#tho

This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought. ↗

— Lin Yutang

#change #character #chemical #conceive #function

For Zola, as for Huysmans, nature itself is uncanny because it is the domain of the feminine, a domain that is constitutionally defective, lacking, even pathological. ↗

— Charles Bernheimer

#decadent #emile-zola #feminine #joris-kerl-huysmans #nature

Life is like music, it must be composed by ear, feeling and instinct, not by rule. Nevertheless one had better know the rules, for they sometimes guide in doubtful cases, though not often. ↗

— Paracelsus

#cases #composed #doubtful #ear #feeling

If you always do what you've done before, you will always get what you had, not more... ↗

— Shelley K. Wall

#inspirational

It's the witching hour once more- When the Muse comes out to play. He calls me through that magic door- Where galaxies of worlds await! ↗

— Belle Whittington

#indie-authors #indie-books #inspirational #writing #writing-books

The mark of man is initiative, but the mark of woman is cooperation. Man talks about freedom; woman about sympathy, love, sacrifice. Man cooperates with nature; woman cooperates with God. Man was called to till the earth, to "rule over the earth"; woman to be the bearer of a life that comes from God. ↗

— Fulton J. Sheen

#cooperation #freedom #initiative #man #nature

If a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. ↗

— Flemming Rose

#freedom-of-religion #freedom-of-thought #religion #religious-tolerance #freedom

The institutions that claim to represent God, when they are not ignored altogether, are treated like other human institutions that have to earn their right to a hearing by the value of what they say, and not by virtue of who is saying it. Today, authority has to earn respect by the intrinsic value of what it says, not by the force of its imposition. ↗

— Richard Holloway

#religion #religion

That's really what was wonderful for me growing up, since I got to know so many of the songwriters who liked me and thought I had talent. They would then tell me how to read a lyric and sing a song, and challenge me to try and find a different end to a song. ↗

— Margaret Whiting

#different #end #find #got #growing

…the Genesis story is just one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe of Middle Eastern herders. It has no more special status than the belief of a particular West African tribe that the world was created from the excrement of ants. ↗

— Richard Dawkins

#creation-myths #mythology #science #science