Even better if you can provide your own understanding of its meaning.
Mine would be :
“Nothing kills a man as much as being forced to represent a country” (and err considering the context, I must stress it has nothing to do with the current US shitshow), by a WW1 soldier, illustrator and writer named Jacques Vaché.
For me it just means being forced into representing a group (national, of course, but maybe also social, racial, sexual, professional, any kind of group) or defining one’s identity only by reference to a group is to be avoided at all costs.
Note : Its not the same, imho, as engaging in a collective struggle or defense against a common oppression.
How about you?
Rewatched that recently. I was really surprised how dark it sometimes gets for a kids’ show. It still holds up really well!
“The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding” Dipen Parmar
You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait. Do not even wait, be quiet still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet. – Franz Kafka
Golf: A nice walk, ruined.
Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it. Those who know history are doomed to know it’s repeating.
It’s the second part that makes this otherwise well know phrase hit much closer to home for me.
Sadly, pretty much all struggles against a common oppressor take on heavy identity characteristics and have the accompanying problems. It’s the main reason they don’t work immediately.
Anyway, probably “What I cannot build, I don’t understand”, by Richard Feynman (although the exact wording varies by source). If I write a book that’s probably going to take up the first page.
“Everything you want in life has teeth”, by the writer Jonathan Carroll. I believe it means that everything you pursue will hurt you in some way.
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. What do we do? We swim, swim, swim
Underrated Dory wisdom
Life’s tough for everyone
-Grandpa
Perhaps today is a good day to die. Prepare for ramming speed!
Hitchens on the death of Jerry Falwell: “If they gave his corpse an enema, they could bury him in a matchbox.”
Something my grandpa said, sometime around 2006-2007 I think.
“The next world war, will be between the rich and and the poor, and the rich will win before the poor knows there’s a war.”
This is unfortunate, but at the rate we are currently going this might come into fruition. 😢
I believe the first part is already occuring, it’s the last half that I hope is wrong.
The opposite of love is not hate, but apathy.
Truly hating something takes passion, energy and time out of your day. It also taught me that for masters of personal interest, if you truly need to end a relationship with someone, you simply stop responding. It’s far more effective than loudly proclaiming what you feel they do wrong. That will take far more away from you than if you cut ties.
"They say, ‘Evil prevails when good men fail to act.’ What they ought to say is, ‘Evil prevails.’
Bleak quote from Lord of War that has stuck with me. Reminds me of Sophie Scholl.
“It’ll never be the same”
In context, meaning that things can never go back to the way they were… Ever.For me it’s like a grounding statement. Whenever I start thinking about some past time and just want things to go back to how they were, I remember this. My mind shifts to the future and I forget that nostalgic feeling because I remember that it can never be.
Oh, yeah. There’s another one like this for me, a very short poem I read when I was a teenager :
“Ah, what are they dreaming…? Those who say, say, say… Yesterday I was there, today I was here”
