sur les ailes d'une hirondelle

"Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:24:51 +0100

“Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

- Dylan Thomas, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”

"Lee’s hand shook as he filled the delicate cups. He drank his down in one gulp. “Don’t you see?” he..."

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 21:24:00 +0100

“Lee’s hand shook as he filled the delicate cups. He drank his down in one gulp. “Don’t you see?” he cried. “The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in ‘Thou shalt,’ meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—’Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.’ Don’t you see?””

- John Steinbeck, East of Eden

"The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of..."

Thu, 28 May 2009 09:58:35 +0100

“The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness.”

- Andre Malraux.

"It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues."

Thu, 28 May 2009 09:57:46 +0100

“It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.”

- Abraham Lincoln

"I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding..."

Tue, 26 May 2009 23:10:14 +0100

“I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.”

- Franklin P. Adams

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple."

Tue, 26 May 2009 23:09:27 +0100

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

- Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895, Act I

"The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you’ll never..."

Tue, 26 May 2009 22:59:58 +0100

“The pursuit of happiness is a most ridiculous phrase; if you pursue happiness you’ll never find it.”

- C. P. Snow

"We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates..."

Tue, 26 May 2009 22:58:33 +0100

“We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.”

- Frank Tibolt

"It is impossible for man to look straight at the present, because he is too terrified by it. We..."

Wed, 06 May 2009 08:55:54 +0100

“It is impossible for man to look straight at the present, because he is too terrified by it. We stand on the stern of the ship looking at the wake and saying, ‘We’re in very troubled waters.”

- Marshall McLuhan

"Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be..."

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:24:17 +0100

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. If you assume there is no hope, you guarantee there will be no hope.”

- Noam Chomsky

"For we are only the rind and the leaf. The great death, that each of us carries inside, is the..."

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:41:25 +0100

“

For we are only the rind and the leaf.

The great death, that each of us carries inside,
is the fruit.

Everything enfolds it.

”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, III, 7.

"God, give us each our own death, the dying that proceeds from each of our lives: the way we..."

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:40:35 +0100

“

God, give us each our own death,
the dying that proceeds from each of our lives:

the way we loved,
the meanings we made,
our need.

”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, III, 6.

"We will not be herded into churches, for you are not made by the crowd, you who meet us in our..."

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:37:15 +0100

“We will not be herded into churches,
for you are not made by the crowd,
you who meet us in our solitude.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, II, 26.

"This is what the things can teach us: to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness. Even a bird has to..."

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:34:58 +0100

“This is what the things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, II, 16.

"If we surrendered to earth’s intelligence we could rise up rooted, like trees."

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:34:03 +0100

“If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, II, 16.

"And yet, though we strain against the deadening grip of daily necessity, I sense there is this..."

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:30:42 +0100

“

And yet, though we strain
against the deadening grip
of daily necessity,
I sense there is this mystery:

All life is being lived.

Who is living it, then?
Is it the things themselves,
or something waiting inside them,
like an unplayed melody in a flute?

Is it the winds blowing over the waters?
Is it the branches that signal to each other?

Is it flowers
interweaving their fragrances,
or streets, as they wind through time?

Is it the animals, warmly moving,
or the birds, that suddenly rise up?

Who lives it, then? God, are you the one who is living life?

”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours, II, 12.

"I yearn to belong to something, to be contained in an all-embracing mind that sees me as a single..."

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:47:44 +0100

“I yearn to belong to something, to be contained
in an all-embracing mind that sees me
as a single thing.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours

"I am city by the sea sinking into a toxic tide. I am strange to myself,"

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:45:45 +0100

“I am city by the sea
sinking into a toxic tide.
I am strange to myself,”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours

"Summer was like your house; you knew where each thing stood. Now you just go out into your heart as..."

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:46:15 +0100

“Summer was like your house; you knew
where each thing stood.
Now you just go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain. Now
the immense loneliness begins.
The days go numb, the wind
sucks the world from your senses like withered
leaves.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours

"I want to know my own will and to move with it. And I want in the hushed moments when the nameless..."

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:52:48 +0100

“I want to know my own will
and to move with it.
And I want in the hushed moments
when the nameless draws near,
to be among the wise ones—
or alone.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours