The Inner Valley

"Just as I do not exist without the world, I am not myself without transcendence. … I stand before transcendence, which does not occur to me as existing in the world of phenomenal things but speaks to me as possible – speaks to me in the voice of whatever exists, and most decidedly in that of my self-being. The transcendence before which I stand is the measure of my own depth." ******* ✎ Karl Jaspers (Oldenburg, German Empire, 23 February 1883 - Basel, Switzerland, 26 February 1969) ◙ Artwork: Caspar David Friedrich

I t’s distance that makes mountains mountains. Looked at closely, they start to resemble me. Vast panoramas stop people in their tracks and make them conscious of the engulfing distances. Those very distances make people the people they are. Yet people can also contain distances inside themselves, which is why they go on yearning… They soon find they’re just places violated by distances, and no longer observed. They have then become scenery. ******* ✎ Shuntaro  Tanikawa (Tokyo, Japan, 15 December 1931) ◙  Artwork: Daniel O'Neill