Quotations

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# Created: 2020-12-05; Modified: 2021-08-29

The evidence I shall give will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

-- Sworn testimony

In nomine Patri, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.

-- Latin prayer

Oh BMO, you tried, but you were never the hero of the story I like to call life.

-- "Adventure Time: Distant Lands" (Cartoon)

I’m Cat Bug!

It’s bunker!

Temporal Pair-o-sox

-- "Bravest Warrior" (Cartoon)

In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place of adventure and the police take the place of pirates.

-- Michel Foucault

Sex has no value, because it lives and dies at present. Love is dangerous, because it looks to the future.

Makeup isn’t about looking handsome, it’s about begin anew.

-- "New Pope" (TV Show)

I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.

-- Sylvia Plath, "The Bell Jar" (Book)

Future is just a fucking concept we use to avoid being alive today

-- "Six Feet Under" (TV Show)

Be excellent to each other.

Party on, dudes.

-- "Bill and Ted" (Movie)

我觉得每个人最艰难的时段之一就是在他二十来岁的时候，因为二十来岁的你总在声嘶力竭地表达自己，但其实你只理解一半的自己。随着年龄的增长，你就会悄悄的表达自己，但人们却围拢过来听你说。这个时候，你理解了一半再加上四分之一的自己。我觉得可悲的是，当你终于让所有人都围着你的时候，你却没有什么要表达的了。

-- Guillermo del Toro, 《吉尔莫·德尔·托罗的奇思妙想》

Just have to make plans, that’s the key, you just have to make plans, so that life has the illusion of meaning and forward momentum. And that’s why you’re here, so you’ve done something tonight. Because people tomorrow will ask you, “What did you do last night?” And then you can say, “I went to a live taping at the BBC cos I live in London. I’m alive, I’m alive.”

We need to feel, as human beings, otherwise we will just consume and consume until there is nothing left.

-- Simon Amstell, "Numb" (Talk Show)

不用担心你的原创性。即使你想除也除不掉。无论你或他人怎么做，它都粘在你身上，将你的好坏展露无遗。

他学素描不是为了以后成为艺术家时能派上用场，他没时间做这个，从一开始他就是个艺术家，忙于找到线条和形式去表达大自然赋予他的欢乐和情感。

他们可能数百次地经过自己的绘画对象，感受到了它，很喜欢它，却对自己缺乏信心，没有对自己的感受做出判断。

学习技法意味着创造技法、发明技法。同样的技法绝不能再用，每次的技法都要令人耳目一新。

他应该一开始就是大师，对现有的要精通，哪怕他有的东西很少。一开始就对现有的精通，这才可能在数年的学习之后在许多方面精通。

当一个人全神贯注于他所谈论的事情时，他就能以一种对他来说不寻常的熟练程度来掌握这种语言，而他也正是在这些时候学会了语言。

在某种程度上，人类的艺术创作不再需要让人们告诉他们说，他们应该做什么。他们可能需要被告知，他们会得到报酬，但这不同于告诉他们应该做什么。

对某个痕迹的沉思静赏；一幅画，听到音乐，看到一个优雅的姿态，这都可能让精神激昂起来。这些是生活更美好、运行更充分的痕迹。我们喜欢它们、珍惜它们，因为我们也想如此生活，而他们激励了生活。这就是一件“艺术品”的价值。这些痕迹是不可避免的。生活在物中显现。

你最终能成功表达的只能是你实际已经设想到的东西。

他们当时对自己感兴趣，现在我们也对他们感兴趣。

他们（印第安人）的艺术是个人生活的一部分。我们把天赋只分配给一部分人，而让其他人都去从事世俗的事务。

把所有的时间都用来欣赏艺术并不可取。艺术应驱使你前进，它应该是生活的动力，艺术对欣赏者最大的价值在于它能激发个人的行动。

每个变化都必须是重要的，必须非常重要，不能有任何的含糊其词。

我建议你用钱去买画，这便意味着你对画家的认可；你自己选择要买什么，承担自己的错误，从自己的错误中吸取教训，并把买的画挂在你的永久收藏中来代表你的判断。

思考一种没有动机的技法是毫无乐趣的。

-- Robert Henry, 《艺术精神》

As there is no knowing in advance where a research enterprise may lead and what kind of skills it will require as it unfolds, this process of ‘equipping oneself’ has no predeterminable limits and is bad psychological policy….The great incentive to learning a new skill or supporting discipline is needing to use it.

Too much book learning may crab and confine the imagination, and endless poring over the research of others is sometimes psychologically a research substitute, much as reading romantic fiction may be a substitute for real-life romance….The beginner must read, but intently and choosily and not too much.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.

-- Peter Medawar, "Advice to a Young Scientist"

The urge for destruction is also a creative urge.

-- Mikhail Bakunin

Ummon: “Science tells us that giraffes evolved long necks to eat leaves at the top of trees. What it doesn’t tell us is why no other animals evolved long necks.”

-- Dan Simmons, "Hyperion"

不过，虽然说不上有什么不好，但我不知怎么就是对这种东西喜欢不起来啊。大概是因为设计得过于巧妙了吧。

总之所谓金钱这种东西，只是让你看上去觉得有价值，实际上都是些骗人的替代品罢了。比如像商店里售卖的同一件商品，一旦陈列方式，商品名称、灯光效果不同，价格就能开得完全不一样。总之，这都是些唬人的东西。没错，所谓钱这种东西就是从骗术与骗术的缝隙之中生出来的，所以说一定不要忘了保持对这个社会的鄙夷姿态，然后去尝试各种坑蒙拐骗的生财招数吧！

还有，现在这个莫名其妙的消费社会，仿佛若不是造造造、买买买、扔扔扔就没法继续运转了一样。在这样的时代里，珍惜每一件物品，不轻易把它们当成垃圾丢掉，这件事本身也是在传递出一个重大的讯息。

其实，在我实际建设场所和四处探访的过程中，有一个很深刻的感触：通过直接见面，面对面交流共处的过程产生出的信赖感其实是特别强大的，只有通过直接交流产生的联系才可能形成个文化圈。网络当然也不失为一个获取新知、交流文化的渠道，但前提在于已经有人在直接进行交流了，若非如此，那么网上有意思的交流也会马上消失殆尽，这点是必须牢记在心的事情。

这个社会里，人们被灌输了各种规则和无聊的道德观念，为了金钱和地位而蹉跎终身，到了白发苍苍的时候只能努力说服自己：“虽说没有做成自己想做的事，但这也不失为一次美好的人生嘛。”然后惨然死去。对于这样一个社会，我们实在是已经受够了。

总有人会感叹世道黑暗、人心不古，也有不少人喜欢畅想理想社会，期待社会变革的发生。但是各位啊！你们这样太磨磨蹭蹭了好吗！！！！太阳都下山了好吗！与其有那闲工夫左思右想，还不如趁现在把能做到的事情都做了吧。再说了，如果那种规模过分巨大的理想社会真的成为现实，一般也都会变得索然无味，还不如就在这个世界里，见缝插针、自说自话地先把大笨蛋社会建起来再说呗。

-- 松本哉, 《世界大笨蛋反叛手册》

There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.

The insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they’re evil or sinful, it’s that they’re unconscious. They are default settings.

-- David Foster Wallace, "This is Water"

The truth is, most of us discover where we are headed when we arrive.

-- Bill Watterson, "Some Thoughts on The Real World by One Who Glimpsed It And Fled"