Doing Nothing

At least a fifth of our working time is spent doing nothing, or rather nothing productive. Most people are incapable of doing nothing, in the strict sense that a meditator does nothing. Moreover, much of their activity may not merely be unproductive but positively counterproductive, in so far as most people at work feel obliged to do something. If not only offices, but millions of journeys to offices, become unnecessary, pollution would decline and leisure time would increase. This latter would be a disaster, since most people do not know what to do with themselves as it is. It is for this reason that work is not arranged as efficiently as possible, but its productive aspect is diluted by myriad unnecessary tasks—unnecessary, that is, from the narrow point of view of production. A great deal of work is designed to keep us occupied while we produce nothing. It ameliorates boredom and prevents the bad behaviour in which boredom results. —Theodore Dalrymple

Women

Women never see, whether for good or bad, more than one side of any question; and that is, always, the one which first presents itself to them. —Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist

Fatal Sequence

The ancient systole and diastole of history has repeated itself in country after country:
Bondage to Spiritual Faith;
Spiritual Faith to Courage;
Courage to Freedom;
Freedom to Abundance;
Abundance to Selfishness;
Selfishness to Complacency;
Complacency to Apathy;
Apathy to Fear;
Fear to Dependency;
Dependency to Bondage.
—Henning Webb Prentis, Jr., President of the Armstrong Cork Company.

Unbelief

Unbelief is easier than belief, less demanding and in fact subtly flattering, because the agnostic feels himself to be intellectually superior to the believer. And unbelief haunted by faith produces a rather pleasant nostalgia, while belief haunted by doubt involves real suffering. - Elizabeth Goudge, The Scent of Water p300

Tedious Sophistry

Since it is contrary to the spirit of our organization to produce closely coherent works or greater wholes, since it is not our purpose to labor upon a Tower of Babel, which God in His righteousness can descend upon and destroy, since we are conscious of the fact that this confusion of tongues happened justly, recognizing it as a characteristic of all human striving in its truth, that it is fragmentary, and that it is precisely this which separates it from nature’s infinite coherence; that the wealth of an individual consists precisely in the energy he shows in producing the fragmentary, and that that which brings enjoyment to the producing individual also brings enjoyment to the receiving individual, not the troublesome and meticulous execution, nor the tedious apprehension of this execution, but the production and enjoyment of the gleaming transitoriness, which for the producer contains something more than the thorough execution, since it is the appearance of the Idea, and for the recipient, it contains something more, since its fulguration awakens his own productivity–since, I say, all this is contrary to the purpose of our organization, moreover, since the period just read must be regarded as a serious attempt in the interjectory style, wherein the ideas break out without breaking through, which in our organization has an official status: then I shall, after having called attention to the fact that my procedure still cannot be called rebellious, since the bonds which hold the sentence together are so loose that the intermediary clauses stand out aphoristically and arbitrarily enough, merely call to mind that my style has made an attempt apparently to be what it is not–revolutionary.

—Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

Self-doubt

Culturally speaking, women's bodily features tend to be divided into two categories. There are the concealed parts, which are treated as objects of titillation, and the revealed parts, which are treated as objects of scrutiny and self-doubt. When the female armpit began its shift from concealed to revealed, marketers rushed in to speed the transition. Self-doubt, after all, is a major sales opportunity.

—Laura Wattenberg, http://www.babynamewizard.com/archives/2018/4/the-surprising-tale-of-the-name-milady

Rebels

Rebels, especially successful rebels, are of necessity bad subjects and worse governors. Our ungrateful duty was to rid ourselves of our tried and true allies and replace them with that ninety per cent of the population who had been too solid to rebel - and on whose solidity the new government must rest.

–T.E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom

Tears

Poor Archie broke down entirely and, flinging himself into a chair, laid his face on the table, sobbing like a girl. Rose had never seen a man cry before, and it was so unlike a woman's gentler grief that it moved her very much.

—Louisa May Alcott, Rose in Bloom.

Happiness

Principal requisites of earthly happiness which no one can deny according to Tolstoy:
1. Life close to nature - clean air, sunlight, natural sounds, fresh food
2. Physical labor - congenial, free, necessary, giving appetite and sleep
3. Family life - one wife, care of kids
4. Free, friendly communication with men as equals
5. Health and a painless death

—Leo Tolstoy, What I Believe

Happiness

Dear! dear! to see how gentlefolks can afford to throw away their happiness! Now, if you were poor people, there would be none of this. To talk of unworthiness, and not caring about one another, when I know there are not such a kind-hearted lady and gentleman in the whole province, not any that love one another half so well, if the truth was spoken!

—Ann Radcliff, The Mysteries of Udulpho, Vol.4, Ch.13, p.589.