Amor Fati

[therein-lies-the-paradox]

Why do I struggle and strive in this narrow, restricted frame, when life, all life and its joys, is open to me?

Andrei Bolkonsky, War & Peace (via therein-lies-the-paradox)

[luci-lle-e]

“He in his madness prays for storms, and dreams that storms will bring him peace.”

— Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilych

[macrolit]

It’s much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy (via macrolit)

[ringkvinna-deactivated20230227]

“A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness. — Leo Tolstoy

[pocketsizedquasar]

when victor hugo said “to love another person is to see the face of god” and herman melville said “let me look into a human eye; it is better than to gaze into sea or sky; better than to gaze upon god”  and dave malloy said “when we fall in love we wake up; and we are a god and angels weep” and tolstoy said “everything i understand, i understand only because i love. everything is, everything exists, only because i love. everything is connected only by that. love is god”

[metamorphesque]

[“I could live almost completely in imagination.”] [“I’ve never done anything but dream. This, and this alone, has been the meaning of my life. My only real concern has been my inner life.”]

louise glück / su xinyu / fernando pessoa

[blackmoonmusings]

Fernando Pessoa, from The Book of Disquiet

[booksquoteslife]

“Start by looking for what is valid in every human being.”

— Albert Camus, Notebooks

[strawberrysw1tchblad3]

death doesn't scare me but a lifetime of overwhelming mediocrity does

[booksquoteslife]

“I am strangely tired, not from having talked so much but at the mere thought of what I still have to say.”

— Albert Camus, The Fall

[gravity-rainbow-deactivated2024]

“Sometimes, carrying on, just carrying on, is the superhuman achievement.”

Albert Camus

[acknowledgetheabsurd]

I speak to you with my whole soul at the edge of my lips.

Maria Casarès to Albert Camus, Correspondance, July 18, 1949 [#72] (via acknowledgetheabsurd)

[booksquoteslife]

“Words that come from the heart are always simple.”

— Albert Camus, The Misunderstanding

[derangedrhythms]

What interests me is living and dying for what one loves.

Albert Camus, from 'The Plague', tr. Stuart Gilbert

[perfectquote]

Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth.

Albert Camus (via perfectquote)

[philosophybits]

It takes time to live. Like any work of art, life needs to be thought about.

Albert Camus, A Happy Death (via philosophybits)

[tamsoj]

One thinks one has cut oneself off from the world, but it is enough to see an olive tree upright in the golden dust, or beaches glistening in the morning sun, to feel this separation melt away.

Albert Camus in January 1936, from Notebooks 1935-1942; tr. by Philip Thody   (via tamsoj)