Adversaria (28)
‘Irritability, bad moods, and outbursts of affect are the classic symptoms of chronic virtuousness’ —C.G. Jung (Answer to Job, trans. R.F.C. Hull, p. 87)
‘I have known some angry people I have encountered many people’s anger, but I have rarely found angry people illuminating or inspiring. Too often their anger—a feeling, a reaction, an interpretation—is presented as fact, or, worse, truth’ —Yiyun Li (Things in Nature Merely Grow, 29%)
‘…digression is never the same as distraction. Its twists and turns are unified in their aim, which is to help us understand the one complete action that is the subject of the work to which they belong” —Daniel Mendelsohn (Three Rings, 23%)
‘Can we be sure that stating truly is a different class of assessment from arguing soundly, advising well, judging fairly, and blaming justifiably?’ —J.L. Austin (How to Do Things with Words, p. 142)
‘Perfectionism always ends in a blind alley, while completeness by itself lacks selective values’ —C.G. Jung (Answer to Job, trans. R.F.C. Hull, p. 33)
‘One learns to be patient, one learns to make concessions, one learns to redefine one’s visions and ambitions, and one learns to stop being a perfectionist. A garden is good training for life, too’ —Yiyun Li (Things in Nature Merely Grow, 45%)