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Shells on the Sea Shore


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A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.

Socrates

All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

Socrates

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An honest man is always a child.

Socrates

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.

Socrates

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

Socrates

Be as you wish to seem.

Socrates

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

Socrates

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Beware the barrenness of a busy life.

Socrates

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.

Socrates

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.

Socrates

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.

Socrates

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XVII. MEDITATION.

PERCHANCE he for whom this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall lie open to one another. As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness. There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of the religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning; and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose earliest. If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as his, whose indeed it is. The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it intermit again, yet from that minute that that occasion wrought upon him, he is united to God. Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out of this world?

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee. Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the misery of our neighbours. Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it. No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by and made fit for God by that affliction. If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into current money, his treasure will not defray him as he travels. Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer our home, heaven, by it. Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction, digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration of another's danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only security.

John Donne

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A Valediction Forbidding Mourning

AS virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go,

Whilst some of their sad friends do say,

"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;

'Twere profanation of our joys

To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;

Men reckon what it did, and meant ;

But trepidation of the spheres,

Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love

—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit

Of absence, 'cause it doth remove

The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,

That ourselves know not what it is,

Inter-assurèd of the mind,

Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to aery thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two ;

Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show

To move, but doth, if th' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,

Yet, when the other far doth roam,

It leans, and hearkens after it,

And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end where I begun.

John Donne

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Acquainted with the Night

I have been one acquainted with the night.

I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.

I have passed by the watchman on his beat

And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet

When far away an interrupted cry

Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-bye;

And further still at an unearthly height,

O luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

Robert Frost

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A Soldier

He is that fallen lance that lies as hurled,

That lies unlifted now, come dew, come rust,

But still lies pointed as it ploughed the dust.

If we who sight along it round the world,

See nothing worthy to have been its mark,

It is because like men we look too near,

Forgetting that as fitted to the sphere,

Our missiles always make too short an arc.

They fall, they rip the grass, they intersect

The curve of earth, and striking, break their own;

They make us cringe for metal-point on stone.

But this we know, the obstacle that checked

And tripped the body, shot the spirit on

Further than target ever showed or shone.

Robert Frost

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"In true love the smallest distance is too great, and the greatest distance can be bridged.”

-- Hans Nouwens

"Absence diminishes small loves and increases great ones, as the wind blows out the candle and blows up the bonfire."

-Francois de la Rouchefoucauld

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"i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)"

-- ee cummings, from the poem " i carry your heart"

"When it rains it reminds me of you. Although ,2000 miles away is so far I still always walk outside in the rain and kiss it just for you. It never fails me. The rain will always come and I'll always love you. Next time you see a storm on the horizon please don't fear, it's just heaven doing me the favor of taking you my kiss. Walk outside and kiss the rain whenever you need me."

-- Unknown

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Walking around

Staring down at my feet

Can I talk to you?

But you're not there.

Feeling so alone

So abandoned

I could say hello to the

Strangers around me.

But its started to rain.

Pouring.

Bye bye man with the dog.

Ta ra woman with your pram.

I'll stay here.

Parked up on the park bench.

With my trench coat with no hood

And no cover to waterproof me.

No anorak to wrap its arms around me.

Or a roofed wall to lean on.

Hello soggy leaves

And icky mud

Soaked shirt.

Drenched shoes.

Soggy heart.

Icky life.

Soaked cheeks.

Drenched mind.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

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Farewell to the Past

There to Here

My there to here

The time flew over the edge

The winds of the hurricane

The hottest point of the flame

The truest breaking point

I'll skip the fanciness

You're "no bullshit", right?

Gentle words won't leave your lips

So why should I give them?

Even in my last meeting with you?

I bet you don't care

We approach the last days

The very last days

No more will I be the less

The disappointment, the tragedy

The one who disobeys by following my heart

No more your responsibility

You didn't want me from the start, remember?

You had other plans for your life

That's what you tell me when your anger breathes

I think your anger breathes more than you

12 years

I'd been climbing my mountain for 12 years

Dabir the Wise; gone

Liam the Mighty; gone

Gabriela the Stubborn; gone

Madina the Gentle; gone

I. Was. Alone.

My weakened body whispered to 

my pure heart pleading to try to reach out to you,

In hopes of achieving new security.

Luckily, my strong mind spoke first,

reminding my heart of the truth.

So when you let that iron curtain fall

in front of me, I held firm.

I escaped into my friends.

My true, dear friends,

for I knew they would be there and are.

Yet and still, your true colors want to be seen.

When they bring my weary head to their chest,

You bring my financial debts to the surface.

When they wrap their arms around me,

You wrap a leash around my neck.

When they dry my tears,

You scorch me with wrath and disgust.

When they kiss my tear-swollen eyes,

You stab me with disappointment.

Yet, your nerve asks of me, "who means more?".

When I cried,

When I fell,

When I had no strength,

You asked where were they.

Where. Were.YOU?

Gone. 

In the worst form of the word.

The four left me without choice.

You had one, and stayed away.

Like you requested, I will make a decision today.

I will continue to climb my mountain,

And break the leash around me.

Even when the loosed rocks strike my brow,

When my arms grow weak and my legs grow sore,

When I ache and shake and tremble,

I will still push on.

I will reach the summit,

And remain there.

Not because of wanting to appease you.

But because when I get there, 

I want to look down at you at the base,

And remember where I never want to be again.

Farewell.

By me

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