More Miscellaneous Notes I Found While Cleaning My Office

22 August 2026
Notes found on various scraps of paper.

Philosophical Anthropology

Political Philosophy

Contemporary Modern Philosophy

Philosophy of Science

Descartes / Kant

Some people want (need) clear cut answers, not ambiguity

Some are anti-fact / anti-science

Historical Responsibility

I worry about the way we set up issues

The fact that we don't agree -- how do we keep the conversation going?

Inflated Data

Willard Munger Wetlands Act destroyed usable real estate

Where do Duluth's unemployment numbers come from?

"We were so proud of you when you could draw when you were two. Grandpa Newman would send reams of paper so we could draw."

I have visions but lack the skill and motivation to follow through.

Blog Post: Learning to See

Atticus: To Kill a Mockingbird
Rhett: Gone with the Wind
Stella: Streetcar Named Desire
Kurtz: Heart of Darkness
Ishmael: Moby Dick
Pyle: The Quiet American
Harry Lime: The Third Man
Ann Sullivan: The Miracle Worker
Robert Jordan: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Winston: 1984
Billy Pilgrim: Slaughterhouse Five
Henry Wilcox: Howard's End
Sonny: The Godfather
Nurse Ratched: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Scribbled Signatures

Review the impacts of Executive Orders

What really matters?

Begin at the bwginning.

Cleanup Time: Notes & Quotes from Miscellaneous Scraps of Paper

I have a half dozen half-completed blog posts on various themes from the Founding of America to the Madness of Crowds, the Genomic Revolution and Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie." With nothing quite complete I decided to straighten my office and discard all the scraps of paper the gather on every surface like house dust. Here are some notes from a few of these miscellaneous scraps as they were discarded.

The sources, in many cases, are identified. Unfortunately, some of these are lines from films that I can no longer identify. The best way to enjoy poetry and notes from scraps of paper is to read slowly, in a contemplative frame of mind.

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Sing Your Song 

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Be Your Best Self

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In the immortal words of Popeye, "I am what I am."
Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, in Truth

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"The problem with remembering everything is that you can't forget anything."

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Why it is so important to see the night sky.

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A big lie, if repeated enough, becomes truth.

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Notes from End of the Tour

"We can't be direct so we end up saying the weirdest things."

"If you're just operating by habit, then you're not really living."

"Things don't affect people the way they used to be."

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"As great as you are you'll never be greater than yourself."
--Bob Dylan, High Water (for Charley Patton)

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"Not all who wander are lost."
Second line of JRR Tolkien's poem "The Riddle of Strider."

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Favorite Childhood Games

Geography
Battleship
Stratego
Risk
Manhunt

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Do Justly
Love Mercy
Walk Humbly
--Micah 6:8

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And so it goes...

Word of the day: Turgid

Closing Time: A Dozen Miscellaneous Scraps

"True art does not depend upon the reality about which it tells. It’s message lies in the new reality which it creates by the way in which it reflects experience."
--Dag Hammarskjöld

AS IF the current pandemic isn't hassle enough, we had a massive snowfall last night that took our power out this morning. As a result, to preserve my iPhone and laptop batteries, I kept them off much of the day. In normal times I could count on having the opportunity to visit a coffee shop and connect, recharge and all, but we're in lockdown.

The lockdown has had a few benefits. I've been sorting organizing files on my desktop that I never get around to, and that includes both my laptop desktop as well as the real desktop that is usually a mass of lists, notes and other scratchings.

Having spent the day shoveling snow, napping, reading and writing, it's my hope that the power will return so we can heat something, like the house, as well as a few morsels to eat.

What follows are some things I found on those scraps of paper, which I've now thrown in the trash because I don't have a good system for organizing them for future use.

Notes to myself:

1. Writing is not about rules. "Don't do this. Do that." It involves sensitivity and aesthetics.

2. Dreamt that S. was mad at me because I always procrastinate & put off writing the Dylan book I've been uniquely called to write. When I woke, the feeling was real. August 4
(EdNote: Yes, that scrap of paper has been on my desk more than half a year.)

3. Socrates. Philosopher Kings. Wise leaders, not party politicians.

4. Failed States. Show why marketing also fails:
Forced Labor
Tilted Playing Field
Big Men Get Greedy
Elites Block New Technologies
No Law & Order
Weak Central Government
Bad Public Services

5. Article Idea: How Big is your "Our"

6. He: I have a bad back.
She: Too much social climbing.

7. Ritchie County Crimes & Calamities by John M. Jackson

8. Make a meme: "Don't Ignore the Signs"

9. The Triangle Player's Forum

10. DPS: Dramatic Play Service

11. Kissinger / CIA determines to keep Allende from being elected. Once elected, they decide to overthrow him. So much for our belief in democratically elected governments. No wonder we are not respected, only feared.

12. Journalism once meant being accurate, thorough, impartial and fair. Where did we go wrong?

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"I know only too well that every real achievement, in whatever field it is, is always the work of many."--Dag Hammarskjöld

John Lennon Notes and Quotes to Start Your Week

Illustration by the author.

"I've always considered my work one piece and I consider that my work won't be finished until I am dead and buried and I hope that's a long, long time."
John Lennon Interview with RKO Radio on the day of his murder (8 December 1980)

* * * *

This past couple weeks I've been reading Philip Norman's Paul McCartney: The Life. Although some of the reviewers give it rather harsh scores on Amazon, I've personally found it a rewarding read because I've not read many books about The Beatles and thus there are more new insights and anecdotes than I was familiar with.

I still listen to The Beatles after more than half a century, and also internalized some of their individual post-breakup albums by repeated listenings.

There's no question that Lennon & McCartney were one of the greatest songwriting teams of all time. There's also little doubt that extreme fame has to do a number on your head. Finding personal equilibrium after the flume ride of Beatlemania took years and was real work.

One of the things that surprised me was how much abuse Linda Eastman received in marrying Paul. I was aware that Yoko was despised for extricating John from the Fab Four, and blamed for the breakup of The Beatles. I was pretty much unaware that Linda was often physically assaulted by Paul's female fans for making him "unavailable" and dashing their own hopes.

Fab 4 arrive in NYC, Feb 7, 1964.
Photo: Library of Congress. Public domain.

The book goes into detail about the context of their emergence as superstars. A good comparison might be the forest fires that raged in California last year. Conditions were right for an exceptional year for destructive blazes. Similarly, with Elvis in the army, Buddy Holly dead, and Jerry Lee Lewis out of favor for marrying his 13-year-old cousin, conditions were ripe for a super talented, outgoing supergroup to set hearts ablaze across the universe... or at least, across the seas.

When their solo careers began, after the breakup, it surprised me how harsh the critics were on Paul's first two albums. I had all those early solo efforts and enjoyed them all, including All Things Must Pass (Harrison) and especially Lennon's Mind Games.

John Lennon features prominently in the book, as it would be near impossible to tell any of their stories without their symbiotic others. The quotes that follow are Lennon's. When I read the quote at the top of this page it set me on a search for other Lennon remarks and observations.

John Lennon Quotes

"The thing the Sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility."--John Lennon

"It's better to fade away like an old soldier than to burn out."--John Lennon

"Nor do I think we came from monkeys, by the way...That's another piece of garbage. What the hell's it based on? We couldn't've come from anything--fish, maybe, but not monkeys. I don't believe in the evolution of fish to monkeys to men. Why aren't monkeys changing into men now? It's absolute garbage. It's absolutely irrational garbage, as mad as the ones who believe the world was made only four thousand years ago, the fundamentalists.
"That and the monkey thing are both as insane as the other. I’ve nothing to base it on; it’s only a gut feeling."--John Lennon

Photo: Jack Mitchell. Free public use via Creative Commons.

"These critics with the illusions they've created about artists — it's like idol worship. They only like people when they're on their way up … I cannot be on the way up again. … What they want is dead heroes, like Sid Vicious and James Dean. I'm not interested in being a dead (expletive) hero. … So forget 'em, forget 'em."--John Lennon

"Everything is as important as everything else."--John Lennon

"I don't mind people putting us down, because if everybody really liked us, it would be a bore."--John Lennon

"Above all else never let people know how physically unattractive they actually are. Everyone deserves to believe they are beautiful."--John Lennon

"We're trying to sell peace, like a product, you know, and sell it like people sell soap or soft drinks. And it's the only way to get people aware that peace is possible, and it isn't just inevitable to have violence. Not just war — all forms of violence."--John Lennon

"It's just natural, it's not a great disaster. People keep talking about it like it's The End of The Earth. It's only a rock group that split up, it's nothing important. You know, you have all the old records there if you want to reminisce."--John Lennon

"Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. … I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it."--John Lennon

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."--John Lennon


Related Links
Dylan's Tribute to Lennon Keeps Rolling On
A Leadership Lesson from John Lennon
Tomorrow Never Knows: The Beatles' Turning Point?
Mind Games

Notes from an Old Card Catalog

As I continue my assault on getting organized, I keep finding things I'd forgotten I had. The other day I decided to examine several small boxes containing 3'x 5" note cards, the kind we used to use in high school and college when doing research for a paper.

One such box from four decades ago had a lot of notes about cults, with one of these quoting a writer as saying cults are the biggest threat to America today. It's been a long time since cults were front page news.

Here are some quotes that I found intriguing from this another batch of note cards.

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"People judge us by what they see--our actions, our means--not our intentions."--Jacques Ellul

"A people which no longer remembers has lost its history and its soul."--Aleksandr Sozhenitsyn

"There is a powerful tendency to move from the conviction that one knows the public good to the use of (force) power to impose that good."--Jeanne Kirkpatriick

"Within the last decade there have been many references from varied sources to the fact that the Western world stands on the verge of a spiritual rebirth, that is, a fundamental change of attitude toward the value of life."--Cary F. Baynes, translator's preface to Jung's Modern Man in Search of a Soul (1933)

Solipsism: the view that there is no reality outside of the self; all things relate solely to the experiences of the observer.

"A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises, but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness of an individual existence."--Eric Hoffer, The True Believer

"Three things are to be looked to in a building: that it stand on the right spot; that it be securely founded; that it be successfully executed."--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"There is always inequity in life. Some men are killed in a war and some are wounded, and some men never leave the country."--John F. Kennedy, March 21, 1962 press conference

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."--George Orwell, Animal Farm

* * * * 

Miscellaneous Notes and Quotes--Writing Prompts?

Lake Superior Sunrise. Photo courtesy John Heino

I've been on another cleaning jag in my home office. In the process I found envelopes filled with scraps of paper containing notes, quotes and observations.

As any long term reader will attest, I especially enjoy collecting and sharing quotes. In a couple places I have card catalogs full of quotes from 40 years ago or so, and on my bookshelf a notebook that I purchased in Mexico in which I collected quotes from my readings.

This week I wrote a brief defense of this habit of collecting and using quotes which was published here at A Philosopher's Stone. It begins, unsurprisingly, with a quote... from Montaigne.

All this is lead in to these scribblings and scratches which I found in those envelopes in a shoebox. This is hardly all, but it's a start. In fact, much was pretty worthless and here's why. The scrap of paper had an idea but the idea wasn't sufficiently fleshed out so that I can't recall--40 years later--what prompted it. TIP: If you are a writer and you have an idea that strikes you in a profound way, don't write, "Story Idea: The Rings of Saturn." This is not a story idea. It was a note that may have been triggered by a story idea, but it's going to be useless 30 years later unless you include more details.

I know that some of these were probably written down from dialogue in a film, so it would be hard to take credit for all of them as my own. Nevertheless, they can still be used as writing prompts. Or as a starting point for a discussion. Or...

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Is efficiency always better?

* * * *

"A man needs the truth at least once before he dies."

"He didn't need the truth. He needed comfort."

* * * *

"You speak so eloquently, yet you say such appalling things."

"That's been the story of my life. Everybody appreciates the form but is frightened of the content."

* * * *

The history of the world is a history of people doing improbable, even impossible, things.

* * * *

Mapped Life Series. Kentucky. By the Author

The Temple of Doubt
Skepticism and two kinds of questioning: to mock or to know.

* * * *

A man who needs nothing can afford to risk everything.

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"A wavering mind cannot produce a stable life."

* * * *

"Indecision binds even a strong man."

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"No one can lower his standards without reducing himself as well."

* * * *

"It is better to be drawn by a vision than to be driven by ambition."

* * * *

Diary of a Water Bug

Today two boy humans spent half an hour bombarding me with missiles.

* * * *

What are some ways people signal their need for help?

How can we become better at recognizing these signals and what can we do about it?

* * * *

For what it's worth, there so many great websites that collect quotes. One of the more comprehensive now is Wikiquotes. (It even has quotes from every season of Seinfeld.)  I like it because it identifies the sources and doesn't select what some person or committee has decided for you to be the 23 Best Quotes by >INSERT FAMOUS NAME HERE<

I've been listening to an audiobook of 50 Philosophy Classics and if one wanted, they could go to Wikiquotes and bone up on the ideas of each person you've just read about.

For what it's worth, I will close off here... with a two more quotes, observations by Nobel Laureate Andre Gide

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."
--Gide

"The artist who is after success lets himself be influenced by the public. Generally such an artist contributes nothing new, for the public acclaims only what it already knows, what it recognizes."
--Gide

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Related Links
Writing Prompts at Reddit
365 Creative Writing Prompts