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# Weekend Words: Gifts
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/weekend-words-gifts/
- Published: 2012-12-23T15:01:48.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:35:56.000Z
- Description: Weekend Words turns to gifts, for the obvious reasons.
- Author: Weekend Editors
- Tags: Opinion, Weekend, Weekend Words, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:51 (2012, 2013, part 1)

![Paolo Veronese, "Juno Showering Gifts on Venetia (1554–56), oil on canvas, 365 x 147 cm. Palazzo Ducale, Venice. (image via the Web Gallery of Art) (click to enlarge)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2012/12/veronese-gifts-320.jpg)

Paolo Veronese, “Juno Showering Gifts on Venetia (1554–56), oil on canvas, 365 x 147 cm. Palazzo Ducale, Venice. (image via the Web Gallery of Art) (click to enlarge)

*An exquisite corpse of apposite quotes from the Hyperallergic Weekend Editors.*

Weekend Words turns to gifts, for the obvious reasons.

> “Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.”  
>  
> **—Albert Camus**

> “The liberty of the individual is no gift of civilization. It was greatest before there was any civilization.”  
>  
> **—Sigmund Freud**

> “In this cold commodity culture  
> Where you lay your money down  
> It’s hard to even notice  
> That all this earth is hallowed ground …  
> The gift keeps moving  
> Never know where it’s going to land  
> You must stand back and let it  
> Keep on changing hands.”  
>  
> **—Bruce Cockburn, “The Gift”**

> “The most essential gift for a good writer is a built in, shock-proof shit detector. This is the writer’s radar and all great writers have it.”  
>  
> **—Ernest Hemingway, *Paris Review* interview**