“I do not know myself how I paint it. I sit down with a white board before the spot that strikes me. I look at what is before my eyes, and say to myself, that white board must become something.” KnowsLooksEyeWhitePaintConvictionStrikesSpotsBoards Book:Van Gogh's Source: Van Gogh's
“When I look back on my life nowadays, which I sometimes do, what strikes me most forcibly about it is that what seemed at the time most significant and seductive, seems now most futile and absurd. For instance, success in all of its various guises; being known and being praised; ostensible pleasures, like acquiring money or seducing women, or traveling, going to and fro in the world and up and down in it like Satan, exploring and experiencing whatever Vanity Fair has to offer. In retrospect all these exercises in self-gratification seem pure fantasy, what Pascal called “licking the earth.” WorldLooksSelfSometimesSeemsEarthPleasureKnownFantasyExerciseOffersPureFairsVariousStrikesSignificantAbsurdInstanceVanitySatanExploringUp And DownGratificationSeductiveSeducingRetrospectGuiseLickingPascalVanity FairSelf Gratification Author:Malcolm Muggeridge
“Step back in time; look closely at the child in the very arms of his mother; see the external world reflected for the first time in the yet unclear mirror of his understanding; study the first examples which strike his eyes; listen to the first words which arouse within him the slumbering power of thought; watch the first struggles which he has to undergo; only then will you comprehend the source of his prejudices, the habits, and the passions which are to rule his life. The entire man, so to speak, comes fully formed in the wrappings of his cradle.” MenWorldFirstsLooksChildrenEyeMotherPassionSpeakUnderstandingStepsWatchesStruggleStudyExampleSourceArmsHabitFirst TimePrejudiceMirrorsStrikesHis EyesCradleBack In TimeWrappingPower Of ThoughtUnclear Author:Alexis de Tocqueville