Famous Quotes Ipsum

I would rather be kicked with a foot than be overcome by a loud voice speaking cruel words. these qualities are rare enough in a world where sexual performance has become as obligatory as sexual abstinence - or the pretension to it - once was. the worst by-product of the so-called sexual revolution is the substitution of performance for passion. she thought now of the pink anemones waving in that water. like herself, when he'd first spied on her with her sensitive, fleshy tentacles of thought waving all around her, until he'd touched and made her draw up quickly into a stony fist. but he knew just how to touch her, speak to her, breathe on her, to draw her out again. physical pleasure was such a convincing illusion, and sex, the ultimate charade of safety. why? wherefore? inasmuch as which? question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there is one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blind-folded fear. compassion can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind. it takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are. the whole difference between construction and creation is this; that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed, but a thing created is loved before it exists. pooh looked at his two paws. he knew that one of them was the right, and he knew that when you had decided which of them was the right, then the other was the left, but he never could remember how to begin. one can go on living when one is intoxicated by life. i don't think there is anything good about fame. 'tables in restaurants.' people say that but, then again, why don't you just call the day before? or go eat somewhere else? these things seem small and indistinguishable, like far-off mountains turned into clouds..

Metaphors are not to be trifled with. a single metaphor can give birth to love. the heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night. have you ever heard the wonderful silence just before the dawn? or the quiet and calm just as a storm ends? or perhaps you know the silence when you haven't the answer to a question you've been asked, or the hush of a country road at night, or the expectant pause in a roomful of people when someone is just about to speak, or, most beautiful of all, the moment after the door closes and you're all alone in the whole house? each one is different, you know, and all very beautiful, if you listen carefully. why is compassion not part of our established curriculum, an inherent part of our education? compassion, awe, wonder, curiosity, exaltation, humility - these are the very foundations of any real civilization, no longer the prerogatives, the preserves of any one church, but belonging to everyone, every child in every home, every school. be brave enough to live life creatively. the creative is the place where no one else has ever been. you have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. you can't get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you're i shall not die of a cold. i shall die of having lived. keep your face to the sunshine, and you cannot see the shadows. they say that god is everywhere, and yet we always think of him as somewhat of a recluse. fame lost its appeal for me when i went into a public restroom and an autograph seeker handed me a pen and paper under the stall door. we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. my piano is a universe. those eighty-eight keys arrange the seven planets in musical scales, an aural cosmos..

The individual is born of nature, but the artist is born of that individual, yearning to transcend the merely "natural" and to make complete that which, existentially, is forever incomplete, unrealized. every child is an artist. the challenge is to remain an artist once he grows up. the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. they must be felt with the heart. when i get a little money, i buy books; and, if any is left, i buy food and clothes. there is a certain kind of kid who is so in love with words that she kisses the pictures of authors on the jackets of books. i was one. all i ever wanted was to be a writer. though this yearning now seems like aspiring to be a blacksmith in the age of the automobile, my childhood image of what a writer did bestowed superhuman powers on the profession. a writer sat privately at her desk and made public things happen. the power was godlike. the sense of accomplishment had to be the same. making words slant across the page was like making rain. flowers grew in ink. hurricanes and revolutions were stirred up by the sound of pen scratching paper. the writer of originality, unless dead, is always shocking, scandalous; novelty disturbs and repels. i would rather be kicked with a foot than be overcome by a loud voice speaking cruel words. it seems that whatever goes into my mouth makes me fat, just as whatever comes out of it embarrasses me. never joke about a woman's hair, clothes or menstrual cycle. page one. but surely to tell these tall tales and others like them would be to speed the myth, the wicked lie, that the past is always tense and the future, perfect. and as archie knows, it's not like that. it's never been like that. wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. there are no mistakes, no coincidences. all events are blessings given to us to learn from. it isn't for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for the long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security. when you get into a tight place and it seems you can't go on, hold on, for that's just the place and the time that the tide will turn. creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected. prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. in our minds we can understand the highest god, but so long as we are in human bodies living in this rich and varied world, we need images that we can see and touch and love. and each one of them shows us a part of that supreme power, and all the parts together give us a glimpse of the whole. so the people who insist there is only one god are right, and so are those who honor the many, but they are right in different ways. bush thinks he is still living in the age of cowboys, and that the world is like texas with himself as sheriff. it's still snowing. and freezing. however, we haven't had an earthquake lately. the primary and most beautiful of nature's qualities is motion. a memory without a blot of contamination must be an exquisite treasure, an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment to love another person is to see the face of god. i think of love, and you, and my heart grows full and warm, and my breath stands still. we are each of us angels with only one wing. and we can only fly embracing each other..