#philosophy

Wonder—the enthusiastic ardor for the sublimity of being, for its worthiness to be an object of knowledge—promises to become the point of departure for genuine insight only where it has reached the stage in which the subject, overwhelmed by the object, has, as it were, fused into a single point or into nothing… like the movement of hope and love toward God, which is genuine and selfless only where it has assumed the attitude of pure worship of God for his own sake. ↗

— Hans Urs von Balthasar

#philosophy #theology #wonder #worship #attitude

A few years ago it dawned on me that everybody past a certain age ... pretty much constantly dreams of being able to escape from their lives. They don't want to be who they are any more. They want out. This list includes Thurston Howell the Third, Ann-Margret, the cat members of Rent, Václav Havel, space shuttle astronauts and Snuffleupagus. It's universal. ↗

— Douglas Coupland

#humour #life #philosophy #age

In the internal decoration, if not in the external architecture of their residences, the English are supreme. The Italians have but little sentiment beyond marbles and colors. In France, meliora probant, deteriora sequuntur -- the people are too much a race of gadabouts to maintain those household proprieties of which, indeed, they have a delicate appreciation, or at least the elements of a proper sense. The Chinese and most of the Eastern races have a warm but inappropriate fancy. The Scotch are poor decorists. The Dutch have, perhaps, an indeterminate idea that a curtain is not a cabbage. In Spain, they are all curtains -- a nation of hangmen. The Russians do not furnish. The Hottentots and Kickapoos are very well in their way. The Yankees alone are preposterous. ↗

— Edgar Allan Poe

#philosophy-of-furniture #architecture

Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn't give you what you desire - it tells you how to desire. ↗

— Slavoj Žižek

#cinema #education #film #life #philosophy

Living well is an art that can be developed: a love of life and ability to take great pleasure from small offerings and assurance that the world owes you nothing and that every gift is exactly that, a gift. ↗

— Maya Angelou

#philosophy #art

And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is a gift and a privilege, not a right. ↗

— Ray Bradbury

#writing-philosophy #art

You become mature when you become the authority of your own life. ↗

— Joseph Campbell

#mythology #philosophy #spirituality #art

Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art; it arises in hypothesis and flows into achievement. ↗

— Will Durant

#science #art

The warrior learns of the spiritual realm by dwelling on the cutting edge of the sword, standing at the edge of the fire pit, venturing right up to the edge of starvation if necessary. Vibrant and intense living is the warrior's form of worship. ↗

— Stephen K. Hayes

#life #martial-arts #ninja #philosophy #war

Among peoples who possess a highly developed pugnacious instinct we find the greatest progress in the arts, sciences, social and political organization, commerce and industry. The instinct takes the milder form of rivalry which is the motive force of the great portion of the serious labors of mankind. ↗

— Holly Estil Cunningham

#instinct #philosophy #psychology #violence #art