“Children of her type contrive the purest philosophies. Ada had worked out her own little system. Hardly a week had elapsed since Van’s arrival when he was found worthy of being initiated in her web of wisdom. An individual’s life consisted of certain classified things: "real things" which were unfrequent and priceless, simply "things" which formed the routine stuff of life; and "ghost things," also called "fogs," such as fever, toothache, dreadful disappointments, and death. Three or more things occurring at the same time formed a "tower," or, if they came in immediate succession, they made a "bridge." "Real towers" and "real bridges" were the joys of life, and when the towers came in a series, one experienced supreme rapture; it almost never happened, though. In some circumstances, in a certain light, a neutral "thing" might look or even actually become "real" or else, conversely, it might coagulate into a fetid "fog." When the joy and the joyless happened to be intermixed, simultaneously or along the ramp of duration, one was confronted with "ruined towers" and "broken bridges.”
Quote by Vladimir Nabokov
Work
Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle
Browse quotes and source details for this work. more
Author
You May Also Like
“Fucking two things up at the same time isn`t multitasking”
Source: Men Are Better Than Women
Source: Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention— and How to Think Deeply Again
Source: Müdigkeitsgesellschaft, Burnoutgesellschaft, Hoch-Zeit
Source: The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time to Do Everything Better
Source: The Expanded Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Training Manual: DBT for Self-Help and Individual & Group Treatment Settings
“There is only one timeline. There is only one you.”
Source: The Myth of Multitasking: How "Doing It All" Gets Nothing Done
“There’s no multitasking with the moment.”
Source: In Limbo
Source: The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time to Do Everything Better
