
“The mercy of the world is you don't know what's going to happen.”
Source: Jayber Crow
Source: Where I'm Calling From: New and Selected Stories
“The mercy of the world is you don't know what's going to happen.”
Source: Jayber Crow
On loss and failure, from [September 7, 1959, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 64, On Broadway, Dorothy, Kilgallen]
Interview with CollageFoundation.org
Context: I'm glad Bush is coming out so strongly against gay marriage, because I think it's time in this country for people to wake up... If your partner happens to be the same sex as you, I don't have a problem with that and I don't think anyone else should. We're not doing a service to our kids by cloistering them from reality. It's better to discuss reality.
“I don't think anyone really knows how to help everyone. I don't even know what's best for me.”
2010s, I don't know, so I'm an atheist libertarian (2011)
Context: What makes me libertarian is what makes me an atheist — I don't know. If I don't know, I don't believe. I don't know exactly how we got here, and I don't think anyone else does, either. We have some of the pieces of the puzzle and we'll get more, but I'm not going to use faith to fill in the gaps. I'm not going to believe things that TV hosts state without proof. I'll wait for real evidence and then I'll believe.
And I don't think anyone really knows how to help everyone. I don't even know what's best for me.
7 Questions with Joe Strummer (15 August 2001)
Interview with Martin Gayford, Independent on Sunday 26 May 2002
Other
Source: Sam Harris, Big Think Sam Harris On Death http://bigthink.com/ideas/3127 (July 4, 2007)
Context: We just don’t teach people how to grieve. You know, religion is the epitome, the antithesis of teaching your children how to grieve. You tell your child that, “Grandma is in heaven”, and there’s nothing to be sad about. That’s religion. It would be better to equip your child for the reality of this life, which is, you know, we... death is a fact. And we don’t know what happens after death. And I’m not pretending to know that you get a dial tone after death. I don’t know what happens after the physical brain dies. I don’t know what the relationship between consciousness and the physical world is. I don’t think anyone does know. Now I think there are many reasons to be doubtful of naïve conceptions about the soul, and about this idea that you could just migrate to a better place after death. But I simply don’t know about what... I don’t know what I believe about death. And I don’t think it’s necessary to know in order to live as sanely and ethically and happily as possible. I don’t think you get... You don't get anything worth getting by pretending to know things you don't know.