#wi

Die Judenfrage,' it used to be called, even by Jews. 'The Jewish Question.' I find I quite like this interrogative formulation, since the question—as Gertrude Stein once famously if terminally put it—may be more absorbing than the answer. Of course one is flirting with calamity in phrasing things this way, as I learned in school when the Irish question was discussed by some masters as the Irish 'problem.' Again, the word 'solution' can be as neutral as the words 'question' or 'problem,' but once one has defined a people or a nation as such, the search for a resolution can become a yearning for the conclusive. Endlösung: the final solution. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#gertrude-stein #holocaust #irish-question #jewish-question #jews

[F]or me, being a Jew means feeling the tragedy of yesterday as an inner oppression. On my left forearm I bear the Auschwitz number; it reads more briefly than the Pentateuch or the Talmud and yet provides more thorough information. It is also more binding than basic formulas of Jewish existence. If to myself and the world, including the religious and nationally minded Jews, who do not regard me as one of their own, I say: I am a Jew, then I mean by that those realities and possibilities that are summed up in the Auschwitz number. ↗

— Jean Améry

#jewish-identity #shoah #holocaust

Our minds are information vacuums. Either we fill them with thoughts of our choosing or someone else will. ↗

— Ray Davis

#empowerment #free-will #minds #empowerment

But then one regrets the loss even of one's worst habits. Perhaps one regrets them the most. They are such an essential part of one's personality. ↗

— Oscar Wilde

#personality #vanity #wisdom #vanity

Are you coming with us?" He looked down at me, his eyes a cool mint green. He seemed to have calmed down since Cadan left. "If you wish." "I would feel better if you were close," I whispered. "Cadan freaked me out." "Then of course," he said. "I'll follow you anywhere. ↗

— Courtney Allison Moulton

#ellie #will #ya #ya

A poet should be so crafty with words that he is envied even for his pains. ↗

— Criss Jami

#adversity #artist #craftiness #craftsmanship #crafty

...if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches. ↗

— William Goldman

#romance #the-princess-bride #william-goldman #love

You have a great heart, but will only find it to be so through great pain. This is the wisdom of love, and its doubtful gift. . . . I have endured much suffering and still remain unbitter and unclosed. ↗

— Alison Croggon

#wisdom #love

Rain drops are not the ones who bring the clouds. ↗

— Sorin Cerin

#rain #wisdom-quote #love

To go where no one else has ever gone before is the secret of heroism. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#heroism #literature #literature-quotes #poetry #poetry-quotes