#pre

I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C" and "D." Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism. ↗

— Barry M. Goldwater

#conservatism #government #lobbying #morality #politics

Divide the constant tide and random noisiness of energetic flow, with conscious recurring moments of empty mind, solitude, gratitude and deep...slow...breathing. Of this, the natural law of self-preservation demands. ↗

— T.F. Hodge

#breathing #conscious #deep #divide #division

With painstaking rumination, the tips of his fingers grazed over my neck, a deafening silence. I didn't move as his hand paused at the base of my throat. He listened to the arrhythmic beating of my heart, my pulse thumping beneath his fingers. He kissed me along my neckline and throat. I almost burst apart from the longing. My blood burned for him. ↗

— Rae Hachton

#death-and-dying #ellie-piper #gothic-fantasy #gothic-romance #lovers

We all - whether naturalists, atheists, Buddhists, or Christians - see the world through the grid of an interpretive framework - and ultimately this interpretive framework is religious in nature, even if not allied with a particular institutional religion. ↗

— James K.A. Smith

#morality #postmodernism #presuppositions #religion #worldview

Love is a kind of symptom that arises through the repression of libido. ↗

— Frank Tallis

#desire #libido #love #psychology #repression

Keats was getting a reputation just when he was too ill to appreciate it or build on it: his country was taking notice of him just when he would have to leave it. ↗

— Jude Morgan

#death #illness #reputation #death

I got you a birthday present. The box is the exact same size as a coffin.
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#coffin #death #funny #gift #humor

For your birthday I got you some batteries. They’re dead, just like you’ll soon be.
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#birthday #dead #death #funny #gift

My plate is full; I dig that. And I can't be everywhere all the time, but my mind, heart and spirit has no bounds. ↗

— T.F. Hodge

#mind-body-spirit #mind-power #mindfulness #physicalism #presence

…depressive realism. Depression is not the near death experience described by so many, [Kayla Dunn] suggests, but a rebirth in which the new psyche has removed self-delusion. Compared with so-called healthy individuals, depressives are more realistic in their worldview. ↗

— Jan Wong

#coping #depression #mental-health #death