Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
They go on their way with all the manners and gestures that define consciousness, and they’re conscious of nothing, for they’re not conscious of being conscious.
Fernando Pessoa • The Book of Disquiet (Penguin Modern Classics)
Animism is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and in some cases words—as being animated, having agency and free will.
Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.
Oliver Sacks • Gratitude
Consciousness, then, is the ability to experience existence. It does not require intelligence, thought, or self-reflection, just the awareness of being.
Jaime Green • The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination, and Our Quest for Kinship in the Cosmos
I’ve taken to heart the words of the Roman playwright Terence: homo sum humani a me nihil alienum puto. I am human, so nothing human should be alien to me.