#ty

The truth of the matter was something much more subtle and tremendous than any plain physical miracle could ever be. But never mind that. The important thing was that, when I did see the stars (riotously darting in all directions according to the caprice of their own wild natures, yet in every movement confirming the law), the whole tangled horror that had tormented me finally presented itself to me in its truth and beautiful shape. And I knew that the first, blind stage of my childhood had ended. ↗

— Olaf Stapledon

#childhood #horror #law #miracles #stars

I've been accused of being old before my time more than once. It's true that I've always felt an affinity for, and been comfortable around, older people. I attribute this to a childhood spent around my grandparents - and even a great-grandparent or two. I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#affinity #always #anything #around #attribute

It is true that traditional Christianity is losing some of its appeal among Americans, but that is a religious, not political, matter. It is worth remembering that the Jeffersonian 'wall of separation' between church and state has always been intended to protect the church from the state as much as the state from the church. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#among #appeal #been #between #christianity

Without education, we are weaker economically. Without economic power, we are weaker in terms of national security. No great military power has ever remained so without great economic power. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#economic power #economically #education #ever #great

It would be wonderful if the public sector were always great, or always terrible; or if the private sector were always great, or always terrible. Alas, reality is more complicated than comforting caricatures. Governments fail, and corporations fail. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#always #caricatures #comforting #complicated #corporations

As I looked and looked, the living face became visible in the dead, the young in the old. This is what must happen to old married couples, I thought: the young man is preserved in the old one for her, the beauty and grace of the young woman stay fresh in the old one for him. ↗

— Bernhard Schlink

#beauty

The central tenet of Christianity as it has come down to us is that we are to reach out when our instinct is to pull inward; to give when we want to take; to love when we are inclined to hate; to include when are tempted to exclude. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#christianity #come #down #exclude #give

The power of the American system of republicanism lies in its capacity to allow religious belief to be a competing, not a controlling, factor in American life. ↗

— Jon Meacham

#american #american life #belief #capacity #competing

A multiple personality is in a certain sense normal. ↗

— George H. Mead

#multiple #normal #personality #sense

We won't have a society if we destroy the environment. ↗

— Margaret Mead

#destroy #environment #society #won