Equality, connection, and quotes

So it is late, and I am researching my history paper, tentatively to be on Equality in the writings of Marx, Voltaire, and Rousseau. Maybe a couple of other French philosophers as well. My history teacher likes to call on me in class and ask me abstract philosophy questions like, "What is a point?" or "What is the difference between honesty and truth?" Yeah, think about those questions. I give the wrong answers, which seems inevitable anytime I am asked a question of that nature. He calls on me a lot when I haven't raised my hand (and to be honest, when I'm not paying that much attention) and I think he expects that I know more than I do. So I am trying to figure out whatever it is that he wants me to know. I have realized that I have a scientific mind and not a philosophical one. So that is why I'm writing my paper on philosophy, maybe I will pick up some new thoughts and a new frame of mind.

The amazing part of being in Paris is how everything is connected. Just a couple of days ago I saw Voltaire and Rousseau's tombs in the Pantheon and now I'm writing about them. Paris is where Marx met Engels. It's very strange being in such a famous city. You can find connections for just about anything that you're reading, history events, literature, etc.

So wish me luck on the paper. Fifteen pages. Tomorrow should be interesting and the start of a fun weekend. Kathy, my friend who I met on my trip in Eastern Europe, is coming to visit and stay for a couple of days. Bastille Day is on Saturday, and from what I've been hearing it's a bit like Mardi Gras, madness, fireworks, parades, parties, etc. It's a great time to be here. Before that though, we visit Fountainebleau tomorrow. This is the chateau (translation: humongously large palace/mansion) that inspired Versailles and was a hunting lodge for the aristocracy.

I'll leave you today with some quotes on Paris that I found online and that I think are great. Each expresses in a small way the way I have felt at some point here. Enjoy.

You can't escape the past in Paris, and yet what's so wonderful about it is that the past and present intermingle so intangibly that it doesn't seem to burden. - Allen Ginsberg

As an artist, a man has no home in Europe save in Paris. - Friedrich Nietzsche

America is my country and Paris is my hometown. - Gertrude Stein

In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language. - Mark Twain

When good Americans die they go to Paris. - Oscar Wilde

In Paris, one is always reminded of being a foreigner. If you park your car wrong, it is not the fact that it's on the sidewalk that matters, but the fact that you speak with an accent. - Roman Polanski

And my personal favorite, and I think the way we will all feel when we head home...
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast. - Ernest Hemingway

Love to all, Em