Anna Akhmatova (introduction)

I thought long and hard how to describe life of a famous woman on this blog so that you could understand this woman, her problems and her decisions, her achievements and her tragedies.

I also want to show how government of the country can take away your freedom, your loved ones and totally control your life if you allow it.

Finally, I want to show that outstanding women did not fight for equality with men. They worked hard and often achieved more than men.

There is no doubts in my mind that live of every person can be a basis for a historical novel with wide specter of events, emotions, problems, choices and their results. 

However, a blog should use short posts as many bloggers follow hundreds of posts daily.

I also believe that in a blog characters and events must be painted with few words.

Now I want to remind you that recently I published the post GET A FEELING OF ANNA AKHMATOVA’S POETRY. If you missed it or forgot it please click on the title of the post and read it.

I want to add here one detail..

Anna Akhmatova’s ancestor was Khan Akhmat. From Wikipedia: “He was killed one night in his tent by a Russian killer-for-hire. Karamzin (Russian historian – JF) tells us that this marked the end of the Mongol yoke on Russia. …It was well known that this Akhmat was a descendant of Genghiz Khan.”

This explains how Anna Gorenko became Anna Akhmatova.

Quotes of George Bernard Shaw (1).

I believe that quotes of George Bernard Shaw must be understood and remembered by everyone. That’s why I reblog this old post.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

I know that bloggers are élite.

It is obvious that all of you know that George Bernard Shaw was a great man.

But it is quite possible that you know only about one or two of his life’s activities and achievements.

So I recommend you to read an article about George Bernard Shaw HERE.

I love many of his famous quotes. Below are several of them that are as valid today as they were valid during his life.

He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

The power of accurate observation is commonly called…

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Several Thomas Jefferson’s quotes.

Great thoughts don’t die!

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

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Several Voltaire quotes.

Voltaire died in 1778. Please read his quotes and see if they are relevant today.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

From Wikipedia: “François-Marie Arouet …; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire…, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.”

Below are several Voltaire quotes I selected for your consideration.

Each…

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Life is full of surprises or robbers, where are you?! (Part 3)

Here is the last third part of the story about surprises in life. It shows clearly where robbers were at that time.
Today they are in many countries. They can be in your country too.

PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

My wife and children were waiting for me.

They looked at the parcel in my hands and instruments and it was clear that they wanted to open parcels immediately and to find out what was in it.

However, I suggested that we needed to warm ourselves first. So we had a morning run and a good workout, then we ate hot breakfast. After it we were ready.

It took considerable efforts to open six parcels. Then we saw that there was a mixture of brown and white in all of them.

My wife cautiously took several white crystals and licked them. She said: “It’s sugar”. Next she took out several brown kernels and said: “Buckwheat!” Then she took out many pieces of brown paper and started to cry.

Children and I looked at her with alarm. What was going on? Why was she crying?

A couple of minutes passed. Then my…

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Life is full of surprises or robbers, where are you?! (Part 3)

My wife and children were waiting for me.

They looked at the parcel in my hands and instruments and it was clear that they wanted to open parcels immediately and to find out what was in it.

However, I suggested that we needed to warm ourselves first. So we had a morning run and a good workout, then we ate hot breakfast. After it we were ready.

It took considerable efforts to open six parcels. Then we saw that there was a mixture of brown and white in all of them.

My wife cautiously took several white crystals and licked them. She said: “It’s sugar”. Next she took out several brown kernels and said: “Buckwheat!” Then she took out many pieces of brown paper and started to cry.

Children and I looked at her with alarm. What was going on? Why was she crying?

A couple of minutes passed. Then my wife stopped crying and explained: “In last letter I wrote that I could not find buckwheat here. Apparently, mothers decided that we had nothing to eat. They bought buckwheat and sugar and put paper packs with them in parcels. People in the USSR pierced each pack many times. Now we’ll have to find a way to separate sugar and buckwheat.”

We stayed in Lido di Ostia two more months. Each day we spent some time separating sugar and buckwheat.

I remembered at that time that my wife did not know her father. He was arrested and shot without trial when she was three months old. 30 years later her mother received a letter from a government that he was innocent.

I remembered that my grandfather was arrested, tortured and then released because he did not do anything wrong. However, he died in three months after his release.

I remembered that after we applied for a permission to leave the USSR we were treated as enemies of the state. We were lucky to get the permission but authorities forced us to pay substantial sum for every member of the family and then allowed to take with us only $400. We left behind our savings for many years of hard work.

I thought how lucky we were to escape from the Soviet Union whose government managed to murder 30 millions of its own people.

We were lucky to leave robbers of dignity, freedom and happiness behind.

I never expected that we would find people in America who would think that socialism could be good.

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery..”
― Winston S. Churchill

Several Voltaire quotes.

From Wikipedia: “François-Marie Arouet …; 21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his nom de plume Voltaire…, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, and his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state. Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken advocate, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, and the French institutions of his day.”

Below are several Voltaire quotes I selected for your consideration.

Each player must accept the cards life deals him.
But once they are in hand, he alone must decide
how to play the cards in order to win the game.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.

*

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

*

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

*

There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts.

*

Opinion has caused more trouble on this little earth than plagues or earthquakes.

*

Quote about poverty and wealth.

“In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of.

In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”

Confucius

Thomas Sowell and his quotes.

I just returned home from a nice party and found an email with Thomas Sowell’s quotes. I read all quotes and then went to Google to find out who was Thomas Sowell.

Here is what I found:   THOMAS SOWELL

Then I went back to the email and copied several quotes.

You can see them below and make your own conclusions.

“Much of the social history of the Western world, over the past three decades, has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good.”

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”

“One of the consequences of such notions as ‘entitlements’ is that people who have contributed nothing to society feel that society owes them something, apparently just for being nice enough to grace us with their presence.”

“I have never understood why it is “greed” to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else’s money.”

“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”

*

“Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions — and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large.”

*

Quotes about politicians

My old friend sent me a message with quotes of famous people.

Some of these quotes are well-known.

Here are the quotes:

If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these State of the Union speeches, there wouldn’t be any inducement to go to heaven.

~Will Rogers~

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.

~Nikita Khrushchev~

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it.

   ~Clarence Darrow~

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.

~Oscar Ameringer~

A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.

~ Tex Guinan~