“I do not often follow its path from a previously conceived drawing. If I have a strong feeling about its start, I do not need to know its end; the battle for solution is the most important. If the end of the work seems too complete and final, posing no question, I am apt to work back from the end, that in its finality it poses a question and not a solution.
Sometimes when I start a sculpture I begin with only a realized part; the rest is travel to be unfolded, much in the order of a dream.”

— David Smith

1950s, Tradition and Identity' (1959)

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David Smith 24

American visual artist (1906-1965) 1906–1965

C. West Churchman (1913–2004) American philosopher and systems scientist

C. West Churchman (1979, p. 21) as cited in: Interfaces (1982) Vol 12, p. 12
1980s and later

“Biographies smack of the end, the final utterances. Mission accomplished. I, by contrast, am always at the start of some new path or other. I want more. More, more. I am given to excess. It would be awkward to talk about myself: in what I do, the important thing is the deed, not the doer. When all is said and done, who am I? What use am I?”

Augusto Boal (1931–2009) Brazilian writer

Hamlet and the Baker's Son (2001)

“I start off on the canvas and, little by little, it imposes its own solution. But that solution is not easy to find.”

Bram van Velde (1895–1981) Dutch painter

1970's, Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde (1970 - 1972)

“Hello everyone!
I suppose that you think that nothing much is happening at the moment. Ah ah ah! Well, that's what I want to talk to you all about: endings. Now, endings normally happen at the end. But, as we all know, endings are just beginnings. You know, once these things really get started, it's jolly hard to stop them again.
However, as we have all come this far, I think, under the circumstances, the best solution is that we all just keep going. Let's keep going inside, never an ending. Let's remember that this world wants fresh beginnings. I feel here, in this Country, and throughout the world, we are crying out for beginnings, beginnings!
We never want to hear this word "endings". I know you don't want to sit down. Of course, you're looking for the good start. Of course you're looking for a fresh start.
Isn't that charming? Do you know, I really feel I could dance…”

Mike Oldfield (1953) English musician, multi-instrumentalist

Song lyrics, Amarok (1990)

“And that's when I know it's over. As soon as you start thinking about the beginning, it's the end.”

Junot Díaz book This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

“I attacked with great resolution the editorial matter, and, reading it from beginning to end without understanding a syllable, conceived the possibility of its being Chinese, and so re-read it from the end to the beginning, but with no more satisfactory result.”

Edgar Allan Poe book The Angel of the Odd

"The Angel of the Odd" (1850).

“Aspiration lead to mystic path and the end of mystic path i gnosis. But gnosis itself has no end. Its gate is always open. The traveler must cross it.”

Shah Badakhshi Indian poet

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 203

“I do not think that you can be changing the end of a song or a story like that, as though it were quite separate from the rest. I think the end of a story is part of it from the beginning.”

Rosemary Sutcliff (1920–1992) English author

“I am certain that a solution of the general problem of peace must rest on broad and basic understanding on the part of its peoples.”

George Marshall (1880–1959) US military leader, Army Chief of Staff

Essentials to Peace (1953)
Context: I am certain that a solution of the general problem of peace must rest on broad and basic understanding on the part of its peoples. Great single endeavors like a League of Nations, a United Nations, and undertakings of that character, are of great importance and in fact absolutely necessary, but they must be treated as steps toward the desired end.

“I am certain that a solution of the general problem of peace must rest on broad and basic understanding on the part of its peoples. Great single endeavors like a League of Nations, a United Nations, and undertakings of that character, are of great importance and in fact absolutely necessary, but they must be treated as steps toward the desired end.”

George Marshall (1880–1959) US military leader, Army Chief of Staff

Essentials to Peace (1953)

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