'absolute dependence upon the spirit of the times'

No one perhaps has said it better than Karl Barth who observed with pointed irony that the more a theologian wishes to be considered a pure biblicist, disdaining the Church, her dogma and tradition, the more surely he ends "in absolute dependence upon the spirit of the times."

—Henri de Lubac, A Brief Catechesis on Nature & Grace (1980)

'Music demands risk'

. . . she practiced unstintingly each day, the Beethoven, the Liszt, her beloved Chopin, and the Fantasy over which her fingers were gradually gaining control. Pianists will tell you that they practice in order to reduce the risk of catastrophe, but they know that to play with complete safety is an insult to their art. Music demands risk, a condition that Anna seems to have embraced with near-manic devotion, as if by engaging the demons inherent in her art she might destroy all claims they might have on her.

—Ben Fountain, "Fantasy for Eleven Fingers," Brief Encounters with Che Guevara (2006)

Act and Intent

Every legal act is a combination of some type of act and some type of intent. For example, a "signature" is a combination of some writing or marking of one's name, nickname or initials or other symbol (the act) combined with a peculiar type of intent called the intention to sign (animus signandi). The intention to sign is a mental intention that the act be a "signature," i.e., that the formality and finality which accompany a signature be present.

—Robert L. Mennell, Wills and Trusts in a Nutshell (1994)

A Man of Noble Breeding

Now against both these dangers there is one safeguard: not to exercise the soul without the body, nor yet the body without the soul, in order that both may hold their own and prove equally balanced and sound. So the mathematician or one who is intensely occupied with any other intellectual discipline must give his body its due meed by taking part in athletic training; while he who is industrious in molding his body must compensate his soul with her proper exercise in the cultivation of the mind and all higher education; so one may deserve to be called in the true sense a man of noble breeding.

—Plato, Timaeus (360 BC)

'unpublished virtues of the earth'

CORDELIA

What can man's wisdom
In the restoring his bereaved sense?
He that helps him take all my outward worth.

DOCTOR

There is means, madam:
Our foster-nurse of nature is repose,
The which he lacks; that to provoke in him,
Are many simples operative, whose power
Will close the eye of anguish.

CORDELIA

All blest secrets,
All you unpublished virtues of the earth,
Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate
In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him;
Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life
That wants the means to lead it.

—William Shakespeare, King Lear (IV.v) (1606)

'Bright sunshine is boring'

All beings are swathed in veils of mysterious vapours. The pleasure of intimacy lies in the lifting of such veils, and seeing behind them the real contour of the mind. Love demands that the mystery be dispelled, yet it wants it to remain too. Bright sunshine is boring and puts one to sleep.

—André Maurois, Conversation (trans. Yvonne Dufour 1930)