Courage to Strengthen

As should be befitting for this night, some quotes—from Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time:

I would not mind you in my head, if you were not so clearly mad.
-Lews Therin Telamon

Nothing ever goes as you expect. Expect nothing, and you will not be surprised. Expect nothing. Hope for nothing. Nothing.
-Lews Therin Telamon

An open chest hides nothing, and an open door hides little. But an open man is surely hiding something.
-Lini

A beautiful battle is one you don't have to fight.
-Mat Cauthon

I trust you like a brother. Until the day you betray me.
-Rand al'Thor

Do not trouble trouble till trouble troubles you.
-saying in the Maule

Stopping a man from what he wants to do is like taking a sweet from a child. Sometimes you have to do it, but sometimes it just isn't worth the trouble.
-Egwene al'Vere

If I had told Mother I think you are handsome, she certainly would have had you locked in a cell.
-Elayne Trakand, to Rand al'Thor

Both of them? Light! Two! Oh, burn me! He's the luckiest man in the world or the biggest fool since creation!
-Mat Cauthon, regarding Rhuarc's wives

I hope you're not Darkfriends. I don't like killing people after I've fed them.
-Elyas Machera, to Perrin and Egwene

He had four rules concerning action and information. Never make a plan without knowing as much as you can of the enemy. Never be afraid to change your plans when you receive new information. Never believe you know everything. And never wait to know everything.
-Pedron Niall

Until you can, remember this. We are always more afraid than we wish to be, but we can always be braver than we expect. Hold on to your heart, and the Aes Sedai cannot harm what is really you, your heart. They are not nearly so far above us as we believed. May you always find water and shade, Egwene. And always remember your heart.
-Sorilea

An Observation on the Male Species

This is just a random observation, but I find that men in general tend to like either sports or fantasy. At the heart of it lies a primal urge to kill. Sports is actually just simulated warfare. There is an offense, a defense, a hierarchical order, and a communal desire to win. Fantasy is the same, though it takes place in a quasi-historical battlefield and often finds ways of expression in novels and video games. Intelligence has nothing to do with it. Even intelligent men desire to kill. The male species must fight for something, secure social position and order, and make itself feel important. Fantasy and sports are two ways of doing this in a socially and morally acceptable manner. Gay men, however, are the exception. Although there are many who like sports or fantasy, there are some who choose neither. Whether they do this because they lack the primal urge to fight or because they’ve found a different and less obvious battlefield is another matter.

...so, philosophical considerations aside, I’m playing Halo this Friday with some friends. It should be fun. Anyone want to join?

"Nothing to be done."

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest—whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer." -- Albert Camus

"At any street corner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face." -- Albert Camus

Sometimes the sweeping existentialism comes. I could be watching a scene, walking to class, or holding a pen. Then, the sweeping thought hits, “Why toil at all?” I know there is more to life than this. I want there to be something more. Yet, it seems so petty, so insignificant to want to write more, learn more, do more and more endlessly. It is as if the bricks are being lay one by one, but the question of what they are being built for is paramount. I want a degree. I want money. I want to improve. But is there something more than this, more after this? Why must it seem so empty when everyone else is out of the picture? It all must come down to happiness. Oh, how to be happy …without love, or without drugs, or without God? Would it be possible? Man will always be entitled to some degree of unhappiness. It seems a part of existence…

Then, after the thought, to go back to work and blend in with the secular crowd, to the people who actually LIVE. Why must I think such things? Of all the people I know, I am probably the most existential of them all. Not to say that more existential people do not exist, but I do not know them. I do not know them.