Ira

“...Perhaps New York's unintentional beauty is much richer and more varied than the excessively strict and composed beauty of human design. But it's not our European beauty. It's an alien world.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“From now on, little by little, you must prepare yourself to face death. If you devote all of your future energy to living, you will not be able to die well. You must begin to shift gears, a little at a time. Living and dying are, in a sense, of equal value.”
― Haruki Murakami, After the Quake

“Nos cœurs ne sont pas de pierre. Les pierres peuvent s’effondrer et se briser, perdre leur forme. Mais le cœur ne peut pas s’effondrer. Le cœur n’a pas de forme mais il peut se propager à l’infini.”
― Haruki Murakami, After the Quake

“...The beauty of New York rests on a completely different base. It's unintentional. It arose independent of human design, like a stalagmitic cavern. Forms which are in themselves quite ugly turn up fortuitously, without design, in such incredible surroundings that they sparkle with a sudden wondrous poetry. ... Unintentional beauty. Yes. Another way of putting it might be 'beauty by mistake.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being