mythology

I noticed him right away. No, it wasn__ his lean, rugged face. Or the dark waves of shiny hair that hung just a little too long on his forehead. It wasn__ the slim, collarless biker jacket he wore, hugging his lean shoulders. It was the way he stood. The confident way he waited in the cafeteria line to get a slice of pizza. He didn__ saunter. He didn__ amble. He stood at the center, and let the other people buzz around him. His stance was straight and sure.

Self-manipulation is our medication. Mythology is our drug. The only cure is honesty.

I caught his hand. __hat do you want me to do?__eaning down, he kissed the pulse beating on my neck just above the damaged skin. __omorrow, I need you to die.

Vane__ lips tightened to suppress a smile. __hy so hostile, love?___ou whacked me on the head with a ball!___ou deserved it.

Do you think we can be friends?_ I asked.He stared up at the ceiling. __robably not, but we can pretend.

I fear no hell, just as I expect no heaven. Nabokov summed up a nonbeliever__ view of the cosmos, and our place in it, thus: __he cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness._ The 19th-century Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle put it slightly differently: __ne life. A little gleam of Time between two Eternities._ Though I have many memories to cherish, I value the present, my time on earth, those around me now. I miss those who have departed, and recognize, painful as it is, that I will never be reunited with them. There is the here and now _ no more. But certainly no less. Being an adult means, as Orwell put it, having the __ower of facing unpleasant facts._ True adulthood begins with doing just that, with renouncing comforting fables. There is something liberating in recognizing ourselves as mammals with some fourscore years (if we__e lucky) to make the most of on this earth.There is also something intrinsically courageous about being an atheist. Atheists confront death without mythology or sugarcoating. That takes courage.

We have given to thee, Adam, no fixed seat, no form of thy own, no gift peculiarly thine, that thou mayest feel as thine own, have as thine own, possess as thine own, the seat, the form, the gifts which thou thyself shalt desire. A limited nature in other creatures is confined within the laws written down by Us. In conformity with thy free judgment, in whose hands I have placed thee, thou art confined by no bounds; and thou will fix the limits of nature for thyself. I have placed thee at the centre of the world, that from there thou mayest more conveniently look around and see whatsoever is in the world. Neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal have We made thee. Thou, like a judge appointed for being honourable, art the molder and maker of thyself.

...Food serves two parallel purposes: it nourishes and it helps you remember. Eating and storytelling are inseparable__he saltwater is also tears; the honey not only tastes sweet, but makes us think of sweetness; the matzo is the bread of our affliction.

We must be compelled to hold this doctrine to be false, and the old and new law called the Old and new Testament, to be impositions, fables and forgeries

in America we have people from all kinds of backgrounds, all in a cluster, together, and consequently law has become very important in this country. Lawyers and law are what hold us together. There is no ethos.

I always thought they were fabulous monsters!" said the Unicorn. "Is it alive?""It can talk," said Haigha, solemnly.The Unicorn looked dreamily at Alice, and said, "Talk, child."Alice could not help her lips curling up into a smile as she began: "Do you know, I always thought Unicorns were fabulous monsters, too! I never saw one alive before!""Well, now that we have seen each other," said the Unicorn, "if you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you. Is that a bargain?

An entire mythology is stored within our language.

The Bane...where coxswain's dirtand seaman's shirtsbrushed bawdily upon her chest...

Queen and huntress, chaste and fair,Now the sun is laid to sleep,Seated in thy silver chair,State in wonted manner keep:Hesperus entreats thy light,Goddess excellently bright.Earth, let not thy envious shadeDare itself to interpose,Cynthia's shining orb was madeHeaven to clear when day did close:Bless us then with wished sight,Goddess excellently bright.Lay thy bow of pearl apart,And thy crystal-shining quiver,Give unto the flying hartSpace to breath, how short soever:Thou that mak'st a day of night-Goddess excellently bright.

Imagine a perfect world

Most discipline is hidden discipline, designed not to liberate but to limit. Do not ask Why? Be cautious with How? Why? leads inexorably to paradox. How? traps you in a universe of cause and effect. Both deny the infinite.

Making mathematics accessible to the educated layman, while keeping high scientific standards, has always been considered a treacherous navigation between the Scylla of professional contempt and the Charybdis of public misunderstanding.

He finally understood...the thing that the people during the Paleolitic Age, freaking 20,000 to 8,000 B.C., were after when they came up with mythologies to do with flight__ desire for the magic of the sky, for something bigger than their feet treading the earth.