#wes

Yong is the outer manifestation of something. Ti is the underlying essence. Technology is a yong associated with a particular ti that is ... Western, and completely alien to us [the Chinese]. For centuries, since the time of the Opium Wars, we have struggled to absorb the yong of technology without importing the Western ti. But it has been impossible. Just as our ancestors could not open our ports to the West without accepting the poison of opium, we could not open our lives to Western technology without taking in the Western ideas, which have been as a plague on our society. The result has been centuries of chaos. ↗

— Neal Stephenson

#history #society #technology #western #age

Sometimes I just want to paint the words "It's my fault" across my forehead to save people the time of being pissed off at me. ↗

— Christina Westover

#anger #blame #burn #christina-westover #enemies

Pretending to care what men think is an art. It takes moments to learn, but lifetimes to master. I’d like to believe I’m an expert. ↗

— Dennis Sharpe

#true #vampire #veronica #witty #art

Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do than what we know about parenting. ↗

— Brené Brown

#inspirational-attitude #parenting #self-help #attitude

It was so risky and so scary, and yet at the same time, so beautiful. Maybe the truth was, it shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder -if not impossible- to lose. ↗

— Sarah Dessen

#auden-west #eli-stock #life-lesson #overcoming-obstacles #risks

The attempt made in recent decades by secularist thinkers to disengage the moral principles of western civilization from their scripturally based religious context, in the assurance that they could live a life of their own as "humanistic" ethics, has resulted in our "cut flower culture." Cut flowers retain their original beauty and fragrance, but only so long as they retain the vitality that they have drawn from their now-severed roots; after that is exhausted, they wither and die. So with freedom, brotherhood, justice, and personal dignity — the values that form the moral foundation of our civilization. Without the life-giving power of the faith out of which they have sprung, they possess neither meaning nor vitality. ↗

— Will Herberg

#faith #judaism #religion #secularism #western-civilization

I think of it like a caterpillar--a wrinkly, ugly worm with traces of dull colors on it. But when the worm metamorphoses, it becomes something truly beautiful.” Charli ↗

— Sara Walter Ellwood

#family-drama #romantic-suspense #western #beauty

It’s impossible for me to applaud your successes when my hands are too busy patting myself on the back. But if I clap for you, and you pat my back, we can both feel like winners.
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#bizarre #funny #humor #random #random-thought

When you grow up the way I do, and the biggest thing in your life so far has been getting dunked in a glass tank by a man who acts like he’s mugging you but says instead he’s saving your soul, then celebrating your soul mugging at Sizzler with your parents (get the buffet by itself, not added on to a steak dinner, because the buffet already has sirloin tips), you need rules. And not their rules, not God’s rules, but mine. My own. Here’s on of Eliot’s Rules for Dating: When you first meet a girl, make sure you are accidentally conducting a chemistry experiment on your lips. OK. I didn’t say they were all good rules. ↗

— Brad Barkley

#humor #love #dating

Death was in his eyes and hell would follow. ↗

— Quinn Loftis

#supermegafoxyawesomehot #death