Friday, May 1, 2009

Mortal coil shufflings and Outrageous fortunes


"Wars are not won by some poor dumb bastard giving his life for his country. Wars are won by making some OTHER poor dumb bastard give his life for HIS country." —George Patton
---------

To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, [...]
—Bill Shakespeare

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
[Henry V - Shakespeare]

5 comments:

  1. Sorry Max,

    New podcast is out (hit my name for proof) -- next time!

    CHEERS!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is it not amazing that Shakespeare could speak so eloquently on the subject of war and ethics, and here we are 400+ years later really no further forward. You could sort of hope for a little progress and advancement in that time.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I suppose "kill them all and let god sort them out" would be a bit too much??

    ReplyDelete
  4. We're all gonna die anyway-I'm sure I had something more than that to say-oh well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Canucklehead - I'm sorry too. My loss. I will get on board eventually I hope.

    @Sheila - You must be joking. In Henry V's time it took them all day to kill a few thousand men. Today we can kill millions in a spit second. Now that's progress.

    @Petra - What?

    @Descartes - We are ALL going to die? Stop spreading rumors. Rumours. Roomers. I think you are putting Descartes before des horse again.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails