“When you have committed an action that you cannot bear to think about, that causes you to writhe in retrospect, do not seek to evade the memory: make yourself relive it, confront it repeatedly over and over, till finally, you will discover, through sheer repetition it loses its power to pain you. It works, I guarantee you, this sure-fire guilt-eradicator, like a homeopathic medicine - like in small doses applied to like. It works, but I am not sure that it is a good thing.” ThinkingActionPainCausesLosesMemoriesFireBearsMedicineGuiltGood ThingsCommittedNot SureGuaranteesSheerRepetitionDoseRetrospect Author:Mary McCarthy
“That's all very well as an abstract moral principle, Avril, a coffee-table theoretical construct, but there's no denying the sheer gratuitous pleasure to be derived from seeing members of the ruling class in pain and torment.” WellsPainPleasureMoralClassPrinciplesSeeingMembersTablesCoffeeAbstractSheerConstructsTormentRulingTheoreticalMoral Principles Book:The Acid House Source: The Acid House
“I have sat through an Italian opera, til, for sheer pain, and inexplicable anguish, I have rushed out into the noisiest places of the crowded street, to solace myself with sounds which I was not obliged to follow and get rid of the distracting torment of endless, fruitless, barren attention!” PainSoundAttentionMusicStreetsEndlessSatItalianOperaSheerAnguishTormentObligedCrowdedSolaceBarrenInexplicableCrowded Streets Book:The Life, Letters, and Writings of Charles Lamb Source: The Life, Letters, and Writings of Charles Lamb