#ness

George Smiley: [quoting an old letter from Bill Haydon about Jim Prideaux] He has that heavy quiet that commands. He's my other half. Between us we'd make one marvelous man. He asks nothing better than to be in my company or that of my wicked, divine friends, and I'm vastly tickled by the compliment. He's virgin, about eight foot tall, and built by the same firm that did Stonehenge ↗

— John le Carré

#british-intelligence #george-smiley #ian-bannon #ian-richardson #moles

...I don't want what other men see in you- you the you I want is invisible but it is the part of you I really love... ↗

— John Geddes

#love #protectiveness #jealousy

Living is Easy with Eyes Closed. ↗

— John Lennon

#blindness #ignorance #life #life

Abraham Lincoln was asked by an aide about the church service he had attended. Lincoln responded that the minister was inspired, interesting, well-prepared, eloquent and the topic relevant. The aide said, “Then it was a good service?” Lincoln responded, “No.” The aide protested, “But, Mr. President, you said that the minister was inspired, interesting, well-prepared, eloquent, and that the topic was relevant.” “Yes,” replied Lincoln, “but he didn’t challenge us to do any great thing. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#inspirational #leadership #inspirational

It was not the feeling of completeness I so needed, but the feeling of not being empty. ↗

— Jonathan Safran Foer

#life #life

The most important thing is to enjoy your life—to be happy—it's all that matters. ↗

— Audrey Hepburn

#life #life

If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you. ↗

— Leo Tolstoy

#awareness #life #life

I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom. ↗

— Edgar Allan Poe

#alchohol #drinking #drugs #loneliness #melancholy

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough ↗

— Oprah Winfrey

#contentment #dissatisfaction #life #perception #positivity

Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. ↗

— Aristotle

#life