Where do one's fears come from? 

Where do they shape themselves? 

Where do they hide before coming out into the open?

 

Ownership is not limited to material things. 

It can also apply to points of view. 

Once we take ownership of an idea — whether it’s about politics or sports — what do we do? 

We love it perhaps more than we should. We prize it more than it is worth. 

And most frequently, we have trouble letting go of it because we can’t stand the idea of its loss.

 What are we left with then? 

An ideology — rigid and unyielding.

 

And although I have seen nothing but black crows in my life, it doesn't mean that there's no such thing as a white crow. 

Both for a philosopher and for a scientist it can be important not to reject the possibility of finding a white crow. 

You might almost say that hunting for 'the white crow' is science's principal task.

 

Because we have for millenia made moral, aesthetic, religious demands on the world, looked upon it with blind desire, passion or fear, and abandoned ourselves to the bad habits of illogical thinking, this world has gradually become so marvelously variegated, frightful, meaningful, soulful, it has acquired color

 - but we have been the colorists: 

it is the human intellect that has made appearances appear 

and transported its erroneous basic conceptions into things

 

Anyone who fights for the future, lives in it today.

 

The best consolation in misfortune or affliction of any kind will be the thought of other people who are in a still worse plight than yourself; 

and this is a form of consolation open to every one.

 But what an awful fate this means for mankind as a whole!

 We are like lambs in a field,

 disporting themselves under the eye of the butcher, 

who chooses out first one and then another for his prey.

 

I don’t know what’s worse: to not know what you are and be happy, 

or to become what you’ve always wanted to be, and feel alone

 

To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure

 

Style means no shield at all.
Style means no front at all.
Style means ultimate naturalness.
Style means one man alone with billions of men about.

 

The centuries are sprinkled with rare magic
with divine creatures
who help us get past the common and extraordinary ills that beset us

 

the price of creation
is never
too high.

the price of living
with other people
always
is.

 

Love is not a candle burning down. 

Life is. 

And love and life are not the same 

or else Love, having choice, nobody would ever die

 

Tell him to seek the stars and he will kill himself with climbing

 

people so tired
mutilated
either by love or no love

 

Why do we embroider everything we say

with special emphasis

when all we really need to do

is simply say what

needs to he said?

Of course

the fact is

that there is very little that needs

to be said.

 

And it seems people should not build houses anymore 

it seems people should stop working and sit in small rooms on second floors
under electric lights
without shades;

it seems there is a lot to forget
and a lot not to do

and in drugstores, markets, bars,
the people are tired, they do not want to move, 

and I stand there at night
and look through this house and the house does not want to be built

 

there's no clarity.

there was never meant to be clarity

 

We don't always have the time to think before we act and that's what gets us in trouble. 

Once that first shot is fired, we're committed. There's almost no way to take it back. 

The question becomes: 

do we keep firing back and declare an all-out war?

 

Infections have a nasty way of sneaking up on you. 

You're feeling pretty good, you think the infection is gone, and then, it reappears, out of nowhere. When your body's still weak, when you're barely recovered, BAM! You're infected all over again.

 And once the infection spreads, once it gets into your bloodstream, well, then you really have to watch it, cause that's the kind of infection that can kill you. 

You know that thing, that terrible thing, you thought you had laid to rest? What if you didn't? 

You know that thing you think you finally figured out? What if you haven't? 

When do you know you've put something to bed? When is it finally safe to move on?

 Maybe you never know. Maybe you just have to test the water. You have to see how it feels.

 And if it feels good, I mean really good, then, hell,  go for it.

 

They say love knows no bounds. 

I don’t know about that. 

 Love definitely has bounds.  Love has boundaries. We know this. We knock them down, build them back up, then knock them down again. 

But does it have to be that way? 

Can’t we learn? Can’t we be brave? Can’t we believe? Because, maybe, that’s all we need. A little courage. A little hope. A little belief. 

Maybe there are no boundaries if we choose to not see them. Maybe love is unlimited if we’re just brave enough to decide love is limitless. 

Maybe there’s enough happy for everyone.