“The human mind is capable of being excited without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this, and who does not further know, that one being is elevated above another, in proportion as he possesses this capability. It has therefore appeared to me, that to endeavour to produce or enlarge this capability is one of the best services in which, at any period, a Writer can be engaged; but this service, excellent at all times, is especially so at the present day. For a multitude of causes, unknown to former times, are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and, unfitting it for all voluntary exertion, to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor. The most effective of these causes are the great national events which are daily taking place, and the increasing accumulation of men in cities, where the uniformity of their occupations produces a craving for extraordinary incident, which the rapid communication of intelligence hourly gratifies. To this tendency of life and manners the literature and theatrical exhibitions of the country have conformed themselves.”
— The folly of sensationalism: William Wordsworth on the news … in 1798. (via explore-blog) The dude knew more about us then than we do now.
(via explore-blog)
Breakthrough ideas on publishing are so rare to come by these days, even I, an outsider can see that this is something special.
“words are not good for the secret meaning, everything always becomes a bit different, as soon as it is put into words, gets distorted a bit”
— Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
“We all have our personal demons, and I think much of what we put on our faces is either to escape them or to deny them power. For if any of mine were to escape from my mind, and even reach my face, it would be disaster indeed.”
“
What is the scholar, what is the man for, but for hospitality to every new thought of his time?
Have you leisure, power, property, friends? you shall be the asylum and patron of every new thought, every unproven opinion, every untried project, which proceeds out of good will and honest seeking.
All the newspapers, all the tongues of to-day will of course at first defame what is noble; but you who hold not of to-day, not of the times, but of the Everlasting, are to stand for it: and the highest compliment, man ever receives from heaven, is the sending to him its disguised and discredited angels.
”
“I think the act of naming something implies, very simply, that you’re not alone. We give names to things so we can talk about them. Once there’s a word for an experience, it feels contained somehow—and the container has a handle, which makes it much easier to pick up and pass around. Kinda comforting.”
“Parents, don’t try to teach your kids right from wrong. Rather show them how to detect bullshit and recognise beauty – i.e., show them what is real; oh, and bums – how funny they are, especially the squishy ones.”
— Damnable doodlings by Kim Fabricius
“How beautiful it was that day,” he would remember. “How happy I was….” And then he felt an ache in his testicles. That’s how death comes. A pang in the crotch when a man’s standing in the sun gazing across the green hills and the bluest goddam sea in the world, deciding between a three-wood and an iron.”
— As Time Runs Out, by Gary Smith, Sports Illustrated (via thestoryofastory)
“Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be built.”
— Immanuel Kant (via pigeonmurdergirl)
“For marriage to “presume consent,” you must assume that a woman gives up all rights to her body, to her very self, once she goes through the ceremony of marriage. You must also assume that a man is granted the automatic, legally sanctified right to access over his wife’s body, regardless of whether she finds sex unwelcome, frightening, painful or violent or simply doesn’t feel like it that particular night.
This diminishes both genders, with its assumption that men are little more than lustful beasts, unable to restrain their libido, and the parallel assumption that women are passive receptacles without desires of their own, forced to submit to demands for sex regardless of what they want.”
This diminishes both genders, with its assumption that men are little more than lustful beasts, unable to restrain their libido, and the parallel assumption that women are passive receptacles without desires of their own, forced to submit to demands for sex regardless of what they want.”
— Nilanjana Roy on consent
