Peole who do not know how to laugh are always pompous and self-conceited.
~ William Makepeace Thackeray
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Self-conceit →
Petty hazards →
Anybody can rise to meet a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh—I really think that requires spirit.
~ Jean Webster
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Education →
What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.
~ Wendell Phillips
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Defiance and acceptance →
Defiance and acceptance come together well in the following principle: There is always a countermove, always an escape or a way through, so there is no reason to get worked up. No one said it would be easy and, of course, the stakes are high, but the path is there for those ready to take it. This is what we’ve got to do. And we know that it’s going to be tough, maybe even scary.
~ Ryan Holiday
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Language →
Language is the amber in which a thousand precious and subtle thoughts have been safely embedded and preserved. It has arrested ten thousand lightning flashes of genius, which, unless thus fixed and arrested, might have been as bright, but would have also been as quickly passing and perishing, as the lightning.
~ Richard Chenevix Trench
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Theater →
The truth is the heroism of your childhood entertainments was not true valor. It was theater.
~ David Foster Wallace
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Manual labor of the mind →
Writing is essentially donkey work, manual labor of the mind. What makes it bearable are those moments (which sometimes can last for weeks, months) when the book takes over, takes on a life of its own, goes off in unexpected directions.
~ John Gregory Dunne
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New ideas →
A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.
~ Oliver Wendell Berry
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Be a reader →
I’m not saying that you have to be a reader to save your soul in the modern world. I’m saying it helps.
~ Walter Mosley
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