"Surely it's better to love others, however messy and imperfect the involvement, than to allow one's capacity for love to harden."

--

Source : Karen Armstrong (2010). “Through the Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Life In and Out of the Convent”, p.382, Vintage Canada

Karen Armstrong

#Imperfect Quotes #Capacity Quotes #Messy Quotes

“Oops, I thought. Oops is an all-purpose word standing for every bit of profanity, blasphemy, and pornographic and scatological execration I could think of.”
“Every citizen's vote should count in America, not just the votes of partisan insiders in the Electoral College. The Electoral College was necessary when communications were poor, literacy was low and voters lacked information about out-of-state figures, which is clearly no longer the case.”
“But most hearts say, I want, I want, I want, I want. My heart is more duplicitous, though no twin as I once thought. It says, I want, I don't want, I want, and then a pause. It forces me to listen...”
“There is scarce any passion so heartily decried by moralists and satirists, as AMBITION; and yet, methinks, ambition is not a vice but in a vicious mind: in a virtuous mind it is a virtue, and will be found to take its color from the character in which it is mixed. Ambition is a desire of superiority; and a man may become superior, either by making others less or himself greater.”
“The seriousness or otherwise of the subject matter is often irrelevent to the question of whether a book is any good. F Scott Fitzgerald wrote a great and beautiful novel which mainly involved shallow people going to parties in a rich guy's house. By contrast, all sorts of terrible books are published every month about men slaughtering people for no reason - a serious matter which, in itself, does not make the author worthy of serious consideration.”
“Only in situations where competition is illegal will competition not act naturally to bring the best product at the lowest price to the consumer.”
“Enthusiasm is grave, inward, self-controlled; mere excitement, outward, fantastic, hysterical, and passing in a moment from tears to laughter.”

Source : John Sterling (1848). “Essays and Tales: Fragments from the travels of Theodore Elbert. Thoughts. Tales and apologues”, p.130
“We need to have a culture that says 'the less energy you can use to be comfortable, the better off you are and the better you should feel about yourself'.”

Source : "Interview with Roscoe Bartlett on Peak Oil". Interview with David Room, www.resilience.org. May 3, 2005.

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