“
The doubters said,
"Man can not fly,"
The doers said,
"Maybe, but we'll try,"
And finally soared
In the morning glow
While non-believers
Watched from below.
”
”
Bruce Lee
“
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to."
[MovieMaker Magazine #53 - Winter, January 22, 2004 ]
”
”
Jim Jarmusch
“
You are never alone. You are eternally connected with everyone.
”
”
Amit Ray (Meditation: Insights and Inspirations)
“
We join spokes together in a wheel,
but it is the center hole
that makes the wagon move.
We shape clay into a pot,
but it is the emptiness inside
that holds whatever we want.
We hammer wood for a house,
but it is the inner space
that makes it livable.
We work with being,
but non-being is what we use.
”
”
Lao Tzu
“
Nella vita: chi non risica, non rosica," he said finally, his voice quiet. "In life: nothing ventured, nothing gained. My mom used to tell us that. It's been a long time, but I can still hear her saying it.
”
”
J.M. Darhower (Sempre (Sempre, #1))
“
Non-fiction can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies.
”
”
V.S. Naipaul (A Bend in the River)
“
Consider non your superior, whatever their rank or station in life. Treat all fairly or they will seek revenge. Be careful with your money. Hold fast to your belief and others will listen." he continued at a slower pace, " of the affairs of love ... my only advice is to be honest. thats your most powerfull too to unlock a heart or gain forgiveness. that is all i have to say"Garrow to Roran p 64
”
”
Christopher Paolini (Eragon (Inheritance, #1))
“
I used to think a drug addict was someone who lived on the far edges of society. Wild-eyed, shaven-headed and living in a filthy squat.
That was until I became one...
”
”
Cathryn Kemp (Painkiller Addict: From wreckage to redemption - my true story)
“
Kindness is universal. Sometimes being kind allows others to see the goodness in humanity through you. Always be kinder than necessary.
”
”
Germany Kent
“
I am Not, but the Universe is my Self.
”
”
Shih-t'ou
“
There will be haters, there will be doubters, there will be non-believers, and then there will be you proving them wrong.
”
”
Jennifer Van Allen (The Runner's World Big Book of Running for Beginners: Lose Weight, Get Fit, and Have Fun!)
“
Unreasonable," "unrealistic," and "impractical" are all words used to marginalize a person or idea that fails to conform with conventionally expected standards.
”
”
Chris Guillebeau (The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World)
“
"Broken does not mean non-functioning, or incapacitated, it does however mean ready for repair.
”
”
Shawn Boreta
“
Quella vita ch'è una cosa bella, non è la vita che si conosce, ma quella che non si conosce; non la vita passata, ma la futura. Coll'anno nuovo, il caso incomincerà a trattar bene voi e me e tutti gli altri, e si principierà la vita felice. Non è vero?
”
”
Giacomo Leopardi (Operette morali)
“
The world does not consist of 100 percent Christians and 100 percent non-Christians. There are people (a great many of them) who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name: some of them are clergymen. There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so.
”
”
C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
“
There are two kinds of friendship: the beneficial friendship and the erroneous friendship. The erroneous friendship balances on the principle of "the closer we are, the more okay it is for me to say anything I want to you and for me to treat you any way that I want to, and for me to disrespect you and take advantage of you" while a true friendship is rooted in this principle: "the closer we are, the more respect I have for you, the better I will treat you, the higher I will regard you, the more good things I will wish for you." You will know someone is a true friend by basis of observing their actions towards you as the friendship grows deeper. A true friend will continue to hold you in higher and higher regard while the error of a friend will see your goodwill and newfound fondness as basis to do and say whatever he/she wants, that is disrespectful and non-beneficial to you.
”
”
C. JoyBell C.
“
Some people write to make something ugly beautiful, some write to leave a part of themselves to be remembered, some write to give words soul and meaning, and some write to exist in non-existence.
”
”
Sam Madison (The Heartbroken Heartbreaker)
“
A complete life may be one ending in so full identification with the non-self that there is no self to die.
”
”
Bernard Berenson
“
That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle--behold, the Running Man.
Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn't live to love anything else. And like everyhing else we ove--everything we sentimentally call our 'passions' and 'desires' it's really an encoded ancestral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run. We're all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always known.
”
”
Christopher McDougall (Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen)
“
I dislike interaction. The less I say the better I feel. I was naturally a loner. I didn’t want conversation, or to goanywhere. I didn’t understand other people who wanted to share their emotions. Parties sickened me. I was drawn to
all the wrong things: I was lazy
, I didn’t have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non
-
being, and I accepted it. I didn’t make for an interesting person. I didn’t want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I
really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone. Relationships never worked with me. I alwayslost interest. I simply disliked people, crowds, anywhere, except at my readings.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
Dare to live by letting go.
”
”
Tom Althouse
“
Loose lips sink ships.
”
”
Erwin Rommel (Rommel and His Art of War)
“
In the things that really matter--our covenants, the commandments, and following the prophet--we need to be completely united. In the non-essentials, we have our agency to handle things as we see fit. But, in all things, regardless of whether we make the same choices or not, we are to treat each other with dignity and respect, both of which are evidences of charity in our hearts and lives.
”
”
Sheri Dew (If Life Were Easy, It Wouldn't Be Hard: And Other Reassuring Truths)
“
Om is the things, Om is the ingredient, Om is the container and the content of this universe.
”
”
Banani Ray (Glory of OM: A Journey to Self-Realization)
“
Is it a weakness not being able to hate? Or is it preparation for what is inevitable, the ability only to love.
”
”
Tom Althouse (The frowny face cow)
“
To approach the Other in conversation is to welcome his expression, in which at each instant he overflows the idea a thought would carry away from it. It is therefore to receive from the Other beyond the capacity of the I, which means exactly: to have the idea of infinity. But this also means: to be taught. The relation with the Other, or Conversation, is a non-allergic relation, an ethical relation; but inasmuch as it is welcomed this conversation is a teaching. Teaching is not reducible to maieutics; it comes from the exterior and brings me more than I contain. In its non-violent transitivity the very epiphany of the face is produced.
”
”
Emmanuel Levinas (Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority)
“
Fear would have told the Wright brothers not to fly. Fear would have told Rosa Parks to change seats. Fear would have told Steve Jobs that people hate touchscreens.
”
”
Jon Acuff (Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters)
“
People assume time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff
”
”
Steven Moffat
“
Make my life my favorite movie. Live my favorite character. Write my own script. Direct my own story. Be my biography. Make my own documentary on me. Non-fiction, live, not recorded. Time to catch that hero I've been chasing. See if the sun will melt the wax that holds my wings or if the heat is just a mirage. Live my legacy now. Quit acting like me. Be me.
”
”
Matthew McConaughey (Greenlights)
“
Living a spiritual life may not be easy. It demands total authenticity. It brings you to dance to a unique song that only you can hear fully, and sometimes you dance alone because no others can hear the music.
”
”
Debra Moffitt
“
To win or lose often depends on set parameters. Expand the bounds of what is possible, and you may come out the true winner, outside the confines of its defining.
”
”
Tom Althouse (The frowny face cow)
“
The material world is all feminine. The feminine engergy makes the non-manifest, manifest. So even men (are of the feminine energy). We have to relinquish our ideas of gender in the conventional sense. This has nothing to do with gender, it has to do with energy. So feminine energy is what creates and allows anything which is non-manifest, like an idea, to come into form, into being, to be born. All that we experience in the world around us, absolutely everything (is feminine energy). The only way that anything exists is through the feminine force.
”
”
Zeena Schreck
“
The commitment to morality, or non-harming, is a source of tremendous strength, because it helps free the mind from the remorse of having done unwholesome actions. Freedom from remorse leads to happiness. Happiness leads to concentration. Concentration brings wisdom. And wisdom is the source of peace and freedom in our lives.
”
”
Joseph Goldstein (A Heart Full of Peace)
“
I'll never be a non-stumbler. I'll be a forgiven stumbler, but never a non-stumbler.
”
”
TobyMac
“
Perché c’è un ordine segreto.
I libri non puoi metterli a caso.
L’altro giorno ho riposto Cervantes accanto a Tolstoj.
E ho pensato: se vicino ad Anna Karenina c’è Don Chisciotte, di sicuro quest’ultimo farà di tutto per salvarla.
”
”
Ettore Scola
“
True freedom is when all the stories, all the insights, all the realizations, concepts, beliefs and positions dissolve. What remains is what you are; a vast, conscious, luminous space simply resting in itself, not knowing a thing, at the point where all things are possible.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
If we all talked to each other in this way, with warm camaraderie and complete non-judgement, much pain would be spared and happiness generated.
”
”
Sarah Krasnostein (The Trauma Cleaner: One Woman's Extraordinary Life in the Business of Death, Decay, and Disaster)
“
There is beauty all around us,
and the light finds us when we realize,
we are all part of that beauty and worth the cherishing.
If we despise any, we journey to despise ourselves.
See all as beautiful, even if they choose to see themselves through you, as being less than so.
We have the power to see for each, and be the reflection of what they may yet see.
”
”
Tom Althouse
“
Time is an illusion, only the keepers of the illusion are real, and the reality they have spun, keeps us, until we set upon the path of the dream.
”
”
Tom Althouse (The frowny face cow)
“
Let go and go beyond living the dream, by dreaming the reality, into a reality beyond the dream.
”
”
Tom Althouse (The frowny face cow)
“
When you have nothing but love, you have everything. This means you must live as if you have nothing to hide, nothing to prove and nothing to lose.
”
”
John Kuypers (The Non Judgmental Christian: Five Lessons That Will Revolutionize Your Relationships)
“
Life is way too short, so try to enjoy every minute of it with a sense of humor!
”
”
Christina Scalise (Are We Normal? Funny True Stories from an Everyday Family)
“
For a long while I have believed – this is perhaps my version of Sir Darius Xerxes Cama’s belief in a fourth function of outsideness – that in every generation there are a few souls, call them lucky or cursed, who are simply born not belonging, who come into the world semi-detached, if you like, without strong affiliation to family or location or nation or race; that there may even be millions, billions of such souls, as many non-belongers as belongers, perhaps; that, in sum, the phenomenon may be as “natural” a manifestation of human nature as its opposite, but one that has been mostly frustrated, throughout human history, by lack of opportunity.
And not only by that: for those who value stability, who fear transience, uncertainly, change, have erected a powerful system of stigmas and taboos against rootlessness, that disruptive, anti-social force, so that we mostly conform, we pretend to be motivated by loyalties and solidarities we do not really feel, we hide our secret identities beneath the false skins of those identities which bear the belongers’ seal of approval.
But the truth leaks out in our dreams; alone in our beds (because we are all alone at night, even if we do not sleep by ourselves), we soar, we fly, we flee. And in the waking dreams our societies permit, in our myths, our arts, our songs, we celebrate the non-belongers, the different ones, the outlaws, the freaks.
What we forbid ourselves we pay good money to watch, in a playhouse or a movie theater, or to read about between the secret covers of a book. Our libraries, our palaces of entertainment tell the truth. The tramp, the assassin, the rebel, the thief, the mutant, the outcast, the delinquent, the devil, the sinner, the traveler, the gangster, the runner, the mask: if we did not recognize in them our least-fulfilled needs, we would not invent them over and over again, in every place, in every language, in every time.
”
”
Salman Rushdie (The Ground Beneath Her Feet)
“
In order to survive, I came up with a five-step secret to getting it all done. If you're busy too, feel free to use it:
1. Admit that you can't possibly get it all done.
”
”
Jon Acuff (Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters)
“
We are one at the root - we just part at the branch
”
”
Rasheed Ogunlaru
“
How you carry yourself speaks volumes about how you feel about yourself.
”
”
Cindy Ann Peterson (My Style, My Way: Top Experts Reveal How to Create Yours Today)
“
Each of us is the best we can be when we are fully present, focused yet relaxed, curious yet non-judgmental, committed yet flexible.
”
”
John Kuypers (What's Important Now: Shedding The Past So You Can Live In The Present)
“
The nature of life is mess, chaotic, exquisitely beautiful, excruciatingly painful, immensely joy-filled, and unpredictable.
”
”
Debra Moffitt (Garden of Bliss: Cultivating the Inner Landscape for Self-Discovery)
“
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader. —JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
”
”
Chris Guillebeau (The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World)
“
Om is that God of love. Like a loving mother Om cleans us of our clutters collected through many incarnations.
”
”
Banani Ray
“
Io credo che tutto accada per una ragione.
Le persone cambiano perché tu possa imparare a lasciarle andare via. Le cose vanno male perché tu le possa apprezzare quando invece vanno bene, credi alle bugie perché poi imparerai a non fidarti di
nessuno tranne che di te stesso, e qualche volta le cose buone vanno in pezzi perché cose migliori possano accadere.
”
”
Marilyn Monroe
“
When you feel that others are lacking and failing ....
first assess the skill, style, quality, results, mindset,
support, professionalism and spirit with which
you yourself play the game.
”
”
Rasheed Ogunlaru
“
Io non credo nei confini, nelle barriere, nelle bandiere, credo che apparteniamo tutti, indipendentemente dalle latitudini, dalle longitudini, ad una stessa famiglia, che è la famiglia umana.
”
”
Vittorio Arrigoni
“
If you don't feel you have any choice in a situation, self-esteem and confidence plummet. But once you understand that you do have a choice, self-esteem will improve. You aren't a helpless victim anymore. You decide how you deal with a situation. You aren't just reacting to life; you're creating your life.
”
”
Theresa Cheung (Teen Tarot: What the Cards Reveal About You and Your Future)
“
The universe is not for man alone, but is a theater of evolution for all living beings. Live and let live is its guiding principle. 'Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah' - Non-injury is the highest religion.
”
”
Virchand Gandhi
“
When you are truly awakened, you have completely stopped trying to become awakened. You simply are. You know that you did not locate awakening; awakening located you.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
If we react to disruptions fearfully or habitually, or even non-strategically, then it’s almost impossible to achieve holistic wealth.
”
”
Keisha Blair (Holistic Wealth: 32 Life Lessons to Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity, and Happiness)
“
Vivere ardendo e non bruciarsi mai
”
”
Gabriele d'Annunzio
“
Nowhere to be touched
or explored,
not here and not in distance.
It’s just a tingle that overflows my brightest dreams.
Am I wise or simple-minded to believe
that non–existent evidence
is not an evidence of non–existence?
”
”
Tatjana Ostojic (Cacophony of My Soul: When Love Becomes Poetry)
“
A strong confident person can rule the room with knowledge, personal style, attitude and great posture.
”
”
Cindy Ann Peterson (My Style, My Way: Top Experts Reveal How to Create Yours Today)
“
Non est ad astra mollis e terris via.
”
”
Seneca
“
Don't share your dreams with everyone and don't be angry with non-dreamers.
”
”
Tyler Perry
“
Sure all life's highways at some point must end,
so I plan to ride it in style and plummet in a swan dive
when the pavement runs out...
And hopefully leave behind artistically
that which may make other roads
an even better ride...
”
”
Tom Althouse (The frowny face cow)
“
If we love someone deeply, be they friends, family or lovers, don’t treat the relationship like a playground game of back and forth or tit for tat. See it as a loving connection and let that be the basis of it all.
”
”
lauren klarfeld
“
He was decisive and wholehearted in everything he did, so intent non the task at hand that he never looked over his shoulder, even if his cloak got caught in a thorny bush. When he did turn to speak to somebody, he used to swing his entire body and dress him full face. When he shook hands, he was never the first to withdraw his own. He inspired such confidence that he was known as al-Amin, the Reliable One.
”
”
Karen Armstrong (Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time)
“
The first story I have to tell is not exactly true, but it isn't exactly false, either.
”
”
Lewis Hyde (Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art)
“
Proper posture sends a positive message since 90% of all communication occures through body language and how you carry yourself.
”
”
Cindy Ann Peterson (My Style, My Way: Top Experts Reveal How to Create Yours Today)
“
I was drawn to all the wrong things: I liked to drink, I was lazy, I didn’t have a god, politics, ideas, ideals. I was settled into nothingness; a kind of non-being, and I accepted it. I didn’t make for an interesting person. I didn’t want to be interesting, it was too hard. What I really wanted was only a soft, hazy space to live in, and to be left alone. On the other hand, when I got drunk I screamed, went crazy, got all out of hand. One kind of behavior didn’t fit the other. I didn’t care
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
Habits form much more than our schedules: they form our hearts.
”
”
Justin Whitmel Earley (The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction)
“
Unnecessary bureaucracy hinders creativity, growth, justice and the attainment of peace.
”
”
Widad Akreyi
“
You are not permitted to live and die as a non-entity because you have encountered the greatness that is associated with Christ.
”
”
Jaachynma N.E. Agu (The Prince and the Pauper)
“
Make your problems become
opportunities instead of
obstacles.
”
”
Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
“
Hope is putting Faith "on the line" and expecting results!
(from Mission Possible - Spiritual Covering)
”
”
Deborah L. McCarragher (Mission Possible Spiritual Covering)
“
No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it. Collective thought is stupid because it's collective. Nothing passes into the realm of the collective without leaving at the border -like a toll- most of the intelligence it contained.
In youth we're twofold. Our innate intelligence, which may be considerable, coexists with the stupidity of our inexperience, which forms a second, lesser intelligence. Only later on do the two unite.
That's why youth always blunders - not because of its inexperience, but because of it's non-unity.
Today the only course left for the man of superior intelligence is abdication.
”
”
Fernando Pessoa (The Book of Disquiet)
“
You do not need to go to any temple or church to worship God. The whole existence is God’s temple. Your own body is the temple of God. Your own heart is the shrine. You do not need to subscribe to any religion to experience God. The only religion you need to experience God is love, kindness and respect to all beings.
”
”
Banani Ray (Glory of OM: A Journey to Self-Realization)
“
So it is always preferable to discuss the matter of veganism in a non-judgemental way. Remember that to most people, eating flesh or dairy and using animal products such as leather, wool, and silk, is as normal as breathing air or drinking water. A person who consumes dairy or uses animal products is not necessarily or usually what a recent and unpopular American president labelled an "evil doer.
”
”
Gary L. Francione
“
Non-injury to all living beings is the only religion.” (first truth of Jainism) “In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, we should regard all creatures as we regard our own self, and should therefore refrain from inflicting upon others such injury as would appear undesirable to us if inflicted upon ourselves.” “This is the quintessence of wisdom; not to kill anything. All breathing, existing, living sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away. This is the pure unchangeable Law. Therefore, cease to injure living things.” “All living things love their life, desire pleasure and do not like pain; they dislike any injury to themselves; everybody is desirous of life and to every being, his life is very dear.”
Yogashastra (Jain Scripture) (c. 500 BCE)
”
”
Anonymous
“
In order to understand why one chooses to be a Tantric practitioner, there has to be an understanding of cause and effect, cyclic existence, the awareness that the reality that we think we are seeing is not reality as it really truly is. So enlightenment is seeing reality with bare awareness, non-conceptual reality.
”
”
Zeena Schreck
“
Being enlightened ironically means realizing that there is no separate entity that can be enlightened or unenlightened.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
They're indifference should not be the cause of your non-existence.
”
”
Flor Hernandez
“
My goal is not to upset the apple cart, but to make it more accessible.
”
”
Tom Althouse (The frowny face cow)
“
I don't believe the inner work ever really ends, and sometimes I'd like to take a vacation.
”
”
Debra Moffitt (Garden of Bliss: Cultivating the Inner Landscape for Self-Discovery)
“
Satu-satunya orang yang bisa menghalangimu untuk maju adalah dirimu sendiri
”
”
Satria Nova (Jendela Hati: Catatan Nurani Seorang Muslim (Jendela Hati))
“
Think not of the fragility of life, but of the power of books, when mere words can change our lives simply by being next to each other.
”
”
Kamand Kojouri
“
If you want to reach the non-everyday, you’ll either have to move somewhere else or get into more “underground” things. But once you step into that world, it’ll only take about three days for that to seem normal, too. If you truly want to continue escaping from everyday life, you’ve no other choice but to keep evolving. No matter whether you’re aiming higher or lower. Enjoy each day for what it is
”
”
Ryohgo Narita
“
...A person who is headstrong enough to open their eyes and their heart to the full depth and weight of the world is inviting in everything out there - both evil and good, both dark and light, and the sheer bravery of that openness enables them to gain profound insight into the human condition. It also fucks them up. It may even make them more prone to stick their head in an oven than to engage in self-promotional chitchat on Jay Leno.
”
”
Patricia Pearson
“
It is a well-known established fact throughout the many-dimensional worlds of the multiverse that most really great discoveries are owed to one brief moment of inspiration. There's a lot of spadework first, of course, but what clinches the whole thing is the sight of, say, a falling apple or a boiling kettle or the water slipping over the edge of the bath. Something goes click inside the observer's head and then everything falls into place. The shape of DNA, it is popularly said, owes its discovery to the chance sight of a spiral staircase when the scientist‘s mind was just at the right receptive temperature. Had he used the elevator, the whole science of genetics might have been a good deal different.
This is thought of as somehow wonderful. It isn't. It is tragic. Little particles of inspiration sleet through the universe all the time traveling through the densest matter in the same way that a neutrino passes through a candyfloss haystack, and most of them miss.
Even worse, most of the ones that hit the exact cerebral target, hit the wrong one.
For example, the weird dream about a lead doughnut on a mile-high gantry, which in the right mind would have been the catalyst for the invention of repressed-gravitational electricity generation (a cheap and inexhaustible and totally non-polluting form of power which the world in question had been seeking for centuries, and for the lack of which it was plunged into a terrible and pointless war) was in fact had by a small and bewildered duck.
By another stroke of bad luck, the sight of a herd of wild horses galloping through a field of wild hyacinths would have led a struggling composer to write the famous Flying God Suite, bringing succor and balm to the souls of millions, had he not been at home in bed with shingles. The inspiration thereby fell to a nearby frog, who was not in much of a position to make a startling contributing to the field of tone poetry.
Many civilizations have recognized this shocking waste and tried various methods to prevent it, most of them involving enjoyable but illegal attempts to tune the mind into the right wavelength by the use of exotic herbage or yeast products. It never works properly.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Sourcery (Discworld, #5; Rincewind, #3))
“
Sai bene che non sogno.
Ma ieri notte ho sognato che assistevamo
a un funerale nel mare. All’inizio ero attonito.
Poi pieno di rimpianti. Ma tu
m’hai sfiorato un braccio e hai detto: “no, va tutto bene.
Era molto vecchia, e poi lui l’ha amata tutta la vita
”
”
Raymond Carver
“
Tous les hommes sont menteurs, inconstants, faux, bavards, hypocrites, orgueilleux et lâches, méprisables et sensuels ; toutes les femmes sont perfides, artificieuses, vaniteuses, curieuses et dépravées ; le monde n'est qu'un égout sans fond où les phoques les plus informes rampent et se tordent sur des montagnes de fange ; mais il y a au monde une chose sainte et sublime, c'est l'union de deux de ces êtres si imparfaits et si affreux. On est souvent trompé en amour, souvent blessé et souvent malheureux ; mais on aime, et quand on est sur le bord de sa tombe, on se retourne pour regarder en arrière ; et on se dit : " J'ai souffert souvent, je me suis trompé quelquefois, mais j'ai aimé. C'est moi qui ai vécu, et non pas un être factice créé par mon orgueil et mon ennui.
”
”
Alfred de Musset (On ne badine pas avec l'amour)
“
A free spirit is not bound by this, that, matter, materialism or opinion. They sing, dance and flow on the wind - for they are at one with it. They are nothing and everything - void and expanse. Even space and time does not confine or define them. For they are pure energy itself.
”
”
Rasheed Ogunlaru
“
Our true nature is bliss. That bliss is like the sun that always shines. It remains ever present, but the events in life and clouds of worry and even emotions like happiness may obscure it like storm clouds obscure the sun.
”
”
Debra Moffitt (Garden of Bliss: Cultivating the Inner Landscape for Self-Discovery)
“
It’s only the ego that wants to surrender the ego; the real meaning of surrender does not involve anything external. It means to surrender to your true nature.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
Not knowing anything, not searching for anything, understanding that we can’t hold on to anything, leaves us with nothing — nothing except our original nature, pure awareness.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
Never fade into your life,
Never stop imagining,
Never give up on your dreams,
You only fail, when you think you have failed.
”
”
Akash Lakhotia (World Hypnotized: Making of the Fuhrer(1 of 3))
“
To achieve peace, it is crucial to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy that prevents peace processes from advancing.
”
”
Widad Akreyi
“
Bukan banyaknya harta dan ilmu yang membuat seseorang bisa memberi, tapi kemauan untuk berbagi
”
”
Satria Nova (Dan Surga pun Tersenyum)
“
All paths are valid, but in the end you will find that the realization of the ultimate truth is a pathless path.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
Living in the kingdom of God is a matter of living with God's action in our lives.
”
”
Dallas Willard (Living in Christ's Presence: Final Words on Heaven and the Kingdom of God)
“
Belief is made up of the same non-substance of which we ourselves are composed. The test of any belief system, then, is the degree to which this same light is permitted to shine through.
”
”
Eric Micha'el Leventhal
“
Sometimes the signs and signals of the non-language speaking world are not very clear. Then we have to walk in trust, move forward step by small step, until we are sure of the proper path.
”
”
Elaine Seiler
“
The movie Koyaanisqatsi shows non-commented time-lapse footage and focuses our attention on the very rhythm of our civilized modern life and nature. A marijuana high can do something for a user similar to what this time-lapse footage does. The enhancement of episodic memory and the acceleration of associative streams of memories can alter and enhance our recognition of patterns in our lives in various ways. If we are presented with quick associative chains of past experiences, we can see a pattern in a body of information that is usually not at once presented to our “inner eye” as such.
”
”
Sebastian Marincolo
“
Go into the London Stock Exchange – a more respectable place than many a court – and you will see representatives from all nations gathered together for the utility of men. Here Jew, Mohammedan and Christian deal with each other as though they were all of the same faith, and only apply the word infidel to people who go bankrupt. Here the Presbyterian trusts the Anabaptist and the Anglican accepts a promise from the Quaker. On leaving these peaceful and free assemblies some go to the Synagogue and others for a drink, this one goes to be baptized in a great bath in the name of Father, Son and Holy Ghost, that one has his son’s foreskin cut and has some Hebrew words he doesn’t understand mumbled over the child, others go to heir church and await the inspiration of God with their hats on, and everybody is happy.
”
”
Voltaire
“
CUSTOMER: Do you have a book with a list of careers? I want to give my daughter some inspiration.
BOOKSELLER: Ah, is she applying to university?
CUSTOMER: Oh no, not yet. She’s just over there. Sweetheart? (a four year old girl comes over)
CUSTOMER: There you are. Now, you talk to the nice lady, and I’m going to find you a book on how to become a doctor or a scientist. What do you think about that? (The girl says nothing)
CUSTOMER (to bookseller): Won’t be a sec. (Customer wanders off into non-fiction) BOOKSELLER: So, what’s your name? CHILD: Sarah.
BOOKSELLER: Sarah? That’s a beautiful name.
CHILD: Thank you.
BOOKSELLER: So, Sarah, what do you want to be when you grow up?
CHILD: . . . A bumblebee.
BOOKSELLER: Excellent.
”
”
Jen Campbell (Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops)
“
When I was older, I found Iqbal's work hugely inspirational. He argued against an unquestioning acceptance of Western democracy as the self-governing model, and instead suggested that by following the rules of Islam a society would tend naturally towards social justice, tolerance, peace and equality. Iqbal's interpretation of Islam differs very widely from the narrow meaning that is sometimes given to it. For Iqbal, Islam is not just the name for certain beliefs and forms of worship. The difference between a Muslim and a non-Muslim is not merely a theological one - it is a difference of a fundamental attitude towards life.
”
”
Imran Khan (Pakistan: A Personal History)
“
The one who believes himself to be a person needs to try to find that person. This is a solution, an antidote, offered to a ghost that thinks it actually exists.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
Even our deepest disappointments will ultimately prove to be gatekeepers for future delight.
”
”
Lisa Harper (Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional)
“
The practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance.
”
”
Miroslav Volf
“
Our nonverbal behavior (including posture) gives away our inner personality and reflects our inner attitude.
”
”
Cindy Ann Peterson (My Style, My Way: Top Experts Reveal How to Create Yours Today)
“
Dream Lies In Your Eyes.
”
”
non else
“
Orfeo son io, che d'Euridice i passi
Seguo per queste tenebrose arene
Ove giammai per vom mortal non vassi.
”
”
Claudio Monteverdi (Orfeo)
“
Non, je ne regrette rien. Because you just can't regret the things you learn from.
”
”
Alyson Noel (Faking 19)
“
When the mind is silent, beyond weakness or non concentration, then it can enter into a world which is far beyond the mind,the highest End
”
”
Maitreya Upanishad
“
If you can plan ahead into the future, you will also be able to detach yourself from minor difficulties today.
”
”
Chris Erzfeld
“
Whatever you do, do it with passion; learn new things, set new standards. If you fall down, get up; just get going, non-stop. This is how dreams come true.
”
”
Vikrmn: CA Vikram Verma (10 Golden Steps of Life)
“
Eckankar redefines the experience of religion. It offers an individual the spiritual tools needed to walk one's own journey home to God.
”
”
Harold Klemp (The Call of Soul [With CD])
“
Joy is our
native condition
Let go all non-joy
and there is joy
”
”
Ulf Wolf
“
Love from the heart is always non-judgmental.
”
”
Debasish Mridha
“
A writer needs a partner who can act as fuel to his artistic mind, yet has the great ability to sober him up and help him be in sync with the non-artistic part of his soul.
”
”
Janvier Chouteu-Chando
“
Live simply so others may simply live
”
”
Mahatma Gandhi (Peace: The Words and Inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi)
“
Meditation brings Nirvana, and Nirvana brings Buddhahood.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Rowdy Buddha: The First Sapiens)
“
I’m going to be a model of fearlessness. And when people spew fear, I’m going to stand with an invisible shield around me and let their comments zing off my shield, and I will say to myself ‘not in my world!’ because in my world, people do take risks, and people do try to make things better and they never say die!
”
”
Judy Frankel
“
I'm never going to give in. I'm never going to give up, and I will fight back with every breath I have."
- Dionne Warner, seven-time cancer survivor and subject of Never Leave Your Wingman
”
”
Deana J. Driver (Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner's Story of Hope)
“
You must be hard on yourself and know when it’s time to quit, but you must be even more relentless when it comes to staying on the job and push through if that is what the situation is demanding.
”
”
Chris Erzfeld
“
More and more obstacles seem to be other people's issues that form in the way of a hand to block one, to take notice of them? Sometimes noticing ahead of time, and taking the time to notice them, makes the hand part of an arm that embraces you. The obstacles become bridges for both to cross over, even if in opposite directions.
”
”
Tom Althouse (The frowny face cow)
“
You aren’t actually a someone, a person, who is conscious. You are the awake space of awareness itself, within which all the “thought up” entities in your world appear. Out of all these imagined entities, you have simply made the mistake of thinking that one of them is you.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
Authenticity is the sine qua non of everything that matters. When you encounter someone unguarded, without artifice or pretense--Mon Dieu!--you know it. I compare it to being at the top of the mountain: the air is clearer, there's nothing to muddy the senses. It's bracingly refreshing.
”
”
Ellen Lubin-Sherman (The Essentials Of Fabulous)
“
- De toute ma vie, je ne me suis jamais sentie aussi bien. Et toi ?
- Moi ? - Step l'embrasse très fort. Super super bien.
- Au point de pouvoir toucher le ciel avec un doigt ?
- Non, pas à ce point.
- Comment ça pas à ce point ?
- Beaucoup plus. Au moins trois mètres au-dessus du ciel.
”
”
Federico Moccia (Tre metri sopra il cielo)
“
Trust your inner judgment. Be prepared to work for what you know is right, but avoid the insufferable tragedies of running with the infectious, and you will have invaluable tools at your disposal for the rest of your life.
”
”
Chris Erzfeld
“
Ignorare è il modo migliore per sopravvivere e io volevo solo questo: sopravvivere. Chiudere gli occhi e respirare dalla bocca senza sentire il tanfo della vita intorno a me.
Volevo stare al mondo come una pianta in un vaso e farmi annaffiare da qualcuno fino alla fine dei miei giorni senza conoscere mai il nome di quel qualcuno. Senza amarlo, per non sentirlo mancare mai.
”
”
Bianca Rita Cataldi (Waiting Room)
“
Listen with an open mind, gather all the incoming information, both verbal and non-verbal and be careful not to ignore things you don’t wish to hear. Don’t make assumptions or jump to conclusions. The punchline usually comes at the end!
”
”
Graham Speechley
“
You must learn how to separate a detrimental situation from which you must burn all the bridges from when you must partake in hard work that will provide you with desirable results, where you must persevere in pushing through to the end.
”
”
Chris Erzfeld
“
Realization includes everything, the mundane and the transcendental. In true awakening, nothing stands apart and nothing is excluded. If we find ourselves in a state where something is excluded, that state, however amazing it is, is still a dualistic state.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
Poi tirò dalla borsa un paio di caramelle, erano rotonde, agli agrumi, e ne offrì una a Jasper Gwyn.
-Grazie, no, davvero, disse lui.
-Ma figuriamoci un po'!, disse lei.
Lui sorrise e prese la caramella.
-Il fatto che siano sparse nella borsa non vuol dire che facciano schifo, disse lei.
-No, certo.
-Ma ho notato che la gente è propensa a crederlo.
”
”
Alessandro Baricco (Mr Gwyn)
“
If you're going to blame your hard times for all the things that are wrong in your life, you better also blame them for the good stuff too!"
Rachel Hollis, Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be
”
”
Rachel Hollis
“
The benefits of a philosophy of neo-religious pessimism are nowhere more apparent than in relation to marriage, one of modern society’s most grief-stricken arrangements, which has been rendered unnecessarily hellish by the astonishing secular supposition that it should be entered into principally for the sake of happiness. Christianity and Judaism present marriage not as a union inspired and governed by subjective enthusiasm but rather, and more modestly, as a mechanism by which individuals can assume an adult position in society and thence, with the help of a close friend, undertake to nurture and educate the next generation under divine guidance. These limited expectations tend to forestall the suspicion, so familiar to secular partners, that there might have been more intense, angelic or less fraught alternatives available elsewhere. Within the religious ideal, friction, disputes and boredom are signs not of error, but of life proceeding according to plan.
”
”
Alain de Botton (Religion for Atheists: A Non-Believer's Guide to the Uses of Religion)
“
Binary paths belong in bygone past, all things civilized are non-binary.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Handcrafted Humanity: 100 Sonnets For A Blunderful World)
“
Del corpo ne abbiamo fatto un'ossessione, ma il corpo non siamo noi.
”
”
Tiziano Terzani (La fine è il mio inizio)
“
Dove va, una persona che dorme? Non va da nessuna parte. Rimane li. Come le chiavi quando sai dove le hai messe.
”
”
Chiara Gamberale (Le luci nelle case degli altri)
“
Non-attachment grounded in faith allows good to return to you.
”
”
Julieanne O'Connor (Spelling It Out for Your Man)
“
History will be kind to me for I have written it. Winston Churchill
”
”
Ron Mayes (Sherrod's Legacy: Reflections of Sherrod Mayes and His Descendants)
“
Heaven is freakin' not ready for me!" - seven-time cancer survivor Dionne Warner in Never Leave Your Wingman
”
”
Deana J. Driver (Never Leave Your Wingman: Dionne and Graham Warner's Story of Hope)
“
You don't always have to teach the the corrective lesson. Sometimes you can teach the lesson of patience and non-engagement.
”
”
Bryant McGill (Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life)
“
Even non-change is imperceivable change, because inaction will slowly change you from what you could have been, to what you never will be.
”
”
Bryant McGill (Simple Reminders: Inspiration for Living Your Best Life)
“
I discovered something attractive about uncertainty. It was the knowledge that God was in control and that I was depending on him every moment.
”
”
Yilda B. Rivera (Courage Under Fire)
“
«Le idee non sono di nessuno» disse. Disegnò in aria con l'indice una serie di cerchi continui e concluse:
«Volano lì in giro, come gli angeli.»
”
”
Gabriel García Márquez (Of Love and Other Demons)
“
The soul-Self doesn't follow the crowd. It encourages you to speak up when you need to and live by your truth.
”
”
Debra Moffitt (Garden of Bliss: Cultivating the Inner Landscape for Self-Discovery)
“
Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu
”
”
Seneca
“
Looking forward” to what you think enlightenment might be at some grand point in the future keeps you from seeing the truth of its presence right now.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
I can be anything I want to be. Just wait and you will see. Only time will tell what I will be.
”
”
Jason J. Greenaway (My Daddy Loves Me: Just the Way I Was Made to Be)
“
ITALIANO
Non ho mai ritenuto reale la mia fantasia, ma ritengo molto fantasiosa la mia realtà.
ENGLISH
I've never felt my fantasy as real, but I think my reality is very imaginative.
”
”
Gianluca Frangella
“
...the human soul is a divine non-substance. A spirit that permeates our flesh, dwells in our conscious, and rules our subconscious self. It makes us cling to life even when we no longer want to embrace it. It makes us hope in the most desperate of circumstances. It gives our dream shape, our inspiration form, our love its timeless beauty." From The Cartesian Machine
”
”
Nick Tran (The Cartesian Machine)
“
We create the world around us based on our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and emotions. Evil, dark forces, dark energy etc. are forms of the “negative” and are all a projections of the self. There is no separation. Once one realizes this, these energies start to fade and eventually disappear. What’s left is wholeness, contentment, self-realization, gratitude and a perpetual state of well-being. There is a popular saying amongst the healing community “where the mind goes, energy flows”. Use this mantra to your benefit. Lose the “non-sense” of all despair and anguish and catapult your self to a higher place that is incapable of entertaining the “negative” or “destructive”. Achieving this (even in increments) will only transform you to into a better positive place
”
”
Gary Hopkins
“
I understand that for the people who really care about you the fact that you are facing cancer is very hard to swallow. They will need time managing and dealing with their emotions just as you do.
”
”
Yilda B. Rivera (Courage Under Fire)
“
Awareness is that which is reading these words right now, whatever “that” is. You know without a doubt that there is something reading these words right now and awareness is precisely what that is.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that. There is a tendency, too, to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails.
We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear. Didn't you say you were a believer? Didn't you say you pledged to listen to a voice greater? Didn't you ask for grace? Don't you remember that to be in grace means to submit to the voice greater?
”
”
Clarissa Pinkola Estés (Quotes From Clarissa Pinkola Estés' Women Who Run With The Wolves: Great Non-Fiction Books Quotation Series)
“
What is constant? Is the mind anything more than a conglomeration of thoughts? Where is the mind apart from thought? If there is no thought, can there be a mind? They cancel each other out, do they not?
”
”
Enza Vita
“
Realization is not about you, the wave, realizing it is ocean. The ocean realizes itself in you and reveals itself to have never been just a wave. Nothing changes except the falling away of a false belief.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
Allowing attachments to people/things create a compulsive addiction in us to be controlling. This “control” (fueled by fear of loss) fools us into a false sense of security and love. At first glance, it is common to confuse the idea of Conscious Detachment with non-feeling or being cold, however learning this skill is a giant leap towards enlightenment. When you consciously detach from an object or a loved one, you empower them to exist at their potential. From this perspective, just being in their presence fosters feelings of love and admiration that far exceed any relationship that is limited with expectations, confinement and control
”
”
Gary Hopkins
“
Finally, eternal gratitude to all the (100 percent non-evil) librarians and other library staffers I have known and worked with and been helped and inspired by over the years. I don’t know where I would be without you!
”
”
Michelle Knudsen (Evil Librarian)
“
At the moment of enlightenment, everything is dropped—body, mind, all states, all things—everything. At that moment, there is no separate entity that can become enlightened, because there is no I that can experience it.
”
”
Enza Vita
“
The impetus that makes you fly is the great store of humanity that each of us possesses. It's the feeling of interconnectedness with the roots of all power, but we soon get alarmed by it! It's damned dangerous! And so most people are glad to give up flying; they prefer walking on the sidewalk, following the rules and regulations.
”
”
Hermann Hesse (Demian)
“
Il passato non si può cambiare, con l'accettazione, il perdono, la penitenza e risoluzione, possiamo ampliare il futuro.
The past cannot be changed. With acceptance, forgiveness, atonement and resolution, we can broaden the future.
”
”
Angelica Hopes (Landscapes of a Heart, Whispers of a Soul (Speranza Odyssey Trilogy, #1))
“
Vi rendete conto che tutta la grande letteratura - Moby Dick, Huckleberry Finn, Addio alle armi, La lettera scarlatta, Il segno rosso del coraggio, l' Iliade e l' Odissea, Delitto e castigo, la Bibbia e The Charge of the Light Brigade di Tennyson - parla di che fregatura sia la vita degli esseri umani? (Non è liberatorio che qualcuno lo dica chiaro e tondo?)
”
”
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (A Man Without a Country)
“
I don't have the slightest doubt that to tell a story like this, you couldn't do it with words. There are only 46 minutes of dialogue scenes in the film, and 113 of non-dialogue. There are certain areas of feeling and reality—or unreality or innermost yearning, whatever you want to call it—which are notably inaccessible to words. Music can get into these areas. Painting can get into them. Non-verbal forms of expression can. But words are a terrible straitjacket. It's interesting how many prisoners of that straitjacket resent its being loosened or taken off. There's a side to the human personality that somehow senses that wherever the cosmic truth may lie, it doesn't lie in A, B, C, D. It lies somewhere in the mysterious, unknowable aspects of thought and life and experience. Man has always responded to it. Religion, mythology, allegories—it's always been one of the most responsive chords in man. With rationalism, modern man has tried to eliminate it, and successfully dealt some pretty jarring blows to religion. In a sense, what's happening now in films and in popular music is a reaction to the stifling limitations of rationalism. One wants to break out of the clearly arguable, demonstrable things which really are not very meaningful, or very useful or inspiring, nor does one even sense any enormous truth in them.
”
”
Stanley Kubrick
“
There is ONE difference between a successful and unsuccessful people.
There is ONE difference between happy and unhappy people.
There is ONE difference between wise and unwise people.
There is ONE difference between achievers and non-achievers.
And that ONE difference is the BEHAVIOUR of an individual.
It is neither your education nor your wealth or social status but your BEHAVIOUR that decides your happiness, success and wisdom. Mind your behaviour and it will take care of everything else.
”
”
Sanjeev Himachali
“
Q: Do you have any advice for upcoming writers who want to pen weird stories?
A: READ, damn it. Fill your brain to the bursting point with the good stuff, starting with writers that you truly enjoy, and then work your way backward and outward, reading those writers who inspired the writers you love best. That was my path as far as Weird/Horror Fiction, starting with Lovecraft, and then working my way backward/outward on the Weird Fiction spiderweb. And don’t limit your reading. Read it all, especially non-fiction and various news outlets. You’d be surprised by how many of my story ideas were born while listening to NPR, perusing a blog, or paging through Vanity Fair.
Once you have your fuel squared away, just write what you love, in whatever style and genre. You’ll never have fun being someone you’re not, so be yourself. When a singer opens their mouth, what comes out is what comes out.
Also, don’t be afraid to fail, and don’t be afraid to walk away. Writing isn’t for everyone, and that’s totally fine. One doesn’t need to be a writer to enjoy being a reader and overall fan of genre or wider fiction.
”
”
T.E. Grau
“
Unrequited love was typically my favorite kind of love. The non-reciprocal nature of it appealed to me in much the same way boy bands appealed to me; it was theoretical love because it was untested—hopeless in its one-sidedness, yet tragically inspiring.
”
”
Penny Reid (Friends Without Benefits (Knitting in the City, #2))
“
Alone with my wine and my misery, I was convinced that life was composed of a string of “if only’s” leading from one self-inflicted bungle to the next until at some point, one’s final iteration of the excuse became one’s final utterance, and one expired.
”
”
Andrew Levkoff (The Other Alexander (The Bow of Heaven, #1))
“
Each religion makes scores of purportedly factual assertions about everything from the creation of the universe to the afterlife. But on what grounds can believers presume to know that these assertions are true? The reasons they give are various, but the ultimate justification for most religious people’s beliefs is a simple one: we believe what we believe because our holy scriptures say so. But how, then, do we know that our holy scriptures are factually accurate? Because the scriptures themselves say so. Theologians specialize in weaving elaborate webs of verbiage to avoid saying anything quite so bluntly, but this gem of circular reasoning really is the epistemological bottom line on which all 'faith' is grounded. In the words of Pope John Paul II: 'By the authority of his absolute transcendence, God who makes himself known is also the source of the credibility of what he reveals.' It goes without saying that this begs the question of whether the texts at issue really were authored or inspired by God, and on what grounds one knows this. 'Faith' is not in fact a rejection of reason, but simply a lazy acceptance of bad reasons. 'Faith' is the pseudo-justification that some people trot out when they want to make claims without the necessary evidence.
But of course we never apply these lax standards of evidence to the claims made in the other fellow’s holy scriptures: when it comes to religions other than one’s own, religious people are as rational as everyone else. Only our own religion, whatever it may be, seems to merit some special dispensation from the general standards of evidence.
And here, it seems to me, is the crux of the conflict between religion and science. Not the religious rejection of specific scientific theories (be it heliocentrism in the 17th century or evolutionary biology today); over time most religions do find some way to make peace with well-established science. Rather, the scientific worldview and the religious worldview come into conflict over a far more fundamental question: namely, what constitutes evidence.
Science relies on publicly reproducible sense experience (that is, experiments and observations) combined with rational reflection on those empirical observations. Religious people acknowledge the validity of that method, but then claim to be in the possession of additional methods for obtaining reliable knowledge of factual matters — methods that go beyond the mere assessment of empirical evidence — such as intuition, revelation, or the reliance on sacred texts. But the trouble is this: What good reason do we have to believe that such methods work, in the sense of steering us systematically (even if not invariably) towards true beliefs rather than towards false ones? At least in the domains where we have been able to test these methods — astronomy, geology and history, for instance — they have not proven terribly reliable. Why should we expect them to work any better when we apply them to problems that are even more difficult, such as the fundamental nature of the universe?
Last but not least, these non-empirical methods suffer from an insuperable logical problem: What should we do when different people’s intuitions or revelations conflict? How can we know which of the many purportedly sacred texts — whose assertions frequently contradict one another — are in fact sacred?
”
”
Alan Sokal
“
My Dear Lord, please help me. Place me in the Center of Your Perfect Will.
Adoro te devote, latens Deitas.
Bread of Life by bread concealed, speaking heart to heart.
Tibi se cor meum totum subjicit.
Let Your presence draw me in here my senses fail.
Visus cactus, gustus in te falliti.
This is truth enough for me.
Peto quod petivit latro paenitens.
Seeing You upon the Cross, flesh and blood, I find.
Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor.
I see not but name You still God and Prince of Life.
O memoriale mortis Domini.
How I thirst to meet Your gaze gloriously revealed. After life's obscurity, let me wake to see. Beauty shining from Your Face for eternity.
Amen.
”
”
Gina Marinello-Sweeney (I Thirst (The Veritas Chronicles, #1))
“
Love is not the answer, peace is. Throughout my whole life I have experienced and seen others use love as a reason to treat people with unkindness by being controlling, jealous, shouting in anger, and projecting guilt and shame.
If you love someone but there is not peace in your heart when you think of that person then your work is not done. Do not stop at love, continue all the way towards the freedom of inner peace.
Love starts when peace begins. Without peace love is simply a mask for our insecurity, judgment, and egoic attachments.
”
”
Alaric Hutchinson
“
This principle is taught in Scripture: "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). In other words, we learn to be loving because we are loved. Grace must come from the outside for us to be able to develop it inside. The opposite side of this truth is that we can't love when we aren't loved. And, taking the thinking further, we can't value or treasure our souls when they haven't been valued or treasured.
”
”
Henry Cloud
“
We all need reminders that there is a huge difference between coaching from the spiritual sidelines and putting skin in the game. Between advertising for the cause and actually joining it. Between talking about it from afar and getting close enough for it to affect our comfort.
”
”
Lisa Harper (Life: An Obsessively Grateful, Undone by Jesus, Genuinely Happy, and Not Faking it Through the Hard Stuff Kind of 100-Day Devotional)
“
An awfulness was deep inside me, and I couldn't fight it; forced into submission and taken hostage by it, I could only just lie there, let it wash over me, and let myself be consumed by it. If I cooperate, maybe it won't stay too long; maybe it'll let me go free. But if I fight it, it might stay longer just to spite me. So I decided to let The Feeling inhabit me as long as it desired, while I lay still, cautious not to incite me, secretly hoping it would leave me soon and bother someone else, but outwardly, pretending to be its gracious host. The most discouraging element of what I felt was my inability to understand it. Usually when I was filled with an unpleasant feeling, I could make it go away, or at least tame it, by watching a light-hearted film or reading a good book or listening to a feel good album. But this feeling was different. I knew non of those distractions could rid me of it. But I knew nothing else. I couldn't even describe it. Is this depression? Maybe once you ask someone to describe depression, he can't find the words. Maybe I'm part of the official club now. I imagined myself in a room full of people where someone in the crowd, also suffering from depression, immediately noticed me-as if he detected the scent of his own kind-walked over, and looked into my eyes. He knew that I had The Feeling inside me because he, too, da The Feeling inside him. He didn't ask me to talk about it, because he understood that our type of suffering was ineffable. He only nodded at me, and I nodded back; and then, during our moment of silence, we both shared a sad smile of recognition, knowing that we only had each other in a room filled with people who would never understand us, because they didn't have The Feeling inside them.
”
”
Nick Miller (Isn't It Pretty To Think So?)
“
Go to every IEP with a plan of your own. Be the expert. Teachers and therapists know general information only. You, on the other-hand, know the specifics about your child – you are your child’s only real expert. Pop in unexpectedly to observe. Keep educators on their toes. Be kind and push gently. If needed, push hard.
”
”
Liz Becker (Autism and the World According to Matt: A collection of 50 inspirational short stories on raising a moderate / severe mostly non-verbal autistic child from diagnosis to independence)
“
Fear is not to be overcome, or dreaded, or avoided, or expelled from our life; neither is it to be our dwelling, obsession or constant companion. But it should be respected, recognized, and humbly listened to for its singular solemn advice. Indeed, it's wise and cautionary warnings should always be heeded. Fear was designed to function as a familiar adviser, an overly critical, cautious, conservative friend - not our foe. When it is accepted, and appreciated for what it is, fear is a sage, a warning system, and one of our oldest, most experienced guides. When it holds itself at bay as necessary, it is like the security detail that waits at some serious attention in the back of the room, ever watchful, ever ready, benign, non-threatening - until circumstances require its sensitive, timely services.
”
”
Connie Kerbs (Paths of Fear: An Anthology of Overcoming Through Courage, Inspiration, and the Miracle of Love (Pebbled Lane Books Book 1))
“
Secara normal, jika ingin memasak kita pergi ke dapur. Ketika ingin tidur ya beranjak ke kamar. Saat ingin buang hajat ya melangkah ke toilet. Apa jadinya jika kita tidur di toilet, buang hajat di dapur dan memasak di kamar? Itu bisa dilakukan, tapi pastilah tidak membuat nyaman, bahkan menjijikkan. Sama halnya dengan hati beserta kecamuk emosi yang dirasakannya. Ketika kita menempatkan dan mengekspresikan emosi dengan cara yang tepat, pastilah akan membuat kita nyaman dan bahagia
”
”
Satria Nova (Jendela Hati: Catatan Nurani Seorang Muslim (Jendela Hati))
“
Every form is an image. Every image is a name. Every name is an attribute, every attribute a verb. Every verb forms the sentence to be read on Judgement Day, from the very Qur’aanulQariim that is found within the breastplate of all that is ‘created’ in the form of humankind. Every object be it animated or non-animated is an image!!
”
”
AainaA-Ridtz
“
Lascia che te lo dica oggi quanto ti voglio bene, quanto tu sei stato sempre per me, come hai arricchito la mia vita. [...] Tu non puoi misurare ciò che significhi. Significa la sorgente in un deserto, l'albero fiorito in un terreno selvaggio. A te solo debbo che il mio cuore non sia inaridito, che sia rimasto in me un punto accessibile alla grazia.
”
”
Hermann Hesse
“
Mais… chanter,
Rêver, rire, passer, être seul, être libre,
Avoir l’œil qui regarde bien, la voix qui vibre,
Mettre, quand il vous plaît, son feutre de travers,
Pour un oui, pour un non, se battre, – ou faire un vers !
Travailler sans souci de gloire ou de fortune,
À tel voyage, auquel on pense, dans la lune !
N’écrire jamais rien qui de soi ne sortît
”
”
Edmond Rostand (Cyrano de Bergerac)
“
To me the art of the Counter Reformation was a pure joy and I loved the churches of Bernini and Borromini no less than the ancient basilicas. And this in turn led me to the literature of the Counter Reformation, and I came to know St Theresa and St John of the Cross, compared to whom even the greatest of non-Catholic religious writers seem pale and unreal.19
”
”
Joseph Pearce (Literary Converts: Spiritual Inspiration in an Age of Unbelief)
“
Qu'est-ce que c'est, le Graal? Vous savez pas vraiment! Et moi non plus! Et j'en ai rien à cirer! Regardez-nous: y'en a pas deux qui ont le même âge, pas deux qui viennent du même endroit! Des seigneurs, des chevaliers errants, des riches, des pauvres! Mais, à la table ronde, pour la première fois dans toute l'histoire du peuple breton, nous cherchons tous la même chose: le Graal! C'est le Graal qui fait de vous des chevaliers, des hommes civilisés, qui nous différencie des tribus barbares. Le Graal, c'est notre union. Le Graal c'est notre grandeur.
”
”
Alexandre Astier (Kaamelott, livre 1, deuxième partie : Episodes 51 à 100)
“
That's what great books are about, revealing our life in a way stories only can. We see ourselves in the characters, our own struggles and short comings in a way that's non threatening and non judgmental. We learn from the characters we take those lessons and inspirations back to the real world I believe that a good book leaves its readers better then they were before.
”
”
A.G. Riddle (Departure)
“
Ignorance has never been the problem. The problem was and continues to be unexamined confidence in western civilization and the unwarranted certainty of Christianity. And arrogance. Perhaps it is unfair to judge the past by the present, but it is also necessary.
If nothing else, an examination of the past—and of the present, for that matter—can be instructive. It shows us that there is little shelter and little gain for Native peoples in doing nothing. So long as we possess one element of sovereignty, so long as we possess one parcel of land, North America will come for us, and the question we have to face is how badly we wish to continue to pursue the concepts of sovereignty and self-determination. How important is it for us to maintain protected communal homelands? Are our traditions and languages worth the cost of carrying on the fight? Certainly the easier and more expedient option is simply to step away from who we are and who we wish to be, sell what we have for cash, and sink into the stewpot of North America.
With the rest of the bones.
No matter how you frame Native history, the one inescapable constant is that Native people in North America have lost much. We’ve given away a great deal, we’ve had a great deal taken from us, and, if we are not careful, we will continue to lose parts of ourselves—as Indians, as Cree, as Blackfoot, as Navajo, as Inuit—with each generation. But this need not happen. Native cultures aren’t static. They’re dynamic, adaptive, and flexible, and for many of us, the modern variations of older tribal traditions continue to provide order, satisfaction, identity, and value in our lives. More than that, in the five hundred years of European occupation, Native cultures have already proven themselves to be remarkably tenacious and resilient.
Okay.
That was heroic and uncomfortably inspirational, wasn’t it? Poignant, even. You can almost hear the trumpets and the violins. And that kind of romance is not what we need. It serves no one, and the cost to maintain it is too high.
So, let’s agree that Indians are not special. We’re not … mystical. I’m fine with that. Yes, a great many Native people have a long-standing relationship with the natural world. But that relationship is equally available to non-Natives, should they choose to embrace it. The fact of Native existence is that we live modern lives informed by traditional values and contemporary realities and that we wish to live those lives on our terms.
”
”
Thomas King (The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America)
“
The Romantic journey was usually a solitary one. Although the Romantic poets were closely connected with one another, and some collaborated in their work, they each had a strong individual vision. Romantic poets could not continue their quests for long or sustain their vision into later life. The power of the imagination and of inspiration did not last. Whereas earlier poets had patrons who financed their writing, the tradition of patronage was not extensive in the Romantic period and poets often lacked financial and other support. Keats, Shelley and Byron all died in solitary exile from England at a young age, their work left incomplete, non-conformists to the end. This coincides with the characteristic Romantic images of the solitary heroic individual, the spiritual outcast 'alone, alone, all, all alone' like Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and John Clare's 'I'; like Shelley's Alastor, Keats's Endymion, or Byron's Manfred, who reached beyond the normal social codes and normal human limits so that 'his aspirations/Have been beyond the dwellers of the earth'. Wordsworth, who lived to be an old man, wrote poems throughout his life in which his poetic vision is stimulated by a single figure or object set against a natural background. Even his projected final masterpiece was entitled The Recluse. The solitary journey of the Romantic poet was taken up by many Victorian and twentieth-century poets, becoming almost an emblem of the individual's search for identity in an ever more confused and confusing world.
”
”
Ronald Carter (The Routledge History of Literature in English: Britain and Ireland)
“
Bisognerebbe saper attendere, raccogliere, per una vita intera e possibilmente lunga, senso e dolcezza, e poi, proprio alla fine, si potrebbero forse scrivere dieci righe valide. Perché i versi non sono, come crede la gente, sentimenti (che si acquistano precocemente), sono esperienze. Per scrivere un verso bisogna vedere molte città, uomini e cose, bisogna conoscere gli animali, bisogna capire il volo degli uccelli e comprendere il gesto con cui i piccoli fiori si aprono al mattino. Bisogna saper ripensare a itinerari in regioni sconosciute, a incontri inaspettati e congedi previsti da tempo, a giorni dell'infanzia ancora indecifrati, ai genitori che eravamo costretti a ferire quando portavano una gioia e non la comprendevamo (era una gioia per qualcun altro), a malattie infantili che cominciavano in modo così strano con tante profonde e grevi trasformazioni, a giorni in stanze silenziose e raccolte e a mattine sul mare, al mare sopratutto, a mari, a notti di viaggio che passavano con un alto fruscio e volavano assieme alle stelle - e ancora non è sufficiente poter pensare a tutto questo. Bisogna avere ricordi di molte notti d'amore, nessuna uguale all'altra, di grida di partorienti e di lievi, bianche puerpere addormentate che si rimarginano. Ma bisogna anche essere stati accanto ad agonizzanti, bisogna essere rimasti vicino ai morti nella stanza con la finestra aperta e i rumori intermittenti. E non basta ancora avere ricordi. Bisogna saperli dimenticare, quando sono troppi, e avere la grande pazienza di attendere che ritornino. Perché i ricordi in sé ancora non sono. Solo quando diventano sangue in noi, sguardo e gesto, anonimi e non più distinguibili da noi stessi, soltanto allora può accadere che in un momento eccezionale si levi dal loro centro e sgorghi la prima parola di un verso.
”
”
Rainer Maria Rilke (The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge)
“
After my initial disappointment, I realized that Milicent being a normal, non-royal was more important to her position as a role model. It was more inspirational. She didn't have superpowers or a magic wand. She was simply intelligent and savvy and good at what she did. We need women to be allowed to be simply good at what they do. We need them on set, in meetings, behind cameras and pens and paintbrushes. We need them to be themselves, to be human: ordinary and flawed. That way, more girls can see them and think "I can do that." That way, no one can look at them and say " She got that job because she's beautiful. She got that gig because she slept with someone."
Actually, she got hired because she was damn good.
”
”
Mallory O'Meara (The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick)
“
Never be so faithful to your plan that you are unwilling to consider the unexpected. Never be so faithful to your plan that you are unwilling to entertain the improbable opportunity that comes looking for you. And never be so faithful to your plan that when you hit a bump in the road -- or when the bumps hit you – you don’t have the fortitude, grace and resiliency to rethink and regroup... Plans or no plans, keep a little space in your heart for the improbable. You won't regret it.
”
”
Elizabeth Warren
“
The Government set the stage economically by informing everyone that we were in a depression period, with very pointed allusions to the 1930s. The period just prior to our last 'good' war. ... Boiled down, our objective was to make killing and military life seem like adventurous fun, so for our inspiration we went back to the Thirties as well. It was pure serendipity. Inside one of the Scripter offices there was an old copy of Doc Smith's first LENSMAN space opera. It turned out that audiences in the 1970s were more receptive to the sort of things they scoffed at as juvenilia in the 1930s. Our drugs conditioned them to repeat viewings, simultaneously serving the ends of profit and positive reinforcement. The movie we came up with stroked all the correct psychological triggers. The fact that it grossed more money than any film in history at the time proved how on target our approach was.'
'Oh my God... said Jonathan, his mouth stalling the open position.
'Six months afterward we ripped ourselves off and got secondary reinforcement onto television. We pulled a 40 share. The year after that we phased in the video games, experimenting with non-narcotic hypnosis, using electrical pulses, body capacitance, and keying the pleasure centers of the brain with low voltage shocks. Jesus, Jonathan, can you *see* what we've accomplished? In something under half a decade we've programmed an entire generation of warm bodies to go to war for us and love it. They buy what we tell them to buy. Music, movies, whole lifestyles. And they hate who we tell them to. ... It's simple to make our audiences slaver for blood; that past hasn't changed since the days of the Colosseum. We've conditioned a whole population to live on the rim of Apocalypse and love it. They want to kill the enemy, tear his heart out, go to war so their gas bills will go down! They're all primed for just that sort of denouemment, ti satisfy their need for linear storytelling in the fictions that have become their lives! The system perpetuates itself. Our own guinea pigs pay us money to keep the mechanisms grinding away. If you don't believe that, just check out last year's big hit movies... then try to tell me the target demographic audience isn't waiting for marching orders. ("Incident On A Rainy Night In Beverly Hills")
”
”
David J. Schow (Seeing Red)
“
The popular image of the lone (and possibly slight mad) genius-who ignores the literature and other conventional wisdom and manages by some inexplicable inspiration (enhanced, perhaps, with a liberal dash of suffering) to come up with a breathtakingly original solution to a problem that confounded all the experts-is a charming and romantic image, but also a wildly inaccurate one, at least in the world of modern mathematics. We do have spectacular, deep and remarkable results and insights in this subject, of course, but they are the hard-won and cumulative achievement of years, decades, or even centuries of steady work and progress of many good and great mathematicians; the advance from one stage of understanding to the next can be highly non-trivial, and sometimes rather unexpected, but still builds upon the foundation of earlier work rather than starting totally anew....Actually, I find the reality of mathematical research today-in which progress is obtained naturally and cumulatively as a consequence of hard work, directed by intuition, literature, and a bit of luck-to be far more satisfying than the romantic image that I had as a student of mathematics being advanced primarily by the mystic inspirations of some rare breed of "geniuses.
”
”
Terry Tao
“
Resistere. Nessun singolo istante di quel dolore era insopportabile. Eccolo qua un secondo: lo aveva sopportato. Insopportabile era il pensiero di tutti gli istanti in fila, uno dietro l'altro, splendenti. E la proiezione della paura futura [...]. Ma niente di tutto questo è vero, ora. [...] Poteva accovacciarsi nello spazio tra due battiti del cuore e fare di ogni battito un muro e vivere là dentro. Non permettere alla sua testa di guardare sopra il muro. La cosa insopportabile è cosa ne penserebbe la sua testa. Cosa potrebbe raccontargli la sua testa se guardasse al di là del muro. Ma potrebbe scegliere di non ascoltarla.
”
”
David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest)
“
And now the thought came to me that I lived much of my life through the pages of books as well. That perhaps I, too, was only a paper figure. A cut-out, or silhouette. Flat.
I always thought I knew the shape of my life. Of course I thought I knew about life, thought I knew all I needed - or wanted - to know. And yet, like the opening left when a burning star falls from its perch, now an unexpected hole was left in what was once a solid curtain of understanding... ( )... Sitting under the cold stars, I understood that it was death that made me recognize life, and the existence, or pherhaps the non-existence of my own beeing.
”
”
Linda Holeman (The Saffron Gate)
“
Hey! look at us
We're digging and digging
Into stubborn, ancient earth;
We're discovering
Where we came from,
and how we came.
"but where are you going?"
Hey! look at us
We're learning and learning
Into stubborn laws
Of nature and space
And non-nature and non-space;
We're discovering
All there is to know.
"but where are you going?"
Hey! look at us
We're planning and planning
Into stubborn years
Of education and training
And hopes and dreams;
We're discovering
How not to waste any time.
"but where are you going?"
Hey! look at us
We're shiny and bright
And clever and sophisticated
And witty and well-read;
We're discovering
How to really fill up
This old life.
"but where are you going?"
where?
"Yes; where?
”
”
Lois A. Cheney (God is No Fool)
“
Chaque âge a ses plaisirs, son esprit et ses mœurs.
Un jeune homme, toujours bouillant dans ses caprices,
Est prompt à recevoir l'impression des vices ;
Est vain dans ses discours, volage en ses désirs,
Rétif à la censure et fou dans les plaisirs.
L'âge viril, plus mûr, inspire un air plus sage,
Se pousse auprès des grands, s'intrigue, se ménage,
Contre les coups du sort songe à se maintenir,
Et loin dans le présent regarde l'avenir.
La vieillesse chagrine incessamment amasse ;
Garde, non pas pour soi, les trésors qu'elle entasse ;
Marche en tous ses desseins d'un pas lent et glacé ;
Toujours plaint le présent et vante le passé ;
Inhabile aux plaisirs, dont la jeunesse abuse,
Blâme en eux les douceurs que l'âge lui refuse.
”
”
Nicolas Boileau
“
Eh bien, c'est l'histoire d'un petit ourson qui s'appelle… Arthur. Et y'a une fée, un jour, qui vient voir le petit ourson et qui lui dit : Arthur tu vas partir à la recherche du Vase Magique. Et elle lui donne une épée hmm… magique (ouais, parce qu'y a plein de trucs magiques dans l'histoire, bref) alors le petit ourson il se dit : "Heu, chercher le Vase Magique ça doit être drôlement difficile, alors il faut que je parte dans la forêt pour trouver des amis pour m'aider." Alors il va voir son ami Lancelot… le cerf (parce que le cerf c'est majestueux comme ça), heu, Bohort le faisan et puis Léodagan… heu… l'ours, ouais c'est un ours aussi, c'est pas tout à fait le même ours mais bon. Donc Léodagan qui est le père de la femme du petit ourson, qui s'appelle Guenièvre la truite… non, non, parce que c'est la fille de… non c'est un ours aussi puisque c'est la fille de l'autre ours, non parce qu'après ça fait des machins mixtes, en fait un ours et une truite… non en fait ça va pas. Bref, sinon y'a Gauvain le neveu du petit ourson qui est le fils de sa sœur Anna, qui est restée à Tintagel avec sa mère Igerne la… bah non, ouais du coup je suis obligé de foutre des ours de partout sinon on pige plus rien dans la famille… Donc c'est des ours, en gros, enfin bref… Ils sont tous là et donc Petit Ourson il part avec sa troupe à la recherche du Vase Magique. Mais il le trouve pas, il le trouve pas parce qu'en fait pour la plupart d'entre eux c'est… c'est des nazes : ils sont hyper mous, ils sont bêtes, en plus y'en a qu'ont la trouille. Donc il décide de les faire bruler dans une grange pour s'en débarrasser… Donc la fée revient pour lui dire : "Attention petit ourson, il faut être gentil avec ses amis de la forêt" quand même c'est vrai, et du coup Petit Ourson il lui met un taquet dans la tête à la fée, comme ça : "BAH !". Alors la fée elle est comme ça et elle s'en va… et voilà et en fait il trouve pas le vase. En fait il est… il trouve pas… et Petit Ourson il fait de la dépression et tous les jours il se demande s'il va se tuer ou… pas…
”
”
Alexandre Astier (Kaamelott, livre 3, première partie : Épisodes 1 à 50)
“
High-quality and transparent data, clearly documented, timely rendered, and publicly available are the sine qua non of competent public health management. During a pandemic, reliable and comprehensive data are critical for determining the behavior of the pathogen, identifying vulnerable populations, rapidly measuring the effectiveness of interventions, mobilizing the medical community around cutting-edge disease management, and inspiring cooperation from the public. The shockingly low quality of virtually all relevant data pertinent to COVID-19, and the quackery, the obfuscation, the cherrypicking and blatant perversion would have scandalized, offended, and humiliated every prior generation of American public health officials. Too often, Dr. Fauci was at the center of these systemic deceptions. The “mistakes” were always in the same direction—inflating the risks of coronavirus and the safety and efficacy of vaccines in
”
”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health)
“
If America, for instance, used the Bible to shape its warfare policy, that policy would look like this. Enlistment would be by volunteer only (which it is), and the military would not be funded by taxation. America would not stockpile superior weapons—no tanks, drones, F-22s, and of course no nuclear weapons—and it would make sure its victories were determined by God’s miraculous intervention, not by military might. Rather than outnumbering the enemy, America would deliberately fight outmanned and under-gunned. Perhaps soldiers would use muskets, or maybe just swords. There would be no training, no boot camp, no preparation other than fasting, praying, and singing worship songs. If America really is the “new Israel,” God’s holy nation as some believe, then it needs to take its cue from God and His inspired manual for military tactics. But as it stands, many Christians will be content to cut and paste selected verses that align with America’s worldview to give the military some religious backing. Some call this bad hermeneutics; others call it syncretism. The Israelite prophets called it idolatry.
”
”
Preston Sprinkle (Fight: A Christian Case for Non-Violence)
“
But it was while discussing SpaceX’s grandest missions that Shotwell really came into her own and seemed to inspire the interns. Some of them clearly dreamed of becoming astronauts, and Shotwell said that working at SpaceX was almost certainly their best chance to get to space now that NASA’s astronaut corps had dwindled. Musk had made designing cool-looking, “non–Stay Puft” spacesuits a personal priority. “They can’t be clunky and nasty,” Shotwell said. “You have to do better than that.” As for where the astronauts would go: well, there were the space habitats, the moon, and, of course, Mars as options. SpaceX has already started testing a giant rocket, called the Falcon Heavy, that will take it much farther into space than the Falcon 9, and it has another, even larger spaceship on the way. “Our Falcon Heavy rocket will not take a busload of people to Mars,” she said. “So, there’s something after Heavy. We’re working on it.” To make something like that vehicle happen, she said, the SpaceX employees needed to be effective and pushy. “Make sure your output is high,” Shotwell said. “If we’re throwing a bunch of shit in your way, you need to be mouthy about it. That’s not a quality that’s widely accepted elsewhere, but it is at SpaceX.” And, if that sounded harsh, so be it. As Shotwell saw it, the commercial space race was coming down to SpaceX and China and that’s it. And in the bigger picture, the race was on to ensure man’s survival. “If you hate people and think human extinction is okay, then fuck it,” Shotwell said. “Don’t go to space. If you think it is worth humans doing some risk management and finding a second place to go live, then you should be focused on this issue and willing to spend some money. I am pretty sure we will be selected by NASA to drop landers and rovers off on Mars. Then the first SpaceX mission will be to drop off a bunch of supplies, so that once people get there, there will be places to live and food to eat and stuff for them to do.
”
”
Ashlee Vance (Elon Musk: Inventing the Future)
“
Alice's Cutie Code TM Version 2.1 - Colour Expansion Pack
(aka Because this stuff won’t stop being confusing and my friends are mean edition)
From Red to Green, with all the colours in between (wait, okay, that rhymes, but green to red makes more sense. Dang.)
From Green to Red, with all the colours in between
Friend Sampling Group: Fennie, Casey, Logan, Aisha and Jocelyn
Green
Friends’ Reaction: Induces a minimum amount of warm and fuzzies. If you don’t say “aw”, you’re “dead inside”
My Reaction: Sort of agree with friends minus the “dead inside” but because that’s a really awful thing to say. Puppies are a good example. So is Walter Bishop.
Green-Yellow
Friends’ Reaction: A noticeable step up from Green warm and fuzzies. Transitioning from cute to slightly attractive. Acceptable crush material. “Kissing.”
My Reaction: A good dance song. Inspirational nature photos. Stuff that makes me laugh. Pairing: Madison and Allen from splash
Yellow
Friends’ Reaction: Something that makes you super happy but you don’t know why. “Really pretty, but not too pretty.” Acceptable dating material. People you’d want to “bang on sight.”
My Reaction: Love songs for sure! Cookies for some reason or a really good meal. Makes me feel like it’s possible to hold sunshine, I think. Character: Maxon from the selection series. Music: Carly Rae Jepsen
Yellow-Orange
Friends’ Reaction: (When asked for non-sexual examples, no one had an answer. From an objective perspective, *pushes up glasses* this is the breaking point. Answers definitely skew toward romantic or sexual after this.)
My Reaction: Something that really gets me in my feels. Also art – oil paintings of landscapes in particular. (What is with me and scenery? Maybe I should take an art class) Character: Dean Winchester. Model: Liu Wren.
Orange
Friends’ Reaction: “So pretty it makes you jealous. Or gay.”
“Definitely agree about the gay part. No homo, though. There’s just some really hot dudes out there.”(Feenie’s side-eye was so intense while the others were answering this part LOLOLOLOLOL.) A really good first date with someone you’d want to see again.
My Reaction: People I would consider very beautiful. A near-perfect season finale. I’ve also cried at this level, which was interesting.
o Possible tie-in to romantic feels? Not sure yet.
Orange-Red
Friends’ Reaction: “When lust and love collide.” “That Japanese saying ‘koi no yokan.’ It’s kind of like love at first sight but not really. You meet someone and you know you two have a future, like someday you’ll fall in love. Just not right now.” (<-- I like this answer best, yes.) “If I really, really like a girl and I’m interested in her as a person, guess. I’d be cool if she liked the same games as me so we could play together.”
My Reaction: Something that gives me chills or has that time-stopping factor. Lots of staring. An extremely well-decorated room. Singers who have really good voices and can hit and hold superb high notes, like Whitney Houston. Model: Jasmine Tooke. Paring: Abbie and Ichabod from Sleepy Hollow
o Romantic thoughts? Someday my prince (or princess, because who am I kidding?) will come?
Red (aka the most controversial code)
Friends’ Reaction: “Panty-dropping levels” (<-- wtf Casey???).
“Naked girls.” ”Ryan. And ripped dudes who like to cook topless.”
“K-pop and anime girls.” (<-- Dear. God. The whole table went silent after he said that. Jocelyn was SO UNCOMFORTABLE but tried to hide it OMG it was bad. Fennie literally tried to slap some sense into him.)
My Reaction: Uncontrollable staring. Urge to touch is strong, which I must fight because not everyone is cool with that. There may even be slack-jawed drooling involved. I think that’s what would happen. I’ve never seen or experienced anything that I would give Red to.
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Claire Kann (Let's Talk About Love)
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ON THE MODUS OPERANDI OF OUR CURRENT PRESIDENT, DONALD J. TRUMP
"According to a new ABC/Washington Post poll, President Trump’s disapproval rating has hit a new high."
The President's response to this news was "“I don’t do it for the polls. Honestly — people won’t necessarily agree with this — I do nothing for the polls,” the president told reporters on Wednesday. “I do it to do what’s right. I’m here for an extended period of time. I’m here for a period that’s a very important period of time. And we are straightening out this country.” - Both Quotes Taken From Aol News - August 31, 2018
In The United States, as in other Republics, the two main categories of Presidential motivation for their assigned tasks are #1: Self Interest in seeking to attain and to hold on to political power for their own sakes, regarding the welfare of This Republic to be of secondary importance. #2: Seeking to attain and to hold on to the power of that same office for the selfless sake of this Republic's welfare, irregardless of their personal interest, and in the best of cases going against their personal interests to do what is best for this Republic even if it means making profound and extreme personal sacrifices. Abraham Lincoln understood this last mentioned motivation and gave his life for it.
The primary information any political scientist needs to ascertain regarding the diagnosis of a particular President's modus operandi is to first take an insightful and detailed look at the individual's past. The litmus test always being what would he or she be willing to sacrifice for the Nation. In the case of our current President, Donald John Trump, he abandoned a life of liberal luxury linked to self imposed limited responsibilities for an intensely grueling, veritably non stop two
year nightmare of criss crossing this immense Country's varied terrain, both literally and socially when he could have easily maintained his life of liberal leisure.
While my assertion that his personal choice was, in my view, sacrificially done for the sake of a great power in a state of rapid decline can be contradicted by saying it was motivated by selfish reasons, all evidence points to the contrary. For knowing the human condition, fraught with a plentitude of weaknesses, for a man in the end portion of his lifetime to sacrifice an easy life for a hard working incessant schedule of thankless tasks it is entirely doubtful that this choice was made devoid of a special and even exalted inspiration to do so.
And while the right motivations are pivotal to a President's success, what is also obviously needed are generic and specific political, military and ministerial skills which must be naturally endowed by Our Creator upon the particular President elected for the purposes of advancing a Nation's general well being for one and all. If one looks at the latest National statistics since President Trump took office, (such as our rising GNP, the booming market, the dramatically shrinking unemployment rate, and the overall positive emotive strains in regards to our Nation's future, on both the left and the right) one can make definitive objective conclusions pertaining to the exceptionally noble character and efficiency of the current resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And if one can drown out the constant communicative assaults on our current Commander In Chief, and especially if one can honestly assess the remarkable lack of substantial mistakes made by the current President, all of these factors point to a leader who is impressively strong, morally and in other imperative ways. And at the most propitious time.
For the main reason that so many people in our Republic palpably despise our current President is that his political and especially his social agenda directly threatens their licentious way of life. - John Lars Zwerenz
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John Lars Zwerenz