Jo Beretska

“Tao Te Ching – Verse 78
Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice.

Therefore the Master remains
serene in the midst of sorrow.
Evil cannot enter his heart.
Because he has given up helping,
he is people’s greatest help.

True words seem paradoxical.

(translation by Stephen Mitchell, 1995)”
― Lao Tzu

“What are you thinking, my love, my darling?'
'About you. I was wondering if you could make me happy. It would be fearfully difficult.'
'I'm fearfully clever, and I love you fearfully much.”
― Iris Murdoch, A Word Child

“She loved the feeling of doing something on her own, and doing it in a routine. It felt thrillingly adult and affirmed her most cherished hope, the hope that she might have an actual inner life of substance and note.”
― Megan Nolan, Ordinary Human Failings

“Today, love is being positivized into a formula for enjoyment. Above all, love is supposed to generate pleasant feelings. It no longer represents plot, narration, or drama - only inconsequential emotion and arousal. It is free from the negativity of injury, assault, or crashing. To fall (in love) would already be too negative. Yet it is precisely such negativity that constitutes love”
― Byung-Chul Han, The Agony of Eros