Barack Obama
“
—Pablo Neruda, Too Many Names
This means to say that scarcely
have we landed into this life
than we come as if new-born;
let us not fill our mouths
with so many faltering names,
with so many sad formalities,
with so many pompous letters,
with so much of yours and mine,
with so much signing of papers.
I have a mind to confuse things,
unite them, make them new-born,
mix them up, undress them,
until all light in the world
has the oneness of the ocean,
a generous, vast wholeness,
a crackling, living fragrance.
—Pablo Neruda, Too Many Names
“ She knew it was the most beautiful face she would ever see, because it was the abstraction of strength made visible.
—Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
—Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead
Graham’s Hierarchy of Disagreement
The moon in the bureau mirror
looks out a million miles
(and perhaps with pride, at herself,
but she never, never smiles)
far and away beyond sleep, or
perhaps she’s a daytime sleeper.
By the Universe deserted,
she’d tell it to go to hell,
and she’d find a body of water,
or a mirror, on which to dwell.
So wrap up care in a cobweb
and drop it down the well
into that world inverted
where left is always right,
where the shadows are really the body,
where we stay awake all night,
where the heavens are shallow as the sea
is now deep, and you love me.
- Elizabeth Bishop, Insomnia
“ He shrugged and smiled - he was alive for a moment and it was the strangest smile she had ever seen: it held secret amusement, and heartbreak, and an infinite bitterness.
—Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
—Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
“
—Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
Unjust laws exist;
shall we be content to obey them,
or shall we endeavor to amend them,
and obey them until we have succeeded,
or shall we transgress them at once?
—Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
