Quotes About Instability

A city's only ever three hot meals away from anarchy.

But chastity means passion, chastity means neurasthenia. And passion and neurasthenia mean instability. And instability means the end of civilization. You can't have a lasting civilization without plenty of pleasant vices.

So in a certain sense disintegration may have its advantages. But of course it's dangerous, horribly dangerous. Suppose you couldn't get back, out of the chaos...

you can't make tragedies without social instability.

The Savage shook his head. 'It all seems to me quite horrible.' 'Of course it does. Actual happiness always pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.

our world is not the same as Othello's world. . . you can't make tragedies without social instability. The world's stable now.

La actual felicidad siempre parece muy menguada en comparación con las compensaciones que brinda la miseria. Y, además, la estabilidad no es ni con mucho tan espectacular como la inestabilidad. Y el estar satisfecho no tiene el encanto de una denodada lucha contra la desgracia, ni el pintoresquismo de una pugna contra la tentación, o de una fatal derrota a manos de la pasión o de la duda. La felicidad nunca es grandiosa.

You can't make tragedies without social instability.

La felicidad siempre aparece escuálida en comparación con las compensaciones que ofrece la desdicha. Y, naturalmente, la estabilidad no es, ni con mucho, tan espectacular como la inestabilidad.

But chastity means passion, chastity means neurasthenia. And passion and neurasthenia mean instability.

happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the over-compensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never

Porque nuestro mundo no es el mundo de Otelo. No se pueden fabricar coches sin acero; y no se pueden crear tragedias sin inestabilidad social.

Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contended has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.

E é evidente que a estabilidade, como espetáculo, não chega aos calcanhares da instabilidade. E o facto de se estar satisfeito não tem nada com o encanto mágico de uma boa luta contra a desgraça, nada do pitoresco de um combate contra a tentação, ou de uma derrota fatal sob os golpes da paixão ou da dúvida. A felicidade nunca é grandiosa.

Yeah, like that old Chinese curse about living in interesting times. Interesting times meant the barbarians were about to ride over your fields and kill you and your family.

Writers just play out their fantasies in their books. They are often very unstable, tricky people, Bertie. Writers are usually very bad at real life and feel that they have to create imaginary lives to make up for it.

Our society is dependent on some precarious mechanisms, and they are very dicey. They can easily collapse.

The metaphysics that a new generation is imbibing and everyone else is being force-fed has many points of instability, is grounded in a desire to express certainty about things we do not know, and to be wildly dismissive and relativistic about things that we actually do know.

What is built on sand sooner or later would tumble down.

It's a compulsive need to wreck everything. You might notice there's a pattern of stripping down and building back up again throughout my life. But I guess that's how some of us conduct our lives.

What a miserable life is this! There is no happiness that is secure and nothing that does not change.

I don't intend to be menacing, but I do think of life as being essentially dangerous. We never know what's going to happen from one day to the next.

Castles made of sand fall in the sea eventually.

Curiosity is not trivial; it is the respect one life pays to another. It is the largeness of mind and heart that refuses to be bounded by decorum or by desperation. It is the hardest to keep alive in the times it is most needed, the times of hatred, of instability, of attack. Surely these are such times.