Friday, November 10, 2006

The Serenity Machine




Georges Seurat
- Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86)


"Let's go get drunk on light again - it has the power to console."

Georges Seurat



"Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is."

Thomas Szasz

"There are in our existence spots of time,
Which with distinct pre-eminence retain
A vivifying virtue, whence, depressed
By false opinion and contentious thought,
Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight,
In trivial occupations, and the round
Of ordinary intercourse, our minds
Are nourished and invisibly repaired;
A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced,
That penetrates, enables us to mount,
When high, more high, and lifts us up
when fallen."

From The Prelude by William Wordsworth