I have only in my life carried to an extreme
what you have not dared to carry halfway,
and what's more,
you have taken your cowardice for good sense.
-Dostoevsky "Notes From the Underground"

...because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones
who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous
of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or
say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow
roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars...
Kerouac "On the Road"

"In a sort of ghastly simplicity," C.S. Lewis wrote, "we remove
the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect
of them virtue and enterprise...
...we laugh at honour and are surprised to find traitors in our midst."

...[you even believe] science itself will teach man... that he never has really
had any caprice or will of his own, and that he himself is something of the
nature of a piano key or the stop of an organ, and that there are, besides,
things called the laws of nature.
-More Dostoevsky from Notes From the Underground

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education
is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do
when it has to be done,
whether you like it or not.
-Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited?

One may have a blazing hearth in one's soul and yet no one ever
come to sit by it. Passersby only see a wisp of smoke from the chimney
and continue on their way.
-Vincent Van Gogh

The hardest task one can have is to continue to love one's fellows
despite all reason he should not...
true greatness merely refuses to change in the face of bad
actions against one - and a truly great person loves his fellows
because he understands them...
Happiness and strength endure only in the absence of hate. To hate
alone is the road to disaster. To love is the road to strength. To
love in spite of all is the secret of greatness. And may very well be
the greatest secret in the universe.
my favorite quote from L. Ron Hubbard

A great many people [believe] that they are thinking,
when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
William James

Hey kid, got a ride for you
they say your brain is a comic book tattoo
and you'll never be anything
What will you do with your life
oh, that's all you hear from noon til night

Straight suits, they don't understand
she tried, that one with the alligator boots
but the other side drew her in
Heart falling fast when she left
even the milky way was dressed in black

Take a trip on a rocket ship baby
the sea is the sky
I know the guy who runs the place
and he's out of sight
-Tori Amos, "Flying Dutchman"

I walked into your dream
and now I have forgotten how to dream my own dream
You are the clever one, aren't you?
BRIDES IN VEILS FOR YOU
We told you all of our secrets, all but one
but don't you even try
The phone has been disconnected
dripping with blood, and with time,
and with your advice
poison me against the moon...
-Tori Amos