#lit

Pegging your contentment to the overall state of the world rather than of your own life: the basis of morality, or a sort of madness? ↗

— Alain de Botton

#life #madness #morality #world #life

Certainly sand was not suitable for life. Yet, was a stationary condition absolutely indispensable for existence? Didn't unpleasant competition arise precisely because one tried to cling to a fixed position? If one were to give up a fixed position and abandon oneself to the movement of the sands, competition would soon stop. Actually, in the deserts flowers bloomed and insects and other animals lived their lives. These creatures were able to escape competition through their great ability to adjust--for example, the man's beetle family. While he mused on the effect of the flowing sands, he was seized from time to time by hallucinations in which he himself began to move with the flow. ↗

— Kōbō Abe

#competition #fixity #family

The passion to teach, to share deeply experienced “lessons from life,” is embedded in all literature. ↗

— Vera B. Williams

#teaching #life

A spiritually established life is not an easy task. But a materially satisfied life is an impossible task. ↗

— Sri Chinmoy

#life

Oh, hon, it's the little courtesies that make life bearable, I find, wouldn't you agree? ↗

— Andrew Ashling

#politeness #thoughtfulness #life

It’s madness to see life as it is and not how it should be. ↗

— Knight of the woeful countenance

#dox-quiote #madness #man-of-la-mancha #perception #reality

...I've been ripped off, lied to, slandered, gossiped about slapped, falsely accused, and had my truths not believed. I've had my heart broken, had my pride stomped on, witnessed unforgivable acts, and heard words that hurt so much I withed that they would not replay in my head, but they did. In all these moments--some tear-soaked, some life-defining, but all character-building moments--I have felt vulnerable. And I believe these feelings of vulnerability--when a person feels scared and alone and overwhelmed and pissed off, wen the sting of unfairness bites deep--while miserable to live through, are the basis for writing compelling fiction. ↗

— Jessica Page Morrell

#vulnerablity #life

Inasmuch as often in this life greater rewards are offered for vice than for virtue, few people would prefer the right to the useful, were they restreined neither by the fear of God nor the expectation of another life ... ↗

— René Descartes

#god #morality #vice #virtue #life

I was recalling that other world in which it had thrilled me, in a way, the surprise of thinking that I could be a person who would betray Daniel. Now I wondered if Daniel could surprise himself, could surprise me, by being such a person too. Would he let himself do such a thing? I didn’t think so. And then I wondered: Is it by will, then, that we are who we are? Do we decide, do we make ourselves, after a certain point in life? I tried to call up the moment when I had decided I could be such a person. It seemed to me I hadn’t quite got there, not really. That I was still just playing with the idea of it when the ground shifted under me. But perhaps to play with such an idea was already to be a certain kind of person. ↗

— Sue Miller

#fidelity #will #life

In The Highland Book of Platitudes, Marlais, there's an entry that reads, "Not all ghosts earn our memory in equal measure." I think about this sometimes. I think especially about the word "earn," because it implies an ongoing willful effort on the part of the dead, so that if you believe the platitude, you have to believe in the afterlife, don't you? Following that line of thought, there seem to be certain people—call them ghosts—with the ability to insinuate themselves into your life with more belligerence and exactitude than others—it's their employment and expertise. ↗

— Howard Norman

#equality