Prolog to School of Thought

One man's cough drop is another man's lifesaver.
Anonymous old man

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School of Thought is a personal collection of wisdom and philosophy that I have pieced together across in my lifetime. Most of it comes out of reading books actively and then writing down any phrases that speak to me or that seem to hold wisdom or truth in them. Also, at times, as I read long passages, I find myself needing to summarize these long passages into into short phrases. These phrases often take on a poetic quality, especially when set side-by-side actual quotes from well known authors, philosophers or teachers who's book(s) I am reading.

But not every thing I have written down has come from a book or been summed up out of other peoples writings. Some lines come from television programs, lecturers or come out of every day conversation, some that included me and some that have merely been over heard by me. In fact, the phrase, "One man's cough drop is another man's lifesaver," came from one such conversation. And it was obvious the moment the old fellow spoke those words that they were both new wisdom and spontaneous created from his own personal school of thought that he had developed over his lifetime. And from that moment, I too, found I could generate my own new wisdom from my own mind and these, too, can be found scattered among my School of Thought.

As to the origin of the title - School of Thought - it is a simple one. I have long used simple composition books to collect these phrases and one day after I wrote my name on the cover of a new one, on the line marked - Name - I then looked to the next line - School - and without thinking I jotted the "word doodle" - of thought - to the empty line. Yes, it was an amazing bit of stream of consciousness writing that gave me the title.

But that, my friends, is what these pages really are. My own collected School of Thought. I do not dare suggest that these words are worthy of your own personal school of thought, because each of us must build our own School of Thought and fill it with those thoughts that work best for us and us alone. Still, you may find a phrase or two among my own that will suit yours.

And, if you decide to read on, and if you are reminded of something that seems reflective of what you just read, feel free to write that thought, new or old, into the comments section. Perhaps I will add that phrase to my own School of Thought.


Respectfully Submitted,

Michael Alibrando

p.s. - I will occasionally edit this first page/post to include teachers, lecturers, authors (and others) as well as book titles who's words have inspired my own or from whom I borrowed many quotes from directly. I may add quotes from television, movies or other media. What will begin as a short list may grow quickly.

Teachers
- George Colnagi
- Guy Derosa
- Joe Louis Clark
- Anonymous
- Jesus of Nazareth AKA Jesus Christ
- Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu AKA Blessed Teresa of Calcutta AKA Mother Teresa
- Henry Brooks Adams AKA Henry Adams
- Booker Taliaferro Washington AKA Booker T. Washington
- George H. Reavis
- Tenzin Gyatso AKA 14th Dalai Lama

Comedians/Actors/Entertainers/Directors/
- Cyril Cusack
- Sacha Guitry
- Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz AKA Jon Stewart
- Lauren Hutton
- Victor Borge
- Groucho Marx
- Allen Funt
- Allie Goertz
- George Carlin
- Robert H. Justman 

Inventors, Scientists, Philosophers,
Politicians, Journalist, Statesman, etc
- Albert Einstein
- K.R. Sridhar
- Plato
- Socrates
- Benjamin Franklin
- William of Ockha
- Adlai E. Stevenson
- David Henry Thoreau
- Pittacus of Mytilene
- Vincent Van Gogh
- Herbert A. Otto
- Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner AKA Sting
- Barrack Obama
- Anthony Clifford Grayling
- William James Durant
- Siddhārtha Gautama AKA Buddha
- Robert Allen Zimmerman AKA Bob Dylan
- Sun Tzu AKA Sunzi
- Laozi AKA Lao Tzu AKA Lao-Tse
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi AKA Gandhi
- Warren Edward Buffett 
- Desmond Mpilo Tutu 
- Jonas Salk 
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross 
- Giovanni Francesco di Bernardone AKA Francis of Assisi 
- Grace Murray Hopper
- Bertrand Russell 
- Neil deGrasse Tyson 
- Thomas Paine
- Thomas Jefferson
- Ronald Reagan 
- Phillips Brooks 
- Muhammad Ali AKA Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr. 
- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne 
- Jorge Mario Bergoglio AKA Pope Francis I 
- Samuel Ullman 
- William Sanford Nye AKA Bill Nye
- Timothy David Snyder 
- John Robert Lewis AKA John Lewis

Authors/Writers/Poets/Speakers/Director/etc
Ray Bradbury
 - Zen and the Art of Writing
- And more.

Richard Bach
- Johnathan Livingston Seagul
- Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
- Running From Safety
- and more.

M. Scott Peck
 - The Road Less Traveled

Leo Buscaglia
 - Love
 - Living, Loving and Learning
 - Born for Love
 - and more.

Ron Fry
- How To Study

Nancy Kelton
 - Writing from Personal Experience: How to Turn Your Life into Salable Prose

Harper Lee
- to Kill a Mockingbird

Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd
- The Time Paradox 

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
- Dragonlance Chronicles

David Gerrold
- The War Against the Chtorr
- Several Star Trek scripts and novels
- and more.

Charles Dickens
- A Christmas Carol
- And more.

Erich Fromm
- The Art of Loving
- The Art of Listening
- On Being Human
- And more.

Elliot S. Maggin
- Last Son of Krypton 
- Miracle Monday

Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein
- Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes

Daniel G. Amen, M.D.
- Change Your Brain Change Your Life

Rainer Maria Rilke
-

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
- Don Quixote

Eric Arthur Blair AKA George Orwell
- Animal Farm 
- 1984
- And more.

Ernest Hemingway
- The Sun Also Rises
- A Farewell to Arms
- The Old Man and the Sea
- And more.

Charles Michael Levine AKA Chuck Lorre
- Television and more

Chloe Ardelia Wofford AKA Toni Morrison
- Beloved
- And more.

Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. AKA Walter Cronkite
-  Broadcast Journalist

Andrew Aitken Rooney AKA Andy Rooney 
-  Broadcast Journalist

George Eliot
- Poetry
- And more.

Regina Brett
- Be the Miracle: 50 Lessons for Making the Impossible Possible
- And more.

Dr. Joyce Brothers
- What Every Woman Should Know About Men
- And more.

Thomas Stearns Eliot AKA T. S. Eliot
- Poetry
- And more.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Poetry
- And more.

Isaac Asimov
- I, Robot
- And more.

John Marmysz
- The Path of Philosophy: Truth, Wonder, and Distress

Mark Twain AKA Samuel Langhorne Clemens
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- The Prince and the Pauper
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
- And more.

Gene Roddenberry
- Star Trek
- And more.

Yvonne Fern
- Gene Roddenberry: The Last Conversation

Bo Lozoff
- It's a Meaningful Life
- Deep and Simple


_

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p.s.s. - Sometimes I will read a sentence that someone has written and be inspired by only a few words of that sentence. Or perhaps I will be inclined to change the tense of a turn of phrase. When I edit such a line to suit my school of thought, I give credit to the original author by adding - Me misquoting [author's name] or Me short-quoting [author's name] whichever seems most appropriate.

Example -

"...human beings must grow..."
Me misquoting M. S. Peck