art of travel

“the normal is the rarest thing in the world,” and when he was traveling he spent little time looking at the sights, but went off instead “on the search for emotion,”

“A novelist must preserve a child-like belief in the importance of things which common sense considers of no great consequence,” he wrote late in life. “He must never entirely grow up.”

I want to see life and death, and the passions, the virtues and vices, of men face to face, uncovered.”

“What is the use of hurrying to pile up money when one can live on so little?”

Somerset Maugham via http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-books/the-perfect-traveler-20091026/

determination

"So here in sum is how determination seems to work: it consists of willfulness balanced with discipline, aimed by ambition."

from the blog of Paul Graham http://www.paulgraham.com/determination.html

Room for rights?

An individualistic society equals more room for depression?
When you have to look after the needs of more than a billion people is there room for rights?
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4867151,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf