#cal

The highest activities of consciousness have their origins in physical occurrences of the brain just as the loveliest melodies are not too sublime to be expressed by notes. ↗

— W. Somerset Maugham

#consciousness #duality #hard-ai #mind #mind-body-problem

I’ve always been suspicious of the assumption that great intelligence would be an unqualified benefit— that the madness that so often accompanies it can be cavalierly dismissed. So I asked the question: Suppose there were an entire subpopulation of extreme geniuses, well beyond anything that would occur naturally. What would that really look like? ↗

— Andrew M. Ryan

#nihilism #psychological-thriller #intelligence

The closest natural area to you is the wild, naturally intelligent biological community within you. ↗

— Michael J. Cohen

#community #intelligent #natural #wild #within

The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership. ↗

— Harvey S. Firestone

#development #growth #highest #leadership #people

Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance. ↗

— J. Donald Walters

#leadership #opportunity #self-importance #serve #trumpet

The conservatives had started bringing demagoguery to the table on the [Afghan] war issue the previous fall [fall 2006]. Whenever opposition members criticized the war policy, assorted Tories accused them of being disloyal and of failing to support the troops....[Harper] was gaining the reputation of a leader who couldn't see a belt without wanting to hit below it. ↗

— Lawrence Martin

#leadership #political-style #stephen-harper #leadership

He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it. ↗

— Cormac McCarthy

#life #the-road #thoughtful #life

Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really. ↗

— Jacqueline Kelly

#calpurnia #happiness #reading #life

I can do pain. That’s the easy part of life. It’s everything else, happiness, laughter, love, that’s fucking complicated. ↗

— Jessica Sorensen

#jessica-sorensen #love #life

Deep down, all the while, she was waiting for something to happen. Like a sailor in distress, she kept casting desperate glances over the solitary waster of her life, seeking some white sail in the distant mists of the horizon. She had no idea by what wind it would reach her, toward what shore it would bear her, or what kind of craft it would be – tiny boat or towering vessel, laden with heartbreaks or filled to the gunwhales with rapture. But every morning when she awoke she hoped that today would be the day; she listened for every sound, gave sudden starts, was surprised when nothing happened; and then, sadder with each succeeding sunset, she longed for tomorrow. ↗

— Gustave Flaubert

#life