#ancestor

No, writing has not changed me for the better at all; I have merely used up part of my restless, conscienceless youth. What value to me will these discontented pages be? The book, the vow, are worth no more than one is worth oneself. One can never be sure of saving one's soul by writing. One may go writing on and on with a soul already lost. ↗

— Italo Calvino

#our-ancestors #the-non-existent-knight #change

We're all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us. ↗

— Liam Callanan

#death #ghosts #liam-callanan #the-cloud-atlas #death

The ancestor of every action is a thought ↗

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

#ancestor #thoughts #inspirational

Many African societies divide humans into three categories: those still alive on the earth, the sasha, and the zamani. The recently departed whose time on earth overlapped with people still here are the sasha, the living-dead. They are not wholly dead, for they still live in the memories of the living, who can call them to mind, create their likeness in art, and bring them to life in anecdote. When the last person to know an ancestor dies, that ancestor leaves the sasha for the zamani, the dead. As generalised ancestors, the zamani are not forgotten but revered. Many … can be recalled by name. But they are not the living-dead. There is a difference. ↗

— James W Loewen

#death-and-dying #ghosts #lies-my-teacher-told-me #spirits #art

This is our history - from the Transcontinental Railroad to the Hoover Dam, to the dredging of our ports and building of our most historic bridges - our American ancestors prioritized growth and investment in our nation's infrastructure. ↗

— Cory Booker

#ancestors #bridges #building #dam #growth

As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. The beloved Echo of our ancestors, the virgin America, has been abandoned. We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves. ↗

— Daniel J. Boorstin

#america #ancestors #been #beloved #echo

Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values. ↗

— Ralph Ellison

#ancestors #choose #create #ones #others

We must wake up to the insane reality of our time. We are all irresponsible, unless we demand from the responsible decision makers that modern armaments must no longer be made available to people whose former battle axes and swords our ancestors condemned. ↗

— Thor Heyerdahl

#armaments #available #axes #battle #condemned

Sweden is the home of my ancestors, and I have reserved a special place in my heart for Sweden. ↗

— Carl D. Anderson

#heart #home #i #place #reserved

Writing is conscience, scruple, and the farming of our ancestors. ↗

— Edward Dahlberg

#conscience #farming #our #scruple #writing