“Everything that needs to be said has already been said. But, since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” – Andre Gide
In a carefully worded statement
Facts were twisted and obscured
The lines crossed were blurred
And both sides eventually demurred
One step forward, two steps back
Holding hands, stepping into a hole
A status quo must be maintained
Until someone scores an own goal
You are a human being, not a human doing.
Ryan Holiday
A master manipulator
And a dreadful instigator
Loving the illusion
Causing most confusion
Winning a war of the word
Spinning til the vision is blurred
A clown interrogator
A comforting instigator
The script premeditated
Defences incinerated
Winning is all that matters
For those madder than hatters
You’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behaviour.
J.D. Salinger
A world of wonderland made of many pleasures
A paradise at fingertips, packed with all the treasures
The poverty of the mind, empty of all previous worries
All are sleeping soundly as death towards us hurries
To die at sixty or at eighty is harder than at ten or at thirty. Habituation to life, there’s the rub. For life is a vice – the greatest one of all. Which explains why we have so much difficulty ridding ourselves of it.
Emil Cioran
Too much, and thinking is affected
The past is a time still being perfected
Forever with us as a problem somehow
Living in the past instead of the now
Humanity’s state of mind has been distorted by its own bloody history.
Liu Cixin, The Dark Forest
Your mindless, meaningless sympathy
Does nothing for those in need
A charitable chunk of donations
Was never seen to stop the bleed
Thoughts and prayers, those empty words
Won’t disturb your life serene
Never stopped to consider your action
Won’t make your dirty hands clean
For every heartstring, there’s a scam
So that we may never be as one
The status quo has removed benevolence
And so nothing ever gets done
A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.
Saul Bellow
Struggling flowers reaching up high
Searching for light in the grey sky
Meekly accepting and no question why
Quiet as a mouse skittering away
Always saying something yet nothing to say
Hard to get and refusing to play
A uniform mask and a poker face
Friendless in this friendly place
Self-excluded from any competitive race
One day to shine, to rise up high
Their blinding light will pierce the sky
Leaving everyone else to wonder why
A tragedy, when a mature mind and a romantic heart are in the same body.
Nizar Qabbani
Always thinking about the next life
As if that will be the roses you expect
Forget the work, turn down the effort
It’s an internal rejection that you accept
There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, or dragging out some false, shallow degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.
Oscar Wilde
Everyday
Are you moving close to your duty
Or moving away?
Knowing
What you value and what you’re doing
Is growing
Moored
To firmament and remaining steady
For your reward
Never argue with someone whose TV is bigger than their bookshelf.
Emilia Clarke
A bond recognised on first meeting
A tortured mind on the brink of defeat
Birds of a feather are caught in one net
Unable to understand the reward of retreat
Burning brightly before burning out
A load shot way too premature
Always fighting for what is right
Even when that right is so unsure
Whether as messiah, or as refugee, I can always use what resources I have to try and live a happy life.
Luo Ji, The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin
Now that news is entertainment
There’s nothing worth knowing
It’s there to serve a purpose
To prevent your knowledge growing
A movie star’s divorce
Is more newsworthy than war
When the injured are at home
And understand what the fighting is for
The rug is getting bigger
Where all the garbage is brushed
Tricked to believe in freedom
Whilst watching it being crushed
We need each other to become ourselves.
Abraham Kaplan
1994ever 