“This is where modern man now finds himself…

“This is where modern man now finds himself, not on the highway of upward Progress toward a radiant Utopia, but on the brink of a catastrophic precipice, below which yawns the absolute void, an uncompromising black Nothingness.”
~Gordon E. Bigelow

“That everyone can learn to read…

“That everyone can learn to read will ruin not only writing, but thinking too.”
~Friedrich Nietzsche

“We are deprived of strength…

“We are deprived of strength where we feel pity”
~Friedrich Nietzsche

“We do not speak language…

“We do not speak Language-Language speaks us.”
~Martin Heidegger

The Sadomasochistic Paradox

The Golden Rule is roughly formulated as, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Another formulation of this same maxim could be framed, “Treat others as you would like to be treated.”

So, a masochist says to his sadist friend, “Hit me!” The sadist replies, “No.”

Therefore, the traditional formulation of the rule is impotent and not true. For to be true it would have to apply to all cases and in regards to all persons. And in this case it certainly does no such thing.

To Himself

~Giacomo Leopardi

Now will you rest forever,
My tired heart. Dead is the last
deception,
That I thought eternal. Dead. Well I
feel
In us the sweet illusions,
Nothing but ash, desire burned out.
Rest forever. You have
Trembled enough. Nothing is worth
Thy beats, nor does the earth
deserve
Thy sighs. Bitter and dull
Is life, there is nought else. The
world is clay.
Rest now. Despair
For the last time. To our kind, Fate
Gives but death. Now despise
Yourself, nature, the sinister
Power that secretly commands our
common ruin,
And the infinite vanity of
everything.