#end

To be sane, he held, was either to be sedated by melancholy or activated by hysteria, two responses which were 'always and equally warranted for those of sound insight'. All others were irrational, merely symptoms of imaginations left idle, of memories out of work. And above these mundane responses, the only elevation allowable, the only valid transcendence, was a sardonic one: a bliss that annihilated the universe with jeers of dark joy, a mindful ecstasy. Anything else in the way of 'mysticism' was a sign of deviation or distraction, and a heresy to the obvious. (“The Medusa”) ↗

— Thomas Ligotti

#insanity #melancholy #mysticism #sanity #sardonic

When you feel someone else's pain and joy as powerfully as if it were your own, then you know you really loved them. ↗

— Ann Brashares

#joy #love #pain #friendship

So when you're cold From the inside out And don't know what to do, Remember love and friendship, And warmth will come to you. ↗

— Stephen Cosgrove

#friendship #lesson #friendship

I love man as my fellow; but his scepter, real, or usurped, extends not to me, unless the reason of an individual demands my homage; and even then the submission is to reason, and not to man. ↗

— Mary Wollstonecraft

#equality #freedom #gender #independence #men

Just because I've gone and snagged myself a hot boyfriend doesn't mean I'm going to leave my bestfriend high and dry. ↗

— Becca Fitzpatrick

#friendship #nora #vee-sky #friendship

We can either emphasize those aspects of our traditions, religious or secular, that speak of hatred, exclusion, and suspicion or work with those that stress the interdependence and equality of all human beings. The choice is yours. (22) ↗

— Karen Armstrong

#choice #equality #exclusion #hatred #inclusion

The man or the woman in whom resides greater virtue is the higher; neither the loftiness nor the lowliness of a person lies in the body according to the sex, but in the perfection of conduct and virtues. ↗

— Christine de Pizan

#conduct #double-standards #empowerment #equality #gender

No: I shall not marry Samuel Fawthrop Wynne." "I ask why? I must have a reason. In all respects he is more than worthy of you." She stood on the hearth; she was pale as the white marble slab and cornice behind her; her eyes flashed large, dilated, unsmiling. "And I ask in what sense that young man is worthy of me? ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#courtship #dignity #empowerment #equality #feminism

And finally, in our time a beard is the one thing that a woman cannot do better than a man, or if she can her success is assured only in a circus. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#humor #equality

YA heroines can have romances that are subplots: can have goals other than getting/keeping a man: can put their lovers second. JUST LIKE YAheroes DO! ↗

— Celine Kiernan

#ya-heroines #equality