"The seeds of the future are always planted in the past."
–– Deborah Levy (b. 1959), South African-born, British novelist, playwright, and poet.
Source: Deborah Levy. The Cost of Living: A Living Autobiography. Toronto, ON: Hamish Hamilton Canada, 2018; p. 145.
via: Commonplace Book 2022, 2022, p. 95.
"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."
–– Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD), Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher
via: Sketchbook O 15, 2024, p. 21.
"Art is either plagiarism or revolution."
–– Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), French conceptual artist
via: Sketchbook O 15, 2024, p. 38.
"Think of the fierce energy concentrated in an acorn. You bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak."
–– George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish playwright, critic, and social activist
via: Sketchbook O 15, 2024, p. 43.
"The soul does not grow by addition but by subtraction."
–– Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), German Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mystic
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2014, p. 133.
"We cannot achieve greatness unless we lose all interest in being great."
–– Thomas Merton (1915-1968), American Trappist monk, writer, scholar, and social activist
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2014, p. 166.
"His life had never had a rhythm. Each day had been unpredictable and he seemed to thrive on that. He'd thought that was part of his nature. He'd never known routine. Until now.
"Gamache had to admit to a small fear that what was now a comforting routine would crumble into the banal, would become boring. But instead, it had gone in the other direction.
"He seemed to thrive on the repetition. The stronger he got, the more he valued the structure. Far from being limiting, imprisoning, he found his daily rituals liberating."
–– Louise Penny (b. 1958), Canadian author
Source: Louise Penny. The Long Way Home. New York: Minotaur Books, 2014; p. 4.
via: Commonplace Book, 2013-2014, 2014, p. 173.
"When you have completed 95 percent of your journey, you are only halfway there."
–– Japanese proverb
via: Commonplace Book, 2013-2014, 2014, p. 189.
"The most subversive people are those who ask questions."
–– Jostein Gaarder (b. 1952), Norwegian author
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2014, p. 188.
"Doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith."
–– Paul Tillich (1886-1965), German-born, American theologian and philosopher
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 49.
"Creativity is piercing the mundane to find the marvellous."
–– Bill Moyers (b. 1934), American journalist and political commentator
Source: textile art site, Instagram, September 29, 2024.
via: Sketchbook O #15, 2024, p. 10.
"There is no beauty without some strangeness."
–– Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) American writer, poet, editor, and critic
Source: J Demsey, Instagram, October 11, 2024.
via: Sketchbook O #15, 2024, p. 9.
"The important point of spiritual practice is not to try to escape your life, but to face it –– exactly and completely."
–– Dainin Katagiri (1928-1990), Japanese Buddhist monk and writer
Source: Daily Philosopher, Instagram, October 7, 2024.
via: Sketchbook O #15, 2024, p. 6.
"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another."
–– Anatole France (1844-1924), French novelist, poet, and journalist
Source: Nathan James Ward, Instagram, October 2, 2024.
via: Sketchbook O #15, 2024, p. 7.
"Nothing is absolute. Everything changes, everything moves, everything revolves, everything flies and goes away."
–– Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Mexican painter
Source: Nitch, Instagram, October 5, 2024.
via: Sketchbook O #15, 2024, p. 7.
"My work changes as I change. I feel an artist's work has to change, otherwise you become a replication of yourself."
–– Nan Goldin (b. 1953), American photographer and activist
Source: Female Poets Society, Instagram, October 7, 2024.
via: Sketchbook 0 15, 2024, p. 7.
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method."
–– Herman Melville (1819-1891) American novelist, best known for his novel Moby-Dick
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 60.
"A major illness or injury is a rupture that invites you to rethink, to restart, to review what matters. It's a reminder that your time is finite and not to be wasted, and in breaking you from the past it offers the possibility of starting fresh."
–– Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961), American author
Source: Rebecca Solnit. The Faraway Nearby. New York: Viking, 2013; p. 137-8.
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2014, p. 79.
"I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine."
–– Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Russian writer
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2014, p. 112.
"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."
–– Rahm Emanuel (b. 1959), American politician and diplomat, President Obama's chief of staff
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 21.
"All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits."
–– William James (1842-1910), American psychologist and philosopher
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 11.
"A lot of learning is about breaking bad habits."
–– Gary Marcus (b. 1970), American psychologist, cognitive scientist, author
Source: Gary Marcus. Guitar Zero: The New Musician and the Science of Learning. New York: Penguin Press, 2012; p. 74.
via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 3.
"Creativity involves the ability to synthesize. Einstein captured it nicely when he called his own work "combinatory play." It is a matter of sifting through data, perceptions and materials to come up with combinations that are new and useful."
–– Richard Florida (b. 1957), American urban studies theorist, author, and professor
Source: Richard Florida. The Rise of the Creative Class: and how it's transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. New York: Basic Books, 2002; p. 31.
via Commonplace Book 2003-2004, 2003, p.45.
"When I was a teenager, most arguments with my mother were about clothes. She was baffled by what it was inside myself that I was expressing outside of myself. She could no longer reach or recognize me. And that was the whole point. I was creating a persona that was braver than I actually felt. I took the risk of being mocked on buses and in the streets of the suburbs in which I lived. The secret message that lurked in the zips of my silver platform boots was that I did not want to be like the people doing the mocking. Sometimes we want to unbelong as much as we want to belong. On a bad day, my mother would ask me, 'Who do you think you are?' I had no idea how to answer that question when I was fifteen, but I was reaching for the kind of freedom that a young woman in the 1970s did not socially possess. What else was there to do? To become the person someone else had imagined for us is not freedom –– it is to mortgage our life to someone else's fear.
"If we cannot at least imagine we are free, we are living a life that is wrong for us."
–– Deborah Levy (b. 1959), South African-born, British novelist, playwright, and poet.
Source: Deborah Levy. The Cost of Living: A Living Autobiography. Toronto, ON: Hamish Hamilton Canada, 2018; p. 121-122.
via: Commonplace Book 2022, 2022, p. 94.
"In theory, consistency sounds like discipline and determination –– strong and unwavering. But in practice, consistency is about being adaptable. When time is tight, shrink the task. When energy is low, do the simpler version. It's not about being rigid; it's about finding ways to keep showing up, no matter what. Your habits don't have to be fixed –– they should evolve with your day. The key is not in doing the same thing over and over again, but in never stopping, even when life gets in the way. Each step forward, no matter how small, keeps you on track. Adaptability isn't the opposite of consistency; it's the art of staying the course, no matter the obstacles."
–– author unknown
Source: Serene Stoics, Instagram, September 29, 2024.
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 28-29.
"Art is a way of survival."
–– Yoko Ono (b.1933), Japanese peace activist, performance artist, multimedia artist, singer and songwriter
Source: WomensArt1, Instagram, August 5, 2024.
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 29.
"When you lose your simplicity, you lose your drama."
–– Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), American visual artist
Source: Quiltscornerstone Instagram, August 25, 2024.
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 27.
"Many people lose the small joys in the hope for the big happiness."
–– Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), American writer
Source: Daily Philosopher Instagram, September 2, 2024.
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 27.
"If you are brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello."
–– Paulo Coelho (b. 1947), Brazilian writer
Source: Daily Philosopher Instagram, September 29, 2024.
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 27.
"A certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect."
–– Haruki Murakami (b.1949), Japanese writer
Source: Daily Philosopher Instagram, September 10, 2024.
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 27.
"The problem is no longer getting people to express themselves, but providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say ... What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing ... the thing that might be worth saying."
–– Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995), French philosopher
Source: Nitch, Instagram, September 20, 2024.
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 26.
