Her mind lives tidily, apart
From cold and noise and pain,
And bolts the door against her heart,
Out wailing in the rain.
Quotations about:
insulation
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
The walls of books around me, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its dangers. I hated to get up.
Ross Macdonald (1915-1983) American-Canadian author [pseud. of Kenneth Millar]
The Chill, ch. 8 (Lew Archer) (1963)
(Source)
Often misquoted in the third person ("The walls of books around him ...")
Why weren’t these problems obvious to the Maya kings, who could surely see their forests vanishing and their hills becoming eroded? Part of the reason was that the kings were able to insulate themselves from problems afflicting the rest of society. By extracting wealth from commoners, they could remain well fed while everyone else was slowly starving. What’s more, the kings were occupied with their own power struggles. They had to concentrate on fighting one another and keeping up their images through ostentatious displays of wealth. By insulating themselves in the short run from the problems of society, the elite merely bought themselves the privilege of being among the last to starve.
Jared Diamond (b. 1937) American geographer, historian, ornithologist, author
“The Ends of the World as We Know Them,” New York Times (1 Jan 2005)
(Source)
A blueprint for disaster in any society is when the elite are capable of insulating themselves.
Jared Diamond (b. 1937) American geographer, historian, ornithologist, author
“Choosing Success,” interview by Catherine Sepp, National Review (30 Jun 2005)
(Source)