#ties

Whenever the intensity of looking reaches a certain degree, one becomes aware of an equally intense energy coming towards one through the appearance of whatever it is one is scrutinizing. ↗

— John Berger

#equality

Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality. ↗

— Erich Fromm

#commodities #equality #just #man #mass

It's a strange kind of irony. The things that affect us most are the things we can't remember" (from Swimming Upstream). ↗

— Ruth Mancini

#life-experiences #experience

And probably every object that we make room for in our life immediately structures that life—the important thing, don't you agree, is to actually acknowledge and experience this fact. ↗

— Daniël Robberechts

#experience

I have made calculations that would beggar your soul. What is it that villains always say at the end of stories? You and I are more alike than you think? Well,” the Marquess took September’s hand in hers and very gently kissed it. “We are. Oh, how alike we are! I feel very warmly towards you, and I only want to protect you, as I wish someone had protected me. Come, September, look out the window with me. It’s not a difficult thing. A show of faith, let’s call it. ↗

— Catherynne M. Valente

#similarities #villains #faith

God knows I've got so many frailties myself, I ought to be able to understand and forgive them in others. But I don't. ↗

— Ava Gardner

#flaws #forgiveness #human-frailties #forgiveness

We must try again to be alive to what the people of our country really long for in our national life: forgiveness and grace, maturity and wisdom. ...Our political leaders will know our priorities only if we tell them, again and again, and if those priorities begin to show up in the polls. ↗

— Peggy Noonan

#polls #priorities #voting #forgiveness

Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties. ↗

— Abraham Lincoln

#constitution #interfere #liberties #maintained #must

Your freedom to be you includes my freedom to be free from you. ↗

— Andrew Wilkow

#personal-responsibility #rights #freedom

Writing of only one small part of the broader problem, namely the single-minded pursuit of individualistic 'rights,' [Don] Feder is not wrong to conclude: Absent a delicate balance--rights and duties, freedom and order--the social fabric begins to unravel. The rights explosion of the past three decades has taken us on a rapid descent to a culture without civility, decency, or even that degree of discipline necessary to maintain an advanced industrial civilization. Our cities are cesspools, our urban schools terrorist training camps, our legislatures brothels where rights are sold to the highest electoral bidder. ↗

— D.A. Carson

#freedom #individualism #rights #the-twentieth-century #freedom