Nothing is more useful for mortals, than clear-minded skepticism.

-Euripides (translated by Emily Wilson), Helen

I might have to join Tumblr

lolmythesis — the work of scholars everywhere reduced to aphorisms.

that's how it's supposed to be from the beginning

Children come to displace. They live on the earth after you are gone, and forget you. It's not their fault.

-Amanda Coplin, The Orchardist

the following day, no one died

Nothing is ever perfect, however, for alongside those who laugh, there will always be others who weep, and sometimes for the self-same reasons.

One cannot be too careful with words, they change their minds just as people do.

Words move, they change from one day to the next, they are as unstable as shadows, are themselves shadows, which both are and have ceased to be, soap bubbles, shells in which one can barely hear a whisper, mere tree stumps.

Life is an orchestra which is always playing, in tune or out, a titanic that is always sinking and always rising to the surface.

Prudence only serves to postpone the inevitable, sooner or later, it surrenders.

Dissonance also has a role to play in music.

It wasn't true what the proverb said, that what the eyes don't see, the heart doesn't grieve over. Proverbs are so deceiving.

-José Saramago, Death with Interruptions

stop that thinking, boy!

An idea is a long suppressed lust. Those who get ideas are the most dangerous people in the world because they are ready to take the risk. They just want to see what happens; their thinking goes no further.

-Andri Snaer Magnason, LoveStar

he does credit Pascal

The sole cause of Man’s unhappiness is his inability to sit quietly in his room.

If I can make things seem fun, then maybe they’ll be fun.

-Scott Hutchins, A Working Theory of Love

three from the dark side

Sometimes the truth is so perfect that it leaves you speechless, simply because there is nothing to be added or subtracted, nothing to do but admire its terrible beauty even as it rips out your still-beating heart and sterilizes the bleeding cavity.

People can get used to anything .... If you do something often enough and for long enough, no matter how trivial or painful or useless or self-defeating or just plain stupid, it changes you. It becomes part of you, part of who you are, and you keep doing it, because that's who you are now.

Utopias are delicious! Taste like chicken.

-J. Stanton, The Gnoll Credo