Ink Empathy

Gathering beauty in classic wisdom 🖋️🫀☕

[inkempathy]

JABBERWOCKY Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch! He took his vorpal sword in hand, Long time the manxome foe he sought— So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought. And as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came! One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back. “And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” He chortled in his joy. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll, 1871

[inkempathy]

Did it matter that he was beautiful, that I loved him, when he was going to kill me?

Stephenie Meyer, The Host, 2008

[inkempathy]

After all I’ve seen, if I hadn’t learned compassion, I wouldn’t be worth much.

Stephenie Meyer, The Host, 2008

[inkempathy]

Have faith, Wanderer. Faith isn’t a familiar concept for me. I don’t know that I buy into it. Trust, then?

Stephenie Meyer, The Host, 2008

[inkempathy]

I’m not trying to make this a downer, understand. I mean, I really do think that love is the best thing in the world, except for cough drops. But I also have to say, for the umpty-umpth time, that life isn’t fair. It’s just fairer than death, that’s all.

William Goldman, The Princess Bride, 1973

[inkempathy]

Love is many things, none of them logical. William Goldman, The Princess Bride, 1973

[inkempathy]

Life is a series of collisions with the future; it is not the sum of what we have been, but what we yearn to be. José Ortega y Gasset, The Revolt of the Masses, 1930

[inkempathy]

It’s easy to be brave. Harder to know when not to fight. R. F. Kuang, The Poppy War, 2018

[inkempathy]

When man begins to think that he is responsible for writing the script of the world, he forgets the forces that dream up our reality. R. F. Kuang, The Poppy War, 2018

[vintage-treasures]

Christmas Morning, Watercolor (c. 1895)

Carl Larsson (1853–1919) captures a charming Christmas moment in this detailed watercolor. It shows five of his children playing together in their brightly lit home. Ulf is up on the bed playing pirates next to a laughing Lisbeth, while little Esbjörn struggles with a stiff boot. Brita is totally absorbed in her book, and the toddler Kersti stands out in red in the foreground, making for a heartwarming scene of Christmas spirit.

Loc. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Dim. 32 cm H x 43 cm W.

[inkempathy]

It's a pity that exciting things always stop happening when you're not afraid of them any more and would like to have a little fun.

Moominland Midwinter, Tove Jansson, 1957

[inkempathy]

I'm thinking about the aurora borealis. You can't tell if it really does exist or if it just looks like existing. All things are so very uncertain, and that's exactly what makes me feel reassured.

Moominland Midwinter, Tove Jansson, 1957

[inkempathy]

“Would you be good enough,” Alice panted out, after running a little further, “to stop a minute—just to get one’s breath again?” “I’m good enough,” the King said, “only I’m not strong enough. You see, a minute goes by so fearfully quick. You might as well try to stop a Bandersnatch!”

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll, 1871

[inkempathy]

Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll, 1871

[inkempathy]

Twopence a week, and jam every other day. The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday—but never jam to-day. It’s jam every other day, today isn’t any other day, you know.

Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll, 1871

[inkempathy]

It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll, 1871

[inkempathy]

If you can't appreciate what you've got, you'd better get what you can appreciate.

Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw, 1913