"Deceiving himself well is the first quality of the statesman."

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“We’ve been devastated by the severest and deadliest drought in history – that of our profound awareness of the futility of all effort and the vanity of all plans.”

“Some sensations are sleeps that take up all the extent of the mind like a fog, don't let us think, don't let us act, don't let us be clearly.”

“I'm going to end a life that I thought could contain every kind of greatness but that in fact consisted only of my incapacity to really want to be great. Whenever I arrived at a certainty, I remembered that those with the greatest certainties are lunatics.”

“Smell is a strange sight. It evokes sentimental landscapes through a sudden sketching of the subconscious.”

“And let our despite go to those who work and fight and our hate to those who hope and trust.”

“Wasting time has an esthetics to it.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Terminal Collection - Scans of all of Ballard's first editions, essays and reviews on Ballard and interviews with Ballard."

— J. G. Ballard

Literature1930–2009

#humor

"The proletarian works with the instruments of production of another, for the account of this other, in exchange for a part of the product. ... The proletarian liberates himself by abolishing competiti…"

— Friedrich Engels

Philosophy1796–1860

#art

"Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don't want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this…"

— George S. Patton

Military1885–1945

#war

"In 1946 what I call my 'Little Image' began breaking through this gray matter of mine. I felt fantastic relief that something was beginning to happen after all this time when there was nothing, nothin…"

— Lee Krasner

painting1908–1984

#time