#society

She sang, as requested. There was much about love in the ballad: faithful love that refused to abandon its object; love that disaster could not shake; love that, in calamity, waxed fonder, in poverty clung closer. The words were set to a fine old air -- in themselves they were simple and sweet: perhaps, when read, they wanted force; when well sung, they wanted nothing. Shirley sang them well: she breathed into the feeling, softness, she poured round the passion, force: her voice was fine that evening; its expression dramatic: she impressed all, and charmed one. On leaving the instrument, she went to the fire, and sat down on a seat -- semi-stool, semi-cushion: the ladies were round her -- none of them spoke. The Misses Sympson and the Misses Nunnely looked upon her, as quiet poultry might look on an egret, an ibis, or any other strange fowl. What made her sing so? They never sang so. Was it proper to sing with such expression, with such originality -- so unlike a school girl? Decidedly not: it was strange, it was unusual. What was strange must be wrong; what was unusual must be improper. Shirley was judged. ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#empathy #expectations #expression #faithfulness #feeling

It ain’t about keeping real, it’s about keeping it right. ↗

— Jeff Chain in "Can't Stop Won't Stop A History of the Hip-Hop Generation "

#music #society-thinking #music

If blues culture had developed under the conditions of oppressive, forced labor, hip-hop culture would arise from the conditions of no work ↗

— Jeff Chain in "Can't Stop Won't Stop A History of the Hip-Hop Generation "

#music #society-thinking #music

Hip Hop Generation “captures the collective hopes and nightmares, ambitions and failures of those who would otherwise be described as “post-this” or “post-that.” ↗

— Jeff Chain in "Can't Stop Won't Stop A History of the Hip-Hop Generation "

#hip-hop #music #society #society-thinking #music

What separates or unites people is not their language, their laws, their customs, their principles, but the way they hold their knife and fork. ↗

— Irène Némirovsky

#human-nature #society #nature

Nadie ha visto nunca a un perro hacer un intercambio justo y deliberado de un hueso por otro con otro perro. Nadie ha visto a un animal que, con gestos y sonidos naturales, indique a otro: esto es mío y esto es tuyo; estoy dispuesto a darte esto a cambio de eso ↗

— Adam Smith

#nature

How was she created? I'm not sure if you realize this, but it was in God's image. How can anybody dare to speak ill of something which bears such a noble imprint? ↗

— Christine de Pizan

#god #medieval #misogyny #nature #society

On my way out I didn't look at the dark guy, the suicide bomber, again. I think I didn't look at him because I didn't believe he was a terrorist, but maybe I didn't look at him because I didn't want to embarrass him. ↗

— Assaf Gavron

#etiquette #human-nature #society #nature

This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#philosophy #society #nature

Human beings appear to be sufficiently selfish and calculating to be capable of indefinitely greater harmony and social homeostasis. This statement is not self-contradictory. True selfishness, if obedient to the other constraints of mammalian biology, is the key to a more nearly perfect social contract. - pg. 157 ↗

— Edward O. Wilson

#society #nature