Writing: Create a Context
The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.
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Courage of the Poet
ByHeatherThe courage of the poet is to keep ajar the door that leads into madness.
Talent vs. Genius
ByHeatherTalent is like a marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; genius is like the marksman who hits a target, as far as which others cannot even see.
— Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
What is a Poet?
ByHeatherWhat is a poet? A poet is an unhappy being whose heart is torn by secret sufferings, but whose lips are so strangely formed that when the sighs and the cries escape them, they sound like beautiful music. . . . And men crowd about the poet and say to him, “Sing for us again;” that is as much to say, “May new sufferings torment your soul, but may your lips be formed as before; for the cries would only frighten us but the music is delicious.”
I swore never to be silent…
ByHeatherI swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endured suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
— Elie Wiesel, acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Public Speaking
ByHeatherThe human brain starts working the moment you are born and never stops until you stand up to speak in public.
To Be Is To Do . . . Be Do Be Do
ByHeatherTo be is to do — Socrates
To do is to be — Jean Paul Sartre
Do be do be do — Frank SinatraI posted this quote for the sole reason that it always makes me smile. But as I looked at the list of names, and their sequence, I realized that, in a simplistic way, these simple words also reflect our evolution of philosophy and thought. Socrates lived more than 2,400 years ago and his influence on thought is legendary. Jean Paul Sartre was a prominent French philosopher at the peak of the twentieth century. Frank Sinatra was born only ten years after Sartre but has come to embody a later generation.