People usually ask me, "Well, how do you plan to make a living with your art?" rather than "What is it you are doing now?" I would like to see people take the initiative and say, "Could I get together with you sometime and look at your work?"

Stuart Howland quoted by Lisa Livingston. What Would We Do Without Art? Moody Magazine. December 1984.

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mostly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreck and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.

Albert Einstein. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mostly in need of freedom; without this it goes to wreck and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.

Albert Einstein. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOTES.

[a student of John Piper's mentioned someone whose experience of loving when there was no joy led her to say, "Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing" which the student felt undermined Piper's thesis of christian hedonism. Piper responds...]

Don't jump to the conclusion that there is no joy in things that are "harsh and dreadful." There are mountain climbers who have spent sleepless nights on the faces of cliffs, have lost fingers and toes in sub-zero temperatures, and have gone through horrible misery to reach a peak. They say, "It was harsh and dreadful." But if you ask them why they do it, the answer will come back in various forms: "There is an exhilaration in the soul that feels so good it is worth all the pain."

If this is how it is with mountain climbing, cannot the same be true of love? Is it not rather an indictment of our own worldliness that we are more inclined to sense exhilaration at mountain climbing than at conquering the precipices of un-love in our own lives and in society? Yes, love is often a "harsh and dreadful" thing, but I do not see how a person who cherishes what is good and admires Jesus can help but sense a joyful exhilaration when (by grace) he is able to love another person.

John Piper. DESIRING GOD: MEDITATIONS OF A CHRISTIAN HEDONIST.

Progress?

"But that would be putting the clock back," gasped the Govenor. "Have you no idea of progress, of development?"
"I have seen them both in an egg," said Caspian. "We call it Going bad in Narnia. This [slave] trade must stop."

C.S. Lewis. THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER.

Where do my longings drive me?

We do not believe Jesus when he says there is more blessedness, more joy, more lasting pleasure in a life devoted to helping others than there is in a life devoted to our material comfort. And therefore the very longing for contentment which ought to drive us to simplicity of life and labors of love contents itself instead with the broken cisterns of prosperity and comfort.

John Piper. DESIRING GOD: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.