Noloter

Choosing to live in narrow spaces leads to a form of mental agoraphobia, and that brings its own terrors. I think the willfully unimaginative see more monsters. They are often more afraid. What is more, those who choose not to empathize enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it through our own apathy.

Many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know. I might be tempted to envy people who can live that way, except that I do not think they have any fewer nightmares than I do.

Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation; in its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables usto empathize with humans whose experiences we have never shared.

I personally will defend the value of bed time stories to my last gasp.

Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two.

You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more than any qualification I’ve ever earned.

Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.

Some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all — in which case, you fail by default.

Poverty entails fear, and stress,and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships. Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts — that is something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticized only by fools.

"In sala operatoria ho fatto tagli in tutte le parti del corpo - e non una volta sola, ma milioni di volte. E non ho mai trovato nulla che somigliasse ad un’anima o almeno un puntino in cui potesse nascondersi." Insegnante rise. "E non la troverà mai, dottoressa." "Perché ridi di me?" "Perché lei ha cercato in una dimensione qualcosa che appartiene ad un’altra."

"Davvero credi di avere qualcosa come uno spirito o un’anima, vecchio?" "Certamente. É l’unica parte di me veramente importante e duratura."

"Hanno pensato a lui come a una specie di dio della scienza che potevano costringere a fare qualsiasi cosa e a risolvere ogni problema. Se avessero avuto una qualunque fede in un vero Dio, sarebbero andati avanti da soli e oggi starebbero molto meglio."

"Ogni uomo deve al fratello una mano tesa quando questi è nei guai."

"Come per tutti, non sei stata addestrata ad usare la tua mente. Ti è stato insegnato a non usarla."

Niente polizia? Allora Industria doveva essere un luogo dove ognuno sorvegliava il vicino. Dove si ha paura di fidarsi del proprio fratello.

"Nessuno ha diritti, neanche io. Solo lo stato ha diritti – il Nuovo Ordine."

"Prova a raccontargli che sono state le voci a mantenerti così in salute e sarai squalificato". "Squalificato per cosa?" "Per vivere, Pazzo! Il Nuovo Ordine non può correre rischi con degli stravaganti".