The real malady is fear of life, not of death. -Naguib Mahfouz All I knew of Naguib Mahfouz was this quote. These words, this simple sentence, reminds me of something very important: people have a tendency to waste their one precious life by clinging to a pathological fear of it. This quote reminds me to …
Category Archive: quote o’ the week
Apr 06 2013
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Quintas Ennius
We do not regard what is before our feet; we all gaze at the stars. -Quintas Ennius This is the father of Roman poetry, the Homer of Rome, and it’s really too bad his work exists only in fragments. There are many ancient writers I’d love to visit, if I could hop in a time …
Mar 30 2013
Cantina Quote o’ the Week: Mignon McLaughlin
Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers. -Mignon McLaughlin I haven’t got a Mignon in any of my stories yet, but after reading some of Mignon McLaughlin’s Neurotic’s Notebook lines, I think maybe I should. She’d be sharing a name with a person with a ready pen and a keen ability to …
Mar 23 2013
Cantina Quote o’ the Week: Dorothy Parker
Every year, back comes Spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants. -Dorothy Parker I like spring, I do, but you have to admit this is an excellent description of spring. Birdsong is lovely – except outside your window when you’re trying to sleep. Plants …
Nov 05 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Hsun-tzu
If there is no dull and determined effort, there will be no brilliant achievement. -Hsun-tzu (Xun Zi) This one seems particularly appropriate for that madness that is NaNo, doesn’t it just? Hsun-tzu (or Xun Zi, if you prefer that newfangled modern stuff) lived during the Warring States Period, and managed to do some …
Oct 29 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Naguib Mahfouz
The real malady is fear of life, not of death. -Naguib Mahfouz All I knew of Naguib Mahfouz was this quote. These words, this simple sentence, reminds me of something very important: people have a tendency to waste their one precious life by clinging to a pathological fear of it. This quote reminds me to …
Oct 15 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Quintas Ennius
We do not regard what is before our feet; we all gaze at the stars. -Quintas Ennius This is the father of Roman poetry, the Homer of Rome, and it’s really too bad his work exists only in fragments. There are many ancient writers I’d love to read, if I could hop in a time …
Jul 16 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Lin Yutang
’I have done my best.’ That is about all the philosophy of living one needs. -Lin Yutang I first learned of Lin Yutang in the long-ago days of my 20s, when a coworker came in with a photocopy of the section “The Importance of Loafing” from his remarkable book The Importance of Living. It was …
Jul 09 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: Chuang Tzu
The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten. Where can I find a man who has forgotten the words? He is the one I would like to talk to. -Chuang Tzu Even if you don’t know his name, you know this ancient Chinese philosopher: he’s the …
Jul 02 2011
Cantina Quote o’ The Week: the Buddha
Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it. -the Buddha Oh, yes, even atheists can love Gautama Buddha. He’s one of the few religious figures who lived to a ripe old age instead of dying spectacularly, who didn’t run about starting wars, and who didn’t think …
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