#ness

The true measure of a man is how he treats you when others are not looking. ↗

— Alessandra Torre

#love #marriage #relationships #relationships-love #respecting-others

The humility that cringes in order that reproof may be escaped or favor obtained is as unchristian as it is profoundly immoral. ↗

— Dallas Willard

#obsequiousness #relationship

Only within the 20th Century has biological thought been focused on ecology, or the relation of the living creature to its environment. Awareness of ecological relationships is — or should be — the basis of modern conservation programs, for it is useless to attempt to preserve a living species unless the kind of land or water it requires is also preserved. So delicately interwoven are the relationships that when we disturb one thread of the community fabric we alter it all — perhaps almost imperceptibly, perhaps so drastically that destruction follows." Essay on the Biological Sciences, in: Good Reading (1958) ↗

— Rachel Carson

#ecology #environment #nature #preservation #nature

The hospital room was as cold as dead skin, the hallway crowded with lost souls and reeking of illness. ↗

— Raquel Cepeda

#hospital #mortality #sickness #souls #relationship

Women destroy me. I allow them to. ↗

— Raquel Cepeda

#infidelity #machismo #male-and-female-relationships #masculinity #weakness

It's not about whether or not someone is a bigot, but whether or not the argument which that someone is arguing is worth being a bigot about. ↗

— Criss Jami

#arguments #bigot #bigotry #bigots #certainty

The tendency to turn human judgements into divine commands turns religion into one of the most dangerous forces in the world. ↗

— Georgia Harkness

#religion #religion

Admittedly, I do have several bones, whole war fields full of bones, in fact to pick with organised religion of whatever stripe. This should be seen as a critique of purely temporal agencies who have, to my mind, erected more obstacles between whatever notion of spirituality and Godhead one subscribes to than they have opened doors. To me, the difference between Godhead and the Church is the difference between Elvis and Colonel Parker... although that conjures images of God dying on the toilet, which is not what I meant at all. ↗

— Alan Moore

#godhead #modernity-is-a-sickness #religion #secular-ethics #secularism

How can one explain this trend towards a more colorless and shallow life? Well, the work was easier, if less healthy, and it brought in more money, more leisure, and perhaps more entertainment. A day in the country is long and hard. And yet the fruits of their present life were worthless compared to a single coin of their former life: a rest in the evening and a rural festivity. That they no longer knew the old kind of happiness was obvious from the discontentment which spread over their features. Soon dissatisfaction, prevailing over all their other moods, became their religion. ↗

— Ernst Jünger

#happiness #satisfaction #work #money

Christianity grasped perfectly that there is an element in the apparent contingency of love that can’t be reduced to that contingency. But it immediately raised it to the level of transcendence, and that is the root of the problem. This universal element I too recognize in love as immanent. But Christianity has somehow managed to elevate it and refocus it onto a transcendent power. It’s an ideal that was already partly present in Plato, through the idea of the Good. It is a brilliant first manipulation of the power of love and one we must now bring back to earth. I mean we must demonstrate that love really does have universal power, but that it is simply the opportunity we are given to enjoy a positive, creative, affirmative experience of difference. The Other, no doubt, but without the “Almighty-Other”, without the “Great Other” of transcendence. ↗

— Alain Badiou

#difference #god #identity #love #otherness