“Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.”
– Bruce Lee
“Many an object is not seen, though it falls within the range of our visual ray, because it does not come within the range of our intellectual ray.”
– Henry David Thoreau
“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.”
— Rosa Luxemburg
“If a man does only what is required of him, he is a slave. The moment he does more than is required, he becomes a free man. We all have work to do in this world; it is the doing of just a little more that leads to happiness and contentment.”
– A.W. Robertson
“Keeping his act sex- and swear-free, the way he sees it, is part of this athletic challenge, since it denies him the easiest laughs: “A person who can defend themselves with a gun is just not very interesting. But a person who defends themselves through aikido or tai chi? Very interesting.” Likewise his focus on minutiae. “It’s so much easier when you’re talking about something that really is important. You’ve already got a better foundation than someone who’s bringing up something that does not need to be discussed.” Such as? “I do a lot of material about the chair. I find the chair very funny. That excites me. No one’s really interested in that – but I’m going to get you interested! That, to me, is just a fun game to play. And it’s the entire basis of my career.”
– Interview with Jerry Seinfeld
A crazy audio illusion:
“If you’re going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don’t even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery–isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you’ll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you’re going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It’s the only good fight there is.”
– Charles Bukowski
“Humor is an antidote to — or at least an analgesic for — a condition we’re all suffering from. I would call this condition clarity, not depression; humor and depression are two different, but not mutually exclusive, responses to it. I know we’re told to regard depression as a disease, its victims no different from people who succumb to cancer or diabetes. But because it’s a disease whose symptoms take the shape of ideas, it can get hard to parse out pathology from worldview. The Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert once told me that “there are people who have no delusions; they’re called clinically depressed.” Depression’s insights aren’t necessarily invalid; they’re just not helpful. Depression uses clarity as an instrument of torture; humor uses it as a setup. Comedy tells us, “But wait — that’s not the good part.” Depression condemns the world, and us, as hateful; laughter is a way of forgiving it, and ourselves, for being so.”
— Tim Kreider on the death of Robin Williams