Ciera Scadden

“As a society, we assume that humans naturally run from emotions like suffering, helplessness, and hopelessness, but the truth is these emotions are highly addictive and far easier to indulge in (in a perversely satisfying way) than positive emotional subsets. Better yet, when you convince others of your helplessness, some people begin to regard you as a victim—someone to be adored and protected. ”
― Simone Collins, The Pragmatist’s Guide to Crafting Religion: A playbook for sculpting cultures that overcome demographic collapse & facilitate long-term human flourishing

“He faced the terror of that second ocean, the largest a man can face. He looked up at the tiny shores of other worlds and its great expanse. He was afraid of it, of the deepness despite the starry fields.”
― Daniel Cuervonegro, Sins of the Maker

“The voice of him, who made the earth, whispereth in the winds; his breath is the movement of nature!”
― James Fenimore Cooper

“This is what fools people: a man is always a teller of tales, he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others, he sees everything that happens to him through them; and he tries to live his life as if he were recounting it.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea