"Father was afraid of laughter and joy. He was particularly afraid of ridicule. He was afraid that someone would say that humans are descended from apes. Or that the earth is much older than four thousand years. Or that someone would ask where Noah go his polar bears from. Or that someone would swear. Father was terrified."

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Source : Guus Kuijer (2012). “The Book of Everything”, p.77, Scholastic Inc.

Guus Kuijer

#Laughter Quotes #Fear Quotes #Father Quotes

“I think all the president-elect is saying is that we have to be able to be - to keep ourselves safe and secure, and when others stop building their nuclear weapons, then we'll feel more secure in that regard.”
“It is a measure of the Negro's circumstance that, in America, the smallest things usually take him so very long, and that, by the time he wins them, they are no longer little things: they are miracles.”

Source : Murray Kempton (2012). “Part of Our Time: Some Ruins and Monuments of the Thirties”, p.246, New York Review of Books
“What is life but being conscious? And good and evil are manifestations of consciousness. If you reject one, you're not getting the whole thing that's there to be had.”
“[America] doesn't have an emphasis anymore on original discovery. Everything is based on teaching and learning for tests. Memorizing what you are taught, not on actually making discoveries. People are being treated as herded cattle instead of as human beings capable of making original, creative discoveries.”
“What do you want from me? Fine writing? Or do you want to see the sales curve stop moving down and start moving up?”
“The artists who endure are the ones who stay focused even after they have reached the top of their profession.”
“We heard from the abortionists and we heard from the people who looked like Jacks, acted like Jills and had the odors of Johns.”
“God, like all highest things, Hides light in shade, And in the night his visitings To sleep and dreams are clearliest made.”

Source : Arthur Symons (1909). “Poems”

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