So here we go with the last of this year’s round ups of recently encountered quotes.
As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
[Noam Chomsky]
According to Frog, dogs must sit on logs and armadillos on pillows; and, while cats could once relax on mats, a recent rule change dictates they must now repose on gnats.
[Blurb for Kes Grey’s Oi Cat!]
The winter solstice time is no longer celebrated as it once was, with the understanding that this is a period of descent and rest, of going within our homes, within ourselves and taking in all that we have been through, all that has passed in this full year which is coming to a close … like nature and the animal kingdom around us, this time of hibernation is so necessary for our tired limbs, our burdened minds.
[Dee Laliberte, on Facebook]
Boring damned people. All over the earth. Propagating more boring damned people. What a horror show. The earth swarmed with them.
[Charles Bukowski]
In any case fashions of one generation, moral or physical, are scarcely at all assessable in terms of another.
[Anthony Powell, Hearing Secret Harmonies]
All fungi are edible, some fungi are only edible once.
Cultivating compassion is not a religious practice focused on ensuring we go to heaven or a good future life. It’s about living a good day-to-day life here and now. It’s about being a happy person. Warm-heartedness is a fundamental good human quality.
[Dalai Lama]
Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That’s part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads – at least that’s where I imagine it – there’s a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in a while, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you’ll live forever in your own private library.
[Haruki Murakami]
What is most serious for the health of our democracy is that [Boris Johnson’s] lies aren’t just made to the media but to Parliament, making it impossible for MPs to do their job of holding the Government to account. The Prime Minister is driving a coach and horses through the Ministerial Code with impunity because the person ultimately responsible for upholding the Ministerial Code is … the Prime Minister.
[Caroline Lucas MP, Metro, 15 December 2021; online at https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/15/boris-johnson-10-reasons-why-the-prime-minister-needs-to-resign-15777201/]
Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.
[Proverbs 16:22]