the written word perseveres

“Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.”

Herman Melville

“A smile is the chosen vehicle for all ambiguities.”

Herman Melville

“An utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.”

Herman Melville

“Everyone has his day and some days last longer than others.”

Winston Churchill

“Solitude is fine, but you need someone to tell you that solitude is fine.”

Honoré de Balzac

“Nothing so fortifies a friendship as a belief on the part of one friend that he is superior to the other.”

Honoré de Balzac

“Music appeals to the heart, whereas writing is addressed to the intellect; it communicates ideas directly, like perfume.”

Honoré de Balzac

“Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”

James Joyce

“To live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to create life out of life.”

James Joyce

“This triviality made him think of collecting many such moments together in a book of epiphanies. By epiphany — a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or gesture, or in a memorable phrase of the mind itself. He believed that it was for the man of letters to record these epiphanies with extreme care, seeing that the themselves are the most delicate and evanescent of moments.”

James Joyce

“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

Confucius

“Learn as though you would never be able to master it: Hold it as though you would be in fear if loosing it.”

Confucius

“It is only the wisest and the very stupidest who cannot change.”

Confucius

“The soul can become a reality again only when each of us has the courage to take it as the first reality in our own lives, to stand for it and not just “believe” in it.”

James Hillman

“The transfiguration of matter occurs through wonder.”

James Hillman

“Happiness ain’t a thing in itself — it’s only a contrast with something that ain’t pleasant…. And so, as soon as the novelty is over and the force of the contrast dulled, it ain’t happiness any longer, and you have to get something fresh.”

Mark Twain

“Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this it the ideal life.”

Mark Twain

“We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.”

Kurt Vonnegut

“We’re not too young for love, just too young for about everything there is that goes with love.”

Kurt Vonnegut

“We are all what we pretend to be, so, we had better be very careful what we pretend.”

Kurt Vonnegut

“Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.”

Henry Miller