February 2012
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It's a powerful way of communicating ideas; of...
Luke Ives Pontifell carries a Blackberry. He owns an iPad and writes a blog. He harbours no aversion to the bytes and tweets that whirl through the modern world. He has also devoted his life to the production of handcrafted books that will be around long after he’s gone.
When everything is disposable, it’s a powerful way of communicating ideas - of saying, this is something that...
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“Show Holmes a drop of water and he would deduce the existence of the Atlantic....”
– Sherlock Holmes: The House of Silk
Intriguing quote that highlights the beauty of our interpretation.
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“Thank you all for coming around to the self-evident point I made five minutes...”
– Aaron Sorkin (Toby Ziegler: West Wing)
Always makes me smile. I couldn’t have said it better than myself.
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You Met God On Meadow And Moorland
You met God on meadow and moorland; you met Him in the homes of the people. God seemed to be everywhere… not an evangelist, not a special effort. Not anything at all based upon human endeavour, but an awareness of God that gripped the whole community so much so that worked stopped.
(Duncan Campbell describing the 1949 Hebrides Revival)
It’s a quote that still provokes me to this...
January 2012
11 posts
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He Not Busy Being Born Is Busy Dying
From the fool’s gold mouthpiece the hollow horn.
Plays wasted words, proves to warn.
That he not busy being born is busy dying.
(Bob Dylan: It’s Alright Ma)
Being born… a continual process.
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Nothing Is Ever New
The wheel turns, nothing is ever new.
(Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal In Belgravia)
Sometimes it is good to stop and consider that the ‘new’ always has a link into the ‘past’. It not only helps with battling with the whole self-importance issue, but more important, honours the footprints we find our feet already within.
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The Mundane And Insignificant
I have often found that the most immaterial aspect of a case can be at the same time its most significant.
(Sherlock Holmes: The House of Silk)
That’s my main message, really. Don’t think that the things around you don’t count, because they do.
(Jarvis Cocker: Guardian 17/10/11)
Lesson # The power of the insignificant.
Lesson # Never underestimate the mundane.
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Patience with the 'work-in-progress'.
The unfinished picture would so like to jump off the easel and have a look at itself.
(C.S. Lewis: Letters To Malcolm)
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One Should Be Wary Before Jumping To A Conclusion
It has always struck me that any interpretation of a series of events isn’t possible until all the evidence says otherwise and even then one should be wary before jumping to a conclusion.
(Sherlock Holmes: The House of Silk.)
Wise words from the old man.
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A Book That Has Taken A Lifetime To Write
This book is by the one who thought he’d be farther along by now, but he’s not.
It is by the inmate who promised the parole board he’d be good, but he wasn’t.
It is by the dim-eyed who showed the path to others but kept losing his way.
It is by the wet-brained who believed if a little wine is good for their stomach, then a lot is great.
It is by the lair, tramp, and...
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Misconceptions →
“Many of us have grown up to believe certain things are true in science, without ever questioning them, And, as this research suggests, scientific misconceptions, once picked up, can stay with us for our whole lives”.
(Ian Grant, Managing Director of Encyclopaedia Britannica UK commenting on the science misconceptions, including how a third of people still believe we only use 10...
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Vested Interests
“You don’t let the guy with the broom control how many elephants are in the parade”.
Merlin Mann
Wise words about vested interests.
December 2011
7 posts
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Just did an interview with UCB about Dickens and the Christmas Carol. Their serialisation of this classic tale on everyday this week at 10.20.
Control →
The City of London Corporation has lost control of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the high court will hear on Monday, with members of an activist camp “seeing the rules and policing behaviour” in the churchyard.
A line that packs weight beyond its words.
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To Stay Curious
“The world has become a strange and puzzling place that keeps insisting I give up what I thought I knew.
I don’t expect to ever again feel secured by intellectual confidence. But I find life much more interesting now living with not knowing, trying to stay curious rather than certain”.
(Margaret Wheatley)
Love the idea of staying curious… acts like blood rushing...
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To stand on the edge and delight in the stuff you...
“Science is a continual process of refinement. It’s one of the fields where we want to be proved wrong.
The role of the scientist is to stand on the edge and look out on the known and delight in the stuff you don’t know, and then go and explore it”.
(Brian Cox)
A worthwhile summation of life in general.
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November 2011
7 posts
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Beauty of craftsmanship
Jony Ive grew up in Chingford, a town on the northeast edge of London. His father was a silversmith who taught at the local college. “He’s a fantastic craftsman”, Ive recalled. “His Christmas gift to me would be one day of his time in his college worship, during the Christmas break when no one else was there, helping me make whatever I dreamed up”. The only...
“A gentleman is someone who can play the banjo and doesn’t.”
– Mark Twain: Huckleberry Finn
A perfect summation
An observation that seems to sum up the beauty of our faith.
“But what the 1611 translators grasped was that hearing the word of God was a lifelong calling that had to be undertaken in the company of other readers and was never something that left us where we started.” Dr. Rowan Williams Guardian 17th November
2011 : The most ‘high and mightie’ joins Bibles 400th...
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“It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
– Walt Disney (SPJ pg.284)
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It's at times of stress, when you don't read the... →
Love this challenging quote from the resigned St Paul’s canon, Giles Fraser.
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“Either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or...”
– Stephen Colbert:
Commenting on living within a ‘Christian nation’.
October 2011
4 posts
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A eulogy that carries depth. →
“We boast of what we are giving because it hides what we are withholding.”
– Brennan Manning : The Importance Of Being Foolish
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“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be...”
– Stanford Commencement Speech 2005
Steve Jobs
September 2011
2 posts
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“It bugs me when people try to analyse jazz as an intellectual theorem....”
– Bill Evans
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August 2011
9 posts
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“Stories don’t always end where their authors intended, but there is joy in...”
– Beatrix Potter: Miss Potter
(courtesy of my sister-in-law’s Facebook comments of wisdom)
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“There is certainly untold pleasure in having to contend with overwhelming...”
– George Cadbury: Chocolate Wars
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Icon Ambulance →
This is up there as one of my favourite Steve Jobs stories. Recounted by Vic Gondotra, senior vice president at Google.
A mixture of passion and obsession.
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“Debt is selling off a piece of your freedom in exchange for gratification right...”
– Adam Baker : Fear.less Magazine July 2011
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“I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning...”
– Marshall McLuhan: Understanding Media (1964)
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July 2011
5 posts
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“Before we can hear the last word, we must listen to the next-to-last word.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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An enterprise dependent upon the proceeding...
I came across a quote today that seems to capture the honesty and vulnerability of writing. A helpful reminder as I begin shaping the next book.
” There are few activities more cooperative than the writing of history. The author puts his name brashly on the title-page and the reviewers rightly attack him for his errors and misinterpretations; but none knows better than he how much his...