"The vitality of a culture is in its capacity to assimilate foreign influences. The culture that's defensive and closed condemns itself to decadence."

--

Source : "Scourge of the new Spain" by Maya Jaggi, www.theguardian.com. August 12, 2000.

Juan Goytisolo

#Vitality Quotes #Culture Quotes #Influence Quotes

“Little by little, writers develop their own styles, each as unique as a fingerprint.”
“Doubt begets understanding, and understanding begets compassion. Verily, it is conviction that kills.”

Source : R. Scott Bakker (2008). “The Thousandfold Thought: The Prince of Nothing, Book Three (The Prince of Nothing)”, p.289, The Overlook Press
“Expose your life to real need. Visit a developing a country. Take a short term mission trip. Write an inmate, send a letter to a sponsored child, serve in the inner city, at a food bank, with a crisis pregnancy center. Make time for shut-ins, the elderly, the sick, the single-parents, the new believers. Just find one way you can make your awareness of your gift-graced life intersect with a real place of need - and Christ in us will do the rest.”
“Like most problems with technology, pollution is a problem of scale. The biosphere might have been able to tolerate our dirty old friends coal and oil if we burned them gradually, but how long can it withstand a blaze of consumption so frenzied that the dark size of this planet glows like a fanned ember in the night of space.”

Source : Ronald Wright (2010). “A Short History Of Progress”, p.7, Canongate Books
“Happiness has a bad rap. People say it shouldn't be your goal in life. Oh, yes it should.”
“We grow up being told about great figures in our society, and as you get older you have to question the stories you've been told and decide if these great figures are indeed as great as you've been told.”
“The essay community should have hundreds of anthologies from hundreds of different perspectives that are constantly introducing us to new writers, new work, and new visions for our genre. The whole spirit of these anthologies is that there should never be a last word in how essays are interpreted or what they can be.”
“Folks, you're the reason that the automobile industry is back. Whether it was the wage freezes, the plant closures, folks, you sacrificed to keep your companies open. Because of your productivity, the combined auto companies have committed to invest another $23 billion in expansion in America.”

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