#urge

Like symbolism, decadence puts forth the idea that the function of literature is to evoke impressions and 'correspondences', rather than to realistically depict the world. ... the decadent aestheticized decay and took pleasure in perversity. In decadent literature, sickness is preferable to health, not only because sickness was regarded as more interesting, but because sickness was construed as subversive, as a threat to the very fabric of society. By embracing the marginal, the unhealthy and the deviant, the decadents attacked bourgeois life, which they perceived as the chief enemy of art. ↗

— Asti Hustvedt

#bourgeois #decadence #decadent #deviant #literature-decay

Just because a feeling is natural does not mean it should be indulged. ↗

— Roseanna White

#temptation #urge #nature

Saying spirituality cannot exist without religion is like saying hamburgers cannot exist without McDonald's. ↗

— Steven Barnes

#religion #spirituality #religion

My father, for whose skills as a surgeon I have the deepest respect, says, "The operation with the best outcome is the one you decide not to do." Knowing when not to operate, knowing when I am in over my head, knowing when to call for the assistance of a surgeon of my father's caliber--that kind of talent, that kind of "brilliance," goes unheralded. ↗

— Abraham Verghese

#healing #medicine #surgeon #respect

Insurgent, he says. Noun. A person who acts in opposition to the established authority, who is not necessarily regarded as a belligerent. ↗

— Veronica Roth

#insurgent #veronica-roth #acting

She tries to turn too soon, and the ladder smacks into Fernando's shoulder. "Oh! Sorry, Nando." The jolt knocks his glasses askew. He smiles at Christina and takes the glasses off, shoving them into his pocket. "Nando?" I say to him. "I thought the Erudite didn't like nicknames?" "When a pretty girl calls you by a nickname," he says, "it is only logical to respond to it. ↗

— Veronica Roth

#logic

I'm standing in a slaughterhouse where the cattle are begging to become hamburgers. I have a right to be jumpy. ↗

— Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

#comedy #hamburgers #shattered-mirror #comedy

Surgeons can cut out everything except cause. ↗

— Herbert M. Shelton

#healing #health #medicine #surgery #medicine

He slides his hand over my cheek, one finger anchored behind my ear. Then he tilts his head down and kisses me, sending a warm ache through my body. I wrap my hands around his arm, holding him there as long as I can. When he touches me, the hollowed-out feeling in my chest and stomach is not as noticeable. ↗

— Veronica Roth

#four #insurgent #tobias #tris #body

Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that! ↗

— Charles H. Spurgeon

#christian #evangelism #share #witness #wit