"…the Inklings were not backwards-looking dinosaurs, but forward-thinking prophets in their own time. One of Tolkien’s most enduring themes is his love of the environment, his stewardship of the land and his bleak vision of what happens when we loot and scar the earth with industry."
— Sørina Higgins, Curator Magazine, “Arthur, Adapted”
"How can you know you’re a good person if your life has been nothing but plain sailing?"
— Karin Fossum, Bad Intentions, p. 87
"The Gettysburg Address talks about not not having died in vain, and dying so that a nation might live. That was not the experience of the Confederates. They died and their nation did not live, so how do they understand those deaths?"
— Drew Gilpin Faust, on Walter Edgar’s Journal, “Death and the Civil War”
(Source: intracoastal-wanderings)
"The differences between a man and a woman are at the best so obstinate and exasperating that they practically cannot be got over unless there is an atmosphere of exaggerated tenderness and mutual interest. To put the matter in one metaphor, the sexes are two stubborn pieces of iron; if they are to be welded together, it must be while they are red-hot. Every woman has to find out that her husband is a selfish beast, because every man is a selfish beast by the standard of a woman. But let her find out the beast while they are both still in the story of ‘Beauty and the Beast’. Every man has to find out that his wife is cross — that is to say, sensitive to the point of madness: for every woman is mad by the masculine standard. But let him find out that she is mad while her madness is more worth considering than anyone else’s sanity."
— G.K. Chesterton, The Common Man, “Two Stubborn Pieces of Iron:
"Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute."
— Proverbs 31:8
(Source: light-unshakable, via catholic-inspiration)
"I think there is something subversive in saying: This is the man or woman with whom I want to stake everything. This is why I was never able to do so-called one-night stands. It has to at least have a perspective of eternity."
— Falsely attributed to Slavoj Žižek
This quote, while a beautiful sentiment, is nothing like what Žižek actually said in the Guardian interview to which the quote is attributed, which can be found here. Žižek’s actual words on the subject actually approve of one-night stands in theory. Not to mention the article’s title, which is a position I have never thought made any sense, and is one of the many things wrong with modern thinking.
(Source: heteroglossia, via bourbonandpearls)
"Ever since the days of Adam, man has been hiding from God and saying, ‘God is hard to find.’"
— Paul Clemons, When Minor Becomes Major, p. 67
(Source: askthecatholic)
"Love is not only an affirmation; it is also a negation. A man who loves a woman and asks for her hand in marriage by that fact negates every other woman."
— Fulton Sheen, Life is Worth Living, “Character Building”
"‘Nostalgia’ descends to us via Latin (nostalgia) from the Greek nostos (νόστοσ), ‘return home,’ and algos (άλγοσ), ‘pain.’ Many things can be said about this word, including the obvious: the Greeks would have a word to express the painful longing for home. For us, however, who have been encouraged to leave home and have been taught to think ill of this fine word, ‘nostalgia’ suggests a more amorphous longing, a longing at the very least for something we once had (not something that never existed), which longing is also a species of discomfort."
— Jason Peters, Front Porch Republic, “Apologia Pro Nostalgia Sua”
"There is no allegory in the Faery, which is conceived as having a real extramental existence. There is some trace of allegory in the Human part, which seems to me obvious though no reader or critic has yet averted to it. As usual there is no ‘religion’ in the story; but plainly enough the Master Cook and the Great Hall, etc., are a (somewhat satirical) allegory of the village-church, and village parson: its functions steadily decaying and losing all touch with the ‘arts’, into mere eating and drinking — the last trace of anything ‘other’ being left in the children."
— J.R.R. Tolkien, qtd. in Humphrey Carpenter, Tolkien: A Biography, p. 243
