"They stood in a steady oasis of lantern light in a world of but one dimension, a vague cistern of darkness filled with meagre light and topped with an edgeless canopy of ragged stars."

William Faulkner
𝘍𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵 (1929, 1973)

An echo.

#Petrarch
#SirThomasWyatt

[tr: Constance Borde, Sheila Malovany-Chevallier]

"[S]he finds it intoxicating to be alone, sovereign on the hillside; she is no longer spouse, mother, housewife, but a human being. . . .The woman who maintained her independence through all her servitudes will ardently love her own freedom in Nature."

Simone de Beauvoir
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘦𝘹 (1949)

"The type of moral failing that we most fear and hate, that fills us with the greatest horror, is invariably the one into which we fall, when we do not seek the source of the good in the place where it dwells."

Simone Weil
"Is There a Marxist Doctrine?" (1943)
[tr: Arthur Wills, John Petrie]

good morning ♡✨

"[T]here is no self-mastery without discipline, and there is no other source of discipline for man than the effort demanded in overcoming external obstacles."

Simone Weil
"Reflections Concerning the Causes of Liberty and Social Oppression" (1934)
[tr: Arthur Wills, John Petrie]

“This world has always belonged to males, and none of the reasons given for this have ever seemed sufficient.”

Simone de Beauvoir
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘚𝘦𝘹 (1949)
[tr: Borde, Malovany-Chevallier]

“In the soft grey silence he could hear the bump of the balls: and from here and from there through the quiet air the sound of the cricket bats: pick, pack, pock, puck: like drops of water in a fountain falling softly in the brimming bowl.”

James Joyce 📚💙
𝘈 𝘗𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘢𝘯

". . . and Bayard Sartoris' brief career swept like a shooting star across the dark plain of their mutual remembering and suffering, lighting it with a transient glare like a soundless thunder-clap, leaving a sort of radiance when it died."

William Faulkner
𝘍𝘭𝘢𝘨𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘶𝘴𝘵 (1929, 1973)

♡

“Before, I had only white heat of the mind and of the imagination; now it is of the blood. Sacred completeness. I come out dazed in the mellow spring evening and I think, now I would not mind dying.”

Anaïs Nin
𝐻𝑒𝑛𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐽𝑢𝑛𝑒
The Unexpurgated Diary (1931-32)

"Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul."

W. Somerset Maugham
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑆𝑖𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒

"She felt freer, more at peace with herself than she had felt for months. But I won't think about that, she decided deliberately. It is best just to be free, not to let it into the conscious mind. To be consciously anything argues a comparison, a bond with antithesis."

Faulkner
𝑆𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑠' 𝑃𝑎𝑦

moment of truth

New project. 📚 ♡

“Live in your dream, do not attain it — else comes satiety. Or sorrow.”

William Faulkner
𝑆𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑠’ 𝑃𝑎𝑦 (1926)

“A very sweet light is spreading over the Earth like a perfume. The moon is slowly dissolving and a boy-sun languidly stretches his translucent arms . . . A pair of wings dances in the rosy atmosphere. Silence, my friends. The day is about to begin.”

Clarice Lispector
“O Delírio”
[tr. Dodson]

“. . . the evanescent silhouettes of erroneous thoughts about life and the world.”

Nietzsche
tr. Faber, Lehmann

The common people never know
The Devil, even when they’ve caught him.

Goethe
𝘍𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘵: 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘖𝘯𝘦
(tr. David Luke)

Epictetus

//the faculty of the will

Blending the foreground. ♡

: the way violet petals drenched in sunlight sparkle,

for instance.

Today’s #bookmail, today’s treasure, today’s irrefutable need. 📚💙

This is painfully beautiful.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

“He knew from experience that the best cure for shattered nerves is work. One should sit down at a table and force oneself at all costs to concentrate on one idea, no matter what.”

Anton Chekhov
“The Black Monk” (1894)
tr. Ronald Wilks

This novel has been such a comfort to me this year.

It’s a need.