“Your holy hearsay is not evidence.
Give me the good news in the present tense.”
"Present Tense"
Context: Your holy hearsay is not evidence.
Give me the good news in the present tense.
What happened nineteen hundred years ago
May not have happened.
How am I to know?
So shut your Bibles up and show me how
The Christ you talk about
Is living now.
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Sydney Carter 26
British musician and poet 1915–2004Related quotes
“Politics is history in the present tense.”
The Rise of Obama's Bridge Between MLK and RFK, June 6, 2008, Real Clear Politics http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/06/obamas_bridge_between_mlk_rfk.html,
“The present tense made him nervous.”
Source: Sprawl trilogy, Neuromancer (1984), Chapter 3 (Case)
"Passages from the life of a philosopher", The Belief In The Creator From His Works, p. 402
Passages from the Life of a Philosopher (1864)
Context: In the works of the Creator ever open to our examination, we possess a firm basis on which to raise the superstructure of an enlightened creed. The more man inquires into the laws which regulate the material universe, the more he is convinced that all its varied forms arise from the action of a few simple principles. These principles themselves converge, with accelerating force, towards some still more comprehensive law to which all matter seems to be submitted. Simple as that law may possibly be, it must be remembered that it is only one amongst an infinite number of simple laws: that each of these laws has consequences at least as extensive as the existing one, and therefore that the Creator who selected the present law must have foreseen the consequences of all other laws. The works of the Creator, ever present to our senses, give a living and perpetual testimony of his power and goodness far surpassing any evidence transmitted through human testimony. The testimony of man becomes fainter at every stage of transmission, whilst each new inquiry into the works of the Almighty gives to us more exalted views of his wisdom, his goodness, and his power.
“The hearsay of hearsay is not admissible as scholarship.”
Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 1, “Trinity” (p. 11)
On his style of filming The Hunger Games, as quoted in "Director Gary Ross Talks The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Deleted Scenes, and a Lot More" by Steve 'Frosty' Weintraub at Collider (22 March 2012) http://collider.com/gary-ross-hunger-games-interview/
Context: I’m trying to capture what was visceral in the books, which is your first-person present tense narrative, and that’s gonna require a certain amount of subjectivity. In order to be in Katniss’ point of view and in her shoes — what being in a character’s point of view is, is restricting the information that the audience has to what that character has, and not being writer omniscient. I’m not cutting from place-to-place, I’m moving in this serpentine, destabilized path as Katniss wanders through this world. That’s not only true in the shooting style, it’s also true in the editing style. … This was a very conscious decision to create a very subjective style because the books are so subjective, they’re first-person and they’re urgent and you see the world as she sees the world, so that was the reason for it.
Dealing with Doubt
18 November 2007
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-fDyPU3wlQ (0:37 into video)
“Won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present tenses”
Source: Chelsea Morning [With] CD
“A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready.”
Bruce Lee: Enter the Dragon (1973); In a conversation with an older member of the temple.
Context: A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Not thinking, yet not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come. When the opponent expands, I contract; and when he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, "I" do not hit, "it" hits all by itself.