pithy quotes – Non Omnis Moriar

constantia — Thu, 06 Nov 2014 19:10:22 +0000

I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.

constantia — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 04:02:51 +0000

“Wonder had gone away, and he had forgotten that life is only a set of pictures in the brain, among which there is no difference betwixt those born of real things and those born of inward dreamings, and no cause to value the one above the other.”

― H.P. Lovecraft, The Silver Key

Hello, 2013.

constantia — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 08:02:36 +0000

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
Whispering, “It will be happier.”

Quotes About Writing from George R.R. Martin

constantia — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:02:45 +0000

[ grrm awesomeness via io9 ]

Neil Gaiman’s Advice for Aspiring Artists

constantia — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 22:28:47 +0000

constantia — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 21:09:07 +0000

We’re seduced early on by the notion that everybody’s got a novel in them and so on and so forth. And that is very probably true. But the fact is that the only way to be certain of whether there’s a novel inside you is to sit down with a pen in your hand one day and start to do it. – Clive Barker

The Meaning of Life

constantia — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:30:45 +0000

We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. – Charles Bukowski

We are here to witness the creation and abet it. We are here to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but, especially, we notice the beautiful faces and complex natures of each other. We are here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are around us and to praise the people who are here with us. We witness our generation and our times. We watch the weather. Otherwise, creation would be playing to an empty house.

According to the second law of thermodynamics, things fall apart. Structures disintegrate. Buckminster Fuller hinted at a reason we are here: By creating things, by thinking up new combinations, we counteract this flow of entropy. We make new structures, new wholeness, so the universe comes out even. A shepherd on a hilltop who looks at a mess of stars and thinks, ‘There’s a hunter, a plow, a fish,’ is making mental connections that have as much real force in the universe as the very fires in those stars themselves. – Annie Dillard

Ancient religion and modern science agree: we are here to give praise. Or, to slightly tip the expression, to pay attention. Without us, the physicists who have espoused the anthropic principle tell us, the universe would be unwitnessed, and in a real sense not there at all. It exists, incredibly, for us. This formulation (knowing what we know of the universe’s ghastly extent) is more incredible, to our sense of things, than the Old Testament hypothesis of a God willing to suffer, coddle, instruct, and even (in the Book of Job) to debate with men, in order to realize the meager benefit of worship, of praise for His Creation. What we beyond doubt do have is our instinctive intellectual curiosity about the universe from the quasars down to the quarks, our wonder at existence itself, and an occasional surge of sheer blind gratitude for being here. – John Updike

No why. Just here. – John Cage

So, what are your thoughts? What’s the meaning of life?

[ source ]

Trying to remember, despite the noise.

constantia — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:46:56 +0000

There are not many persons who know what wonders are opened to them in the stories and visions of their youth; for when as children we learn and dream, we think but half-formed thoughts, and when as men we try to remember, we are dulled and prosaic with the poison of life. But some of us awake in the night with strange phantasms of enchanted hills and gardens, of fountains that sing in the sun, of golden cliffs overhanging murmuring seas, of plains that stretch down to sleeping cities of bronze and stone, and of shadowy companies of heroes that ride caparisoned white horses along the edges of thick forests; and then we know that we have looked back through the ivory gates into that world of wonder which was ours before we were wise and unhappy.
― H.P. Lovecraft

constantia — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 04:01:29 +0000

constantia — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 05:26:39 +0000

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that but the really great make you feel that you too can become great. When you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition it is important with whom you regularly associate. Hang out with friends who are like-minded and who are also designing purpose-filled lives. Similarly be that kind of a friend for your friends.
― Mark Twain