I don’t know anymore: hate and fear are very alike and they’re great motivators, don’t you think? They should both be included among the great muses of destruction.
Sofía Segovia and Simon Bruni, Tears of Amber
Quotes
Expanding our minds
We extend beyond our limits, not by revving our brains like a machine or bulking them up like a muscle—but by strewing our world with rich materials, and by weaving them into our thoughts.
Annie Murphy Paul, author of The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain
Death
“The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five
Creativity
Verum ipsum factum (We only know what we make)
Giambattista Vico, 18th century philosopher
Conservatism
“I personally recall that world, which you can only imagine was preferable to this one,” she said. “Eras are conveniences, particularly for those who never experienced them. We carve history from totalities beyond our grasp. Bolt labels on the result. Handles. Then speak of the handles as though they were things in themselves.”
William Gibson, The Peripheral (The Jackpot Trilogy Book 1)