#position

It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others. ↗

— Jane Austen

#intimacy #marianne-dashwood #openness #opportunity #self-disclosure

I am often described to my irritation as a 'contrarian' and even had the title inflicted on me by the publisher of one of my early books. (At least on that occasion I lived up to the title by ridiculing the word in my introduction to the book's first chapter.) It is actually a pity that our culture doesn't have a good vernacular word for an oppositionist or even for someone who tries to do his own thinking: the word 'dissident' can't be self-conferred because it is really a title of honor that has to be won or earned, while terms like 'gadfly' or 'maverick' are somehow trivial and condescending as well as over-full of self-regard. And I've lost count of the number of memoirs by old comrades or ex-comrades that have titles like 'Against the Stream,' 'Against the Current,' 'Minority of One,' 'Breaking Ranks' and so forth—all of them lending point to Harold Rosenberg's withering remark about 'the herd of independent minds.' Even when I was quite young I disliked being called a 'rebel': it seemed to make the patronizing suggestion that 'questioning authority' was part of a 'phase' through which I would naturally go. On the contrary, I was a relatively well-behaved and well-mannered boy, and chose my battles with some deliberation rather than just thinking with my hormones. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#contrarianism #dissent #dissidents #free-thought #harold-rosenberg

When composing a verse let there not be a hair's breath separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy. ↗

— Matsuo Bashō

#creating #haiku #japanese #poetry #zen

We are all put in different positions for different reasons. ↗

— Kim Alexis

#different reasons #positions #put #reasons

Georgia is in an enviable position today, but we can't rest on our laurels. ↗

— Roy Barnes

#enviable position #georgia #laurels #our #position

When life knocks you to your knees, and it will, why, get up! If it knocks you to your knees again, as it will, well, isn't that the best position from which to pray? ↗

— Ethel Barrymore

#best #get #knees #knocks #life

They have money and position and Ann has none.It's amazing how often you can be right as long as you have those two things working in your favor. ↗

— Libba Bray

#money #position #truth #world #beauty

I'm in a position where, theoretically, I could play the same ten concertos and make a very good living bouncing around playing Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Barber, but I really think artists should keep pushing limits and trying new things. ↗

— Joshua Bell

#artists #barber #bouncing #could #good

I can tell you this: If I'm ever in a position to call the shots, I'm not going to rush to send somebody else's kids into a war. ↗

— George H. W. Bush

#else #ever #going #i #i can

Right now, I love the fact that I have so many opportunities, but I know this privileged position cannot last. That doesn't mean that I'll stop working. I picture myself as an old actress doing cameos in films with people saying: "Isn't that that Bening woman?" ↗

— Annette Bening

#cameos #cannot #doing #fact #films