#constraints

Space, like time, engenders forgetfulness; but it does so by setting us bodily free from our surroundings and giving us back our primitive, unattached state ... Time, we say, is Lethe; but change of air is a similar draught, and, if it works less thoroughly, does so more quickly. ↗

— Thomas Mann

#body #constraints #forgetfulness #freedom #lethe

She understood the genre constraints, the decencies we were supposed to be observing. The morally cosy vision allows the embrace of monstrosity only as a reaction to suffering or as an act of rage against the Almighty. Vampire interviewee Louis is in despair at his brother’s death when he accepts Lestat’s offer. Frankenstein’s creature is driven to violence by the violence done to him. Even Lucifer’s rebellion emerges from the agony of injured pride. The message is clear: By all means become an abomination—but only while unhinged by grief or wrath. By rights, Talulla knew, she should have been orphaned or raped or paedophilically abused or terminally ill or suicidally depressed or furious at God for her mother’s death or at any rate in some way deranged if she was to be excused for not having killed herself, once it became apparent that she’d have to murder and devour people in order to stay alive. The mere desire to stay alive, in whatever form you’re lumbered with—werewolf, vampire, Father of Lies—really couldn’t be considered a morally sufficient rationale. And yet here she was, staying alive. You love life because life’s all there is. ↗

— Glen Duncan

#death

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect. ↗

— Ronald Reagan

#barriers #constraints #erect #except #human

What was the freedom to which the adult human being rose in the morning, if each act was held back or inspired by the overpowering ghost of a little child? ↗

— Delmore Schwartz

#constraints #freedom #memory #dreams

I've never felt the constraints of social acceptability. ↗

— Joanna Lumley

#felt #i #never #social

Western women have been controlled by ideals and stereotypes as much as by material constraints. ↗

— Naomi Wolf

#constraints #controlled #ideals #material #much

Instead of freaking out about these constraints, embrace them. Let them guide you. Constraints drive innovation and force focus. Instead of trying to remove them, use them to your advantage. ↗

— 37 Signals

#constraints #management #business

...the imagination is unleashed by constraints. You break out of the box by stepping into shackles. ↗

— Jonah Lehrer

#creativity #imagination #limitations #imagination

Software constraints are only confining if you use them for what they're intended to be used for. ↗

— David Byrne

#constraints #intended #only #software #them

People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth. ↗

— Raoul Vaneigem

#class #class struggle #constraints #corpse #everyday