A quote from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
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A quote from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
“Every life is in many days, day after day,” Joyce wrote in Ulysses,
Teju Cole • Known and Strange Things
— The soul is born — he said vaguely — first in those moments I told you of. It has a slow and dark birth, more mysterious than the birth of the body. When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets.
James Joyce • A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Wisehouse Classics Edition)
A person must have experience, he must live, if his artistry is to be more than a technical accomplishment. He cannot find the subject matter of his artistic activity within his art; this must be an expression of what he suffers and enjoys in other relationships — a thing which depends in turn upon the alertness and sympathy of his interests.
The Marginalian • John Dewey on How to Find Your Calling, the Key to a Fulfilling Vocation, and Why Diverse Interests Are Essential for Excellence in Any Field
Ultimately, living a generative life is about embracing the adventure of not knowing where your path will lead while trusting that you will find fulfillment along the way. John Keats famously wrote that though life is fleeting and sometimes filled with darkness, the beauty to be found offers a perpetual source of wonder to those who seek it.
Anne-Laure Le Cunff • Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World
if a man does not master his circumstances then he is bound to be mastered by them.
Amor Towles • A Gentleman in Moscow: A Novel
Live your life with awareness and express beauty and creativity in all ways. You don’t have to be an artist to live artfully. Just do what you must but with style.