#til

Whenever there is stillness there is the still small voice, God's speaking from the whirlwind, nature's old song, and dance... ↗

— Annie Dillard

#stillness #nature

There seems to be an inborn drive in all human beings not to live in a steady emotional state, which would suggest that such a state is not tolerable to most people. Why else would someone succumb to the attractions of romantic love more than once? Didn’t they learn their lesson the first time or the tenth time or the twentieth time? And it’s the same old lesson: everything in this life—I repeat, everything—is more trouble than it’s worth. And simply being alive is the basic trouble. This is something that is more recognized in Eastern societies than in the West. There’s a minor tradition in Greek philosophy that instructs us to seek a state of equanimity rather than one of ecstasy, but it never really caught on for obvious reasons. Buddhism advises its practitioners not to seek highs or lows but to follow a middle path to personal salvation from the painful cravings of the average sensual life, which is why it was pretty much reviled by the masses and mutated into forms more suited to human drives and desires. It seems evident that very few people can simply sit still. Children spin in circles until they collapse with dizziness. ↗

— Thomas Ligotti

#stillness #why-humans-use-drugs #life

She’s definitely a romance writer. I’ve primed her to be a romance writer, subjecting her to so many romantic dramas it would be a miracle if she didn’t become a romance writer. ↗

— Samantha Young

#ellie-carmichael #on-dublin-street #samantha-young #until-fountain-bridge #romantic

Gaspard eyed me cautiously. “I really can’t say,” he responded in his formal nineteenth-century style. Can’t, or won’t? I thought. ↗

— Amy Plum

#kate #until-i-die #style

Listen up - there's no war that will end all wars. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#war #end

Na początku Bóg stworzył Ziemię i oglądał ją z wyżyn swojej kosmicznej samotności. I rzekł Pan: Ulepmy z gliny żywe stworzenia, aby glina mogła zobaczyć, co uczyniliśmy. I ulepił Bóg wszelkie zwierzęta, jakie żyją na Ziemi, a pośród nich i człowieka. Jedynie glina w postaci człowieka potrafiła mówić. Bóg pochylił się nisko, kiedy glina w postaci człowieka powstała, rozejrzała się dokoła i przemówiła. Człowiek zamrugał i grzecznie spytał: Jaki jest sens tego wszystkiego? - Czy wszystko musi mieć jakiś sens? - spytał Bóg. - Oczywiście - odpowiedział człowiek. - W takim razie pozostawiam tobie znalezienie sensu tego wszystkiego - powiedział Bóg. I odszedł. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#niche

I felt very still and empty, the way the eye of a tornado must feel, moving dully along in the middle of the surrounding hullabaloo. ↗

— Sylvia Plath

#emptiness #normalcy #numbness #stillness #chaos

Kate, I admit that we aren’t in the easiest of situations. But are you always this . . . complicated?” I opened my mouth to say something, but Vincent shook his head, grinning. “Actually, don’t answer that. Of course you are. I wouldn’t be so totally into you if you weren’t. ↗

— Amy Plum

#until-i-die #vincent #kate

As Jules kissed my cheeks he whispered, “She has nothing on you, of course, Kates. It’s just that you’re so very…taken. ↗

— Amy Plum

#until-i-die #kate

We will go far away, to nowhere, to conquer, to fertilize until we become tired. Then we will stop and there will be our home. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dejan-stojanovic #far-away #fertilize #home #literature