Larissa MacFarquhar Quotes

Is it OK to say, "these are the things that I value. This is what I'm going to pursue in life"?

You may never find out who reported you. If your child has been hurt, his teacher or doctor may have called the state child-abuse hotline, not wanting to assume, as she might in a richer neighbourhood, that it was an accident. But it could also have been a neighbour who heard yelling, or an ex-boyfriend who wants to get back at you, or someone who thinks you drink too much or simply doesn't like you. People know that a call to the hotline is an easy to blow up your life'.(Kiedy moi przyjaciele/znajomi zrobili mały, głupi wybryk w Warszawie, bez namysłu zeznałam na policji, że nic się nie stało oraz że to samochody od nich się odbijały. Taka sama wspaniałomyślność często może nie działać jednak w drugą stronę.)

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared in the end to be defeated and broken up by life, which is the inevitable price of fastening one's love upon other human individuals...It is too readily assumed...that the ordinary man only rejects [saintliness] because it is too difficult: in other words, that the average human being is a failed saint. It is doubtful whether this is true. Many people genuinely do not wish to be saints, and it is probable that some who achieve or aspire to sainthood have never felt much temptation to be human beings.