The journal
A curated selection from the Moniqs archive, newest first. More stories are being moved over from the original site.
Literature · Reflection
SADNESS OF THE INTELLECT: Sadness of being misunderstood [sic]; Humor sadness; Sadness of love wit[hou]t release; Sadne[ss of be]ing smart; Sadness of not knowing enough words to [express what you mean]; Sadness of having options; Sadness of wanting sadness; Sadness of confusion;
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Literature · Reflection
“Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” Oscar Wilde (The picture of Dorian Gray)
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Literature · Reflection
“He awoke each morning with the desire to do right, to be a good and meaningful person, to be, as simple as it sounded and as impossible as it actually was, happy. And during the course of each day his heart would descend from his chest into his stomach. By early afternoon he was
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Literature · Reflection
A poet must be a psychologist, but a secret one: he should know and feel the roots of phenomena but present only the phenomena themselves in full bloom or as they fade away. Ivan Turgenjev Painting Portrait of Turgenjev by Ilja Repin
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Literature · Reflection
For an author to write as he speaks is just as reprehensible as the opposite fault, to speak as he writes; for this gives a pedantic effect to what he says, and at the same time makes him hardly intelligible. Arthur Schopenhauer
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Literature · Reflection
“By believing passionately in something that still does not exist, we create it. The nonexistent is whatever we have not sufficiently desired.” Franz Kafka Photo Kafka Museum
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Literature · Reflection
“…and I reminded myself that the reproach of intellectualism is often directed at the most sensitive natures, those most ardently alive, those obliged by their frailty or their excess of strength constantly to resort to the arduous disciplines of the mind.” Marguerite Yourcenar
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Literature · Reflection
“The true birthplace is that wherein for the first time one looks intelligently upon oneself; my first homelands have been books, and to a lesser degree schools.” Marguerite Yourcenar (Memoirs of Hadrian)
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Literature · Reflection
“But would you kindly ponder this question: What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared? After all, shadows are cast by things and people. Here is the shadow of my sword. But shadows also come from trees and livi
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Literature · Reflection
“A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Thomas Mann
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Literature · Reflection
“One summer morning at sunrise a long time ago I met a little girl with a book under her arm. I asked her why she was out so early and she answered that there were too many books and far too little time. And there she was absolutely right.” — Tove Jansson
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Literature · Reflection
Nothing ever gets anywhere. The earth keeps turning round and gets nowhere. The moment is the only thing that counts. ~Jean Cocteau, Professional Secrets, 1922
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