#dig

In this image (watching sensual murder through a peephole) Lorrain embodies the criminal delight of decadent art. The watcher who records the crimes (both the artist and consumer of art) is constructed as marginal, powerless to act, and so exculpated from action, passive subject of a complex pleasure, condemning and yet enjoying suffering imposed on others, and condemning himself for his own enjoyment. In this masochistic celebration of disempowerment, the sharpest pleasure recorded is that of the death of some important part of humanity. The dignity of human life is the ultimate victim of Lorrain's art, thrown away on a welter of delighted self-disgust. ↗

— Jennifer Birkett

#consumer #decadence #decadent #diginty #disempowerment

Uno no se debe exasperar, uno debe esperar. La exasperación es la negación de la esperanza. Es comprensible, diría que hasta es natural; sin embargo, no es aceptable porque no permite obtener los resultados que puede eventualmente producir la esperanza. ↗

— Stéphane Hessel

#nature

You [Mankind] have been given no particular function. You may give your life whatever form you choose, do whatever you wish … you have no limitations, and can act in accord with your own free will. You alone can choose the limits of your nature. ↗

— Pico della Mirandola

#nature

Be strong. Live honorably and with dignity. When you don't think you can, hold on. ↗

— James Frey

#honor #strength #strength

Religious belief is without reason and without dignity, and its record is near-universally dreadful. ↗

— Martin Amis

#atheism #dignity #irrationality #reason #religion

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. ↗

— Max Planck

#science #science

Sex and excretion are reminders that anyone's claim to round-the-clock dignity is tenuous. The so-called rational animal has a desperate drive to pair up and moan and writhe. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#dignity

Dignity, always Dignity! ↗

— Gene Kelly

#dignity

A Man Without Honor is Worse than Dead. ↗

— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

#honor #politics-observation #dignity

What people regard as vanity—leaving great works, having children, acting in such a way as to prevent one's name from being forgotten—I regard as the highest expression of human dignity. ↗

— Paulo Coelho

#vanity #dignity