Extraordinary Discourse 163


Speaking Out And Up





As he well knew, man's voice is an all-powerful charm.
of Jesus, from Kazantzakis's
The Last Temptation



Alexander Chen reminisces about studying with
the inimitable Annie Dillard, who echoes Mark Twain’s contention that “all
ideas are second-hand, consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million
outside sources,” Alexander Graham Bell’s assertion that "our most
original compositions are composed exclusively of expressions derived from
others,” and young Virginia Woolf’s observation that "all the Arts …
imitate as far as they can the one great truth that all can see.”
thanks to Maria Popova,
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