Quotations from my Notebook

"Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!" 

–Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago

"These are a rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord's instruction. They say to their seers, 'See no more visions!' and to the prophets, 'Give us no more visions of what is right! Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. Leave this way, get off the path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!" 

–Isaiah 30:8-11

"I am tired of Photography-for-the-public, particularly composite photographs, for there can be no gain and there is no honor but cavil and misrepresentation. The next Exhibition must, then, only contain Ivied Ruins and landscapes forever, besides Portraits ––– and then stop."

–Oscar Rejlander to Henry Peach Robinson, 1859