Attractive Fixed Point

Famous quotes containing the words attractive, fixed and/or point:

    “One of the most attractive of those ancient books that I have met with is The Laws of Menu.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “It is the fixed that horrifies us, the fixed that assails us with the tremendous force of mindlessness. The fixed is a Mason jar, and we can’t beat it open. ...The fixed is a world without fire--dead flint, dead tinder, and nowhere a spark. It is motion without direction, force without power, the aimless procession of caterpillars round the rim of a vase, and I hate it because at any moment I myself might step to that charmed and glistening thread.”
    —Annie Dillard (b. 1945)

    “For pain is perhaps but a violent pleasure? Who could determine the point where pleasure becomes pain, where pain is still a pleasure? Is not the utmost brightness of the ideal world soothing to us, while the lightest shadows of the physical world annoy?”
    —HonorĂ© De Balzac (1799–1850)