“Sometimes all that saves me is being willing to make mistakes. There are projects that strike me as so beautiful, important, complicated, or just plain big, that they convince me of my own inadequacy. This awful state of reverence leads to paralyzing brain freeze. At times like that the only way out is for me to decide, 'To hell with it. I can't do it right, so I'll do it wrong. I can't do it well, but I can do it badly.' Sometimes, with luck, while I'm sweating to do it wrong, I stumble on a right way.” WayWellsI CanImportantSometimesStatesBigsBeautifulCan DoMy OwnMistakeBrainHellWillingProjectsLuckComplicatedStrikesAwfulConvinceMaking MistakesReverenceRight WayFreezeI Can Do ItSave MeInadequacySweating Author:Katherine Dunn
“It never frightened a Puritan when you bade him stand still and listen to the speech of God. His closet and his church were full of the reverberations of the awful, gracious, beautiful voice for which he listened.” StillsGodBeautifulVoiceChurchSpeechAwfulFrightenedClosetsGraciousPuritanReverberationBeautiful Voice Book:The Consolations of God: Great Sermons of Phillips Brooks Source: The Consolations of God: Great Sermons of Phillips Brooks
“No temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in its walls seems to glow with life...Awful in stern, immovable majesty, how softly these rocks are adorned, and how fine and reassuring the company they keep: Their feet among beautiful groves and meadows, their brows in the sky, a thousand flowers leaning confidingly against their feet, bathed in floods of water, floods of light.” MadeHandsLightSeemsBeautifulWaterCompanyFeetSkyRocksFlowerWallFineThousandAwfulCompareTemplesFloodMajestyBrowsMeadowsReassuringGroveYosemite Author:John Muir
“There are more useful systems developed in languages deemed awful than in languages praised for being beautiful - many more.” BeautifulLanguageAwfulBeing Beautiful Author:Bjarne Stroustrup
“I think when a man first discovers that two and two is four, there is 'beauty' in that; and we can see why. But if people stand and look at the moon and one says 'I think it's just beautiful tonight' and the other says 'The moon makes me feel awful' we are both 'clear'. A geometric shape - we know why we like it; and an unreasonable shape; it has a certain mystery that we recognize as real; but it is difficult to put these things in an objective way.” PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsMenWayFeelsFirstsLooksTwoRealBeautifulCertainDifficultClearFourMysteryShapesMoonObjectivesAwfulTonightUnreasonableGeometricGeometric Shapes Author:William Baziotes
“The rum fiend would like to go and hang up a skeleton in your beautiful house so that, when you opened the front door to go in, you would see it in the hall; and, when you sat at your table you would see it hanging from the wall; and, when you opened your bedroom you would find it stretched upon your pillow; and, waking at night, you would feel its cold hand passing over your face and pinching at your heart. There is no home so beautiful but it may be devastated by the awful curse.” FeelsHeartMayHomeHandsBeautifulFacesNightHouseDoorsFrontsWallColdTablesPassingPassingsAwfulCurseSatOver YouHallsYour FaceWakingBedroomPillowDrunkennessSkeletonsDevastatedFront DoorsHang UpsYour BeautifulRumPinching Author:Thomas De Witt Talmage