“How do you calculate upon the unforeseen? It seems to be an art of recognizing the role of the unforeseen, of keeping your balance amid surprises, of collaborating with chance, of recognizing that there are some essential mysteries in the world and thereby a limit to calculation, to plan, to control. To calculate on the unforeseen is perhaps exactly the paradoxical operation that life most requires of us.” WorldArtSeemsChanceRolesPlansMysteryBalanceLimitsEssentialsSurpriseOperationsRecognizingCalculationsParadoxicalCollaboratingUnforeseen Author:Rebecca Solnit
“Upon looking back from the end of the last chapter and surveying the texture of what has been wrote, it is necessary, that upon this page and the five following, a good quantity of heterogeneous matter be inserted, to keep up that just balance betwixt wisdom and folly, without which a book would not hold together a single year.” YearsHas BeensBookEndsMatterFunnyTogetherLastsFiveBalancePagesSurpriseFollowingFollyQuantityChaptersLooking BackTexture Book:The Works of Laurence Sterne, in One Volume Source: The Works of Laurence Sterne, in One Volume
“That's the fine balance of a fiction writer...to be able to give your characters enough freedom to surprise you and yet still maintain some kind of artistic control.” GivingKindStillsEnoughCharacterAbleFictionFineBalanceSurpriseArtisticFiction Writers Author:Alan Lightman
“Take all that you can of this book upon reason, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man. (When a skeptic expressed surprise to see him reading a Bible)” MenBookReasonFaithDiesReadingBalanceBibleSurpriseSkeptic Author:Abraham Lincoln