Out of compassion I destroy the darkness of their ignorance. From within them I light the lamp of wisdom and read more

Out of compassion I destroy the darkness of their ignorance. From within them I light the lamp of wisdom and dispel all darkness from their lives.

Of all the tyrants the world affords,
Our own affections are the fiercest lords.

Of all the tyrants the world affords,
Our own affections are the fiercest lords.

The lion and the calf will lay down together, but the calf won't get much sleep..

The lion and the calf will lay down together, but the calf won't get much sleep..

Beauty can't amuse you, but brainwork -- reading, writing, thinking--can.

Beauty can't amuse you, but brainwork -- reading, writing, thinking--can.

The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure, and pleasure my business.

The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure, and pleasure my business.

Winter nights were made for warm snuggles and warmer hearts.

Winter nights were made for warm snuggles and warmer hearts.

Passion costs me too much to bestow it on every trifle.

Passion costs me too much to bestow it on every trifle.

The force of truth that a statement imparts, then, its prominence among the hordes of recorded observations that I may read more

The force of truth that a statement imparts, then, its prominence among the hordes of recorded observations that I may optionally apply to my own life, depends, in addition to the sense that it is argumentatively defensible, on the sense that someone like me, and someone I like, whose voice is audible and who is at least notionally in the same room with me, does or can possibly hold it to be compellingly true.

What is passion? It is surely the becoming of a person. Are we not, for most of our lives, marking read more

What is passion? It is surely the becoming of a person. Are we not, for most of our lives, marking time? Most of our being is at rest, unlived. In passion, the body and the spirit seek expression outside of self. Passion is all that is other from self. Sex is only interesting when it releases passion. The more extreme and the more expressed that passion is, the more unbearable does life seem without it. It reminds us that if passion dies or is denied, we are partly dead and that soon, come what may, we will be wholly so.