literarypickmeup

[literarypickmeup]

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

#JRR Tolkien #Tolkien #live dragon #dragon #calculation #plan #prudence #near

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Knowing that everything is possible, suddenly nothing is necessary.”

Outlander, Diana Gabaldon

#Outlander #Diana Gabaldon #possible #necessary

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I prefer myself liking people to myself loving mankind. I prefer, where love’s concerned, nonspecific anniversaries that can be celebrated every day. I prefer Grimms’ fairy tales to the newspapers’ front pages.

excerpts from the poem Possibilities by Wisława Szymborska (July 2, 1923–February 1, 2012)

#Wisława Szymborska #poetry #possibilities #grimmsfairytales #newspapers #people #mankind #preferences #prefer #love #anniversary #celebrate

[literarypickmeup]

I’m not sure how it is in small families, but in large ones relationships tend to shift over time. You might be best friends with one brother or sister, then two years later it might be someone else. Then it’s likely to change again, and again after that. It doesn’t mean that you’ve fallen out with the person you used to be closest to but that you’ve merged into someone else’s lane, or had him or her merge into yours. Trios form, then morph into quartets before splitting into teams of two. The beauty of it is that it’s always changing.

David Sedaris, The Perfect Fit published on March 28, 2016 on The New Yorker

#David Sedaris #The New Yorker #families #large #small #family #shopping in tokyo #relationships

[literarypickmeup]

Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.

The Old Astronomer to His Pupil, Sarah Williams

#the old astronomer #sarah williams #to his pupil #astronomy #light #stars #soul #darkness

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A boat, beneath a sunny sky Lingering onward dreamily In an evening of July— Children three that nestle near, Eager eye and willing ear, Pleased a simple tale to hear— Long has paled that sunny sky: Echoes fade and memories die: Autumn frosts have slain July. Still she haunts me, phantomwise, Alice moving under skies Never seen by waking eyes. Children yet, the tale to hear, Eager eye and willing ear, Lovingly shall nestle near. In a Wonderland they lie, Dreaming as the days go by, Dreaming as the summers die: Ever drifting down the stream— Lingering in the golden gleam— Life, what is it but a dream?

A Boat, Beneath a Sunny Sky, Lewis Carroll

#Lewis Carroll #Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky #life #dream #alice #july #summer #sunny

[literarypickmeup]

The physics that works for falling bodies and pirouetting ice skaters down here in the microcosm of the Earth makes galaxies up there in the macrocosm of the universe.

Carl Sagan, Cosmos, Chapter X: The Edge of Forever

#Carl Sagan #cosmos #the edge of forever #angular momentum #gravity #universe #earth #science

[literarypickmeup]

My best Acquaintances are those With Whom I spoke no Word - The Stars that stated come to Town Esteemed Me never rude Although to their Celestial Call I failed to make reply - My constant - reverential Face Sufficient Courtesy.

Emily Dickinson, Poem 932, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

#Emily Dickinson #stars #celestial #courtesy #acquaintance #wordless

[literarypickmeup]

We are listening for a sound beyond us, beyond sound, searching for a lighthouse in the breakwaters of our uncertainty, an electronic murmur a bright, fragile I am.

We Are Listening excerpt, Diane Ackerman

#We are listening #diane ackerman #listen #extraterrestrial life #space #cosmos

[literarypickmeup]

Indeed, people know that they are in a relationship when they become a problem to each other (or, to put it slightly differently, if you want to have a relationship with someone you have to become a problem for them).

Adam Phillips

#adam phillips #psychoanalysis #relationship #problem #human #being

[literarypickmeup]

I am not saying that we should love death but rather that we should love life so generously, without picking and choosing, that we automatically include it (life's other half) in our love.

Rainer Maria Rilke

#Rainer Maria Rilke #Rilke #love #life #death

[literarypickmeup]

where you are. is not who you are. – circumstances

Nayyirah Waheed, Salt

#nayyirah waheed #salt #where #what #circumstances

[literarypickmeup]

'i love myself.' the quietest. simplest. most powerful. revolution. ever.

Nayyirah Waheed

#nayyirah waheed #poetry #short poem #love #self #revolution

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The Old Astronomer (To His Pupil) Reach me down my Tycho Brahé, – I would know him when we meet, When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet; He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how We are working to completion, working on from then to now. Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete, Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet, And remember men will scorn it, ‘tis original and true, And the obloquy of newness may fall bitterly on you. But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn, You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn, What for us are all distractions of men’s fellowship and wiles; What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles. You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late, But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant’s fate. Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night. What, my boy, you are not weeping? You should save your eyes for sight; You will need them, mine observer, yet for many another night. I leave none but you, my pupil, unto whom my plans are known. You “have none but me,” you murmur, and I “leave you quite alone”? Well then, kiss me, – since my mother left her blessing on my brow, There has been a something wanting in my nature until now; I can dimly comprehend it, – that I might have been more kind, Might have cherished you more wisely, as the one I leave behind. I “have never failed in kindness”? No, we lived too high for strife,– Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life; But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still To the service of our science: you will further it? you will! There are certain calculations I should like to make with you, To be sure that your deductions will be logical and true; And remember, “Patience, Patience,” is the watchword of a sage, Not to-day nor yet to-morrow can complete a perfect age. I have sown, like Tycho Brahé, that a greater man may reap; But if none should do my reaping, 'twill disturb me in my sleep So be careful and be faithful, though, like me, you leave no name; See, my boy, that nothing turn you to the mere pursuit of fame. I must say Good-bye, my pupil, for I cannot longer speak; Draw the curtain back for Venus, ere my vision grows too weak: It is strange the pearly planet should look red as fiery Mars,– God will mercifully guide me on my way amongst the stars.

Sarah Williams

#Sarah Williams #The Old Astronomer #To His Pupil #Beautiful #loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night #itsokaytobesmart #death #parting #passing #mars #venus #astronomy #science

[literarypickmeup]

That’s the paradox: the only time most people feel alive is when they’re suffering, when something overwhelms their ordinary, careful armour, and the naked child is flung out onto the world. That’s why the things that are worst to undergo are best to remember. But when that child gets buried away under their adaptive and protective shells—he becomes one of the walking dead, a monster. So when you realise you’ve gone a few weeks and haven’t felt that awful struggle of your childish self — struggling to lift itself out of its inadequacy and incompetence — you’ll know you’ve gone some weeks without meeting new challenge, and without growing, and that you’ve gone some weeks towards losing touch with yourself. The only calibration that counts is how much heart people invest, how much they ignore their fears of being hurt or caught out or humiliated. And the only thing people regret is that they didn’t live boldly enough, that they didn’t invest enough heart, didn’t love enough. Nothing else really counts at all.

Ted Hughes

#Ted Hughes #Letter #Letter to His Son #suffering #calibration #heart #fear #hurt #humiliated #boldly #live boldly

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For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun? And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

Kahlil Gibran

#Kahlil Gibran #die #stand naked #wind #melt #sun #earth #limbs #claim #dance #death #life

[literarypickmeup]

It is strange to see how the populace, which nourishes its imagination with tales of witches or saints, mysterious events and extraordinary occurrences, disdains the world around it as commonplace, monotonous and prosaic, without suspecting that at bottom it is all secret, mystery, and marvel.

Santiago Ramón y Cajal

#Santiago Ramón y Cajal #Cajal #populace #imagination #witches #saints #mysterious #extraordinary #commonplace #monotonous #prosaic #secret #mystery #marvel #neurons #neurology #neuroscience #psychology #biology #art #science #drawing