Kurt Vonnegut
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut (November 11 1922- April 11 2007) was one of the popular American novelists with an unusual writing style of long sentences and little punctuation. His fame as a novelist and essayist reached maximum heights during the period between 1958 and 1980 and, some of this popular works include Cat’s Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night time, Bluebeard, Welcome to the Monkey House, Player Piano, Timequake and much more. His satirical literary style is hugely popular and it is unfair not to mention about the science fiction elements in his works as well.
After having completed his studies at Cornell University, Kurt joined US army and later on, he was captured and became a prisoner of the war known as Battle of the Bulge. Soon after his return from the World War II, he married Jane Marie Cox and this couple had three children. They got separated in 1970 and he married another woman known as Jill Krementz. It can be said without an iota of doubt that all his works clearly reflected his humanist perspective in the best possible manner.
Though he was born and brought up in an upper middle class Indianapolis family, his family fortunes began to slide during his teen years and his personal experience of being taken as a prisoner in the Second World War played an essential part in shaping up his outlook towards life. His mother’s suicide also influenced his outlook and he constantly had a lifelong difficulty while dealing with women. This man was a genuine humanist and Kurt Vonnegut constantly tried to tackle the basic questions about human presence like if there is a presiding number like God to make sense of all activities in this world, why does he wants persons well despite making persons suffer? The main weapon for him to tackle all these basic questions was humor.
One of his famous quotes, “A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved”, clearly reflects his humanistic attitude and he was also concerned about the destruction of the environment. Relating to Kurt Vonnegut, the only redemption for the meaningless of presence was human being kindness and he constantly wanted the God to become a bit more kind to the human beings. That is why he showed great compassion towards persons around him and some of his deeds like adopting sister’s children clearly reassert his humanistic attitude without a shadow doubt.
Winston Churchill
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
Winston Churchill
A life lived with a trajectory of events, Winston Churchill is one of those men who lead a stand against the dictator Adolf Hitler and his threat to rule over Europe. Born on November 30, 1874, Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a member of an aristocratic family. Winston Churchill is famous for his popular quote, “Success is not final, failure is fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Early Life
It was often said that Winston Churchill often displayed the traits of his father Lord Randolph Churchill. He is a British statesman who came from an established English family. He also possessed the traits of her mother, Jeannie Jerome, who is an independent-minded socialite from New York. Growing up, he lived in Dublin, Ireland. It is where his grandfather offered employment to his father. His grandfather, John Spencer-Churchill, is known as the 7th Duke of Marlborough.
When Churchill entered formal school, he proved to be both an independent and rebellious student. Since he is doing poorly at his first two schools, he was then sent to Harrow School in April, 1888. Harrow School is a popular boarding school located near London. Within just a few weeks of being enrolled to the school, he eventually joined Harrow Rifle Corps, putting him on a path leading to his military career.
Winston Churchill’s Career
It didn’t seem that military was a good choice for Winston Churchill. Every man who aspires to enter the military in UK should pass the exam for the British Royal Military College. In Churchill’s case, it took him three times just to pass the said exam. Fortunately, he graduated 20th in his class, which comprised 130 students.
He enjoyed a short yet eventful career in the British army during the peak of the British military power. He joined different squads. He also became a writer for military reports from newspapers like the Daily Telegraph and The Pioneer. He also wrote two books about his experiences in the military support — The Story of the Malakand Field and The River War.
Winston Churchill left the military army in 1899. He worked for the Morning Post, a conservative daily newspaper, as a war correspondent. Churchill was given an assignment to cover the Boer War in South Africa. Unfortunately, he was taken as a prisoner, but he made a way to escape. This made him on the headlines of every newspaper in Britain and around the world. When he returned, he began writing a book entitled London to Ladysmith, which is about his experiences as a prisoner in South Africa.
World Wars and Churchill
Winston Churchill is well-known for being a liberal man. He is unafraid of saying things about that things he is seeing in his surroundings as long as he know he is right. “Success is not final, failure is fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts,” is the quote that best symbolizes his courage and determination to win over the war against Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship. He pursued into giving out campaigns that he thought would help in bringing down Hitler. Eventually, he succeeded.
Winston Churchill served the British government before he was laid to rest on January 24, 1965.
Ram Dass
We’re all just walking each other home.
Ram Dass
Being a teacher is approximately practicing what they preach. Being truly a spiritual instructor, Ram Dass has been accurate to his teachings since his lifestyle mirrors most his quotes.
Born under the name Richard Alpert, Dass grew up in a Jewish family, but he didn’t practice the religious beliefs and labeled himself seeing that an atheist. Because of his family’s spiritual belief, he undergone many rites, although he obviously expressed that God is not within his life during his youthful years.
Nevertheless, Dass went right into a spiritual search and met Neem Karoli Baba, his guru who called him “Ram Dass” meaning servant of God. Because of his Hindu influences, Dass began to focus in exploring Judaism. His cause in interacting with his Jewish roots is normally that regarding to Hindu perspective, he’s to manage what he’s born in and that it provides grip on him it doesn’t matter how much he pushes its apart.
Quotes he lived by
One of his famous rates is “We’re all just walking each other home.” This quote could be applied to his lifestyle after he experienced from a stroke, which led him to presenting expressive aphasia. He stopped vacationing due to his condition, but nonetheless gets to out to most people through live internet casts. According to him, that is his way of focusing on himself to help people. This could be regarded as one of is own ways in walking most people house through his teachings.
Probably his most famous quote is “the quieter you become, the more you can hear.” This is actually the truth because most people can only just listen well after they stopped talking and relax. His expressive aphasia triggered him to lose the capability to produce created or spoken vocabulary, which gave him more chance to pay attention to his heart and brain. Another facet of his life is currently that he provides aged, he fully realizes that he is nearing the finish of his life. Because of his silence, he has enter into words and phrases about the near future and is preparing to meet what is waiting for you for him. Actually, he expressed that the idea of death appears naïve for him.
Another quote from Doss is normally, “a feeling of aversion or attachment toward something is your clue that there’s work to be done.” More often than not, having that unhealthy relationship or aversion from a person, situation or even material stuff can make most people experience limited or suppressing their capability to progress. They are always running apart or securing to something, bringing on missing opportunities and severing romantic relationships. By being able to forget about these, a person will experience free and will avoid an excessive amount of worries about their lifestyle. Freeing oneself from such baggage begins a lighter and brighter trip, just like what Doss do in his lifestyle.
Overall, Ram Doss is pretty an inspirational person, not merely due to his teachings, but also simply by how he practiced them in his lifestyle. His depth with regards to his spirituality is a thing that everyone can research to.