Themes

"The young watch television twenty-four hours a day, they don't read and they rarely listen. This incessant bombardment of images has developed a hypertrophied eye condition that's turning them into a race of mutants."

"听取所有人的意见，从每一只鹅身上摘下一根羽毛，但绝对不要跟随任何人。"

"But yet she listen'd—'tis enough— Who listens once will listen twice; Her heart, be sure, is not of ice, And one refusal no rebuff."

"Listen carefully, my child, to your master's precepts, and incline the ear of your heart. Receive willingly and carry out effectively your loving father's advice, that by the labor of obedience you may return to Him from whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience."

"Listen with your ears, not your mouth."

"Leisure is pain; take off our chariot wheels, How heavily we drag the load of life! Blest leisure is our curse; like that of Cain, It makes us wander, wander earth around To fly that tyrant, thought."

"Mend when thou canst; be better at thy leisure."

"Retired Leisure, That in trim gardens takes his pleasure."

"No blessed leisure for Love or Hope, But only time for Grief."

"And leave us leisure to be good."

"There is no wisdom without leisure."

"Knowledge is the product of leisure. The members of a very primitive society have no time to amass knowledge; their days are fully occupied with the provision of the bare necessities of life. But as soon as a community begins to accumulate wealth, and so becomes able to support a leisured class (priests, instructors of rich men's children), an opportunity is created for those who desire knowledge to devote their lives to its acquirement. Out of this 'curiosity to know' science is born."

"Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, requisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idleness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil."

"The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich."

"In our bourgeois Western world total labor has vanquished leisure. Unless we regain the art of silence and insight, the ability for non-activity, unless we substitute true leisure for our hectic amusements, we will destroy our culture—and ourselves."

"Has it ever been really noted to what extent a genuinely religious life … requires a leisure class, or half-leisure—I mean leisure with a good conscience, from way back, by blood, to which the aristocratic feeling that work disgraces is not altogether alien—the feeling that it makes soul and body common. And that consequently our modern, noisy, time-consuming industriousness, proud of itself, stupidly proud, educates and prepares people, more than anything else does, precisely for “unbelief.”"

"In 1930, with the world plunged into a deep economic depression, economist John Maynard Keynes published a rosy forecast for the future. He predicted that in 100 years, his grandchildren would only need to work 15-hour weeks, and the greatest problem facing a member of society would be “how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well.” Just shy of a century later, Keynes’ prediction couldn’t be further from reality. People today feel like they’re stuck on a hamster wheel. As corporate profits soar, wages have failed to keep pace. Millions of Americans juggle multiple jobs to make ends meet. Today, the average worker has to clock 70 hours a week to sustain the same quality of life that 40 hours of work afforded 50 years ago. And for many, cellphones and laptops have made it impossible to ever escape the grip of work, even at home. With one income no longer enough to sustain an average family budget, parents’ days are lengthened by the extra time necessary to shuttle children to and from child care. Contrary to Keynes’ predictions, leisure time isn’t expanding; it’s disappearing. Less and less free time leaves Americans feeling more on edge, more anxious, and more alone than ever before. We are disconnected from each other mentally, physically and emotionally, and we witness the ripple effects in the erosion of civility, the growth of fringe politics, and the increase in violence, suicide and overdose rates. The nation’s emotional health is spiraling in part because there is less and less time for leisure and connection."

"Leisure requires the evidence of our own feelings, because it is not so much a quality of time as a peculiar state of mind. . . . What being at leisure means is more easily felt than defined."

"With the abolition of otium and of the ego no aloof thinking is left. … Without otium philosophical thought is impossible, cannot be conceived or understood."

"The superficiality of the American is the result of his hustling. It needs leisure to think things out; it needs leisure to mature. People in a hurry cannot think, cannot grow, nor can they decay. They are preserved in a state of perpetual puerility."

"Do not say, "when I have leisure I will study," for you may never have leisure."

"Certain ways of life, especially leisureliness and contemplation, are said to be marked by “self-sufficiency” (Aristotle). Here there is a double connotation of not needing much from others to carry on such a life, and of the life itself having the character of finality. Both connotations suggest forms of independence. Not needing much from others means being independent of them. And “finality” implies that the activity of thinking, or, more generally, of being leisurely has intrinsic worth. Thus the leisurely person is independent in the sense that the value of his leisure does not depend on any consequence it may have, for example, the consequence that it restores his energy for the next day’s work."

"If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed. Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution. So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality."

"I think that the sweetest freedom for a man on earth consists in being able to live, if he likes, without having the need to work."

"As Western nations became more prosperous, leisure, which had been put off for several centuries in favor of the pursuit of property, the means to leisure, finally began to be of primary concern. But, in the meantime, any notion of the serious life of leisure, as well as men’s taste and capacity to live it, had disappeared."

"The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system."

"What, then, shall we do? someone may ask. What else, indeed, than devote ourselves to the care of our souls, keeping all our leisure free from other things."

"For peace of mind a person stays away from problems sadness and despair which is to live in the present and not think about the past.~~ March 4, 2025"

"The soul is a command of equals and the forbidden is desirable We get tired in searching for comfort we are miserable in searching for happiness we go bankrupt after money we are born and die and we forget to live for the sake of obedience to God."

"Pleasure is not found in the comfort of the body or emptiness, but rather in fatigue and hardship when a person exerts great energy and effort and when days turn into rest and emptiness."

"Whenever you are far away from all people, you find peace of mind calling you so you sit relaxed and reassured."

"Psychological comfort or physical comfort, which is peace of mind, is a psychological state characterized by calm, tranquility, and contentment. It is a state in which a person feels reassured and stable and does not feel anxious, tense, or afraid. It maintains your health."

"His nunc præmium est qui recta prava faciunt."

"Whip me such honest knaves."

"A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats."

"There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark But he's an arrant knave."

"Zeno first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best defence against a knave."

"Now I will show myself To have more of the serpent than the dove; That is—more knave than fool."

"Actors often say they most enjoy playing villains, and I have to be honest: I feel the same way about drawing them! There’s just something so fun about drawing a sneaky look or evil grin, hands rubbing together in greed or anticipation of some nefarious deed. Sonic’s villains are some of the worst people you can possibly imagine, so I’m super excited to show just how vile some of them can be!"

"Jean-Luc Picard: We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, is all ancient history. Then, before you can blink an eye, suddenly, it threatens to start all over again."

"Tony Montana: What you lookin' at? You all a bunch of fuckin' assholes. You know why? You don't have the guts to be what you wanna be. You need people like me. You need people like me so you can point your fuckin' fingers and say, "That's the bad guy." So... what that make you? Good? You're not good. You just know how to hide, how to lie. Me, I don't have that problem. Me, I always tell the truth. Even when I lie. So say good night to the bad guy! Come on. The last time you gonna see a bad guy like this again, let me tell you. Come on. Make way for the bad guy. There's a bad guy comin' through! Better get outta his way!"

"Heroes and villains should experience conflict emotions well toward the beginning of stories. The heroes, how ever, should overcome these emotions in the end. Fur thermore, the leading character in a screen story must never be depicted as feeling too much fear, jealousy, hatred, or even rage, lest he lose, once and for all, the sympathy of the audience. His emotions must be kept, for the most part, normal and pleasant. On the other hand, no combination of unpleasant emotions is too extreme for the villain. He may show extreme fear, hidden hatred, devastating cruelty, and virulent rage, to the delight of the audience. For the villain stands for the obstacles which the hero must overcome in order to achieve success. Characterizations should be subtly depicted. The villain, as a rule, should make a good appearance. He should cover his unpleasant emotions, revealing them only in moments when he is alone with his audience. The good old rules of the days of the ten-cent melodrama, with respect to the villain's villainy, have not greatly changed. When he is permitted to show too many of the pleasant emotions, he frequently elicits greater sympathy from the audience than does the hero himself, thereby ruining the average screen story."

"Harvey Dent/Two Face: You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

"I’ll tell you a minor secret of playing villains. Mine are usually polite and almost invariably charming. Nobody likes a nasty villain."

"The fact that Carradine has brought up Zen philosophy is interesting in and of itself. Not because of his classic stint as the metaphysically-minded Kane from 1972 until 1975, but more because many of the villains that he's portrayed in film over the years have been instilled with an unnerving sense of calm. Carradine's baddies are not maniacally crazed individuals, but rather reserved and introspective, bequeathed with an eerie sense of serenity which ultimately makes them not only creepy, but more resolutely evil, more menacing. "Have you ever met one of those?" he queries about the maniacal, crazed villain. "I mean serial killers tend to be [normal]. Some of the most villainous people that we've ever heard of are sophisticated and charming, you know? I mean, take a guy like Hitler. How the hell could he talk millions of people into taking his terrible, horrible, horrendous trip. There must have been a lot of charisma there. And considering that he was a funny, ugly lookin' little guy, how the f@#k did he do that? When I started playing villains I thought, 'Villains don't think they're villains. They think they're good guys.' So I figured, 'let the story take care of that part.' It will be obvious in the story this guy is bad. He's gonna do something, he's gonna slit some girl's throat or shoot some guy down or cheat somebody at cards or whatever. So he'll do that. But in the meantime, if he's trying to be charming, which they all do, you know, the used car salesman [that's trying to win you over]. And I thought, 'That's the way to go.' And it seems to work.""

"Every villain's redemption arc begins with their origin story."

"So fallen! so lost! the light withdrawn Which once he wore; The glory from his gray hairs gone For evermore!"

"Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito."

"Hoccin est credibile, aut memorabile, Tanta vecordia innata cuiquam ut siet, Ut malis gaudeant alienis, atque ex incommodis Alterius, sua ut comparent commoda?"

"I shall not let a sorrow die Until I find the heart of it, Nor let a wordless joy go by Until it talks to me a bit; And the ache my body knows Shall teach me more than to another, I shall look deep at mire and rose Until each one becomes my brother."