Suli Qyre
@suliqyre.com
Making art, writing Fragmentarium, and curating quotations for @philosophybits.com
suliqyre.com
suliqyre.com
“You obscure your “I” by speaking in a voice that pretends to come from nowhere. “The sky is blue,” you say. There is no “I” here. Your sentence claims to report an observation about the world with no reference to an observer.”
December 26, 2025 at 7:00 PM
“You obscure your “I” by speaking in a voice that pretends to come from nowhere. “The sky is blue,” you say. There is no “I” here. Your sentence claims to report an observation about the world with no reference to an observer.”
“An artwork usually does not come with an announcement or declaration that it is complete. The audience assumes the work must be complete because it is on display. But what if someone were to show a work that was purposely unfinished?”
December 25, 2025 at 7:12 PM
“An artwork usually does not come with an announcement or declaration that it is complete. The audience assumes the work must be complete because it is on display. But what if someone were to show a work that was purposely unfinished?”
“The most important thing is not to give up. You have to keep observing, absorbing everything that happens, leaving nothing out. You have to keep asking questions and pushing your investigation of yourself and the world further, without end.”
December 24, 2025 at 7:36 PM
“The most important thing is not to give up. You have to keep observing, absorbing everything that happens, leaving nothing out. You have to keep asking questions and pushing your investigation of yourself and the world further, without end.”
“Remembering is like constructing and then traveling again through a space. We are already talking about architecture. Memories are built as a city is built.”
— Umberto Eco, "Architecture and Memory"
— Umberto Eco, "Architecture and Memory"
December 23, 2025 at 11:38 PM
“Remembering is like constructing and then traveling again through a space. We are already talking about architecture. Memories are built as a city is built.”
— Umberto Eco, "Architecture and Memory"
— Umberto Eco, "Architecture and Memory"
“Our new awareness reveals that the distinctions between living beings are not nearly as clear or final as they might seem. The suffering that exists in others is also our suffering, and it can cause us to feel just as much anguish as our own attachments.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-ne...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-ne...
240. The Necessity Of Compassion
Compassionate action can be difficult and demanding, so it’s reasonable to wonder why we should want to become more compassionate. From the perspective of ordinary self-interest, perhaps the answer is...
suliqyre.com
December 23, 2025 at 7:02 PM
“Our new awareness reveals that the distinctions between living beings are not nearly as clear or final as they might seem. The suffering that exists in others is also our suffering, and it can cause us to feel just as much anguish as our own attachments.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-ne...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-ne...
“I truly cannot understand the language of my former heart. Who was that person? Petulant, hardly aware … not yet conscious of the transformation she had already undergone.
(1/2)
(1/2)
December 23, 2025 at 12:05 AM
“I truly cannot understand the language of my former heart. Who was that person? Petulant, hardly aware … not yet conscious of the transformation she had already undergone.
(1/2)
(1/2)
“Art shows us possibilities — ways of being and feeling and living that are different from our own. It shows us through photographs and films, through plays and performances, through songs and poetry. It shows us that it's possible for us to be and say and do things we did not think achievable.”
239. Finding Courage
When you see an injustice happening, you might not have the courage to speak up. The personal risk of saying something can feel too great and you don’t want to deal with the backlash. In some cases, w...
suliqyre.com
December 22, 2025 at 6:21 PM
“Art shows us possibilities — ways of being and feeling and living that are different from our own. It shows us through photographs and films, through plays and performances, through songs and poetry. It shows us that it's possible for us to be and say and do things we did not think achievable.”
“The divine eternal fullness of life can be gained only by those who have deliberately lost the partial, separative life of craving and self-interest, of egocentric thinking, feeling, wishing and acting.”
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
December 22, 2025 at 12:12 AM
“The divine eternal fullness of life can be gained only by those who have deliberately lost the partial, separative life of craving and self-interest, of egocentric thinking, feeling, wishing and acting.”
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
— Aldous Huxley, The Perennial Philosophy
“He wants precision. He wants control. He wants to function in way that is both reliable and efficient, in a way that produces guaranteed results. He wants to become a machine.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/to-bec...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/to-bec...
238. To Become A Machine
He expected an organized and productive day. He expected to do everything he had written down on his list. He expected this would be no problem at all. Provided there were no emergencies, no interrupt...
suliqyre.com
December 20, 2025 at 6:09 PM
“He wants precision. He wants control. He wants to function in way that is both reliable and efficient, in a way that produces guaranteed results. He wants to become a machine.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/to-bec...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/to-bec...
“The pleasure of the text is that moment when my body pursues its own ideas — for my body does not have the same ideas as I do.”
— Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text
— Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text
December 19, 2025 at 11:05 PM
“The pleasure of the text is that moment when my body pursues its own ideas — for my body does not have the same ideas as I do.”
— Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text
— Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of the Text
“To learn, I have to allow the text to operate on me, not merely as an instrument of language and reason, but as a record of human experience. I have to investigate the experience the text describes and consider whether I might have experienced something similar.”
Read more:
Read more:
237. Responding From Awareness
When I finish reading a provocative text, I might feel an urge to respond it with a text of my own. I want to communicate my response in words, just as the original text reached me through language. T...
suliqyre.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:25 PM
“To learn, I have to allow the text to operate on me, not merely as an instrument of language and reason, but as a record of human experience. I have to investigate the experience the text describes and consider whether I might have experienced something similar.”
Read more:
Read more:
“The moral pleasure peculiar to art is not the pleasure of approving of acts or disapproving of them. The moral pleasure in art, as well as the moral service that art performs, consists in the intelligent gratification of consciousness.”
— Susan Sontag, “On Style”
— Susan Sontag, “On Style”
December 19, 2025 at 12:15 AM
“The moral pleasure peculiar to art is not the pleasure of approving of acts or disapproving of them. The moral pleasure in art, as well as the moral service that art performs, consists in the intelligent gratification of consciousness.”
— Susan Sontag, “On Style”
— Susan Sontag, “On Style”
“We judge the world differently because our values differ. What's good for me might not be good for you. Still, there are always places where our values overlap, and this is also where our realities overlap. It is here that we must work on finding common ground.”
Read more:
Read more:
236. Our Shared Reality
When I see a beautiful sunset, I can point it out to you and know you will also enjoy it. Not only does the sunset exist for both of us, we’re also likely to judge its beauty in a similar way. But we ...
suliqyre.com
December 18, 2025 at 6:15 PM
“We judge the world differently because our values differ. What's good for me might not be good for you. Still, there are always places where our values overlap, and this is also where our realities overlap. It is here that we must work on finding common ground.”
Read more:
Read more:
“If we cannot even agree on what is a fact or what is true, then we might not be able to make any progress. Here, it can feel like we're living in two different realities. It can feel like I cannot bring you to see the world as I do and you cannot bring me to see it as you do.”
Read more:
Read more:
“Our Shared Reality”, etc. (236-240)
A shared reality is not guaranteed, but rather something we must continuously create with others.
suliqyre.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 8:14 PM
“If we cannot even agree on what is a fact or what is true, then we might not be able to make any progress. Here, it can feel like we're living in two different realities. It can feel like I cannot bring you to see the world as I do and you cannot bring me to see it as you do.”
Read more:
Read more:
“I could go on and on like this for hours, talking about every imaginable aspect of my experience, and still I would never fully describe the experience itself. An unlimited number of words in any combination would still fail to capture the whole of it.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-li...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-li...
235. The Limits Of Language
I’m standing before a great work of art, an unquestionable masterpiece. I cannot recall the name of the painting or the artist. I could read the small card beside the frame to get this information but...
suliqyre.com
December 16, 2025 at 6:51 PM
“I could go on and on like this for hours, talking about every imaginable aspect of my experience, and still I would never fully describe the experience itself. An unlimited number of words in any combination would still fail to capture the whole of it.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-li...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/the-li...
“Surely every one realizes, at some point along the way, that he is capable of living a far better life than the one he has chosen. What stays him, usually, is the fear of the sacrifices involved.
(1/2)
(1/2)
December 16, 2025 at 12:01 AM
“Surely every one realizes, at some point along the way, that he is capable of living a far better life than the one he has chosen. What stays him, usually, is the fear of the sacrifices involved.
(1/2)
(1/2)
“To break free from our attachments to distinction and permanence is to see these features of our experience as no more or less real than their opposites. It is to accept that our experience is profoundly paradoxical and contradictory in all of its facets.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/two-il...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/two-il...
234. Two Illusions
We want to know how the world works because such knowledge is practically useful. When we know how things work we become more capable of manipulating the world to meet our material needs. The unquesti...
suliqyre.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:49 PM
“To break free from our attachments to distinction and permanence is to see these features of our experience as no more or less real than their opposites. It is to accept that our experience is profoundly paradoxical and contradictory in all of its facets.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/two-il...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/two-il...
“This world wants to be childish in order to make us believe that the adults are elsewhere, in the “real” world, and to conceal the fact that true childishness is everywhere
(1/2)
(1/2)
December 15, 2025 at 12:50 AM
“This world wants to be childish in order to make us believe that the adults are elsewhere, in the “real” world, and to conceal the fact that true childishness is everywhere
(1/2)
(1/2)
“To settle is not the worst thing, she thinks. The worst thing would be to abandon her ideals entirely. To stop working towards something better just because she knows she isn't likely to get all the way there.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/never-...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/never-...
233. Never Settle Down
She knows she’ll eventually have to settle. She knows this because it’s what always happens. Her thoughts get so far ahead of her that she imagines herself having a future so perfect and beautiful and...
suliqyre.com
December 13, 2025 at 6:31 PM
“To settle is not the worst thing, she thinks. The worst thing would be to abandon her ideals entirely. To stop working towards something better just because she knows she isn't likely to get all the way there.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/never-...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/never-...
“And I? I drink, I burn, I gather dreams. And sometimes I tell a story. Because Promethea asks me for a bowl of words before she goes to sleep.”
— Hélène Cixous, The Book of Promethea
— Hélène Cixous, The Book of Promethea
December 12, 2025 at 11:38 PM
“And I? I drink, I burn, I gather dreams. And sometimes I tell a story. Because Promethea asks me for a bowl of words before she goes to sleep.”
— Hélène Cixous, The Book of Promethea
— Hélène Cixous, The Book of Promethea
“Concentrating our attention on the problem at the highest levels leaves us with little of it for anything else. We become completely distracted, and our actions become scattered and ineffective. We end up stuck, reduced to mere spectators watching a distant story unfold.”
Read more:
Read more:
232. The Spectacle Consumes Us
The spectacle consumes our attention. We see major events happening around us and we cannot look away. The events themselves might not impact us directly, but we know they will eventually produce prob...
suliqyre.com
December 12, 2025 at 7:05 PM
“Concentrating our attention on the problem at the highest levels leaves us with little of it for anything else. We become completely distracted, and our actions become scattered and ineffective. We end up stuck, reduced to mere spectators watching a distant story unfold.”
Read more:
Read more:
“The [literary] canon is not a list. Though from time to time the canon presents itself as a paradigm, this is merely a flattened representation of a complex system, of a rhizome, of a syntagm, or simply of an abstract set of interrelations, ...
(1/2)
(1/2)
December 11, 2025 at 11:46 PM
“The [literary] canon is not a list. Though from time to time the canon presents itself as a paradigm, this is merely a flattened representation of a complex system, of a rhizome, of a syntagm, or simply of an abstract set of interrelations, ...
(1/2)
(1/2)
“I must allow the sources of suffering to exist, while also becoming liberated from the suffering they can produce. The only way to do this is to alter my relationship with the sources. I cannot allow myself to remain attached to them.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/libera...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/libera...
231. Liberation From Suffering
To become free of suffering, I first need to see how it originates. But this is not as straightforward as it might seem. I cannot simply understand rationally what it means for suffering to arise, in ...
suliqyre.com
December 11, 2025 at 6:41 PM
“I must allow the sources of suffering to exist, while also becoming liberated from the suffering they can produce. The only way to do this is to alter my relationship with the sources. I cannot allow myself to remain attached to them.”
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/libera...
Read more:
suliqyre.com/posts/libera...
“To become free of suffering, I first need to see how it originates. But this is not as straightforward as it might seem. I cannot simply understand rationally what it means for suffering to arise, in the words of my language.”
Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/liberation...
Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/liberation...
“Liberation From Suffering”, etc. (231-235)
I must allow the sources of suffering to exist, while also becoming liberated from the suffering they can produce.
suliqyre.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 8:12 PM
“To become free of suffering, I first need to see how it originates. But this is not as straightforward as it might seem. I cannot simply understand rationally what it means for suffering to arise, in the words of my language.”
Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/liberation...
Read more:
suliqyre.substack.com/p/liberation...
“The older I grow and the more I abandon myself to God’s will, the less I value intelligence that wants to know and will that wants to do; and as the only element of salvation I recognize faith, which can wait patiently, without asking too many questions.”
— Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
— Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
December 10, 2025 at 12:20 AM
“The older I grow and the more I abandon myself to God’s will, the less I value intelligence that wants to know and will that wants to do; and as the only element of salvation I recognize faith, which can wait patiently, without asking too many questions.”
— Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose
— Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose