― note

• extensive list of quotes collected ~2024 and before
• ✧ . 　⁺ 　 . ⊹ 　˚　˖

　꒰┊ literature

• "For one swallow does not make spring, nor does one fine day; and similarly one day or a brief period of happiness does not make a man supremely blessed and happy." — aristotle, the nicomachean ethics (c. 351)

　

• "The highest good is like water. Water nourishes all things without asking for anything in return. It goes to places men reject." — 老子, 道德经 (c. 351)

　

• "The objects of sense exist only when they are perceived; the trees therefore are in the garden... no longer than while there is somebody by to perceive them." — george berkeley, a treatise concerning the principles of human knowledge (1710)

　

• "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible." — t.e. lawrence, seven pillars of wisdom (1926)

　

• "All at once the veil is torn away, I have understood, I have seen.... The roots of the chestnut tree sank into the ground just beneath my bench. I couldn't remember it was a root anymore. Words had vanished and with them the meaning of things, the ways things are to be used, the feeble points of reference which men have traced on their surface. I was sitting, stooping over, head bowed, alone in front of this black, knotty lump, entirely raw, frightening me. […] And then all at once, there it was, clear as day: existence had suddenly unveiled itself. It had lost harmless look of an abstract category: it was the dough out of which things were made, this root was kneaded into existence. Or rather the root, the park gates, the bench, the patches of grass, all that had vanished: the diversity of things, their individuality, were only an appearance, a veneer. This veneer had melted, leaving soft, monstrous lumps, in disorder — naked, with a frightful and obscene nakedness." — jean-paul sartre, la nausée (1938)

　

• "Everybody should be quiet near a little stream and listen." — ruth krauss, open house for butterflies (1960)

　

• "He stared up at the stars: and it seemed to him then that they were dancers, stately and graceful, performing a dance almost infinite in its complexity. He imagined he could see the very faces of the stars; pale, they were, and smiling gently, as if they had spent so much time above the world, watching the scrambling and the joy and the pain of the people below them, that they could not help being amused..." — neil gaiman, stardust (1999)

　

• "That’s why, mentally, it is better for us to always test the very limits of what we can endure. / “I want to go to school, but I’m too scared.” Then how about you just try getting ready for school every morning? Once you’re able to do that, why not try going to the bus stop every morning as part of your daily routine? / If every day is too much, then how about two days at a time? “Even I can do this much.” This sense of accomplishment lends us great strength, so it’s important that you continue to build your tolerance. / Tolerance can be learned through practice. Conversely, if you continue to run away from your frustration, you’ll become less and less tolerant." — 雨瀬シオリ, ここは今から倫理です。 (2016)

　

• "But honestly, they really are ‘just clothes.’ ‘Your true self’… Isn’t that something different? Kaya is Kaya. Whether I wear this dress or not, I’m still the same Kaya." — 常喜寝太郎, 着たい服がある (2018)

　

• "This is a fake version of you, […] isn’t it? Wouldn’t working towards your dream be more true to yourself? / Neither of those versions are fake or real. The Kaya you want to see, the Kaya you don’t really want to see, all of it together, that’s Kaya!" — 常喜寝太郎, 着たい服がある (2018)

　

• "Music, no matter how much you put into is still only 50%. It only gets to 100% when someone is there to listen to it." — 常喜寝太郎, 着たい服がある (2018)

　　　　― undated

• "The art of living well and the art of dying well are one." — epicurus

　꒰┊ film

• "Even though they aren’t anywhere, they chase after them." — 天使のたまご (1985)

　

• "Under the sky where the clouds made sounds as they moved. The black horizon swelled. And from it grew a huge tree. It sucked the life from the ground, and its pulsing branches reached up as if to grasp something. The giant bird sleeping within an egg. / What happened to the bird? Where is it? / He’s still there, still dreaming. / Dreaming? What kind of dream does the bird have?" — 天使のたまご (1985)

　

• "Where did the bird land? Or maybe it weakened and was swallowed by the waters. No one could know. So, the people waited for her return and waited and grew tired of waiting. They forgot they had released the bird, even forgot there was a bird and a world sunken under the water. They forgot where they had come from, how long they had been there, and where they were going. / (…So long ago that the animals have turned to stone.) / It was so long ago, I can’t even remember where or when I saw the bird. Perhaps it was a dream. Maybe you and I and the fish exist only in the memory of a person who is gone. Maybe no one really exists and it is only raining outside. Maybe the bird never existed at all." — 天使のたまご (1985)

　

• "I can hear it. The sound of soft breathing… / That’s your breathing. / I can hear the sound of wings. It must be dreaming of flying in the sky. / That’s just the sound of the wind outside. / Very soon… Right now, you’re in here dreaming, but soon I will show you, very soon. So, you must stay here now. It doesn’t rain here where it’s warm." — 天使のたまご (1985)

　

• "It's like a whirlwind in my head. If I concentrate, I know what people are thinking all over the world. […] I can help them understand each other. / What am I thinking? / You're wondering whether or not you can love me. I'm just like you. I can love and have children. Live and grow old. / But it will take time. Generations are being born and dying. You are at one with all living things. Each man's thoughts and dreams are yours to know. You have power beyond imagination. Use it well, my friend. / Don't lose your head." — highlander (1986)

　

• "As long as you believed in me, that I could win, I believed it. I mean, maybe that’s all winning is, having the right person believe in you." — quantum leap (s1 e4) (1989)

　

• "You're on the path. You don't need to know where it leads. Just follow." — twin peaks (s2 e9) (1990)

　

• "The same dream that l had. l need to unlock that. l need-- The answer is inside of me." — twin peaks (s2 e9) (1990)

　

• "Oh, you have all the clues you need. The answer is not here my friend (head). The answer is here (heart)." — twin peaks (s2 e9) (1990)

　

• "Leland, the time has come for you to seek the path. Your soul has set you face to face with a clear light and you are now about to experience it in its reality, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky and the naked, spotless intellect is like a transparent vacuum without circumference or center. Leland, in this moment, know yourself and abide in that state. Look to the light, Leland. Find the light." / l see it. / ... lnto the light. ... Don't be afraid." — twin peaks (s2 e9) (1990)

　

• "What we fear in the dark and what lies beyond the darkness. […] I’m talking about seeing beyond fear, Roger. About looking at the world with love." — twin peaks (s2 e11) (1990)

　

• "But you sit in a room like that long enough and you realize, I realized that I was just hiding and that running away from my fear didn't make the fear go away ... / It made it stronger. / Yes. So I had to face it. I had to face myself. And I have to do it here. Where everything went so wrong." — twin peaks (s2 e19) (1990)

　

• "Fear and love open the doors. / Two Lodges, two doors. Fear opens one, the Black. Love, the other." — twin peaks (s2 e21) (1990)

　

• "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon you." — pulp fiction (1994)

　

• "No matter how excellent we are, a system where all the parts react the same way is a system with a fatal flaw. It’s true for the group and the individual. Overspecialise and you breed in weakness. It’s a slow death." — ghost in the shell (1995)

　

• "Even simulated experiences and dreams exist as information, and are simultaneously reality and fantasy." — ghost in the shell (1995)

　

• "A copy is nothing more than a copy. There is a possibility that a single virus could destroy an entire set of systems. And copies do not give rise to variety and originality. To enhance one’s existence, life continues to diversify, and at times, sacrifices itself. Cells go through a cycle of regeneration and degeneration. When they die, they erase their entire memory leaving only the genes behind. This is a survival mechanism against total annihilation." — ghost in the shell (1995)

　

• "When I was a child, my speech was that of a child. My feelings and thoughts too were those of a child. Now that I have become a man, I part with the childlike ways." — ghost in the shell (1995)

　

• "When we’re lads, we make believe and make believe until finally we cheat ourselves into being men. And so on forever. That’s the way of it. Pretending. Always pretending." — captains courageous (1996)

　

• "There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me: only an entity, something illusory. And though I can hide my cold gaze, and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable... I simply am not there." — american psycho (2000)

　

• This is not an exit — american psycho (2000)

　꒰┊ music

• "I have no lingering attachment to the sky at all. / What do you think, flightless duckling with little wings, eyes fixed on the ‘big sky.’ / What do you sing, what do you chant, I am the ugly duckling, I've lost my ‘wings.’ /Struggle and writhe in an airy manner. / It's ‘the spirit of a swan.’" — miyavi, coo quack cluck -ク・ク・ル- (2003)

　꒰┊ other

　　　　― undated

• "A soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone. […] Hold out for that beauty. Walk alone until you grab it. The pain of walking alone against the stream is worth it." — johann wolfgang von goethe

　

• "A note that occurs after 20 seconds of silence is not the same note that would have occured before the 20 seconds if you just heard the note at 0 seconds. The note that occurs to 20 seconds or the note that occurs (at) 40 seconds, those are new notes. Those are notes that are created out of the silence, and the silence is part of the note." — john frusciante

　

• "That is to say, it's still unmade, it's still being made. As a person looks at it, it continues to be made, you see." — 野口勇

　　　　― unattributed

• "And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul."

　

• "Be humble for you are made of earth. Be noble for you are made of stars."