#tent

After a few months in my parents' basement, I took an apartment near the state university, where I discovered both crystal methamphetamine and conceptual art. Either one of these things are dangerous, but in combination they have the potential to destroy entire civilizations. ↗

— David Sedaris

#apartment #art #basement #both #civilizations

Artistic symbols and myths speak out of the primordial, preconscious realm of the mind which is powerful and chaotic. Both symbol and myth are ways of bringing order and form into this chaos. ↗

— Rollo May

#existentialism #myth #symbol #art

She's always getting into trouble because she gets bored really really easily. [...] My mum says it's because Celia has an attention span the size of a sesame seed. Celia's mum says it's because Celia's identity is unfurling itself slowly, like a tulip bud, and it's a breathtakingly beautiful thing to see. ↗

— Jaclyn Moriarty

#getting-into-trouble #humor #humour #hyperactivity #beauty

Mama told me to make a special point to remember the best times of my life. There are so many hard things to live through, and latching on to the good things will give you strength to endure, she says. So I must remember this day. It is beautiful and this seems like the best time to live and the best place ↗

— Nancy E. Turner

#life #beauty

Ultimate prosperity is one's value within. It takes a man of depth, morality, and charm to be envied yet without a sign of wealth or romance. A passion to prove such inner worth is his permission to achieve whatever he desires. ↗

— Criss Jami

#charm #contentment #depth #desire #envy

There was something heartbreakingly beautiful about the lights of distant ships, I thought. It was something that touched both on human achievement and the vastness against which those achievements seemed so frail. It was the same thing whether the lights belonged to a caravel battling the swell on a stormy horizon or a diamond-hulled starship which had just sliced its way through interstellar space. ↗

— Alastair Reynolds

#existential #human #ships #space #beauty

What seems to be the problem, Al?' Mom had said. 'Everyone's calling me bossy and fat,' he'd said. 'Plus they say I'm sneaky.' 'Well, Al,' she'd said, 'you are bossy and you are fat. And I'm guessing you can be pretty sneaky. But you know what else you are? You have what is called moral courage. When you know something is right, you do it, no matter what the cost.' Mom could sometimes be full of it. Once, she'd said she could tell by the way he ran upstairs that he'd make a great mountain climber. Once, when he managed a B-minus in math, she'd said he should be an astronomer. ↗

— George Saunders

#tenth-of-december #courage

All creation necessarily ends in this: Creators, powerless, fleeing from the things they have wrought. ↗

— David Eagleman

#death #existentialism #human-nature #life #love

Acts of violence-- Whether on a large or a small scale, the bitter paradox: the meaningfulness of death--and the meaninglessness of killing. ↗

— Dag Hammarskjöld

#war #death

I am a siren, and for my adoration of mankind, have been caught in fishing nets one time too many. And in those fishing nets I have learned too many unfavorable things about human intentions and the lack of trust and goodwill; I'm not going to allow myself to be caught, anymore. Sirens do well at singing the sirens' song and dragging vile people to their deaths, and for good reason! ↗

— C. JoyBell C.

#humanity #mankind #mermaids #sirens #sirens-song