a scrapbook of quotes & inspirations
the latest development of the organic
01.20.21
"Consciousness is the last and latest development of the organic and hence also what is most unfinished and unstrong."
"Consciousness is the last and latest development of the organic and hence also what is most unfinished and unstrong."
—Friedrich Nietsche
from The Gay Science
from The Gay Science
things outlast us
10.22.20
“Things outlast us, they know more about us than we know about them: they carry the experience they have had with us inside them and are—in fact—the book of our history opened before us.”
“Things outlast us, they know more about us than we know about them: they carry the experience they have had with us inside them and are—in fact—the book of our history opened before us.”
—W.G. Sebald
from Campo Santo, 2003
(trans. Anthea Bell)
from Campo Santo, 2003
(trans. Anthea Bell)
a universe of qualities
10.08.20
“Words have a universe of qualities other than those of descriptive relation: Hardness, Density, Sound-Shape, Vector-Force, & Degrees of Transparency/Opacity.”
“Words have a universe of qualities other than those of descriptive relation: Hardness, Density, Sound-Shape, Vector-Force, & Degrees of Transparency/Opacity.”
—Clark Coolidge
from his contributor's note to Paul Carroll's anthology The Young American Poets, 1968
from his contributor's note to Paul Carroll's anthology The Young American Poets, 1968
Poetry's Impulse
09.19.20
“Poetry’s impulse to use metaphor, to discover resemblance, is not to make comparisons (all comparisons as such are hierarchical) or to diminish the particularity of any event; it is to discover those correspondences of which the sum total would be proof of the indivisible totality of existence. To this totality poetry appeals, and its appeal is the opposite of a sentimental one; sentimentality always pleads for an exemption, for something which is divisible. Apart from reassembling by metaphor, poetry reunites by its reach. It equates the reach of a feeling with the reach of the universe; after a certain point the type of extremity involved becomes unimportant and all that matters is its degree; by their degree alone extremities are joined.”
“Poetry’s impulse to use metaphor, to discover resemblance, is not to make comparisons (all comparisons as such are hierarchical) or to diminish the particularity of any event; it is to discover those correspondences of which the sum total would be proof of the indivisible totality of existence. To this totality poetry appeals, and its appeal is the opposite of a sentimental one; sentimentality always pleads for an exemption, for something which is divisible. Apart from reassembling by metaphor, poetry reunites by its reach. It equates the reach of a feeling with the reach of the universe; after a certain point the type of extremity involved becomes unimportant and all that matters is its degree; by their degree alone extremities are joined.”
—John Berger
from “Dream,” in And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos, 1982
from “Dream,” in And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief as Photos, 1982
a dry psyche is most skilled
03.10.20
“The stuff of the psyche is a smoke-like substance of fine particles that give rise to all other things, particles of less mass than any other sustance and constantly in motion: only movement can know movement. . . . The psyche rises as a mist from things that are wet. . . . A dry psyche is most skilled in intelligence and is brightest in virtue. . . . A drunk man, staggering and mindless, must be led home by his son, so wet is his psyche.”
“The stuff of the psyche is a smoke-like substance of fine particles that give rise to all other things, particles of less mass than any other sustance and constantly in motion: only movement can know movement. . . . The psyche rises as a mist from things that are wet. . . . A dry psyche is most skilled in intelligence and is brightest in virtue. . . . A drunk man, staggering and mindless, must be led home by his son, so wet is his psyche.”
—Heraclitus
from "I Have Looked Diligently at My Own Mind"
(trans. Guy Davenport)
from "I Have Looked Diligently at My Own Mind"
(trans. Guy Davenport)
everything has already been said
02.21.20
"Everything has already been said, but since nobody listens, we must continually start again."
"Everything has already been said, but since nobody listens, we must continually start again."
—André Gide
from Le traite du Narcisse
(my translation)
from Le traite du Narcisse
(my translation)
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Early emoticons in the American humor magazine Puck in 1881. Interesting related article here. |
a poem that can think its own thoughts
12.13.19
“I just try to make a poem that can think its own thoughts."
“I just try to make a poem that can think its own thoughts."
—Lisa Robertson
from an interview in the Northern Poetry Review
from an interview in the Northern Poetry Review
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Luke Stephenson, from his series "An Incomplete Dictionary of Show Birds" |
bunch of idiots
09.16.19
“An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates."
“An art whose medium is language will always show a high degree of critical creativeness, for speech is itself a critique of life: it names, it characterizes, it passes judgment, in that it creates."
—Thomas Mann
from a 1929 speech reprinted in Essays of Three Decades
from a 1929 speech reprinted in Essays of Three Decades
one mind's imagining into another
05.08.19
“One of the most mysterious of semi-speculations is, one would suppose, that of one Mind’s imagining into another.”
“One of the most mysterious of semi-speculations is, one would suppose, that of one Mind’s imagining into another.”
—John Keats
from his marginalia in Paradise Lost
from his marginalia in Paradise Lost