June 2011
“Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it doesn’t make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It’s beyond me.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (via jvictoriawrites)
“One of my responsibilities as Commander in Chief is to keep an eye on robots and I’m pleased to report that the robots you manufacture here seem peaceful…at least for now.”
—President Obama talking to the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon. (via juliasegal)
“To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must write dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfume and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish for you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories—science fiction or otherwise. Which means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.”
—Ray Bradbury (via falllingup)
“Some may blackly (angrily) accuse me of trying to blacken (defame) the English language, to give it a black eye (a mark of shame) by writing such black words (hostile). They may denigrate (to cast aspersions) me by accusing me of being blackhearted (malevolent), of having a black outlook (pessimistic) on life, of being a blackguard (scoundrel)- which would certainly be a black mark (detrimental fact) against me. Some may black brow (scowl at) at me and hope that a black cat crosses in front of me because of this black deed. I may become a black sheep, who will be blackballed (ostracized) by being placed on a blacklist in an attempt to blackmail or blackjack (compel by threat) me will have a Chinaman’s chance of success, for I am not a yellow-bellied Indian-giver of words, who will whitewash (cover up or gloss over) a black lie (harmful, inexcusable). I challenge the purity and innocence (white) of the English language. I don’t see things in black and white (entirely bad or entirely good) terms, for I am a white man (marked by upright firmness) if there ever was one. However, it would be a black day when I would not “call a spade a spade,” even though some will suggest that a white man calling the English language racist is like the pot calling the kettle black. While many may be niggardly (grudging, scanty) in their support, others will be honest and decent- and to them I say, that’s very white of you (honest, decent).”
—Robert B. Moore, “Racist Stereotyping in the English Language” (via onehundreddollars)
“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore it knows it’s not fooling a soul.”
—Neil Gaiman, American Gods (via onehundreddollars)
“You know what’s weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon…everything’s different.”
—Bill Watterson (via onehundreddollars)
“
There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you.
Zora Neale Hurston
” —
“
Today’s graduates are also told to find their passion and then pursue their dreams. The implication is that they should find themselves first and then go off and live their quest. But, of course, very few people at age 22 or 24 can take an inward journey and come out having discovered a developed self.
Most successful young people don’t look inside and then plan a life. They look outside and find a problem, which summons their life. A relative suffers from Alzheimer’s and a young woman feels called to help cure that disease. A young man works under a miserable boss and must develop management skills so his department can function. Another young woman finds herself confronted by an opportunity she never thought of in a job category she never imagined. This wasn’t in her plans, but this is where she can make her contribution.
Most people don’t form a self and then lead a life. They are called by a problem, and the self is constructed gradually by their calling.
” —It’s Not About You - NYTimes.com (via onehundreddollars)
“I wish in the past I had tried more things ‘cause now I know that being in trouble is a fake idea.”
— Chris Onstad, Achewood creator (via eudaimonist)
“I wish that instead of just being born attractive, you could become better looking by being a good person. Like, a girl is walking down the street and a dude sees her and is like, ‘damn, baby, how’d you get an ass like that?’ And she’s like, ‘as a matter of fact, I got it from volunteering at my local soup kitchen.’”
—Neal Brennan (via nealbrennan)