No.539
Just phrases that are meant to be repeated to convey a consistent meaning. Doesn't necessarily need to be religious, my first example is going to be the Litany Against Fear, from Dune, read it if you haven't.
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
The next is the first section of Ecclesiastes, also something you should read if you haven't yet, and if you have it's worth a re-read.
What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one can say,
“Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
No one remembers the former generations,
and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow them.
I guess we could include proverbs in this as well.
No.540
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
Polite sage for not fully on topic post.
No.556
this is invictus by henley, nelson mandela's favorite poem
Out of the night which covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
No.558
Here are two that belong here
Lain's Soliloquy:
…OK, let's see… I guess that I'm confused again.
Am I here, or am I there? I don't know.
Over there, I'm everywhere. I know that.
But here is connected to over there. Is that right?
But then, where is the real me after all is said and done.
Oh! There is no real me. I guess that's it.
I only exist inside those people aware of my existence.
But what about this me that I can hear talking right here and now? It's me, isn't it?
This me that's talking. Who is it? Who's me?
The Conscience of a Hacker:
http://www.phrack.org/archives/issues/7/3.txt No.648
I fear no chaos
For I am in control
No.651
>Fear is the cheapest room in the house. I'd like to see you in better living conditions.
>Will inspiration. O, be inspired with flame.
>When there is nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire.
No.654
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,,
angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night.
No.657
I have a few. The best one and the one i remember most is from this:
http://www.viruscomix.com/page553.html"We Assume of others what we know of ourselves."I've thought about this almost every day for years.
Another couple things I repeat to myself all the time, from various sources:
"No Mercy for the Dream-Killers."
"Don't seek power. Don't trust anyone who has it or wants it."
"A static ideology is a dead one"
"RECLUSES ALWAYS GET WEAK"
"Never trust a corporation to act any way but mechanically"
I also really like Porpentine's Trash Recipe#1:
-Make recipes instead of manifestos
-cracks are part of the aesthetic
-don't worry about building walls
-let some things stay broken
-the part of you that isn't shared by everyone else and no one else could possibly be interested in is raw materials.
-turn limitations into mechanics
-done when you're done
-fake>real No.658
I forgot the second most important one-
"Human Lives Don't Follow Narratives."
And I guess these ain't really litanies. Whoops. Gotta credit that one to the Dumb-Drug.
No.662
>>556This always struck me as extremely edgelord.
No.664
>>539I would put the following in the proverb category. The text is from the book of cataclysm, from "Syndicate Wars" by Bullfrog.
The courageous enter dark caves alone. The clever send in the courageous first. The cleverest wait behind the clever.
The apprentices asked the Master. "When shall we achieve immortality?" And the Master answered, "Not in this life."
The brave hide behind technology. The stupid hide from it. But the clever have technology, and hide it.
A war refugee sought the Master. He said, "You are wise and serene. Teach me to escape the horrors of this world." And the Master blinded him with fire-irons.
Follow the more successful thief and steal his ideas.
Even the salamander sometimes burns.
Remember, the meek shall inherit nothing.
He who lives in the eye of the storm is a mote in the eye of an angry god.
In the darkest times, the true believer hones his combat skills.
Mark thine enemy, for all that separates the damned from the chosen is a dot of monochrome light, projected onto the back of a neck.
Poor workers blame their tools. Good workers build better tools. The best workers get their tools to do the work for them.
There is pleasure in stealing the souls of machines.
The Master has no need for money. But still he sits and counts it. As a meditation.
A hundred elephants can wreck the outer walls of a fortress. One diseased rat can kill all those inside.
The non-believers climbed for days to confront the master in the mountains. "Where do you get your so-called faith?" they asked. "You brought it," the master replied. "You've all climbed so high."
The Master told his pupils, "Forget being taught and concentrate on learning. When you're sure, question everything."
The slow knife cuts the deepest.
No.697
For those Christian lainons out there feeling lonely.
Be Satisfied with Me
by St. Anthony of Padua
Everyone longs to give themselves completely to someone,
To have a deep soul relationship with another,
To be loved thoroughly and exclusively.
But to a Christian, God says, "No, not until you are satisfied,
Fulfilled and content with being loved by Me alone,
With giving yourself totally and unreservedly to Me.
With having an intensely personal and unique relationship with Me alone.
Discovering that only in Me is your satisfaction to be found,
Will you be capable of the perfect human relationship,
That I have planned for you.
You will never be united to another
Until you are united with Me.
Exclusive of anyone or anything else.
Exclusive of any other desires or longings.
I want you to stop planning, to stop wishing, and allow Me to give you
The most thrilling plan existing . . . one you cannot imagine.
I want you to have the best. Please allow Me to bring it to you.
You just keep watching Me, expecting the greatest things.
Keep experiencing the satisfaction that I am.
Keep listening and learning the things that I tell you.
Just wait, that's all. Don't be anxious, don't worry
Don't look around at things others have gotten
Or that I have given them
Don't look around at the things you think you want,
Just keep looking off and away up to Me,
Or you'll miss what I want to show you.
And then, when you're ready, I'll surprise you with a love
Far more wonderful than you could dream of.
You see, until you are ready, and until the one I have for you is ready,
I am working even at this moment
To have both of you ready at the same time.
Until you are both satisfied exclusively with Me
And the life I prepared for you,
You won't be able to experience the love that exemplified your relationship with Me.
And this is perfect love.
And dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful love,
I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with Me.
And to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty,
perfection and love that I offer you with Myself.
Know that I love you utterly. I AM God.
Believe it and be satisfied
No.833
>>658More of an aphorism.
No.856
>somehow, we'll be fine
For me, this is a prayer of sorts. It's something you repeat to yourself to affirm your belief in the words themselves, even if I don't have any genuine faith in what I am saying.
Just saying it out loud makes you care to move to the truth, I feel.
No.1017
"To pray is to accept defeat" pops into my head frequently.
No.1079
"I continue to live inside a dichotomy: What was, and what will be. the pain inside my skull is me trying to mesh the two." - Chila Woychik
"The most beautiful thing in the world, I think is the inability of the human mind to correlate all it's contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of inifinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." - H.P. Lovecraft
"The Individual is unimportant to the whole. The Symbol is what matters."
"It falls upon us to preserve the health of the whole by ensuring the proper functioning of the part. And if the finger becomes gangrenous. Sever it, and take its place."
Pulvis Et Umbra Sumus
Nil Desperandum
No.1082
>>1017The hook for Beware is one of my favorite verses in music.
"And I know soon come my time
For in mine void a pale horse burns;
But I fear not the time I'm taken
Past the point of no return.
Wage war like no tomorrow,
'Cause no well there won't be one
For all who deny the struggle
The triumphant overcome."
Life is brutal and you're only mortal; ignore that to your own peril. The triumphant rage against it with all their might and carve their own paths along the way.
No.1094
>>1082I really fucking love that song. Rarely does a song pump me up so much. Lately been listening to them a lot. Hacker is my new favorite.
