Clemens Lode's Blog, page 4

Painting

“By painting the sky, Van Gogh was really able to see it and adore it better than if he had just looked at it. In the same way…, you will never know what your husband looks like unless you try to draw him, and you will never understand him unless you try to write his story.” — Brenda Ueland, If You Want To Write: A Book About Art, Independence, and Spirit

She still moved like a shadow

“The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone. She was very old, though she did not know it, and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night. But her eyes were still clear and unwearied, and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.” — Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

Thought As A System

“And, though the brain as a whole is not mechanical, it can get caught up into a system of reflexes that looks like a machine.” — David Bohm, Thought As A System1A system is an aggregate with a definite structure (e.g., an ice cube is a system of frozen water molecules).2A sys...

Concepts

 

If names are correct, there is order; if names are allowed to become confused, there is disorder. What causes the confusions of names are explanations that involve an excess of elegance and subtlety. If explanations involve such excesses, then the not-acceptable is called the acceptable, the not-so is called so, the incorrect is called correct, and the not-wrong is called wrong.

—Lü Buwei, The Annals of Lü BuweiKnoblock, John and Jeffrey Riegel (2001). The Annals of Lü Buwei. English. Stan...

If machines can learn to value human life, maybe we can, too.

“If machines can learn to value human life, maybe we can, too.” — Terminator 2

If men no longer know what they are looking a

“If men no longer know what they are looking at, there may well be other unicorns in the world yet, unknown and glad of it.” — Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn

The view of life

“The view of life I communicate in my pictures excludes the sordid and ugly. I paint life as I would like it to be.” — Norman Rockwell

If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.

“If everybody was satisfied with himself, there would be no heroes.” — Mark Twain

Lighthouses

“Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there, shining.” — Anne Lamott

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

“One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.” — Leonardo Da Vinci