Yves Pepermans

“Ik lach er mee, maar ik vraag mij af waarom de mensen niet gebleven zijn lijk de andere dieren, waarom wij en wij alleen moesten gekruisigd worden met die hel van het verstand dat alles wil ontleden en begrijpen, en dat ons niets bijbrengt dan vloeken en tranen. Hebt ge dat ooit van een beest geweten? Ze eten en slapen, ze drinken, paren en gaan dood, en ze zijn gelukkig. Wij niet, wij hebben het verstand dat ons doet vragen: waarom? En datzelfde verstand dat ons zegt: er is geen waarom, en als er toch een waarom moest zijn dan is er geen antwoord op.”
― Louis Paul Boon, De voorstad groeit

“It's for us that the University exists, for the dispossessed of the world; not for the students, not for the selfless pursuit of knowledge, not for any of the reasons that you hear. We give out the reasons, and we let a few of the ordinary ones in, those that would do in the world; but that's just protective coloration. Like the church in the Middle Ages, which didn't give a damn about the laity or even about God, we have our pretenses in order to survive. And we shall survive—because we have to.”
― John Williams, Stoner

“Slowly I married her. Slowly and bitterly married her love / married her body in boredom and joy. Slowly I came to her bed and came to her table in hunger and habit came to be fed. Slowly I married her sanctioned by none with nobody's name / amid general warnings / amid general scorn. Came to her fragrance by nostrils wide. Came to her greed with seed for a child. Years in the coming and years in retreat / slowly I married her / slowly I kneeled and now we are wounded so deep and so well that no one can hurt us except Death itself.”
― Leonard Cohen, Death of a Lady's Man

“The true opposite of depression is neither gaiety nor absence of pain, but vitality—the freedom to experience spontaneous feelings. It is part of the kaleidoscope of life that these feelings are not only happy, beautiful, or good but can reflect the entire range of human experience, including envy, jealousy, rage, disgust, greed, despair, and grief. But this freedom cannot be achieved if its childhood roots are cut off. Our access to the true self is possible only when we no longer have to be afraid of the intense emotional world of early childhood. Once we have experienced and become familiar with this world, it is no longer strange and threatening.”
― Alice Miller, The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self