#ear

Superstition is the need to view the world in terms of simple cause and effect. As I have already said, religious fundamentalism was on the rise, but that is not the type of superstition I am referring to. The superstition that held sway at the time was a belief in simple causes. Even the plainest of events is tied down by a thick tangle of permutation and possibility, but the human mind struggles with such complexity. In times of trouble, when the belief in simple gods breaks down, a cult of conspiracy arises. So it was back then. Unable to attribute misfortune to chance, unable to accept their ultimate insignificance within the greater scheme, the people looked for monsters in their midst. The more the media peddled fear, the more the people lost the ability to believe in one another. For every new ill that befell them, the media created an explanation, and the explanation always had a face and a name. The people came to fear even their closest neighbors. At the level of the individual, the community, and the nation, people sought signs of others’ ill intentions; and everywhere they looked, they found them, for this is what looking does. This was the true challenge the people of this time faced. The challenge of trusting one another. And they fell short ↗

— Bernard Beckett

#human-nature #nature

I think you should listen to your heart. It is there the True One speaks to us most. ↗

— Derek Donais

#heart #sci-fi #sci-fi

I would have done anything for him. But these days, I don't want to do anything. I don't want to get drunk or go to a wild party or make out with random boys-not that I've ever wanted to. I don't want to watch chick flicks or eat ice cream or get a haircut or buy out half of the mall. I don't want cold, cruel revenge. I don't want to see him suffer when karma catches up with him and kick his ass. I don't even want to talk to him right now, simply because it would be awkward and pathetic and I wouldn't know what to say to him. Yes, there is self-control, preventing me from being stupid and acting like a desperate doofus in the manner most heartbroken people do. But there is also a weary numbness threatening to consume every inch of me: Isn't there a way for me to skip straight to the part where I'm fine again? ↗

— Marla Miniano

#self-control #manners

It's my opinion, with some people, just knowing they are alone, living inside of their own miserable, self hating, dysfunctional mind, with their own immature, insecure, self pitying self is its own revenge. Their existence is their karma. ↗

— Colleen Truscott Fry

#dysfunctional #heartbreak #immaturity #karma #misery

Despite a voluminous and often fervent literature on "income distribution," the cold fact is that most income is not distributed: It is earned. ↗

— Thomas Sowell

#earnings #economics #income #socialism #wealth

Criticism is just someone else’s opinion. Even people who are experts in their ﬁelds are sometimes wrong. It is up to you to choose whether to believe some of it, none of it, or all of it. What you think is what counts. ↗

— Rodolfo Costa

#fear-of-failure #opinion #self-confidence #self-doubt #self-confidence

If you want to find the real competition, just look in the mirror. After awhile you'll see your rivals scrambling for second place. ↗

— Criss Jami

#athletes #athletics #competition #confidence #improvement

Hands that never touch. Lips that never meet. The Almost Lovers, never to be. ↗

— Rae Hachton

#heartbreak #lament #love #lovers-love-story #lovers-sadness

Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true. ↗

— Alfred Tennyson

#new-years #new-years-eve #snow

Fear makes idiots out of us all, at some time or other. ↗