sailor
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nevertheless believe that the characters are real? The answer is neither
yes nor no, but yes and no. The so-called law of contradiction in
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tator with one or several of the characters. In both cases the identifica-
tion is only partial, but nevertheless the magic is powerful enough to
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that it is listening not to the narrator but to the characters themselves;
its use is still as frequent in the modern novel as it was in the Homeric
--
his characters look like and feel. But writers have evolved other
techniques to create the illusion that their characters are alive, and to
make their audience fell in love with a heroine who exists only as
--
the characters in the picture-strip no longer represent individuals the
swift, the strong, the wise are collective nouns, abstracted universals.
--
of their characters; others give little or none. Here again the general
trend is away from the over-explicit statement towards the suggestive
--
must be all the more true regarding our images of fictional characters
which lack any sensory basis. A character may indeed be 'alive' with
--
it must be present, otherwise the characters would be gliding through
a frictionless universe.
--
once. He identifies himself with several characters in turn Caesar,
Brutus, Antony, projecting some aspect of himself into each of them,
--
logical characters as indicators of gene-function. ... A genetics of
behaviour still has to be developed.* 1
--
and number-lore. In both these diametrically opposed characters, un-
sublimated residues of opposite kind temporarily dominated the
Theaetetus, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
The Socrates of the Theaetetus is the same as the Socrates of the earlier dialogues. He is the invincible disputant, now advanced in years, of the Protagoras and Symposium; he is still pursuing his divine mission, his 'Herculean labours,' of which he has described the origin in the Apology; and he still hears the voice of his oracle, bidding him receive or not receive the truant souls. There he is supposed to have a mission to convict men of self-conceit; in the Theaetetus he has assigned to him by God the functions of a man-midwife, who delivers men of their thoughts, and under this character he is present throughout the dialogue. He is the true prophet who has an insight into the natures of men, and can divine their future; and he knows that sympathy is the secret power which unlocks their thoughts. The hit at Aristides, the son of Lysimachus, who was specially committed to his charge in the Laches, may be remarked by the way. The attempt to discover the definition of knowledge is in accordance with the character of Socrates as he is described in the Memorabilia, asking What is justice? what is temperance? and the like. But there is no reason to suppose that he would have analyzed the nature of perception, or traced the connexion of Protagoras and Heracleitus, or have raised the difficulty respecting false opinion. The humorous illustrations, as well as the serious thoughts, run through the dialogue. The snubnosedness of Theaetetus, a characteristic which he shares with Socrates, and the man-midwifery of Socrates, are not forgotten in the closing words. At the end of the dialogue, as in the Euthyphro, he is expecting to meet Meletus at the porch of the king Archon; but with the same indifference to the result which is everywhere displayed by him, he proposes that they shall reassemble on the following day at the same spot. The day comes, and in the Sophist the three friends again meet, but no further allusion is made to the trial, and the principal share in the argument is assigned, not to Socrates, but to an Eleatic stranger; the youthful Theaetetus also plays a different and less independent part. And there is no allusion in the Introduction to the second and third dialogues, which are afterwards appended. There seems, therefore, reason to think that there is a real change, both in the characters and in the design.
The dialogue is an enquiry into the nature of knowledge, which is interrupted by two digressions. The first is the digression about the midwives, which is also a leading thought or continuous image, like the wave in the Republic, appearing and reappearing at intervals. Again and again we are reminded that the successive conceptions of knowledge are extracted from Theaetetus, who in his turn truly declares that Socrates has got a great deal more out of him than ever was in him. Socrates is never weary of working out the image in humorous details,discerning the symptoms of labour, carrying the child round the hearth, fearing that Theaetetus will bite him, comparing his conceptions to wind-eggs, asserting an hereditary right to the occupation. There is also a serious side to the image, which is an apt similitude of the Socratic theory of education (compare Republic, Sophist), and accords with the ironical spirit in which the wisest of men delights to speak of himself.
The other digression is the famous contrast of the lawyer and philosopher. This is a sort of landing-place or break in the middle of the dialogue. At the commencement of a great discussion, the reflection naturally arises, How happy are they who, like the philosopher, have time for such discussions (compare Republic)! There is no reason for the introduction of such a digression; nor is a reason always needed, any more than for the introduction of an episode in a poem, or of a topic in conversation. That which is given by Socrates is quite sufficient, viz. that the philosopher may talk and write as he pleases. But though not very closely connected, neither is the digression out of keeping with the rest of the dialogue. The philosopher naturally desires to pour forth the thoughts which are always present to him, and to discourse of the higher life. The idea of knowledge, although hard to be defined, is realised in the life of philosophy. And the contrast is the favourite antithesis between the world, in the various characters of sophist, lawyer, statesman, speaker, and the philosopher,between opinion and knowledge,between the conventional and the true.
The greater part of the dialogue is devoted to setting up and throwing down definitions of science and knowledge. Proceeding from the lower to the higher by three stages, in which perception, opinion, reasoning are successively examined, we first get rid of the confusion of the idea of knowledge and specific kinds of knowledge,a confusion which has been already noticed in the Lysis, Laches, Meno, and other dialogues. In the infancy of logic, a form of thought has to be invented before the content can be filled up. We cannot define knowledge until the nature of definition has been ascertained. Having succeeded in making his meaning plain, Socrates proceeds to analyze (1) the first definition which Theaetetus proposes: 'Knowledge is sensible perception.' This is speedily identified with the Protagorean saying, 'Man is the measure of all things;' and of this again the foundation is discovered in the perpetual flux of Heracleitus. The relativeness of sensation is then developed at length, and for a moment the definition appears to be accepted. But soon the Protagorean thesis is pronounced to be suicidal; for the adversaries of Protagoras are as good a measure as he is, and they deny his doctrine. He is then supposed to reply that the perception may be true at any given instant. But the reply is in the end shown to be inconsistent with the Heraclitean foundation, on which the doctrine has been affirmed to rest. For if the Heraclitean flux is extended to every sort of change in every instant of time, how can any thought or word be detained even for an instant? Sensible perception, like everything else, is tumbling to pieces. Nor can Protagoras himself maintain that one man is as good as another in his knowledge of the future; and 'the expedient,' if not 'the just and true,' belongs to the sphere of the future.
--
By those who rest knowledge immediately upon sense, that explanation of human action is deemed to be the truest which is nearest to sense. As knowledge is reduced to sensation, so virtue is reduced to feeling, happiness or good to pleasure. The different virtuesthe various characters which exist in the worldare the disguises of self-interest. Human nature is dried up; there is no place left for imagination, or in any higher sense for religion. Ideals of a whole, or of a state, or of a law of duty, or of a divine perfection, are out of place in an Epicurean philosophy. The very terms in which they are expressed are suspected of having no meaning. Man is to bring himself back as far as he is able to the condition of a rational beast. He is to limit himself to the pursuit of pleasure, but of this he is to make a far-sighted calculation;he is to be rationalized, secularized, animalized: or he is to be an amiable sceptic, better than his own philosophy, and not falling below the opinions of the world.
Imagination has been called that 'busy faculty' which is always intruding upon us in the search after truth. But imagination is also that higher power by which we rise above ourselves and the commonplaces of thought and life. The philosophical imagination is another name for reason finding an expression of herself in the outward world. To deprive life of ideals is to deprive it of all higher and comprehensive aims and of the power of imparting and communicating them to others. For men are taught, not by those who are on a level with them, but by those who rise above them, who see the distant hills, who soar into the empyrean. Like a bird in a cage, the mind confined to sense is always being brought back from the higher to the lower, from the wider to the narrower view of human knowledge. It seeks to fly but cannot: instead of aspiring towards perfection, 'it hovers about this lower world and the earthly nature.' It loses the religious sense which more than any other seems to take a man out of himself. Weary of asking 'What is truth?' it accepts the 'blind witness of eyes and ears;' it draws around itself the curtain of the physical world and is satisfied. The strength of a sensational philosophy lies in the ready accommodation of it to the minds of men; many who have been metaphysicians in their youth, as they advance in years are prone to acquiesce in things as they are, or rather appear to be. They are spectators, not thinkers, and the best philosophy is that which requires of them the least amount of mental effort.
--
SOCRATES: But, O my friend, when he draws the other into upper air, and gets him out of his pleas and rejoinders into the contemplation of justice and injustice in their own nature and in their difference from one another and from all other things; or from the commonplaces about the happiness of a king or of a rich man to the consideration of government, and of human happiness and misery in generalwhat they are, and how a man is to attain the one and avoid the otherwhen that narrow, keen, little legal mind is called to account about all this, he gives the philosopher his revenge; for dizzied by the height at which he is hanging, whence he looks down into space, which is a strange experience to him, he being dismayed, and lost, and stammering broken words, is laughed at, not by Thracian handmaidens or any other uneducated persons, for they have no eye for the situation, but by every man who has not been brought up a slave. Such are the two characters, Theodorus: the one of the freeman, who has been trained in liberty and leisure, whom you call the philosopher,him we cannot blame because he appears simple and of no account when he has to perform some menial task, such as packing up bed-clothes, or flavouring a sauce or fawning speech; the other character is that of the man who is able to do all this kind of service smartly and neatly, but knows not how to wear his cloak like a gentleman; still less with the music of discourse can he hymn the true life aright which is lived by immortals or men blessed of heaven.
THEODORUS: If you could only persuade everybody, Socrates, as you do me, of the truth of your words, there would be more peace and fewer evils among men.
The Dwellings of the Philosophers, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
in Gothic cursive writing: Az.oth et ignis tibi sufficient (3) , Hebrew characters; circles
intersected with triangles, interspersed with quadrilateral figures in the manner of Gnostic
--
the characters of the Liber Mutus. By removing the veil from the title, one can see how
suggestive this one is, since it announces the revelation the revelation of the secret means
--
subject in the image of a chalice filled with water, out of which two characters are half-
emerging in the center of a rather busy composition summing up the entire work. As for the
--
phylacteries, attri butes meant to express the fact that the two characters have an occult
meaning, different from that of Genesis. This motif, worn badly by weathering only the
--
On each side of the motif, seated characters one blowing into a hom, one plucking a kind
of guitar perform a musical duo. The various subjects sculpted on the facade refer to a
--
nature to man. This key always appears in visible characters, outlined by nature herself,
obedient to the divine will on the cornerstone of the Work, which is also the fundamental
--
metallic unctuousness as it is being produced. This is moreover what the two characters of the
Mutus Liber (18) represent, where the woman can be seen skimming with a spoon the foam
--
at. In Rabelais book Pantagruel, one of the main characters, the man of science, is called
Epistemon. He is the seret artisan, the spirit, the mind enclosed in raw substance as translated
--
authorize the hypothesis of the personal mark of an artist while the same characters have a
very precise meaning are often found in alchemical formulas? Further, how can we explain
--
symbolic characters among themselves. As for the correct meaning of the Man of the Woods,
it is mostly focused on the old womans head at the top of his rustic scepter. With a duenna
--
Next to a subject of such noble bearing, the little characters which accompany it have but a
very unobtrusive role; we would be wrong, nevertheless, to neglect their study. No detail is
--
initiatory book presented to us by the characters in charge of exposing the higher truths of
science. St James, disciple of the Savior, always keeps it. With the calabash, the blessed staff
--
fervently. The book, signed with characters, which enables us to recognize it, to appreciate its
virtue, and its purpose. The famous manuscript of Abraham the Jew, of which Flamel takes
--
quite learned in the sublime sciences". Therefore, our three characters have their respective
roles perfectly established. Flamel, we have said, represents the philosophical mercury; his
--
that they might have been Greek characters or some similar ancient language. Since I did not
know how to read them and since I knew quite well that they were not Latin or Gallic letters
--
varied and ill-defined signs or characters. We called attention earlier to the obvious
127
--
a stone of respectable dimensions on which the following Greek word was carved in capital characters: [***
282-1], in other words, that which is impregnable. It apparently came from the old castle. This stone was later
--
entrusts him with the spirit of our philosophy by the intermediary of the petrified characters of
his work.
--
It is the echeneis of which the Cosmopolite speaks, the royal dolphin which the characters of
the Mutus Liber exert themselves to capture, the same one which accompanied and pilots, on
--
the expression of the attri butes and facilitate the identification of the allegorical characters.
However, while perfecting their technique and coming closer to modem formulas, they have,
--
collect, as certain spagyrists and characters of the Mutus Liber, the nocturnal dew of the
month of Mary, by attri buting to it qualities which we know it does not have. The dew of the
The Garden of Forking Paths 1, #Selected Fictions, #unset, #Zen
Yunnan and gave up temporal power to write a novel with more characters than there are in the Hung Lou Meng, and to create a maze in which all men would lose themselves. He spent thirteen years on these oddly assorted tasks before he was assassinated by a stranger. His novel had no sense to it and nobody ever found his labyrinth.
Under the trees of England I meditated on this lost and perhaps mythical labyrinth. I imagined it untouched and perfect on the secret summit of some mountain; I imagined it drowned under rice paddies or beneath the sea; I imagined it infinite, made not only of eight-sided pavilions and of twisting paths but also of rivers, provinces and kingdoms . . . I thought of a maze of mazes, of a sinuous, ever growing maze which would take in both past and future and would somehow involve the stars.
The Gold Bug, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
"At this stage of my reflections I endeavored to remember, and did remember, with entire distinctness, every incident which occurred about the period in question. The weather was chilly (oh rare and happy accident!), and a fire was blazing on the hearth. I was heated with exercise and sat near the table. You, however, had drawn a chair close to the chimney. Just as I placed the parchment in your hand, and as you were in the act of inspecting it, Wolf, the Newfoundland, entered, and leaped upon your shoulders. With your left hand you caressed him and kept him off, while your right, holding the parchment, was permitted to fall listlessly between your knees, and in close proximity to the fire. At one moment I thought the blaze had caught it, and was about to caution you, but, before I could speak, you had withdrawn it, and were engaged in its examination. When I considered all these particulars, I doubted not for a moment that heat had been the agent in bringing to light, on the parchment, the skull which I saw designed on it. You are well aware that chemical preparations exist, and have existed time out of mind, by means of which it is possible to write on either paper or vellum, so that the characters shall become visible only when subjected to the action of fire. Zaffre, digested in aqua regia, and diluted with four times its weight of water, is sometimes employed; a green tint results. The regulus of cobalt, dissolved in spirit of nitre, gives a red. These colors disappear at longer or shorter intervals after the material written on cools, but again become apparent upon the re-application of heat.
"I now scrutinized the death's-head with care. Its outer edges --the edges of the drawing nearest the edge of the vellum --were far more distinct than the others. It was clear that the action of the caloric had been imperfect or unequal. I immediately kindled a fire, and subjected every portion of the parchment to a glowing heat. At first, the only effect was the streng thening of the faint lines in the skull; but, on persevering in the experiment, there became visible, at the corner of the slip, diagonally opposite to the spot in which the death's-head was delineated, the figure of what I at first supposed to be a goat. A closer scrutiny, however, satisfied me that it was intended for a kid."
--
Here Legrand, having re-heated the parchment, submitted It my inspection. The following characters were rudely traced, in a red tint, between the death's-head and the goat:
53aaa305))6*;4826)4a.)4a);80
--
"And yet," said Legrand, "the solution is by no means so difficult as you might be led to imagine from the first hasty inspection of the characters. These characters, as any one might readily guess, form a cipher --that is to say, they convey a meaning; but then, from what is known of Kidd, I could not suppose him capable of constructing any of the more abstruse cryptographs. I made up my mind, at once, that this was of a simple species --such, however, as would appear, to the crude intellect of the sailor, absolutely insoluble without the key."
"And you really solved it?"
"Readily; I have solved others of an abstruseness ten thousand times greater. Circumstances, and a certain bias of mind, have led me to take interest in such riddles, and it may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma of the kind which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve. In fact, having once established connected and legible characters, I scarcely gave a thought to the mere difficulty of developing their import.
"In the present case --indeed in all cases of secret writing --the first question regards the language of the cipher; for the principles of solution, so far, especially, as the more simple ciphers are concerned, depend on, and are varied by, the genius of the particular idiom. In general, there is no alternative but experiment (directed by probabilities) of every tongue known to him who attempts the solution, until the true one be attained. But, with the cipher now before us, all difficulty is removed by the signature. The pun on the word 'Kidd' is appreciable in no other language than the English. But for this consideration I should have begun my attempts with the Spanish and French, as the tongues in which a secret of this kind would most naturally have been written by a pirate of the Spanish main. As it was, I assumed the cryptograph to be English.
--
"Let us assume 8, then, as e. Now, of all words in the language, 'the' is the most usual; let us see, therefore, whether they are not repetitions of any three characters in the same order of collocation, the last of them being 8. If we discover repetitions of such letters, so arranged, they will most probably represent the word 'the.' On inspection, we find no less than seven such arrangements, the characters being ;48. We may, therefore, assume that the semicolon represents t, that 4 represents h, and that 8 represents e --the last being now well confirmed. Thus a great step has been taken.
"But, having established a single word, we are enabled to establish a vastly important point; that is to say, several commencements and terminations of other words. Let us refer, for example, to the last instance but one, in which the combination ;48 occurs --not far from the end of the cipher. We know that the semicolon immediately ensuing is the commencement of a word, and, of the six characters succeeding this 'the,' we are cognizant of no less than five. Let us set these characters down, thus, by the letters we know them to represent, leaving a space for the unknown--
t eeth
--
"Now, if, in place of the unknown characters, we leave blank spaces, or substitute dots, we read thus:
the tree thr . . . h the,
--
"Looking now, narrowly, through the cipher for combinations of known characters, we find, not very far from the beginning, this arrangement,
83(88, or egree,
--
"Translating the known characters, and representing the unknown by dots, as before, we read thus:
th . rtee .
an arrangement immediately suggestive of the word 'thirteen,' and again furnishing us with two new characters, i and n, represented by 6 and *.
"Referring, now, to the beginning of the cryptograph, we find the combination,
--
"We have, therefore, no less than ten of the most important letters represented, and it will be unnecessary to proceed with the details of the solution. I have said enough to convince you that ciphers of this nature are readily soluble, and to give you some insight into the rationale of their development. But be assured that the specimen before us appertains to the very simplest species of cryptograph. It now only remains to give you the full translation of the characters upon the parchment, as unriddled. Here it is:
'A good glass in the bishop's hostel in the devil's seat forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes northeast and by north main branch seventh limb east side shoot from the left eye of the death's-head a bee line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.'"
--
"I reflected that it had been a point with the writer to run his words together without division, so as to increase the difficulty of solution. Now, a not overacute man, in pursuing such an object, would be nearly certain to overdo the matter. When, in the course of his composition, he arrived at a break in his subject which would naturally require a pause, or a point, he would be exceedingly apt to run his characters, at this place, more than usually close together. If you will observe the MS., in the present instance, you will easily detect five such cases of unusual crowding. Acting on this hint, I made the division thus:
'A good glass in the Bishop's hostel in the Devil's seat -- forty-one degrees and thirteen minutes -- northeast and by north -- main branch seventh limb east side -- shoot from the left eye of the death's-head -- a bee-line from the tree through the shot fifty feet out.'"
The Hidden Words text, #The Hidden Words, #Baha u llah, #Baha i
Think not the secrets of hearts are hidden, nay, know ye of a certainty that in clear characters they are engraved and are openly manifest in the holy Presence.
Persian #59
--
Know, verily, that an unforeseen calamity followeth you, and grievous retribution awaiteth you. Think not that which ye have committed hath been effaced in My sight. By My beauty! All your doings hath My pen graven with open characters upon tablets of chrysolite.
Persian #63
The Library Of Babel 2, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
bination of characters one can make-dhcmrlchtdj, for example-that the
divine Library has not foreseen and that in one or more of its secret tongues
The Library of Babel, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
cannot combine some characters
dhcmrlchtdj
The Riddle of this World, #unknown, #Unknown, #unset
the capacities or characters, but something essential that it gathered
from them, what might be called the divine element for the sake of
--
its characters are infinity, self-existence, freedom, absolute Light,
absolute Beatitude. Is there then an unbridgeable gulf between that
The Shadow Out Of Time, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
designs, and there were chiselled inscriptions in the same characters that the huge books
bore. The dark granite masonry was of a monstrous megathic type, with lines of convextopped blocks fitting the concave-bottomed courses which rested upon them.
--
were closely and unmistakably aldn to the characters constantly met with in my dreams characters whose meaning I would sometimes momentarily fancy I knew, or was just on
the brink of recalling.
--
They wrote a great deal in what seemed to my cloudy vision a vast variety of characters never the typical curvilinear hieroglyphs of the majority. A few, I fancied, used our own
familiar alphabet. Most of them worked much more slowly than the general mass of the
Verses of Vemana, #is Book, #unset, #Zen
It produces young ones in the earth and writes their characters on them, and suffer beheading. He is the chief of the Gods . He is lord of men. (Siva in his character of creator, fate and destroyer).
350
--- Overview of noun character
The noun character has 9 senses (first 7 from tagged texts)
1. (16) fictional character, fictitious character, character ::: (an imaginary person represented in a work of fiction (play or film or story); "she is the main character in the novel")
2. (12) quality, character, lineament ::: (a characteristic property that defines the apparent individual nature of something; "each town has a quality all its own"; "the radical character of our demands")
3. (11) character, fiber, fibre ::: (the inherent complex of attributes that determines a persons moral and ethical actions and reactions; "education has for its object the formation of character"- Herbert Spencer)
4. (9) character, role, theatrical role, part, persona ::: (an actor's portrayal of someone in a play; "she played the part of Desdemona")
5. (4) character, eccentric, type, case ::: (a person of a specified kind (usually with many eccentricities); "a real character"; "a strange character"; "a friendly eccentric"; "the capable type"; "a mental case")
6. (1) character ::: (good repute; "he is a man of character")
7. (1) character, reference, character reference ::: (a formal recommendation by a former employer to a potential future employer describing the person's qualifications and dependability; "requests for character references are all too often answered evasively")
8. character, grapheme, graphic symbol ::: (a written symbol that is used to represent speech; "the Greek alphabet has 24 characters")
9. character ::: ((genetics) an attribute (structural or functional) that is determined by a gene or group of genes)
--- Overview of verb character
The verb character has 1 sense (no senses from tagged texts)
1. character ::: (engrave or inscribe characters on)
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun character
9 senses of character
Sense 1
fictional character, fictitious character, character
=> imaginary being, imaginary creature
=> imagination, imaginativeness, vision
=> creativity, creativeness, creative thinking
=> ability, power
=> cognition, knowledge, noesis
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 2
quality, character, lineament
=> property, attribute, dimension
=> concept, conception, construct
=> idea, thought
=> content, cognitive content, mental object
=> cognition, knowledge, noesis
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 3
character, fiber, fibre
=> trait
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 4
character, role, theatrical role, part, persona
=> portrayal, characterization, enactment, personation
=> acting, playing, playacting, performing
=> activity
=> act, deed, human action, human activity
=> event
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
=> performing arts
=> humanistic discipline, humanities, liberal arts, arts
=> discipline, subject, subject area, subject field, field, field of study, study, bailiwick
=> knowledge domain, knowledge base, domain
=> content, cognitive content, mental object
=> cognition, knowledge, noesis
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 5
character, eccentric, type, case
=> adult, grownup
=> person, individual, someone, somebody, mortal, soul
=> organism, being
=> living thing, animate thing
=> whole, unit
=> object, physical object
=> physical entity
=> entity
=> causal agent, cause, causal agency
=> physical entity
=> entity
Sense 6
character
=> repute, reputation
=> honor, honour, laurels
=> standing
=> status, position
=> state
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 7
character, reference, character reference
=> recommendation, testimonial, good word
=> praise, congratulations, kudos, extolment
=> approval, commendation
=> message, content, subject matter, substance
=> communication
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 8
character, grapheme, graphic symbol
=> written symbol, printed symbol
=> symbol
=> signal, signaling, sign
=> communication
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 9
character
=> attribute
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun character
6 of 9 senses of character
Sense 1
fictional character, fictitious character, character
HAS INSTANCE=> Aladdin
HAS INSTANCE=> Argonaut
HAS INSTANCE=> Babar
HAS INSTANCE=> Beatrice
HAS INSTANCE=> Beowulf
HAS INSTANCE=> Bluebeard
HAS INSTANCE=> Bond, James Bond
HAS INSTANCE=> Brer Rabbit
HAS INSTANCE=> Bunyan, Paul Bunyan
HAS INSTANCE=> John Henry
HAS INSTANCE=> Cheshire cat
HAS INSTANCE=> Chicken Little
HAS INSTANCE=> Cinderella
HAS INSTANCE=> Colonel Blimp
HAS INSTANCE=> Dracula
HAS INSTANCE=> Don Quixote
HAS INSTANCE=> El Cid
HAS INSTANCE=> Fagin
HAS INSTANCE=> Falstaff, Sir John Falstaff
HAS INSTANCE=> Father Brown
HAS INSTANCE=> Faust, Faustus
HAS INSTANCE=> Frankenstein
HAS INSTANCE=> Frankenstein, Frankenstein's monster
HAS INSTANCE=> Goofy
HAS INSTANCE=> Gulliver
HAS INSTANCE=> Hamlet
HAS INSTANCE=> Horatio Hornblower, Captain Horatio Hornblower
HAS INSTANCE=> Iago
HAS INSTANCE=> Inspector Maigret, Commissaire Maigret
HAS INSTANCE=> Kilroy
HAS INSTANCE=> Lear, King Lear
HAS INSTANCE=> Lilliputian
HAS INSTANCE=> Marlowe, Philip Marlowe
HAS INSTANCE=> Micawber, Wilkins Micawber
HAS INSTANCE=> Mother Goose
HAS INSTANCE=> Mr. Moto
HAS INSTANCE=> Othello
HAS INSTANCE=> Pangloss
HAS INSTANCE=> Pantaloon
HAS INSTANCE=> Perry Mason
HAS INSTANCE=> Peter Pan
HAS INSTANCE=> Pied Piper, Pied Piper of Hamelin
HAS INSTANCE=> Pierrot
HAS INSTANCE=> Pluto
HAS INSTANCE=> Huckleberry Finn, Huck Finn
HAS INSTANCE=> Rip van Winkle
HAS INSTANCE=> Ruritanian
HAS INSTANCE=> Tarzan, Tarzan of the Apes
HAS INSTANCE=> Tom Sawyer
HAS INSTANCE=> Uncle Remus
HAS INSTANCE=> Uncle Tom
HAS INSTANCE=> Uncle Sam
HAS INSTANCE=> Sherlock Holmes, Holmes
HAS INSTANCE=> Simon Legree
HAS INSTANCE=> Sinbad the Sailor, Sinbad
HAS INSTANCE=> Snoopy
HAS INSTANCE=> Ali Baba
HAS INSTANCE=> Emile
HAS INSTANCE=> protagonist, agonist
HAS INSTANCE=> Houyhnhnm
HAS INSTANCE=> Little John
HAS INSTANCE=> Little Red Riding Hood
HAS INSTANCE=> Raskolnikov, Rodya Raskolnikov
HAS INSTANCE=> Robin Hood
HAS INSTANCE=> Robinson Crusoe
HAS INSTANCE=> Rumpelstiltskin
HAS INSTANCE=> Shylock
HAS INSTANCE=> Tristan, Tristram
HAS INSTANCE=> Iseult, Isolde
HAS INSTANCE=> Scaramouch, Scaramouche
HAS INSTANCE=> Svengali
HAS INSTANCE=> Todd, Sweeney Todd
HAS INSTANCE=> Trilby
HAS INSTANCE=> Walter Mitty
HAS INSTANCE=> Yahoo
HAS INSTANCE=> Arthur, King Arthur
HAS INSTANCE=> Galahad, Sir Galahad
HAS INSTANCE=> Gawain, Sir Gawain
HAS INSTANCE=> Guinevere, Guenevere
HAS INSTANCE=> Lancelot, Sir Lancelot
HAS INSTANCE=> Merlin
Sense 2
quality, character, lineament
=> texture
Sense 3
character, fiber, fibre
=> spirit
Sense 4
character, role, theatrical role, part, persona
=> bit part, minor role
=> heavy
=> hero
=> ingenue
=> title role, name part
=> heroine
=> villain, baddie
Sense 8
character, grapheme, graphic symbol
=> allograph
=> check character
=> superscript, superior
=> subscript, inferior
=> ASCII character
=> ligature
=> capital, capital letter, uppercase, upper-case letter, majuscule
=> small letter, lowercase, lower-case letter, minuscule
=> type
=> percent sign, percentage sign
=> asterisk, star
=> dagger, obelisk
=> double dagger, double obelisk, diesis
=> letter, letter of the alphabet, alphabetic character
=> space, blank
=> phonetic symbol
=> mathematical symbol
=> rune, runic letter
=> pictograph
=> ideogram, ideograph
=> radical
=> stenograph
Sense 9
character
=> unit character
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun character
9 senses of character
Sense 1
fictional character, fictitious character, character
=> imaginary being, imaginary creature
Sense 2
quality, character, lineament
=> property, attribute, dimension
Sense 3
character, fiber, fibre
=> trait
Sense 4
character, role, theatrical role, part, persona
=> portrayal, characterization, enactment, personation
Sense 5
character, eccentric, type, case
=> adult, grownup
Sense 6
character
=> repute, reputation
Sense 7
character, reference, character reference
=> recommendation, testimonial, good word
Sense 8
character, grapheme, graphic symbol
=> written symbol, printed symbol
Sense 9
character
=> attribute
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun character
9 senses of character
Sense 1
fictional character, fictitious character, character
-> imaginary being, imaginary creature
=> hypothetical creature
=> mythical being
HAS INSTANCE=> Death
HAS INSTANCE=> Gargantua
=> giant
=> hobbit
HAS INSTANCE=> Maxwell's demon
=> mermaid
=> merman
HAS INSTANCE=> Martian
=> Cadmus
HAS INSTANCE=> Humpty Dumpty
HAS INSTANCE=> Jack Frost
HAS INSTANCE=> Mammon
=> monster
=> witch
=> fictional character, fictitious character, character
=> psychopomp
HAS INSTANCE=> Santa Claus, Santa, Kriss Kringle, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, St. Nick
=> sylph
HAS INSTANCE=> Tom Thumb
=> unicorn
Sense 2
quality, character, lineament
-> property, attribute, dimension
=> quality, character, lineament
=> feature, characteristic
=> feature of speech, feature
Sense 3
character, fiber, fibre
-> trait
=> character, fiber, fibre
=> nature
=> compulsiveness, compulsivity
=> emotionality, emotionalism
=> unemotionality, emotionlessness
=> activeness, activity
=> inactiveness, inactivity, inertia
=> seriousness, earnestness, serious-mindedness, sincerity
=> frivolity, frivolousness
=> communicativeness
=> uncommunicativeness
=> thoughtfulness
=> unthoughtfulness, thoughtlessness
=> attentiveness
=> inattentiveness
=> masculinity
=> femininity, muliebrity
=> trustworthiness, trustiness
=> untrustworthiness, untrustiness
=> individuality, individualism, individuation
=> stinginess
=> egoism, egocentrism, self-interest, self-concern, self-centeredness
=> drive
=> resoluteness, firmness, firmness of purpose, resolve, resolution
=> irresoluteness, irresolution
=> discipline
=> indiscipline, undiscipline
=> pride
=> conceit, conceitedness, vanity
=> humility, humbleness
=> wisdom, wiseness
=> folly, foolishness, unwiseness
=> judgment, judgement, sound judgment, sound judgement, perspicacity
=> trust, trustingness, trustfulness
=> distrust, distrustfulness, mistrust
=> cleanliness
=> uncleanliness
=> demeanor, demeanour, behavior, behaviour, conduct, deportment
=> tractability, tractableness, flexibility
=> intractability, intractableness
=> rurality, ruralism
Sense 4
character, role, theatrical role, part, persona
-> portrayal, characterization, enactment, personation
=> impression
=> character, role, theatrical role, part, persona
Sense 5
character, eccentric, type, case
-> adult, grownup
=> brachycephalic
=> caregiver
=> catch, match
=> centrist, middle of the roader, moderate, moderationist
=> character, eccentric, type, case
=> conservative, conservativist
=> dolichocephalic
=> elder, senior
=> ex-spouse
=> host
=> important person, influential person, personage
=> Jack of all trades
=> liberal, liberalist, progressive
=> liberal
=> man, adult male
=> militarist, warmonger
=> oldster, old person, senior citizen, golden ager
=> pacifist, pacificist, disarmer
=> patrician
=> pledgee
=> pledger
=> professional, professional person
=> sobersides
=> sophisticate, man of the world
=> stay-at-home, homebody
=> stoic, unemotional person
=> thoroughbred
=> woman, adult female
Sense 6
character
-> repute, reputation
=> black eye
=> stock
=> character
=> name
=> fame
Sense 7
character, reference, character reference
-> recommendation, testimonial, good word
=> character, reference, character reference
=> puff
Sense 8
character, grapheme, graphic symbol
-> written symbol, printed symbol
=> mark
=> character, grapheme, graphic symbol
=> phonogram
Sense 9
character
-> attribute
=> state
=> shape, form
=> time
=> space, infinite
=> human nature
=> trait
=> character
=> thing
=> common denominator
=> personality
=> cheerfulness, cheer, sunniness, sunshine
=> uncheerfulness
=> ballast
=> ethos
=> eidos
=> quality
=> property
=> inheritance, heritage
=> depth
--- Grep of noun characters
alphanumeric characters
cast of characters
Grep of noun character
alphabetic character
ascii character
ascii character set
ascii control character
backspace character
character
character-at-a-time printer
character actor
character assassination
character printer
character reference
character set
character witness
characterisation
characterisic function
characteristic
characteristic curve
characteristic root of a square matrix
characterization
check character
control character
fictional character
fictitious character
primary sex character
secondary sex character
sex character
unit character