#mad

Put a man on the brink of the abyss and - in the unlikely event that she doesn't fall into it - he will become a mystic or a madman... Which is probably the same thing! ↗

— Apostolos Doxiadis

#death #logic #madmen #mystics #war

Gradually the idea for a book began to take shape. It was to be a wildly ambitious and intolerant work, a kind of 'Anatomy of Restlessness' that would enlarge on Pascal's dictum about the man sitting quietly in a room. The argument, roughly, was as follows: that in becoming human, man had acquired, together with his straight legs and striding walk, a migratory 'drive' or instinct to walk long distances through the seasons; that this 'drive' was inseparable from his central nervous system; and, that, when warped in conditions of settlement, it found outlets in violence, greed, status-seeking or a mania for the new. This would explain why mobile societies such as the gypsies were egalitarian, thing-free and resistant to change; also why, to re-establish the harmony of the First State, all the great teachers - Buddha, Lao-tse, St Francis - had set the perpetual pilgrimage at the heart of their message and told their disciples, literally, to follow The Way. ↗

— Bruce Chatwin

#migration #nomadism #change

Entering by the carré, a piece of mirror- glass, set in an oaken cabinet, repeated my image. It said I was changed: my cheeks and lips were sodden white, my eyes were glassy, and my eyelids swollen and purple. On rejoining my companions, I knew they all looked at me - my heart seemed discovered to them: I believed myself self-betrayed. Hideously certain did it seem that the very youngest of the school must guess why and for whom I despaired. ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#lucy-snowe #madame-beck #paul-emmanuel #unmarriageble #villette

Raven: "You don't have a hot date, do you?" Alexander: "Yes. I do, as a matter of fact." Raven: "You do?" Alexander: "Yes, and it is almost ending. ↗

— Ellen Schreiber

#alexander-sterling #ellen-schreiber #raven #raven-madison #the-coffin-club

Every night death came, slowly, painfully, and every morning Maddox awoke in bed, knowing he'd have to die again later. That was his greatest curse and his eternal punishment. ↗

— Gena Showalter

#death #maddox #punishment #death

The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo. You that; we this way. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#love-s-labour-s-lost #love

Before the beginning of years There came to the making of man Time, with a gift of tears; Grief, with a glass that ran; Pleasure, with pain for leaven; Summer, with flowers that fell; Remembrance, fallen from heaven, And madness risen from hell; Strength without hands to smite; Love that endures for a breath; Night, the shadow of light, And Life, the shadow of death. ↗

— Algernon Charles Swinburne

#grief #life #love #madness #mortality

I was the apprentice of Robert James Bakker. I'm sure you've heard of him. I am a sorcerer. I was there when Bakker died. We... made it happen. I too have met death, and did not have to peel the bones away from my chest to survive the encounter. I am also, and incidentally, the Midnight Mayor, the blue electric angels, the fire in the wire, the song in the telephones, and we are having a bad week. Be smart; fear us. ↗

— Kate Griffin

#matthew-swift #the-midnight-mayor #the-neon-court #death

Summaries without background or study will lead to discussions without understanding. ↗

— Reid A. Ashbaucher

#made-in-the-image-of-god #philosophy-of-religion #reid-ashbaucher #religion

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend More than cool reason ever comprehends. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#imagination #lovers #madmen #reason #dreams