Curtis Mayfield (1942–1999) American singer, songwriter, and record producer
Something He Can Feel.
Song lyrics
“Such a one does not always know what he can do, but he nevertheless instinctively feels, I am good for something! My existence is not without reason!”
1880s, 1880, Letter to Theo (Cuesmes, July 1880)
Context: There is a great difference between one idler and another idler. There is someone who is an idler out of laziness and lack of character, owing to the baseness of his nature. If you like, you may take me for one of those. Then there is the other kind of idler, the idler despite himself, who is inwardly consumed by a great longing for action who does nothing because his hands are tied, because he is, so to speak, imprisoned somewhere, because he lacks what he needs to be productive, because disastrous circumstances have brought him forcibly to this end. Such a one does not always know what he can do, but he nevertheless instinctively feels, I am good for something! My existence is not without reason! I know that I could be a quite a different person! How can I be of use, how can I be of service? There is something inside me, but what can it be? He is quite another idler. If you like you may take me for one of those.
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Vincent Van Gogh238
Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853–1890Related quotes
P. D. Ouspensky (1878–1947) Russian esotericist
Card 0 : The Fool
The Symbolism of the Tarot (1913)
Context: "What has he in the bag?" I inquired, not knowing why I asked. And after a long silence the voice replied: "The four magic symbols, the sceptre, the cup, the sword and the pentacle. The fool always carries them, although he has long since forgotten what they mean. Nevertheless they belong to him, even though he does not know their use. The symbols have not lost their power, they retain it in themselves.
Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time
Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Journey to Ixtlan" (Chapter 8)
“Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.”
Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist
Quoted in Artists on Art: From the XIV to the XX Century, ed. Robert Goldwater (Pantheon, 1945)
quotes, undated
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
He that knows not what the world is, knows not where he is himself. He that knows not for what he was made, knows not what he is nor what the world is.
VIII, 52
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire
Hans Frank (1900–1946) German war criminal
To Leon Goldensohn, March 5, 1946, from "The Nuremberg Interviews" by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004
John Updike (1932–2009) American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic