Tony's Garden

“A primary reason that people believe that life is getting worse is because our information about the problems of the world has steadily improved. If there is a battle today somewhere on the planet, we experience it almost as if we were there. During World War II, tens of thousands of people might perish in…

“The Pianoforte Sonatas of Beethoven must always be among the choicest possessions of all who love music and especially of those who make music their main object and study.” ― Donald Tovey 1702 Johann Schneider, German composer and pupil of Bach. Präludium und Fuge, G Dur, and Präludium und Fuge, g moll 1797 Hippolyte Delaroche, French…

“Adventure is just bad planning.” ― Roald Amundsen 1704 John Kay, English inventor (developed the flying shuttle). 1723 Joshua Reynolds, English portrait painter. 1796 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter. 1858 Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian virtuoso violinist, composer, and conductor. Rêve d’enfant 1872 Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer of polar regions. MISCELLANY: FOCUSED PROTECTION: The Great Barrington Declaration SCIENCE, ETHICS, AND THE NUREMBERG CODE: Declaration…

“If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Birthdays: 1606  Rembrandt van Rijn, a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. 1638 Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani, Italian composer. Sonata Prima 1877 Nina Salaman, British Jewish poet, author, translator and suffragette. 1894 Tadeusz…

“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even…

“Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible.” ― George Washington Carver Birthdays: 1864  John Jacob Astor IV, Astor built the Astoria Hotel, “the world’s most luxurious hotel”. 1884 John Francis Larchet, Irish composer and teacher. The Wheelwright, and…

“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.” ― Henry David Thoreau Birthdays: 1675 Evaristo Felice dall’Abaco, Italian cellist and composer. Concerto a più istrumenti, Op. 5: No. 6 in D major, III. Ciaconna 1817 Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. 1854 George Eastman, Inventor and Founder of…

“Culture is the ability to store, exchange, and improve ideas.” ― Peter H. Diamandis Birthdays: 1810 Eugène Simonis, Belgian sculptor. 1811 William Robert Grove, Welsh physicist and inventor of the first fuel cell. 1834 James McNeill Whistler, American-British painter. 1837 Paul Lacombe, French composer. Dialogue sentimental, and Aria, and Sonate, Op.100 1899 E. B. White,…

“Truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed.” ― William Blake Birthdays: 1638 David Teniers III, Flemish painter and tapestry designer. 1723 William Blackstone, English jurist, justice and Tory politician. 1759 Sophia Maria Westenholz, German singer, composer, and educator. Theme and Variations 1830 Camille Pissarro, Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist…

“To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not.” ― Yamamoto Tsunetomo Birthdays: 1766 Jacob Perkins, American inventor (father of the refrigerator). 1802 Thomas Davenport, American inventor (invented 1st commercial electric motor). 1819 Elias Howe, inventor of the sewing machine. 1839…