#ture

To be evenminded is the greatest virtue. Wisdom is to speak the truth and act in keeping with its nature. ↗

— Heraclitus

#open-mindedness #philosophy #wisdom #nature

In our modern world, this elemental quality of storytelling is denied. We live today in a world in which everything has its place and function and nothing is left out of place. Storytelling is thus at a discount and like everything else in a world ruled by the laws of exchange value, literature is required to submit itself to the requirements of the market and must learn, like any other commodity, to adapt and serve needs that lie outside of itself and its concrete value. It is forced to stand not for itself but for an ideological cause of one sort or another, whether it be political, social or literary. It cannot exist for itself: like everything else it has to be justified. And for this very reason the power of storytelling is automatically devalued. Literature is reduced to the status of complimentary utilitarian functions: as a pastime to provide distraction and entertainment, or as a heightened activity that would claim to explore 'great truths' about the human condition. ↗

— Michael Richardson

#commodity #entertainment #literature #stories #surrealism

What a lovely thing a rose is!" He walked past the couch to the open window and held up the drooping stalk of a moss-rose, looking down at the dainty blend of crimson and green. It was a new phase of his character to me, for I had never before seen him show any keen interest in natural objects. "There is nothing in which deduction is so necessary as religion," said he, leaning with his back against the shutters. "It can be built up as an exact science by the reasoner. Our highest assurance of the goodness of Providence seems to me to rest in the flowers. All other things, our powers, our desires, our food, are all really necessary for our existence in the first instance. But this rose is an extra. Its smell and its color are an embellishment of life, not a condition of it. It is only goodness which gives extras, and so I say again that we have much to hope from the flowers. ↗

— Arthur Conan Doyle

#flowers #goodness #hope #nature #providence

I can bench press steam, but not fog. I just have to wait until the fog lifts itself.
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#bench-press #fog #natural #nature #passion

If you give people tools, and they use their natural abilities and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected. ↗

— Bill Gates

#people #nature

To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment. ↗

— Jane Austen

#nature

O sleep, O gentle sleep, Nature's soft nurse, how have I frightened thee, 1710. That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down, And steep my senses in forgetfulness? ↗

— William Shakespeare

#insomniac #nature

Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#destruction #flawed #human-character #human-nature #nature

I barely noticed loneliness anymore; it was my normal condition, by necessity if not by nature. ↗

— Rachel Hartman

#nature

Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain—Maddy glanced at Tally—and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it. ↗

— Scott Westerfeld

#ya #nature