flora

“If one accomplishes some good though with toil, the toil passes, but the good remains; if one does something dishonourable with pleasure, the pleasure passes, but the dishonour remains.”
― Musonius Rufus, That One Should Disdain Hardships: The Teachings of a Roman Stoic

“Everything is as vain as stirring up cold ashes, as vague as the moment just before dawn.

And the light falls so serenely and perfectly on things, gilds them with such a sad, smiling reality. The whole mystery of the world appears before my eyes carved out of this banality, this street.

Ah, how mysteriously the everyday things of life brush by us! On the surface, touched by light, of this complex human life, Time, like a hesitant smile, blooms on the lips of the Mystery! How modern all this sounds, yet deep down it is so ancient, so hidden, so different from the meaning that shines out from all of this!”
― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

“Does each one of us have—at some moment lost in life—a mission to carry out? Still I refuse to take on any mission. I carry out nothing: I just live.”
― Clarice Lispector, Água Viva

“I know you believe in reincarnation. I don’t know if I do but I hope it’s real. Because then maybe you’ll come back here next time around. Maybe you’ll be a girl and maybe your name will be Rose, and you’ll have a room full of books with parents who will read you bedtime stories in a country not touched by war. Maybe then, in that life and in this future, you’ll find this book and you’ll know what happened to us. And you’ll remember me. Maybe.”
― Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous