Tony's Garden

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power.” — P. J. O’Rourke BIRTHDAYS: 1663 Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, German musician and composer…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Tolerance of intolerance is cowardice.” — Ayaan Hirsi Ali BIRTHDAYS: 1699 Jan Zach, Czech violinist, organist, and composer, baptized in Čelákovice, Bohemia. Prelude and Fugue in C minor, and Preludio in do minore 1850 Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer. 1969 Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-Dutch-American women’s rights…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “You do not win by struggling to the top of a caste system, you win by refusing to be trapped within one at all.” — Naomi Wolf BIRTHDAYS: 1493 Bartolomeo Bandinelli, Italian sculptor patronized by the Medici, born in Florence. 1746 Tiradentes, leading member of the colonial Brazilian revolutionary movement known as the Inconfidência…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” — Epicurus BIRTHDAYS: 1493 Paracelsus, Swiss physician, alchemist, lay theologian, and philosopher of the German Renaissance. 1688 Lorenzo Somis, Italian composer and violinist, born…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Be noble minded! Our own heart, and not other men’s opinions of us, forms our true honor.” — Friedrich Schiller BIRTHDAYS: 1483 Martin Luther, German theologian, Augustinian friar, professor of theology, and seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. 1668 François Couperin, French composer and organist. Treizième Concert, and Allemande 1697 William…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “I find many adults are put off when young children pose scientific questions. Why is the Moon round? the children ask. Why is grass green? What is a dream? How deep can you dig a hole? When is the world’s birthday? Why do we have toes? Too many teachers and parents…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Only in some very special cases is comprehension the point of reading–in things like recipes and “reading material.” The point of reading is understanding, and comprehension is to understanding as getting wet is to swimming. You must do the one before you can hope to do the other, but you don’t…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company.” — Booker T. Washington BIRTHDAYS: 1598 Francisco Zurbarán, Spanish painter. 1706 Carlo Cecere, Italian composer, born in Grottole, Kingdom of Naples. Concerto per mandolino e archi 1867 Marie Curie, Polish and…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “There’s only one way to improve society. Present it with a single improved unit: yourself.” — Albert Jay Nock BIRTHDAYS: 1659 Theodor Schwartzkopff, German composer, born in the Free Imperial City of Ulm, Holy Roman Empire. Allemande and Chaconne 1753 Mikhail Kozlovsky, Russian sculptor. 1771 Alois Senefelder, German actor and inventor…

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations BIRTHDAYS: 1666 Attilio Ariosti, Italian baroque…