We think of ourselves as breathing, but, in reality, we are being breathed.
— Arianna Huffington, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder
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The simplest reply was given by Tolstoy with his statement, 'Science is meaningless because it has no answer to the only questions that matter to us: What should we do? How shall we live?’ The fact that science cannot give us this answer is absolutely indisputable. The question is only in what sense…
FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA: Did you know what you were doing when you made Punch-Drunk Love? PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON: No, I was just trying to get through every day. It started to feel -- it was horrible for the first three weeks. Just felt terrible, like I didn't know... none of it looked good, none of it l…
— Francis Ford Coppola & Paul Thomas Anderson, Notes to self
And anyone who lacks the ability to don blinkers for once and to convince himself that the destiny of his soul depends upon whether he is right to make precisely this conjecture and no other at this point in his manuscript should keep well away from science. He will never be able to submit to what w…
The discernment involved would be very much like seeing the truth of complex mathematical formulae. Many may fail to perceive such truths, but once seen, such truths are unproblematic. That the many may fail to see such truths in those circumstances cannot count as evidence of the errancy of those t…
— James Gregor, Mussolini's Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political Thought
We have created a myth, this myth is a belief, a noble enthusiasm; it does not need to be reality, it is a striving and a hope, belief and courage. Our myth is the nation, the great nation which we want to make into a concrete reality for ourselves.
In Schmitt’s view, all thought, which does not recognize that order is created out of disorder and that rationality is based on an 'irrational' foundation, is itself irrational.
— Mika Ojakangas, A Philosophy of Concrete Life: Carl Schmitt and the Political Thought of Late Modernity
The pinnacle of great politics is the moment in which the enemy comes into view in concrete clarity as the enemy.
'Do you know what leadership means, Lord Snow? It means that the person in charge gets second-guessed by every little twat with a mouth. What if he starts second-guessing himself? That's the end. For him, for the clever little twats, for everyone.'
The state acts in many disguises but always as the same invisible person.
The exception is more interesting than the rule. The rule proves nothing; the exception proves everything: It confirms not only the rule but also its existence, which derives only from the exception. In the exception the power of real life breaks through the crust of a mechanism that has become torp…
The indifference of trees to the historical moment. The indifference of dreams to interpretation. The indifference of the people to its own triumph. The indifference of the body to the revolution. The dazzling metaphysical spectacle of the sameness of faces the morning after revolution.
History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.
Toward the end of his life Max Weber was asked by a friend to whom he had been explaining the pessimistic conclusions of his sociological analysis: ‘But, if you think this way, why do you continue doing sociology?’ Weber’s reply is one of the most chilling statements I know in the history of Western…
— Peter L. Berger, Facing Up To Modernity: Excursions in Society, Politics, and Religion
As the handmaids toweled her dry and wrapped her in a sandsilk robe, Dany's thoughts went to the three who had sought her out in the City of Bones. *The Bleeding Star led me to Qarth for a purpose. Here I will find what I need, if I have the strength to take what is offered, and the wisdom to avoid…
To calm himself at work he often blared heavy metal music.
'My brother dreams as other boys do, and those dreams might mean anything,' Meera said, 'but the green dreams are different.' Jojen's eyes were the color of moss, and sometimes when he looked at you he seemed to be seeing something else. Like now. 'I dreamed of a winged wolf bound to the earth with…
'Open your eye.' 'They are open. Can't you see?' 'Two are open.' Jojen pointed. 'One, two.' 'I only have two.' 'You have three. The crow gave you the third, but you will not open it.' He had a slow soft way of speaking. 'With two eyes you see my face. With three you could see my heart. With two you…
Desire takes the place of action and I just sit with it.
Sometimes what being a fan seems to be most about is self-defeat.