In Libro Veritas

"Flaubert experienced from childhood on an unquestionable fondness for privacy and solitude. A well-heated room, books and leisure seemed to the young Gustave the most desirable conditions for happiness." anthologialitt.com/post/flaubert-…

Edward Bulwer-Lytton once advised: "In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature, the oldest. The Classic literature is always modern." That is, scientific progress isn't contingent on human ethics, for we can always draw moral lessons from ancient literature.

Daniel Defoe, on the best “school” for learning to be a stoic

Listening now to the beautifully nostalgic Jazz track 'Central Park West' by the great John Coltrane (soprano sax) along with the contemplative piano of McCoy Tyner. Originally recorded in 1960 & released in the 1964 Lp 'Coltrane's Sound' Enjoy!

it is quite certain that nothing can be loved unless it is known. augustine of hippo

“All my life, I have lived with the feeling that I have been kept from my true place. If the expression "metaphysical exile" had no meaning, my existence alone would afford it one.” ~ Emil Cioran ; The Trouble With Being Born

"The mind that puts everything in question, reaches, after a thousand interrogations, an almost total inertia, a situation which the inert, in fact, knows from the start, by instinct. For what is inertia but a congenital perplexity ?" ~ Emil Cioran ; The Trouble With Being Born

"By closing the eyes and slumbering, and consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundations." ~ H. D. Thoreau ; Walden

Søren Kierkegaard, on listening to what the silence would say

Mikhail Bulgakov, to his sister, 1917

Gustave Flaubert to Louise Collet (September, 1852)

Faust’s Dream by Carl Gustav Carus, 1852

"Daughters of the Mist" 1900 - 1919 by Evelyn de Morgan

Tight-Rope Walker (c. 1885) Jean-Louis Forain (French, 1852 - 1931)

“After all, we are nothing more or less than we choose to reveal." — Sylvia Plath

Raphael: Urania, Muse of Astronomy, with a celestial sphere - 1508-11 AD, mosaic & fresco in the Apostolic Palace; Stanza della Segnatura, Vatican | She represents the Aristotelian & Neoplatonic concept of the ‘Unmoved Mover’ / the primary cause of all motion in the universe

« Comprendre les belles choses et jouir de l’effort prestigieux des maîtres suffisait à sa vie contemplative où l’action n’était plus qu’un réflexe animal. » Edmond Rocher Le Beau Misanthrope, ou L’Île Nocturne

Head from a statue of young Bacchus (The god of wine). Roman bronze sculpture from the 1st century AD.