#up

There must be some other possibility than death or lifelong penance ... some meeting, some intersection of lines; and some cowardly, hopeful geometer in my brain tells me it is the angle at which two lines prop each other up, the leaning-together from the vertical which produces the false arch. For lack of a keystone, the false arch may be as much as one can expect in this life. Only the very lucky discover the keystone. ↗

— Wallace Stegner

#happiness #harmony #keystones #love #marriage

Plato argued that good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will always find a way around law. By pretending that procedure will get rid of corruption, we have succeeded only in humiliating honest people and provided a cover of darkness and complexity for the bad people. There is a scandal here, but it's not the result of venal bureaucrats. (1994) p. 99 ↗

— Philip K. Howard

#bureaucrats #conservative #corruption #government #plato

We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#cruelty #ethics #ethics-in-religion #morality #morality-without-religion

What he found impossible was to shut off his brain, to detach himself from the intriguing problems with which (he) was involved, or to leave alone the major problems of war and peace, race and poverty, man's inhumanity to man and the persistence of stupidity. ↗

— Zelda Popkin

#problem #stupidity #death

Why should I be sad? Everyone has to die. If you have a body, it's too late to cry. It's only funerals I can't stand. ↗

— Rachel Klein

#diary #supernatural #death

Fear and bigotry don’t need explaining. They simply are, like traffic jams and taxes. ↗

— Eileen Wilks

#death-magic #eileen-wilks #fear #lupi #paranormal

I'll give up this sort of touring madness certainly, but music-everything is based on music. No, I'll never stop my music. ↗

— George Harrison

#certainly #give #i #madness #music

I grew up in a very literate, very independent household where people spoke their ideas and were very supportive of helping each other find their own way. ↗

— Lucinda Williams

#find #grew #helping #household #i

Some people just need to die," she says. "Which people," I ask. "You know, the stupid ones." "Then I'll get someone to prepare your casket. ↗

— Rita Carnovale

#humor #stupidity #death

Engaging spirits isn’t an elitist ability or industry, it’s being active in the connection with All Things. It’s innate to us all. ↗

— S. Kelley Harrell

#haunting #shamanism #spirit-communication #spirits #supernatural