#pro

Creative work is often driven by pain. It may be that if you don't have something in the back of your head driving you nuts, you may not do anything. It's not a good arrangement. If I were God, I wouldn't have done it that way. [Interview, The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 20, 2009] ↗

— Cormac McCarthy

#creation #creative-process #driving-forces #hardship #pain

Progress is not about hating or destroying America, it is about loving and building the world, which can only come from healing our national dementia. ↗

— Bryant McGill

#progress #unity #love

In that face, deformed by hatred of philosophy, I saw for the first time the portrait of the Antichrist, who does not come from the tribe of Judas, as his heralds have it, or from a far country. The Antichrist can be born from piety itself, from excessive love of God or of the truth, as the heretic is born from the saint and the possessed from the seer. Fear prophets, Adso, and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them. Jorge did a diabolical thing because he loved his truth so lewdly that he dared anything in order to destroy falsehood. ↗

— Umberto Eco

#fanaticism #prophets #religion #love

At first happiness might seem like just desserts for biological fitness (more accurately, the states that would have led to fitness in the environment in which we evolved). We are happier when we are healthy, well-fed, comfortable, safe, prosperous, knowledgeable, respected, non-celibate, and loved. Compared to their opposites, these objects of striving are conducive to reproduction. The function of happiness would be to mobilize the mind to seek the keys to Darwinian fitness. When we are unhappy, we work for the things that make us happy; when we are happy, we keep the status quo. The problem is, how much fitness is worth striving for? ↗

— Steven Pinker

#problem #unhappy #love

To lose the approbation of my dog is a thing too horrible to contemplate. ↗

— Barbara Dana

#approbation #dog #dogs #horrible #love

He who lives for nothing costs the lives of many, but he who lives for something greater than himself preserves those he loves. ↗

— Christopher Hopper

#christian-science-fiction #elves #grimwarden #jimmy #jimmy-gresham

Chase.” He cleared his throat and shook his head once. “That girl means everything to me. Which means her baby does, too. I will never do to you what you did to Harper and me. But know this. If you do not take care of them, and cherish them . . . I will not hesitate again to beat the living shit out of you. You get me?” “I got you. I love them, I’ll always take care of them. ↗

— Molly McAdams

#promise #true-love #love

Once you are a butterfly, you can really love – the kind of love that makes a new life. It’s better than all the hugging caterpillars can do. ↗

— Trina Paulus

#thought-provoking #inspirational

He loved you. ↗

— Marie Lu

#amazing #day #gay #june #legend

There is nothing sexier than sword fight. ↗

— Stana Katic

#banter #brain-sex #debate #discussion #love