And yet, and yet ... Denying temporal succession, denying the self, denying the astronomical universe, are obvious acts of despera...tion and secret consolation. Our fate (unlike the hell of Swedenborg or the hell of Tibetan mythology) is not frightful because it is unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and ironclad. Time is the thing I am made of. Time is a river that sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that tears me apart, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Three-year-olds see the world in black-and-white terms.... They have been told that they should be good. They want to believe that... they are good.... Therefore, they weren't the ones who poured jam all over the sleeping cocker spaniel. Denying their culpability is neither malicious nor sneaky; it just reflects the unshaded terms in which preschoolers view the world.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No one likes having offended another person; hence everyone feels so much better if the other person doesn't show he's been offend...ed. Nobody likes being confronted by a wounded spaniel. Remember that. It is much easier patiently--and tolerantly--to avoid the person you have injured than to approach him as a friend. You need courage for that.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is vain to expect virtue from women till they are, in some degree, independent of men ... Whilst they are absolutely dependent ...on their husbands they will be cunning, mean, and selfish, and the men who can be gratified by the fawning fondness of spaniel-like affection, have not much delicacy, for love is not to be bought, in any sense of the words, its silken wings are instantly shrivelled up when any thing beside a return in kind is sought.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »