Ang Kapalaluan

Aanhin mo ang kalayaan ng mga tinatapakan
Kung bukas sila naman ang s’yang maghahari-harian?

—Aristotle Pollisco, Kung Tama Siya

One who cannot cast away a treasure at need is in fetters.

—Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings ni J.R.R. Tolkien

Ang pag-ibig na tunay ay hindi ginagawa ng panahon kundi ng mga pagkakataon. Ang talagang pag-irog ay hindi na itinatanim kundi kusang bumubukal.

—Ruperto, sa Banaag at Sikat ni Lope K. Santos

Isáng tabòng pulót na ibubô sa sántapáyang tubig ay bahagyâ nang malasahan; dapwa’t isáng paták ng paít na ikanáw sa sántapáyang tubig ay labis nang makalason at makamatáy.

—Lope K. Santos, Banaag at Sikat

Napagkilala niyang lubusan na ang ginhawa ng tao ay wala sa pagtatamasa ng buhay mayaman kundi nasa pananagano sa talagang ninais na lagay, sukdang ito’y isang kalagayang di pasasà kundi salat sa madlang bagay na nabibili ng salapi.

—Lope K. Santos, Banaag at Sikat

Imagining is an act of perceptual mimesis, whether undertaken in our own daydreams or under the instruction of great writers.

—Elaine Scarry, Dreaming by the Book

You get a strange feeling when you’re about to leave a place, I told him, like you’ll not only miss the people you love but you’ll miss the person you are now at this time and this place, because you’ll never be this way ever again.

—Azar Nafisi (via A Poet Reflects)

(Source: 99lions, via strangeasyouplease)

People who have an official, professional relation to other men’s sufferings – for instance, judges, police officers, doctors – in course of time, through habit, grow so callous that they cannot, even if they wish it, take any but a formal attitudes to their clients; in this respect they are not different from the peasant who slaughters sheep and calves in the backyard, and does not notice the blood.

—Ward No. 6, Anton Chekhov

Makikila-kilala mo ang mga taong may kasalanan, sa anino nila rin ay nangingilabot!

—Fidel, Banaag at Sikat ni Lope K Santos

A gentleman’s agreement?” she asked acidly. “More like honor among thieves, if you will.” She looked me in the eye. “Kvothe,” she said seriously. “Steal me.

— The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (via thegingerviking)

(via strangeasyouplease)