Gus Esmond > Gus's Quotes

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#1

“Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the gate:
‘To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods,

‘And for the tender mother
Who dandled him to rest,
And for the wife who nurses
His baby at her breast,
And for the holy maidens
Who feed the eternal flame,
To save them from false Sextus
That wrought the deed of shame?

‘Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?

Then out spake Spurius Lartius;
A Ramnian proud was he:
‘Lo, I will stand at thy right hand,
And keep the bridge with thee.’
And out spake strong Herminius;
Of Titian blood was he:
‘I will abide on thy left side,
And keep the bridge with thee.’

‘Horatius,’ quoth the Consul,
‘As thou sayest, so let it be.’
And straight against that great array
Forth went the dauntless Three.
For Romans in Rome’s quarrel
Spared neither land nor gold,
Nor son nor wife, nor limb nor life,
In the brave days of old.

Then none was for a party;
Then all were for the state;
Then the great man helped the poor,
And the poor man loved the great:
Then lands were fairly portioned;
Then spoils were fairly sold:
The Romans were like brothers
In the brave days of old.

Now Roman is to Roman
More hateful than a foe,
And the Tribunes beard the high,
And the Fathers grind the low.
As we wax hot in faction,
In battle we wax cold:
Wherefore men fight not as they fought
In the brave days of old.”
― Thomas Babington Macaulay, Horatius

622 likes

#2

“I should have learned many things from that experience, but when I look back on it, all I gained was one single, undeniable fact. That ultimately I am a person who can do evil. I never consciously tried to hurt anyone, yet good intentions notwithstanding, when necessity demanded, I could become completely self-centered, even cruel. I was the kind of person who could, using some plausible excuse, inflict on a person I cared for a wound that would never heal.

College transported me to a new town, where I tried, one more time, to reinvent myself. Becoming someone new, I could correct the errors of my past. At first I was optimistic: I could pull it off. But in the end, no matter where I went, I could never change. Over and over I made the same mistake, hurt other people, and hurt myself in the bargain.

Just after I turned twenty, this thought hit me: Maybe I've lost the chance to ever be a decent human being. The mistakes I'd committed—maybe they were part of my very makeup, an inescapable part of my being. I'd hit rock bottom, and I knew it.”
― Haruki Murakami, South of the Border, West of the Sun

tags: evil, existential-crisis, good-intentions, introspection, japan, modernism, novel, psychology

18 likes

#3

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

tags: frost, glitter, gold, lost, poetry, roots, strength, strong, wander, wither

58191 likes

#4

“A utopian system, when established by men, is likely to be synonymous with a dystopian depression. The only way for perfect peace by man is absolute control of all wrongs. Bully-cultures find this: with each and every mistake, another village idiot is shamed into nothingness and mindlessly shut down by the herd. This is a superficial peace made by force and by fear, one in which there is no freedom to breathe; and the reason it is impossible for man to maintain freedom and peace for everyone at the same time. Christ, on the other hand, transforms, instead of controls, by instilling his certain inner peace. This is the place where one realizes that only his holiness is and feels like true freedom, rather than like imprisonment, and, too, why Hell, I imagine, a magnified version of man's never-ending conflict between freedom and peace, would be the flesh's ultimate utopia - yet its ultimate regret.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

tags: apologetics, artificiality, battle, bully, chaos, christ, conflict, confusion, control, culture, depression, devil, dictatorship, dystopia, establishment, fear, force, forgiveness, freedom, god, good-intentions, government, grace, heaven, hell, herd-mentality, holiness, imprisonment, inner-peace, man, mercy, oppression, peace, philosophy, police-state, political, reality, regret, salvation, satan, sin, society, superficiality, theology, totalitarian, transformation, tyranny, unity, utopia, vanity, war

31 likes

#5

“When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable.”
― Jess C. Scott, The Intern

tags: desire, emotion, friendship, honesty, imagination, individuality, life, love, passion, reality, relationships, romance, truth, wisdom, wise-words

20084 likes

#6

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.”
― G.K. Chesterton

5142 likes

#7

“As if you were on fire from within.

The moon lives in the lining of your skin.”
― Pablo Neruda

tags: beauty, inner-beauty, love, passion

4208 likes

#8

“Man can never know the loneliness a woman knows. Man lies in the woman's womb only to gather strength, he nourishes himself from this fusion, and then he rises and goes into the world, into his work, into battle, into art. He is not lonely. He is busy. The memory of the swim in amniotic fluid gives him energy, completion. Woman may be busy too, but she feels empty. Sensuality for her is not only a wave of pleasure in which she is bathed, and a charge of electric joy at contact with another. When man lies in her womb, she is fulfilled, each act of love a taking of man within her, an act of birth and rebirth, of child rearing and man bearing. Man lies in her womb and is reborn each time anew with a desire to act, to be. But for woman, the climax is not in the birth, but in the moment man rests inside of her.”
― Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

2048 likes

#9

“I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.”
― Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

tags: love, passion

1902 likes

#10

“If you can feel that staying human is worth while, even when it can't have any result whatever, you've beaten them.”
― George Orwell, 1984

tags: 1984, george-orwell, politics, socialism, totalitarianism

523 likes

#11

“Winston Smith: Does Big Brother exist?
O'Brien: Of course he exists.
Winston Smith: Does he exist like you or me?
O'Brien: You do not exist.”
― George Orwell, 1984

tags: 1984, big-brother, george, george-orwell, government, orwell

465 likes

#12

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
― Oscar Wilde

tags: attributed-no-source, enemies, forgiveness, strategy

81995 likes

#13

“ The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.”
― Kent M. Keith, The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council

tags: forgiveness, goodness, happiness, honesty, kindness, misattributed-to-mother-teresa, world

34358 likes

#14

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, All Men Are Brothers: Autobiographical Reflections

tags: forgiveness, strength, weakness

10862 likes

#15

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
― C.S. Lewis

tags: christianity, forgiveness, god

6146 likes

#16

“There is no such thing as a "broken family." Family is family, and is not determined by marriage certificates, divorce papers, and adoption documents. Families are made in the heart. The only time family becomes null is when those ties in the heart are cut. If you cut those ties, those people are not your family. If you make those ties, those people are your family. And if you hate those ties, those people will still be your family because whatever you hate will always be with you.”
― C. JoyBell C.

tags: broken-families, divorce, family, family-ties, forgiveness, hate, inspirational-life, inspirational-quotes, letting-go, marriage, moving-on, soul-ties, the-nature-of-family, true-family

2517 likes

#17

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”
― Mark Twain

tags: definitions, forgiveness

1648 likes

#18

“Forgiveness has nothing to do with absolving a criminal of his crime. It has everything to do with relieving oneself of the burden of being a victim--letting go of the pain and transforming oneself from victim to survivor.”
― C.R. Strahan

tags: forgiveness, pain, self-perception, survivor, victim

1082 likes

#19

“When you forgive, you love. And when you love, God’s light shines upon you.”
― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

tags: forgiveness, love

970 likes

#20

“Be the one who nurtures and builds. Be the one who has an understanding and a forgiving heart one who looks for the best in people. Leave people better than you found them.”
― Marvin J. Ashton

tags: best, build, find, forgiveness, forgiving, heart, love, nurture, people, understand, understanding

868 likes

#21

“The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.”
― Thomas Szasz

tags: forgiveness, inspirational, naivety, wisdom

809 likes

#22

“The acceptance of oneself is the essence of the whole moral problem and the epitome of a whole outlook on life. That I feed the hungry, that I forgive an insult, that I love my enemy in the name of Christ -- all these are undoubtedly great virtues. What I do unto the least of my brethren, that I do unto Christ. But what if I should discover that the least among them all, the poorest of all the beggars, the most impudent of all the offenders, the very enemy himself -- that these are within me, and that I myself stand in need of the alms of my own kindness -- that I myself am the enemy who must be loved -- what then? As a rule, the Christian's attitude is then reversed; there is no longer any question of love or long-suffering; we say to the brother within us "Raca," and condemn and rage against ourselves. We hide it from the world; we refuse to admit ever having met this least among the lowly in ourselves.”
― C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections

tags: christianity, denial, forgiveness, love, morality, self-image

736 likes

#23

“Forgiveness means it finally becomes unimportant that you hit back.”
― Anne Lamott

tags: forgiveness, retribution

195 likes

#24

“To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.”
― Lewis B. Smedes, Forgive and Forget: Healing the Hurts We Don't Deserve

tags: forgiveness

223 likes

#25

“One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him.”
― Socrates

tags: forgiveness, nobility

199 likes

#26

“I know you loved both he and I, the way a mother can love two sons. And no one should be judged for loving more than they ought, only for loving not enough.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Deathless

tags: forgiveness, love, love-triangle

172 likes

#27

“The only vice that cannot be forgiven is hypocrisy. The repentance of a hypocrite is itself hypocrisy.”
― William Hazlitt, Selected Essays, 1778-1830

tags: forgiveness, hypocrisy, hypocrite, repentance

170 likes

#28

“Dear Child,

Sometimes on your travel through hell, you meet people that think they are in heaven because of their cleverness and ability to get away with things. Travel past them because they don't understand who they have become and never will. These type of people feel justified in revenge and will never learn mercy or forgiveness because they live by comparison. They are the people that don't care about anyone, other than who is making them feel confident. They don’t understand that their deity is not rejoicing with them because of their actions, rather he is trying to free them from their insecurities, by softening their heart. They rather put out your light than find their own. They don't have the ability to see beyond the false sense of happiness they get from destroying others. You know what happiness is and it isn’t this. Don’t see their success as their deliverance. It is a mask of vindication which has no audience, other than their own kind. They have joined countless others that call themselves “survivors”. They believe that they are entitled to win because life didn’t go as planned for them. You are not like them. You were not meant to stay in hell and follow their belief system. You were bound for greatness. You were born to help them by leading. Rise up and be the light home. You were given the gift to see the truth. They will have an army of people that are like them and you are going to feel alone. However, your family in heaven stands beside you now. They are your strength and as countless as the stars. It is time to let go!

Love,

Your Guardian Angel”
― Shannon L. Alder

tags: angels, archeangels, being-unique, believe, believing-in-others, big-dreams, bravery, bullies, caring, caring-too-much, chains, choices, christ, compassion, courage, courageous, crossroads, dante-s-inferno, daughter-of-god, dreams, empowering-women, faithful, family-in-heaven, forgiveness, freedom, future, gideon, god-s-plan, guardian-angel, guardian-angels, harry-potter, harry-potter-related, harry-potter-s-family, hatred, having-a-conscience, having-faith, hell, hell-on-earth, hold-onto-god, holy-ghost, humane, humanity, insecurity, insightful, integrity, jealousy, jedi-warrior, journeys, kindness, kindness-of-strangers, let-go, letting-go, life-purpose, love, loving-one-another, merciful, mercy, moral-conscience, morals, no-coincidences, obstacles, onlyness, pain, pray, prayers, praying-for-others, preexistence, preordination, protection, qreat-quotes, removing-chains, revenge, rise-up, see, seeing, self-awareness, self-esteem, self-improvement, self-insight, self-respect, sending-angels, smile, softening-your-heart, sorrow, spirits, stalkers, stay-positive, stayingpositiveuniversity-com, the-rainbow-path, the-red-path, the-white-path, trials, truth, uniqueness, vengeful, wisdom, zion

265 likes

#29

“Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love.”
― George Eliot

tags: agony, introspection, love, parting

344 likes

#30

“To experience real agony is something hard to write about, impossible to understand while it grips you; you're frightened out of your wits, can’t sit still, move, or even go decently insane.”
― Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers at Last

tags: agony, insanity, pain

216 likes

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