Sekar Writes > Sekar's Quotes

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

“We normalize the abnormal, and accept the unacceptable.”
― Ed Yong, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

“We are linked in a co-evolutionary circle. The sweeter the peach, the more frequently we disperse its seeds, nurture its young, and protect them from harm. Food plants and people act as selective forces on each other's evolution—the thriving of one in the best interest of the other. This, to me, sounds a bit like love.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

“Hidup sungguh sangat sederhana. Yang hebat-hebat hanya tafsirannya.”
― Pramoedya Ananta Toer, House of Glass

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”
― Elie Wiesel

“Personal responsibilities cannot compensate for societal irresponsibility”
― Ed Yong, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us

“What if you were a teacher but had no voice to speak your knowledge? What if you had no language at all and yet there was something you needed to say? Wouldn't you dance it? Wouldn't you act it out? Wouldn't your every movement tell the story? In time you would be so eloquent that just to gaze upon you would reveal it all. And so it is with these silent green lives.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

“Not all certainty is a trap. The trap is when certainty leads us to dismiss, demonize, and judge others harshly, especially on heated political issues.”
― Ilana Redstone, The Certainty Trap: Why We Need to Question Ourselves More--and How We Can Judge Others Less

“If access to good jobs, housing, health care, and other essentials was fairer, we wouldn't heap such outsized economic expectations on our schools. If we aren't asking them to fix our deepest social and economic inequalities, for example, we can ask them to focus on preparing kids for citizenship in a diverse democracy. Today, we measure the success of our schools mostly according to how well they advance the interests of individual consumers.”
― Jennifer Berkshire, The Education Wars: A Citizen’s Guide and Defense Manual

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa

“Kesalahan orang-orang pandai ialah menganggap yang lain bodoh, dan kesalahan orang-orang bodoh ialah menganggap orang-orang lain pandai”
― Pramoedya Ananta Toer

“Sometimes I wish I could photosynthesize so that just by being, just by shimmering at the meadow's edge or floating lazily on a pond, I could be doing the work of the world while standing silent in the sun.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

“Civilization is in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have.”
― H. G. Wells

“Our true nationality is mankind.”
― H.G. Wells

“Writing is not life, but I think that sometimes it can be a way back to life.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Let's get one thing clear right now, shall we? There is no Idea Dump, no Story Central, no Island of the Buried Bestsellers; good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.”
― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Nasib terbaik adalah tidak dilahirkan, yang kedua dilahirkan tapi mati muda, dan yang tersial adalah umur tua. Rasa-rasanya memang begitu. Bahagialah mereka yang mati muda.”
― Soe Hok Gie

“Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.”
― W.H. Auden, The Dyer's Hand and Other Essays

“A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.”
― W.H. Auden

“The image of myself which I try to create in my own mind in order that I may love myself is very different from the image which I try to create in the minds of others in order that they may love me.”
― W. H. Auden

“There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.”
― Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”
― E.M. Forster

“my world is collapsing, my world is rebuilding itself; wait and see how you (meaning me) survive it all. I'm not lamenting the falling apart, it was already in a state of collapse, what I'm lamenting is the rebuilding, I lament my waning strength, I lament being born, I lament the light of the sun.”
― Franz Kafka, Letters to Milena

“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“How about if I sleep a little bit longer and forget all this nonsense",”
― Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis

“The door could not be heard slamming; they had probably left it open, as is the custom in homes where a great misfortune has occurred.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Experience is merely the name men gave to their mistakes.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“I may not have been sure about what really did interest me, but I was absolutely sure about what didn't.”
― Albert Camus, The Stranger