#ali

Without forgiveness life is governed by... an endless cycle of resentment and retaliation. ↗

— Roberto Assagioli

#endless #forgiveness #governed #life #resentment

The marriage of reason and nightmare that dominated the 20th century has given birth to an ever more ambiguous world. Across the communications landscape move the spectres of sinister technologies and the dreams that money can buy. Thermo-nuclear weapons systems and soft-drink commercials coexist in an overlit realm ruled by advertising and pseudo-events, science and pornography. Over our lives preside the great twin leitmotifs of the 20th century – sex and paranoia…In a sense, pornography is the most political form of fiction, dealing with how we use and exploit each other, in the most urgent and ruthless way. ↗

— J.G. Ballard

#conformity #consumerism #materialism #media #semiotic-glut

It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. . . . Children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving. . . . The Indians in their simplicity literally give away all that they have—to relatives, to guests of other tribes or clans, but above all to the poor and the aged, from whom they can hope for no return. ↗

— Charles Alexander Eastman

#generosity #materialism #native-american-wisdom #simplicity #age

I believe in my mask-- The man I made up is me I believe in my dance-- And my destiny ↗

— Sam Shepard

#faith #idenity #lies #lying #masks

Was I asleep? Had I slept? ↗

— Samuel Beckett

#dream #reality #sleep #waiting #dreams

Events, once happened, lose reality, alter with a glance, a storm, a night. In time, the past never happened. But who could know? Who could know that the past is not as solid as this instant… ↗

— Alan Lightman

#past #reality #dreams

After two years' absence she finally returned to chilly Europe, a trifle weary, a trifle sad, disgusted by our banal entertainments, our shrunken landscapes, our impoverished lovemaking. Her soul had remained over there, among the gigantic, poisonous flowers. She missed the mystery of old temples and the ardor of a sky blazing with fever, sensuality and death. The better to relive all these magnificent, raging memories, she became a recluse, spending entire days lying about on tiger skins, playing with those pretty Nepalese knives 'which dissipate one's dreams'. ↗

— Octave Mirbeau

#decadent #exoticism #orientalism #death

It was when I realised I had a new nationality: I was in exile. I am an adulterous resident: when I am in one city, I am dreaming of the other. I am an exile; citizen of the country of longing. ↗

— Suketu Mehta

#expats #nationality #dreams

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible. ↗

— Stanisław Lem

#irrationality #religion #faith

Never doubt God in the darkness what he has given us in the light. ↗

— Francine Rivers

#god #mark-of-the-lion-series #religion #spirituality #voice-in-the-wind