#nos

She could sense it very clearly: for me, no less than for her, the past counted far more than the present, remembering something far more than possessing it. Compared to memory, every possession can only ever seem disappointing, banal, inadequate ... She understood me so well! My anxiety that the present 'immediately' turned into the past so that I could love it and dream about it at leisure was just like hers, was identical. It was 'our' vice, this: to go forwards with our heads forever turned back. ↗

— Giorgio Bassani

#nostalgia #dreams

The Greek word for "return" is nostos. Algos means "suffering." So nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return. ↗

— Milan Kundera

#nostalgia #vocabulary #suffering

Atheism and agnosticism signify the rejection of certain images and concepts of God or of truth, which are historically conditioned and therefore inadequate. Atheism is a challenge to religion to purifiy its images and concepts and come nearer to the truth of divine mystery. ↗

— Bede Griffiths

#atheism #idols #religion #religion

My nose is Gargantuan! You little Pig-snout, you tiny Monkey-Nostrils, you virtually invisible Pekinese-Puss, don't you realize that a nose like mine is both scepter and orb, a monument to me superiority? A great nose is the banner of a great man, a generous heart, a towering spirit, an expansive soul--such as I unmistakably am, and such as you dare not to dream of being, with your bilious weasel's eyes and no nose to keep them apart! With your face as lacking in all distinction--as lacking, I say, in interest, as lacking in pride, in imagination, in honesty, in lyricism--in a word, as lacking in nose as that other offensively bland expanse at the opposite end of your cringing spine--which I now remove from my sight by stringent application of my boot! ↗

— Edmond Rostand

#dreams

How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home. ↗

— William Faulkner

#nostalgia #strange

There is no greater sorrow Than to recall a happy time When miserable. ↗

— Dante Alighieri

#italian-medieval-poetry #nostalgia #À-la-recherche-du-temps-perdu #sorrow

What we do in every other area of our lives (other than religion), is, rather than respect somebody's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons. ↗

— Sam Harris

#atheism #belief #ethics #humanism #religion

What you end up remembering isn't always the same as what you have witnessed. ↗

— Julian Barnes

#nostalgia #wit

You're not allowed to call them dinosaurs any more," said Yo-less. "It's speciesist. You have to call them pre-petroleum persons. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#euphemism #humour #political-correctness #humour

People are invariably surprised to hear me say I am both an atheist and an agnostic, as if this somehow weakens my certainty. I usually reply with a question like, “Well, are you a Republican or an American?” The two words serve different concepts and are not mutually exclusive. Agnosticism addresses knowledge; atheism addresses belief. The agnostic says, “I don't have a knowledge that God exists.” The atheist says, “I don't have a belief that God exists.” You can say both things at the same time. Some agnostics are atheistic and some are theistic. ↗

— Dan Barker

#agnosticism #atheism #atheist