pjthompson | Entries tagged with truth

Random quote of the day:

“There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art, science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science, art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.”

—Raymond Chandler, "Great Thought," February 19, 1938, The Notebooks of Raymond Chandler

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Bert and Ernie, Celine Dion, or the Band of the Coldstream Guards. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“Fact is not truth, but a poet who willfully defies fact cannot achieve truth.”

—Robert Graves, The White Goddess

Random quote of the day:

“Fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely why many of them are afraid of fantasy. They know that its truth challenges, even threatens, all that is false, all that is phony, unnecessary, and trivial in the life they have let themselves be forced into living. They are afraid of dragons, because they are afraid of freedom.”

—Ursula K. LeGuin, The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Bert and Ernie, Celine Dion, or the Band of the Coldstream Guards. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“The greatest evil in our country today is not racism, but ignorance. I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth. We need to be taught to study rather than to believe, to inquire rather than to affirm.

–Septima Poinsette Clark, Annual Christmas message⁠, 1975

Random quote of the day:

“I feel safe in the midst of my enemies, for the truth is all powerful and will prevail.”

—Sojourner Truth, Narrative of Sojourner Truth, A Northern Slave, Emancipated From Bodily Servitude by the State of New York, in 1828

Random quote of the day:

“Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.

—Gustav Flaubert, letter to Madame Louise Colet, August 14, 1853

Random quote of the day:

“In the end, the truth always wins out. It always does, no matter how many times you tell a story that isn't true. In the end, the truth comes out. There's either video evidence or photographic evidence. I think the American people are smart consumers.

—Gayle King, Women’s Wear Daily, February 23, 2017

Random quote of the day:

“History, mythology, and folktales are filled with stories of people punished for saying the truth. Only the Fool, exempt from society's rules, is allowed to speak with complete freedom.

—Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

Random quote of the day:

“An unbelieved truth can hurt a man much more than a lie. It takes great courage to back truth unacceptable to our times. There’s a punishment for it, and it’s usually crucifixion.”

—John Steinbeck, East of Eden

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Desus and Mero, Beyoncé, or the Marine Corps Marching Band. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Random quote of the day:

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence.”

—Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Random quote of the day:

“There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.”

—Cornell West, Twitter, June 17, 2011

Random quote of the day:

“The truth behind apparitions is, I fear, less like a problem to be solved than an initiation into a mystery; less like an investigation than a quest on which we must not be above taking tips from helpful old crones or talking animals in order to wrest the world transforming treasure from the dragon’s cave. We may even have to abandon our idea of truth altogether if we are to find it.”

—Patrick Harpur, Daimonic Reality

Random quote of the day:

“When the media investigates a phenomenon like psi, or for that matter privatizing Social Security or forming a public health care system, they reach out to sources with diametrically opposed positions. That makes for higher drama, more colorful quotes, and, so the thinking goes, better radio or television. What it doesn’t bring us any closer to is the truth.”

—Steve Volk, Fringe-ology

Random quote of the day:

“Fiction is truth. You turn to fiction when you can’t express reality with footnotes and evidence and reportage.”

—Arundhati Roy, “The Air We Breathe,” The Nation, July 12, 2017

Random quote of the day:

“I have thought for as long as I can remember that the asking of unanswerable questions and the facing of irreparable truths is our only consolation for having to live through them.”

—Catherine Madsen, “Uncommon Prayer,” The Sun, June 1992

Random quote of the day:

“Two truths approach each other. One comes from inside, the
other from outside,
And where they meet we have a chance to catch sight of ourselves.”

—Tomas Tranströmer, “Preludes” (tr. Robert Bly)

Random quote of the day:

“Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books. All too often, that’s more than Mummy and Daddy know; for, in denying their childhood, the adults have denied half their knowledge, and are left with the sad, sterile little fact: ‘Unicorns aren’t real.’”

—Ursula K. LeGuin, The Language of the Night

Random quote of the day:

“A hand moves, and the fire’s whirling takes different shapes.
All things change when we do.
The first word, “Ah,” blossoms into all others.
Each of them true.”

—Kūkai, “Singing Images of Fire,” 9^th c. (tr. Jane Hirshfield)

Yesterday I went out to my car to run the engine so the battery didn't die. I usually try to get out and drive around to accomplish this, but I have not had the (mostly mental) energy for it recently. However, it was getting on towards two weeks since I’d driven anywhere and I have a sorry history of killing batteries so sitting in the car reading a book while running the engine was the best alternative.

But as I opened the car door one of the neighborhood murder of crows that I feed landed on the garage roof about six feet from me and gave me The Look. "Where is my snack?"

I told him, "I'm sorry. I don't have anything for you right now. Maybe later." He looked deep into my eyes, bobbed his head as if nodding, and flew away.

So after I'd finished with the car, I went inside and got a snack and threw it out front for him and his crew of crows. (It's not a good idea to lie to crows.) I didn't hear him or his fellows. Sometimes they are quite raucous when snacks are around, sometimes silent and efficient consumers.

But when I looked out a little while later the snacks had magically disappeared.

"What is the strangest thing a stranger has ever said to you?" Mat Auryn asked his followers on Twitter (@ matauryn). I remembered this: “I am so lost right now, like when I was a kid on a spinner at the playground and I fell off and I wanted to get back on, but I couldn’t. And it kept spinning.”

I didn't respond very well, so I wrote this poem:

In real life, I typed up the poem, printed it out, drove back to the bookstore, walked up to the counter she was standing behind and handed it to her. "I wrote this for you," I said. She laughed nervously. I turned and left.

I don't know if she laughed at me with her friends, if it meant something, I don't know what it meant. I just knew I couldn't leave things as they were, reinforcing her maybe feeling that maybe nobody gave a damn. I concede it was a deeply weird thing for me to do—and probably more about me than her.

I usually went to that bookstore about once a week, but I don't recall seeing her again. For all I know, she hid out in the storeroom if she saw me coming.

Whatever you need to say, from deep in your soul, say it. It doesn't matter if people laugh at you. The universe needs to hear it.

And maybe laugh at you as well.

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Echoes in a Hollow Space

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Entries tagged with truth

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