In 1940, Gödel emigrated to the United States (via the Trans-Siberian Railway and Japan) to escape Nazi persecution after the Anschluss. He joined the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, where he became a permanent member in 1946 and a professor in 1953.There he formed a close friendship with Albert Einstein. The two took long walks together almost daily; Einstein reportedly said he came to the IAS mainly for the company of Gödel. Gödel became a U.S. citizen in 1948 (famously pointing out a potential “loophole” in the Constitution during his exam that could allow dictatorship).
"I'm not interested in writing short stories. Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing."
~ Cormac McCarthy
Laughter is anti-inflammatory. Crying is regulating. Hugging is immunoprotective. Singing is vagal toning. Dancing is neurogenic.
Joy is a biological necessity.
"The only way to survive such shitty times, if you ask me, is to write and read big, fat books (...) You know what Lenin did, in 1915, when World War I exploded? He went to Switzerland and started to read Hegel."
- Slavoj Žižek
“We are asked to always dedicate our actions and our lives to Nuit in Liber Legis. This means that whatever we do, it should have the highest spiritual motive… Magick depends on the right use of this mysterious life-force.”
— Soror Meral (Phyllis Seckler)
“Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love! I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.”
“Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.”
— The Book of the Law, 1:12-13, 2:20