Wednesday 23 January 2013

23/1

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.

Kahlil Gibran, 1926

Friday 11 January 2013

11/7

Have the courage to read this book, for it will make you ashamed, and shame, as Marx said, is a revolutionary sentiment.

Said Sartre in the preface to Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth. If you haven't already, do yourself a favour and read it.

11/1

On love

Let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

- Kahlil Gibran