Brain Food

This page is where I come to nourish my mind with favorite quotes, expressions, words, and concepts.

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Quotes I Revisit:

“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.” Satan… well Satan in John Milton’s Paradise Lost

“The best way to criticize something is to make [it] better.” Author Kevin Kelly*

“You’re always where you leave yourself.” Unknown Source

“From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them, and that is eternity.” Edgar Munch

“To love you was to hand you a gun, and have you aim it at my heart, and pray you never pull the trigger.” Unknown Source

“I want to have so much light the plants grow towards me.” Adapted from Unknown Source

“I’m not mad at myself for giving my love to the wrong people; they probably needed it the most.” Unknown Source

“Shared joy, is joy doubled. Shared sorrow, is sorrow halved.” Adapted from Swedish Proverb.

“Rains falls on everyone.” King the Land (2023 K-Drama)

Under-Appreciated Expressions:

  1. “Like smoking on the Hindenburg…”
  2. “Like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic…”

  3. “Excellent use of free will.”

  4. “Please don’t. Hesitate to ask.”

  5. “Hey train wreck, this isn’t your station.”
  6. Veni, vidi, vici (came, saw, conquered)
  7. Small potatoes

Under-Used Words:

  1. Apropos
  2. Thespians
  3. Combobulated
  4. Piste
  5. Chuffed

Misc.:

Oronym: a phrase or word that sounds like another phrase or word with a different meaning. My favorite example of this is in the Eiffel 65 song “Blue.”

Mondegreen: a misinterpreted word or phrase that results from mishearing lyrics. My favorite example of this is in the Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, “Blinded By The Light.”

Absolute adjectives: perfect, total, extinct, alive, whole, empty, infinite and inevitable

Misogi: the practice of doing one defining thing, something challenging and meaningful, for each year of your life

Zeugma: e.g. “…went home in a flood of tears and a sedan-chair.” Charles Dickens.

Rhetorical Anaphora: strategic repetition (e.g. “I have a dream…”)

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Fermi Paradox

*I’m not familiar with Kevin Kelly’s work, but I liked this bit of advice

Misc.:

Alecto: one of the three Furies from Greek and Roman mythology (she is a character in Virgil’s Aeneid)

Ophidia: the biological suborder of snakes

Hasp: the name for that metal strap with a slot on doors to chest and cabinets etc. that you usually use with a padlock

Moonbow: the moon can create rainbows too!

Femida: the Greek goddess usually representing legislation that is blindfolded and holding scales