Consolations of philosophy and art

For our times. For all times.

“Well, that's your opinion, isn't it? And I'm not about to waste my time trying to change it.” ― Lady Gaga

So maybe it's the climate crisis. Maybe it's the febrile sense of calamity emanating from the United States of America. And France. And Palestine. And Ukraine. Maybe it's triggers activated in my personal life. (Possibly it’s a combination).

Whatever – this past week has been an excellent time to notice how these things affect me.

“Whenever mind's noise comes
Remember
It's all nothing, nothing, nothing.
Watch your self. Not your mind.” – Mooji.

Tension, headache, tingly arms, blotchy vision. Sometimes. Not all the time, I have to say. Which is a great thing to notice – because most of my week is joyful. I enjoy my work. I enjoy making ramen noodle soup. I enjoy hatching plans with my daughters. I enjoy my playful role as a lion.

So again, I step outside myself and watch how my body reacts. The role of observer brings detachment. Then, when a moment of tension becomes too much to hold, all I need to do is put it down. 

Considering the big picture, it is helpful to notice what is in my control and what is not. Really, the only thing I can control is how I react to the noise. This week I react by noticing and by compiling this set of observations from other notable humans. Putting this together took me from evolution to mass psychology, from fear to mindfulness, from control to play.

Wishing you somersaults and cartwheels, laughter and joy.  xo

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” ― Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)

“The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” — Douglas Adams (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe)

“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies- God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater)

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“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ― Aristotle

“I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.” — Socrates

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.” — Plato (The Republic)

“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” — Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)

“Tell me how you read and I’ll tell you who you are.” ― Martin Heidegger

“There may be more beautiful times, but this one is ours.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.” — Douglas Adams (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe)

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“Doubt is the origin of wisdom.” ― René Descartes

“When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken.” ― David Hume

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard

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“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” — Groucho Marx.

“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

“If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” ― Baruch Spinoza

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” ― Narcotics Anonymous

“The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” — Plato

“People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.” ― Blaise Pascal (De l’art de persuader)

“People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.” ― Michel Foucault (Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason)

“Ignoring isn’t the same as ignorance, you have to work at it.” ― Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid’s Tale)

“A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user.” ― Theodore Roosevelt

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“Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.” ― Thomas Aquinas

“He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.” ― Michel de Montaigne (The Complete Essays)

“Appearance tyrannizes over truth.” — Plato (The Republic)

“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself.” ― Ludwig Wittgenstein

“Man is and remains an animal. Here a beast of prey, there a housepet, but always an animal.” — Joseph Göbbels

“Human beings can be awful cruel to one another.” — Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)

“Compassion is the basis of morality.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer

“All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” ― Blaise Pascal

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“There is in every one of us, even those who seem to be most moderate, a type of desire that is terrible, wild and lawless.” — Plato (The Republic)

“Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.” — Mark Twain

“The measure of a man is what he does with power.” – Plato

“All cruelty springs from weakness.” ― Seneca

“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” — Plato

“Most people have no imagination. If they could imagine the sufferings of others, they would not make them suffer so.” ― Anna Funder (All That I Am)

“Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play.” — Joseph Göbbels

“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over.” — Joseph Göbbels

“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Hermann Göring (Germany Reborn)

“You can’t change the masses. They will always be the same: dumb, gluttonous and forgetful.” — Joseph Göbbels

“The world is not full of betrayers, it is full of people with decent motives and a full desire to do right by those who know them and love them. This is a little-known truth, but I think it is a truth nonetheless. Empirically, from all the years of my work, I would attest to that. I know it is a miraculous conclusion, but there it is. We like to make strangers of everyone. We are not wolves, but lambs astonished in the margins of the fields by sunlight and summer.” ― Sebastian Barry (The Secret Scripture)

“Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.” — Mark Twain.

“Gassed” by John Singer Sargent, 1919. Imperial War Museum, London.

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“Never discourage anyone… who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.” — Plato

“Contemplate the extent and stability of the heavens, and then at last cease to admire worthless things.” ― Boethius

“In order to discover the character of people we have only to observe what they love.” ― St. Augustine

“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” ― Albert Camus

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” — Thomas Jefferson.

“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” – Dr Martin Luther King Jr (31 March 1968, Washington National Cathedral)

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“You live and learn. At any rate, you live.” — Douglas Adams (Mostly Harmless)

“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” ― Epicurus

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” — Viktor E. Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning)

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” — Albert Einstein

“Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.” — Viktor E. Frankl (Man’s Search for Meaning)

“Silence is a source of Great Strength.”— Lao Tzu

“What experience and history teaches us is that people and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.” ― Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

“And so it goes…” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr (Slaughterhouse-Five)

“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” ― Marcus Aurelius (Meditations)

“Between the wish and the thing the world lies waiting.” ― Cormac McCarthy (All the Pretty Horses)

“Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.” ― E. B. White

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“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.” — Rumi

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” — Mark Twain

“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.” — Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (A Man Without a Country)

“Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.” ― Roald Dahl

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope some day you’ll join us. And the world can live as one.” — John Lennon (Imagine)

“For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.” — Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)

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Have a lovely day.

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