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Chris Lavergne

4,407 Quotes
President of Thought.is
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4,407 quotes curated by Chris Lavergne:

“I thought about kissing her on the forehead but rejected the idea immediately; whatever physical intimacy had opened up between us had dissolved with the storm; even that relatively avuncular gesture would be strange for both of us now. More than that: it was as though the physical intimacy with Alex, just like the sociability with strangers or the aura around objects, wasn't just over, but retrospectively erased. Because those moments had been enabled by a future that had never arrived, they could not be remembered from this future that, at and as the present, had obtained; they'd faded from the photograph.”
— Ben Lerner, Orality and Literacy
Tagged: The Emergency Changes Things
“If you want to pick out the devastated or soon-to-be-devastated from the stream of people leaving Mount Sinai, I decided, don't look for frank expressions of sorrow or concern, look for people whose faces resemble those of passengers deplaning after a long flight— a blank expression as the body begins adjusting to a new time zone and ground speed.”
— Ben Lerner, Orality and Literacy
Tagged: Expressions of Sorrow, Sadness
“I cannot help you, because the questions are so difficult that it would run counter to the sense of this task of thinking to suddenly step out in public in order to preach and dispense moral censures.”
— Martin Heidegger, ditext.com
Tagged: Questioning Questions, Questions, The Task Of Thinking, Public vs. Private Thought, No Moralizing, Philosophical
“Our culture depends in many ways on the creation of standards and conventions that we all must adhere to. These conventions are often expressed in terms of opposites— good and evil, beautiful and ugly, painful and pleasurable, rational and irrational, intellectual and sensual. Believing in these opposites gives our world a sense of cohesion and comfort. To imagine that something can be intellectual and sensual, pleasurable and painful, real and unreal, good and bad, masculine and feminine is too chaotic and disturbing for us. Life, however, is more fluid and complex; our desires and experiences do not fit neatly into these tidy categories.”
— Robert Greene, Mastery
“I must keep quiet for a little space and then walk very slowly along that bright sand of pain, toward that blue, blue wave. What bliss there is in blueness. I never knew how blue blueness could be. What a mess life has been. Now I know everything. Coming, coming, coming to drown me. There it is. How it hurts. I can't breathe.”
— Vladimir Nabokov, Laughter in the Dark
Tagged: Blue, Colors, Dying, To Die, Things People Say In Books When They Are Dying, What It Feels Like To Die, Descriptions Of What It Feels Like To Die From Literature
“Confidence is important, but if it is not based on a realistic appraisal of who you are, it is mere grandiosity and smugness.”
— Robert Greene, Mastery
Tagged: Confidence, Humble, Self-Confidence
“There are an infinite number of methods to attain knowledge; finding the right method is up to the individual. ”
— Kenya Hara, Designing Design
Tagged: Empathy, Path, Self Discovery, You
“The idea or theory that you are currently formulating, that seems so fresh and alive and truthful, will almost certainly be shot down or ridiculed in a few decades or centuries. And so it is best to keep this in mind and not grow too fond of your ideas or too certain of their truth.”
— Robert Greene, Mastery
Tagged: Exformation, You Know Nothing, My Philosophy, The Vanity of Trends
“Seeing this foolishness within you, you can then accept it in others. This will allow you to smile at their antics, to tolerate their presence as you would a silly child, and to avoid the madness of trying to change them.”
— Robert Greene, Mastery
Tagged: Fool, Human Comedy
“The key is to be aware of this process and to encourage yourself to go as far as you can with your doubts, your reworkings, and your strained efforts, knowing the value and purpose of the frustration and creative blocks you are facing.”
— Robert Greene, Mastery
Tagged: Blocks, Doubts