#iv

Quoting from Thomas Merton Dialogues With Silence The true contemplative is not one who prepares his mind for a particular message that he wants or expects to hear, but is one who remains empty because he knows that he can never expect to anticipate the words that will transform his darkness into light. He does not even anticipate a special kind of transformation. He does not demand light instead of darkness. He waits on the Word of God in silence, and, when he is answered it is not so much by a word that bursts into his silence. It is by his silence itself, suddenly, inexplicably revealing itself to him as a word of great power, full of the voice of God. (17) ↗

— Stephen Cope

#darkness #god #light #silence #transformation

Before you judge me as some kind of 'anything goes' language heathen, let me just say that I'm not against usage standards. I don't violate them when I want to sound like an educated person, for the same reason I don't wear a bikini to a funeral when I want to look like a respectful person. There are social conventions for the way we do lots of things, and it is to everyone's benefit to be familiar with them. But logic ain't got nothin' to do with it. ↗

— Arika Okrent

#language #linguistics #prescriptivism #education

It is too difficult to think nobly when one thinks only of earning a living. ↗

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

#earning #living #nobly #only #think

Don't worry, little dhampir. You might be surrounded by clouds, but you'll always be like sunshine to me. ↗

— Richelle Mead

#worry

He shook his head. "No. Because there's no one else out there who understands you like I do." I waited for more. "That's it? You're not going to elaborate on what that means?" Those green eyes held me. "I don't think I need to. ↗

— Richelle Mead

#sydney-sage #waiting

The number of people killed by the sanctions in Iraq is greater than the total number of people killed by all weapons of mass destruction in all of history. ↗

— Noam Chomsky

#perspective #terrorism #war #war-on-terror #wmd

It's often a bad sign when people defend themselves against charges which haven't been made. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#defensiveness #noam-chomsky #september- #iraq

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. ↗

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

#creative #darkness #decide #destructive #every

It is a strange thing, but when you are dreading something, and would give anything to slow down time, it has a disobliging habit of speeding up. ↗

— J.K. Rowling

#hungarian-horntail #panic #relativity #strange

In university, we are given a taught a lesson then given a test. Whereas in life, we are given a test that teaches us a lesson. #UniversityOfLife ↗

— Habeeb Akande

#lesson #life #trials-of-life #university #university-of-life