#distance

Above all human existence requires stability, the permanence of things. The result is an ambivalence with respect to all great and violent expenditure of strength; such an expenditure, whether in nature or in man, represents the strongest possible threat. The feelings of admiration and of ecstasy induced by them thus mean that we are concerned to admire them from afar. The sun corresponds to that prudent concern. It is all radiance gigantic loss of heat and light, flame, explosion; but remote from men, who can enjoy in safety and quiet the fruits of this cataclysm. To earth belongs the solidity which sustains houses of stone and the steps of men (at least on its surface, for buried within the depths of the earth is the incandescence of lava). ↗

— Georges Bataille

#permanence #power #stability #men

The 'Dance of Love' is much more of a dialogue, one takes the lead and the other follows. One dictates a step and the other carries it out. One determines the direction, the other determines the distance travelled in a given figure. One sets the pace, the other reveals the grace. One understands the language of the other and knows what is coming next. The one leading leads with love and respect; never seeing the follower as being weak or inferior. And in the same manner, the one following follows with Trust and Submission; never feeling too big to be led or scared to jump. There is a blind assurance that someone is there to catch. ↗

— Olaotan Fawehinmi

#dance #dance-of-love #dialogue #direction #distance

All space is relative. There is no such thing as size. The telescope and the microscope have produced a deadly leveling of great and small, far and near. The only little thing is sin, the only great thing is fear! ("The Jelly-Fish") ↗

— David H. Keller

#fear #relativity #scale #science #size

Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly. ↗

— Edward Albee

#come #correctly #distance #go #long

It is of course the nature of historical contraction that the shortest distance to a historical destination is never a straight line. ↗

— Ibrahim Babangida

#course #destination #distance #historical #line

Sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly. ↗

— Edward Albee

#come #correctly #distance #go #his

The closer the look one takes at a word, the greater distance from which it looks back. ↗

— Karl Kraus

#closer #distance #greater #look #looks

There is more criticism of puritanism, and more distance from Christian morality, than there has been before. ↗

— Susie Bright

#before #christian #criticism #distance #morality

Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, and robes the mountain in its azure hue. ↗

— Thomas Campbell

#enchantment #hue #lends #mountain #robes

My own position is, that it is largely up to the work itself to suggest the nature of these referential points without dimensions in and through the processes by which the distance between them is maintained. ↗

— Brian Ferneyhough

#dimensions #distance #itself #largely #maintained