In Libro Veritas

"I go to the Chinese corner of my library — a peaceful, happy corner ! What wisdom there is in these ancient books and how amazingly timely it can be !" Hermann Hesse anthologialitt.com/post/hermann-h…

S’étirant mollement en l’épaisseur des voiles, Sur le vieux Monde, qu’envahit l’obscurité, Ces dormeuses des cieux qu’on nomme les étoiles Entr’ouvrent les écrins où s’endort leur beauté

"It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire, and many things to fear; and yet that commonly is the case of kings...desire, which makes their minds more languishing...perils and shadows, which makes their minds the less clear." -Francis Bacon, Of Empire, Essays

When I am at home I do nothing but lie on the sofa, admiring your efficiency and finding it incomprehensible. Franz Kafka, 1914.

In ancient Greek, the original meaning of school (skholḗ/σχολή) was 'leisure' via lectures/discussion & contemplation. For ancient Romans, there was a practical contrast between otium ("intellectual leisure”) vs negotium (daily business/civic obligations)

"Living is pointless. Only looking is worthwhile. If I could look without living, I would achieve happiness, but that’s impossible, as is everything we dream about. How ecstatic the ecstasy that did not involve life !" Fernando Pessoa Book of Disquiet

"The only true art is that of construction. However, the modern world makes it impossible for constructive qualities to appear in the mind." Fernando Pessoa Book of Disquiet

Marie Spartali Stillman photographiée par Julia Margaret Cameron, 1868

"Pierrette, like all those who suffer more than they have strength to bear, kept silence... — for what is more complete than silence ? It is absolute ; it is one of the attributes of infinity." Honoré de Balzac Pierrette

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« What has been missed shall be found ; what has been lost shall be gained » 🤍

Kafka's "optimism"

(Dictionnaire philosophique, article « Goût »)

Voltaire on tastes

Ralph Waldo Emerson, on "genuine heroism"

Poetry is musical thought – Thomas Carlyle ("On Heroes")

"Fuyant le deuil présent de l'heure triste et brève, Evade-toi, Poète, aux siècles de l'oubli" Dans l'ombre de Jacques Nayral (1876-1914) : anthologialitt.com/post/dans-l-om…