jmbadia

“Am I sure that there is no mind behind our existence and no mystery anywhere in the universe? I think I am. What joy, what relief there would be, if we could declare so with complete conviction. If that were so I could wish to live for ever. How terrifying and glorious the role of man if, indeed, without guidance and without consolation he must create from his own rituals the meaning for his existence and write the rules whereby he lives.”
― Thornton Wilder, The Ides of March

“I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”
― J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

“Es ben significatiu que, fins i tot força més endavant, en un context llatí, la paraula oci (otium) sigui la no marcada, mentre que la paraula «negoci» es construeixi per negació de la primera (nec-otium). El que és normal, l'opció neutra i preferent, és disposar de lleure, de vacança, de temps lliure per poder viure amb plenitud, destinant aquest temps a la contemplació filosòfica o a la divina (el vacare deo medieval: 'dedicar-se a déu'). La negació d'aquest temps de qualitat, el neg-oci, ens allunya de la vida humana plena i ens apropa a la vida instintiva, mancada de sentit des d'un punt de vista humà, a la vida dels animals que, com les abelles, s'afanyen i s'afanyen en la feina sense cap consciència de la finitud de la pròpia existència.”
― Oriol Ponsatí-Murlà, L’avarícia

“It's been my habit of mind, over these years, to understand that every situation in which human beings are involved can be turned on its head. Everything someone assures me to be true might not be. Every pillar of belief the world rests on may or may not be about to explode. Most things don't stay the way they are very long. Knowing this, however, has not made me cynical. Cynical means believing that good isn't possible; and I know for a fact that good is. I simply take nothing for granted and try to be ready for the change that's soon to come.”
― Richard Ford, Canada