“It is a base thing for a man to wax old in careless self-neglect before he has lifted up his eyes and seen what manner of man he was made to be, in the full perfection of bodily strength and beauty. But these glories are withheld from him who is guilty of self-neglect, for they are not wont to blaze forth unbidden.” MenMadeSelfEyeGloryPerfectionGuiltyHis EyesNeglectCarelessStrength And Beauty Author:Socrates
“place where man laughs, sings, picks flowers, chases butterflies and pets birds, makes love with maidens, and plays with children. Here he spontaneously reveals his nature, the base as well as the noble. Here also he buries his sorrows and difficulties and cherishes his ideals and hopes. It is in the garden that men discover themselves. Indeed one discovers not only his real self but also his ideal self?he returns to his youth. Inevitably the garden is made the scene of man's merriment, escapades, romantic abandonment, spiritual awakening or the perfection of his finer self.” MenWellsChildrenMadeRealSelfPlaySpiritualLaughingYouthFlowerReturnSorrowSceneBirdPicksIdealsGardenPerfectionDifficultyNobleAwakeningPetCherishButterflyMaking LoveAbandonmentSpiritual AwakeningMaidensReal SelfMerrimentEscapade Author:Confucius
“There is no estimating the wit and wisdom concealed and latent in our lower fellow mortals until made manifest by profound experiences; for it is through suffering that dogs as well as saints are developed and made perfect.” WellsMadeSufferingPerfectDogWords Of WisdomPerfectionFellowsProfoundSaintWitMortalsManifestConcealedLatentEstimatingWit And Wisdom Book:Stickeen Source: Stickeen
“In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished - a word that for them has no sense - but abandoned; and this abandonment, whether to the flames or to the public (and which is the result of weariness or an obligation to deliver) is a kind of an accident to them, like the breaking off of a reflection, which fatigue, irritation, or something similar has made worthless.” KindMadeEyeResultsLoversReflectionPerfectionFinishedAccidentsObligationFlamesAbandonedWorthlessFatigueAbandonmentWearinessIrritation Author:Paul Valery
“Our world is not an optimal place, fine tuned by omnipotent forces of selection. It is a quirky mass of imperfections, working well enough (often admirably); a jury-rigged set of adaptations built of curious parts made available by past histories in different contexts. A world optimally adapted to current environments is a world without history, and a world without history might have been created as we find it. History matters; it confounds perfection and proves that current life transformed its own past.” WorldWellsHas BeensMadeDifferentMatterEnoughMightPastForceEnvironmentFineProveMassBuiltPerfectionCurrentsAvailableCuriousOur WorldImperfectionTransformedSelectionMight Have BeenAdaptationJuryAdaptedQuirkyOmnipotentRiggedOptimal Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“Locke had illegitimately selected those parts of man he needed for his social contract and suppressed all the rest, a theoretically unsatisfactory procedure and a practically costly one. The bourgeois is the measure of the price paid, he who most of all cannot afford to look to his real self, who denies the existence of the thinly boarded-over basement in him, who is most made over for the purposes of a society that does not even promise him perfection or salvation but merely buys him off.” MenLooksDoeMadeRealSelfPurposeSocialExistenceNeededPromisePerfectionPaidSalvationDenyContractsProceduresBourgeoisSelectedBasementsReal SelfSocial Contract Book:Closing of the American Mind Source: Closing of the American Mind
“If modern painters feel qualms about applying the term "masterpiece" to describe a work of capital importance, this is because it has come to convey a notion of perfection: a notion that leads to much confusion when applied to artists other than those who made perfection their ideal.” IfsFeelsMadeArtistTermModernIdealsPerfectionImportanceNotionConfusionPainterMasterpieceQualmsQualms About Author:Andre Malraux