Category Archives: Text

“I think, therefore I am.” Descartes, Discourse on Method (1639) “In itself a thought, a slumbering thought, is capable of years. And curdles a long life into one hour. Byron, “The Dream,” (1816) “What was once thought can never be unthought.” Friedrich Durrenmatt, The Physicists (1962) “All thought is a feat of association: having what’sContinue reading “Random Thoughts, Deep and Otherwise…”

“A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” C.S. Lewis “It is chance that makes us brothers, but hearts that make friends.” Anonymous “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friendship,” Essays:Continue reading “That’s What Friends Are For…”

“All good people agree, And all good people say, All nice people, like Us, are We — And every one else is They” Rudyard Kipling, “A Friend of the Family” “The underlying psychology of ‘us and them’ appears grounded in deep-rooted human tendencies to carve the world into groups and discriminate in favor of one’sContinue reading “Tribes and Tribulations: Us vs. Them”

“Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.” Martin Buber “Every man is more than just himself; he represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world’s phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again.” HermannContinue reading “What Makes You Think You’re So Special?”

“Dreams are faithful interpreters of our inclinations; but there is art required to sort and understand them.” Montaigne, “Of Experience”, Essays (1580-88) “Dreams are true while they last, and do we not live in dreams?” Lord Tennyson, “The Higher Pantheism” (1869) “We often forget our dreams so speedily: if we cannot catch them as theyContinue reading “To Sleep, Perchance to Dream…”

“Writing, like life itself, is a voyage of discovery.” Joseph Conrad, A Personal Record (1912) A story is a letter the author writes to himself, to tell himself things he would be unable to discover otherwise.” Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind (2001) “Suddenly I don’t know, haven’t the faintest idea, how peopleContinue reading “Something to Write Home About…”

“Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn’t ask what it says but what it means…” Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose “When the first book appeared, Socrates rejected it as inferior to conversation. When the printing press first appeared, some stubbornContinue reading “Reading Between the Lines…”

What was God doing before he made heaven and earth? … He was preparing hell for those that would pry into such profound mysteries.” St. Augustine, Confessions, Book XI (AD 399) “There was no ‘before’ the beginning of the universe, because once upon a time, there was no time.” John D. Barrow, The Origin ofContinue reading “It’s Just a Matter of Time…”

“Listen to a man’s words and look at the pupil of his eye. How can a man conceal his character?” Mencius, 4th century BC “The ends of things are always present in their beginnings. T.S. Eliot has of course noted that. But it seems to me that the ends are actually visible in the facesContinue reading “When Someone Shows You Who They Are…”

“I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.” Thomas Jefferson “Things worthwhile generally don’t just happen. Luck is a fact, but should not be a factor. Good luck is what is left over after intelligence and effort have combined at their best. Negligence orContinue reading “As Luck Would Have It”