Lorna

“The young household lived liked birds in a warm, secluded nest of moss.”
― Émile Zola, Delphi Complete Works of Emile Zola

“the overarching ambition of Nordic societies during the course of the twentieth century, and into the twenty-first, has not been to socialize the economy at all, as is often mistakenly assumed. Rather the goal has been to free the individual from all forms of dependency within the family and in civil society: the poor from charity, wives from husbands, adult children from parents, and elderly parents from their children. The express purpose of this freedom is to allow all those human relationships to be unencumbered by ulterior motives and needs, and thus to be entirely free, completely authentic, and driven purely by love.”
― Anu Partanen, The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life

“Never had I heard from my elders that what I thus did was bad. It is true that there are the ten commandments of the Bible; but the commandments are made only to be recited before the priests at examinations, and even then are not as exacting as the commandments in regard to the use of ut in conditional propositions.”
― Leo Tolstoy, The Kreutzer Sonata

“In the West, we are very goal oriented. We know where we want to go, and we are very directed in getting there. This may be useful, but often we forget to enjoy ourselves along the route.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life