“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion.”
— John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
“Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Zhuang Zhou. Suddenly he woke up, and there he was, solid and unmistakable Zhuang Zhou. But he didn’t know if he were Zhuang Zhou who had dreamed he was a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou. Between Zhuang Zhou and a butterfly, there must be some distinction! This is called the Transformation of Things.”
— Zhuangzi, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, Watson tr. (Ch 2)
“The sense of justice and injustice is not derived from nature, but arises artificially … from education, and human conventions.”
— David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
Here’s a quick cheat-sheet of some of my favorite plants and their symbolism. I love love love using these (and have actually used a good few from this list) in order to add another layer of depth to a certain scene or storyline in my novel.
Rhododendron - a warning sign of danger
Lotus flower - rebirth and self-regeneration
Angelica - protection from evil spirits
Rosemary - old memories
Sage - wisdom and cleansing
Begonia - warning sign
Oak - strength and steadiness
Willow - grief and sadness
Lilac - youthful joy
Ivy - fidelity and loyalty, adoration
Forget-me-not - holding onto memories, attachment
Gardenia - secret love
Carnation - feminine and maternal love
Milkweed - freedom, yearning to be let go
Red rose - passionate love, but also guardedness and isolation
Have you heard of my 3 extensive workbooks for writers? It's filled with dozens of fully-customisable templates and many more goodies!
Grab The Writer's Toolboox through the [link here] or below!
“Sometimes it’s good to just live life silently. Pay attention to your thoughts as they come and go, and reflect upon your feelings. Sometimes being overly social can offset our inner peace.”
— Nicole Addison
“You can’t help what you feel, but you can help how you behave”
— Margaret Atwood
“When you lose a person, a whole universe goes along with them.”
— Lang Leav, The Universe of Us, from “A Whole Universe”
“For great things do not done just happen by impulse but are a succession of small things linked together.”
— Vincent van Gogh
“So you know how things stand. Now forget what they think of you. Be satisfied if you can live the rest of your life, however short, as your nature demands. Focus on that, and don’t let anything distract you. You’ve wandered all over and finally realized that you never found what you were after: how to live. Not in syllogisms, not in money, or fame, or self-indulgence. Nowhere.”
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (8.1)
“Fixations spawn thoughts that provoke compulsive acts — emptiness stops fixations. … When things dissolve, there’s nothing left to say. The unborn and unceasing are already free.”
— Nāgārjuna, Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, Batchelor tr. (Ch 18)
have you ever caught someone staring at you and wondered what they’re thinking about like if it’s something positive or negative if it’s a passing thought or a long internal string of things if they’re even thinking about you at all or you just happen to be in the line of sight while their mind drifts off about something completely unrelated
“Upon this first rule of reason, that in order to learn you must desire to learn, and in so desiring not be satisfied with what you already incline to think, there follows one corollary which itself deserves to be inscribed upon every wall of the city of philosophy: Do not block the way of inquiry.” – Charles Sanders Peirce, Collected Papers
There are cities in the UK that have free vending machines for homeless people. Local shelters hand out access cards to people in need, who can use the vending machine 3 times a day to get free food, toiletries, and clothing. As long as the cardholder checks into the shelter once a week, they can keep using the machine. Source Source 2
“If children were brought into the world by an act of pure reason alone, would the human race continue to exist? Would not a man rather have so much sympathy with the coming generation as to spare it the burden of existence, or at any rate not take it upon himself to impose that burden upon it in cold blood?”
— Arthur Schopenhauer, “On the Sufferings of the World”, Parerga and Paralipomena
