Colm Gillis > Colm's Quotes

“Speaking a lot about something does not in the least guarantee that understanding is thus furthered. On the contrary, talking at great length about something covers things over and brings what is understood into an illusory clarity, that is, the unintelligibility of the trivial. But to keep silent does not mean to be mute ... one who is mute still has the tendency to "speak." ... Authentic silence is possible only in genuine discourse. In order to be silent, Dasein must have something to say.”
― Martin Heidegger

“Has Dasein as itself ever freely decided, and will it ever be able to decide, whether it wants to come into "Dasein" or not?”
― Martin Heidegger, Being and Time

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou

“Those who tell the stories rule society.”
― Plato

“Resolved, never to do anything which I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.”
― Jonathan Edwards

“Because his art is such
a difficult one, the writer is not likely to advance in the world
as visibly as do his neighbors: while his best friends from high
school or college are becoming junior partners in prestigious
law firms, or opening their own mortuaries, the writer may be
still sweating out his first novel.”
― john gardner, On Becoming a Novelist

“As every writer knows... there is something mysterious about the writer's ability, on any given day, to write. When the juices are flowing, or the writer is 'hot', an invisible wall seems to fall away, and the writer moves easily and surely from one kind of reality to another... Every writer has experienced at least moments of this strange, magical state. Reading student fiction one can spot at once where the power turns on and where it turns off, where the writer writes from 'inspiration' or deep, flowing vision, and where he had to struggle along on mere intellect.”
― John Champlin Gardner Jr., On Becoming a Novelist

“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering... these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love... these are what we stay alive for.”
― Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass