#ability

All living things contain a measure of madness that moves them in strange, sometimes inexplicable ways. This madness can be saving; it is part and parcel of the ability to adapt. Without it, no species would survive. ↗

— Yann Martel

#madness #survival #life

Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate. ↗

— Sun Tzu

#people #predictability #surprise #art

The loner who looks fabulous is one of the most vulnerable loners of all. ↗

— Anneli Rufus

#artists #fashion #introverts #looks #vulnerability

Why does no one speak of the cultural advantages of the country? For example, is a well groomed, ecologically kept, sustainably fertile farm any less cultural, any less artful, than paintings of fat angels on church ceilings? ↗

— Gene Logsdon

#country-life #culture #farming #sustainability #art

The sky's gray and there's mizzle. It's so soft on my skin--it's nothing like rain. It's even softer than the lightest drizzle! Lift my face up, so it can kiss my skin." The Panopticon ↗

— Jenn Fagan

#landscape #vulnerability #weather #beauty

The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed. ↗

— Robert M. Pirsig

#technology #usability #art

A sense of change, of individual nothingness, of perplexity and disappointment, overpowered Margaret. Nothing had been the same; and this slight, all-pervading instability, had given her greater pain than if all had been too entirely changed for her to recognize it. ↗

— Elizabeth Gaskell

#change

That was the awakening, really; it dawned on me that this wasn't really very fair on anyone. On her. On me. On Sienna. But I wasn't willing to change anything, either. I was fiercely protective of my friendship with Sienna. I had fought for it, against my true feelings, for years. I had battled so hard to suppress my feelings, and succeeded. I could never let her go. ↗

— Jessica Thompson

#long-term-friendship #change

Secret elisions within families are suddenly revealed by self-execution, and just as quickly sheeted with excuses, blame, and counter-blame. But sense is made of the world only through relationship between action and reaction, symptom and cause. No change is possible without analysis of accountability. ↗

— Antonella Gambotto-Burke

#action #analysis #blame #cause #counter-blame

If you aren't diligently working towards changing something that bothers you, you rescind your right to complain about it. ↗

— Rob Liano

#complaint #personal-development #personal-growth #change