Adversaria

Jan 19

“Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

Dec 5

“People have to snatch at happiness when they can, in this world. It is always easier to lose than to find.” Willa Cather

Oct 17

“The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. is bound to be noticed.” Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death

Oct 16

“We can say without exaggeration that the present national ambition of the United States is unemployment. People live for quitting time, for weekends, for vacations, and for retirement; moreover, this ambition seems to be classless, as true in the executive suites as on the assembly lines. One works, not because the work is necessary, valuable, and useful to a desirable end, or because one loves to do it, but only to be able to quit—a condition that a saner time would regard as infernal, a condemnation. This is explained, of course, by the dullness of the work, by the loss of responsibility for, or credit for, or knowledge of the thing made.” Wendell Berry, Grounded Vision

Oct 15

“The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life.” Walker Percy, The Moviegoer

Oct 14

“Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.” Vaclav Havel

Oct 13

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou

Oct 11

“From Kierkegaard’s Journals” or “Why I Love Kierkegaard”

What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know, except insofar as a certain understanding must precede every action. The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do; the thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die. What would be the use of discovering so-called objective truth, of working through all the systems of philosophy and of being able, if required, to review them all and show up the inconsistencies within each system; what good would it do me to be able to develop a theory of the state and combine all the details into a single whole, and so construct a world in which I did not live, but only held up to the view of others; what good would it do me to be able to explain the meaning of Christianity if it had no deeper significance for me and for my life; what good would it do me if truth stood before me, cold and naked, not caring whether I recognized her or not, and producing in me a shudder of fear rather than a trusting devotion? I certainly do not deny that I still recognize an imperative of understanding and that through it one can work upon men, but it must be taken up into my life, and that is what I now recognize as the most important thing. That is what my soul longs after, as the African desert thirsts for water. That is what I lack, and that is why I am left standing like a man who has rented a house and gathered all the furniture and household things together, but has not yet found the beloved with whom to share the joys and sorrows of his life.

Oct 2

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” Robert Frost

Sep 29

“All faith is autopsy.” Soren Kierkegaard

Sep 15

“Angels, I read, belong to nine different orders. Seraphs are the highest; they are aflame with love for God, and stand closer to him than the others. Seraphs love Go; cherubs, whoa are second, possess perfect knowledge of him. So love is greater than knowledge; how could I have forgotten?” Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm

Sep 9

“As a remedy to life in society, I would suggest the big city. Nowadays, it is the only desert within our means.” Albert Camus, Notebooks

Sep 8

“Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.” Rainer Maria Rilke

Aug 28

“What your heart says is great is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.” Ralph Waldo Emerson