Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

"Life is just a party and parties weren't meant to last." ~Prince, R.I.P.

[BenG]

A multitude of books only gets in one’s way. So if you are unable to read all the books in your possession, you have enough when you have all the books you are able to read.

— Seneca, Letters from a Stoic

[covingtoncat73]

"Here come the man and he say, he say the show must go on..." Van Morrison, "Ballerina"

[kennyc]

Woo-Hoo!!!! Van!!!!

[kennyc]

"Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing."
- August Wilson b. 4/27/1945

[kennyc]

Happy Birthday Willy!

Nelson’s memoir, It’s a Long Story: My Life (2015), came out last year. In it, he writes:

"[Songs] are mysterious gifts. I know they are born out of experience and genuine grief [...] The deepest songs expose vulnerability. They strip me bare and leave me amazed."

[kennyc]

"I'd give anything if I could just get these muscles to where they're real hard," says Norma Jean.
- Bobbie Ann Mason born on this date 5/1/1940 - from "Shiloh"

[covingtoncat73]

"Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true"

~"Tiger Mountain Peasant Song," Fleet Foxes

[BenG]

My contention is that good men (not bad men) consistently acting upon that position [imposing “the good”] would act as cruelly and unjustly as the greatest tyrants. They might in some respects act even worse. Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under of robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some points be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to heaven yet at the same time likely to make a Hell of earth.

— C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics

[kennyc]

"You choose to be a novelist, but you’re chosen to be a poet. This is a gift and it’s a tremendous responsibility. You have to be willing to give something terribly intimate and secret of yourself to the world and not care, because you have to believe that what you have to say is important enough."
- May Sarton born on this day 5/3/1912

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by BenG

My contention is that good men (not bad men) consistently acting upon that position [imposing “the good”] would act as cruelly and unjustly as the greatest tyrants. They might in some respects act even worse. Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under of robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some points be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to heaven yet at the same time likely to make a Hell of earth.

— C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics

Great quote Ben and very applicable to the current political/economic climate!

[kennyc]

"Reality is never and nowhere more accessible than in the immediate moment of one’s own life. It’s only there that it can be won or lost."
- Franz Kafka from Conversations with Kafka

[covingtoncat73]

"People who behave badly are often unhappy with themselves—and with the world.”"
― from "The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series Book 14)"

[covingtoncat73]

"There is an old saying, that he who seeks what he should not, finds what he would not." ~ Giambattista Basile, Stories from the Pentamerone (Tale of Tales)

[covingtoncat73]

"There is nothing in the world more glorious, my gentle dames, than to listen to the deeds of others; nor was it without reason that the great philosopher placed the highest happiness of man in listening to pretty stories. In hearing pleasing things told, griefs vanish, troublesome thoughts are put to flight and life is lengthened." ~Giambattista Basile, Stories from the Pentamerone