"And Nature takes no account of moral consequences, of arbitrary conditions which we create, and which we feel obliged to maintain at any cost."

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“Edna wondered if they had all gone mad, to be talking and clamoring at that rate. She herself could think of nothing to say about Mexico or the Mexicans.”

“She says a wedding is one of the most lamentable spectacles on earth.”

“The bird that would soar above the plane of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings. It is a sad spectacle to see the weaklings bruised, exhausted, fluttering back to earth.”

“She could only realize that she herself — her present self — was in some way different from the other self. That she was seeing with different eyes.”

“There was no despondency when she fell asleep that night; nor was there hope when she awoke in the morning.”

“As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself.”

Resonant Thoughts

"How are men and women to think about their maleness and their femaleness in this twentieth century, in which so many of our old ideas must be made new? Have we over-domesticated men, denied their natu…"

— Margaret Mead

ethnology1901–1978

#nature

"Certain it is that a new law of nations is gradually taking hold of the mind, and coming to sway the practice, of the world; a law which recognises independence, which frowns upon aggression, which fa…"

— William Ewart Gladstone

Politics1809–1898

#justice

"We planted our crops in the spring, and they came up, and were looking nicely, and we were cheered with the hopes of having a very abundant harvest. But alas! it very soon appeared as if our crops wer…"

— Orson Pratt

Mathematics1811–1881

#nature

"How difficult, how extremely difficult for the soul to sever itself from its body the world: from mountains, seas, cities, people. The soul is an octopus and these are its tentacles. … No force anywhe…"

— Nikos Kazantzakis

Literature1883–1957

#nature