Yiyun Li (1972) Chinese American writer
Source: On including animal deaths in her work as symbolism in “An Interview with Yiyun Li” https://brickmag.com/an-interview-with-yiyun-li/ in Brick Magazine (2019 Feb 19)
“Jaws”
Forty Stories (1987)
Yiyun Li (1972) Chinese American writer
Source: On including animal deaths in her work as symbolism in “An Interview with Yiyun Li” https://brickmag.com/an-interview-with-yiyun-li/ in Brick Magazine (2019 Feb 19)
Pricasso (1949) Australian painter
[Gold Coast Bulletin staff, Gold Coast Bulletin, Queensland, Australia, News Limited, Fundraiser has a brush with 'talent', 7 March 2012, 24]
About
“It is the duty to carry on, under stress, the search for understanding.”
Vannevar Bush (1890–1974) American electrical engineer and science administrator
Source: Science is Not Enough (1967), Ch. X : The Search for Understanding, p. 192
Context: That the threat is now intense is not a reason to abandon our quest for knowledge. It is a reason to hold it more tightly, in spite of the need for action to preserve our freedom, in spite of the distractions of living in turmoil, that it may not be lost or brushed aside by the demands of the hour. We would not neglect our duty to our country and our fellows to strive mightily to preserve our ways and our lives. There is an added duty, not inconsistent, not less. It is the duty to so live that there may be a reason for living, beyond the mere mechanisms of life. It is the duty to carry on, under stress, the search for understanding.
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
Introduction to Fortune, My Foe and Eros at Breakfast (c. 1993).
Context: The truth is that art does not teach; it makes you feel, and any teaching that may arise from the feeling is an extra, and must not be stressed too much. In the modern world, and in Canada as much as anywhere, we are obsessed with the notion that to think is the highest achievement of mankind, but we neglect the fact that thought untouched by feeling is thin, delusive, treacherous stuff.
Wilhelm Reich book The Mass Psychology of Fascism
Section 3 : Work Democracy versus Politics. The Natural Social Forces for the Mastery of the Emotional Plague;
Variant translation: Under the influence of politicos, the masses blame the powers that be for wars. In the first world war it was the munition magnates, in the second the Psychopath General. This is shifting the responsibility. The blame for the war belongs only and alone to the same masses of people who have all the means of preventing wars. The same masses of people who — partly through indolent passivity, partly through their active behavior — make possible the catastrophes from which they themselves suffer most horribly. To emphasize this fault of the masses, to give them the full responsibility, means taking them seriously. On the other hand, to pity the masses as a poor victim means treating them like a helpless child. The first is the attitude of the genuine fighter for freedom, the latter is the attitude of the politico.
The Mass Psychology of Fascism (1933), Ch. 10 : Work Democracy
Context: Under the influence of politicians, masses of people tend to ascribe the responsibility for wars to those who wield power at any given time. In World War I it was the munitions industrialists; in World War II it was the psychopathic generals who were said to be guilty. This is passing the buck. The responsibility for war falls solely upon the shoulders of these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means to avert war in their own hands. In part by their apathy, in part by their passivity, and in part actively, these masses of people make possible the catastrophes under which they themselves suffer more than anybody else. To stress this guilt on the part of masses of people, to hold them solely responsible, means to take them seriously. On the other hand, to commiserate masses of people as victims, means to treat them as small, helpless children. The former is the attitude held by genuine freedom-fighters; the latter the attitude held by the power-thirsty politicians.
“There are no new stressful thoughts. They’re all recycled.”
Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer
Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002)
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire