#openness

If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, listen to ­music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do, don't just stick there scowling at the problem. But don't make telephone calls or go to a party; if you do, other people's words will pour in where your lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create a space. Be patient." [The Guardian, 25 February 2010] ↗

— Hilary Mantel

#distraction #inspiration #openness #problem-solving #procrastination

There is nothing noble about suffering except the love and forgiveness with which we meet it. Many believe that if they are suffering they are closer to God, but I have met very few who could keep their heart open to their suffering enough for that to be true. (124) ↗

— Stephen Levine

#god #love #openness #suffering #forgiveness

When Muslim radicals and fundamentalists look at the West, they see only the openness that makes us, in their eyes, decadent and promiscuous. They see only the openness that has produced Britney Spears and Janet Jackson. They do not see, and do not want to see, the openness - the freedom of thought and inquiry - that has made us powerful, the openness that has produced Bill Gates and Sally Ride. They deliberately define it all as decadence. Because if openness, women's empowerment, and freedom of thought and inquiry are the real sources of the West's economic strength, then the Arab-Muslim world would have to change. And the fundamentalists and extremists do not want to change. ↗

— Thomas L. Friedman

#openness #radicals #terrorists #change

Remarkable is the greater openness of the Catholic Church towards people of other religious traditions and persuasions. The development has not been without problems, since some people have resisted it and others have pushed openness beyond the desirable point. ↗

— Francis Arinze

#beyond #catholic #catholic church #church #desirable

I think Maine needs people. It needs diversity. It needs to be able to respect people. Openness is crucial for this state because we don't want to be known for having the oldest state in the nation. We want young families. ↗

— John Baldacci

#because #crucial #diversity #families #having

In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end. ↗

— Gerald R. Ford

#always #best #candor #confidence #end

Apple does great products, but at the end of the day we think consumers want choice, consumers want openness. ↗

— Rob Glaser

#choice #consumers #day #does #end

I like solitude. It is when you truly hear and speak your natural, unadulterated mind, and out comes your most stupid self as well as your most intelligent self. It is when you realize who you are and the extents of the good and the evils which you are capable of. ↗

— Criss Jami

#censorship #evil #extensive #extremes #good

Regrets are the last words you speak to your loved ones when you die and the one thing we all fear when we live. I'd rather regret the things I've done and said than regret the things I haven't done or said. It is all the experiences and people you missed out on in life that you will feel the most regretful for in the end. God will forgive you of your mistakes, but there is nothing to forgive if you have never even tried, done or said anything that made a difference in your life or others. ↗

— Shannon L. Alder

#experiences #freedom-of-speech #life #openness #regret

A majority of young people seem to develop mental arteriosclerosis forty years before they get the physical kind. Another question: why do some people remain open and elastic into extreme old age, whereas others become rigid and unproductive before they're fifty? ↗

— Aldous Huxley

#mental-awareness #openness #age