A Quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Society is always trying in some way to grind us down to a single flat surface. — © Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Society is always trying in some way to grind us down to a single flat surface.
I think one thing with Sweden is that in some way the Swedish society is a very good society, almost perfect on the surface. That is something that makes the writers forced to see what is underneath the surface, because it's always something underneath the surface, of course.
We say justly that the weak person is flat, for, like all flat substances, he does not stand in the direction of his strength, that is, on his edge, but affords a convenient surface to put upon. He slides all the way through life.... But the brave man is a perfect sphere, which cannot fall on its flat side and is equally strong every way.
I am trying to find out why a subject does look so marvelous, and trying to make that sensation manifest on a flat surface.
Now is the chance for me to let go and release some new Nephilim tracks which have been constrained to the studio for some time. Trying to concentrate the work and thoughts down to a simple single objective is always a difficult practice but that's the nature of the beast... easy to find the beginning but always hard to reach the end
The hours here are flat and round, disks of gray layered one on top of the other...they move slowly, at a grind, until it seems as though they are not moving at all. They are just pressing down.
I don't mind people putting us down, because if everybody really liked us, it would be a bore. You've got to have people putting you down. It doesn't give any edge to it if everybody just falls flat on their face saying, "You're great." We enjoy some of the criticisms as well, they're quite funny; some of the clever criticisms, not the ones that don't know anything, but some of the clever ones are quite fun.
The thing about the summit region of Mount Washington, it can have areas that are flat and rolling. In those conditions, it's very difficult not to become disoriented, because it's not like you're on a face where you know what's up and what's down. You're on a flat surface. Every direction is the same in a white-out condition. And with wind speeds constantly changing direction, within a minute you have no idea where you are.
Everything from the lyrics to the production, solos to the writing - it's all democratic. At the end of the day, you know, when you're all done with the grind - which it is always an incredible grind for us to write records - I think it makes it that much more special to hear the final product.
I think we are affected so much by mythical stories and biblical stories, our society being based on the Bible - at least the old society is based on biblical terms and laws - that there's more of it in art than people realize. Sometimes it comes to the surface, but sometimes it's below the surface, but certainly, it does influence some of my movies.
I have always been concerned with painting that simultaneously insists on a flat surface and then denies it.
I've been divorced and I had to get back out there be single again and do some of that in the genuinely miserable state where you really do wonder what the hell is going on. And you feel like trying to have casual conversation with someone you don't know on the surface of the moon or something.
Training camp is a grind, and it truly is all about embracing that grind and coming out here and forgetting about the heat and working to get better every single day.
I've always said that the only thing a photograph is good at capturing faithfully is another flat surface.
In our contemporary society, one so over-inundated with imagery, it is easy to overlook the power of a single frame to change the way we look at the world, or rally disparate hearts to a single cause. Yet, ours is a society shaped by this very phenomenon.
I had to realize that you can't try to get money, support yourself, and grind doing whatchu need to do at the same time. The music is the grind. You really gotta grind. You gotta find your way around. You can't be stuck tryna get there.
Maybe an artist's position in society is different today because it's more individualistic. You're not a direct servant anymore to the patron-you're an indirect servant, or a servant with a choice, or maybe you could not even serve. It's the way you make something. You draw it, you carve it out. Later you build it up from a flat surface. There is no other way to do a sculpture - you either add or you subtract. If you don't enjoy making work, then it's bad... artwork is brutal for so many people... I like the idea of an artist as sombody who works.
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