“Events are never absolute, their outcome depends entirely upon the individual. Misfortune is a stepping stone for a genius, a piscina for a Christian, a treasure for a man of parts, and an abyss for a weakling.” MenChristianIndividualEventsDependsGeniusStonesAbsolutesTreasureCertaintyOutcomesMisfortunesAbyssStepping Stones Author:Honore de Balzac
“For the broadcast business to be successful, viewers need to be not merely interested in our political melodramas, they have to be in an absolute state about them - emotionally invested in the outcome and frightened not to watch what happens next.” NeedsStatesHappensPoliticalNextWatchesSuccessfulAbsolutesOutcomesBeing SuccessfulFrightenedViewersMelodrama Author:Matt Taibbi
“How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God?” AchieveAbsolutesNovelistsOutcomesAtonementAbsolute Power Author:Ian Mcewan
“How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all.” IfsFormTermImaginationImpossibleAchieveHigherLimitsTasksAbsolutesForgivingAtheistAppealsNovelistsOutcomesEntityAtonementAbsolute Power Author:Ian Mcewan
“What do believers in the Absolute mean by saving that their belief affords them comfort? They mean that since in the Absolute finite evil is ‘overruled’ already, we may, therefore, whenever we wish, treat the temporal as if it were potentially the eternal, be sure that we can trust its outcome, and, without sin, dismiss our fear and drop the worry of our finite responsibility. In short, they mean that we have a right ever and anon to take a moral holiday, to let the world wag in its own way, feeling that its issues are in better hands than ours and are none of our business.” IfsWorldWayMayMeanFeelingsHandsEvilBeliefWishSinResponsibilityMoralWorryIssuesComfortEternalTreatsAbsolutesBelieverSavingOutcomesHolidayFiniteWagsAnon Author:William James
“Learning to live ought to mean learning to die - to acknowledge, to accept, an absolute mortality - without positive outcome,or resurrection, or redemption, for oneself or for anyone else. That has been the old philosophical injunction since Plato: to be a philosopher is to learn how to die.” MeanHas BeensDiesAcceptingOughtAbsolutesPhilosophicalOneselfPhilosopherRedemptionAcknowledgeOutcomesMortalityResurrectionPlatoPositive Outcome Author:Jacques Derrida