(no subject)

[tylik]

Belatedly looking more carefully, I believe the terms of the meme are to go to this page and find five quote that resonate. I'm not very good at coloring inside the lines, either.

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton (1915 - 1968), 'No Man Is an Island'

Which is perhaps why my definition of aesthetics is broader than most.

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
George Washington (1732 - 1799)

Erm. Mixed feelings, actually. I do not think one benefits by being parsimonious with one's friendships or intimacy. Neither does one benefit from cheap intimacy or shallow friendship. Trust is built over time.

I feel that we read to learn new things, sure, absolutely, but more often than not, what we really get out of the good books we read is self- recognition. We read and discover stuff about life that we already knew, except that we didn't know we knew it until we read it in a particular book. And this self-recognition, this discovering ourselves in the writings of others can be very exciting, can make us feel a little less isolated inside our own thing and a little more connected to the larger world.
Richard Price, Samaritan

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...'
Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)

Blessed are they who heal you of self-despisings. Of all services which can be done to man, I know of none more precious.
William Hale White

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.
Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967), (attributed)

You are only as wise as others perceive you to be.
M. Shawn Cole

Okay, if not for this one I probably wouldn't annotate any of this. This one resonated, but mostly because I disagree with it so very much, at least inasmuch as I think the quest for being seen as wise bears little resemblence to any quest for wisdom. I am often far less wise than people have perceived me to be. And so many people mistake their own reputation and adulation for accomplishment.

What is awful about this is how self defeating it is. Perhaps some people can live on such a diet, but as sweet as it may be to me it provides no nourishment. I like to think that most of us, even if we get distracted chasing after such goals know that in the end satisfying the court of public approval will not gain us satisfaction with ourselves. In our own hearts we will know, we must know, if we have done the things that matter and fulfill ourselves, and we are more exacting judges than any outsider could be.

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.
Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

Man is condemned to be free.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980)

I rather suspect that given the chance I would have attempted to take Sartre to bed.