An animal is not cruel; it lives wholly in the instant leap on its prey, in the present taste of marrow or blood. Cruelty begins with the memory, and the pleasures of the memory are impure; they draw their strength along levels where no sun has reached.

Storm Jameson

Only one person in a thousand knows the trick of really living in the present. Most of us spend fifty-nine minutes an hour living in the past, with regret for lost joys or shame for things badly done (both utterly useless and weakening) or in a future which we either long for or dread. . . . There is only one minute in which you are alive, this minute, here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle. Which is exactly what it is-a miracle and unrepeatable.

Storm Jameson

regret long past

The only way to live is to accept each minute as an unrepeatable miracle, which is exactly what it is: a miracle and unrepeatable.

Storm Jameson

way-to-live miracle life

There is only one world; the world pressing against you at this minute. There is only one minute in which you are alive; this minute here and now. The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.

Storm Jameson

way-to-live miracle spiritual

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed.

Storm Jameson

happiness inspirational life

There is as much vanity in self-scourgings as in self-justification.

Storm Jameson

self-justification vanity self

I am never happier than when I am alone in a foreign city; it is as if I had become invisible.

Storm Jameson

invisible cities ifs

War, for any cause, is inexcusable. There is nothing which excuses us for the beastly ingenuity of our wars. Only fools, only the diseased, think that we are served by killing the strong young men with machines.

Storm Jameson

strong men war

Surprise will be my last emotion, not fear.

Storm Jameson

surprise lasts emotion

For what I have received may the Lord make me truly thankful. And more truly for what I have not received.

Storm Jameson

thanksgiving thankfulness religion

Only one person in a thousand knows the trick of really living in the present.

Storm Jameson

really-living live-in-the-present tricks

The young are so much more vulnerable than the old - the stuff is still warm and malleable, it takes impressions.

Storm Jameson

youth vulnerable stuff

to grow old is to have taken away, one by one, all gifts of life, the food and wine, the music and the company. ... the gods unloose, one by one, the mortal fingers that cling to the edge of the table.

Storm Jameson

wine taken tables

What I do not know and cannot even hope to understand before I die is why human beings are willfully, coldly, matter-of-factly cruel to each other ... What nerve has atrophied in the torturer, or worse is sensually moved?

Storm Jameson

cruelty nerves matter

No form of art repeats or imitates successfully all that can be said by another; the writer conveys his experience of life along a channel of communication closed to painter, mathematician, musician, film-maker.

Storm Jameson

musician communication art

Nothing lasts. Not even a great sorrow.

Storm Jameson

impermanence lasts sorrow

Speaking the truth, once you have started it, is too exhilarating to draw back.

Storm Jameson

exhilarating speak-the-truth draws

Hope is a talent like any other.

Storm Jameson

hopeful talent hope

Perhaps this is in the end what most marriages are - gentleness, memory, and habit.

Storm Jameson

habit ends memories

She did not so much cook as assassinate food.

Storm Jameson

cooks cooking

Language is memory and metaphor.

Storm Jameson

metaphor language memories