We are often told that the poor are grateful for charity. Some of them are, no doubt, but the best amongst the poor are never grateful. They are ungrateful, discontented, disobedient, and rebellious. They are quite right to be so. Charity they feel to be a ridiculously inadequate mode of partial restitution, or a sentimental dole, usually accompanied by some impertinent attempt on the part of the sentimentalist to tyrannise over their private lives. Why should they be grateful for the crumbs that fall from the rich man’s table? They should be seated at the board, and are beginning to know it. As for being discontented, a man who would not be discontented with such surroundings and such a low mode of life would be a perfect brute. Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion. Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less. For a town or country labourer to practise thrift would be absolutely immoral. Man should not be ready to show that he can live like a badly-fed animal. He should decline to live like that, and should either steal or go on the rates, which is considered by many to be a form of stealing. As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg. No: a poor man who is ungrateful, unthrifty, discontented, and rebellious, is probably a real personality, and has much in him. He is at any rate a healthy protest.

— Oscar Wilde, "The Soul of Man Under Socialism"

Jonathan Koch（American）

Magnolia oil on linen over panel via

went horribly. I shall now retire to the cavernous mountains, see you in three or four winters

alright hairdresser appointment scheduled. no turning back now because I prepaid

Norman Lindsay (1879-1969) - Shipwreck with Sirens

good sensations can sometimes be extreme, and i know i personally enjoy a good few of those, so i wanted to know which of these types of pain are the most commonly enjoyed :)

basically my question is. am i such a touch deprived weirdo that i'll enjoy fucked up sensations no one else likes or am i normal

Abdur Rahman Chughtai aka अब्दुर रहमान चुगताई (Pakistani, 1897-1975, b. Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan) - Muraqabat-e-Husn (Guarded Beauty) Paintings: Watercolors, Ink on Paper, Private Collections

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

Various photographs of Ukrainian women in men's folkwear.

hi guys, i have a huge favor to ask. my friend and roommate Tamile is set to graduate this May, but due to an unpaid fee, that may not end up happening. the total is $664, and i have full faith that we can help her reach that goal.

please spread this post around and donate if you can!! will be reblogging with updates as we approach our goal ♥️

c: $tamiibizzle

That's just how it is in Chicago, red-carpet ready!

9am on a friday for a silly corpo call! why!

as much as I love looking at beautiful women I am also getting the creeping suspicion that it's less to do with them being effortlessly gorgeous and rather there's something rotten in the corporate america

help the women in my marketing meeting are so intimidatingly hot I can't speak

[The dominant feature of the stinging nettle is obviously its ability to sting; hence it is often used for illnesses associated with colds such as fevers, coughs and rheumatism. For example, in Vologda province an infusion of the leaves of the common nettle (Urtica dioica) was used for a fever, and of the seeds as cough medicine, while rheumatic patients were beaten with fresh plants on their joints [Ivanitskii 1890: 153]. In Ukraine people who suffered rheumatic pain would take steam baths and use switches made of nettles, or drink the flower heads infused in vodka, while juvenile patients were beaten with the fresh stems [Gornitskii 1887:174]. The plant also had prophylactic functions: “Dig up some nettle roots, dry them, pound and sieve them, then rub them on your face, hands and feet, and they won’t be cold” [Zabylin 1996: 424, 430]. In Kazan’ province a nettle root decoction was drunk for fever [Krylov 1882: 32]. In Novgorod province nettle decoction was a medicine for a cough with catarrh (Toren 1996: 161).]

– Name – Text – Ritual: The Role of Plant Characteristics in Slavic Folk Medicine by Valeria B. Kolosova | Zielnik, czyli Atlas roślin leczniczych, znachodzących się w Kneippa “Aptece domowej”, 1894.

[ A well-known and often repeated way of treating rheumatic pains is to cover yourself with fresh, stinging nettle leaves. During my workshops intended for families with children, I have frequently witnessed a situation when parents kept children from crying, explaining to them that if they are burnt with nettles now it will prevent them from joint pain in the future.] 

– Plants, Women, Magic. Contemporary Polish (Kuyavian) Folklore Based on Herbal Medicine by Sara Orzechowska | Atlas państwa roślinnego by Willkomm Moritz, 1900

it's 9am in chicago why do you look red carpet ready and also divine. I am here on this call eating my bowl of bigos

help the women in my marketing meeting are so intimidatingly hot I can't speak

help the women in my marketing meeting are so intimidatingly hot I can't speak

hope you like it! the more local and loved the apples the better the cake, that's for sure.

With thanks to @slavicafire for introducing me to szarlotka. ❤️

(Definitely happening later this year with local & homegrown apples.)