#comp

For the vision of a novelist is both complex and specialised; complex, because behind his characters and apart from them must stand something stable to which he relates them; specialised because since he is a single person with one sensibility the aspects of life in which he can believe with conviction are strictly limited ↗

— Virginia Woolf

#duality #joseph-conrad #writing-craft #life

In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices. ↗

— Elizabeth Gilbert

#compassion #generosity #gratitude #service #love

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can't really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, 'If you can make something that has a nice jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we'll talk.' All the computer can give you is a manuscript. People don't want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good. They look good. You can press it to your bosom. You can carry it in your pocket. ↗

— Ray Bradbury

#computers #internet #reading #love

While we do our good works let us not forget that the real solution lies in a world in which charity will have become unnecessary. ↗

— Chinua Achebe

#brotherly-love #charity #compassion #love

I have no country to fight for; my country is the earth; I am a citizen of the world. ↗

— Eugene Victor Debs

#anti-nationalism #compassion #humanity #universal-love #love

If you can't do great things, Mother Teresa used to say, do little things with great love. If you can't do them with great love, do them with a little love. If you can't do them with a little love, do them anyway. Love grows when people serve. ↗

— John Ortberg

#greatness #love #mother-teresa #serve #service

Love is as simple as the absence of self given to another. God, when invited, fills the void of any unrequited love; hence loving is how one is drawn closer to God no matter its most horrific repercussions. ↗

— Criss Jami

#closer #compensation #filling-the-void #god #horrific

As the pain that can be told is but half a pain, so the pity that questions has little healing in its touch. What Lily craved was the darkness made by enfolding arms, the silence which is not solitude, but compassion holding its breath. ↗

— Edith Wharton

#empathy #love #love

The conclusion I have reached is that, above all, dogs are witnesses. They are allowed access to our most private moments. They are there when we think we are alone. Think of what they could tell us. They sit on the laps of presidents. They see acts of love and violence, quarrels and feuds, and the secret play of children. If they could tell us everything they have seen, all of the gaps of our lives would stitch themselves together. ↗

— Carolyn Parkhurst

#dogs #secrets #love

You can't make your kids do anything. All you can do is make them wish they had. And then, they will make you wish you hadn't made them wish they had. ↗

— Marshall B. Rosenberg

#compassion #discipline #love #parenting #love