The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then - to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn." -T.H. White, The Once and Future KingI want this in miniature, tattooed along my spine. For those old school readers out there, you'll have read this quote before. It captures exactly the thing, so I post it, frequently and with flourish.
And here is a bonus quote:
He had wanted to be a matador, but he had wanted to be a matador more than he wanted to do the things a matador must do, and it should be the other way around. - Barnaby Conrad, MatadorI'll never forget my photojournalism teacher and his fondness for bull fighting. This quote was at the bottom of the syllabus for our first class. I think of it often now, when I'm sitting at the computer, willing the words to fall out of my head. Isn't it much easier to say I'm a writer rather than to write? My answer is an emphatic yes! Talk is cheap. Next thing you know I'll be saying I'm an artificial inseminator for the sake of saying I'm an artificial inseminator because it's a good line at parties. Now that's a sticky situation.
Shame, shame on, shame on me.
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