The truest philosophy, is not to long for anything in particular, but to accept everything as it comes, and find out the reason of it coming. — Marie Corelli
Henry James (April 15, 1843 – February 28, 1916)A second chance - that is the delusion. There was never to be but one. We work in the dark - we do what we can - we give what we have. Our doubt is our passion and our passion is our task. The rest is the …
Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (April 02, 1840 – September 29, 1902) I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul.
Francis Bacon (January 22, 1561 – April 09, 1626), also known as Lord Verulam There it is. I don't believe in anything, but I'm always glad to wake up in the morning. It doesn't depress me. I'm never depressed. My basic nervous system is filled with this optimism. It's mad, I know, because it's optimism …
Eckhart Tolle (February 16, 1948 -) Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and …
Clive Staples Lewis (November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963) Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point …
David Whyte (November 02, 1955 -) The poet lives and writes at the frontier between deep internal experience and the revelations of the outer world. There is no going back for the poet once this frontier has been reached; a new territory is visible and what has been said cannot be unsaid. The discipline of …
Augustine of Hippo (November 13, 354 – August 28, 430) also known as Saint Augustine Once for all, then, a short precept is given thee: Love, and do what thou wilt: whether thou hold thy peace, through love hold thy peace; whether thou cry out, through love cry out; whether thou correct, through love correct; …
Olivia Laing Art is one of the prime ways we have of opening ourselves and going beyond ourselves. That’s what art is, it’s the product of the human being in the world and imagination, all coming together. The irrepressibility of the life in the works, regardless of the times, the histories, the life stories, it’s …
Muriel Rukeyser (December 15, 1913–February 12, 1980) In times of crisis, we summon up our strength.Then, if we are lucky, we are able to call every resource, every forgotten image that can leap to our quickening, every memory that can make us know our power. And this luck is more than it seems to be: …
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (January 29, 1860 – July 15, 1904) My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love and the most absolute freedom imaginable, freedom from violence and lies, no matter what form the latter two take.
Benjamin Disraeli (December 21, 1804 – April 19, 1881) In great cities men are brought together by the desire of gain. They are not in a state of co-operation, but of isolation, as to the making of fortunes; and for all the rest they are careless of neighbors. Christianity teaches us to love our neighbor …
EE Cummings (October 14, 1894 – September 3, 1962) …love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness; the truth more first than sun more last than star…
David Suzuki (March 24, 1936 -) I raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear boys playing ball outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring woods - in all these I am practicing Zen, I am living Zen. No worldly discussion is …
Aung San Suu Kyi (June 19, 1945 -) It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.
John Anthony Burgess Wilson (February 25, 1917 – November 22, 1993) That so many writers have been prepared to accept a kind of martyrdom is the best tribute that flesh can pay to the living spirit of man as expressed in his literature. One cannot doubt that the martyrdom will continue to be gladly embraced. …
Lucy Schildkret Dawidowicz (June 16, 1915 – December 5, 1990) Some people think that the professional historian's personal commitments — to his people, his country, his religion, his language — undermine his professional objectivity. Not so. Not so, as long as historians respect the integrity of their sources and adhere strictly to the principles of …
Continue reading "Lucy Schildkret Dawidowicz On Historical Writing"
Thomas Lanier “Tennessee” Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983) I don’t want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people.
Anaïs Nin (February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977) Great art was born of great terrors, great loneliness, great inhibitions, instabilities, and it always balances them.
Mary Cennamo Robison (January 14, 1949 -) For about 10 years I didn't publish much of anything, and I didn't have anything. I had nothing, and I really didn't know if I ever would again. … It's about pride, really; feeling the words on the page can never represent you. It's the worst thing you …
Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left.
Robert Traill Spence Lowell IV (March 1, 1917 – September 12, 1977) Sometimes nothing is so solid to me as writing — I suppose that’s what a vocation means — at times a torment, a bad conscience, but all in all, purpose and direction.
Maria Popova (July 28, 1984 -) To be a complete human being is to befriend the fear of fragility, intimate and menacing as it is — the work of a lifetime that begins in those most formative and fragile years when we first become aware of a world separate from ourselves, a world we must …
Kahlil Gibran (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts; And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime. And in much of your talking, thinking is …
Ben Okri (March 15, 1959 -) We are a people who are massaged by fictions; we grow up in a sea of narratives and myths, the perpetual invention of stories. … Your mother would tell you stories to illustrate a hundred different points, lessons, morals she wanted to get across to you. Or you'd tell …
Theodor Seuss Geisel aka Dr Seuss (March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living; it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.
Richard Purdy Wilbur (March 1, 1921 – October 14, 2017) As embarrassing as that word is — ‘inspiration’ — I do think it corresponds to my experience. A poem comes looking for me rather than I hunting after it.
Alexander Popov (November 16, 1971 -) The water is your friend…..you don't have to fight with water, just share the same spirit as the water, and it will help you move.
Guan Moye (February 17, 1955) pen name Mo Yan For a writer, the best way to speak is by writing. You will find everything I need to say in my works. Speech is carried off by the wind; the written word can never be obliterated.
Martin Seligman (August 12, 1942 -) The important thing about imagination is that it gives you optimism.
Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face… Love your mouth… This is flesh… Flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that need to rest …
Sir Isaac Newton (December 25, 1642 – March 20, 1727) I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst …
Mary Ruefle (1952 -) We are all one question, and the best answer seems to be love — a connection between things. This arcane bit of knowledge is respoken every day into the ears of readers of great books, and also appears to perpetually slip under a carpet, utterly forgotten.
Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) Usually the people who are the most generous are people who have the least to give. I learned this first-hand as a newspaper carrier when I was 12 years old. The biggest tips came from the poorest people. I was surprised by this, but I …
If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation. —Jiddu Krishnamurti
When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses... We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth. — John F. Kennedy
...If one looks long enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud, something like revelation takes place. — May Sarton
The most we can do is to write — intelligently, creatively, evocatively — about what it is like living in the world at this time. — Oliver Sacks
The truest philosophy, is not to long for anything in particular, but to accept everything as it comes, and find out the reason of it coming. — Marie Corelli
