maria minerva

“Yes, life had decided that for him—life, and his own infinite curiosity about life. Eternal youth, infinite passion, pleasures subtle and secret, wild joys and wilder sins—he was to have all these things. The portrait was to bear the burden of his shame; that was all.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

“No one, absolutely no one is irreplaceable, which is a depressing realization. A workplace is like a microcosm of nature, ruled by laws of evolution: As one species dies out and the whole system is destabilized, an efficient mechanism kicks in to ensure the survival of everyone else, and before long there is a new system, a new balance. Nature's sole purpose is survival, and the same is true of capitalism: A company is like a self-generating animal, a starfish that grows a new arm if a new arm is needed.”
― Therese Bohman

“Do not let what you gained this day be so easily lost.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“There's something about the candle snuffed out prematurely that captures our imagination—it is the thought, perhaps, of the books and paintings and songs that might've been, or the idea that artists simply burn too bright for this world.”
― John Green, Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection