INFP Introverts: The 64-Color Box

“Inability to love is the central problem, because that inability masks a certain terror. And that terror is the terror of being touched. And if you can’t be touched, you can’t be changed. And if you can’t be changed, you can’t be alive.” —James Baldwin

“Cynics build no bridges; they make no discoveries; no gaps are spanned by them. Cynics may pride themselves in being ‘realistic’ in their approach but progress and the onward march of civilization demand an inspiration and motivation that cynicism never affords.” —Paul L. McKay

“It is not okay in this culture to talk to friends about causes you believe in, much less to ask them to join in. It’s okay to blast perfect strangers with crass messages every hour of the day, but it’s a tinge embarrassing, it brings up some shyness, it seems an intrusion, it risks rejection to share real heartfelt commitments. It’s easier to share our cynicism with strangers than our dreams with friends. One is not allowed in the modern culture to speak about love except in the most romantic and trivial sense of the word. The deepest difference between optimists and pessimists is their position in the debate about whether human beings are able to operate collectively from a basis of love. Seek out and trust in the best human instincts in yourself and in everyone. Listen to the cynicism around you and pity those who believe it, but don’t believe it yourself.” —Dana Meadows

“To learn and to love, that is what we are here for. Any activity which is not grounded in one of these two is a waste of time.” —Anne Rice

Anguish in Connecticut
June 6, 2008, AP - Los Angeles Times

Hartford, Conn. - A 78-year-old man is tossed like a rag doll in a hit-and-run and lies motionless on a busy street as car after car goes by. Pedestrians gawk but appear to do nothing. One driver stops briefly, then pulls back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circles the victim, then zips away. The chilling scene—captured on video by a streetlight surveillance camera—has touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford. “We no longer have a moral compass,” Hartford Police Chief Daryl Roberts said. “We have no regard for each other.”

“Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don’t dare to express themselves as we did. The real damage is done by those millions who want to ‘survive’—the honest men who just want to be left in peace. Those who don’t want their little lives disturbed by anything bigger than themselves. Those with no sides and no causes. Those who won’t take measure of their own strength, for fear of antagonizing their own weakness. Those who don’t like to make waves—or enemies. Those for whom freedom, honor, truth, and principles are only literature. Those who live small, mate small, die small. It’s the reductionist approach to life: if you keep it small, you’ll keep it under control. If you don’t make any noise, the bogeyman won’t find you. But it’s all an illusion, because they die too, those people who roll up their spirits into tiny little balls so as to be safe. Safe?! From what? Life is always on the edge of death; narrow streets lead to the same place as wide avenues, and a little candle burns itself out just like a flaming torch does. I choose my own way to burn.” —Sophie Scholl

Continue reading “Sophie Scholl and the White Rose”

At the age of 21, Sophie Scholl was guillotined by the Nazis for her involvement in The White Rose.

“It might sound kind of esoteric, but I think wings are sexy. I bet if you walked outside and looked carefully at the people around you, you could immediately tell who has wings and who doesn’t. Wings are the essence of a person and those who have them have qualities that I find sexy: confidence, forward motion, joy, desire and vibrancy. Wings are a life force and people with wings want to participate in life and go beyond their limitations. When you have wings, you want to go for it, no matter how crappy things might seem. The most appealing people to me are those who go into uncharted territory. Sometimes my wings are folded, but I think I have them.” —Julia Roberts

“When a person runs their life in hate and fear, the thing they fear most is the person who runs theirs in love and kindness.”

“We live in a society where a superficial definition of strength often takes the cake. Those who are physically strong, emotionally unfeeling, distanced, and stoic are often seen as the mightiest. Those who are vulnerable, feeling—dare I say human—are often seen as weak.”

“And let me tell you something I’ve never told a soul. My grandmother had a very interesting theory; she said that each of us is born with a box of matches inside us but we can’t strike them all by ourselves…we need oxygen and a candle to help. In this case, the oxygen, for example, would come from the breath of the person you love; the candle could be any kind of food, music, caress, word or sound that engenders the explosion that lights one of the matches. For a moment, we are dazzled by an intense emotion. A pleasant warmth grows within us, fading slowly as time goes by, until a new explosion comes along to revive it. Each person has to discover what will set off those explosions in order to live, since the combustion that occurs when one of them is ignited is what nourishes the soul. That fire, in short, is its food. If one doesn’t find out in time what will set off these explosions, the box of matches dampens, and not a single match will ever be lit.

“If that happens, the soul flees from the body and goes to wander among the deepest shades, trying in vain to find food to nourish itself, unaware that only the body it left behind, cold and defenceless, is capable of providing that food. […] That’s why it’s important to keep your distance from people who have frigid breath. Just their presence can put out the most intense fire, with results we’re familiar with. If we stay a good distance away from those people, it’s easier to protect ourselves from being extinguished. […] You must, of course, take care to light the matches one at a time. If a powerful emotion should ignite them all at once they would provide a splendour so dazzling that it would illuminate far beyond what we can normally see; and then a brilliant tunnel would appear before our eyes, revealing the path we forgot the moment we were born, and summoning us to regain the divine origin we had lost. The soul ever longs to return to the place from which it came, leaving the body lifeless…”

—Laura Esquivel, “Like Water for Chocolate”

“Cynics are only happy in making the world as barren for others as they have made it for themselves.” —George Meredith

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round heads in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And, while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.” —Jack Kerouac

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” —Richard Bullock

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” —George Bernard Shaw

“No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.” —Helen Keller

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” —Eleanor Roosevelt

“Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.” —Jack Kerouac

“Life is like a box of crayons. Most people are the 8-color boxes, but what I’m really looking for is the 64-color box with the sharpener on the back. I fancy myself to be a 64-color box, though I’ve got a few missing. It’s okay, though, because I’ve got some more vibrant colors like periwinkle at my disposal. I have a bit of a problem, though, in that I only seem to meet the 8-color boxes. Does anyone else have that problem? I mean there are so many different colors of life, of feeling, of articulation. So, when I meet someone who’s an 8-color type I’m like, ‘Hey girl, magenta!’ and she’s like, ‘Oh, you mean purple!’ and she goes off on her purple thing, and I’m like, ‘No…I want magenta!’” —John Mayer

“Cafe Bastille. I strike up a conversation but there seems to be no real interest. Words are spoken but elicit no exchange. I let it drop. The smell of food, the noise of the kitchen, the colors of the bottles in back of the bar, the polished glasses; on the walls, Picasso, Toulouse Latrec—fullness of the senses but not a word of expression. The void in the middle of the feast. Or the appearance of the feast. Communion withheld. I sometimes run into people who have no interest in other people or conversation. I can’t see where they are at, if they are at anything. If you are living in the country, I can understand this. You go down to the creek, take a slow walk, contemplate. But the city is people. If you have no interest in people, you have no interest in anything. Well, maybe art, architecture, music, food. But it is conversation, a dialog, that ties it together, declares its value. So when I run into someone who has no interest in conversation, it seems like I have run into the living dead. They are walking about, doing a job, but they are really in the grave.” —Louis Martin

“The most important things are the hardest things to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them—words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they’re brought out. But it’s more than that, isn’t it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you’ve said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried while you were saying it.  That’s the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for want of a teller but for want of an understanding ear.” —Stephen King

“Loneliness is the deal. Loneliness is the last great taboo. If we don’t accept loneliness, then capitalism wins hands down. Because capitalism is all about trying to convince people that you can distract yourself, that you can make it better. And it ain’t true.” —Tilda Swinton

“On average, for every year of life you have, it takes about two years to understand exactly what happened. Most people never catch up and die confused. That’s why hermits sit on top of mountains: they’re cutting down their input of experiences, so that their understanding can catch up.” —Guy Browning

“Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist.” —Thomas Disch

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” —Jonathan Swift

“The souls of people, on their way to earth-life, pass through a room full of lights. Each takes a taper—often only a spark—to guide it in the dim country of this world. But some souls, by rare fortune, are detained longer—and have time to grab a handful of tapers, which they weave into a torch. These are the torch-bearers of humanity—its poets, seers, and saints, who lead and lift the race out of darkness, toward the light. They are the law-givers and saviors, the light-bringers, way-showers and truth-tellers and, without them, humanity would lose its way in the dark.” —Plato