Name That Author

[wrdsandwrks]

Here's another quote and a hint. This author's ideas on government influenced the American founding fathers and was the basis for the phrase, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in the Declaration of Independence.

"Man being born, as has been proved, with a title to perfect freedom and an uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges of the law of Nature, equally with any other man, or number of men in the world, hath by nature a power not only to preserve his property—that is, his life, liberty, and estate against the injuries and attempts of other men, but to judge of an punish the breaches of that law in others, as he is persuaded the offence deserves, even with death itself, in crimes where the heinousness of the fact, in his opinion, requires it. But because no political society can be, nor subsist, without having in itself the power to preserve the property, and in order thereunto punish the offences of all those of that society, there, and there only, is political society where every one of the members hath quitted this natural power, resigned it up into the hands of the community in all cases that exclude him not from appealing for protection to the law established by it. And thus all private judgment of every particular member being excluded, the community comes to be umpire, and by understanding indifferent rules and men authorized by the community for their execution, decides all the differences that may happen between any members of that society concerning any matter of right, and punishes those offences which any member hath committed against the society with such penalties as the law has established; whereby it is easy to discern who are, and are not, in political society together. "

[doojable]

de Tocqueville? (just going on your hint)

Edited May 12, 2008 by doojable

[now I see]

Sounds like Shakespeare.

[wrdsandwrks]

It's not Shakespeare or de Tocqueville.

This author is British and was born about 70 years after Shakespeare, in 1632.

Freedom of Men under Government is, to have a standing Rule to live by, common to every one of that Society, and made by the Legislative Power erected in it; a Liberty to follow my own Will in all things, where the Rule prescribes not; and not to be subject to the inconstant, uncertain, unknown, Arbitrary Will of another Man: as Freedom of Nature is, to be under no other restraint but the Law of Nature.

[wrdsandwrks]

Here's another quote:

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials for knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

And another hint:

A major character on the TV show LOST is named after him and not by accident.

[waysider]

Here's another quote:

And another hint:

A major character on the TV show LOST is named after him and not by accident.

He also shares a name with a rather well known musician, now deceased.

(I only made that connection because I gave up and "googled".)

[GeorgeStGeorge]

James Brown?

I have no idea. I haven't watched "Lost" since the first episode.

George

[now I see]

The only thinker that comes to mind after Shakespear was Sir Isaac Newton, don't remember all the charcters names in Lost, so that does me no good...

[bfh]

John Locke

[wrdsandwrks]

BFH. You are right. It's John Locke.

The first quotes are from his An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

The ones on government are from his Treatises on Civil Government.

The TV show LOST has a number of famous philosopher/author names such as Hume and Rousseau. Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry for John Locke (Lost):

"The real Locke believed that, in the state of nature, all men had equal rights to punish transgressors; to ensure fair judgment for all, governments were formed to better administer the laws. This philosophy is paralleled by the character of Locke, who embraces both nature and the need for organization among the survivors. Further, the flashback in which Locke donates his kidney to his father mirrors the historical relationship between the philosopher John Locke and Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, whose life was saved by Locke when the latter persuaded Ashley-Cooper to undergo an operation to remove a cyst on his liver."

(On the TV show Locke's father is named Anthony Cooper.)

B. you're up.

[bfh]

New Author:

"He is not easy to describe. There is something wrong with his appearance;

something displeasing, something downright detestable. I never saw a man I

so disliked, and yet I scarce know why. He must be deformed somewhere;

he gives a strong feeling of deformity, although I couldn't specify the point.

He's an extraordinary looking man, and yet I really can name nothing out of the way.

No, sir; I can make no hand of it; I can't describe him. And it's not want of memory;

for I declare I can see him this moment."

[WordWolf]

Is this from robert Louis Stephenson's "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?"

[bfh]

Is this from robert Louis Stephenson's "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde?"

Yes, that's it.

WW, you are up...

[WordWolf]

"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands."

"So you can imagine what happens when a mainland species gets introduced to an island. It would be like introducing Al Capone, Genghis Khan and Rupert Murdoch into the Isle of Wight - the locals wouldn't stand a chance."

"A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'"

"The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination."

[GeorgeStGeorge]

Obviously somebody quite recent (with the Murdoch reference).

Carl Sagan?

George

[WordWolf]

Carl Sagan?

No, not close, either.

[now I see]

Al Gore?  

[WordWolf]

Al Gore?

Not even close.

"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family Anatidae on our hands."

"So you can imagine what happens when a mainland species gets introduced to an island. It would be like introducing Al Capone, Genghis Khan and Rupert Murdoch into the Isle of Wight - the locals wouldn't stand a chance."

"A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'"

"The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination."

"In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move."

"He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife."

"Getting a movie made in Hollywood is like trying to grill a steak by having a succession of people coming into the room and breathing on it."

"I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer."

"I wrote an ad for Apple Computer: 'Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end.'"

Edited May 15, 2008 by WordWolf

[bfh]

"I wrote an ad for Apple Computer: 'Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end.'"

I remember LMAO the first time I heard this, oh how true, how true.

I think he also said something like: Apple only has 10% of the market, but it's the top 10%.

I know he wrote (one of) the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I think his name is Doug Adams.

[WordWolf]

I remember LMAO the first time I heard this, oh how true, how true.

I think he also said something like: Apple only has 10% of the market, but it's the top 10%.

I know he wrote (one of) the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I think his name is Doug Adams.

Douglas Adams is correct.

And IMHO, Linux has since taken the top 10% of the market, or much of it.

And wrote the Hitchhikers Guide series. The quote about the universe being a bad idea is from the first page.

[anotherDan]

great stuff..... you "guys" rule!

Dan <--- didn't catch much

[bfh]

Dan <--- didn't catch much

Sorry to hear that Dan.

I'll post tomorrow...must sleep now.

[bfh]

New Author:

What a lark! What a plunge!

She felt somehow very like him - the young man who had killed himself.

She felt glad that he had done it; thrown it away while they went on living.

The clock was striking. The leaden circles dissolved in the air.

But she must go back. She must assemble.

[bfh]

What a vision of loneliness and riot the thought of Margaret Cavendish brings to mind!

as if some giant cucumber had spread itself over all the roses and carnations in the

garden and choked them to death. What a waste that the woman who wrote 'the best

bred women are those whose mind are civilest' should have frittered her time away

scribbling nonsense and plunging ever deeper into obscurity and folly...Evidently the

crazy Duchess became a bogey to frighten clever girls with.

And so, since no woman of sense and modesty could write books, Dorothy [Osborne],

who was sensitive and melancholy, the very opposite of the Duchess in temper, wrote nothing.

[wrdsandwrks]

What a vision of loneliness and riot the thought of Margaret Cavendish brings to mind!

as if some giant cucumber had spread itself over all the roses and carnations in the

garden and choked them to death. What a waste that the woman who wrote 'the best

bred women are those whose mind are civilest' should have frittered her time away

scribbling nonsense and plunging ever deeper into obscurity and folly...Evidently the

crazy Duchess became a bogey to frighten clever girls with.

And so, since no woman of sense and modesty could write books, Dorothy [Osborne],

who was sensitive and melancholy, the very opposite of the Duchess in temper, wrote nothing.

Virginia Woolf?

Edited May 17, 2008 by wrdsandwrks