quotes + found writing

Clay Shirky has an incredible article about the Newspaper industry failing to come to terms with its own demise. Gems of wisdom abound throughout, but I found this particularly striking:

The dance basically means to do simple weird movements with your feet, hips and body (kinda like speaking in tongues, in dancing). It makes sense only to the dancer who is doing it at the moment. A good example is James Brown.

— Sonny Watson’s Dance History

ah. well, it reminds me of when i get that rush in my chest, as if a giant wave of water and oxygen and possibility were moving through me, connecting me to the past, the future, and other beings.

— Sasha

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.

— Robert F. Kennedy

It’s more rewarding biking through a crowded street rather sitting in a padded cyclo. Though both are surely interesting.

It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth.

— John Locke

For an earthquake this size, every single sand grain on the planet dances to the music of those seismic waves. You may not be able to feel them, but the entire planet is rung like a bell.

— Ross Stein, Calif. Earthquake Rang Planet ‘Like a Bell’