“The pursuit of art is a delicate balance between influence and self-assertiveness. As self-realized artists, we all have different levels of tolerance for this mystery. Influence is like Scotch; it's good to know your personal limit.” KnowsArtDifferentSelfArtistLevelsMysteryInfluenceBalanceLimitsArt IsTolerancePursuitDelicateDifferent LevelsScotchAssertivenessPersonal Limits Author:Robert Genn
“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
“There's many things that I am. And all of those things come together at some point. If somebody wants to limit me, you know and they'll say, 'Well, this is Walter Mosley, the mystery writer.' I don't like that. Because I do many things.” IfsKnowsWantWellsTogetherMysteryLimits Author:Walter Mosley
“I think a good poem should have some inscrutable part. You can't quite explain it. The poem can only explain itself to a certain limit and at that point you enter into a little bit of mystery. That for me is the perfect poem: to begin in clarity and to end in mystery.” ThinkingShouldLittlesEndsCertainBitsPerfectMysteryLimitsLittle BitShould HaveClarityInscrutable Author:Billy Collins
“Faced with the immensity of the universe, Job realized that there are limits to man's rationalizing, that we cannot find where the cloud of sorrow starts, that all our boasted knowledge is but an island in the vast ocean of mystery, and as the island of knowledge grows larger, the shore line of mystery becomes longer. At the end of his wits, he surrendered in trust to a Higher Wisdom.” MenEndsJobsUniverseGrowsLinesMysteryHigherSorrowLimitsOceanCloudsWitIslandsShoreImmensityVast Ocean Author:Ralph Washington Sockman
“Puzzles lead to logical answers; mysteries often force us to stretch language to its limits in an attempt to describe a reality that is just too great to take in properly.” RealityLanguageForceAnswersMysteryLimitsLogicalPuzzles Book:The Living God: A Guide for Study and Devotion Source: The Living God: A Guide for Study and Devotion
“There are genuine mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Wisdom is fortified, not destroyed, by understanding its limitations. Ignorance does not make a fool as surely as self-deception.” ThinkingWorldHumansDoeSelfWisdomUnderstandingKnowingMysteryIgnoranceFoolLimitsMarkGenuineDestroyedLimitationDeceptionSelf Deception Author:Mortimer Adler
“I pray for meaning. I pray for the limits of reality to become clear. For a world – and a type of being – that makes sense. I pray for a life after death that is not like this life. I pray for the end of mystery. What would a life be like with all the mysteries solved? If there were no questions, there’d be no stories. If there were no stories, there’d be no language. If there was no language there’d be no . . . What?” IfsWorldEndsStoriesRealityLife IsLanguageClearMysteryTypePrayingLimitsThis LifeMake SenseI PrayLife Is LikeAfter DeathLife After Death Author:Scarlett Thomas
“If much in the world were mystery the limits of that world were not, for it was without measure or bound and there were contained within it creatures more horrible yet and men of other colors and beings which no man has looked upon and yet not alien none of it more than were their own hearts alien in them, whatever wilderness contained there and whatever beasts.” IfsMenWorldHeartMysteryColorCreaturesLimitsBoundsHorribleAliensBeastWildernessAlienation Book:Blood Meridian: Picador Classic Source: Blood Meridian: Picador Classic