Great Quotes

The folly of allowing ourselves to delay what we know cannot be finally escaped, is one of the general weaknesses, which, in spite of the instruction of moralists, and the remonstrances of reason, prevail to a greater or less degree in every mind; even they who most steadily withstand it, find it, if not the most violent, the most pertinacious of their passions, always renewing its attacks, and though often vanquished, never destroyed.

It is indeed natural to have particular regard to the time present, and to be most solicitous for that which is by its nearness enabled to make the strongest impressions. When therefore any sharp pain is to be suffered, or any formidable danger to be incurred, we can scarcely exempt ourselves wholly from the seducements of imagination; we readily believe that another day will bring some support or advantage which we now want; and are easily persuaded, that the moment of necessity which we desire never to arrive, is at a great distance from us.

Thus life is languished away in the gloom of anxiety, and consumed in collecting resolutions which the next morning dissipates; in forming purposes which we scarcely hope to keep, and reconciling ourselves to our own cowardice by excuses, which, while we admit them, we know to be absurd. Our firmness is by the continual contemplation of misery, hourly impaired; every submission to our fear enlarges its dominion; we not only waste that time in which the evil we dread might have been suffered and surmounted, but even where procrastination produces no absolute increase of our difficulties, make them less superable to ourselves by habitual terrours. When evils cannot be avoided, it is wise to contract the interval of expectation; to meet the mischiefs which will overtake us if we fly; and suffer only their real malignity, without the conflicts of doubt, and anguish of anticipation.

www.johnsonessays.com/the-rambler/no-134-on-procrastination/

"Nonsense is nonsense, but the history of nonsense is scholarship."

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/09/02/the-heretic

“It is a terrible thing, this kindness that human beings do not lose. Terrible, because when we are finally naked in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, we end up with that small change. We have nothing else to give.”

― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Rabbi Zusia was on his deathbed, surrounded by his students, when he began to cry. A student asked "Rabbi, why do you cry?" Zusia replied, "I cry because now I understand that God will not ask me, 'Why were you not Abraham, or why were you not Moses?' He will ask, 'Why were you not Zusia?' And I will not know what to say."

“You know how it is when two souls meet in a burst of ecstatic volubility, with hearts tickling to hear and to tell, to know everything, to reveal everything, the shared reverence for the other's otherness, a feeling of solitude radiantly snapped by full contact - all that?”


― Martin Amis, London Fields

Haven't read anything by Martin Amis, this kind of makes me want to.

Dellarigg Well, that's gorgeous. I'm definitely reading some Martin Amis in the near future.

In honor of Presidents’ Day:

And another thing: the crotch, down where your nuts hang, is always a little too tight, so when you make them up, give me an inch that I can let out there, uh because they cut me, it’s just like riding a wire fence.

—LBJ

[M]uch will be gained if we succeed in transforming your hysterical misery into common unhappiness.

Sigmund Freud

There is still a war going on, a culture war. I don’t necessarily think I’m qualified to be a soldier in it, but I would like to be a nurse in it.

- Patrick Stickles

“I refuse to cater to the bullshit of innocence.”

- Maurice Sendak

A few blocks away - maybe even a few miles - there must be a person who doesn't give a rat's ass about the perfection of lawns.  A renter, maybe, with no vested interest in the lawn - maybe a freeloader like me, living off the excess, serving as a bad example.  That person will never get anywhere

And the dandelions that thrive in this person's yard will go to seed without much work.  A little girl wanders into the yard, picks the seeded dandelions, blows the sails free with ease.  Next spring, a lurid yellow beauty begins to spread like weeds, small flames of defiance in the neighbors lawn, little Monkey leaves with lion's teeth, weeds of imagining, affirmative germs, wild flowers, uncultivated tough and tender things, so much depending on their own stubbornness.


W.M. Ryan - Dr. Excitement's Elixir of Longevity

[On investing] "Go for a business that any idiot can run – because sooner or later any idiot probably is going to be running it.”
― Peter Lynch

"Originality is remembering everything you hear, but forgetting where you heard it."

"What do you think you would do if you saw fire, and at first you panicked a little bit but then you realized it was just like a campfire, and all of your closest friends were sitting around it, and they were all really silent and at first you were like 'What's going on?' but then you just realized that they were just being kind of contemplative and kind of thinking about life, and then the fire starts to die down, umm and you know, you go through all the proper steps to put the fire out and you know, pour sand on it and stuff and make sure it's out, and then you go down and you lay down in your tent and you start to feel a little hungry and you remember you have a Clif bar in your jacket, but then you think 'Oh no, I left my jacket out by the fire,' but then you realize that no, you brought it in, it's in the tent with you, and you go into the pocket and you get the Clif bar out and you had thought it was chocolate chip but it's actually oatmeal chocolate chip; then you eat it, and you don't feel hungry anymore, and then you go to sleep?"
-Travis McElroy