“
There are perhaps many causes worth dying for, but to me, certainly, there are none worth killing for.
”
”
Albert Dietrich (Army GI, Pacifist CO: The World War II Letters of Frank Dietrich and Albert Dietrich)
“
Multiple experiments with spirit contact transmitted the name Matthew Edward Hall on several occasions. I predict this to be a very important future individual in humanities development. Possibly the second embodiment of Christ on Earth.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Gurdjieff's Early Talks 1914-1931: In Moscow, St. Petersburg, Essentuki, Tiflis, Constantinople, Berlin, Paris, London, Fontainebleau, New York, and Chicago)
“
It is very difficult also to sacrifice one's suffering. A man will renounce any pleasures you like but he will not give up his suffering.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Practice love on animals first; they react better and more sensitively.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Conscious faith is freedom. Emotional faith is slavery. Mechanical faith is foolishness.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself — only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Awakening is possible only for those who seek it and want it, for those who are ready to struggle with themselves and work on themselves for a very long time and very persistently in order to attain it.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
You are in prison. If you wish to get out of prison, the first thing you must do is realize that you are in prison. If you think you are free, you can't escape.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Two things in life are infinite; the stupidity of man and the mercy of God.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
There is a cosmic law which says that every satisfaction must be paid for with a dissatisfaction.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Views from the Real World)
“
G.I. Joe boxers!’ Apollo screamed. ‘OH—oh, I can’t even... HAHAHAHAHA!’ ‘Aphrodite,’ Athena giggled. ‘You look simply lovely.’ The gods couldn't stop laughing. Soon they were rolling on the floor, wiping tears from their eyes, taking photos with their phones to post on Tumblr.
”
”
Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson's Greek Gods)
“
Man has no individual i. But there are, instead, hundreds and thousands of separate small "i"s, very often entirely unknown to one another, never coming into contact, or, on the contrary, hostile to each other, mutually exclusive and incompatible. Each minute, each moment, man is saying or thinking, "i". And each time his i is different. just now it was a thought, now it is a desire, now a sensation, now another thought, and so on, endlessly. Man is a plurality. Man's name is legion.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
The greatest untold story is the evolution of God.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
If you want to lose your faith, make friends with a priest.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Common aim is stronger than blood.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
I will tell you one thing that will make you rich for life. There are two struggles: an Inner-world struggle and an Outer-world struggle...you must make an intentional contact between these two worlds; then you can crystallize data for the Third World, the World of the Soul.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Not the bee upon the blossom,
In the pride o' sunny noon;
Not the little sporting fairy,
All beneath the simmer moon;
Not the poet, in the moment
Fancy lightens in his e'e,
Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture,
That thy presence gi'es to me.
”
”
Robert Burns
“
Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to 'learn.' What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the saying 'Know thyself.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Views from the Real World)
“
Aqalmandi Ka Takaza Tou Yehi Hai Kay Insan Khuda Kay Tasawar Ko Sha'ori Tor Par Thek Tarah Say Samajh Lay.
Aisa Na Hoa Tou Koi Aur Sha'ay Khuda Ban Kar Apni Pooja Karwaney Lagay Gi".
”
”
Ashfaq Ahmed
“
I sat in my brown-belted gi at the painted metal table outside of Einstein’s and Peet’s with Mr. Ho, my Kenpo Karate instructor in his black-belted gi, and my bronze, canine psychologist, wearing his/her Lacoste eyeglasses.
”
”
M.S.M. Barkawitz (Feeling Lucky)
“
Love without knowledge is demonic.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
To know means to know all. Not to know all means not to know. In order to know all, it is only necessary to know a little. But, in order to know this little, it is first necessary to know pretty much.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Only super-efforts count.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Time in itself does not exist, there is only the totality of the results issuing from all the cosmic phenomena present in a given place.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson)
“
You’re the one who made the bargain with Apollymis that I have to live with. Personally, it irks the shit out of me to be traded like some Yu-Gi-Oh! card you got tired of having around the house. (Kat)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Devil May Cry (Dark-Hunter, #11))
“
an honest being who does not behave absurdly has no
chance at all of becoming famous, or even of being noticed, however kind
and sensible he may be.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson)
“
Man must use what he has, not hope for what is not.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
As long as our ideas are the same, we will never be apart.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
The only type of sexual relations possible are those with someone who is as advanced and capable as oneself.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
You must learn not what people round you consider good or bad, but to act in life as your conscience bids you. An untrammelled conscience will always know more than all the books and teachers put together.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Meetings With Remarkable Men)
“
Consider everything belonging to another as if it were your own, and so treat it.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson)
“
Life is real only then, when "I am".
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
The one great art is that of making a complete human being of oneself.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
I hated that the soldier doll had my name. I mean, please. I didn't play with him much. He was another Christmas present from my clueless grandparents. One time when they were visiting, my grandpa asked me if G.I. Joe had been in any wars lately. I said, "No, but he and Ken got married last week." Every Christmas since then, my grandparents have sent me a check.
”
”
James Howe (Totally Joe (The Misfits, #2))
“
Live a life of friction. Let yourself be disturbed as much as possible, but observe.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
The rules are simple: the first one to lose dies.
”
”
Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!: Duelist, Vol. 23: Ra the Immortal (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist, #23))
“
Some read to remember the home they had left behind, others to forget the hell that surrounded them. Books uplifted their weary souls and energized their minds…books had the power to sooth an aching heart, renew hope for the future, and provide a respite when there was no other escape.
”
”
Molly Guptill Manning
“
From looking at your neighbor and realizing his true significance, and that he will die, pity and compassion will arise in you for him and finally you will love him.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Wish' is the most powerful thing in the world. Higher than God.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Let us take some event in the life of humanity. For instance, war. There is a war going on at the present moment. What does it signify? It signifies that several millions of sleeping people are trying to destroy several millions of other sleeping people. They would not do this, of course, if they were to wake up. Everything that takes place is owing to this sleep.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Label-locked thinking can affect treatment. For instance, I heard a doctor say about a kid with gastrointestinal issues, “Oh, he has autism. That’s the problem”—and then he didn’t treat the GI problem.
”
”
Temple Grandin (The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum)
“
Who knew what time it was when the door to my room opened and three G.I. Joe Wannabes motioned me out.
”
”
Jennifer L. Armentrout (Origin (Lux, #4))
“
For the first time in architectural history, we're approaching the resolution and complexity of the natural world by creating new technologies that will ultimately enable us to design a beam as if it were a branch or an HVAC and waste removal system as if it were a photosynthetic GI tract engineered to convert carbon into biofuel.
”
”
Neri Oxman
“
With thorns in the inner world there will always be roses in the outer world, in law-able compensation.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Now everything that you do is written in red or black in Angel Gabriel's book. Not for everyone is this record kept, but only for those who have taken a position of responsibility. There is a Law of Sins, and if you do not fulfil all your obligations, you will pay.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
I thought you were more like GI Joe, but now that I know about the cape, you sound more like Superman." Mia Kensington to Colby Winters
”
”
Cristin Harber (Winters Heat (Titan, #1))
“
What you took as yourself begins to look like a little prison-house far away in the valley beneath you.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Men have their minds and women their feelings more highly developed. Either alone can give nothing. Think what you feel and feel what you think. Fusion of the two produces another force.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Meat is necessary when there is hard physical work to be done, or in a very cold climate, or when edible plants cannot be found...Animal flesh provides all the substances we need, both for the intensive working of our organism and for maintaining a normal temperature in cold climates.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Tell me what game Steph Landry and I used to play in the big dirt pile they made while they were digging my family’s pool, back when we were both seven, or I’ll know you’re an alien replacement and you’ve got the real Steph up in your mother ship!”
I glared at him. “G.I. Joe meets Spelunker Barbie,” I said. “And stop being so ridiculous. We have to go. We’re going to end up at a bad table for lunch.
”
”
Meg Cabot (How to Be Popular)
“
Cuando le he soltado y creía que iba a apartarse, me ha pegado la boca al oído y muy bajito, casi en un susurro, me ha dicho, deteniéndose en cada sílaba, como si me contara un secreto muy importante que yo no debía olvidar:
—Su-per-ca-li-fra-gi-lis-ti-co-es-pia-li-do-sa.
”
”
Alejandro Palomas (Un hijo)
“
The rules are simple!
”
”
Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Vol. 1: The Millenium Puzzle (Yu-Gi-Oh!, #1))
“
All who have come to me must have enema each day.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
In my opinion, what will be troublesome for you in all this is chiefly that in childhood there was implanted in you—and has now become perfectly harmonized with your general psyche—an excellently working automatism for perceiving all kinds of new impressions, thanks to which “blessing” you have now, during your responsible life, no need to make any individual effort whatsoever.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson)
“
Never will he understand the sufferings of another, who has not experienced them himself, though he have divine Reason and the nature of a genuine devil!
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson)
“
If I don't do something who will?
”
”
Ryan Smithson (Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI)
“
I made a mental note to familiarize Fabian with modern artillery so he'd be able to give better descriptions.
"Machine guns?" I asked, miming holding one and making a series of rapid staccato noises.
Bones's mouth twitched, but he dipped his head so I wouldn't see his clear amusement over my "GI Jane does Pictionary" imitation.
”
”
Jeaniene Frost (This Side of the Grave (Night Huntress, #5))
“
Get your filthy hands off the puzzle, you little brats!
”
”
Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Vol. 3: Capsule Monster Chess (Yu-Gi-Oh!, #3))
“
-Jis vertė mane skaityti Prustą, Tostojų, ir Dostojevskį,- pareiškė vargšelė, nužvelgusi mus širdį veriančiu žvilgsniu. - Kas gi su manim dabar bus?
”
”
Romain Gary
“
She once led this secret uprising to switch the voice boxes of Barbies and G.I. Joes. When they hit the shelves, G.I. Joe said, 'Let's go shopping!' and Barbie said, 'The enemy must be overtaken.'
I laugh. "No way."
"Yes way. Sex-role stereotyping in children's toys, all that.
”
”
Deb Caletti (The Nature of Jade)
“
You say people's struggles are a game! That's totally wrong!
Facing yourself no matter how tough things get... and keeping up the fight... that's what games are really about!
You bet your chip of life as if it meant nothing! You lost to yourself! When you realized you were going to lose, you didn't have the courage to keep living!
Listen... Real courage is protecting that chip you have in your hands... no matter what!"
-Anzu to Kaiba
”
”
Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Vol. 5: The Heart of the Cards (Yu-Gi-Oh!, #5))
“
Everything existing in the world “falls to the bottom.” The “bottom” for any part of the Universe is its nearest “stability,” and this stability is the point toward which all the lines of force from all directions converge.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson)
“
Whenever a soldier needed an escape, the antidote to anxiety, relief from boredom, a bit of laughter, inspiration, or hope, he cracked open a book and drank in the words that would transport him elsewhere.
”
”
Molly Guptill Manning
“
If you are working inwardly, Nature will help you. For the man who is working, Nature is sister of charity; she brings him what he needs for his work. If you need money for your work, even if you do nothing to get it, the money will come to you from all sides.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
In 1944, the G.I. Bill was adopted to support returning servicemen. The VA not only denied African Americans the mortgage subsidies to which they were entitled but frequently restricted education and training to lower-level jobs for African Americans who were qualified to acquire greater skills.
”
”
Richard Rothstein (The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America)
“
Those who trespass in others' souls will always get burned in the end.
”
”
Kazuki Takahashi (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Vol. 1: The Millenium Puzzle (Yu-Gi-Oh!, #1))
“
The Work is about making personality passive, a servant rather than a master.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff
“
Every - real - happiness - for - man - can - arise - exclusively - only - from - some - unhappiness - also - real - which - he - has - already - experienced.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson)
“
Your own politicians make our Dr. Goebbels look like a child playing with picture books in a kindergarten. They speak of morality while they douse screaming children and old women in burning napalm. Your draft-resisters are called cowards and ‘peaceniks.’ For refusing to follow orders they are either put in jails or scourged from the country. Those who demonstrate against this country's unfortunate Asian adventure are clubbed down in the streets. The GI soldiers who kill the innocent are decorated by Presidents, welcomed home from the bayoneting of children and the burning of hospitals with parades and bunting. They are given dinners, Keys to the City, free tickets to pro football games.” He toasted his glass in Todd's direction. “Only those who lose are tried as war criminals for following orders and directives.
”
”
Stephen King (Apt Pupil)
“
Никоя подарена целувка не струва толкова колкото открадната
”
”
Guy de Maupassant
“
Always and in everything strive to attain at the same time what is useful for others and what is pleasant for oneself.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjief
“
On the second floor was the office in which Houston pounded an ancient typewriter with two fingers, always setting an example of unceasing hard work for his admiring students. They had no hint of the fact that their hard-driving dean had contracted tuberculosis while serving as a GI in France in Word War I. Houstan always seemed vibrant and impassioned in the chase for justice as he tried to expose his students to everything relating to the law that might give them an advantage.
. . .
"I never worked hard until I got to the Howard Law School and met Charlie Houston," Marshal told me. "I saw this man's dedication, his vision, his willingness to sacrifice, and I told myself, 'You either shape up or ship out.' When you are being challenged by a great human being, you know that you can't ship out."
So Houston rescued Marshall and launched him into a career as one of the greatest lawyers in American history.
”
”
Carl T. Rowan (Dream Makers, Dream Breakers: The World of Justice Thurgood Marshall)
“
And indeed, the mind of contemporary man, of whatever level of intellectuality, is only able to take cognizance of the world by means of data which, whenever accidentally or intentionally activated, arouse in him all sorts of fantastic impulses.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Meetings With Remarkable Men)
“
In order to destroy the lies in oneself as well as lies told unconsciously to others, 'buffers' must be destroyed. But then a man cannot live without 'buffers'. 'Buffers' automatically control a man's actions, words, thoughts, and feelings. If 'buffers' were to be destroyed all control would disappear. A man cannot exist without control even though it is only automatic control. Only a man who possesses will, that is, conscious control, can live without 'buffers'. Consequently, if a man begins to destroy 'buffers' within himself he must at the same time develop a will.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching)
“
When one day fate visits us again, Jessa comes running into Hannah’s house to tell us the news that they’ve caught the serial killer. Her tone is hushed and I try hard not to look at Jude, who is working on the skirting boards. But I can feel the humour in his gaze as it falls on me and I know that I will never live down the fact that I suspected him.
When I ask her, “Who?” slightly curious, she’s already out the door looking for Hannah and Tate. “No one important!” she shouts from the other room. “Just some postman in Yass.” I look at Jude’s face and I see it whiten and we vow never ever to tell the others.
”
”
Melina Marchetta (On the Jellicoe Road)
“
This shift from automatic living to awakening parallels Carl Jung's Individuation, Dada Bhagwan's Self-realization, Dr. Abraham Mazlow's Self-Actualization, G.I. Gurdjieff's Self-Work and other related approaches to differentiating the innate being from the unconscious complexes we have mistaken for identity.
”
”
Antero Alli
“
When Bootsie was old enough to go to high school, Fran got herself a $300 GI loan to enroll at the University of Maine. She got three more loans and graduated with a teaching degree. Because she taught Title I kids—poor kids—all her loans were forgiven. Every member of Franni’s family made it to the middle class. And they did it because of Social Security, Pell Grants, the GI Bill, and Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. They tell you in this country that you have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And we all believe that. But first you’ve got to have the boots. And the federal government gave Franni’s family the boots.
”
”
Al Franken (Al Franken, Giant of the Senate)
“
So here we are, in the family planning aisle with a cart full of sports drinks and our hands full of . . . “Trojans, Ramses, Magnum . . . Jeez, these are worse than names for muscle cars,” Jase observes, sliding his finger along the display.
“They do sound sorta, well, forceful.” I flip over the box I’m holding to read the instructions.
Jase glances up to smile at me. “Don’t worry, Sam. It’s just us.”
“I don’t get what half these descriptions mean . . . What’s a vibrating ring?”
“Sounds like the part that breaks on the washing machine. What’s extra-sensitive? That sounds like how we describe George.”
I’m giggling. “Okay, would that be better or worse than ‘ultimate feeling’—and look—there’s ‘shared pleasure’ condoms and ‘her pleasure’ condoms. But there’s no ‘his pleasure.’”
“I’m pretty sure that comes with the territory,” Jase says dryly. “Put down those Technicolor ones. No freaking way.”
“But blue’s my favorite color,” I say, batting my eyelashes at him.
“Put them down. The glow-in-the-dark ones too. Jesus. Why do they even make those?”
“For the visually impaired?” I ask, reshelving the boxes.
We move to the checkout line. “Enjoy the rest of your evening,” the clerk calls as we leave.
“Do you think he knew?” I ask.
“You’re blushing again,” Jase mutters absently. “Did who know what?”
“The sales guy. Why we were buying these?”
A smile pulls at the corners of his mouth. “Of course not. I’m sure it never occurred to him that we were actually buying birth control for ourselves. I bet he thought it was a . . . a . . . housewarming gift.”
Okay, I’m ridiculous.
“Or party favors,” I laugh.
“Or”—he scrutinized the receipt—“supplies for a really expensive water balloon fight.”
“Visual aids for health class?” I slip my hand into the back pocket of Jase’s jeans.
“Or little raincoats for . . .” He pauses, stumped.
“Barbie dolls,” I suggest.
“G.I. Joes,” he corrects, and slips his free hand into the back pocket of my jeans, bumping his hip against mine as we head back to the car.
”
”
Huntley Fitzpatrick (My Life Next Door)
“
When my grandmother—may she attain the Kingdom of Heaven—was dying, my mother, as was then the custom, took me to her bedside and, as I kissed her right hand, my dear grandmother placed her dying left hand on my head and said in a whisper, yet very distinctly: “Eldest of my grandsons! Listen and always remember my strict injunction to you: In life never do as others do.” Having said this, she gazed at the bridge of my nose and, evidently noticing my perplexity and my obscure understanding of what she had said, added somewhat angrily and imperiously: “Either do nothing—just go to school—or do something nobody else does Whereupon she immediately, without hesitation and with a perceptible impulse of disdain for all around her, and with commendable self-cognizance, gave up her soul directly into the hands of His Faithfulness, the Archangel Gabriel.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson)
“
For me, the future was a complete paradox. One one hand [..] teachers were pushing that 'know what you want to do for the rest of your life' attitude. Yet, on the other hand I wanted to stay a kid. Parents and teachers were so intimidating when they talked about the 'real world' and taxes and mortgages and bills and insurance. With freedom comes responsibility and I wasn't sure if I was ready for all that.
”
”
Ryan Smithson (Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI)
“
Everyone is familiar with the phenomenon of feeling more or less alive on different days. Everyone knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth, but which he might display if these were greater. Most of us feel as if a sort of cloud weighed upon us, keeping us below our highest notch of clearness in discernment, sureness in reasoning, or firmness in deciding. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources. In some persons this sense of being cut off from their rightful resources is extreme, and we then get the formidable neurasthenic and psychasthenic conditions, with life grown into one tissue of impossibilities, that so many medical books describe.
Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum. In elementary faculty, in co-ordination, in power of inhibition and co ntro l, in every conceivable way, his life is contracted like the field of vision of an hysteric subject — but with less excuse, for the poor hysteric is diseased, while in the rest of us, it is only an inveterate habit — the habit of inferiority to our full self — that is bad.
”
”
Colin Wilson (G.I. Gurdjieff: The War Against Sleep)
“
Personally, I don’t mind being corrected, even when I’m right. It’s nice to know that people are paying attention. But when I am corrected, I prefer it to be in the style of Lieutenant Dixon. He didn’t scold the GI for confusing Mozart with Beethoven. He wasn’t haughty, pedantic, or disappointed. His words came with no apologies, no exclamation points, and no attempt to lord his knowledge over his men. In fact, if you YouTube the scene, you’ll see that he barely glances at the man he corrects. He simply rectifies the situation definitively while remaining focused on the final few measures of Beethoven’s movement.
”
”
Mike Rowe (The Way I Heard It)
“
Nói chung, giáo dục là gì? Chúng ta làm gì trong trường này? Các em có thể nói rằng các em muốn tốt nghiệp để lên được đại học, chuẩn bị sự nghiệp. Nhưng, các em thân mến ạ, còn hơn thế nữa cơ. Thầy đã phải tự hỏi mình làm cái quái quỷ gi trong lớp này. Thầy đã lập cho mình một phương trình. Bên trái tấm bảng thầy viết một chữ S, bên phải một chữ T. Thầy vạch một mũi tên từ trái sang phải, từ SỢ HÃI sang TỰ DO.
Thầy không nghĩ rằng có ai đạt được tự do hoàn toàn, nhưng điều thầy cùng làm với các em là xua nỗi sợ hãi vào một góc.
”
”
Frank McCourt (Teacher Man (Frank McCourt, #3))
“
The treatment accorded the Negro during the Second World War marks, for me, a turning point in the Negro’s relation to America. To put it briefly, and somewhat too simply, a certain hope died, a certain respect for white Americans faded. One began to pity them, or to hate them. You must put yourself in the skin of a man who is wearing the uniform of his country, is a candidate for death in its defense, and who is called a “nigger” by his comrades-in-arms and his officers; who is almost always given the hardest, ugliest, most menial work to do; who knows that the white G.I. has informed the Europeans that he is subhuman (so much for the American male’s sexual security); who does not dance at the U.S.O. the night white soldiers dance there, and does not drink in the same bars white soldiers drink in; and who watches German prisoners of war being treated by Americans with more human dignity than he has ever received at their hands. And who, at the same time, as a human being, is far freer in a strange land than he has ever been at home.
”
”
James Baldwin (The Fire Next Time)
“
By the way, what is a dream?” I asked after some hesitation. YoonGi answered in his drawling voice. “I told you I don't have one.” “No, I mean... .” I hesitated and continued. “I was wondering what a dream is. What do people mean by a dream?” He looked at me and then turned his gaze towards the sky, frowning. “Something you want to achieve? I guess.”
HoSeok took over, waving his mobile phone at us. “The dictionary definitions are first, ‘an imaginary series of events you experience while you are asleep’; second, ‘a situation or an ideal you hope to realize’; and third, ‘false expectations or thoughts that are almost unlikely or completely unlikely to turn into reality’.”
“Isn't the third definition odd? How can something that is unlikely to turn into reality be called a dream?” HoSeok responded. “People sometimes tell you to wake up from your dream. So, if you're dreaming of turning back and going home before we get to the rock, wake up from your dream!”
Some of us laughed out loud, but the rest showed no reaction, probably because they had no more energy left. “That's weird. How can something that you want to achieve most in your life and something that is unlikely to come true both be called a dream?” YoonGi said, giggling. “Maybe it means that people are that desperate. They just can't give up on their dreams even though they know they won't come true. Don't ever try to have a dream.” I looked at him in surprise.“How come?” YoonGi had started biting his nails and, feeling conscious of my glance, he put his hands in his pockets. “Because it's tough having one.
”
”
Big Hit Entertainment (花樣年華 HYYH The Notes 1 (The Most Beautiful Moment in Life, #1))
“
I also very well remember that on another occasion the father dean said: ‘In order that at responsible age a man may be a real man and not a parasite, his education must without fail be based on the following ten principles. ‘From early childhood there should be instilled in the child: Belief in receiving punishment for disobedience. Hope of receiving reward only for merit. Love of God—but indiference to the saints. Remorse of conscience for the ill-treatment of animals. Fear of grieving parents and teachers. Fearlessness towards devils, snakes and mice. Joy in being content merely with what one has. Sorrow at the loss of the goodwill of others. Patient endurance of pain and hunger. The striving early to earn one’s bread.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Meetings With Remarkable Men)
“
All this and much else besides is merely a form of identification. Such considering is wholly based upon ‘requirements’. A man inwardly ‘requires’ that everyone should see what a remarkable man he is and that they should constantly give expression to their respect, esteem, and admiration for him, for his intellect, his beauty, his cleverness, his wit, his presence of mind, his originality, and all his other qualities. Requirements in their turn are based on a completely fantastic notion about themselves such as very often occurs with people of very modest appearance. Various writers, actors, musicians, artists, and politicians, for instance, are almost without exception sick people. And what are they suffering from? First of all from an extraordinary opinion of themselves, then from requirements, and then from considering, that is, being ready and prepared beforehand to take offence at lack of understanding and lack of appreciation.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching)
“
What I said was this: ‘Good. You have a religion, a faith in something. It is very good to have faith in something, whatever it may be, even if you don’t know exactly in whom or in what—even if you have not the least idea of the significance and the possibilities of what you have faith in. To have faith, whether consciously or even quite unconsciously, is very necessary and desirable for every being. ‘And it is desirable because it is by faith, and by faith alone, that there can appear the intensity of being-self-consciousness necessary for everyone, as well as the valuation of one’s own personal being as a particle of everything existing in the Universe. ” ‘But what has the destruction of the existence of another being to do with this faith—above all when you destroy it in the name of its Creator? Does not that “life,” which He created as He created yours, have the same value as your own? ” ‘Making use of your psychic strength and cunning, that is, those data with which our Common Creator has endowed you for the perfecting of your Reason, you take advantage of the psychic weakness of other beings and destroy their existence.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson)
“
I was eight years old when I realized that my G.I. Joe and Optimus Prime were more than friends,” I told her. “Theirs was a forbidden love that dared not speak its name.”
“Optimus Prime is a robot,” Jenny said. “Humans and robots can’t be in love.”
“Oh,” Sandy groaned. “You shouldn’t have said that.”
“Blasphemy!” I hissed at her.
“It’s true!” she insisted.
“I hope you never have children,” I snapped.
”
”
T.J. Klune
“
La Lotería, con su reparto semanal de enormes premios, era el único acontecimiento público al que los proles prestaban verdadera atención. Era probable que hubiese millones de proles para quienes la Lotería fuese la razón principal, si no la única, para seguir con vida. Era su deleite, su locura, su analgésico, su estimulante intelectual. En lo que se refería a la Lotería, hasta quienes apenas sabían leer y escribir eran capaces de llevar a cabo intrincados cálculos y sorprendentes logros memorísticos. Había toda una tribu de individuos que se ganaban la vida vendiendo sistemas, predicciones y amuletos de la suerte. Winston no tenía nada que ver con la Lotería, que se gestionaba desde el Ministerio de la Abundancia, pero sabía (como cualquier otro miembro del Partido) que los premios eran casi todos imaginarios. Solo se pagaban pequeñas sumas y los ganadores de los premios gordos en realidad no existían. En ausencia de verdadera comunicación entre una parte de Oceanía y otra, no resultaba difícil amañarlo.
”
”
George Orwell (1984)
“
The alienation, the downright visceral frustration, of the new American ideologues, the bone in their craw, is the unacknowledged fact that America has never been an especially capitalist country. The postal system, the land grant provision for public education, the national park system, the Homestead Act, the graduated income tax, the Social Security system, the G.I. Bill -- all of these were and are massive distributions or redistributions of wealth meant to benefit the population at large.
”
”
Marilynne Robinson (When I Was a Child I Read Books)
“
Contemporary man, owing to certain, almost imperceptible conditions of ordinary life which are firmly rooted in modern civilisation and which seem to have become, so to speak, " inevitable " in daily life, has gradually deviated from the natural type he ought to have represented on account of the sum-total of the influences of place and environment in which he was born and reared and which, under normal conditions, without any artificial impediments, would have indicated by their very nature for each individual the lawful path of his development in that final normal type which he ought to have become even in his preparatory age. Today, civilisation, with its unlimited scope in extending its influence, has wrenched man from the normal conditions in which he should be living. It is, of course, true that modern civilisation has opened up for man new and vaster horizons in different technical, mechanical and many other so-called " sciences ", thereby enlarging his world perception, but civilisation has, instead of a balanced rising to a higher degree of development, developed only certain sides of his general being to the detriment of others, while, because of the absence of an harmonious education, certain faculties inherent in man have even been completely destroyed, depriving him in this way of the natural privileges of his type. In other words, by not educating the growing generation harmoniously, this civilisation, which should have been, according to common sense, in all respects like a good mother to man, has withheld from him what she should have given him ; and, it appears, that she has even taken from him the possibility of the progressive and balanced development of a new type, which development would have inevitably taken place if only in the course of time and according to the law of general human progress. From this follows the indubitable fact, which can be clearly established, that, instead of an accomplished individual type, which historical data would show man to have been some centuries ago and one normally in communion with Nature and the environment generating him, there developed instead a being that was uprooted from the soil, unfit for life, and a stranger to all normal conditions of existence.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (The Herald of Coming Good)
“
High school was so typical and predictable. Everyone here was so occupied with discovering the definition of cool.
To some, cool was Abercrombie and popped collars. Some thought cool was playing sports. Some thought cool was drinking before the homecoming dance. And others swore that cool was not trying to be cool: nonconformists with black nail polish, leather boots, and oversized safety pins in their ears.
Our free expression was in so many ways just a restriction of our identities. All of us trying to be something we weren't. Even the nonconformists were conforming.
High school, I guessed, was just a chapter, something standing in the way of real freedom. High school didn't even seem real. It seemed so fake.
”
”
Ryan Smithson (Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI)
“
The Christian church, the Christian form of worship, was not invented by the fathers of the church. It was all taken in a ready-made form from Egypt, only not from the Egypt that we know but from one which we do not know. This Egypt was in the same place as the other but it existed much earlier. Only small bits of it survived in historical times, and these bits have been preserved in secret and so well that we do not even know where they have been preserved.
It will seem strange to many people when I say that this prehistoric Egypt was Christian many thousands of years before the birth of Christ, that is to say, that its religion was composed of the same principles and ideas that constitute true Christianity. Special schools existed in this prehistoric Egypt which were called 'schools of repetition.' In these schools a public repetition was given on definite days, and in some schools perhaps even every day, of the entire course in a condensed form of the sciences that could be learned at these schools. Sometimes this repetition lasted a week or a month. Thanks to these repetitions people who had passed through this course did not lose their connection with the school and retained in their memory all they had learned. Sometimes they came from very far away simply in order to listen to the repetition and went away feeling their connection with the school. There were special days of the year when the repetitions were particularly complete, when they were carried out with particular solemnity—and these days themselves possessed a symbolical meaning.
These 'schools of repetition' were taken as a model for Christian churches—the form of worship in Christian churches almost entirely represents the course of repetition of the science dealing with the universe and man. Individual prayers, hymns, responses, all had their own meaning in this repetition as well as holidays and all religious symbols, though their meaning has been forgotten long ago.
”
”
G.I. Gurdjieff (In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching)
“
[Sonnet] You jerk you didn't call me up"
You jerk you didn't call me up
I haven't seen you in so long
You probably have a fucking tan
& besides that instead of making love tonight
You're drinking your parents to the airport
I'm through with you bourgeois boys
All you ever do is go back to ancestral comforts
Only money can get—even Catullus was rich but
Nowadays you guys settle for a couch
By a soporific color cable t.v. set
Instead of any arc of love, no wonder
The G.I. Joe team blows it every other time
Wake up! It's the middle of the night
You can either make love or die at the hands of the Cobra Commander
_________________
To make love, turn to page 121.
To die, turn to page 172.
”
”
Bernadette Mayer
“
Her face went blank as she realized what she’d interrupted. “I’ll, uh, go upstairs and watch a show,” she said, not sounding like herself at all.
I scooted out from under Adam. “And Jesse saves the day,” I said lightly. “Thank you, that was getting out of hand.”
She paused, looking—surprised.
I wondered uncharitably how many times she’d walked in on her mother in similar situations and what her mother’s response had been. I never had liked Jesse’s mother and was happy to believe all sorts of evil about her. I let anger at the games her mother might have played surround me. When you’ve lived with werewolves, you learn tricks to hide what you’re feeling from them—anger, for instance, covers up panic pretty well—and, out from under Adam’s sensuous hands, I was panicking plenty.
Adam snorted. “That’s one way to put it.” To my relief, he’d stayed where we’d been, sinking facedown onto the mat.
“Even with my willpower, his lure was too great,” I said melodramatically, complete with wrist to forehead. If I made a joke of it, he’d never realize how truthful I was being.
A slow smile spread across her face and she quit looking like she was ready to bolt back into the house. “Dad’s kind of a stud, all right.”
“Jesse,” warned Adam, his voice muffled only a little by the mat. She giggled.
“I have to agree,” I said in overly serious tones. “Maybe as high as a seven or eight, even.”
“Mercedes,” Adam thundered, surging to his feet.
I winked at Jesse, held my gi top over my left shoulder with one finger, and strolled casually out the back door of the garage. I didn’t mean to, but when I turned to shut the door, I looked back and saw Adam’s face. His expression gave me cold chills.
He wasn’t angry or hurt. He looked thoughtful, as if someone had just given him the answer to a question that had been bothering him. He knew.
”
”
Patricia Briggs (Blood Bound (Mercy Thompson, #2))