A Comment On The Obituary Of Sir Archie Lamb In The Times
In The Times today, there is an obituary of diplomat; Sir Archie Lamb.
This is one of the comments.
My husband comments: ‘When Lamb was knighted, he said to the Queen “may I ask something, Ma’am?” She replied “as one of my ambassadors, you may ask me anything” “ in that case, may I be knighted as Archie Lamb? I hate my given name, Albert.” “Ah,” said the Queen, “though you can change your family name, you cannot change your given name. But I can. Arise Sir Archie.” Archie told me the story, long long ago. Se non e vero, e ben trovato.’
Priceless!
Ricky Gervais And David Bowie
Ricky Gervais just told this tale on Radio 5.
He was playing a gig with David Bowie, so he asked, why he still did gigs like this.
I thought Bowie’s reply was classic.
To stave off the boredom before death!
I suspect that applies to lots of people.
Two Quotes From The Times
These two quotes were in The Times yesterday.
Billy Jean King – “pressure is a privilege”
Joely Richardson – “if you want to achieve anything in life, you need guts.”
I like them!
Joely Richardson also followed up her quote with a statement that not enough people have them.
I’ll agree with that too!
Non Carpe Diem
This was the pointer on the BBC’s web site to this page about tales of procrastination.
My father always used to use the phrase.
Procrastination thief of time, make me a freeman for all time
I think he got it wrong, but the first part could be from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.
Farewell Christopher Hitchens
I didn’t agree with everything Christopher Hitchens said, but at least he had it right about religion and was always worth reading.
The world will be a worse place without him.
Probably if he hadn’t smoked he’d still be here.
In some ways smoking is the most selfish vice, as it annoys all the people around you and then when it kills you, it leaves your family in total distress.
He was eminently quotable.
The governor of Texas, who, when asked if the Bible should also be taught in Spanish, replied that ‘if English was good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me.
[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.
Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.
To terrify children with the image of hell, to consider women an inferior creation—is that good for the world?
There are lots more like these.
Boris on the Euro Crisis
Boris Johnson is always quotable, but this is one of his best.
The EU’s move to protect the euro might “save the cancer rather than the patient”.
Where would newspapers be without Boris?
A Quote from T. E. Lawrence
As the players came out in the Fourth Test at the Oval, a quote from T. E. Lawrence was on the wall.
All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
I’ll go with that! I actually think, that when you dream in the daytime, you do it because of real stimuli around you, so your dreams fit the facts. When you do it at night, you imagine advice from past friends and companions, which keeps you going in difficult times. I had such a dream in Hong Kong.
I would suspect that Martin Luther had his dream in the daytime, when he analysed what he could see going on around him.
Lawrence is a great source of quotes.
I particularly like this one.
The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armoury of the modern commander.
And this one.
I’ve been & am absurdly over-estimated. There are no supermen & I’m quite ordinary, & will say so whatever the artistic results. In that point I’m one of the few people who tell the truth about myself.
It just shows what a great man he was. It’s a pity we didn’t realise it fully at the time.
We didn’t even learn from this quote.
The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour.
Tony Blair and Dubya certainly didn’t see it coming.
Blunders
I like this quote from Friedrich Neitzsche
Is man one of God’s blunders? Or is God one of man’s blunders?
I know where I stand.
Philosophy From An English Queen
If you keep your eyes open, you’ll always find some interesting gems in the most surprising places.
Philosophy From An English Queen
This was on the gate of a chapel in Swansea.
I can’t ever remember hearing the Queen Mother speak, let alone hear her say anything as good as this. I did check the Internet and she is given credit on several web sites, including this one.
The Anonymous Widower 