#perfection

Often when he was not working he had come here and sat an entire afternoon, lulled by the din and music from the other rooms into a state of vague ecstasy, while he contemplated the small sheet of water outside the window. It was that happy frame of mind into which his people could project themselves so easily - the mere absence of immediate unpleasant preoccupation could start it off, and a landscape which included the sea, a river, a fountain, or anything that occupied the eye without engaging the mind, was of use in sustaining it. It was the world behind the world, where reflection precludes the necessity for action, and the calm which all things seek in death appears briefly in the guise of contentment, the spirit at last persuaded that the still waters of perfection are reachable. ↗

— Paul Bowles

#perfection #death

But look around at this world, how perfectly it's made. Flowers can't move, yet the insects come to them and spread their pollen. Trees can't move either, but birds and animals eat their fruit and carry their seeds far and wide. ↗

— Nahoko Uehashi

#nature #nature-of-things #perfection-in-nature #nature

Alles, was der Mensch tut, unvollkommen ist. Aber wer will sich schon seine Unvollkommenheit eingestehen? ↗

— Adelbert von Chamisso

#imperfection #nature

The goodness of a thing created is the perfection of its fitness for the use which it serves. Now that use is either particular or universal. ↗

— William Ames

#either #fitness #goodness #now #particular

To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin. ↗

— Thomas Aquinas

#bear #done #else #even #imperfection

Perfection of moral virtue does not wholly take away the passions, but regulates them. ↗

— Thomas Aquinas

#does #moral #passions #perfection #regulates

Lucy is such a perfectionist. ↗

— Desi Arnaz

#perfectionist #such

In our western civilization we have the glorious example, the great standard of perfection and the teachings of the Christ to guide us. He acts for us as Mediator between our personality and our Soul. ↗

— Edward Bach

#between #christ #civilization #example #glorious

The human race is intoxicated with narrow victories, for life is a string of them like pearls that hit the floor when the rope breaks, and roll away in perfection and anarchy. ↗

— Mark Helprin

#away #breaks #floor #hit #human

An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's. ↗

— J. D. Salinger

#artist #concern #else #his #kind