The true test of intelligence is not how much we know how to do, but how to behave when we don’t know what to do.
~ John Holt
Elsewhere, this is 4a1226. — slipbox
Intelligence →
The resistance →
When the resistance shows up, I know that I’m winning. Not my fight against it, but my fight to make art. […] The resistance is a symptom that you’re on the right track. The resistance is not something to be avoided; it’s something to seek out.
~ Seth Godin
Elsewhere, this is 4a1225. — slipbox
Illiteracy →
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
~ Alvin Toffler
Elsewhere, this is 4a1224. — slipbox
It’s people not things →
People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed. Never throw out anyone.
~ Audrey Hepburn
Elsewhere, this is 4a1223. — slipbox
The eternal war →
There is the eternal war between those who are in the world for what they can get out of it and those who are in the world to make it a better place for everybody to live in.
~ George Bernard Shaw
Elsewhere, this is 4a1222. — slipbox
Self study →
Useless to possess an obedient mind unless one profits to the furthest possible degree by its obedience. A prolonged primary course of study is indicated. Now as to what this course of study should be there cannot be any question; there never has been any question. All the sensible people of all ages are agreed upon it. And it is not literature, nor is it any other art, nor is it history, nor is it any science. It is the study of one’s self. man, know thyself.
~ Arnold Bennett
Elsewhere, this is 4a1221. — slipbox
Powerful questions →
[P]owerful questions are the ones that cause you to become an actor as soon as you answer them or even reflect on them. You no longer have the luxury of being a spectator of whatever it is you are concerned about. Regardless of how you answer these questions, you are guilty Guilty of being an actor and participant in this world. Not a pleasant thought, but the moment we accept the idea that we have created the world, we have the power to change it.
~ Peter Block
Elsewhere, this is 4a1220. — slipbox
Silence →
True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.
~ William Penn
Elsewhere, this is 4a1219. — slipbox
Nouns or verbs? →
We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing… an actor, a writer… I am a person who does things… I write, I act… and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun.
~ Stephen Fry
Elsewhere, this is 4a1218. — slipbox
Common sense →
But I am still optimist enough to credit life with invincibility, I am still ready to bet that the non-human otherness at the root of man’s being will ultimately triumph over the all too human selves who frame the ideologies and engineer the collective suicides. For our survival, if we do survive, we shall be less beholden to our common sense […] that to our caterpillar- and cicadea-sense, to intelligence, in other words, as it operates on the organic level.
~ Aldous Huxley
Elsewhere, this is 4a1217. — slipbox