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April 30, 2010

the intellect

There is none more knowledgeable than the intellect, and none more ignorant, for intellect never ceases acquiring. Hence it is the knowing one whose knowledge is not known and the ignorant one whose ignorance has no end.

Ibn Arabi - Futuhat

Posted by amin at 5:10 AM

April 29, 2010

the achievement of stillness

I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos. A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm. I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.

Saul Bellow

Posted by amin at 9:07 AM

April 8, 2010

legal interpretation

Legal interpretation takes place in a field of pain and death. This is true in several senses. Legal interpretive acts signal and occasion the imposition of violence upon others: A judge articulates her understanding of a text, and as a result, somebody loses his freedom, his property, his children, even his life. Interpretations in law also constitute justifications for violence which has already occurred or which is about to occur. When interpreters have finished their work, they frequently leave behind victims whose lives have been torn apart by these organized, social practices of violence. Neither legal interpretation nor the violence it occasions may be properly understood apart from one another.

Robert Cover

Posted by amin at 7:57 AM

April 4, 2010

I am bound to live by the light that I have

I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.

Lincoln

Posted by amin at 6:58 AM