I don’t think I’ve ever had a sexual involvement without love. I’ve never had a one-night stand.
John Milton
“I will not deny but that the best apology against false accusers is silence and sufferance, and honest deeds set against dishonest words.”
~ John Milton
Aldous Huxley on Propagandists
“The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”
~ Aldous Huxley
Hannah Arendt on Evil
“Those who choose the lesser evil forget very quickly that they chose evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
Leo Tolstoy on Patience
“Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait.”
~ Leo Tolstoy
Seneca on Bad People
“Only the bad attempt to injure the good. Good men are at peace among themselves; bad ones are equally mischievous to the good and to one another.”
~ Seneca.
Seneca on The Mob
“…the mob is ready to fight against reason in defence of its own mistake.”
~ Seneca
Isaac Asimov on Violence
“Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
~ Isaac Asimov
Tolstoy on Love
“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”
~ Leo Tolstoy
Ernest Hemmingway on Life
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” ~ Ernest Hemmingway.
Frank Herbert on Corruption
“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” ~ Frank Herbert.
Charlie Munger on Incentives & Outcomes
Show me the incentive and I will show you the outcome
~ Charlie Munger
Thich Nhat Hanh on Enemies
“Beware! Turn around and face your real enemies
— ambition, violence, hatred and greed.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
Dave Eggers on Piloting
I will never be a pilot. I know this. Pilots should be organized and methodical, and I am not these things.
~ Dave Eggers
John Banville on Malice
“To hurt other people is the worst thing you can do. To be hurt oneself is bad enough, but hurting other people is unforgivable… Unforgivable. Literally unforgivable. I think that one has to take responsibility for one’s life and one has to take responsibility for one’s bad deeds as well as one’s good deeds. One has to, as I say, be responsible… Failure in art, or failure in making a living, or a success — none of them compares, everything pales beside hurting other people, because, you know, we are here for such a short time and basic life itself is so hard one has a duty to try to be decent to other people”.
~ John Banville | Wikipedia
John Banville on University
“I don’t think I would have learned much more, and I don’t think I would have had the nerve to tackle some of the things I tackled as a young writer if I had been to university – I would have been beaten into submission by my lecturers.”
~ John Banville | Wikipedia
Celia Paul on Marriage
I had been brought up to regard sex outside marriage as a sin.
~ Celia Paul
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n24/celia-paul/diary
Kat Deeley on Life
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Nothing is as good or as bad as you think it is.
~ Kat Deeley
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/may/01/cat-deeley-closest-ive-come-to-death-a-run-in-with-paparazzii
CS Lewis on Originality
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
~ CS Lewis
George Bernard Shaw on Want
As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.
~ George Bernard Shaw
James Stockdale on Reality
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
~ James Stockdale
https://bigthink.com/personal-growth/stockdale-paradox-confronting-reality-vital-success?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
Jenny Diski on Writing
“I do nothing. I get on with the new novel. Smoke. Drink coffee. Smoke. Write. Stare at ceiling. Smoke. Write. Lie on the sofa. Drink coffee. Write.
It is a kind of heaven. This is what I was made for. It is doing nothing. A fraud is being perpetrated: writing is not work, it’s doing nothing. It’s not a fraud: doing nothing is what I have to do to live. Or: doing writing is what I have to do to do nothing. Or: doing nothing is what I have to do to write. Or: writing is what I have to do to be my melancholy self. And be alone.”
~ Jenny Diski
LRB – https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v14/n10/jenny-diski/diary
Jenny Diski on People
Mick Carman reckons that orangs are closer to humans than gorillas or chimps; he doesn’t care what anyone says. I’m delighted to hear this, more grist for my fiction mill. But why? Because they’re lazy, sullen and devious, if I see what he means. Oh, yes, I do see.
~ Jenny Diski
LRB – https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v14/n10/jenny-diski/diary
Jenny Diski on Joviality
…it’s a very jovial affair, with all the brittleness and pretence that joviality implies.
~ Jenny Diski
LRB
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v14/n10/jenny-diski/diary
Paul Theroux on Knowing People
I thought of Henry James who once said, “Never say you know the last word about any human heart.”
~ Paul Theroux
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180613-paul-theroux-on-travel-and-travel-writing
Zeno on Destiny
When a dog is tied to a cart, if it wants to follow, it is pulled and follows, making its spontaneous act coincide with necessity. But if the dog does not follow, it will be compelled in any case. So it is with men too: even if they don’t want to, they will be compelled to follow what is destined.
~ Zeno
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/good-idea-stoics-1086664.html
Jenny Diski on Writing
I’ve never been a nice friend sitting in anyone’s lap. I just wanted to write stuff down in shapes, really.
~ Jenny Diski
Tim Kreider on Art
“I’ve tried to solve this problem by keeping my own artistic endeavors low in overhead, devoid of collaborators and as free from editorial interference as possible.”
~ Tim Kreider / NYT
Steve Gambardella on Schopenhauer
“According to Schopenhauer, the “will to life” — a manifestation of “the will” in living things — is what causes the desire to stay alive and procreate. But the pessimistic older philosopher believed the will to life caused nothing but anguish since it was the source of insatiable desires. Schopenhauer reasoned that the best thing to do was renounce this will and to find peace instead in art and compassion.”
~ Steve Gambardella / Medium
Sir Anthony Kenny on Virtue
“I comforted myself with the thought,” he said, “that even Socrates was very doubtful whether virtue could be taught.”
~ Sir Anthony Kenny
Oliver Burkeman on Life
I think virtually everyone, except perhaps the very Zen or very old, goes through life haunted to some degree by the feeling that this isn’t quite the real thing, not just yet – that soon enough, we’ll get everything in working order, get organised, get our personal issues resolved, but that till then we’re living what the great Swiss psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz called the “provisional life.”
Epicurus on Fear
“The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.”
~ Epicurus
Josemaría Escrivá on Enough
“Don’t forget it: he has most who needs least. Don’t create needs for yourself.”
~ Josemaría Escrivá / Quoted in The Atlantic