Quotes about making love (2577 quotes, page 8)

“Why freedom? If we accept that God is love, and that it is human beings who are to respond to this love, the explanation is simple. Love cannot be forced, ordered, or made obligatory. It is necessarily free. If God liberates, it is because he expects and hopes that we will come to know him and love him.”

Jacques Ellul book Anarchy and Christianity

Source: Anarchy and Christianity (1988), p. 39

God , Freedom , Hope , Love

“Many convicts were bewildered by the first days of the voyage to Australia. Most had never seen the open sea until they boarded the convict ship, and few had travelled in a ship. And now, by sentence of the courts, they were about to begin one of the longest voyages any traveller could make.”

Geoffrey Blainey (1930) Australian historian

The Story of Australia's People: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Australia (2015)

Travel , Sea , Relation ships

“My favorite aspect about horror music is you can literally write anything you want. You are limited only by your imagination! In fact, many times the more unique and completely original your music is, the better it works in the game and the more the developer loves it.”

Jason Graves (1973) American composer

Exclusive Interview: Composer Jason Graves Discusses Dead Space, F.E.A.R. 3 and Resistance: Burning Skies http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/33744/exclusive-interview-composer-jason-graves-discusses-dead-space-f-e-a-r-3-and-resistance-burning-skies (May 14, 2012)

Imagination , Time , Game , Music

“Of course the avaricious man of our day, be he landlord, merchant, industrialist, does not adore sacks of coins or bundles of banknotes in some little chapel and upon some little altar. He does not kneel before these spoils of other men, nor does he address prayers or canticles to them amidst odorous clouds of incense. But he proclaims that money is the only good, and he yields it all his soul. A cult sincere, without hypocrisy, never growing weary, never forsworn. Whenever he says, in the debasement of his heart and his speech, that he loves money for the delights it can purchase, he lies or he terribly deceives himself, this very assertion being belied at the very moment he utters it by every one of his acts, by the infinite toil and pains to which he gladly condemns himself in order to acquire or conserve that money which is but the visible figure of the Blood of Christ circulating throughout all His members.”

Léon Bloy (1846–1917) French writer, poet and essayist

Source: Pilgrim of the Absolute (1947), pp. 89-90

Money , Soul , Pain , Heart

“Some in the Labour Party want to blame our defeat only on the leadership. Others want to blame it only on Brexit . Yet it was about both of those things and more. In our towns in Yorkshire, we knocked on thousands of doors trying to persuade people to stick with Labour. Some said they just didn’t want Jeremy Corbyn to be Prime Minister. Others were fearful that we wouldn’t stand up for national security. Some wanted Brexit done and felt angry and let down. We found little enthusiasm for Boris Johnson. One woman told me in tears that she was voting Tory for the first time and she was furious with us for making her feel like she had to do it.”

Yvette Cooper (1969) British politician

From an article in the Daily Mirror in responce to the poor result from Labour in the 2019 General Election - Yvette Cooper: Labour did badly in the election but will pull UK together https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/yvette-cooper-labour-badly-election-21178805 December 2019

Time , People , Feeling , Fear

“It is for the Indian patriot to recognise that Persia, Afghanistan and possibly Arabia must sooner or later come within the orbit of some Continental Power — such as Germany, or what may grow out of the break up of Russia — or must throw in their lot with that of the Indian Empire, with which they have so much more genuine affinity. The world forces that move small States into closer contact with powerful neighbours, though so far most visible in Europe, will inevitably make themselves felt in Asia. Unless she is willing to accept the prospect of having powerful and possibly inimical neighbours to watch, and the heavy military burdens thereby entailed, India cannot afford to neglect to draw her Mahomedan neighbour States to herself by the ties of mutual interest and goodwill … In a word, the path of beneficent and growing union must be based on a federal India, with every member exercising her individual rights, her historic peculiarities and natural interests, yet protected by a common defensive system and customs union from external danger and economic exploitation by stronger forces. Such a federal India would promptly bring Ceylon to the bosom of her natural mother, and the further developments we have indicated would follow. We can build a great South Asiatic Federation by now laying the foundations wide and deep on justice, on liberty, and on recognition for every race, every religion, and every historical entity … A sincere policy of assisting both Persia and Afghanistan in the onward march which modem conditions demand, will raise two natural ramparts for India in the north-west that neither German nor Slav, Turk nor Mongol, can ever hope to destroy. They will be drawn of their own accord towards the Power which provides the object lesson of a healthy form of federalism in India, with real autonomy for each province, with the internal freedom of principalities assured, with a revived and liberalised kingdom of Hyderabad, including the Berars, under the Nizam. They would see in India freedom and order, autonomy and yet Imperial union, and would appreciate for themselves the advantages of a confederation assuring the continuance of internal self-government buttressed by goodwill, the immense and unlimited strength of that great Empire on which the sun never sets. The British position of Mesopotamia and Arabia also, whatever its nominal form may be, would be infinitely strengthened by the policy I have advocated.”

Aga Khan III (1877–1957) 48th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili community

India in Transition (1918)

Drawing , Religion , Justice , Freedom

“I dreaded those public moments that highlighted the fact that I was a foreigner. Sometimes I sat at my desk, plotting my revenge. I would master the English language. I would infiltrate the gringo culture without letting on that I was a traitor. I would battle in their tongue and make them stumble. I would cut out their souls and leave them on the shore to be pecked on by vultures.”

Tatiana de la tierra (1961–2012) Latina writer and activist

On attending school after she immigrated with her family from Colombia to the United States in “tatiana de la tierra” ( Making Queer History https://www.makingqueerhistory.com/articles/2019/5/14/tatiana-de-la-tierra; 2019 May 14)

Soul , Revenge

“I have huge respect for short stories—I just find them much harder to get right than a novel. A novel is a lot baggier and it gives you more leeway to go on for too long or to make mistakes. Whereas in a short story, every sentence, every word, matters—and that’s very hard. I think it’s easier to write too much than it is to write exactly the right thing.”

Tracy Chevalier (1962) American writer

On how she compares short story writing to novel writing in “An Interview with Tracy Chevalier” https://fictionwritersreview.com/interview/an-interview-with-tracy-chevalier/ in Fiction Writers Review (2019 Sep 23)

Thinking

“I do more non-fiction writing. I have two memoirs, another nonfiction book, and I do lots of essays, journalism, poetry, and reporting. But I love the fiction. As you know I have a novel, a short story collection, and two children’s books. It’s more challenging to write fiction, but I’d like to do more of these. I don’t really prefer one over the other.”

Luis J. Rodriguez (1954) pinto poetry, Chicanismo, and Chicano literature

On his writing preferences in “An Interview with Luis J. Rodriguez” https://www.epl.org/an-interview-with-luis-j-rodriguez-2/ (Evanston Public Library; 2011)

Love , Children , Books

“I was a university professor and all of my degrees were in the biological sciences, so I did know my way around a library. That’s why I decided on historical fiction. It seems easier to look things up than to make them up. If it turned out I had no imagination, I could steal things from the historical record!”

Diana Gabaldon (1952) American author

On how library research helps her write accurately in “Caught Between Two Worlds – Diana Gabaldon Interview” https://www.scotsmagazine.com/articles/diana-gabaldon-outlander-inspiration/ in The Scots Magazine (2018 Mar 2)

Imagination , Universe , Way , Science

“War has changed little in principle from the beginning of recorded history. The mechanized warfare of today is only an evolution of the time when men fought with clubs and stones, and its machines are as nothing without the men who invent them, man them and give them life. War is force- force to the utmost- force to make the enemy yield to our own will- to yield because they see their comrades killed and wounded- to yield because their own will to fight is broken. War is men against men. Mechanized war is still men against men, for machines are masses of inert metal without the men who control them- or destroy them.”

Ernest King (1878–1956) United States Navy admiral, Chief of Naval Operations

Introduction, p. viii

Time , History , War , Fight

“I’m bringing it up because it’s just an arbitrary example of a cycle that it seems like our culture repeats about once a week: somebody makes a joke, some people are offended by the joke, and other people are indignant about the fact that those people are offended. The cycle usually gets framed as a battle in a culture war that’s supposedly going on between generation snowflake, easily triggered, humorless PC cucks, and badass, edgy, nothing-off-limits free-speech truth tellers. Now if this really is a culture war between two sides, then I am a double agent, because I’m a generation snowflake PC cuck who loves dank edgy memes, and I’ve found myself on both sides of this type of conflict many, many times. So on the one hand, when I see the internet roasting a comedian for some shitty trans joke my inner snowflake wants to watch the bastard burn. But my inner edgelady knows how it feels to be dragged across Twitter over a joke. And as someone who basically writes jokes about controversial topics for a living, I appreciate how difficult it is to maintain the mildly sadomasochistic character of comedy while also keeping your moral compass from getting too jittery.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), The Darkness https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtj7LDYaufM (2019)

Time , War , People , Truth

“So look: I really don’t want to shame men for feeling anxious about dating trans women, because I mean I was anxious, too, in the other direction. But I do want to shame men for treating trans women like their dirty little secrets. And I do want to shame men for dehumanizing us and voting away our rights by day, while jerking off to shemale porn by night. I do want to shame men for refusing to date us because they’re not fucking strong enough to shoulder one hundredth of the burden of stigma that every trans women carries every moment of every day. I do want to shame men for attacking their trans girlfriends because they couldn’t stand being treated like a gay man for five minutes. That is pathetic. If you’re so worried about proving you’re a man, why don’t you start by standing up for the women you love, you chickenshit cowards.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), "Are Traps Gay?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbBzhqJK3bg (2019)

Night , Strong , Secret , Jerk

“We tend to pass particularly harsh moral judgment on sadism, but sadistic violence isn’t even necessarily the worst thing that can happen to people. There’s also the quieter structural injustices that lead to millions of people starving, or workers throwing themselves out of windows at the iPhone factory, or the lowkey normalization of sexual assault in supposedly civilized countries, none of which requires so much as a single cackling maniac. So in order to think about this intelligently, we have to weigh the risk that revolutionary violence will spin out of control and lead to sadistic mayhem, against the risk that our complacency with the injustices of the status quo will make us quiet enablers of more subtle but equally unjust forms of violence. And I don’t feel confident enough to say which one I think is the bigger risk.”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), Violence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmsoVFCUN3Q (2017)

Confidence , Country , Intelligence , People

“So basically what I think is that in a free society, different people will have lots of different sexual lifestyles. Some people will want to settle down and get married, and that’s fine. Some people will wanna have a fucking baby, and that’s also fine—someone needs to have the fucking babies. But some people won’t want to do that: some people will wanna dip their balls in hot wax and pour wolf’s milk all over a stranger’s face, and that’s fine, too. Some people won’t want to have sex or romantic relationships. Point is, all these things carry emotional risks: you’ve got heartbreak, loneliness, excruciating boredom—this is just the human condition. And no matter what you do, you have to take emotional risks. But as a society, we could make sex less risky for women by ending rape culture and slut-shaming, and instituting all-you-can-eat birth control. Hence, you know, feminism. And there are also things that we can do as individuals to be safer, kinder, and more responsible. If you do choose to have casual sex, things are gonna go a lot better for you and your partners if you try to remain honest, open and communicative about what your intentions are. And for God’s sake, use a condom—do not get pregnant or get anyone else pregnant. That’s a real downer, this… echoing God’s act of creation by bringing new life into the world. It’s disgusting!”

Natalie Wynn ContraPoints

ContraPoints, Feminism Did Not Destroy Atheism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klfH9QaEcqY (2016), Is Casual Sex Bad for Your Soul? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKrbvLkbHu8 (2017)

Baby , God , Loneliness , People

“All of which makes one feel that the centuries of science upon which our western culture is based have travelled unmarked through the popular mind. A surprising number of people are willing to junk the entire accumulation of knowledge since Ancient Greece after watching Uri Geller perform for five minutes on their twenty-three inch screen.”

Brian W. Aldiss (1925–2017) British science fiction author

Science Fiction on the Titanic, in Brian Aldiss and Harry Harrison (eds.) The Year's Best SF 9 (1976), ISBN 0-8600-7894-9, p. 203

People , Knowledge , Travel , Science

“In the Patanjali Yoga, five fundamental impurities are mentioned: avidya (nescience), asmita (ego), raga (attachement), dvesha (aversion), and abhinivesa (gross worldliness, craving).... They are klesas, very inadequately defined as defilements.... All that we have desired and thought have gone into making them. They are woven into the fabric of our emotions, desires, thoughts. They keep us bound down to a particular life-cycle. They are built up of samskaras, impressions accumulated over repeated births.”

Ram Swarup (1920–1998) Indian historian

Source: Meditations. Yogas, Gods, Religions (2000), p. 31

Life , Birth

“In America we are such rowdies in church and state and the very boys are so soon ripe, that I think no philosophical skepticism will make much sensation. Spinoza pronounced that there was but one substance; yea, verily, but that boy yonder told me yesterday he thought the pinelog was God, and that God was in the jakes. What can Spinoza tell the boy?”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in his journal entry
A - F

God , Thinking , Boy

“Mr. President, I rise today to say: enough. We must dedicate ourselves to making sure that the anomalous never becomes the normal. With respect and humility, I must say that we have fooled ourselves for long enough that a pivot to governing is right around the corner, a return to civility and stability right behind it.”

Jeff Flake (1962) American politician

Speech on not seeking another term in the U.S. Senate (2017)

Fools

“We fought that last war to make the world safe for democracy, and we did — for a while. The thing they forget is that liberty and freedom and democracy are so very precious that you do not fight to win them once — and then stop. Liberty and freedom and democracy are prizes awarded only to those peoples who fight to win them, and then keep fighting eternally to hold them. By our victory in the last war, we won a lease on liberty, not a deed to it. Now, after 23 years, Adolf Hitler tells us that lease is expiring, and after the manner of all leases, we have the privilege of renewing it, or letting it go by default.”

Alvin C. York (1887–1964) United States Army Medal of Honor recipient

Address on Memorial Day ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (30 May 1941), as recorded in Congressional Record, 77th Congress, First Session, Appendix, Vol. 87, Pt. 12 https://books.google.com/books?id=cm64vikAjIMC&pg=SL1-PA2692

Democracy , Freedom , War , Forgetting

“Our overriding purpose, from the beginning right through to the present day, has been world domination — that is, to build and maintain the capacity to coerce everybody else on the planet: nonviolently, if possible; and violently, if necessary. But the purpose of our foreign policy of domination is not just to make the rest of the world jump through hoops; the purpose is to facilitate our exploitation of resources. And insofar as any people or states get in the way of our domination, they must be eliminated — or, at the very least, shown the error of their ways.”

Ramsey Clark (1927) United States Marine

Quoted in “Neighbourhood Bully - Ramsey Clark on American Militarism, Derrick Jensen The Sun Magazine, https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-foreign-policy-is-the-greatest-crime-since-wwii-former-us-attorney-general-ramsey-clark/5629241 (14 February 2018)

People , Way , World , Error

“Enjoy our great American West -- climb those mountains, run those rivers, hike those canyons, explore those forests, and share in the bounty of wilderness, friendship, love, and the common effort to save what we love. Do this and we will be strong, and bold, and happy, we will outlive our enemies, we will live to piss on their graves.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Remarks https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/edward-abbey-remarks-glen-canyon-dam-spring-equinox-1981, Glen Canyon Dam, Spring Equinox 1981.

Friendship , Strong , Mountain , Love

“It’s their continued perspective of who we are. They don’t know we’re very much a part of this country and that we make up every part of this country.”

Lupe Ontiveros (1942–2012) Mexican-American actress

On the challenges facing Latino actors in “Lupe Ontiveros, Respected Actress and Activist Dies at 69” https://remezcla.com/culture/lupe-ontiveros-respected-actress-and-activist-dies-at-69/ in Remezcla

Parting , Country

“It’s a 21st-century play…The overarching theme is, how do we find peace in the present? Through love, understanding and learning about our cultural and religious differences.”

Anne García-Romero

On her play Paloma in “Playwright reaches into past for a better future” https://www.abqjournal.com/118454/playwright-reaches-into-past-for-a-better-future.html in the Albuquerque Journal (2012 Jul 15)

Peace , Understanding , Learning , Love

“Certain actual sleeping pills cause retrograde amnesia. It can be true that, if I take such a pill, I shall remain awake for an hour, but after my night’s sleep I shall have no memories of the second half of this hour. I have in fact taken such pills, and found out what the results are like. Suppose that I took such a pill nearly an hour ago. The person who wakes up in my bed tomorrow will not be psychologically continuous with me as I was half an hour ago. I am now on psychological branch-line, which will end soon when I fall asleep. During this half-hour, I am psychologically continuous with myself in the past. But I am not now psychologically continuous with myself in the future. I shall never later remember what I do or think or feel during this half-hour. This means that, in some respects, my relation to myself tomorrow is like a relation to another person. Suppose, for instance, that I have been worrying about some practical question. I now see the solution. Since it is clear what I should do, I form a firm intention. In the rest of my life, it would be enough to form this intention. But, when I am no this psychological branch-line, this is not enough. I shall not later remember what I have now decided, and I shall not wake up with the intention that I have now formed. I must therefore communicate with myself tomorrow as if I was communicating with someone else. I must write myself a letter, describing my decision, and my new intention. I must then place this letter where I am bound to notice it tomorrow. I do not in fact have any memories of making such a decision, and writing such a letter. But I did once find such a letter underneath my razor.”

Derek Parfit book Reasons and Persons

Source: Reasons and Persons (1984), pp. 287-288

Sleep , Night , Question , Past

“Until this century, most of mankind lived in small communities. What each did could affect only a few others. But conditions have now changed. Each of us can now, in countless ways, affect countless other people. We can have real though small effects on thousands or millions of people. When these effects are widely dispersed, they may be either trivial, or imperceptible. It now makes a great difference whether we continue to believe that we cannot have greatly harmed r benefited others unless there are people with obvious grounds for resentment or gratitude.”

Derek Parfit book Reasons and Persons

Source: Reasons and Persons (1984), p. 86

Gratitude , People , Communication , Way

“Probably there is no single doctrine of the Esoteric Tradition which makes so instant an appeal as does the idea of the present existence in the world of great sages or seers. In most minds there lies an intuition that there must be in the world human beings of far loftier spiritual capacity and of immensely more developed intellectual power than the ordinary run of men. Those who hear of this for the first time instantly turn to those luminous figures, such as Gautama the Buddha, Jesus the Syrian avatara, Apollonius of Tyana, Lao-Tse, Krishna, Sankaracharya, etc. and, among many, the first reaction is: if such great figures have already existed in the world, why should they not exist again?”

Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942) Author, Theosophist

Source: The Esoteric Tradition (1935), Chapter 19

Time , World , Idea , Men

“Aside from earning their livings, what did your people do, mostly? Games. Sports. Casinos. Loud machines that went fast. Shopping. Lawsuits blaming other for whatever went wrong. What did they believe in? Conspiracy theories. Racial superiority. Heroes with superpowers. Faith healers. God-loves-you religions. State-supported lotteries. All that enormous energy expended to conquer nothing at all, stadia full of people watching no conquering going on. For every scientist or person in government who really tried to conquer, there were a thousand people buying lottery tickets, drinking beer, watching football, and growing old.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

The Visitor in Ch. 44 : the visitor, pp. 460-461
The Visitor (2002)

Sport , God , Faith , Drink

“It is a very physically and mentally torturous process. It goes 18-20 hours a day, and if you’re stoned during that whole period, you’re not going to make a good movie, because you just won’t have the stamina to physically and mentally do that. And it’s every day. So we didn’t get stoned making the record, never stoned on stage. But we were very disciplined artists about what we were doing. It didn’t magically happen. Well, it did magically happen, but not without effort.”

Cheech Marin (1946) American comedian, actor and writer

On how there’s a misconception that he’s like his stoner character in “Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong Are Not Their Characters: ‘It’s All for the Love of the Art’” https://www.thewrap.com/heres-the-biggest-misconception-about-cheech-and-chong/ in The Wrap (2018 Sep 14)

Effort

“I never felt overlooked because I didn’t expect any kind of recognition. I think that’s very typical of women. I had been acculturated to be supportive, to be accommodating, to support men in the work they do. We never think of getting credit or recognition or even taking the power. We didn’t think it those terms. Of course I think that’s changing now and there’s a surge of women who are not only running for office, but getting elected. That could make an incredible amount of difference in our world. We will never have peace in the world until feminists take power.”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

On not getting credit for the work she did for farmworkers in “Pioneering Labor Activist Dolores Huerta: Women 'Never Think of Getting Credit' But Now That's Changing” https://time.com/5211356/dolores-huerta-pbs-documentary/ in Time Magazine (2018 Mar 27)

Peace , Support , Thinking , World

“I was born in Havana and my family left when I was five-and-a-half. I remember the transition and some memories of being in Havana. I tried to analyze this and I think all exiles who have to leave a country you love, develop a profound nostalgia for where you were born but can no longer be there – like an impossible love. You protect those memories and don’t take them for granted. It’s different for someone who grew up and still lives in the same city because they do take their memories for granted. For me, I’m very nostalgic – not only about my time in Havana, but my 30 years in Miami Beach. All those memories are pretty vivid and I guard and cherish them. I also use those recollections in my work.”

Andy García (1956) American actor and director

On how he’s nostalgic about Cuba in “Andy Garcia Interview - Up Close And Personal” https://www.lasplash.com/publish/Celebrity_Talk_102/Andy_Garcia_Interview_-_Up_Close_And_Personal.php in Splash Magazines

Family , Nostalgia , Time , Country

“It can be considered by many to be foolhardy, especially when you’re messing with what’s considered a sacred text. But it’s also an irresistible challenge, isn’t it? It evokes so many different wild and outrageous and beautiful images that anyone who loves both novels and films can’t help but imagine what it would look like on the big screen. In this case I’m glad they took the challenge on. I think Marquez is glad too. Apparently he’s seen it and he’s responded favorably to it, he likes it. The trick is, as you aptly point out, is how to do it but how to do it well. Because it’s not an easy translation to make, and certainly nearly impossible when you’re talking about a great novel, which this is. The best you can hope for really is to capture the essence of the book, and I think the film has done that, which is good news.”

Benjamin Bratt (1963) American actor

On adapting a literary masterpiece for the big screen in “Interview: Benjamin Bratt” https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Interview-Benjamin-Bratt-6673.html in Cinema Blend

Imagination , Beauty , Hope , Help

“I am a born builder. I grew up pretty fearless with an understanding that if you want something in life, you have to be creative in going about achieving it. You’re not always going to have an easy path to success, but if it’s important enough you’ll figure out a way to make it work.”

Jessica Alba (1981) American model, free-diver and businesswoman; TV and film actress

On being driven even at an early age in “Jessica Alba on Being Brave, Dealing With Self-Doubt and Overcoming Major Breakdowns” https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/315948 in Entrepreneur (2018 Jun 29)

Understanding , Success , Way , Life

“For the most part, romance novels are stories about women finding and taking up space for themselves. And not just taking up space, but daring to find happiness. And yes, romance novels are about the fantasy—the heterosexual fantasy—of having the perfect relationship with a man, but it’s also about women taking power over their sexuality, women taking control over their lives, women making themselves vulnerable to all the intimacies of love…”

Marjorie M. Liu (1979) American writer

On her views of the romance genre in “Marjorie Liu: Making a Monstress” https://www.guernicamag.com/making-a-monstress/ in Guernica (2016 Feb 15)

Perfection , Parting , Love , Women

“Brooklyn born, Bronx bred… I felt like the dreamer/day tripper of the neighborhood with a vivid imagination and a longing to transcend the mundane through my love of the arts. My mother inspired me a lot. I can remember growing up hearing her voice in the background on the phone urging others to stop putting up with abuse and to stand up for themselves in order to better their lot in life. She was always helping people – mostly other women – liberate themselves from oppressive relationships whether it was at home or work.”

Esai Morales (1962) American actor

On how activism was present in his upbringing in “Mr. Morales is currently running for SAG-AFTRA President” https://www.latinheat.com/spotlight-news/the-essential-esai-morales-interview/ in Latin Heat Entertainment (2013 Jul 31)

Home , Imagination , People , Help

“It seems to me that the biggest challenge for Chinese theater is to cultivate an audience, which would make possible long-running shows. A show that only runs for a few months, tops, fails to generate enough revenue to pay back the investment required to create it. A Chinese Broadway or West End may help to build an audience, but more theaters alone probably will not achieve this goal.”

David Henry Hwang (1957) Playwright

On how to cultivate Chinese theater in the United States in “DAVID HENRY HWANG ON THEATRE, TRUMP, AND ASIAN-AMERICAN IDENTITY” https://thetheatretimes.com/david-henry-hwang-on-theatre-trump-and-asian-american-identity/ in Theatre World (2019 Mar 15)

Help

“Making art, any art, you are in some way trying to imitate life, and the ways in which that succeeds or fails is fascinating to me…”

Naomi Iizuka (1965) American dramatist

On art versus life in “Berkeley world premiere for Naomi Iizuka play” https://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/Berkeley-world-premiere-for-Naomi-Iizuka-play-3271229.php in SF Gate (2010 Mar 4)

Way , Life , Art

“Some people love my work, some people hate it…You can’t be liked by everybody. There has been opposition in some places. I represent the opposite of what is happening in art today. But I don’t complain. It hasn’t hurt my career. I’m happy to have the success I have had.”

Fernando Botero (1932–2023) Colombian artist

On the reactions to his work in “Botero: ‘You Can’t Be Liked By Everybody’” https://www.artnews.com/art-news/artists/fernando-botero-says-you-cant-be-liked-by-everybody-2155/ in ARTnews (2013 Jan 30)

Hurt , Hate , Success , People

“It is not the facts which guide the conduct of men, but their opinions about facts; which may be entirely wrong. We can only make them right by discussion.”

Norman Angell (1872–1967) British politician

As quoted in American Railway Engineering Association : Proceedings of the Annual Convention, Volume 51 (1950), p. 815; also quoted in Forbes Book of Quotations: 10,000 Thoughts on the Business of Life (2016), edited by Ted Goodman

Men

“That this play is the first play by an Asian American at our existence, is proof of the great success white racism has had with us. America might love us. But America’s love is not good. It’s racist love. I don’t want it.”

Frank Chin (1940) American writer

On his play The Chickencoop Chinaman (as quoted in the book Notable Asian Americans http://smithsonianapa.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2009/10/chin-frank.pdf)

Love , Success

“There was so much joy in the making of this film, despite the fact that it’s about such a sad, traumatic experience…We all felt like we were part of something so real and so necessary. It was a joy to go on set every day and tell these real people’s story. Doing this movie, I discovered that joy is not the negation of pain, but rather acknowledging the presence of pain and feeling happiness in spite of it.”

Lupita Nyong'o (1983) Mexican-Kenyan actress and film director

On making the film 12 Years a Slave in “LUPITA NYONG’O” https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/lupita-nyongo in Interview Magazine (2013 Nov 5)

Pain , People , Joy , Sadness

“In Spinoza, at the origin of the Modern world, metaphysical theory and the theory of science are given in complete agreement for the first time. They represent the alternative to the entire subsequent path of metaphysics and of the bourgeois theory of science. Spinoza lives as an alternative: Today this alternative is real. The Spinozian analytic of full space and open time are becoming an ethics of liberation in all the dimensions that this discourse constructs and makes available.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Selected works, The Savage Anomaly: The Power of Spinoza's Metaphysics and Politics (1991)

World , Science , Time

“As we walk the path of Refuge Recovery, we gradually uncover a loving heart.”

Noah Levine (1971) American Buddhist teacher

Refuge Recovery (2014)

Love , Heart

“Forgiveness is not just a selfish pursuit of personal satisfaction or righteousness. It actually alleviates the amount of suffering in the world. As each one of us frees ourselves from clinging to resentments that cause suffering, we relieve our friends, family, and community of the burden of our unhappiness. This is not a philosophical proposal; it is a verifiable and practical truth. Through our suffering and lack of forgiveness, we tend to do all kinds of unskillful things that hurt others. We close ourselves off from love, for example, out of fear of further pains or betrayals. This alone—a lack of openness to the love shown to us—is a way that we cause harm to our loved ones. The closed heart lets no one in or out.”

Noah Levine (1971) American Buddhist teacher

The Heart of the Revolution (2011)

Forgiveness , Family , Betrayal , Selfishness

“The significance of Armageddon is little understood. Anyone who knows about the approaching end of Kali Yuga recognizes that it cannot occur without world upheavals. The forces that were particularly powerful during the Black Age must now struggle for survival, and they prefer a general catastrophe to defeat... The tension of spatial currents and the discovery of Primal Energy could not be mentioned in the Puranas even though they were intended for the seeking, advanced thinkers. But both of these conditions have now been manifested in a pronounced form, making the significance of the approaching end of Kali Yuga the more obvious.”

Helena Roerich (1879–1955) Russian philosopher

127
Armageddon

World , Age

“Dreadful is Armageddon — the dark forces are struggling for their very existence. Despair unites them and makes them so persistent in trying to achieve their aim. The Prince of the World has very many talented collaborators—some conscious, some unconscious—and it is foolish to think that they do not know the ways of the most cunning subtlety. There are very shrewd and inventive, and they act according to the level of their victims. But all of them lack tolerance and warmth of heart.”

Helena Roerich (1879–1955) Russian philosopher

23 August 1934
Armageddon

Despair , Heart , Thinking , Way

“I perceive the enemies will be destroyed by miraculous fire. The time for action is but begun. Comprehend devotion, faith, and courage. I will safeguard you with a helmet of faith, an armor of devotion, and a shield of victory. And on the banner will be inscribed: Love, the Conqueror.”

Helena Roerich (1879–1955) Russian philosopher

299
Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One (The Call) (1924)

Courage , Faith , Time , Victory

“The Teacher suffered for His words of Truth. Man resists the path to Light. Darkness is more pleasing to the eyes of moles, But love and knowledge will conquer all. Your spirit will ascend and you will pass by the uncomprehending ones swiftly, as you would mileposts on the way. Smile at the difficulties upon your path. I vouch, you will conquer!”

Helena Roerich (1879–1955) Russian philosopher

116
Leaves of Morya’s Garden: Book One (The Call) (1924)

Light , Smile , Suffering , Teachers

“The persecution of Julian Assange is the conquest of us all: of our independence, our self respect, our intellect, our compassion, our politics, our culture. So stop scrolling. Organise. Occupy. Insist. Persist. Make a noise. Take direct action. Be brave and stay brave. Defy the thought police. War is not peace, freedom is not slavery, ignorance is not strength. If Julian can stand up, so can you: so can all of us.”

John Pilger (1939) Australian journalist

The Prisoner Says No to Big Brother, CounterPunch, https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/03/04/the-prisoner-says-no-to-big-brother/ (4 March 2019)

Peace , Freedom , War , Self-confidence

“I want to be able to show up and raise the hell at the precise right moment that might tip the scales in a way that will make something a little more clear, or a little bit more just, for people I care about…”

Tressie McMillan Cottom American writer, sociologist, and professor

On what her writing goals are in “Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom: Raising Really Good Hell for People Who Cannot” https://www.guernicamag.com/dr-tressie-mcmillan-cottom-raising-really-good-hell-for-people-who-cannot/ in Guernica Magazine (2019 Mar 20)

Way , Hell , People

“A metaphor is a sign of desperation when we need another world to describe what we are feeling. Metaphors are about desperation and safety. We call out to metaphor because a metaphor makes us feel safe.”

Jericho Brown (1976) American writer

On how he employs metaphors in “Jericho Brown: ‘Poetry is a veil in front of a heart beating at a fast pace” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jul/28/jericho-brown-book-interview-q-and-a-new-testament-poetry in The Guardian (2018 Jul 28)

World , Feeling

“I have been in an abusive marriage. Violence can come from love, from a very intimate person. Violence can come from all sorts of crazy situations. What are you going to do? You have to deal with it when it strikes.”

Meena Kandasamy (1984) Indian poet

On facing abuse head on in “Meena Kandasamy interview: ‘I don’t know if I’m idiotic – or courageous’” https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/meena-kandasamy-interview-i-don-t-know-if-i-m-idiotic-or-courageous-9238644.html in the Independent (2014 Apr 6)

Marriage , Personality , Love

“Living on the hyphen is a complex cultural existence at times, and we’re often pulled in many directions where allegiance is always demanded. It is a fractured state of being, though I don’t think it’s necessarily bad; at least the having multiple ways of looking at life-the Mexican and American/the male and female. Where that goes awry is when we want to make one way of approaching life, The One Way. That’s where things begin to disintegrate, loyalties are questioned, and patriarchies are born…”

Isabel Quintero

On the Mexican American experience in “2015 Morris Award: An Interview with Finalist Isabel Quintero” http://www.yalsa.ala.org/thehub/2015/01/26/morris-award-finalist-interview-isabel-quintero/ in YALSA (2015 Jan 26)

Life , Time , Question , Bad luck

“This negation of our existence, and the omitting of our stories and histories, is one of the reasons I write — I write to exist. We cannot escape our past; our past determines what choices we make for the future. It determines how we act, how we see ourselves…”

Isabel Quintero

On the absence of people of color in her school curriculums in “‘My Writing is My Activism’: An Interview with Isabel Quintero” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/my-writing-is-my-activism-an-interview-with-isabel-quintero/ in Los Angeles Review of Books (2017 Feb 1)

Past , Future , History

“People understand that elders listen respectfully to everyone. There’s a place at their table for every person. But they know, too, that the elders have consistently been the best people to make important decisions. People are, therefore, comfortable deferring. Their dignity is not compromised, nor do they feel powerless or demeaned, because they are carrying out the decisions of the elders. They know the elders embody the wisdom of their ancestors, that without them they would never have gotten this far…”

Barry Lopez (1945) American writer

On the role of elders in certain societies in “The Goal Now Has to Be to Listen: An Interview with Barry Lopez” https://www.thegeorgiareview.com/posts/the-goal-now-has-to-be-to-listen-an-interview-with-barry-lopez/ in The Georgia Review (2019 Feb 15)

Understanding , Personality , People , Feeling

“Visibility is not enough—we need actual complexity. Visibility can quickly turn into invisibility when the stories that make us visible actually reduce our humanity and complexity. This is especially true if we prop up token stories—tokenism is a big problem when it comes to the film industry—or any industry…”

Sally Wen Mao Chinese-born American poet

On certain stories about Asian people being recycled in “HIJACKING THE NARRATIVE: A CONVERSATION WITH SALLY WEN MAO” https://theadroitjournal.org/2019/03/21/hijacking-the-narrative-a-conversation-with-sally-wen-mao/ in Adroit Journal (2019 Mar 21)

Problem

“They’re supposed to be the people who support you, who love you no matter what, and the reality is they’re the first people who teach you to cast doubt on yourself, they’re the first people who sometimes don’t have your back…”

Laila Lalami (1968) American writer

On families not always being a bedrock of support in “Migrant State of Mind: A Q&A With Novelist Laila Lalami” https://www.thenation.com/article/laila-lalami-interview-the-other-americans/ in The Nation (2019 Apr 23)

Support , People , Reality , Love

“I often start with a question as big and unwieldy as why do we have children – or what are we investing in when we love and raise our children; it’s a process of looking for structures – images or rhetorical figures – that will contain my questions.”

Gregory Pardlo (1968) American writer

On writing poetry in “Gregory Pardlo: How I Write” https://www.writermag.com/writing-inspiration/author-interviews/gregory-pardlo-how-i-write/ in The Writer (2019 Jul 17)

Question , Love , Children

“It really was harmful because it makes it feel for women, for LGBTQ folks, for even white men too, that there are only these tokens and that’s not the case. What it does is reinforce white supremacy, it reinforces patriarchy. It’s harmful to everyone, not just the people who are being erased.”

Blair Imani (1993) American activist

On how only certain historical figures are highlighted during celebratory months in “A Conversation with Blair Imani” https://www.readitforward.com/author-interview/a-conversation-with-blair-imani/ in Read It Forward

People , Feeling , Women , Men

“Therefore, you should be revulsed by such a body. You should despair of it and should arouse your admiration for the body of the Tathagata. Friends, the body of a Tathagata is the body of Dharma, born of gnosis. The body of a Tathagata is born of the stores of merit and wisdom. It is born of morality, of meditation, of wisdom, of the liberations, and of the knowledge and vision of liberation. It is born of love, compassion, joy, and impartiality. It is born of charity, discipline, and self-control. It is born of the path of ten virtues. It is born of patience and gentleness. It is born of the roots of virtue planted by solid efforts. It is born of the concentrations, the liberations, the meditations, and the absorptions. It is born of learning, wisdom, and liberative technique. It is born of the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment. It is born of mental quiescence and transcendental analysis. It is born of the ten powers, the four fearlessnesses, and the eighteen special qualities. It is born of all the transcendences. It is born from sciences and superknowledges. It is born of the abandonment of all evil qualities, and of the collection of all good qualities. It is born of truth. It is born of reality. It is born of conscious awareness. Friends, the body of a Tathagata is born of innumerable good works. Toward such a body you should turn your aspirations, and, in order to eliminate the sicknesses of the passions of all living beings, you should conceive the spirit of unexcelled, perfect enlightenment.”

Vimalakirti

Chapter 2 http://www.fodian.net/world/0475_02.html
Vimalakirti Sutra, Robert Thurman's translation, 1991

Despair , Learning , Perfection , Knowledge

“I know paper straws are better for the environment and I’m all for that. But for the love of everything that is under the sun, can we agree that paper straws actually SUCK more than the person using them? We gotta do better than this!”

Antonio Fresco (1983) American DJ, music producer, and radio personality

Twitter statement about environmental impact of plastic straws. https://twitter.com/djantoniofresco/status/1199086440031956993 (25 November 2019)

Sun , Personality , Love

“As the essays kept appearing, so did the five male lawyers (not the same ones, different ones, but they seemed to hunt in packs). And so did the criminal cases, mostly for contempt of court. One of them ended in a very short jail sentence, another is still pending. The debates were often acrimonious. Sometimes violent. But always important. Almost every essay got me into enough trouble to make me promise myself that I wouldn’t write another. But inevitably, situations arose in which the effort of keeping quiet set up such a noise in my head, such an ache in my blood, that I succumbed, and wrote.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

Arundhati Roy: Literature provides shelter. That's why we need it (abridged version of her PEN America Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture,) The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/13/arundhati-roy-literature-shelter-pen-america (13 May 2019)
Articles

Appearance , Effort

“We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on its vulnerable reserves of air and soil; all committed, for our safety, to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft. We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave — to the ancient enemies of man — half free in a liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew can travel safely with such vast contradictions. On their resolution depends the survival of us all.”

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) mid-20th-century Governor of Illinois and Ambassador to the UN

Speech to the UN Economic and Social Council, Geneva, Switzerland (9 July 1965)

Despair , Peace , Confidence , Dependency

“If there be any party which is more pledged than another to resist a policy of restrictive legislation, having for its object social coercion, that party is the Liberal party. (Cheers.) But liberty does not consist in making others do what you think right, (Hear, hear.) The difference between a free Government and a Government which is not free is principally this—that a Government which is not free interferes with everything it can, and a free Government interferes with nothing except what it must. A despotic Government tries to make everybody do what it wishes; a Liberal Government tries, as far as the safety of society will permit, to allow everybody to do as he wishes. It has been the tradition of the Liberal party consistently to maintain the doctrine of individual liberty. It is because they have done so that England is the place where people can do more what they please than in any other country in the world.”

William Harcourt (1827–1904) British politician

Speech in Oxford town hall (30 December 1872), quoted in The Times (31 December 1872), p. 5

Country , People , Thinking , World

“Urban planning is a long history of cities (and their planners) seeing, and deliberately not seeing, the people who live in them. Working in city planning makes me consider the city as an organism, as a machine for living in…”

Arkady Martine (1985) Science fiction author

On how being a city planner affects her writing in “Questions For Arkady Martine, Author Of 'A Memory Called Empire'” https://www.npr.org/2019/04/07/710356506/questions-for-arkady-martine-author-of-a-memory-called-empire in NPR (2019 Apr 7)

People , History

“It is my tamanna (deep desire) to do something for our society; I am inspired by the desire to live and die for my country; ...I want the glory of Gujarat to reach the whole world. ...I’ve used the mantra of lokprem (love for people) through Lok Kalyan Melas organised by the government to make the administrative machinery an instrument of lokseva (service of the people). ... To the baseless propaganda of the Congress, I have only this to say: Oh lord! Please give wisdom to those indulging in evil propaganda and give strength to those who live by good and good pure thoughts.”

Narendra Modi (1950) Prime Minister of India

February 20, 2002 The Sanjh Times quoted in Madhu Purnima Kishwar: Modi, Muslims and Media. Voices from Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, Manushi Publications, Delhi 2014.
2002

Country , People , World , Love

“With all this he showed himself so affable and simple to those under his rule, so severe and inexorable in the administration of justice, and so vigilant and careful in seeing that his orders were duly executed, that the government of Rome never was more feared or more loved in Sardinia than when he governed that island.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Marcus Cato, sec. 7
Parallel Lives

Love , Fear , Justice

“A great man is the unbelieving man; he is without spiritual sight or spiritual hearing; his glory is in understanding his own understanding. It is he who subdues the forest, tames the beasts of the field to service. He goes alone in the dark, unafraid. He follows no man’s course, but, searches for himself; the priests cannot make him believe, nor the angels of heaven; none can subdue his judgment. He says: why permit others even priests, to think for you? Stand on your own feet – be a man. Through his arm are tyrants and evil kings overthrown. Through him are doctrines and religions sifted to the bottom and the falsehood and evil in them cast aside. Who but the Creator could have created so great a man as the unbeliever?”

Kenneth Arnold (1915–1984) American aviator and businessman

Paraphrasing a section from Oahspe: A New Bible by John Ballou Newbrough (1828–1891), p. 361, which he handed out as his " philosophy card http://www.blueblurrylines.com/2017/03/ufos-kenneth-arnold-and-american-bible.html".

Religion , Understanding , Search , Angels

“Our party has a mass character, and hundreds of thousands of member. Owing to the situation in our country the bulk of Party members spring from the petty bourgeoisie. There is nothing surprising in it. IN the beginning under the influence of bourgeois ideology the stand of some Party members may lack firmness, their outlook may be confused and their thinking not quite correct, but owing to the fact that they have been tempered in the revolution and the war of resistance, our Party members are by and large good militants, faithful to the Party and the revolution. Those Comrades know that those Party members who commit errors will lead the masses into error; therefore, they stand ready to correct any mistake they may make, and this in a timely way, and do not allow small errors accumulate into big ones. They sincerely practice criticism and self-criticism, which makes it possible for them to progress together.”

Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam

"On Revolutionary Morality" (1958)
1950's, On Revolutionary Morality (1958)

Faith , Time , Country , War

“To make the revolution to transform the old society into a new one is a very glorious, but also extremely heavy task, a complex, protracted and hard struggle. Only a strong man can travel a long distance with a heavy load on his back. A revolutionary must have solid foundation of revolutionary morality in order to fulfill his glorious revolutionary task.”

Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam

"On Revolutionary Morality" (1958)
1950's, On Revolutionary Morality (1958)

Strong , Travel

“The duty of the cadres is to love and take care of every fighter and to value and save every cent, every bowl of rice, every work hour of their compatriots. Our fighters and compatriots have the right to demand that the cadres fulfill this task, and to criticize those who do not.”

Ho Chi Minh (1890–1969) Vietnamese communist leader and first president of Vietnam

"To Practice Thrift and Oppose Embezzlement (1952)
1950's

Love

“I learned to write reading North American literature, I love your literature, but I have this feeling that if a country only reads its own literature, it will run out of oxygen.”

Samanta Schweblin (1978) Argentine writer

On her encouraging that Americans read literature beyond their country in “Samanta Schweblin on Revealing Darkness Through Fiction” https://lithub.com/samanta-schweblin-on-revealing-darkness-through-fiction/ in LitHub (2017 Jan 12)

Reading , Country , Learning , Literature

“The past is not yet past. When things happen, the only way we can make sense of it is by telling the story about the past – realising where prejudices come from. And the point would be not only to spin a story about racial violence but to tell how our ancestors have bravely and creatively overcome these things.”

David Chariandy (1969) Canadian writer

On the past and prejudices in “David Chariandy: ‘To make sense of prejudice, tell the story of the past’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/apr/14/david-chariandy-ive-been-meaning-to-tell-you-father-advice-to-daughter in The Guardian (2019 Apr 14)

Sense , Past , Way

“I love when a crucial novel leaves a trace in my memory. In this, its ending plays a significant part—creating a wake effect that is never erased.”

Maylis de Kerangal (1967) French writer

On the writings that she favors in “Maylis de Kerangal by Jessica Moore” https://bombmagazine.org/articles/maylis-de-kerangal/ in Bomb Magazine (2015 Dec 15)

Love , Memory , Parting

“I began to think about its double nature: on the one hand you have an organ in your body and on the other you have a symbol of love. From that time I started to pursue the image of a heart crossing the night from one body to another. It is a simple narrative structure but it’s open to a lot of things. I had the intuition that this book could give form to my intimate experience of death.”

Maylis de Kerangal (1967) French writer

On the heart as the focus for her book Mend the Living in “‘What is a heart? You have an organ in your body and you have a symbol of love’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/apr/28/maylis-de-kerangal-interview-wellcome-prize-writing in The Guardian (2017 Apr 28)

Time , Night , Heart , Nature

“Once you have suffered sufficiently, the idea of making up John and Jane and having them do things together seems utterly ridiculous…”

Rachel Cusk (1967) British writer

On feeling that writing fiction was fake and embarrassing in “Rachel Cusk: 'Aftermath was creative death. I was heading into total silence'” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/24/rachel-cusk-interview-aftermath-outline in The Guardian (2014 Aug 24)

Idea , Suffering

“My parents never overtly pushed us to marry Chinese (in fact, my dad was an equal opportunity dater in his time). However, they always encouraged us to value our Chinese-ness. It was never something to be ashamed of. I grew up in a very Chinese American household; Mom cooked Chinese food almost every night, yet she loved her French cooking classes. We all played multiple classical instruments, but were also avid Broadway fans.”

Stacey Lee

On her household’s value on being Chinese American in “AN INTERVIEW WITH STACEY LEE” http://www.bookslut.com/features/2015_07_021234.php in BookSlut (Jul 2015)

Time , Night , Food , Parent

“As to the future of humanity, I’m essentially an optimist. I believe that with the advancement of technology, mankind has a hopeful future. But this optimistic view is based on reason: on one hand, whether the future will be bright or be dark depends largely on the choices we make today.”

Liu Cixin (1963) Chinese science fiction writer

On his hopes for mankind in “In the Author’s Universe: Interview with Sci-Fi Author Cixin Liu” https://vocal.media/futurism/in-the-authors-universe-interview-with-sci-fi-author-cixin-liu in Vocal (2016)

Future , Hope , Dependency

“Most trained actors can pick up a scene and give it a good sturdy first read, but a few coaching sessions does not a trained actor make - a lesson which has stayed with me ever since.”

Belita Moreno (1949) American actress

On what she has learned working as an acting coach in “Belita -- Not ‘Benny’ – Moreno” http://latinola.com/story.php?story=8908 in ¡LatinoLA! (2010 Sep 12)

Training , Reading

“Love, the secret and unofficial heart of pair-bonding behavior, is a force to be reckoned with but never predicted. Love supersedes all other directives and cancels previous obligations. The shared look of love is love’s preview, presenting a foretaste of the joys and sorrows to come, and setting into motion the automatic mating machinery upon which the success and stability of the State depends.”

Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) American writer

Sneak Previews (p. 85)
Short fiction, The Robot Who Looked Like Me (1978)

Dependency , Success , Heart , Joy

“I found her charming, went home and thought no more about her. Or, I thought I would think no more about her. But in the following days and nights her image remained obsessively before my eyes. My appetite fell off and I began sleeping badly. My computer checked out the relevant data and told me that I might conceivably be having a nervous breakdown; but the strongest inference was that I was in love.”

Robert Sheckley book The Robot Who Looked Like Me

The Robot Who Looked Like Me (p. 3)
Short fiction, The Robot Who Looked Like Me (1978)

Home , Sleep , Night , Thinking

“You simply can’t throw strangers together at random and expect the fiery, quick romance to turn into love. Love has its own rules and enforces them rigidly.”

Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) American writer

Gray Flannel Armor (p. 9)
Short fiction, Notions: Unlimited (1960)

Love

“As human beings, we have the responsibility to harness the immense human potential for good, not evil; for love, not hatred; and for peace, not war.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

The Transhumanism Handbook, 2019

Peace , War , Love , Evil

“The real heroes are scientists who are protecting humans from deadly bacteria and viruses, astronomers and planetary defense teams who are watching the sky for Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), police and firefighters who risk their lives to protect people, teachers who toil to educate their students, parents who make sacrifices for their children, and volunteers who devote their time and energy to serve others.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

The Transhumanism Handbook, 2019

Time , Children , People , Teachers

“The Transhumanist Party aims to motivate and mobilize both female and male scientists and engineers to take on additional responsibilities as rational politicians. It does not mean replacing democracy with technocracy. It means that our government needs help in making the right policies and investing in science, health, and technology for the improvement of the human condition and the long-term survival of the human race.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

The Transhumanism Handbook, 2019

Democracy , Help , Health , Motivation

“The world isn’t kind to black and brown girls, or black and brown women, especially when they come from working-class communities or from poverty. My girls taught me that it’s possible to make our own families, to find our families. They helped me believe in love and friendship and hope. But more than anything, after they had girls of their own, it was their girls who taught me the most important lessons: they helped me see the girl I was…”

Jaquira Díaz Puerto Rican writer

On the lessons her “home girls” taught her in “‘Either Hyper-Visible or Invisible’: An Interview with Jaquira Díaz” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/either-hyper-visible-or-invisible-an-interview-with-jaquira-diaz/ in Los Angeles Review of Books (2019 Oct 29)

Family , Friendship , Girl , Help

“There are many busy-bodies in the world, always worrying, always rushing back and forth; every one wonders at them. They seem ready to jump out of their own skins; but in spite of it all, they make no more progress than does the Squirrel in his wheel.”

Ivan Krylov (1769–1844) Russian writer

An argosy of fables, "The Rain cloud" p. 402
The Fables (1883)

Business , World

“Family to me is foundation. It’s the people that you can call on whether you love them or hate them. When push comes to shove, they’re there for you...”

Constance Marie (1965) actress

On how she defines family in “An Interview with Constance Marie” https://www.pbs.org/americanfamily/behind2.html (PBS; 2004)

Family , Hate , People , Love

“The folly of disallowing reconversions to Hinduism is a self-destructive one. How easily Hindus converting to Islam or Christianity merge in their new milieu. Yet the same facility is not available to a non-Hindu who might earnestly wish to return to his or her fold or adopt Hinduism as a matter of faith. This shackle seriously depletes our numbers and makes the Hindu community a ready preying ground for the conversion factories that are always looking at swelling their numbers, many times by stealth or inducements. I have nothing against those who convert to another faith by sheer conviction. But such examples are rare. Why should we not allow the enhancement of our numbers due to some antiquated idea that does not even have any scriptural sanction that we cannot convert to Hinduism?”

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (1883–1966) Indian pro-independence activist,lawyer, politician, poet, writer and playwright

V. D. Savarkar, quoted in Vikram Sampath - Savarkar, Echoes from a Forgotten Past, 1883–1924 (2019)

Faith , Time , Communication , Self-confidence

“I went vegetarian at about 5 years old when I visited a Dude Ranch with my family and saw a rodeo. It was traumatizing and I made a conscious decision at that age to never eat animals again. When I started middle school, I read a book that exposed a lot of the truth about the food industry and encouraged a healthful lifestyle through a guide to living vegan. It was a mostly simple transition that made me feel so much better about myself, inside and out. … For as long I can remember, acting and animal activism have made me feel alive and purposeful … I would love to see more organizations coming together. Sometimes it’s tricky to understand everyone’s opinions. We all have so many of the same intentions, it’d be awesome to see more support for one another amongst the community.”

Daniella Monet (1989) American actress, singer and dancer

"Celebs Who Love Veg: Our Interview with Daniella Monet", LoveVeg.com (1 March 2019) https://loveveg.com/celebs-who-love-veg-our-interview-with-daniella-monet/.

School , Family , Reading , Food

“I think I was just a very skinless person…And I had this terrible need to confess; and I still do it…It’s a bid to be loved, in some way.”

Hilton Als (1961) writer, critic

On writing in a confession manner in order to broadcast intimacy in “Hilton Als: ‘I had this terrible need to confess, and I still do it. It’s a bid to be loved’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/feb/02/hilton-als-interview-pulitzer-prize-criticism-white-girls in The Guardian (2018 Feb 2)

Personality , Thinking , Way , Love

“The damage suffered by people I know and love is almost always based on the trauma of the only elder they had treating them badly or being interested only in their silence. And what you’re left with, by the grace of God and some miracle, is this inner self. Our experiences are painful and sometimes annihilating, and if we have the strength to crawl out of and excavate that wreckage, we have to ask ourselves how to describe the truth of it.”

Hilton Als (1961) writer, critic

On wrestling with the idea of “protecting your elders” in “Hilton Als, The Art of the Essay No. 3” https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7178/hilton-als-the-art-of-the-essay-no-3-hilton-als in The Paris Review (Summer 2018)

God , Pain , Silence , Suffering

“He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed — love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1950)

Forgetting , Victory , Hope , Heart

“Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat....”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1950)

Question , Heart , Universe , Problem

“He was only ten. It seemed to him that he could see them, the two of them, shadowy in the limbo from which time emerged and became time: the old bear absolved of mortality and himself who shared a little of it. Because he recognised now what he had smelled in the huddled dogs and tasted in his own saliva, recognised fear as a boy, a youth recognises the existence of love and passion and experience which is his heritage but not yet his patrimony, from entering by chance the presence of perhaps even merely the bedroom of a woman who has loved and been loved by many men.”

William Faulkner book Go Down, Moses

The Bear section 1 (p. 195)
Go Down, Moses (1942)

Chance , Time , Dogs , Boy

“Who is he who will affirm that there must be a web of flesh and bone to hold the shape of love?”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

"Beyond" (1933)

Love

“You see, if I could believe that I shall see and touch him again, I shall not have lost him. And if I have not lost him, I shall never have had a son. Because I am I through bereavement and because of it. I do not know what I was nor what I shall be. But because of death, I know that I am. And that is all the immortality of which intellect is capable and flesh should desire. Anything else is for peasants, clods, who could never have loved a son well enough to have lost him.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

The Judge to Robert G. Ingersoll
"Beyond" (1933)

Love , Death

“I don’t think sexism is worse than racism, it’s impossible even to compare…It’s that I feel lonely in my fight against sexism, in a way that I don’t feel in my fight against racism. My friends, my family, they get racism, they get it. The people I’m close to who are not black get it. But I find that with sexism you are constantly having to explain, justify, convince, make a case for.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (1977) Nigerian writer

On why sexism is at times a more difficult argument for her than racism in “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: ‘This could be the beginning of a revolution’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/apr/28/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-feminism-racism-sexism-gender-metoo in The Guardian (2018 Apr 28)

Family , People , Thinking , Way

“Characters, even though they’re minor, shouldn’t be a device. No person should be a device to move the plot along. That’s when you run into problems with stereotypes. I strive, in my journalism and my fiction, to make characters as complex and complicated as they are in real life…”

Vanessa Hua American journalist and writer

On how she writes characters in “Motherhood and Migration: An Interview with Vanessa Hua on ‘A River of Stars’” https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/motherhood-and-migration-an-interview-with-vanessa-hua-on-a-river-of-stars/ in Los Angeles Review of Books (2018 Sep 13)

Personality , Problem , Life

“I want to make it absolutely clear that we respect this religiousness as a question of freedom of religious beliefs, as recognized by the programme which was approved by our Congress.”

Abimael Guzmán (1934–2021) Peruvian communist

Interview with Chairman Gonzalo

Question , Freedom

Quotes about making love page 8

Quotes about making love
page 8