Two Thoughts (5 - 11 July)

Sunday, 5 July

Two thoughts from Thomas Paine

"A hereditary monarch is as absurd a position as a hereditary doctor or mathematician."

"To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason...is like administering medicine to the dead."

Monday, 6 July

Two thoughts from J. G. Ballard

"Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it."

"I suspect that many of the great cultural shifts that prepare the way for political change are largely aesthetic."

Tuesday, 7 July

Two thoughts from Robert Pirsig

"The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling."

"The more you look, the more you see."

Wednesday, 8 July

Two thoughts from Hermann Hesse

"We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps."

"Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest."

Thursday, 9 July

Two thoughts from Thomas Mann

"Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil."

"Order and simplification are the first steps towards mastery of a subject."

Friday, 10 July

Two thoughts from Arthur Schnitzler

"To be ready is one thing, to be able to wait is another; but to seize the right moment is everything."

"Martyrdom has always been a proof of the intensity, never of the correctness of a belief."

Saturday, 11 July

Two thoughts from Stefan Zweig

"One must be convinced to convince, to have enthusiasm to stimulate the others."

"Beware of pity."

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