#truth

The past is a distant, receding coastline, and we are all in the same boat. Along the stern rail there is a line of telescopes; each brings the shore into focus at a given distance. If the boat is becalmed, one of the telescopes will be in continual use; it will seem to tell the whole, the unchanging truth. But this is an illusion; and as the boat sets off again, we return to our normal activity: scurrying from one telescope to another, seeing the sharpness fade in one, waiting for the blur to clear in another. And when the blur does clear, we imagine that we have made it do so all by ourselves. ↗

— Julian Barnes

#past #truth #imagination

The books we love offer a sketch of a whole universe that we secretly inhabit, and in which we desire the other person to assume a role. One of the conditions of happy romantic compatibility is, if not to have read the same books, to have read at least some books in common with the other person—which means, moreover, to have non-read the same books. From the beginning of the relationship, then, it is crucial to show that we can match the expectations of our beloved by making him or her sense the proximity of our inner libraries. ↗

— Pierre Bayard

#compatability #imagination #inner-lives #interiority #literature

Dramatic. A well developed sense of the dramatic has values beyond what people usually imagine. One of these is to realise the limitations of a sense of the dramatic. ↗

— Idries Shah

#inspirational #life #reality #sufis #sufism

It's written, 'seek and ye shall find'. But first, 'imagine what you seek'. Otherwise, you will end up searching everything everywhere forever. ↗

— Toba Beta

#imagine #inspirational #life #search #seek

For people never say anything the same way twice; no two of them ever say it the same. The greatest imaginative writer that ever brooded in a lavender robe and a mellowed briar in his teeth, couldn't tell you, though e try for a lifetime, how the simplest strap-hanger will ask the conductor to be let off at the next stop. ... It is all for the taking. All the manuals by frustrated fictioneers on how to write can't give you the first syllable of reality, at any cot, that any common conversation can. All the classics, read and re-read, can't help you catch the ring of truth as does the word heard first-hand. ↗

— Nelson Algren

#originality #truth #writers #writing #imagination

Sometimes, we feel conscious but unable to move our body. The first thing to do is focus in a prayer, then start to wink frequently. By this way, slowly but sure our body can be moved totally by our persistent willpower. ↗

— Toba Beta

#conscious #control #dream #dreams #focus

I didn't know the demons that walked across your memory. They came from the dust when you were at peace in your grave. ↗

— Susie Clevenger

#poetry #revelations #the-past #truth #dreams

Macy: “In Truth,” I said, “there are no rules other than you have to tell the truth.” Wes: “How do you win?” he asked Macy: “That,” I said, “is such a boy question. ↗

— Sarah Dessen

#macy #truth #wes #questions

[Horror fiction] shows us that the control we believe we have is purely illusory, and that every moment we teeter on chaos and oblivion. ↗

— Clive Barker

#horror #illusion #oblivion #reality #truth

Is it too much to expect from the schools that they train their students not only to interpret but to criticize; that is, to discriminate what is sound from error and falsehood, to suspend judgement if they are not convinced, or to judge with reason if they agree or disagree? ↗

— Mortimer J. Adler

#sound-judgement #truth #education