That reminds me of something that Francis Bacon wrote: “There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion.” (It's often attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, but he seems to have quoted Bacon.)
My cousin Helen, who is in her 90s now, was in the Warsaw ghetto during World War II. She and a bunch of the girls in the ghetto had to do sewing each day. And if you were found with a book, it was an automatic death penalty. She had gotten hold of a copy of ‘Gone With the Wind’, and she would take three or four hours out of her sleeping time each night to read. And then, during the hour or so when they were sewing the next day, she would tell them all the story. These girls were risking certain death for a story. And when she told me that story herself, it actually made what I do feel more important. Because giving people stories is not a luxury. It’s actually one of the things that you live and die for. - Neil Gaiman
Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket. - Eric Hoffer [If you want a good example, take a look at the last thirty years of the National Rifle Association.]
@ Earp...religion, politics, postal service, mtb componentry... "If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself." - Fyodor Dostoevsky
"Manners are like the shadows of virtues, they are the momentary display of those qualities which our fellow creatures love and respect." - Sydney Smith
"Ocean separates land, not souls." - Munia Khan "I exist in two places. Here, and where you are." - Margaret Atwood “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller “The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected.” — Nicholas Sparks “Distance is just a test of how far love can travel.” – Unknown
If there’s no pain and no loss, it’s only recreational and we can leave it to the minks. People have to be valued. - John D. MacDonald
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority." - E. B. White
She wondered if this were what hell was about. Not a place of punishment but of disparity. Those who had done nothing to earn their fate lived like this, while three miles away, others rode the Ferris wheel and children raised their hands joyfully to a hot-air balloon that rained down candy on their heads. - James Lee Burke
"I do not believe that sheer suffering teaches. If suffering alone taught, all the world would be wise, since everyone suffers. To suffering must be added mourning, understanding, patience, love, openness and the willingness to remain vulnerable." - Joseph Addison
You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. - Anne Lamott
"A person is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions." - James Allen
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
"Look beneath the surface, let not the several quality of a thing nor its worth escape thee." - Marcus Aurelius
"Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Arthur Baldwin
The real power in America is held by a fast-emerging new Oligarchy of pimps and preachers who see no need for Democracy or fairness or even trees, except maybe the ones in their own yards, and they don't mind admitting it. They worship money and power and death. Their ideal solution to all the nation's problems would be another 100 Year War. - Hunter S. Thompson
