difference

Never read a book to finish it, read to consume it.

Each man is an island unto himself. But though a sea of difference may divide us, an entire world of commonality lies beneath.

They had been talking about astrology, a forbidden science that was not pursued in the cloister. Narcissus had said that astrology was an attempt to arrange and order the many different types of human beings according to their natures and destinies. At this point Goldmund had objected: "You're forever talking of differences - I've finally recognised a pet theory of yours. When you speak of the great difference that is supposed to exist between you and me, for instance, it seems to me that this difference is nothing but your strange determination to establish differences."Narcissus: "Yes. You've hit the nail on the head. That's it: to you, differences are quite unimportant; to me, they are what matters most. I am a scholar by nature; science is my vocation. And science is, to quote your words, nothing but the 'determination to establish differences.' Its essence couldn't be defined more accurately. For us, the men of science, nothing is as important as the establishment of differences; science is the art of differentiation. Discovering in every man that which distinguishes him from others is to know him.

If you are different from the rest of the flock, they bite you

As much as I live I shall not imitate them or hate myself for being different to them

Learn the difference between a person that would have never given up on you and a person you pushed away.

We are here not to Make Money.We are here to Make a Difference.

If I do not agree with something or do not like something, it will be wrong to presume that I hate it. Presuming disagreement or dislike to be the same as hatred is stifling engagement. Disengagement leads to otherness, which leads to fear, which in turn leads to real hatred. Either we tolerate disagreement and dislike or we have to tolerate real hatred. The intolerance of disagreement is filling civil society lexicon with phobias each of which is leading to a disconnect, to another closed door. It may sound odd but only tolerance of disagreement demolishes walls. Doors and windows, open or closed, presume that there exists a wall, a wall created by intolerance. And doors and windows, if they exist, are closed too easily, at the slightest of pretexts.

Without community, there is no liberation...but community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist.

We are social beings who make communities with an urgency, and it is a stern charge to make us take refuge in the lonely world of oneself. ...Racism attempts to occlude our cosmopolitanism (of the songs in and out of our bones), and it often appropriates our mild forms of xenophobia into its own virulent project. Difference among peoples is something that we negotiate in our everyday interactions, asking questions and being better informed of our mutual realities. To transform difference into the body is an act of bad faith, a denial of our shared nakedness.

There are people who are generic. They make generic responses and they expect generic answers. They live inside a box and they think people who don't fit into their box are weird. But I'll tell you what, generic people are the weird people. They are like genetically-manipulated plants growing inside a laboratory, like indistinguishable faces, like droids. Like ignorance.

Moments like this occurred more and more frequently, and I think that was the biggest difference between us. That we could look at the same stars in the same sky, but not have the same questions. Not want the same answers.

If you are not interested in your own country__ problems, than what difference remains between you and a cow eating grass in a quiet corner unaware of anything around itself!

I just want to die knowing that I__e made a difference in the world... or at least a difference to someone, no matter how small the difference.

Am I cured?_ __o. You__e someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that, in my view, is a serious illness._ __s wanting to be different a serious illness?_ __t is if you force yourself to be the same as everyone else. It causes neuroses, psychoses, and paranoia. It__ a distortion of nature, it goes against God__ laws, for in all the world__ woods and forests, he did not create a single leaf the same as another. But you think it__ insane to be different, and that__ why you chose to live in Villete, because everyone is different here, and so you appear to be the same as everyone else. Do you understand?_ Mari nodded. __eople go against nature because they lack the courage to be different, and then the organism starts to produce Vitriol, or bitterness, as this poison is more commonly known.

Austen knew nothing of our modern quest for equality. People are not numbers, and so they are never __qual._ Some folk are higher placed than others, have more money, were more fortunate in their parents, or are brighter. These gifts do not come to us by merit but by the unfathomable providence of God.

There is no need to become unique. We already are unique. There is no need to become equal. We already are equal. The greatest tragedies of humankind have come from people trying to force sameness on the level we are different, and trying to become different on the level we are the same. Peace is a matter of recognizing what is already there, not creating something new.

Two brothers. Two different worlds. Different mothers, of course. Did that explain it? Women usually explained everything.