Desire’s most seductive promise is not pleasure but change, not that you might possess your object but that you might become the one who belongs with it.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 2 (Spring 1999)
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Quotations by:
Richardson, James
Our lives get complicated because complexity is so much simpler than simplicity.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 7 (Spring 1999)
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Everyone loves the Revolution. We only disagree on whether it has occurred.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 8 (Spring 1999)
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The wound hurts less than your desire to wound me.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 18 (Spring 1999)
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Writing a book is like doing a huge jigsaw puzzle, unendurably slow at first, almost self-propelled at the end. Actually, it’s more like doing a puzzle from a box in which several puzzles have been mixed. Starting out, you can’t tell whether a piece belongs to the puzzle at hand, or one you’ve already done, or will do in ten years, or will never do.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 25 (Spring 1999)
(Source)
You would think we would envy only what we love, for being loveable. But no, we envy those the world loves, because we care less for being loveable than being loved.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 37 (Spring 1999)
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A faith is dead when no one can think of a heresy.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 40 (Spring 1999)
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Despair says It’s all the same. Happiness knows there are even a thousand Despairs.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 50 (Spring 1999)
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The world is not what anyone wished for, but it’s what everyone wished for.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, #11 (Spring 1999)
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So many times I’ve made myself stupid with the fear of being outsmarted.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, #17 (Spring 1999)
(Source)
Think of all the smart people who are made stupid by flaws of character. The finest watch isn’t fine long when used as a hammer.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, #19 (Spring 1999)
The mistakes I made from weakness do not embarrass me nearly so much as those I made insisting on my strength.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, #27 (Spring 1999)
(Source)
Truth is like the flu. I fight it off, but it changes in other bodies and returns in a form to which I am not immune.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, #49 (Spring 1999)
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There are silences harder to take back than words.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 3 (Spring 1999)
(Source)
The man who sticks to his plan will become what he used to want to be.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays, #349 (2001)
Harder to laugh at the comedy if it’s about you, harder to cry at the tragedy if it isn’t.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)
Even at the movies, we laugh together, we weep alone.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)
Every life is allocated one hundred seconds of genius. They might be enough, if we could just be sure which ones they are.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)
Laziness is the sin most willingly confessed to, since it implies talents greater than have yet appeared.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)
When my friend does something stupid, he is just my friend doing something stupid. When I do something stupid, I have deeply betrayed myself.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)
Back then I wanted to be right about my estimate of my abilities. Now I want to be wrong.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001)
The cynic suffers the form of faith without love. Incredulity is his piety.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001) # 16
I sell my time to get enough money to buy it back.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays (2001) #151
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There are crimes I don’t commit mainly because I don’t want to find out I could.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays #124 (2001)
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You’ve never said anything as stupid as what people thought you said.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 5 (2001)
The road reaches every place, the short cut only one.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 1 (2001)
Those who demand consideration for their sacrifices were making investments, not sacrifices.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 2 (2001)
Despair says, I cannot lift that weight. Happiness says, I do not have to.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 4 (2001)
If a couple could see themselves twenty years later they might not recognize their love, but they would recognize their argument.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 20 (2001)
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All stones are broken stones.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 23 (2001)
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Of all the ways to avoid living, perfect discipline is the most admired.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 24 (2001)
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Value yourself according to the burdens you carry, and you will find everything a burden.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 52 (2001)
Patience is not very different from courage. It just takes longer.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 54 (2001)
God help my neighbors if I loved them as I love myself.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 64 (2001)
See Matthew 22:36-40.
The great consolation of righteousness is never having to worry whether you’re a bore.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, # 85 (2001)
A belief is a question we have put aside so we can get on with what we believe we have to do.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, #100 (2001)
The worst part of fear is not knowing what to do. And often you have only to ask What would I do if I were not afraid? to know what to do, and do it, and not be afraid.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, #121 (2001)
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To think yourself incapable of crime is one failure of the imagination. To think yourself capable of all crimes is another.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, #122 (2001)
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The best way to know our faults is to notice which ones you accuse others of.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, #195 (2001)
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What you fear to believe, your children will believe.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, #340 (2001)
Why would we worry what others think of us if their opinions did not change us?
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, #387 (2001)
The mind is like a well-endowed museum, only a small fraction of its holdings on view at any one time.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, #407 (2001)
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If you do everything for one reason, then all you have done will become meaningless when the reason does.
James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten-Second Essays, #41 (2001)