to be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me everybody else means, read more

to be nobody-but-myself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make me everybody else means, to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.

In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating.

In its function, the power to punish is not essentially different from that of curing or educating.

All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be read more

All pain is either severe or slight, if slight, it is easily endured; if severe, it will without doubt be brief.

Hanging is too good for him said Mr. Cruelty.

Hanging is too good for him said Mr. Cruelty.

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round read more

I do not want a plain box, I want a sarcophagus
With tigery stripes, and a face on it
Round as the moon, to stare up.
I want to be looking at them when they come
Picking among the dumb minerals, the roots.
I see them already-the pale, star-distance faces.
Now they are nothing, they are not even babies.
I imagine them without fathers or mothers, like the first gods.
They will wonder if I was important.

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the world.

Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the world.

When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to read more

When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together.

Life is a jest; and all things show it.
I thought so once; but now I know it.

Life is a jest; and all things show it.
I thought so once; but now I know it.

When one is rising, standing, walking, doing something, stopping, one should constantly concentrate one's mind on the act and the read more

When one is rising, standing, walking, doing something, stopping, one should constantly concentrate one's mind on the act and the doing of it, not one ones' relation to the act or its character or value... One should simply practice concentration of the mind on the act itself, understanding it to be an expedient means for attaining tranquility of mind, realization, insight, and wisdom.