Smiles, Samuel : Samuel (1812-1904), Scottish advocate of material progress based on individual enterprise, expounded in his book Self-Help.
... be in. Living poorly seems to me to be akin to living dangerously, isn't this mostly true ? Now note His style in the reply: Not in the least. You are writing like Samuel Smiles. Poverty has never had any terrors for me, nor is it an incentive. You seem to forget that I left my very safe and 'handsome'... Handsome written within quotes, if you please! ... way, it can help to awaken the soul in the students. And here, Pranab, as you know very well, greets you always with a namaskar and a broad smile. I don't know whether he smiles broadly at all of you or not, but I am fortunate in seeing his broad smile as well as his folded hands each time he greets me. Well then, at last we meet. Some of you, I understand, have been waiting eagerly for... But as the days of sacrifice came nearer and nearer, I asked some of my inspirers: "What shall I do?" Well, some of them smiled and said, "Pray to the Lord," and others said nothing of the kind, simply smiled an enchanting smile. Perhaps they thought that this is a smile of inspiration! But it left me no wiser! (Laughter) Page 273 To tell you honestly, I was feeling a bit ...
... stated: "If Zeus were to speak in the language of mortals, he would do so in the Greek of Plato." To find another colossal talker we have to jump over nearly two thousand years and come to Dr. Samuel Johnson of eighteenth-century England. He laid down the law in matters of literature and in all other matters brought up by his circle of eminent friends — Reynolds the painter, Burke the politician-orator... favour: she wasn't much of a talker and left tongue-wagging to Johnson who, as I have told you, wagged it wonderfully well. To match him we have to go to another Englishman — the inimitable S.T.C.: Samuel Taylor Coleridge who was intoxicated with philosophical ideas and made of philosophical talk a poetic feast which Wordsworth and others enjoyed and which stimulated them in various ways. All the marvels... philosophy. Lamb went up to him and stood where he had been 90 minutes earlier and gently tapped his friend on the shoulder. Somehow the trick worked. Coleridge came out of his splendid soliloquy, smiled, looked at the button in his hand, apologised for unintentionally pulling it off Lamb's coat and assured him that he would have it restitched by his efficient wife Sarah. Lamb set his mind at ease ...
... of poverty he had to endure in England at such a young age had an adverse effect on his growing faculties or whether it acted as an incentive. He replied: 'Not in the least. You are writing like Samuel Smiles. Poverty has never had any terror for me nor is it an incentive. You seem to forget that I left my very safe and "handsome" Baroda position without any need to do it and that I gave up also the ...
... some sausages, and in the cold climate of London without sufficient warm clothing. But, as he has written to me, poverty was no terror for him, nor an incentive. He said that I was talking like Samuel Smiles! Then he failed in the I.C.S. riding test; he did it, as you know, deliberately by remaining absent as if by a tangle of unavoidable circumstances: in order not to hurt his hopeful father, not to... hauled to the court failing to pay up some arrears. The father at once sent the remittances but wrote an admonishing letter to his son, Aurobindo, that he was too extravagant! Sri Aurobindo said to us, smiling: "When we had not even one sufficient meal a day, where was the question of being extravagant?" But he had no feeling of resentment or bitterness towards his father; whenever he spoke of him it was... for something to happen. Addressing the servant he said, "Well, it seems you are behaving rudely. Don't do it again." That was all, and all those people were sorely disappointed. The cook went away smiling. The second instance. Political leaders had come to meet Sri Aurobindo. He wanted to go and meet them, he saw that his slippers were missing. What had happend? His 'mashi' had the habit ...
... of money is the only danger one can be in. Nevertheless, is it not true that poverty is one of the greatest dangers as well as incentives? Lives of great men show that. You are writing like Samuel Smiles. Poverty has never had any terrors for me nor is it an incentive. You seem to forget that I left my very safe and "handsome" Baroda position without any need to it, and that I gave up also the Rs ...
... those who hear it. Unfortunately, just as there are colour-blind people, so are there listeners and readers who prove themselves incapable of appreciating the deeper nuances of humour. This is what Samuel Johnson said in his familiar lexicographical way: "Wit like every other power has its boundaries. Its success depends on the aptitude of others to receive impressions; and just as some bodies... disliked our - shall I say - 'chivalry'. In fact when we invited her she complied after a few no's which we had, naturally, interpreted as yes because when she came to tea, she, with her face wreathed in smiles, did not at all toy with the tea, far less with the cakes! 'Caprice!' I philosophised ruefully, 'thy name is woman!' But henceforth - now that the iron has entered my soul - she comes to tea to us... disciples - Amal Kiran, Dilip Kumar, Nirodbaran et al. — who with their radiantly charming personalities provided Sri Aurobindo with the occasion for shedding his exterior reserve and showering his smiles and laughter on all around. And the succession of fourteen chapters that are now going to follow will show to us beyond any pale of doubt how variegated as well as opulent Sri Aurobindo's humour was ...
... where to pick up the thread of discourse. But, first, can a talk of mine be at all designated a discourse? Discourse implies acting the philosopher. In that respect I seem to resemble Dr. Jonathan whom Samuel Johnson once asked: "Have you tried being a philosopher?" Dr. Jonathan replied: "Sir, I have tried several times, but always cheerfulness keeps breaking in." (laughter) Well, the mention... capacity to do Yoga: one does not doubt the Mother's capacity to be one's Guru. But when jealousy overwhelms one, one thinks in terms of favouritism on the Mother's part. We start saying: "Oh she is all smiles to this sadhak but doesn't even look at me! She gives such a lot of attention to that sadhika, but completely ignores my needs." Such a critical view leads to a fundamental misgiving about the Guru's... of these proud eyes beggar-bowls, But only drop your smile in them. The other poem, named O Silent Love, reads: Because you never claim of us a tear, O Silent Love, how often we forget The eyes of countless centuries were wet To bring your smile so near! Forgive if I remember not the blaze, ...
... God bless you. The thing has come, as all of you can easily see, from the very core of his heart, and prayer does come from the heart. Isn't it in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" that Samuel Taylor Coleridge says: 78 Farewell, farewell! But this I tell To thee, thou Wedding-Guest! He prayeth well, who loveth well, Both man and bird and beast. He prayeth best, who loveth best... playground (Laughter), so we reported it to Sri Aurobindo, "There is a strong rumour that the Supermind will descend in the playground." Sri Aurobindo, as was His habit, said with a smile that was almost a non-smile, "I shall miss it!" (Laughter) I was expecting a wire from the Mother in May; Mother had told Amal before he went to Bombay that She would let him know about the... outstretched, giving protection and blessings - that is the conventional pose, as you know - and his robe falling in folds. The hand was tinged with a lotus-red colour. The face had a beautiful, 'beatific' smile of calmness, as Sri Aurobindo says, and the bliss of Nirvana. Something of that sort I used to feel; now I don't know what I'll feel like if I see that statue. On both sides of the Buddha, there were ...
... In the writings of John Donne we may detect the direct imitation of the Roman satirists. Most of the great dramatists of the 17th century were satirists, Moliere being the prince among them. Samuel Butler's Hudibras was a great example of unadulterated satire. Dignified political satire was carried to perfection in Dryden's Absolm and Achitophel. The Horatian style reached its perfection... work Vision of judgment. In the 19th century, Dickens, George Eliot and Balzac, although not satirists in the proper sense of the term, must be mentioned in this connection. Passing through Samuel Butler and G.B.Shaw, we come to Aldous Huxley and George Orwell of the 20th century, who have produced pure satire in their own individual ways. 3 This is how Sri Aurobindo has commented on a... Sri Aurobindo - The Smiling Master Chapter 15 Sri Aurobindo's Satirical Humour The movement of the humorous impulse as well as its expression in words may not in all cases be inspired by human kindliness. If not properly handled they may easily degenerate into mere mockery and sarcasm arising out of personal malice and conveyed through the medium ...
... the "ideational" devices play the dominant roles. Here is a second example - again from the pen of Amal Kiran: Page 274 (2) Coleridge discoursing to Charles Lamb: "S.T.C., Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was intoxicated with philosophical ideas and made of philosophical talk a poetic feast which Wordsworth and others enjoyed... But occasionally he was difficult to endure because of... Sri Aurobindo - The Smiling Master Chapter 11 Sri Aurobindo's Humour of Situation and Character The question arises again and again: How is humour produced? What gives rise to a successful comic effect? Over the last so many chapters of our book we have sought to provide the answer to this question. We have noted that in all the examples we have cited... philosophy. Lamb went up to him and stood where he had been ninety minutes earlier and gently tapped his friend on the shoulder. Somehow the trick worked. Coleridge came out of his splendid soliloquy, smiled, looked at the button in his hand, apologised for unintentionally pulling it off Lamb's coat and assured him that he would have it restitched by his efficient wife Sarah. Lamb set his mind at ease ...
... Therefore living poorly seems to me to be akin to living dangerously. I know that my contention has obvious fallacies in it, but isn't this mostly true? Not in the least. You are writing like Samuel Smiles. 28 Poverty has never had any terrors for me nor is it an incentive. You seem to forget that I left my very safe and "handsome" Baroda position without any need to it and that I gave up also... their occupation, their aim in life and their natures have got adapted to their work. All that they have achieved else than that is by the way—in spite of the yoke said on them. And then man smiles a superior smile and says it was all due to woman's inferior nature, not to the burden laid on her. Whatever may be the reason of the difference between a man and a woman, it can't be gainsaid that women ...
... transformed into sublimity and vice-versa. "Can a talk ofmine be at all designated a discourse? Discourse implies acting the philosopher. In that respectI seem to resemble Dr. Jonathan whom Samuel Johnson once asked: 'Have you tried being a philosopher?' Dr. Jonathan replied: 'Sir, I have tried several times, but always cheerfulness keeps breaking in.' " "To go back to the old... the same house. A word or two on Premanand by way of digression, especially Sri Aurobindo's humour at his expense. He was very regular in his habits, always neat and clean, and kept a smiling face. But he had some peculiar and amusing traits. He was meticulous and fastidious to the nth degree. He would spend a lot of time making his bed after getting up in the morning, folding the bedcover... have also the darshan of the Mother from a distance. Even the other day, I saw the sadhak coming with a slip of paper to Amal sitting in front of the Samadhi to seek his help, Amal asked with a smile: "What is the difficulty today?" I remember how in contrast I used to get irritated when the sadhak would come to me for the same kind of help in Amal's absence. This sadhak's work was ...
... sleep, perchance to dream, ay, there's the rub": thus Hamlet. Are dreams mere mental frippery? - perhaps no more than a sign of indigestion? Are dreams but lies, vain hopes and practical jokes? Samuel Daniel has no use for dreams: Cease dreams, th'Images of thy desires, To model forth the passions of the morrow: Never let rising Sun approve you liars, To add more grief to aggravate... Beauty inapprehensible, as though she had been overtaken by a Bliss ineffable! Look, look! - and isn't the Divine before you, walking with a nymph's gait, as if floating with an angel's wings, as if smiling with a cherub's face? The world is indeed charged with the glory of God, with his Beauty and Joy, but one must have eyes to see, one must stumble upon the auspicious moments! In the autumn of ...
... , there is evidently some incongruity of language, a piece of 'fun with words'. An advanced example: In a clerical company the conversation had turned upon the then head of the Church. Dr. Samuel Page 35 Parr, a clergyman himself, listened for some time to the strictures of his companions, then called in 'apt alliteration's artful aid' and broke in with: "Gentlemen, he... Its Ascending Evolution The humorous impulse in man has passed through many stages of upward development, at the bottom of which are the guffaws and malice and primitive fun, and at the top are smiles and tears and refined reflection. Prof. Stephen Leacock has made a profound study of this subject in his charming opuscule Humour and Humanity. What follows below is an abridged adaptation of his... Sri Aurobindo - The Smiling Master Chapter 2 Humour as an Art Humour is a marvellous art; humour is a difficult art. To be a humorist of class, that is to say, someone consciously skilled in comic artistry, is not at all an easy task. To be so requires a different sort of genius. Yes, only a genius can become a veritable humorist; yet the irony ...
... compact in effect; and his writing, with its effortless ease, has the native force of Nature itself. There is not, of course, one 'style' but many 'styles', each with its sufficiency and appropriateness. Samuel Butler once said that he never knew a writer who took the smallest pains about his 'style' and was at the same time readable. Neither did Sri Aurobindo take "pains" about his prose. Nevertheless, it... had been hidden from me. 76 Wisdom without tears. Truth garbed in the colours of the rainbow, catharsis effected with a smile! " A God who cannot smile", says Sri Aurobindo, "could not have created this humorous universe." Neither could a Prophet who cannot smile have structured The Life Divine while yet suffering the citizenship of the life mundane, the life purgatorial and the life infernal... dedicative putting forward of her child to meet the Eternal. This contact of the human and eternal is repeated in the smaller figure with a subtly and strongly indicated variation, the glad and childlike smile of awakening which promises but not yet possesses the depths that are to come.... The two figures have at each point the same rhythm, but with a significant difference. 37 Of the painting ...
... incompetent to understand the nature or operations of spiritual perception and reception of knowledge. For example, mind as a cognitive medium is basically 46. Letters on Yoga, p. 169. 47. See Samuel Hugo Bergman, "Philosophy and Religion" in Actes du Xl è me Congr è s International de Philosophie (Bruxelles, 1953), p. 13. 48. "par āñ ci kh ā ni vyat ṛṇ at svaya ṁ bhustasm āt par āṅ pa... be true.' Thus, these irreconciliable opposites constitute but a mass of logical contradictions and are hence intellectually false and impossible in reality." And, then, perhaps with a wise smile, the rational mentality may declare: "Ah, it is for this element of confused thinking, this blissfully chaotic state of awareness harbouring irreconciliable logical opposites, that the mystics plead... Congress of Philosphy, held at Brussells in 1953. (The interested reader may consult pages 91-96 of Volume XI of the published Proceedings of the Congress.) The men of the spirit will simply smile at the presumptuous claim of the logical mind to judge the validity or otherwise of spiritual experiences with the tiny probe of intellectual reason. For anyone having the genuine spiritual knowledge ...
... war at last came to an end. (taken from: The Mainstream of Civilization by Joseph R. Strayer & Hans W. Gatze, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich publishers, 1979, USA) About Mark Twain Born Samuel Longhorne CLEMENS in a small town of the southern United States in 1835, he is considered to be the first great American writer of the West of the country. He became famous after the publication of... the English power!' The young monarch's amused face sobered a little when this martial speech fell upon that sick air like a breath blown from embattled camps and fields of war, and his trifling smile presently faded wholly away and disappeared. He was grave now, and thoughtful. After a little he waved his hand lightly, and all the people fell away and left those two by themselves in a vacant space... horse and then kissed their fingers. Nothing that Joan did escaped notice; everything she did was commented upon and applauded. You could hear the remarks going all the time. 'There—she's smiling—see!' 'Now she's taking her little plumed cap off to somebody— ah, it's fine and graceful!' 'She's patting that woman on the head with her gauntlet.' 'Oh, she was born on a horse—see ...
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.