Aymeric had married within his circle, that’s what happens most often in the end, and it’s what gives the best results in principle, well, that’s what I’d heard anyway, but my problem is that I had no circle, no precise circle.
Serotonin: A Novel
Michel Houellebecq
Category: LOVE
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For my part, without loved ones, it seemed to me that I was accepting the idea of death more and more easily; of course I would have liked to be happy, to be part of a happy community–all humans want that–but, well, it was really out of the question at this stage.
Serotonin: A Novel
Michel Houellebecq -
But death imposes itself in the end: the molecular armour cracks, the process of decomposition resumes its course. It probably happens more quickly for those who have never belonged to the world, who have never imagined living, or loving, or being loved; those who have always known that life was not within their reach.
Serotonin: A Novel
Michel Houellebecq -
Kierkegaard seems to have genuinely loved Olsen but was unable to reconcile the prospect of marriage with his vocation as a writer, his passionate, introspective Christianity and his constant melancholy.
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Kierkegaard would remain a celibate bachelor for the rest of his life.
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The saints give us this interesting way to think about the commandment to love our neighbors: They tell us that all our spiritual wealth is stored at our neighbor’s place. And all our neighbor’s wealth is stored with us. Alone in our homes, we are without funds, because the only financial assets we have are over there at our neighbor’s place. To collect some of our spiritual wealth, we have to reach out to our neighbor, where it is stored. And our neighbors, to possess their spiritual wealth, have to reach out to us. Without this reaching out to one another, we both live in spiritual poverty.
As therefore one who had his own gold buried in the house of his neighbor, should he refuse to go and there seek and dig it up, will never see it; so likewise here, he who will not seek his own profit in the advantage of his neighbor will not receive the crowns given for this. For God has placed each person’s profit with his neighbor, that we may be mutually bound together. —St. John Chrysostom
—Dee Pennock, God’s Path to Sanity
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“It seems we don’t know how to love the ones we love until they disappear from our lives.”
—Joshua Fields Millburn, Everything That Remains: A Memoir by The Minimalists -
I fell silent, with a sense of satiety, of futility. I might, I reflected, go on questioning my mother for hours and still not come to a conclusion about anything: her life, and she herself, had by now attained a degree of utter meaninglessness which amounted, in the long run, to a sort of mystery at the same time both dull and impenetrable.
Boredom
Alberto Moravia -
Consider watching through a window as a family enjoys a home-cooked meal. You might imagine how it feels to be part of this group—their warmth and happiness, their sense of belonging as they pass dishes back and forth. Now imagine being part of this family. Maybe you do feel warmth and happiness, but those feelings are much more complex, less tidy. What came before the dinner? What comes after? Are you actually present, or thinking about something else? Your family is not a snapshot or a concept; it’s messy, in flux, evolving. It has depth and continuity. No matter how lovely the dinner is in reality, it can never really live up to what the observer imagines. Because what they imagine is actually just a symbol—an idea they’ve adapted from TV, movies, and marketing their entire lives about what it means to be part of a happy family.
#187: Drowning in envy
Haley Nahman -
Excessive sorrow for our loved ones who have left this world is not a Christian act, but an act of godlessness. We prepare ourselves in this life for eternal life. We must be thankful for everything and thank God for taking the souls of our departed loved ones to Himself.
—Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
SO GOOD QUOTES 