β
Success in life is not for those who run fast, but for those who keep running and always on the move.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
People would rather live in a community with unreasonable claims, than face loneliness with their truth
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
The universe runs on the principle that one who can exert the most evil on other creatures runs the show.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
The giving hand is considered powerful; the receiving hand is considered weak. Itβs better to give than to receive.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
All religions are man-made; God has not yet revealed himself beyond doubt to anybody.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Good gods are scarce because the majority of gods are created by evil men
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Life has a meaning but do not set out to find out. Just live it out.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
He was part of a whole, a people scattered over the earth and yet eternally one and indivisible. Wherever a Jew lived, in whatever safety and isolation, he still belonged to his people.
β
β
Pearl S. Buck (Peony)
β
If someone can change your mind, he has won you over without raising his hand against you. This is the future of warfare.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Wandering is never waste, dear boy,' he said. 'While you wander you will find much to wonder about, and wonder is the first step to creation.
β
β
Pearl S. Buck (The Eternal Wonder)
β
Each mind conceives god in its own way. There may be as many variation of the god figure as there are people in the world
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
To take each day as a separate page, to be read carefully, savoring all of the details, this is best for me, I think.
β
β
Pearl S. Buck (The Eternal Wonder)
β
It's the duty of every man to free himself. Never accept to live an underdog's life in godβs world.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
You are really alone, especially if you are abandoned by those who were supposed to care for you.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
If we believe that god is the creator of evil, maybe there is evil also in heaven, if that is the case, we are not out of the woods yet
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
You don't need to work hard to earn an empire; there is an army of slaves to do it for you.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
An entrepreneur is a man who knows he can fail, but he does not accept to fail before he actually fails, and when he fails he learns from his errors and moves on.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
If you are my food, how am I supposed to feel pity towards you? That would mean starvation for me. βA hungry leopard told a fallen, panting, imploring gazelle
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
You are not a real thinker if your thoughts haven't landed you in trouble yet
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
If you aren't destroying your enemies, it's because you have been conquered and assimilated, you do not even have an idea of who your enemies are. You have been brainwashed into believing you are your own enemy, and you are set against yourself. The enemy is laughing at you as you tear yourself to pieces. That is the most effective warfare an enemy can launch on his foes: confounding them.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
I used to be afraid about what people might say or think after reading what I had written. I am not afraid anymore, because when I write, I am not trying to prove anything to anyone, I am just expressing myself and my opinions. Itβs ok if my opinions are different from those of the reader, each of us can have his own opinions. So writing is like talking, if you are afraid of writing, you may end up being afraid of talking
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Of course imagination is the beginning of creation. Without imagination there can be no creation.
β
β
Pearl S. Buck (The Eternal Wonder)
β
Don't ignore your dreams, in them your soul is awake and you are your true self.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Magic always happens when you direct your inner powers to the object you want to change.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
There is nothing behind the curtains of religions, people put there whatever their imaginations can fathom
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
It's better to be ignorant and live in bliss than know the truth and live in agony.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Great story tellers are great liars. None of those complex characters, events and settings are anything but the figments of their own imaginations
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Break your shackles and reach out to your freedom. Break to pieces whatever indoctrination and programming that holds you hostage. The world is yours. Get possession of it.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
The power of a writer is that he is a god of sorts. He can create his own worlds and populate them with his own people, all by the powers of his imagination. It's the closest a man can come close to the gods. No wonder the most successful writers are considered immortals
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
You can edit what you write. Why not edit what you say? If it hurts somebody, you can still offer an apology or withdraw your statements
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Many writers write because theyβve been there, seen that, did it and burnt their fingers
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
A writer is never alone, he is always with himself
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Itβs a deep anguish to be abandoned by your own family. If those of your own blood forsake you are truly forsaken.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
I think this business of good vs. evil is of no interest to the power hungry
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Many smiling faces hide a bleeding heart
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Atheists are the most honest of the human race. These people are unable to live a double life; they are unable to lie to themselves. Of course it's an evolutionary handicap, and if that handicap was widespread, our species would run the risk of extinction
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Every revolution starts with the aim to help the poor, but when the poor get it they forget who they were and become the new oppressors. The cycle goes on forever
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Though we are terrorized by death, it's not different from birth, it just happens
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Beware of "don'ts", "thou shalt" and the like. These are signals of programming attempts at your brain.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Life is politics, you do it or it does you
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
No one knows everything. Everyone can contribute to the happiness of others.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
You can spread an ideology only by bombs. Either by real bombs or love bombs (manipulation).
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Emotion is created by a cause, whether that cause is factual or imaginary does not matter, as longer as the believer holds it as true.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
The world slides, the world goes, and death makes equal the rich and the poor
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Donβt be afraid to fail, nobody is perfect, stumble on
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Don't be afraid to bite on a giant, learn from the mosquito
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Every word that comes after "And the Lord told me. . . βis a pious lie
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Donβt complain against life, it may hear you and double your suffering
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Some men are sent to heaven by torturers who thought they were doing god's work by sending them to hell
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Let no one ever intimidate you, you are standing on no one's ground. But again, some have claimed the earth as their own and usurped power from the rest of us. But they are usurpers; power belongs to every one of us. Seek it as much as possible. There is no shame in that. In fact it's a necessity. Either you have power or you are trampled to death in the stampede to get to the top
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Don't create unbelief or doubt in people's minds. When you do so you ruin their lives and you have nothing to give them in its place. It's ok if people delude themselves; those delusions keep their day running.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Words disappear in the air, but writing remains. If you want something to be remembered about you, write it down
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
You want to be great? Help others achieve their greatness
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
People are not interested in serving, they are interested in enjoying power
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
This life is not perfect, live it to the full, it's all we have
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Give me something to worship; whatever.β Cries the human soul
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
What is life but an ongoing war?
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Stop blaming evil on the Devil, blame it on the Creator of everything, if you don't understand, ask Him or at least hope that someday He will reveal it to you
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
In the modern city life, if you don't have money , you simply don't have life.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Why do religious believers hate unbelievers? The feel threatened by them, they feel besieged by them. Religions consider themselves as separate tribes in their own rights and feel like unbelievers will one day overrun their strongholds
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Did you know you could destroy dragons? Dragons are not actually real, they just roar to scare you away from your goals. In fact they are afraid of determined heroes, they take flight at their approach
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Don't believe in everything that is written. Not everything that is written is true
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
People speak even after their death. Only do speak those who have recorded their speech in writing before they die, the rest go silent forever
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
In politics what you see is not what you get
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
We write, not because we claim to know more than others, but perhaps because we want to know more than others. Writers are explorers
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
If you think that no miracles ever happened to you, remember that every morning when you wake up, you experience a resurrection
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Hell is nothing but a place we wish God has created for our enemies, we ourselves think that he will ultimately show some kind of clemency towards us
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
I live nearby a graveyard, that's where I get all my inspiration for wisdom and life
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
We all want to become more than we are, we want to live forever, that is why we hate death and create the afterlife.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
There is no wise man who has not suffered in his life
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
A small event as tiny as a drop of a pin can change the direction of your entire life
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Life has no map; it's made of random events, always caused by something beyond your control.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
You need pain to wake you up and ponder on the meaning of life
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Perfection is the enemy of creativity
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Only the strong will remain, all the weak will be consumed by fire
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Don't constantly make angry your wife. Once she throws you out of her heart, there is no appeal
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
They hate you not because of what you have done but because of who you are; you are different from who they are, and you are occupying the ground they want for themselves.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
There is time for a fight and a time for a flight; knowing the right time to do one or the other can mean the difference between life and death
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
When something or someone you dearly love is snatched away from you, something of you go with it. You become emotionally amputated
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
The black, the white, the brown, the red, the yellow, the hetero, the homo, the trans, the poor, the rich, the literate, the illiterate, the weak, the strong β all are my sisters and brothers. My life is their life. And till the last breath in my body, I shall be serving you all with all the power in my veins. And beyond death, my ideas shall be serving you for eternity.
β
β
Abhijit Naskar (I Am The Thread: My Mission)
β
Some theologians will tell you that God's love is unconditional but...Forget the βbutβ. God has no βbuts and no ifsβ. God loves you unconditionally; his love is eternal and has no limits.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
'Yes, we rather condemn people for eternity without the courtesy of informing them.'
β
β
Matthew Pearl (The Dante Club (The Dante Club, #1))
β
Make love! He disliked the phrase. Could one make love?
β
β
Pearl S. Buck (The Eternal Wonder)
β
There was no need to hurry that futureβyet the length of his own youth pressed upon him. Whatever he was to do next he wanted to begin now. But how to begin and on what?
β
β
Pearl S. Buck (The Eternal Wonder)
β
You must set forth and find the center of your interest. You are a creator, but you must find your interest and then dedicate yourself to that interestβnot to the act of creativity. Merely to want to create will make it impossible for you to do so. You must find an interest greater than yourselfβa love, perhapsβand then the power to create will set you on fire.
β
β
Pearl S. Buck (The Eternal Wonder)
β
Once you are in power, never forget those who put you there. Deal with those who think they can do better than you and those who think you are god's representative on earth. Deal with each other according to his actions
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
The internet is killing the art of writing. The big "publish" button begs you to publish even before you go back and make one single edit, and as if this was not enough, you have instant readers who praise your writing skills!-
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
We are souls, eternal and perfect, captains of our mystic ships: gods and goddesses of our universe. We are beautiful, we pearls of grit. We, the ember of everything. Our uniqueness IS what makes us special, and the expression of it is our gift to the rest of us. In order to feel happy and fulfilled, we must honour our own personal brand of creativity... let it out into the world... BE who we came here to BE.
β
β
Angie karan
β
I have seen the sun break through
to illuminate a small field
for a while, and gone my way
and forgotten it. But that was the pearl
of great price, the one field that had
treasure in it. I realize now
that I must give all that I have
to possess it. Life is not hurrying
on to a receeding future, nor hankering after
an imagined past. It is the turning
aside like Moses to the miracle
of the lit bush, to a brightness
that seemed as transitory as your youth
once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
β
β
R.S. Thomas (Selected Poems (Penguin Modern Classics))
β
Some people will submit to you only in order to get what they want from you. If it is power that they wanted, once they have managed to separate it from you, they will turn against you and turn you into their slaves. Take care to discover the true intentions of men beforehand. Men are experts at hiding their true selves
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
A writer reports on the universe. When he presents his credentials, the gates of heaven and hell are equally opened to him. He can hear the devilβs defense and godβs accusations. The guards at the kingβs heart let him in. The writer can be anything and any one he wants. When he writes he is a god, he creates.
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
Fairy tales are about trouble, about getting into and out of it, and trouble seems to be a necessary stage on the route to becoming. All the magic and glass mountains and pearls the size of houses and princesses beautiful as the day and talking birds and part-time serpents are distractions from the core of most of the stories, the struggle to survive against adversaries, to find your place in the world, and to come into your own.
Fairy tales are almost always the stories of the powerless, of youngest sons, abandoned children, orphans, of humans transformed into birds and beasts or otherwise enchanted away from their own lives and selves. Even princesses are chattels to be disowned by fathers, punished by step-mothers, or claimed by princes, though they often assert themselves in between and are rarely as passive as the cartoon versions. Fairy tales are children's stories not in wh they were made for but in their focus on the early stages of life, when others have power over you and you have power over no one.
In them, power is rarely the right tool for survival anyway. Rather the powerless thrive on alliances, often in the form of reciprocated acts of kindness -- from beehives that were not raided, birds that were not killed but set free or fed, old women who were saluted with respect. Kindness sewn among the meek is harvested in crisis...
In Hans Christian Andersen's retelling of the old Nordic tale that begins with a stepmother, "The Wild Swans," the banished sister can only disenchant her eleven brothers -- who are swans all day look but turn human at night -- by gathering stinging nettles barehanded from churchyard graves, making them into flax, spinning them and knitting eleven long-sleeved shirts while remaining silent the whole time. If she speaks, they'll remain birds forever. In her silence, she cannot protest the crimes she accused of and nearly burned as a witch.
Hauled off to a pyre as she knits the last of the shirts, she is rescued by the swans, who fly in at the last moment. As they swoop down, she throws the nettle shirts over them so that they turn into men again, all but the youngest brother, whose shirt is missing a sleeve so that he's left with one arm and one wing, eternally a swan-man. Why shirts made of graveyard nettles by bleeding fingers and silence should disenchant men turned into birds by their step-mother is a question the story doesn't need to answer. It just needs to give us compelling images of exile, loneliness, affection, and metamorphosis -- and of a heroine who nearly dies of being unable to tell her own story.
β
β
Rebecca Solnit (The Faraway Nearby)
β
Try not to breathe,β I tell Lira. βIt might get stuck halfway out.β
Lira flicks up her hood. βYou should try not to talk then,β she retorts. βNobody wants your words being preserved for eternity.β
βTheyβre pearls of wisdom, actually.β
I can barely see Liraβs eyes under the mass of dark fur from her coat, but the mirthless curl of her smile is ever-present. It lingers in calculated amusement as she considers what to say next. Readies to ricochet the next blow.
Lira pulls a line of ice from her hair, artfully indifferent. βIf that is what pearls are worth these days, Iβll make sure to invest in diamonds.β
βOr gold,β I tell her smugly. βI hear itβs worth its weight.β
Kye shakes the snow from his sword and scoffs. βAnytime you two want to stop making me feel nauseated, go right ahead.β
βAre you jealous because Iβm not flirting with you?β Madrid asks him, warming her finger on the trigger mechanism of her gun.
βI donβt need you to flirt with me,β he says. βI already know you find me irresistible.β
Madrid reholsters her gun. βItβs actually quite easy to resist you when youβre dressed like that.β
Kye looks down at the sleek red coat fitted snugly to his lithe frame. The fur collar cuddles against his jaw and obscures the bottoms of his ears, making it seem as though he has no neck at all. He throws Madrid a smile.
βIs it because you think I look sexier wearing nothing?β
Torik lets out a withering sigh and pinches the bridge of his nose. Iβm not sure whether itβs from the hours weβve gone without food or his inability to wear cutoffs in the biting cold, but his patience seems to be wearing thin.
βI could swear that Iβm on a life-and-death mission with a bunch of lusty kids,β he says. βNext thing I know, the lot of you will be writing love notes in rum bottles.β
βOkay,β Madrid says. βNow I feel nauseated.β
I laugh.
β
β
Alexandra Christo (To Kill a Kingdom (Hundred Kingdoms, #1))
β
Realization: We render time by stitching together moments--flipping pages in the book of consciousness presents a continuous stream. Our senses too slow to realize the separation of moments, like a strand of pearls through eternity.
Time is terrifying, time is unspeakable. Clock-time lies down between moments ... but distance warps with velocity, time bends with velocity. Frames of reference. Are not absolute. Are selfish. A private reality. Clocks have a life of their own. Framed by references.
β
β
David David Katzman (A Greater Monster)
β
What if a man could write everything that came into his mind. You could find there gems of wisdom, depth of utter despair, heights of the most cherished hopes, killing fields where we slaughter our enemies, moments of faith and moments of doubts, dark chambers where we commit infidelity against our partners, counting the goods we have stolen, hell nightmares, heaven blessedness, cursing of our enemies and blessing of our friends, and many other things. If one could write his mind, it would be a mirror to other minds where they could find themselves and not feel as the only wretched souls in existence. Go on then, write your mind in a book and publish it
β
β
Bangambiki Habyarimana (Pearls Of Eternity)
β
When I say that I am convinced of these things I speak with too much pride. Far off, like a perfect pearl, one can see the city of God. It is so wonderful that it seems as if a child could reach it in a summer's day. And so a child could. But with me and such as me it is different. One can realise a thing in a single moment, but one loses it in the long hours that follow with leaden feet. It is so difficult to keep 'heights that the soul is competent to gain.' We think in eternity, but we move slowly through time; and how slowly time goes with us who lie in prison I need not tell again, nor of the weariness and despair that creep back into one's cell, and into the cell of one's heart, with such strange insistence that one has, as it were, to garnish and sweep one's house for their coming, as for an unwelcome guest, or a bitter master, or a slave whose slave it is one's chance or choice to be.
β
β
Oscar Wilde (De Profundis, the Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poetry)
β
A rainbow is a stormβs masterpiece.
A seed is a flowerβs masterpiece.
A rock is a diamondβs masterpiece.
A butterfly is a caterpillarβs masterpiece.
A flame is a sparkβs masterpiece.
A drop is an oceanβs masterpiece.
A brick is a mansionβs masterpiece.
A cell is a bodyβs masterpiece.
A nest is a birdβs masterpiece.
A flame is a sparkβs masterpiece.
A note is a symphonyβs masterpiece.
A flower is a gardenβs masterpiece.
Herbs are a plantβs masterpiece.
Honey is a beeβs masterpiece.
Silk is a spiderβs masterpiece.
Wool is a sheepβs masterpiece.
Perfume is a flowerβs masterpiece.
Syrup is a treeβs masterpiece.
Wine is a grapeβs masterpiece.
Fruit is a seedβs masterpiece.
Pearls are an oysterβs masterpiece.
Beauty is a skyβs masterpiece.
Charm is a starβs masterpiece.
Spring is natureβs masterpiece.
Time is eternityβs masterpiece.
Energy is lightβs masterpiece.
Heat is fireβs masterpiece.
Knowledge is truthβs masterpiece.
Thoughts are the mindβs masterpiece.
Desires are the heartβs masterpiece.
Experiences are the soulβs masterpiece.
Intelligence is natureβs masterpiece.
Enlightenment is wisdomβs masterpiece.
The world is the universeβs masterpiece.
Life is the Divine Oneβs masterpiece.
Awareness is lifeβs masterpiece.
β
β
Matshona Dhliwayo
β
Amongst those who go to sea there are the navigators who discover new worlds, adding continents to the earth and stars to the heavens: they are the masters, the great, the eternally splendid. Then there are those who spit terror from their gun-ports, who pillage, who grow rich and fat. Others go off in search of gold and silk under foreign skies. Still others catch salmon for the gourmet or cod for the poor. I am the obscure and patient pearl-fisherman who dives into the deepest waters and comes up with empty hands and a blue face. Some fatal attraction draws me into the abysses of thought, down into those innermost recesses which never cease to fascinate the strong. I shall spend my life gazing at the ocean of art, where others voyage or fight; and from time to time I'll entertain myself by diving for those green and yellow shells that nobody will want. So I shall keep them for myself and cover the walls of my hut with them.
β
β
Gustave Flaubert
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The laws of nature are sublime, but there is a moral sublimity before which the highest intelligences must kneel and adore. The laws by which the winds blow, and the tides of the ocean, like a vast clepsydra, measure, with inimitable exactness, the hours of ever-flowing time; the laws by which the planets roll, and the sun vivifies and paints; the laws which preside over the subtle combinations of chemistry, and the amazing velocities of electricity; the laws of germination and production in the vegetable and animal worlds, β all these, radiant with eternal beauty as they are, and exalted above all the objects of sense, still wane and pale before the Moral Glories that apparel the universe in their celestial light. The heart can put on charms which no beauty of known things, nor imagination of the unknown, can aspire to emulate. Virtue shines in native colors, purer and brighter than pearl, or diamond, or prism, can reflect. Arabian gardens in their bloom can exhale no such sweetness as charity diffuses. Beneficence is godlike, and he who does most good to his fellow-man is the Master of Masters, and has learned the Art of Arts. Enrich and embellish the universe as you will, it is only a fit temple for the heart that loves truth with a supreme love. Inanimate vastness excites wonder; knowledge kindles admiration, but love enraptures the soul. Scientific truth is marvellous, but moral truth is divine; and whoever breathes its air and walks by its light, has found the lost paradise. For him, a new heaven and a new earth have already been created. His home is the sanctuary of God, the Holy of Holies.
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Horace Mann (A Few Thoughts For A Young Man)
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It's like Romeo & Juliet,' I say. 'You can't separate them. Otherwise, there would be no Shakespeare.'
Silence.
I decide to be more straightforward. I tell him, 'Nothing frightens me anymore. I am not even afraid to die.'
Bussey's eyes, already wide open, grow even wider. My death is the last thing he needs.
I have the strange feeling that there are two of me. One observes the conversation while the other does the talking. Everything is abnormal, especially this extreme calm that has taken me over. I try to explain to Bussey that if I decide to die, it will be without bitterness. I know I did everything I possibly could, so it will be respectful farewell. I will bow to life like an actor, who, having delivered his lines, bends deeply to his audience & retires. I tell Bussey that this decision has nothing to do with him, that it is entirely mine. I will choose either to live or to die, but I cannot allow myself to live in the in-between. I do not want to go through life like a ghost.
'Do you think you'll find Danny this way?' Bussey asks.
My mind sifts through all available theories on the afterlife. It is as if this metaphysical question has become as real as the air we breathe. Buddhism teaches that life is an eternal cycle without beginning or end. I recall the metaphor: "Our individual lives are like waves produced from the great ocean that is the universe. The emergence of a wave is life, and its abatement is death. This rhythm repeats eternally."
Finally I answer Bussey, 'No, I don't think so.'
Bussey seems relieved, but I'm more panicky, because I had never thought that I could wind up alone. In my mind, whatever the odds, Danny & I were & would be together forever.
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Mariane Pearl (A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl)