bibliomavin

The normal behavior of the tribe often overpowers the desired behavior of the individual.

Source: James Clear

There is a crack in every thing God has made.

Source: Ralph Waldo Emerson

Apart from its function as a repository of information and insight, a book can be of interest as a physical object, as a mirror of its writer’s life and mind, and as a mirror of the society and culture from which it emanates and to which it returns.

Source: Richard Kieckhefer

In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.

Source: George Orwell

Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

Source: George Orwell

Reading sixteenth-century French poetry, suffering through Kant, and studying the finer points of the Jay Treaty may seem to be, on first appearance, completely, utterly, irrefutably pointless, yet somehow in studying, discussing, and writing about these “pointless” subjects, the liberal arts have the capacity to turn on a certain part of the brain that would otherwise remain shut off—the part of our brain that makes us ask ourselves questions like: Who am I? What’s worth fighting for? Who’s lying to us? What’s my purpose? What’s the point of it all? Perhaps many students would rather not be irritated with these questions, yet being compelled to grapple with them, it seems, can make us far less likely to be among those who’ll conform, remain complacent, or seek jobs with morally ambiguous employers.

Source: Ken Ilgunas

For some, it’s hard to think that the direction of success is anywhere but up the socioeconomic ladder, especially when success is largely measured by security, comfort, and wealth. But maybe progress can point in funny directions. Must we measure our success by the size of our homes and salaries? What if we got healthier, lived more sustainably, and became more self-reliant, albeit in tighter dwellings and in smaller families? Isn’t that success, too?

Source: Ken Ilgunas

He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.

Source: Saint Francis of Assisi

The quicker we Google Map the earth, the more we restrict our native planet from evoking feelings of wonder and enchantment and love for it within the hearts of its human inhabitants. Earth should always remain partly unknown, partly undiscovered, partly unclassified.

Source: Ken Ilgunas

It’s interesting how many games today take place in preindustrialized medieval worlds (Skyrim, World of Warcraft, The Legend of Zelda). It seems these worlds in video games have become our new frontier. These are the places where we go for adventure. They are refuges of virtual wildernesses—protected plots of pixelated land that must exist in fake worlds because we’ve denuded and defanged so much of the wilderness in our real world. No one thinks of wilderness in western New York. Because we have nothing that bears the slightest resemblance to wilderness, we are as unaware of its existence as we are unaware of some undiscovered alien race.

Source: Ken Ilgunas