Sifuego

“I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved - the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced! With the rational respect that is due to it, knavish priests have added prostitutions of it, that fill or might fill the blackest and bloodiest pages of human history.

{Letter to Thomas Jefferson, September 3, 1816]”
― John Adams, The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams

“Omdat men zal weten dat over de mens niets te bewijzen valt, dat er van hem in doen en laten, in wezen en verschijning, in heden en verleden, nog geen schim valt te bekennen van wat hij is en is geweest.
Wij zijn niets anders dan de strandvonders van ons eigen leven, brokstukken verzamelend langs de zee der vergetelheid. In onze hand lopen wij met de verroeste spijkers van een groot, gezonken schip - en wij denken dat dit oudroest een horloge is.”
― Willem Frederik Hermans, Paranoia

“Choices are usually decisions motivated by pleasure and pain, and the divided mind acts with the sole purpose of getting “I” into pleasure and out of pain.

But the best pleasures are those for which we do not plan, and the worst part of pain is expecting it and trying to get away from it when it has come.”
― Alan W. Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety

“The art of not reading is a very important one. It consists in not taking an interest in whatever may be engaging the attention of the general public at any particular time. When some political or ecclesiastical pamphlet, or novel, or poem is making a great commotion, you should remember that he who writes for fools always finds a large public. A precondition for reading good books is not reading bad ones: for life is short.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms