“We are so bemused by our own petard, that we are unable to look at things objectively.”
Thoughtful feeling
Thoughtful Quotes — page 147 of 303
“Time...give us enough time and our best-supported decisions will seem wobbly, our certainties whimsical.”
“What you end up remembering isn't always the same as what you have witnessed.”
“The purpose of polite behavior is never virtuous. Deceit, surrender, and concealment these are not virtues. The goal of the mannerly is comfort, per se.”
“Those readiest to criticise are often least able to appreciate.”
“In mortals there is a care for trifles which proceeds from love and conscience, and is most holy; and a care for trifles which comes of idleness and frivolity, and is most base. And so, also, there is a gravity proceeding from thought, which is most noble; and a gravity proceeding from dulness and mere incapability of enjoyment, which is most base.”
“Absolute ugliness is admitted as rarely as perfect beauty; but degrees of it more or less distinct are associated with whatever has the nature of death and sin, just as beauty is associated with what has the nature of virtue and of life.”
“I have a low opinion of books: they are piles of stones set up to show coming travelers where other minds have been, or at best signal smokes to call attention.”
“Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works.”
“I do think better of womankind than to suppose they care whether Mister John Keats five feet high likes them or not.”
“And yes, again, that was it exactly. A retyper and not a writer. A prodigy and not a genius.”
“Quite often you want to tell somebody your dream, your nightmare. Well, nobody wants to hear about someone else's dream, good or bad; nobody wants to walk around with it. The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream.”
“I don't write for catharsis; I have to write to understand.”
“The book you don't read won't help.”
“I think my voice worked out fine, but it was a lot of work for me. And I was very self-conscious about it. I was a bit self-conscious about writing lyrics too.”
“Sentimentality is a basking in feelings that in reality you don't take seriously enough to make the slightest sacrifice to or ever translate into action.”
“I'm very aware when I'm speaking to the English of how flat my Mid-Atlantic American voice is.”
“A young man is embarrassed to question an older one.”
“Life's most persistent and urgent question is: what are you doing for others? Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.”
“We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.”