
“In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.”
Source: Peony in Love
"When Your Husband's Affection Cools" in Good Housekeeping (May 1972)
“In that moment I understood that the cruelest words in the universe are if only.”
Source: Peony in Love
“Hatred and anger are the greatest poison to the happiness of a good mind.”
Section II, Chap. III.
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), Part I
“You cannot repress anger or love, or avoid feeling them, and you should not try.”
Source: The 48 Laws of Power
“You can sense their anger before they even say a word.”
Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 77
Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit, p. 8
Catching the Big Fish (2006)
Context: When I started meditating, I was filled with anxieties and fears. I felt a sense of depression and anger.
I often took out this anger on my first wife. After I had been meditating for about two weeks, she came to me and said, "What's going on?" I was quiet for a moment. But finally I said, "What do you mean?" And she said, "This anger, where did it go?" And I hadn't even realized that it had lifted.
I call that depression and anger the Suffocating Rubber Clown Suit of Negativity. It's suffocating, and that rubber stinks. But once you start meditating and diving within, the clown suit starts to dissolve. You finally realize how putrid was the stink when it starts to go. Then, when it dissolves, you have freedom.
Anger and depression and sorrow are beautiful things in a story, but they are like poison to the filmmaker or artist. They are like a vise grip on creativity. If you're in that grip, you can hardly get out of bed, much less experience the flow of creativity and ideas. You must have clarity to create. You have to be able to catch ideas.
Source: Today I Will: A Year of Quotes, Notes, and Promises to Myself
regarding "Soma"; van den Berg, Erik. "Smashing Pumpkins." Oor. 10 June 1993.
As cited in Schaff (1962;6).
"Comments on Semantics", 1952