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21 " We felt lucky to have had him, and lucky to become the ones who were continually with him, caring for him. I have read some books of philosophy in which the freedom of burdens is explained, that somehow we are all seeking some appropriate burden. Until we find it, we are horribly shackled, can in fact scarcely live. "
― Jesse Ball , Census
22 " When there is nothing to do you do what little there is. What little is left. "
23 " In any case, this is how we ended up making our friends--by pushing away the people we thought brutal, and gathering to ourselves those we thought kind and subtle. "
24 " When the person you love has died, any indication that they once lived is received gratefully, or alternatively, you want to pretend that nothing good has ever taken place in the world. "
25 " ..read widely because almost nothing has been everywhere applied. "
26 " You prattle on when you should listen. You ask the questions as if the meaning of the question is obvious, rather than asking it in such a way that the person is removed past himself/herself to the place in which the answer resides. Are questions so obvious? I think not. Do not let yourself make them so. "
27 " I smell the wet black dirt and remember days in the garden, when it would have been possible to stand and run to my wife or stand and run to my son. But I did not do so. I concerned myself with parsley or yams or pulling weeds. I had so much and all at once. There is too much light in those thoughts. Light everywhere. It obliterates me. I recoil. "
28 " I have read some books of philosophy in which the freedom of burdens is explained, that somehow we are all seeking some appropriate burden. Until we find it, we are horribly shackled, can in fact scarcely live. "
29 " It is so easy for humans to be cruel, and they leap to it. They love to do it. It is an exercise of all their laughable powers "