Greetings! How are you? My name is Benedict of Constantinople and, yes, I am a real person. If, by any chance, I do not respond to your messages, please kindly assume that real life got in my way and I am dealing with it. Other than that, please feel free to leave as many messages as you want (without vandalizing my talk page) here.
I adore the humanities, particularly history, philosophy, and theology. I also have a love for languages, particularly older languages like Greek, Latin, Aramaic, and even Egyptian. I speak English and Chinese fluently and I am learning French.
I am a major supporter of Western ideology and culture. That is not to say that I hate everything to do with the Orient, rather it is to say that I merely enjoy studying about the West better.
So, then, without further ado, see you around if I have the chance! Have a nice day!
--Benedict of Constantinople (talk)
Please do not vandalize this message, or for that matter, this page, in any way.
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Quotes! A Wealth of Knowledge!
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Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
-Albert Einstein
History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity.
-Cicero, Roman author, orator, & politician (106 BC - 43 BC), Pro Publio Sestio
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
-George Santayana, US (Spanish-born) philosopher (1863 - 1952), The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905
Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.
-Albert Einstein, US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)
Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.
-HH The Dalai Lama
Peace is not the absence of war; it is a virtue; a state of mind; a disposition for benevolence; confidence; and justice.
-Spinoza
Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.
-Immanuel Kant
Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily.
-Napoleon Bonaparte
Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.
-Napoleon Bonaparte
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business.
-Henry David Thoreau
Politics
| This user supports NATO. |
| In Memoriam: 9/11 Lest we forget… |
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Books!
| arma virumque cano - this user is a fan of the Aeneid. |
| This user enjoys heavy reading, such as Shakespeare and other dead guys. |
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Primary Historical People that I Admire (in no particular order of preference)
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1. Napoleon I
2. Alexander the Great
3. Charles Darwin
4. Alexander Suvorov
5. Trajan
6. Julius Caesar
7. Marcus Tullius Cicero
8. Immanuel Kant
9. Albert Einstein
10. His Highness, Tenzin Gyatso, The Dalai Lama
11. Pope John Paul II
12. Leo Tolstoy
13. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
14. William the Conquerer
15. Justinian the Great
16. Suleiman the Magnificent
17. Rene Descartes
18. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough
19. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek
20. Saint Thomas Aquinas
21. Winston Churchill
22. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
23. Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg
24. Diana, Princess of Wales
25. Gustavus Adolphus
26. Albrecht von Wallenstein
27. Confucius
28. Frederick the Great
29. Jesus Christ
30. Richard Dawkins
31. Sir Isaac Newton
32. William Shakespeare
33. Horatio Nelson
34. Flavius Belisarius
35. Narses (The General who served under Justinian)
Shirley Graham Du Bois (November 11, 1896 – March 27, 1977) was an American-Ghanaian writer, playwright, composer, and activist for African-American causes. Born in
Indianapolis to an Episcopal minister, she moved with her family throughout the United States as a child. After marrying her first husband, she moved to Paris to study music at the
Sorbonne. After her divorce and return to the United States, Graham Du Bois took positions at
Howard University and
Morgan College before completing her BA and master's at
Oberlin College in Ohio. Her first major work was the opera
Tom-Tom, which premiered in
Cleveland in 1932. She married
W. E. B. Du Bois in 1951, and the couple later lived in Ghana, Tanzania and China. She won several prizes, including an
Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for her 1949 biography of
Benjamin Banneker. This photograph of Graham Du Bois was taken by
Carl Van Vechten in 1946.
Photograph credit: Carl Van Vechten; restored by Adam Cuerden