What was done to him was like what happens on the train, when you think you are moving forward, but are moving backward, and suddenly find out the real direction.
"Yes, it was all not right," he said to himself, "but never mind. I can, I can do 'right.' But what is 'right'?" he asked himself and suddenly grew still.
--from The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Category Archives: General
Proust, Remembrance of Things
“If we thought that the eyes of such a girl were merely two glittering sequins of mica, we should not be athirst to know her and to unite her life to ours. But we sense that what shines in those … Continue reading
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pith
After centuries of emphasis on the “life of the mind,” the Romantics decided it was due time for the “life of the loins” to be given respect. Ok, ok, so they wanted to bring heart back into religion and all … Continue reading
Plotinus VI.9.8
That One, therefore, since it has no otherness is always present, and we are present to it when we have no otherness; and the One does not desire us, so as to be around us, but we desire it, so … Continue reading
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From “Of Human Bondage”
Man’s lack of power to moderate and restrain the affects I call bondage. For the man who is subject to affects is under the control, not of himself, but of fortune, in whose power he so greatly is that often, … Continue reading
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