“children are simply human beings who are allowed to do what everyone else really desires to do, as for instance, to fly kites, or when seriously wronged to emit prolonged screams for several minutes.” HumansChildrenDesireHuman BeingsMinutesInstanceScreamKitesWronged Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
“In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments-which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. Measurements of people's minute-by-minute levels of pleasure and pain miss this fundamental aspect of human existence. A seemingly happy life maybe empty. A seemingly difficult life may be devoted to a great cause. We have purposes larger than ourselves.” PeopleHumansMayEndsWholeMomentsStoriesHappensPainLife IsPurposeCausesDifficultHuman BeingsSleepPleasureLevelsViewsExistenceMinutesMissingAspectEmptyFundamentalsAverageDeterminedMeaningfulSignificantThings HappenPlusHappy LifeDevotedMeasurementHuman ExistenceArcsPain And PleasureDifficult LifeSignificant Moments Book:Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End Source: Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End
“[L]et my reader who is puzzled by my awkward explanations close his eyes for no more than two minutes, and see if he does not find himself suddenly not a compact human being at all, but only a consciousness on a sea of sound and touch . . .” IfsHumansDoeTwoEyeSoundHuman BeingsConsciousnessSeaMinutesReaderExplanationHis EyesAwkwardPuzzledCompact Book:The Magic of Shirley Jackson Source: The Magic of Shirley Jackson
“Fate forces its way to the powerful and violent. With subservient obedience it will assume for years dependency on one individual:Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, because it loves the elemental human being who grows to resemble it, the intangible element. Sometimes, and these are the most astonishing moments in world history, the thread of fate falls into the hands of a complete nobody but only for a twitching minute.” WorldWayYearsHumansSometimesMomentsHandsFallIndividualForceGrowsLeadershipHuman BeingsPowerfulFateMinutesGreatnessElementsAssumingViolentObedienceThreadWorld HistoryAstonishingDependencyIntangibleElementalsSubservientTwitching Author:Stefan Zweig
“All the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.” PeopleMenWorldWayFirstsHumansStillsWarRememberNationsVoiceHoursHuman BeingsSilenceMillionsMinutesMankindMonthsHundredSilentOne WayWar Of The WorldsSpokesOld ManRemember WhenBattlefieldsEighteenNineteenVoice Of GodFirst World WarBreakfast Of ChampionsArmisticeArmistice DayEleventh Hour Author:Kurt Vonnegut
“One of the nice things about looking at a bear is that you know it spends 100 per cent of every minute of every day being a bear. It doesn't strive to become a better bear. It doesn't go to sleep thinking, "I wasn't really a very good bear today". They are just 100 per cent bear, whereas human beings feel we're not 100 per cent human, that we're always letting ourselves down. We're constantly striving towards something, to some fulfilment” ThinkingKnowsFeelsHumansTodayHuman BeingsSleepNiceMinutesBearsStriveVery GoodCentsGoing To SleepNice ThingsFulfilment Author:Stephen Fry
“The dismembering of a human being routinely in 30 minutes on an outpatient bases - or any other way - is barbaric. Four blocks from our church all year long - like churches within smelling distance of Auschwitz or Dachau or Buchenwald.” WayYearsHumansLongChurchHuman BeingsFourMinutesBasesDistanceBlockAbortionAuschwitzBarbaricDachauBuchenwald Author:John Piper