Beyond the apparent

"That man, especially when he slept, when his features were motionless, showed me my own face, my mask, the flawlessly pure image of my corpse […] in a state of perfect repose, this resemblance was strikingly evident, and what is death, if not a face at peace – its artistic perfection? Life only marred my double; thus a breeze dims the bliss of Narcissus; thus, in the painter’s absence, there comes his pupil and by the superfluous flush of unbidden tints disfigures the portrait painted by the master."

[Vladimir Nabokov, Despair.]

 

R. Buckminster Fuller: "You have to decide whether you want to make money or to make sense because the two are mutually exclusive."

 

"Intelligence is unprincipled, but stupidity is honest and straightforward."