What people think of as the moment of discovery is really the discovery of the question.
~ Jonas Salk
Elsewhere, this is 4a1159. — slipbox
Discovery →
Never reaching the sea →
What I do now is think up a problem and a resolution to that problem. I then begin the story, making it up as I go along, having all the excitement of finding out what will happen to the characters and how they will get out of their scrapes, but working steadily toward the known resolution so that I don’t get lost en route.
When asked for advice by beginners, I always stress that. Know your ending, I say, or the river of your story may finally sink into the desert sands and never reach the sea.
~ Isaac Asimov
Elsewhere, this is 4a1193. — slipbox
Idleness →
Constant idleness should be included in the tortures of hell, but it is, on the contrary, considered to be one of the joys of paradise.
~ Charles de Montesquieu
Elsewhere, this is 4a1158. — slipbox
Generous silence →
Generous silence provides space for the other person to be with their own self, for you to be with them for presence to show up. It allows them to take a breath. It whispers, “this is an interesting place to be. Let’s hang out here for a moment.” […] Generous silence can allow the delicate insights of a conversation to blossom and bloom.
~ Michael Bungay Stanier
Elsewhere, this is 4a1157. — slipbox
Gravy →
To fulfill a dream, to be allowed to sweat over lonely labor, to be given a chance to create, is the meat and potatoes of life. The money is the gravy.
~ Bette Davis
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Miracles →
A person who is lucidly aware of the miracles that surround him, who has learned to bear up under the loneliness, has made quite a bit of progress on the road to wisdom.
~ M. C. Escher
Elsewhere, this is 4a1156. — slipbox
Love →
You want my opinion? We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.
~ Robert Fulghum
Elsewhere, this is 4a1118. — slipbox
Which are necessary →
Real wisdom is not the knowledge of everything, but the knowledge of which things in life are necessary, which are less necessary, and which are completely unnecessary to know. Among the most necessary knowledge is the knowledge of how to live well, that is, how to produce the least possible evil and the greatest goodness in one’s life. At present, people study useless sciences, but forget to study this, the most important knowledge.
~ Leo Tolstoy
Elsewhere, this is 4a1155. — slipbox
Simplicity →
Simplicity is the consequence of refined emotions.
~ Jean D’Alembert
Elsewhere, this is 4a1117. — slipbox
Then you read →
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was reading books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. An artist is a sort of emotional historian.
~ James Baldwin
Elsewhere, this is 4a1154. — slipbox