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"I'm bored at work and thinking about how I spent hours reading these commentaries without making a dent, thinking about the mental illness I faced as I did that, and about how almost all my books are in storage as I live semi nomadically through the summer. I look forward to the space the comes in the stillness I seek. It makes me happy to know I'll have long days of regular reading again soon" — Jul 15, 2021 11:37AM
"I'm bored at work and thinking about how I spent hours reading these commentaries without making a dent, thinking about the mental illness I faced as I did that, and about how almost all my books are in storage as I live semi nomadically through the summer. I look forward to the space the comes in the stillness I seek. It makes me happy to know I'll have long days of regular reading again soon" — Jul 15, 2021 11:37AM
“Education leads to enlightenment. Enlightenment opens the way to empathy. Empathy foreshadows reform.”
― Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism
― Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism
“About my interests: I don’t know if I have any, unless the morbid desire to own a sixteen-millimeter camera and make experimental movies can be so classified. Otherwise, I love to eat and drink – it’s my melancholy conviction that I’ve scarcely ever had enough to eat (this is because it’s impossible to eat enough if you’re worried about the next meal) – and I love to argue with people who do not disagree with me too profoundly, and I love to laugh. I do not like bohemia, or bohemians, I do not like people whose principal aim is pleasure, and I do not like people who are earnest about anything. I don’t like people who like me because I’m a Negro; neither do I like people who find in the same accident grounds for contempt. I love America more than any other country in the world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. I think all theories are suspect, that the finest principles may have to be modified, or may even be pulverized by the demands of life, and that one must find, therefore, one’s own moral center and move through the world hoping that this center will guide one aright. I consider that I have many responsibilities, but none greater than this: to last, as Hemingway says, and get my work done.”
―
―
“Christ did not die for the good and beautiful. It is easy enough to die for the good and beautiful; the hard thing is to die for the miserable and corrupt.”
― Silence
― Silence
“When the Soul wants to experience something she throws out an image in front of her and then steps into it.”
―
―
“Tell a wise person, or else keep silent,
because the mass man will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
what longs to be burned to death.
In the calm water of the love-nights,
where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
a strange feeling comes over you,
when you see the silent candle burning.
Now you are no longer caught
in the obsession with darkness,
and a desire for higher love-making
sweeps you upward.
Distance does not make you falter.
Now, arriving in magic, flying,
and finally, insane for the light,
you are the butterfly and you are gone.
And so long as you haven't experienced
this: to die and so to grow,
you are only a troubled guest
on the dark earth.”
―
because the mass man will mock it right away.
I praise what is truly alive,
what longs to be burned to death.
In the calm water of the love-nights,
where you were begotten, where you have begotten,
a strange feeling comes over you,
when you see the silent candle burning.
Now you are no longer caught
in the obsession with darkness,
and a desire for higher love-making
sweeps you upward.
Distance does not make you falter.
Now, arriving in magic, flying,
and finally, insane for the light,
you are the butterfly and you are gone.
And so long as you haven't experienced
this: to die and so to grow,
you are only a troubled guest
on the dark earth.”
―
Caleb’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Caleb’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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