#void

War can be avoided, and it ought to be avoided. I want no war. ↗

— Chief Joseph

#i #ought #want #war

Living with life is very hard. Mostly we do our best to stifle life - to be tame or to be wanton. to be tranquillised or raging. Extremes have the same effect; they insulate us from the intensity of life. And extremes - whether of dullness or fury - successfully prevent feeling. I know our feelings can be so unbearable that we employ ingenious strategies - unconscious strategies- to keep those feelings away. We do a feelings-swap, where we avoid feeling sad or lonely or afraid or inadequate, and feel angry instead. It can work the other way, too - sometimes you do need to feel angry, not inadequate; sometimes you do need to feel love and acceptance, and not the tragic drama of your life. It takes courage to feel the feeling - and not trade it on the feelings-exchange, or even transfer it altogether to another person. You know how in couples one person is always doing all the weeping or the raging while the other one seems so calm and reasonable? I understood that feelings were difficult for me although I was overwhelmed by them. ↗

— Jeanette Winterson

#avoidance #feelings #inadequate #life #living-life

Her life was one endless loop that she raced around, with steep banked curves so she could never change or slow down. It just delivered her back to herself, over and over and over. ↗

— Chris Cleave

#confrontationt #realization #truth #change

Local color has a fatal tendency to remain local; but it is also true that the universal often borders on the void. ↗

— Hervey Allen

#borders #color #fatal #local #often

Our society strives to avoid any possibility of offending anyone - except God. ↗

— Billy Graham

#anyone #avoid #except #god #offending

In New York I was always so scared of saying that I wrote fiction. It just seemed like, 'Who am I to dare to do that thing here? The epicenter of publishing and writers?' I found all that very intimidating and avoided writing as a response. ↗

— Jhumoa Lahiri

#am #avoided #dare #fiction #found

In New York I was always so scared of saying that I wrote fiction. It just seemed like, 'Who am I to dare to do that thing here? The epicenter of publishing and writers?' I found all that very intimidating and avoided writing as a response. ↗

— Jhumpa Lahiri

#am #avoided #dare #fiction #found

There is a great deal of pain in life and perhaps the only pain that can be avoided is the pain that comes from trying to avoid pain. ↗

— R. D. Laing

#avoided #comes #deal #great #great deal

I find very often that very ugly women have really handsome men and vice versa because they don't have any competition. Sometimes handsome men have avoided me. ↗

— Hedy Lamarr

#avoided #because #competition #find #handsome

California is a queer place in a way, it has turned its back on the world, and looks into the void Pacific. It is absolutely selfish, very empty, but not false, and at least, not full of false effort. ↗

— David Herbert Lawrence

#back #california #effort #empty #false