A dog's predicament

Mr. Bones knew that Willy wasn't long for this world. The cough had been inside him for over six months, and by now there wasn't a chance in hell that he would ever get rid of it. 

...

What was a poor dog to do?

(From ''TIMBUKTU'' by Paul Auster, Faber and Faber, 1999)

Bushido in the 20th Century

''One remarkable difference between the experience of Europe and Japan is, that whereas in Europe, when chivalry was weaned from feudalism and was adopted by the Church, it obtained a fresh lease of life, in Japan no religion was large enough to nourish it, hence when the mother insti-tution, feudalism, was gone, Bushido left an orphan, had to shift for itself.

The present elaborate military organization might take it under its patronage, but we know that modern warfare can afford little room for its continuous growth. Shintoism, which fostered it in its infancy, is itself superannuated. The hoary sages of ancient China are being supplanted by the intellectual parvenu of Bernham and Mill.''

(INAZO NITOBE, ''BUSHIDO, The Classic Portrait of Samurai Martial Culture" Tuttle Publishing, 1969)

Artists against art

"When I visited my old Dada colleague Tristan Tzara in Paris two years ago, he left me these parting words as food for thought for my journey: 'Don't forget that polemics always played a big part in Dada.'

I shall not be able to confine myself within the bounds of academic art-history.

I shall depend above all on my own memories and those of surviving friends.

The dates and facts of those years, the pronouncements, denials and contradictions, the theories and the works of anti-art: these are the signs by which the living Dada movement is known for what it was, an artistic revolt against art.''

 

(From Hans Richter's "Dada, Art and Anti Art".

Thames and Hudson 2016)

Be grateful to everyone

" The slogan: 'Be grateful to everyone' is about making peace with the aspects of ourselves that we have rejected. Through doing that, we also make peace with the people we dislike.

More to the point, being around people we dislike is often a catalyst for making friends with ourselves. Thus 'Be grateful to everyone.' "

(Pema Chodron, "START WHERE YOU ARE, HOW TO ACCEPT

YOURSELF AND OTHERS'', 2003)

Action in Hong Kong

''At 15 years old, Yannus is too young to drive a car or buy a beer. But he says he is willing to give his life in the ''final battle'' for Hong Kong. 'Maybe I will die for this  movement,' he says, at the edge of one of the pitched battles that demonstrations have frequently become over the past eight months. As protesters beside him pour Molotov cocktails, the teenager straps a motorcycle helmet to hide his face from cameras and facial recognition software. Like every protester TIME spoke with, Yannus gave a pseudonym out of concern for his safety. But in his pocket he keeps a handwritten will addressed to his parents and friends.'I ready' he says tapping it.''

 

(For the Umbrella Movement of 2014, in Hong Kong, 'Time' Magazine. Editor Laignee Barron) 

Sex and Nirvana

''Shakyamuni Buddha before he passed away told his disciples that if there was another passion like sex he would not have attained enlightenment!''

(Lust for Enlightenment: Buddhism and Sex 

  by John Stevens, Shambala 1990)

The end of (yet) another era?

"After 2008, rather than punishing banks or imposing radical reforms, most governments worked to save them. Banks were bailed out and debts were written off or purchased by the state. Under the 'Troubled Asset Relief Program' of 2010, the US government authorized $700 billion to stabilize banks. In Britain, over $500 million was spent purchasing shares in banks to prop them. Even the oldest surviving bank in the world, Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi  di Siena (founded in 1472), built up huge losses investing in risky financial products. As a result, the Italian government had to spend more than 4 billion EURO rescuing the bank in 2016."

(''IS CAPITALISM WORKING? A primer for the 21st century''    by Jacob Field, Thames & Hudson publisher)