“Those who engage in public corrections of this sort often are looking to feel good about themselves, and, according to Benoît Monin, a psychology professor at Stanford University, displays of language all-knowing-ness provide a ready-made, two-pronged opportunity to do so. ‘The way we evaluate our competence is relative to other people,’ he says. ‘If I need to feel good about my language skills, one way that I could do that would be to give myself evidence that my language skills are awesome. Another is to give myself evidence that other people’s language skills suck. So by putting down other people, I can feel better about myself.’”
“Great art – or good art – is when you look at it, experience it and it
stays in your mind. I don’t think conceptual art and traditional art are
all that different. There’s boring conceptual art and there’s boring
traditional art. Great art is if you can’t stop thinking about it, then
it becomes a memory.”
For the Love of God (small diamond skull) Print by Damien Hirst
“Nearly ½ of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme poverty — less than $1.25 a day. 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty.”
“The middle class is like a buffer between the capitalist ruling class and the proletariat, often serving the interests of the former while believing they are defending the latter.”
“The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so simple. And yet, everybody rushes around in a great panic as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves.”
“The problem of the working class is not merely the problem of ‘poverty’; it is the problem of being despised and neglected by the middle classes, who may sometimes ‘help’ them but never truly understand them.”
After Bankei had passed away, a blind man who lived near the master’s temple told a friend: “Since I am blind, I cannot watch a person’s face, so I must judge his character by the sound of his voice. Ordinarily when I hear someone congratulate another upon his happiness or success, I also hear a secret tone of envy. When condolence is expressed for the misfortune of another, I hear pleasure and satisfaction, as if the one condoling was really glad there was something left to gain in his own world.”
“In all my experience, however, Bankei’s voice was always sincere. Whenever he expressed happiness, I heard nothing but happiness, and whenever he expressed sorrow, sorrow was all I heard.”
