#isis

All three are hip-deep in midlife, when the eyes go and the waistline spreads and the city on the hill that shone so brightly in youth turns out to be more like a semi-incorporated town in the middle of a garbage strike. An age when a person can feel not so much himself as an inexplicably inferior version of himself. ↗

— Mary McNamara

#age

In an earlier age, it might have been possible to believe that goodness would prevail over pride, but not anymore. The proud could be proud with impunity, because there was nobody to contradict him in his pride and because narcissism was no longer considered a vice. That was what the whole cult of celebrity was about, she thought; and we fêted these people and fed their vanity. ↗

— Alexander McCall Smith

#narcisissism #pride #vanity #age

Hedge funds have made massive leveraged credit bets, knowing that their upside is billions in fees and their downside is millions in fees. ↗

— Janet M. Tavakoli

#finance #financial-crisis #hedge-funds #structured-finance #business

When you are in a hole, stop digging! ↗

— Bill McKibben

#climate-change-denial #climate-crisis #climate-denial #change

In adverse circumstances, every creature becomes something else, evolving or devolving. What makes us human is that we know what we once were, and, let us hope, we remember how to change back. ↗

— Brian Herbert

#stress #change

Our identity has already been chosen for us; but it is up to us to accept it, or fight and change it. ↗

— Afnan Ahmad Mia

#identity-crisis #change

Through each crisis in my life, with acceptance and hope, in a single defining moment, I finally gained the courage to do things differently. ↗

— Sharon E. Rainey

#courage #crisis #moment #courage

Četrdeset mi je godina, ružno doba: čovjek je još mlad da bi imao želja a već star da ih ostvaruje. Tada se u svakome gase nemiri, da bi postao jak navikom i stečenom sigurnošću u nemoći što dolazi. A ja tek činim što je trebalo učiniti davno, u bujnom cvjetanju tijela, kad su svi bezbrojni putevi dobri, a sve zablude korisne koliko i istine. Šteta što nemam deset godina više pa bi me starost čuvala od pobuna, ili deset godina manje pa bi mi bilo svejedno. Jer trideset godina je mladost, to sad mislim, kad sam se nepovratno udaljio od nje, mladost koja se ničega ne boji, pa ni sebe. ↗

— Meša Selimović

#middle-age-crisis #age

Ne treba čovjek da se pretvori u svoju suprotnost. Sve što u njemu vrijedi, to je ranjivo. Možda nije lako živjeti na svijetu, ali ako mislimo da nam ovdje nije mjesto, biće još gore. A željeti snagu i bezosjećajnost, znači svetiti se sebi zbog razočarenja. I onda, to nije izlaz, to je dizanje ruku od svega što čovjek može da bude. Odricanje svih obzira je prastari strah, davna suština ljudskog bića koje želi moć, jer se boji. ↗

— Meša Selimović

#fear-of-living #identity-crisis #death

The banana flavour of his accidental conception, and the banana theme of his accidental death, now all seemed to conspire against him and rather suggest the universe, Mr Fate or whoever did have some sort of master plan after all. Despite all his earlier conjecturing, maybe the universe, Mr Fate or whoever was laughing its fat and meddling head at him. The outlandish evidence did seem to speak for itself, truly suggesting a mocking narrative devised by some mischievous author because quite simply a banana condom had brought Midnight into the world and a banana skin had seen him out. Putting those two seeming truths together, Midnight was once again forced to ask such confused and searching questions like: What is this place, where am I heading? And what’s the deal with all the ruddy bananas? ↗

— Tom Conrad

#chance #conception #fate #ghosts #midnight-merlot