Powerful excerpts from books

ShoulderSurfer

ShoulderSurfer

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I will start things off...

A man cannot escape the force

of action by abstaining from actions;

he does not attain success

just by renunciation.

No one exists for even an instant

without performing action;

however unwilling, every being is forced

to act by the qualities of nature.

When his senses are controlled

but he keeps recalling

sense objects with his mind,

he is a self-deluded hypocrite.

When he controls his senses

with his mind and engages in the discipline

of action with his faculties of action,

detachment sets him apart.

Perform necessary action;

it is more powerful than inaction;

without action you even fail

to sustain your own body.

Action imprisons the world

unless it is done as sacrifice;

freed from attachment, Arjuna,

perform action as sacrifice!

 
"It's the American public for whom the Iraq War is often no more real than a video game. Five years into this war, I am not always confident most American fully appreciate the caliber of the people fighting for them, the sacrifices they have made, and the sacrifices they continue to make. After the Vietnam War ended, the onus of shame largely fell on the veterans. This time around, if shame is to be had when the Iraq conflict ends-and all indications are there will be plenty of it-the veterans are the last people in America to deserve it. When it comes to apportioning shame my vote goes to the American people who sent them to war in a surge of emotion but quickly lost the will to win it or end it. The young troops I profiled in Generation Kill, as well as the other men and women in uniform I've encountered in combat zones throughout Iraq and Afghanistan, are among the finest people of their generation. We misuse them at our own peril." (pg, 370)

 
"But that had been grief- this was joy. Yet that grief and this joy

were alike beyond the ordinary conditions of life; they were openings

as it were, in that ordinary life through which there came glimpses of

something sublime. And in the contemplation of this sublime something

the soul was exalted to inconceivable heights of which it had before

had no conception, while reason lagged behind unable to keep up with

it." Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
 
"By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many." - Albus Dumbledore
 
'Don't you see?' he cried. 'The American Standard translation orders men to triumph over sin, and you can call sin ignorance. The King James translation makes a promise in "Thou shalt", meaning that men will surely triumph over sin. But the Hebrew word, the word timshel - "Though mayest" - that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if "Though Mayest" - it is also true that "Though mayest not". Don't you see?'

'Yes, I see. I do see. But you do not believe this is divine law. Why do you feel its importance?'

'Ah!' said Lee. 'I've wanted to tell you this for a long time. I even anticipated your questions and I am well prepared. Any writing which has influenced the thinking and lives of innumerable people is important. Now, there are many millions in their sects and Churches who feel the order, "Do thou", and throw their weight into obedience. And there are millions more who feel predestination in the "Thou shalt". nothing they may do can interfere with what will be. But "Thou mayest"! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win.'

John Steinbeck

pg. 288-289; East of Eden
 
Want me to use something else? Fine.

"Finally, this book ought not to be regarded as a protest. Protest arises from a belief that one can change things or influence events. I am not egotistical enough to believe I can. Besides, it no longer seems necessary to register an objection to the war, because the war is over. We lost it, and no amount of objecting will resurrect the men who died, without redeeming anything, on calvaries like Hamburger Hill and the Rockpile.

It might, perhaps, prevent the next generation from being crucified in the next war.

But I don't think so."
 
"I would assume that you were going to offer me refreshment, but the

evidence so far suggests that that would be optimistic to the point of

foolishness."
 
" Eh Bien, mon prince, so Genoa and Lucca are now no more than family estates of the Bonapartes. No, I warn you, if you don't say that this means war, if you still permit yourself to condone all the infamies, all the atrocities, of this Antichrist- and that's what I really believe he is- I will have nothing more to do with you, you are no longer my friend, my faithful slave, as you say. But how do you do, how do you do? I see that I am frightening you. Sit down and tell me all about it"

Anna Scherer
War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy
 
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That is an illustration someone made for the part in the book "candide" when candide and cacambo meet a slave in south america. He lost his hand and told them of his hardships and said "this is the price you pay to eat sugar in Europe".

Fucking deep.

 
”I often wonder whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool” (Norton 2462)
 
  • So you think that money is the root of all evil? Have you ever

    asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which

    can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce

    them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to

    deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value.

    Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears

    or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made

    possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men's stupidity, but your talent to their reason.

“The source of man’s rights is not divine law or congressional law, but the law of identity. A is A—and Man is Man. Rights are conditions of existence required by man’s nature for his proper survival. If man is to live on earth, it is right for him to use his mind, it is right to act on his own free judgment, it is right to work for his values and to keep the product of his work. If life on earth is his purpose, he has a right to live as a rational being: nature forbids him the irrational.”

ill give whomever can name the book a cookie. be honest, you could google it. however im hoping someone gets it without teh googlz
 
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I am in the middle of Black Hawk Down and Call of Duty(autobiography of Lynn "Buck" Compton, one of the guys from Band of Brothers)
 
How can I be the only person who thinks you're a douche?

And that was rhetorical. In case you were getting ready to beat off to another post whoring session.
 
"For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much - the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man - for precisely the same reasons."
 
OOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

People making fun of me over the internet, I think I am going to go cut myself now in the corner.
 
""To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose. People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them. To hell with them!""

 
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to always tell the difference." - Slaughterhouse V
 
im not going to quote it but in the book Brave New World the last couple chapter talk about some interesting points like people can choose truth or happiness thing of that nature... makes you think
 
No, seriously Greg. Either join the military or STFU and GTFO. I don't care if your eyes suck, get lasik. I don't care if you're fat, get in shape. Either join the military or stop posting random SHIT!
 
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