Suli Qyre
@suliqyre.com
Making art, writing Fragmentarium, and curating quotations for @philosophybits.com
suliqyre.com
suliqyre.com
“It's easy to fall under the control of attachment, to feel that a particular want or fear or belief is really you, and that there isn't anything else that could be you but these things. But nothing could be further from the truth.”
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“The Emptiness That Is You”, etc. (226-230)
You are the subject who perceives, who feels, and who thinks. You are something that does, not something that is.
suliqyre.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:24 PM
“It's easy to fall under the control of attachment, to feel that a particular want or fear or belief is really you, and that there isn't anything else that could be you but these things. But nothing could be further from the truth.”
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suliqyre.substack.com/p/the-emptin...
“Who had already become as mute as I was? who, like me, was calling fear love? and want, love? and need, love? Who, like me, knew that I had never changed my form since they had drawn me on the stone of a cave?”
— Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G. H.
— Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G. H.
December 3, 2025 at 12:04 AM
“Who had already become as mute as I was? who, like me, was calling fear love? and want, love? and need, love? Who, like me, knew that I had never changed my form since they had drawn me on the stone of a cave?”
— Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G. H.
— Clarice Lispector, The Passion According to G. H.
“Any set of rules can only be a proxy for goodness and never goodness itself. Our rules are human creations and thus they also exhibit and magnify our flaws. Rather than guaranteeing goodness, conformity to rules can sometimes impede the possibility of goodness.”
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225. To Become Better
We generally try to follow the rules because we value the order, predictability, and safety they provide. We also know that a significant deviation from the rules could result in consequences that wou...
suliqyre.com
December 2, 2025 at 6:15 PM
“Any set of rules can only be a proxy for goodness and never goodness itself. Our rules are human creations and thus they also exhibit and magnify our flaws. Rather than guaranteeing goodness, conformity to rules can sometimes impede the possibility of goodness.”
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“There is an ecology of bad ideas, just as there is an ecology of weeds, and it is characteristic of the system that basic error propagates itself. It branches out like a rooted parasite through the tissues of life, and everything gets into a rather peculiar mess.”
— Gregory Bateson
— Gregory Bateson
December 2, 2025 at 12:02 AM
“There is an ecology of bad ideas, just as there is an ecology of weeds, and it is characteristic of the system that basic error propagates itself. It branches out like a rooted parasite through the tissues of life, and everything gets into a rather peculiar mess.”
— Gregory Bateson
— Gregory Bateson
“We approach such a text with certain expectations. We expect it to take a side, to strongly support one position and argue forcefully against the alternative. We see it as a combatant in a battle with clearly-defined boundaries articulated through centuries of political discourse.”
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224. Language Is Political
If a text appears even slightly political, we approach it with certain expectations. We expect it to take a side, to strongly support one position and argue forcefully against the alternative. We see ...
suliqyre.com
December 1, 2025 at 6:37 PM
“We approach such a text with certain expectations. We expect it to take a side, to strongly support one position and argue forcefully against the alternative. We see it as a combatant in a battle with clearly-defined boundaries articulated through centuries of political discourse.”
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“When Aristotle said that poetry was more philosophical than history, he was justified insofar as he wanted to rescue poetry, that is, the arts, from being conceived as a type of factual, particular, descriptive statement. But what he said was misleading insofar as it
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November 30, 2025 at 11:15 PM
“When Aristotle said that poetry was more philosophical than history, he was justified insofar as he wanted to rescue poetry, that is, the arts, from being conceived as a type of factual, particular, descriptive statement. But what he said was misleading insofar as it
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“While the blank page taunts with its emptiness, it also allows for infinite possibilities. But now he is saddled with fifty-one words that feel significant. They are evidence he has begun something and he ought to keep going.”
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223. Fifty-One Words
He wants to write but he cannot find the words. He has already written three sentences, exactly fifty-one words in total. He knows this because he has counted them twice. Fifty-one words and nothing m...
suliqyre.com
November 29, 2025 at 6:33 PM
“While the blank page taunts with its emptiness, it also allows for infinite possibilities. But now he is saddled with fifty-one words that feel significant. They are evidence he has begun something and he ought to keep going.”
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“If truth and reality can clearly come only from the subject and his consciousness, then illusion, which is the opposite of these, must necessarily come from elsewhere.
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November 28, 2025 at 11:11 PM
“If truth and reality can clearly come only from the subject and his consciousness, then illusion, which is the opposite of these, must necessarily come from elsewhere.
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“By changing your perspective, your mood also changes you. It shapes your behaviour, it modifies your speech, it alters the way you look. It can do these things because the way you are is less a response to the world around you than it is a response to your own self.”
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222. Dominant Moods
A bad mood can be so strong that it dominates you. It changes the way you see the world by colouring it in a darker light. What was once fun and exciting can quickly transform into nothing more than a...
suliqyre.com
November 28, 2025 at 6:50 PM
“By changing your perspective, your mood also changes you. It shapes your behaviour, it modifies your speech, it alters the way you look. It can do these things because the way you are is less a response to the world around you than it is a response to your own self.”
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“Every gain has to be paid for: The automatic machine is fool-proof; but just because it is fool-proof it is also grace-proof.”
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
November 27, 2025 at 11:49 PM
“Every gain has to be paid for: The automatic machine is fool-proof; but just because it is fool-proof it is also grace-proof.”
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
“Compassion is actually a kind of self-interest, where the self I'm interested in helping is not just this body that is mine but also the entire world. My concern is for both myself and the world as one, and I care for both as one.”
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221. Compassion Is Self-Compassion
Compassion directed towards another person is also self-compassion. When I treat others with compassion, I also make the world better for myself. By helping others meet their needs and become more awa...
suliqyre.com
November 27, 2025 at 6:18 PM
“Compassion is actually a kind of self-interest, where the self I'm interested in helping is not just this body that is mine but also the entire world. My concern is for both myself and the world as one, and I care for both as one.”
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suliqyre.com/posts/compas...
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suliqyre.com/posts/compas...
“Compassion directed towards another person is also self-compassion. When I treat others with compassion, I also make the world better for myself. A more compassionate world is one that is more empathetic, more cooperative, and more loving.”
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suliqyre.substack.com/p/compassion...
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“Compassion Is Self-Compassion”, etc. (221-225)
When I treat others with compassion, I also make the world better for myself.
suliqyre.substack.com
November 26, 2025 at 8:11 PM
“Compassion directed towards another person is also self-compassion. When I treat others with compassion, I also make the world better for myself. A more compassionate world is one that is more empathetic, more cooperative, and more loving.”
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suliqyre.substack.com/p/compassion...
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suliqyre.substack.com/p/compassion...
“Man is not at home in the universe, despite all the efforts of philosophers and metaphysicians to provide a soothing syrup. Thought is still a narcotic.
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November 25, 2025 at 11:10 PM
“Man is not at home in the universe, despite all the efforts of philosophers and metaphysicians to provide a soothing syrup. Thought is still a narcotic.
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“All art is partly about struggle, about discovering the courage to overcome. This is shown through the existence of every last artwork, regardless of whether it takes the form of a painting, a performance, or a poem. Every artwork helps us become stronger, more courageous, more defiant beings.”
220. An Endless Struggle
Making art means struggling with the problem of expression. There’s something you see and you need to share it with others. But you can’t communicate it directly, for you know your words will not be a...
suliqyre.com
November 25, 2025 at 6:48 PM
“All art is partly about struggle, about discovering the courage to overcome. This is shown through the existence of every last artwork, regardless of whether it takes the form of a painting, a performance, or a poem. Every artwork helps us become stronger, more courageous, more defiant beings.”
“Writing or saying the truth is equivalent to death, since we cannot tell the truth. It is forbidden because it hurts everyone. We never say the truth, we must lie, mostly as a result of our two needs: our need for love and cowardice.”
— Hélène Cixous, Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing
— Hélène Cixous, Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing
November 24, 2025 at 11:47 PM
“Writing or saying the truth is equivalent to death, since we cannot tell the truth. It is forbidden because it hurts everyone. We never say the truth, we must lie, mostly as a result of our two needs: our need for love and cowardice.”
— Hélène Cixous, Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing
— Hélène Cixous, Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing
“For many people, this kind of community does not exist. It has become so easy to meet our material needs through transactional means that community is now felt to be unnecessary. The social benefits of community are no longer believed to be worth the social burdens that follow from it.”
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219. Community Benefits
To be in community with others means understanding you are part of a greater whole. It means knowing other people and being known by them. It means developing lasting relationships that are both carin...
suliqyre.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:50 PM
“For many people, this kind of community does not exist. It has become so easy to meet our material needs through transactional means that community is now felt to be unnecessary. The social benefits of community are no longer believed to be worth the social burdens that follow from it.”
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“The past – as something that remains self-identical and is always to be retrieved in the same form – does not exist. Digital memory consists of indifferent – as it were, undead – points of presence. It lacks the extended horizon constituting the temporality of the living.
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November 23, 2025 at 11:55 PM
“The past – as something that remains self-identical and is always to be retrieved in the same form – does not exist. Digital memory consists of indifferent – as it were, undead – points of presence. It lacks the extended horizon constituting the temporality of the living.
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“Or at least, she thinks she connects with others. This is what most scares her. If so much of her is hidden, and so much of them is hidden, then what is really being connected? Who are the entities that are connecting? Are they real people, and is one of them her?”
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218. The Deepest Self
Everything she shows others is carefully managed. She does not allow them to see any part of her that might lower her in their eyes. Problems and blemishes are kept hidden, tucked out of sight or cove...
suliqyre.com
November 22, 2025 at 6:24 PM
“Or at least, she thinks she connects with others. This is what most scares her. If so much of her is hidden, and so much of them is hidden, then what is really being connected? Who are the entities that are connecting? Are they real people, and is one of them her?”
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“Art that plays with the idea of mechanical reproduction — the obvious example is the work of Andy Warhol — teaches us something of what it would be like to be a thing, an object.”
— Zadie Smith, “Man Versus Corpse”
— Zadie Smith, “Man Versus Corpse”
November 22, 2025 at 1:00 AM
“Art that plays with the idea of mechanical reproduction — the obvious example is the work of Andy Warhol — teaches us something of what it would be like to be a thing, an object.”
— Zadie Smith, “Man Versus Corpse”
— Zadie Smith, “Man Versus Corpse”
“To eliminate my anxiety, I need to see the attachment that's producing it and loosen myself from it. But when I'm burdened by the immense weight of the feeling, it can be incredibly difficult to do this effectively. I first need to shift my attention in order for the feeling to weaken.”
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217. Anxiety And Attention
An intense feeling of anxiety can be overwhelming. It can become almost impossible for me to remain present and attentive to what I must do in the moment when I am totally consumed by worry.
To elimin...
suliqyre.com
November 21, 2025 at 6:38 PM
“To eliminate my anxiety, I need to see the attachment that's producing it and loosen myself from it. But when I'm burdened by the immense weight of the feeling, it can be incredibly difficult to do this effectively. I first need to shift my attention in order for the feeling to weaken.”
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“There is a way to Reality in and through the soul, and there is a way to Reality in and through the world. Whether the ultimate goal can be reached by following either of these ways to the exclusion of the other is to be doubted.
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November 20, 2025 at 11:24 PM
“There is a way to Reality in and through the soul, and there is a way to Reality in and through the world. Whether the ultimate goal can be reached by following either of these ways to the exclusion of the other is to be doubted.
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“It's true that our suffering arises from our way of life, from our perspective, from the unnecessary complexity we create, and from our reactive and distracted behaviour. But these are only symptoms of the problem.”
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216. You Must Save Yourself
We want to live happily, yet we suffer. We reflect on our experience and we wonder why we must suffer. Why must life be like this? We recognize there is a problem but we do not grasp its nature. We th...
suliqyre.com
November 20, 2025 at 6:52 PM
“It's true that our suffering arises from our way of life, from our perspective, from the unnecessary complexity we create, and from our reactive and distracted behaviour. But these are only symptoms of the problem.”
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suliqyre.com/posts/you-mu...
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suliqyre.com/posts/you-mu...
“The only person who can make you more aware is you. Others can encourage your awareness, they can provide you with opportunities to see more, but it is you who must allow yourself to look.”
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“You Must Save Yourself”, etc. (216-220)
The only person who can make you more aware is you. Others can encourage your awareness, but it is you who must allow yourself to look.
suliqyre.substack.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:08 PM
“The only person who can make you more aware is you. Others can encourage your awareness, they can provide you with opportunities to see more, but it is you who must allow yourself to look.”
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suliqyre.substack.com/p/you-must-s...
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“The room had taken on an unutterable familiarity, like the truthful familiarity of dreams. And, as in dreams, what I can’t reproduce for you is the essential color of its atmosphere.
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November 19, 2025 at 1:10 AM
“The room had taken on an unutterable familiarity, like the truthful familiarity of dreams. And, as in dreams, what I can’t reproduce for you is the essential color of its atmosphere.
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“Engaging regularly in collective action requires great energy and attention. But oppressive systems often rob of us of these things. They do this by compelling unnecessary actions that physically drain us, and by manufacturing a neverending fight for survival that mentally drains us.”
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215. Collective Action
Our best efforts are often defeated by systems that are unfair and unjust. Our success is often hindered by power structures that undermine equality and promote hierarchy. Our well-being is often redu...
suliqyre.com
November 18, 2025 at 6:09 PM
“Engaging regularly in collective action requires great energy and attention. But oppressive systems often rob of us of these things. They do this by compelling unnecessary actions that physically drain us, and by manufacturing a neverending fight for survival that mentally drains us.”
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