Jump off. You are a protected individual. Do not fear.
Henry MillerRead
One of the reasons why so few of us ever act, instead of react, is because we are continually stifling our deepest impulses.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of acting on our inner urges rather than suppressing them.
Henry Miller suggests that many people struggle to take decisive action in their lives because they constantly inhibit their true desires and impulses. This stifling prevents individuals from fully engaging with their motivations and can lead to a reactive rather than proactive approach to life.
In practice
In a motivational speech to encourage self-expression and authenticity.
Jump off. You are a protected individual. Do not fear.
I saw through to the last sign and symbol, but I could not read her face. I could see only the eyes shining through, huge, fleshy-like luminous beasts, as though I were swimming behind them in the electric effluvia of her incandescent vision.
The essential thing is to WANT to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
Great God! What have I turned into? What right have you people to clutter up my life, steal my time, probe my soul, suckle my thoughts, have me for your companion, confidant, and information bureau? What do you take me for? Am I an entertainer on salary, required every evening to play an intellectual farce under your stupid noses? Am I a slave, bought and paid for, to crawl on my belly in front of you idlers and lay at your feet all that I do and all that I know?
We are swimming on the face of time and all else has drowned, is drowning, or will drown.
To sing you must first open your mouth. You must have a pair of lungs, and a little knowledge of music. It is not necessary to have an accordion, or a guitar. The essential thing is to want to sing. This then is a song. I am singing.
To have striven, to have made the effort, to have been true to certain ideals - this alone is worth the struggle.
Patience et longueur de temps Font plus que force ni que rage. Patience and longevity Are worth more than force and rage.
Comparing oneself with one's fellow writers is a bad idea. I would not review a fellow writer unless I had something terribly positive to say.
Who can calculate the wounds inflicted, their depth and pain, by harsh and mean words spoken in anger? How pitiful a sight is a man who is strong in many ways but who loses all control of himself when some little thing, usually of no significant consequence, disturbs his equanimity.
Strive always to excel in virtue and truth.
Creativity requires the freedom to consider 'unthinkable' alternatives, to doubt the worth of cherished practices. Every organization, every society is under the spell of assumptions so familiar that they are never questioned, least of all by those most intimately involved.
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