There was a black wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin. ... Where he wanted to stay was in Eastrod with his two eyes open, and his hands always handling the familiar thing, his feet on the known track, and his tongue not too loose.

flannery o'connor wise blood, chapter 1

Does one's integrity ever lie in what he is not able to do? I think that usually it does, for free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply. It is a mystery and one which a novel, even a comic novel, can only be asked to deepen. 

flannery o'connor, wise blood, author's note to second edition of 1962

Desire is free to propose, seize, accept or reject, want or not want--but not to obey

david bentley hart, Christ and nothing

(see also this pascal quote)

Is not general incivility the very essence of love?

jane austen, pride and prejudice, ch. 25


props to mdc. 

"I am firmly of the opinion that the Macintosh is Catholic and that DOS is Protestant.

Indeed, the Macintosh is counterreformist and has been influenced by the methodical path of the Jesuits . . .

It is catechistic: the essence of revelation is dealt with via simple formulae and sumptuous icons.

Everyone has a right to salvation. DOS is Protestant, or even Calvinistic. It allows free interpretation of

scripture, demands difficult personal decisions, imposes a subtle hermeneutics upon the user,

and takes for granted the idea that all can reach salvation."

umberto eco

i'd be curious to know his opinions on the aesthetic of computers now -- especially his thoughts on e-book readers and tablets. 

Such was, or must have been the origin of society and of law, which gave new fetters to the weak and new power to the rich; irretrievably destroyed natural liberty, fixed forever the laws of property and inequality; changed an artful usurpation into an irrevocable right; and for the benefit of a few ambitious individuals subjects the rest of mankind to perpetual labor, servitude, and misery.

jean jacques rousseau, second discourse, p.125

He who sang or danced best; the handsomest, the strongest, the most dexterous, or the most eloquent, came to be the most respected: this was the first step towards inequality, and at the same time towards vice. From the first distinctions there arose on one side vanity and contempt, on the other envy and shame; and the fermentation raised by these new leavens at length produced combinations fatal to happiness and innocence.

jean jacques rousseau, second discourse, p.118