The novel is the highest example of subtle interrelatedness that man has discovered.
In the scenes of moral life the soul is at once actor and spectator.
Philosophers have very justly remarked that the only solid instruction is that which the pupil brings from his own depths; that the true instruction is not that which transmits notions wholly formed, but that which renders him capable of forming for himself good opinions. That which they have said in regard to the intellectual faculties applies equally to the moral faculties. There is for the soul a spontaneous culture, on which depends all the real progress in perfection.
Decency renders all things tolerable.
Delicacy is to the affections what grace is to the beauty.
Jah come to break downpression, rule equality, wipe away transgression, set the captives free.
As you become more conscious of your cruelty, of your violence, gross and subtle, you start becoming more and more compassionate. Not that you cultivate compassion. Just by becoming aware of your cruelty, violence, ugliness. . . the very awareness brings new changes in you. And the energy that was involved in cruelty, in violence, starts changing. The same energy becomes purified, the same energy becomes compassion.
For graduate school I ended up going to the University of Iowa, which is, of course, the best graduate writing program in the country.
The first thing that strikes a visitor to Paris is a taxi.