#provoking

Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust. ↗

— Sun Tzu

#art

He lingered at the door, and said, 'The Lion wants courage, the Tin Man a heart, and the Scarecrow brains. Dorothy wants to go home. What do you want?'... She couldn't say forgiveness, not to Liir. She started to say 'a soldier,' to make fun of his mooning affections over the guys in uniform. But realizing even as she said it that he would be hurt, she caught herself halfway, and in the end what came out of her mouth surprised them both. She said, 'A soul-' He blinked at her. ↗

— Gregory Maguire

#courage

Here was a new generation, shouting the old cries, learning the old creeds, through a revery of long days and nights; destined finally to go out into that dirty gray turmoil to follow love and pride; a new generation dedicated more than the last to the fear of poverty and the worship of success; grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken... ↗

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

#faith

I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and type of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too. ↗

— Brian Selznick

#imagination

Your mind can be either your prison or your palace. What you make it is yours to decide ↗

— Bernard Kelvin Clive

#mind #thought-provoking #dreams

There is a comfort in conformity, a security in control, that is appealing. There is a thrill in domination, and we are all secretly attracted to violence. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#violence #war #violence

What was behind this smug presumption that what pleased you was bad or at least unimportant in comparison to other things? … Little children were trained not to do “just what they liked’ but … but what? … Of course! What others liked. And which others? Parents, teachers, supervisors, policemen, judges, officials, kings, dictators. All authorities. When you are trained to despise “just what you like” then, of course, you become a much more obedient servant of others — a good slave. When you learn not to do “just what you like” then the System loves you. ↗

— Robert M. Pirsig

#art

Once I feel I'm right, I have enjoyed provoking. ↗

— E. O. Wilson

#feel #i #i feel #once #provoking

Perhaps the most terrible (or wonderful) thing that can happen to an imaginative youth, aside from the curse (or blessing) of imagination itself, is to be exposed without preparation to the life outside his or her own sphere - the sudden revelation that there is a there out there. ↗

— Tom Robbins

#life #thought-provoking #imagination

Why do we always think our pain will be less if we can make others suffer more? ↗

— Michael J. Collins

#death