normally i don't like quotes out of context

with compact self-contained quotes, it's too easy to lose the bigger picture, the essentially useful element from which good quotes come. a short soundbite statement without the wider discussion it came from can be like a wrench outside the framework of a garage as a whole, without the toolbox it came from. the potential for great usefulness is still there, but it can be hard to put it into practical application if the focus is on the wrench by itself.

a flower in a vase is beautiful because we've chosen to create a framework to highlight the beauty of that individual blossom. a field of flowers all budding, blooming, wilting, and decaying is beautiful on a whole other level because it is a whole imperfect scene in progress. the smell of fresh dirt is the smell of macrobiotic decay and yet it only increases the beauty to be found in that field of flowers.

sometimes the only truth i can see is like a reflection caught between direct contradictions...or two things unrelated to each other that reverberate against a third thing to which neither is related. with that in mind, here are some one-liners that i like today:

Life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.
-Bill Hicks

Maybe that's what life is... a wink of the eye and winking stars.
-Jack Kerouac

Reality means you live until you die. The real truth is nobody wants reality.
-Chuck Palahniuk

“It's easy to hate and point out everything that is wrong with the world; it is the hardest and most important work in one's life to free oneself from the bonds of fear and attachment.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

I don't like anything in the mainstream and they don't like me.
-Bill Hicks

“The inner revolution will not be televised or sold on the Internet. It must take place within one's own mind and heart.”
― Noah Levine, Dharma Punx: A Memoir

I get a kick out of being an outsider constantly. It allows me to be creative.
-Bill Hicks

Find out what you're afraid of and go live there.
-Chuck Palahniuk

This is my home. Home is where the disease is. As long as I stay in America, I'll never run out of subjects for songs.
-Jello Biafra

“Sitting still is a pain in the ass.”
― Noah Levine, Against the Stream: A Buddhist Manual for Spiritual Revolutionaries

The answer is there is no answer.
-Chuck Palahniuk

We are not special. We are not crap or trash, either. We just are. We just are, and what happens just happens.
-Chuck Palahniuk

Travel makes a wise man better, and a fool worse.
-Thomas Fuller

That's the way both they and I travel sometimes. Pick road at random, and when it's time to pull over, you pull over and hope you can find a place to crash.
-Jello Biafra



ps-i hope everyone is doing well and enjoying a festive time of year, regardless of what religious or cultural attachments are tied up with it. love you bastards!