“During the course of our life we now and then enjoy some pleasures so inviting, and have some encounters of so tender a nature, that though they are forbidden, it is but natural to wish that they were at least allowable. Nothing can be more delightful, except it be to abandon them for virtue's sake.” CoursesWishEnjoyNaturalPleasureVirtueOur LivesSakeEncountersAbandonNow And ThenDelightfulForbiddenInviting Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“Of all bad listeners, the worst and most terrible to encounter is the man who is so fond of listening that he wishes to hear, not only your conversation, but that of every other person in the room.” MenPersonsWishRoomsWorstHe ManListeningTerribleConversationEncountersListeners Book:all the year round Source: all the year round
“Less and less frequently do we encounter people with the ability to tell a tale properly. More and more often there is embarrassment all around when the wish to hear a story is expressed. It is as if something that seemed inalienable to us, the securest among our possessions, were taken from us: the ability to exchange our experiences...Experience has fallen in value. And it looks as if it is continuing to fall into bottomlessness.” PeopleIfsLooksStoriesValuesFallWishAbilityTakenPossessionTalesFallenEncountersContinuingIdealismEmbarrassment Author:Walter Benjamin
“We must calculate not on the weather, nor on fortune, but upon God and ourselves. He may fail us in the gratification of our wishes, but never in the encounter with our exigencies.” MayWishFailingFortuneWeatherEncountersGratification Book:Egeria: Or Voices of Thought and Counsel, for the Woods and Wayside Source: Egeria: Or Voices of Thought and Counsel, for the Woods and Wayside
“The problem of the novelist who wishes to write about a man's encounter with God is how he shall make the experience--which is both natural and supernatural--understandable, and credible, to his reader. In any age this would be a problem, but in our own, it is a well- nigh insurmountable one. Today's audience is one in which religious feeling has become, if not atrophied, at least vaporous and sentimental.” IfsMenWritingWellsFeelingsProblemWould BeAgeTodayWishNaturalReligiousAudienceReaderNovelistsEncountersSentimentalSentimentalityCredibleInsurmountable Author:Flannery O'Connor