Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[AlexBell]

I know no surer way of shaking off the dreary crust formed about the soul by the trying to do one's duty or the patient enduring of having somebody else's duty done to one, than going out alone, either at the bright beginning of the day, when the earth is still unsoiled by the feet of the strenuous and only God is abroad; or in the evening, when the hush has come, out to the blessed stars, and looking up at them wonder at the meanness of the day just past, at the worthlessness of the things one has struggled for, at the folly of having been so angry, and so restless, and so much afraid. Nothing focusses life more exactly than a little while alone at night with the stars.

Elizabeth von Arnim, in The Adventures of Elizabeth on Rügen

[covingtoncat73]

Can't find delete button.

[covingtoncat73]

1997 Leonard Cohen interview.

[gmw]

I do not know anything more ludicrous among the self-deceptions of well-meaning people than their notion of patriotism, as requiring them to limit their efforts to the good of their own country;—the notion that charity is a geographical virtue, and that what it is holy and righteous to do for people on one bank of a river, it is quite improper and unnatural to do for people on the other.

John Ruskin - from lectures at the Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester in 1857.
Quote copied from Project Gutenberg eBook #36541: Unto This Last and other essays on political economy - 1912.

The greater context for that quote is covered quite well in a subsequent paragraph from the same lecture:

Well, all these motives for some definite course of action on our part towards foreign countries rest upon very serious facts; too serious, perhaps you will think, to be interfered with; for we are all of us in the habit of leaving great things alone, as if Providence would mind them, and attending ourselves only to little things which we know, practically, Providence doesn't mind unless we do. We are ready enough to give care to the growing of pines and lettuces, knowing that they don't grow Providentially sweet or large unless we look after them; but we don't give any care to the good of Italy or Germany, because we think that they will grow Providentially happy without any of our meddling.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by gmw

John Ruskin - from lectures at the Art Treasures Exhibition, Manchester in 1857.
Quote copied from Project Gutenberg eBook #36541: Unto This Last and other essays on political economy - 1912.

The greater context for that quote is covered quite well in a subsequent paragraph from the same lecture:

Excellent. I couldn't agree more.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

1997 Leonard Cohen interview.

I'm going to use the "what are you going through?" question (when in appropriate company) from now on.

[kennyc]

“If you can approach the world's complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to proper size, not all that important in the greater scheme of things.

Keeping that awestruck vision of the world ready to hand while dealing with the demands of daily living is no easy exercise, but it is definitely worth the effort, for if you can stay centered, and engaged, you will find the hard choices easier, the right words will come to you when you need them, and you will indeed be a better person.”
- Daniel Dennett

[covingtoncat73]

From "The Princess Bride: An Illustrated Edition of S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure" by William Goldman, Michael Manomivibul -

"'He'll hurt me,' Fezzik said.

'Life is pain,” his mother said. “Anybody that says different is selling something.'"

[gmw]

My reading has been all over the place recently, and I found the following via a very indirect route. What I liked best about it was that you can replace "anthropology" with so many other possibilities and it still works.

[...] anthropology, is a science whose progress is marked less by a perfection of consensus than by a refinement of debate. What gets better is the precision with which we vex each other.

Clifford Geertz - The interpretation of cultures: selected essays. - 1973

[bfisher]

“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by bfisher

“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

[kennyc]

"For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen."
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

[astrangerhere]

In every man’s memory there are things he won’t reveal to others, except, perhaps, to friends. And there are things he won’t reveal even to friends, only, perhaps, to himself, and then, too, in secret. And finally, there are things he is afraid to reveal even to himself, and every decent man has quite an accumulation of them.

Fyodor Dostoevsky | Notes from Underground

[BenG]

“The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

[astrangerhere]

The afternoon sun was like a presence in this room, the spacious light of ease and generosity. We could have been anywhere, somewhere enchanted. We raised our glasses again and grinned at each other like children who had agreed on something forbidden.

Raymond Carver | “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love”