# Architecture of Happiness

"Our imbalances are further aggravated by practical demands. Our jobs make relentless calls on a narrow band of our faculties, reducing our chances of achieving rounded personalities and leaving us to suspect (often in the gathering darkness of a Sunday evening) that much if who we are, or could be, has gone unexplored.

- Alain de Botton
from the Architecture of Happiness

# Each One Stands Alone

Each one stands alone on the heart of the earth
Pierced by a ray of the sun;
And suddenly it is evening.

- Salvatore Quasimodo

Translated into English from the Afrikaans version by Deon Knobel.

Elkeen staan alleen op die hart van die aarde
Deur 'n straal van die son deurboor;
En skielik is dit aand.

Afrikaans translation by Wilhelm Knobel

# Creation

"Is it more astonishing that a God created all that exists in six days, or that the natural processes of the creative universe have yielded galaxies, chemistry, life, agency, meaning, value, consciousness, culture without a Creator. In my mind and heart, the overwhelming answer is that the truth as best we know it, that all arose with no Creator agent, all on its wondrous own, is so awesome and stunning that it is God enough for me and I hope much of humankind."

- Stuart A. Kauffman

# A Falcon, or a Storm, or a Great Song

I am circling around God, around the ancient tower,
and I have been circling for a thousand years,
and I still don't know if I am a falcon,
or a storm, or a great song.

- Rilke

# Schoenfraun

"But bad movies—I think I’ve got a word for the kind of sadness I’m talking about. Schoenfraun. The sadness of when you’re watching someone enjoy something that you think is substandard. Schoenfraun. Schoenfraun. It just sounds right. The ineffable sadness when someone is happy and something is not as good as it should be."

- Steven Soderbergh

From a Believer interview.