#open

However, the struggle with that sentinel is, as a rule, not so hard as it may seem from a long way off, mainly in consequence of the antagonism between the ills of the body and the ills of the mind. If we are in great bodily pain, or the pain lasts a long time, we become indifferent to other troubles; all we think about is to get well. In the same way great mental suffering makes us insensible to bodily pain; we despise it; nay, if it should outweigh the other, it distracts our thoughts, and we welcome it as a pause in mental suffering. It is this feeling that makes suicide easy; for the bodily pain that accompanies it loses all significance in the eyes of one who is tortured by an excess of mental suffering. This is especially evident in the case of those who are driven to suicide by some purely morbid and exaggerated ill-humor. No special effort to overcome their feelings is necessary, nor do such people require to be worked up in order to take the step; but as soon as the keeper into whose charge they are given leaves them for a couple of minutes, they quickly bring their life to an end. When, in some dreadful and ghastly dream, we reach the moment of greatest horror, it awakes us; thereby banishing all the hideous shapes that were born of the night. And life is a dream: when the moment of greatest horror compels us to break it off, the same thing happens. ↗

— Arthur Schopenhauer Studies in Pessimism

#pessimism #schopenhauer #studies-in-pessimism #suicide #dreams

If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work - because if they don't, they won't be around the next time the ballot box is open. ↗

— King Abdullah II

#ballot #ballot box #because #box #elected

I'm literally open to any medium that will have me. ↗

— J. J. Abrams

#i #literally #me #medium #open

In 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act, a bill opening one half million square miles of territory in the western United States for settlement. ↗

— Peter Agre

#abraham lincoln #act #bill #half #homestead

To be given the opportunity to help shape new artists' careers and mentor them to see their dreams come to fruition is a task I welcome with open arms. ↗

— Christina Aguilera

#artists #careers #come #dreams #fruition

That is a good book which is opened with expectation, and closed with delight and profit. ↗

— Amos Bronson Alcott

#closed #delight #expectation #good #good book

Before I left, I opened a lot of doors for a lot of people to play the blues. ↗

— Luther Allison

#blues #doors #i #left #lot

If you look at a magazine and something catches your eye, are you not going to open it up to see what's inside? ↗

— Summer Altice

#eye #going #inside #look #magazine

The pop world has really opened its doors. ↗