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.
[edit]Quotes! A Wealth of Knowledge!
[edit]
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… |
|
Books!
 | arma virumque cano -
this user is a fan of the Aeneid. |
 | This user enjoys heavy reading, such as Shakespeare and other dead guys. |
|
Primary Historical People that I Admire (in no particular order of preference)
[edit]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)
Leucojum vernum, commonly called the spring snowflake, is a species of flowering plant in the family
Amaryllidaceae. It is native to central and southern Europe from Belgium to Ukraine.
L. vernum is cultivated as an
ornamental plant for its white flowers in spring. The plant multiplies in favourable conditions to form clumps. Each plant bears a single white flower with greenish marks near the tip of the
tepal, on a stem about 10 to 20 centimetres (3.9 to 7.9 inches) tall, occasionally more. The Latin
specific epithet vernum means 'relating to spring'; its close relative,
L. aestivum, blooms in summer. This photograph of a
L. vernum flower, taken in
Bamberg, Germany, was
focus-stacked from 32 separate images.
Photograph credit: Reinhold Möller
