PStuart > PStuart's Quotes

“The loss or the absence of meaning in life is perhaps the most common denominator of all forms of emotional distress; it is especially the much-commented-on "modern" illness.”
― Paul Watzlawick, Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes

“In human relations, all prediction is connected in one way or another with the phenomenon of trust.”
― Paul Watzlawick, Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes

“In fact, it seems that the more spontaneous and "healthy" a relationship, the more the relationship aspect of communication recedes into the background.”
― Paul Watzlawick, Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes

“The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war.”
― E. B. White

“I don't understand it, and I don't like what I don't understand.”
― E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

“We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or doing laundry.”
― E.B. White

“This is what youth must figure out:
Girls, love, and living.
The having, the not having,
The spending and giving,
And the meloncholy time of not knowing.

This is what age must learn about:
The ABC of dying.
The going, yet not going,
The loving and leaving,
And the unbearable knowing and knowing”
― EB White

“If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
― E.B. White

“Dear Mr. Nadeau:
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.

Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society – things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

Sincerely,
E. B. White”
― E. B. White

“Why does one feel so different at night? Why is it so exciting to be awake when everybody else is asleep? Late—it is very late! And yet every moment you feel more and more wakeful, as though you were slowly, almost with every breath, waking up into a new, wonderful, far more thrilling and exciting world than the daylight one. And what is this queer sensation that you’re a conspirator? Lightly, stealthily you move about your room. You take something off the dressing-table and put it down again without a sound. And everything, even the bedpost, knows you, responds, shares your secret…
You're not very fond of your room by day. You never think about it. You're in and out, the door opens and slams, the cupboard creaks. You sit down on the side of your bed, change your shoes and dash out again. A dive down to the glass, two pins in your hair, powder your nose and off again. But now–it's suddenly dear to you. It's a darling little funny room. It's yours. Oh, what a joy it is to own things! Mine–my own!”
― Katherine Mansfield, At the Bay

“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
― Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
― Lao Tzu

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.”
― Anais Nin

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.”
― William W. Purkey

“Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.”
― Oscar Wilde

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“It is in the nature of paradox that "equations" based on it do not work out. Where paradox contaminates human relations, disease appears.”
― Paul Watzlawick, Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes

“Lex malla, lex nulla. A bad law is no law.”
― Cassandra Clare, Lady Midnight

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
― Nelson Mandela

“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”
― Alfred Lord Tennyson

“Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.

BENEDICK
Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.

BEATRICE
I took no more pains for those thanks than you take
pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would
not have come.

BENEDICK
You take pleasure then in the message?

BEATRICE
Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's
point ... You have no stomach,
signior: fare you well.

Exit

BENEDICK
Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in
to dinner;' there's a double meaning in that...”
― William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing