#eli

Having a sister or a friend is like sitting at night in a lighted house. Those outside can watch you if they want, but you need not see them. You simply say, "Here are the perimeters of our attention. If you prowl around under the windows till the crickets go silent, we will pull the shades. If you wish us to suffer your envious curiosity, you must permit us not to notice it." Anyone with one solid human bond is that smug, and it is the smugness as much as the comfort and safety that lonely people covet and admire. ↗

— Marilynne Robinson

#friend #loneliness #relationships #safety #sister

I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings. ↗

— Albert Einstein

#atheism #god #nature #pantheism #religion

On September 11, the murders of World Trade Center employees and visitors took the lives of numerous nationalities, ethnic groups and religious followers. ↗

— Cliff Stearns

#employees #ethnic #ethnic groups #followers #groups

And one more thing: you still believe that man can be good. If that weren't the case, you wouldn't have invented all this nonsense to convince yourself otherwise. ↗

— Paulo Coelho

#good #nonsense

Don't tell me anymore. You should have your dream, as the old woman told you to. I understand how you feel, but if you put those feelings into words they will turn into lies. (from Thailand) ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#feelings #lies #dreams

What can an eternity of damnation matter to someone who has felt, if only for a second, the infinity of delight? ↗

— Charles Baudelaire

#delight #paris

It is better to know oneself than know to others. So not find fault others see first in yourself. When one experiences truth, the madness of finding fault with others disappears. ↗

— Suman Jyoty Bhante

#inspirational #philosophy #quotes #religion #science

I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano! ↗

— William Shakespeare

#melancholy #melancholy

By first believing in Santa Claus, then the Easter Bunny, then the Tooth Fairy, Rant Casey was recognizing that those myths are more than pretty stories and traditions to delight children. Or to modify behavior. Each of those three traditions asks a child to believe in the impossible in exchange for a reward. These are stepped-up tests to build a child's faith and imagination. The first test is to believe in a magical person, with toys as the reward. The second test is to trust in a magical animal, with candy as the reward. The last test is the most difficult, with the most abstract reward: To believe, trust in a flying fairy that will leave money. From a man to an animal to a fairy. From toys to candy to money. Thus, interestingly enough, transferring the magic of faith and trust from sparkling fairy-dom to clumsy, tarnished coins. From gossamer wings to nickels... dimes... and quarters. In this way, a child is stepped up to greater feats of imagination and faith as he or she matures. Beginning with Santa in infancy, and ending with the Tooth Fairy as the child acquires adult teeth. Or, plainly put, beginning with all the possibility of childhood, and ending with an absolute trust in the national currency. ↗

— Chuck Palahniuk

#conditioning #santa-claus #tooth-fairy #faith

There was a tacit understanding between them that 'liquor helped'; growing more miserable with every glass one hoped for the moment of relief. ↗

— Graham Greene

#drinking #liquor #relationships #relief #alcohol