Small

When things get so big, I don't trust them at all
You want some control, you've got to keep it small
-- Peter Gabriel, D.I.Y, from "Peter Gabriel II", 1978

Door

"My only advice is, if you can get me to offer you $5,000 not to open the door, take the money and go home."
-- Monty Hall, quoted in the New York times, 21 July 1991.

Object

God help anyone sick enough to develop an emotional relationship with an inanimate object.
-- Seaweed Shark

Morality

The Distinction between morality and obedience is rarely well articulated.
-- Seaweed Shark

Human Being

"While the world was full of people, all too full, finding a genuine human being was not easy." -- Eiji Yoshikawa

Big Books

Books should not be too big. A big book is too often like one of those "pan for gold" attractions in the Rocky Mountains: a few bright chips amid much sand and water.
-- Seaweed Shark

Words

I like words. They are, after our bodies, pretty much our first playthings.
-- Seaweed Shark

Noblest Spirits

"Only the noblest spirits can bear with equanimity the success of their friends."
-- Will Durant, Caesar and Christ p.289

Power & Pettiness

"I cannot at the same time do homage to power and pettiness -- to the truth of consummate science, and the mannerism of undisciplined imagination."
-- John Ruskin, Modern Painters V1, Intro, sec. 4

Modern

"Looking to science for deliverance from the tragicomedy of history is part of what it means to be modern."
-- John Gray (The New Republic, April 20, 2012)

Something Special

"I further know that if God has something special for you, you have a knowledge of it inside you, which causes you not to be satisfied with anything that is not that thing."

-- Leonard Cheshire

The Principle of Democracy

The principle of democracy is freedom, the principle of war is discipline; each requires the absence of the other.
~ Will Durant

The Ugly Sea

"We are in rhythm with the old ocean: it rises irregularly twice in twenty-four hours, and then repents of rising; and so largely do we." -- R.A. Lafferty, "The Ugly Sea"

Facts Absorbed Without Context

"Facts absorbed without context merely magnify the intellectual deficiencies of the autodidact."
Joe Queenan, New York Times, 3 October 2004

Nature

Nature is, what you may do.
Emerson (The Conduct of Life: Fate)

The People Without Stories

The fact that we tell stories is a symptom of our predicament. Gossip stories, adventure stories. We need them, yet they have a pernicious effect on us. Blessed would be the people without stories, if any such existed.

Dreaming

"Dreaming is a natural process, like eating or working, that we have the opportunity to make more beautiful if we wish to."
N.N. Scott, in conversation 2004

The Souls in Plato's Cave

"Like the souls in Plato's cave, we ourselves cast the shadows that make us aware of our existence, and at the same time block the light that is the source of our existence."
N.N. Scott, in conversation, 2004

Dangerous Stories

"Some stories are extremely dangerous, but not in the way most people believe: not because they refer to socially uncomfortable issues and facts. They are dangerous because they teach us to think in the wrong way about our problems."
N.N. Scott, in conversation, (2004)

A Genuine Human Being

"While the world was full of people, all too full, finding a genuine human being was not easy."
Eiji Yoshikawa, Musashi (1935) p.293