All kinds of unnatural conditions are developing daily among us, in such a way that man ceases to feel any longer that he is in every respect a being that belongs to nature and to himself, and becomes more and more a creature submissive to society.
from The Wisdom of Albert Schweitzer, A Selection printed in 1968
The more thrilling, wonderful, divine objects I behold in a day, the more expanded and immortal I become.
from The Journal 1837–1861 by Henry David Thoreau
On days like this, the clouds probably absorbed the sounds from the surface of the earth. And not just sounds. All kinds of things. Perceptions, for example.
From, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, 1997
“Oh, it’s so beautiful!”
“No way, I’ve waited all this time, I’m getting in…”
“Santa, I know just how you feel.”
“It’s just magical…”
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
“There’s just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we’ve ever imagined…”
from The Hours by Michael Cunningham
“…I’ve discovered over the years that the simplist explanation is almost always the right one; and that hunger of one kind or another–desire, by another name– is the source of almost every sorrow.”
From the book, The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
