"No one is obliged to take a position on the urgent issues of the day, but there are times when our impoverished public sphere could do with some occasional assertions of literary and moral authority."

-- Pankaj Mishra

#Issues Quotes #Spheres Quotes #Moral Quotes

“Our humanness is the part of us that we try and push away, that we don't want to see, that we don't like. It's about self-acceptance, number one, and it's also about accepting our creation.”
“Most people say their main fault is a lack of discipline. On deeper thought, I believe this is not the case. The basic problem is that their priorities have not become deeply planted in their hearts and minds.”
“Jack Bogle's passionate cry of Enough! contains a thought-provoking litany of life lessons regarding our individual roles in commerce and society. Employing a seamless mix of personal anecdotes, hard evidence and all-too-often-underrated subjective admonitions, Bogle challenges each of us to aspire to become better members of our families, our professions and our communities.Â Rarely do so few pages provoke so much thought.Â Read this book.”
“I do really well when a challenge is put in front of me. I don't just wake up and write. I like being forced to make decisions on the spot. I think that's why I've done so many things as a freelancer.”
“Just as we descend into our consciences to judge of actions which our minds can not weigh, can we not also search in ourselves for the feeling which gives birth to forms of thought, always vague and cloudy?”

Source : Alfred De Vigny (2018). “Cinq Mars”, p.12, BoD – Books on Demand
“The Iraq war that I signed up for was launched on false premises. The American people were misled. Now, whether that was due to bad faith or simply mistakes in intelligence, I can't say for sure. But I can say it shows the problem of putting too much faith in intelligence systems without debating them in public.”
“His last words, according to De Morgan: Man follows only phantoms.”
“Otherwise I got out of bed on two strong legs. It might have been otherwise. I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe, flawless peach. It might have been otherwise. I took the dog uphill to the birch wood. All morning I did the work I love. At noon I lay down with my mate. It might have been otherwise. We ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks. It might have been otherwise. I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls, and planned another day just like this day. But one day, I know, it will be otherwise.”

Source : Jane Kenyon (1996). “Otherwise: new and selected poems”, Graywolf Pr

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