no. 887

 "To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. . . . Anybody can have ideas--the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph."

Mark Twain

no. 886

 “Music is one of the most fantastic things. Almost like fire, and water, and air. It's like a thing. And it does so much. It does a thing for the intellect, it does a thing for the emotions. And a certain kind of music can swell the heart to almost burst. Tears of happiness flow out of your eyes. You can't believe the beauty that comes. And it comes from these notes."

David Lynch in the film Beatles 64

no. 885

 "When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." 

Helen Keller

no. 884

“There is a common belief that there is an ideological ‘center’— a large group of ‘moderate’ voters either with a consistent ideology of their own or lined up left to right on the issues or forming a ‘mainstream’, all with the same positions on issues.

In fact, the so-called center is actually made up of biconceptuals — people who are conservative in some aspects of life and progressive in others. Voters who self-identify as ‘conservative’ often have significant progressive values in important areas of life. We should address these ‘partial progressive’ biconceptuals through their progressive identities, which are often systematic and extensive.

A common mistaken ideology has convinced many progressives that they must ‘move to the right’ to get more votes. But this is counterproductive. By moving to the right, progressives actually help activate the right's values and give up on their own. In the process, they also alienate their own base.

George Lakoff, from “Twelve Communication Traps Democrats and Progressives Must Avoid.” 

no. 883

 “The universe contains any amount of horrible ways to be woken up,  such as the noise of the mob breaking down the front door, the scream of fire engines, or the realization that today is the Monday which on Friday night was a comfortably long way off. 

A dog's wet nose is not strictly speaking the worst of the bunch, but it has its own peculiar dreadfulness which connoisseurs of the ghastly and dog owners everywhere have come to know and dread. It's like having a small piece of defrosting liver pressed lovingly against you.”

From Terry Pratchett’s novel Moving Pictures

no. 882

 “I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.” 

Peter Brook, The Empty Space Atheneum (New York, 1968)

no. 881

 “That might sound odd, I guess, but there’s something satisfyingly… apparent about hanging yourself on a wall. Be it a trophy taken from war, a great beast, or just a really nice picture, what you put on your walls is your declaration to the world, the words you speak to whoever can hear you.”

From Sam Sykes’ novel Seven Blades In Black

no. 880

 “Religion attaches to heaven an idea of equality which prevents the rich from being slaughtered by the poor.”

Napoleon Bonaparte, March 4, 1806, during a meeting of the national committee

no. 879

 

no. 878

 

Excerpt from Timothy Snyder's "On Tyranny:"

no. 877

 “This process includes the replacement of all first-rate talents, regardless of their political loyalties, with crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is the best guarantee of their loyalty.”

Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, renewed version, A Harvest Book New York, 1976, 339

no. 876

 “Dark times lie ahead of us and there will be a time when we must choose between what is easy and what is right.”

Albus Dumbledore.

(Yes, I know it’s J.K.Rowling)

no. 875

 “Let me remind you: Surrender means Russian occupation. Russian occupation means torture, sexual violence, enforced disappearance, denial of your identity, forcible adoption of your own children, filtration camps, and mass graves. Occupation is just another form of the war.”

Oleksandra Matviichuk

no. 874

 “I would advise anyone who aspires to a writing career that before developing his talent he would be wise to develop a thick hide.”

Harper Lee

no. 873

 

no. 872

 “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist”

- Robert Jones Jr.

no. 871

 “Those who walk a hundred miles should consider themselves halfway there at the ninety-ninth.”

Possibly an old Eastern saying.

no. 870

 “Kick at the darkness, until it bleeds daylight.” 

Bruce Cockburn.

no. 869

 

no. 868

 “For every complex problem there is a solution which is clear, simple and wrong.” 

H L Mencken