Reflections: A Collage

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Two lines of poetry often tell us more, give us more, than the weightiest tome by an erudite. To make anything truly significant one has to poetize it. …Knowledge weighs one down; wisdom saddens one. The love of truth has nothing to do with knowledge or wisdom: it’s beyond their domains. Whatever certitude one possesses is beyond the realm of proof.
xxx~ Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

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Ironic Couplet

Although the gates of Hell
Were locked,
Determined Billy
Kristol knocked.
xxx~ Rodak

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Matt. 18:3 …Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

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The intellect is a product of ego, and the ego can never be stilled, never be satisfied.
xxx~ Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

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It’s only when we stop trying to see, stop trying to know, that we really see and know. (ibid.)

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Freedom is a misnomer. …Freedom implies choice and choice exists only to the extent that we are aware of our ineptitude. (ibid.)

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If we abandoned fear and prejudice, we could meet the murderer as easily as the saint. (ibid.)
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Quote du Jour: Like Simone

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I have an intuition that Simone Weil would have nothing to say against this:

xxxThe longing for paradise, whether here on earth or in the beyond, has almost ceased to be. Instead of an idée-force it has become an idée fixe. From a potent myth it has degenerated into a taboo. Men will sacrifice their lives to bring about a better world—whatever that may mean—but they will not budge an inch to attain paradise. Nor will they struggle to create a bit of paradise in the hell they find themselves. It is so much easier, and gorier, to make revolution, which means, to put it simply, establishing another, a different, status quo. If paradise were realizable—this is the classic retort!—it would no longer be paradise.

xxxWhat is one to say to a man who insists on making his own prison?

xxxxxxxxx~ Henry Miller, Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch

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