#orient

After two years' absence she finally returned to chilly Europe, a trifle weary, a trifle sad, disgusted by our banal entertainments, our shrunken landscapes, our impoverished lovemaking. Her soul had remained over there, among the gigantic, poisonous flowers. She missed the mystery of old temples and the ardor of a sky blazing with fever, sensuality and death. The better to relive all these magnificent, raging memories, she became a recluse, spending entire days lying about on tiger skins, playing with those pretty Nepalese knives 'which dissipate one's dreams'. ↗

— Octave Mirbeau

#decadent #exoticism #orientalism #death

If Lacan presumes that female homosexuality issues from a disappointed heterosexuality, as observation is said to show, could it not be equally clear to the observer that heterosexuality issues from a disappointed homosexuality? ↗

— Judith Butler

#homosexuality #sex #sexual-orientation #sexuality #equality

We cannot keep turning our backs on gay and lesbian Americans. I have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation. ↗

— John Lewis

#equal-rights #gays #lesbians #racial-discrimination #sexual-orientation

Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future. ↗

— Audre Lorde

#minority #oppression #race-relations #responsibility #sexual-orientation

It is clear that this essential Christian doctrine gives a new value to human nature, to human history and to human life which is not to be found in the other great oriental religions. ↗

— Christopher Dawson

#clear #doctrine #essential #found #gives

I found it interesting that as people become more technically oriented all over the world, at the same time people are becoming increasingly spiritual. The success of the Da Vinci code - even though it was a great yawn - also showed people's interest in religion. ↗

— Barbara Walters

#become #becoming #code #even #found

I don't think it's worth discussing new directions in the context of Chinese art - there were no old directions, either. Chinese art has never had any clear orientation. ↗

— Ai Weiwei

#art #chinese #clear #context #directions

Faulkner was almost oriental. I never got into Faulkner. ↗

— Tom T. Hall

#faulkner #got #i #into #never

Yeah, but now suddenly - you know, universities are notoriously market oriented, too. ↗

— Jim Harrison

#market #notoriously #now #oriented #suddenly

All Marines, sailors and civilian Marines, regardless of sexual orientation, are Marines first. Every Marine is a valued member of our war-fighting team. ↗

— James F. Amos

#every #first #marine #marines #member