For language to have meaning there must be intervals of silence somewhere, to divide word from word and utterance from utterance. He who retires into silence does not necessarily hate language. Perhaps it is love and respect for language which imposes silence upon him. — Thomas Merton, Disputed Questions. (Harvest Books; 1st Harvest/HBJ ed edition,… Continue reading Thomas Merton
Enthusiasm is one of the subtlest means by which one may deceive as long as possible and successfully appear dumber than one actually is. — Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil. (Penguin Classics; Reissue edition April 29, 2003) Originally published 1886.
Silence reveals itself only to itself. Only when we enter as nothing and stay as nothing, will silence open its secret. ― Adyashanti, Emptiness Dancing. (Sounds True; 2nd edition, May 1, 2006) Orriginally published 2004.
We have in fact only two certainties in this world—that we are not everything and that we will die. To be conscious of not being everything, as one is of being mortal, is nothing. But if we are without a narcotic, an unbreathable void reveals itself. I wanted to be everything, so that falling into… Continue reading Georges Bataille
You withdraw into your sorrow: this, at least, is yours. — Hans Urs von Balthasar, Heart of the World. (Ignatius Press, June 1, 1980)
What is WIND and what is BONE have never been conclusively determined by the generations of Chinese critics, but what is certain, according to Liu Hsieh, is that the perfect combination or balance of WIND and BONE, the metaphor for the ideal poem, is a bird. — Eliot Weinberger, An Elemental Thing. (New Directions; 1St… Continue reading Eliot Weinberger
In your loneliness, you hear the word from far away and then, in gratitude, look at it so closely that you cannot but drown in it. — Edmond Jabès, The Book of Questions: Volume II [Yaël; Elya; Aely; El, Or the Last Book] (Wesleyan; Revised ed. Edition, September 15, 1991) Originally published January 1st 1967.
