Banana Yoshimoto

Put Your Best Foot Forward, a photo by dawn_perry on Flickr.

'If a person wants to stand on her own two feet, I recommend undertaking the care and feeding of something. It could be children or it could be houseplants, you know? By doing that you come to understand your own limitations. That's where it starts.' p. 41

'... if a person hasn't ever experienced true despair, she grows old never knowing how to evaluate where she is in life; never understanding what joy really is.' p. 41


'Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.'

From Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Translated by Megan Backus, 1993
Faber and Faber, London 

http://www.yoshimotobanana.com 

http://yoshibanana.blogspot.com.au/ 

Happiness in motion

Happiness in motion, a photo by atiretoo on Flickr.

'Happiness as a byproduct of living your life is a great thing, but happiness as a goal is a recipe for disaster.'

Barry Schwartz, Professor of Social Theory and Social Action, Swarthmore College 

Montaigne on reading

Reading club, a photo by kattebelletje on Flickr.

'It consoles me in my retreat; it relieves me of the weight of distressing idleness and, at any time, can rid me of boring company. 

It blunts the stabs of pain whenever pain is not too overpowering and extreme. 

To distract me from morose thoughts, I simply need to have recourse to books.'

 http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/may/10/montaigne-philosophy