Miscellany and Trivia

When Aquinas was a student, his reserved demeanor kept him from participating in class discussions. Rather than assume shyness or meekness, the other students presumed Aquinas was simply stupid. In the Middle Ages, when noblemen frequently placed their children in monasteries or universities by force of position, it was common to have relatively unintelligent people even in university. This way Aquinas earned the nickname "the dumb ox," referring, of course, to his size and silence. Another student, taking pity on Aquinas, offered to aid Aquinas with his logic work. Aquinas accepted out of meekness. As the student attempted to demonstrate various rules of logic to Aquinas, he found himself being corrected by Aquinas. The student soon caught on and left Aquinas alone.

Also known as 'the Cynic,' Diogenes was the major follower of Antisthenes, who had invented cynicism as a philosophical movement. Cynicism demanded extreme detachment from society and its rules, living according to one's reason. One way Diogenes used to scandalize the Athenians was to eat in the Agora. Any bodily function was expected to be confined to the home, where no-one else need see it. Going one beyond this, Diogenes was once found masturbating in public. Asked how he could do such a thing, Diogenes replied, "If I could satisfy my hunger by rubbing my belly, I'd do that too."

Diogenes' fame began to spread, both as a sort of madman and as a wise man. For the latter reason, Alexander the Great reportedly came to Athens from Macedon to glean some wisdom from this eccentric philosopher. Alexander would find Diogenes in his customary place, an empty wine vat which he had made his home. When Alexander approached with praise for Diogenes wisdom and humbling himself to request audience, Diogenes replied, "Could you move? You're blocking my light."

Once Mann was visited by an amateur writer who showed him some of his works and asked for advice.

'After all, you should read a lot', said Mann.

'Why?', asked the young author.

'Because if you read a lot you won't have time to write', replied the writer.’

Goethe once wrote a very long letter to one of his friends. In the end he added a postscript explaining: 'I am very sorry for sending you such a long letter but I did not find enough time to write a shorter one.'

Hemingway had a son who at the age of twenty had already tried to work in many different professions. He considered himself a person with a huge life experience and decided to publish his diaries so he asked his father, already a famous writer awarded the Nobel Prize, to write a preface to his memoirs.

'After that, we'll talk about the copyright', the son added.

'My son', the writer said, 'you should know that I, as your father, own all the rights regarding your person'.

One day a friend visited the writer and found him totally depressed. Joyce explained that he couldn't finish some book he was writing.

'So how much have you written yet?', the friend asked.

'Seven words', Joyce replied.

'It's not that bad', the friend tried to console him.

'Maybe, but I still don't know in what order I should put them', said the writer.

One day the writer's son found him reading some book that seemed to absorb him completely. Curious, he asked him what book was it.

'It's a really fascinating novel!', the writer said. 'I can't wait to find out what finally happens to the characters.'

'And who's the author?', asked his son.

'Me! I wrote it myself!", said the writer.

While delivering a campaign speech one day Theodore Roosevelt was interrupted by a heckler: “I’m a Democrat!” the man shouted.
“May I ask the gentleman,” Roosevelt replied, quieting the crowd, “why he is a Democrat?”
“My grandfather was a Democrat,” the man replied, “my father was a Democrat and I am a Democrat.”
“My friend,” Roosevelt interjected, moving in for the kill, “suppose your grandfather had been a jackass and your father was a jackass. What would you then be?”
Alas, Roosevelt was thwarted by the quick-witted heckler, who promptly replied: “A Republican!”