Gordon Roddick, 1963 Biography

“The midnight hand Stands upright, Caught for an instant In the pitching chime Of dead day, The hush cries, freedom! And is strangled in the rush Of tomorrow's potential. The midnight hour, When time is still, A shrill gasp of passion unspent, A sour taste Of bent magic In a god's tragic World.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Realise, fool, Idiot, that it Is not your Potential that counts. It is what you are now, What you are thinking now, Here. Tomorrow is nothing. It does not exist. Today, we lay the patterns For tomorrow. Today is the time to Change everything. Not next week, For Christ's sake. Remember this, Of course, the whole Answer is summed up In one neat word – Death.”

LifePhilosophyWisdomDeathTimeChangeReflectionContemplationPotentialNow

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“My stutters. I am sick of being a figure of constant merriment, but then maybe it is doing me good. I don’t know; I must get it cured when I go home. I cannot live much longer with it.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I must be strong in this respect and not let it get me down. Never in my life have I been so consciously aware of my stutter as in these past two or three months. I must somehow destroy it before it destroys me. I have no alternative but to stamp it out.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“This stutter of mine is very bad, yesterday and today. I am having extreme difficulty communicating at all. It continually depresses me. I must conquer it. Somehow, I must. I cannot continue my life like this. It is futile and pointless.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“God, please, can I find someone beautiful, true, sincere, honest and idealistic? Please may they exist, that I may myself be this way.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Life creeps ever forward to the theme of nothing.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Philosophy is, I think, a way to happiness by logical reasoning, to wipe out illogicality’s irrationalities.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“A need, yes, there is a need because time and time again, I prove that I am frightened of it. Yes, a gut-twisting, tormenting fear of all people and what they think of me, always; always, this is over my shoulder.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I cannot escape from myself. I need a holiday from myself, a long holiday. I must shed my old self like a snake sheds its skin.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I must think about working, marrying and money.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“That tree out there, how green? How many leaves? Many thousands, hanging taught, stretched stems pulpy with parenchyma, fleshy with growth, glutinous, gluttonous growth, dripping growth till it grows weary and there is no more growth, then it dies and drops brownly to the green earth and lies dead.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“It waits for the cruel flame; then it will recoil, curl up, blacken and scream to be blown away on the wind, another dead thing cast off by the wind of time.”

LifeTruthNatureReflectionContemplationAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“What shape is its mother, the trunk of life? Why, it's conical, just like the pear tree that bloody partridge sits in every Christmas time.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“It is better that we look, in mutual want, and let the rest go by.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Regret it afterwards, but with what pleasant regrets, there will be no tattered shameful memories of a greedy love, hotly stolen one parting night, no shattered illusions or painful recriminations, just a gentle, wistful smile and stirring of desire, a little regret for a cool and pleasant body still virgin for each other. It seems a crime not to take, but perhaps the crime would be greater in the taking.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“The anticipation of anything, act or experience, be what it may, is always better than the accomplishment of it.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“The completion of the anticipated is often anticlimactic disillusionment, cruel and harsh. Thus, ideals are good as long as they are unattainable, even though we swear we will attain them.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“What I like about ideals is that they want to be hot and passionate and appear nonsensical to the sensible man.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Ideals should be believed, loved and held above all else.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“The attainment of ideals is the attainment of perfection, and pure perfection is imperfection since it can only be boring and undesirable. If one could attain the perfection of one's own ideals, it would be just the same.”

LifePhilosophyWisdomTruthReflectionIdealsContemplationAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Today, we lay the pattern for tomorrow. Today is the time to change everything, not next week. For Christ’s sake, remember this. Of course, the whole answer is in one neat word: DEATH.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I can find no cause or creed to stimulate me. Why? Is this my fault? I’m not the dedicated type to give myself up to helping others. I believe in God, but not that of the church. I believe in a more realistic God, I think.”

LifeGodWisdomTruthReflectionContemplationLife LessonAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I don’t know if it is too vast a subject unless the heat is too great. I want something to which I can give myself heart and soul. True, sincere love does not come easily to me. I feel empty without this. I must find it, maybe in Argentina.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I shall find something worth pouring my all into. I wish I could paint and draw or play the trumpet.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I find writing frustrating. Words seem inadequate for all emotions. I do not have enough mastery of language to put my feelings to paper. Perhaps the author's duty is not to express his feelings but those of the story or novel.”

LifeWritingWisdomTruthReflectionContemplationLife LessonAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I can't seem to get down to writing. There appears to be no urge. No coherent reason just now.”

LifeWritingWisdomTruthReflectionContemplationLife LessonAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I can't put anything of value down on paper, only a list of dreary, staccato thoughts.”

LifeWritingWisdomTruthReflectionContemplationLife LessonAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Am I whingeing, moaning about my life? It is a life of my choosing, God knows. Much I have learnt and how much more I must learn. When can I get down to some serious reading, something instinctive and beneficial?”

LifeWisdomTruthBooksReflectionContemplationLife LessonAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I cannot write before I have read more and learnt more from what I read.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I must read Dickens, Tolstoy, Hardy, Dostoevsky, Maupassant and Galsworthy. I must read Lawrence, Woolf and Joyce. I must listen to music, read more, and learn more about modern and ancient. I must read Kant, Freud, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Aristotle, Sophocles — I must become a fountain of knowledge. I must go home soon.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“It’s funny how the mind wanders. Here I sit, in the Amazon Basin in the tropics, thinking about marriage and other crap. Someday, far in the distance, I shall read this and think of these days. One day, some good will come from these thoughts, maybe? Perhaps they will help someone else – for sure as hell, they don’t seem to do me much bloody good.”

LifeWisdomTruthMarriageReflectionContemplationLife LessonAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“It's too much of a pedestal, love.”

LoveLifeWisdomTruthReflectionContemplationLife LessonAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Don't worry there’s an end game.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Nevertheless, then he can become a good man. I sometimes think it is necessary to hide away from it all, bury oneself in solitary, surround oneself, go hunting, fishing and walking. Breathe the fresh air. But then, running from it all, not facing up to one's responsibilities, or is one fast getting the hell out of the crappy world?”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Maybe those who shout the loudest are the ones who envy one the most.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Could one carve out this ideal [solitary] life without responsibility? Would not one long for company, for music and dancing? For discussion? Would one long for sex, women, for variation, for laughter? That world could prove to be too difficult. I think the bitter reality is that one would long for other people, however hard this is to take.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Things that revolt me most are here. These are the mirrors of my thoughts. The things I curse most are the things I hate within myself. I can have the friends I want. I won’t deceive. I know it will be necessary to be pleasant to people I don’t like. Do things I don’t want to.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“One can work better to do things in comfort and for comfort. Need money, and for money, one has to work. So farming appeals to the independent mind. One is at least self-employed.”

LifePhilosophyWisdomTruthReflectionContemplationAttributed No SourceFarming

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Ultimately, I shall write the morals for myself. I am only concerned with living a moral life, but my morality, just now, is ineffectual. I don't have the strength to put it into action, but I must get this strength from within myself. From nowhere else does self-integrity come.”

LifePhilosophyWisdomTruthMoralityReflectionContemplationAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Under this heading of 'strength' is a rot which eats slowly within a man's soul. It must be rooted out in its entirety. Then, I can truly discuss philosophy with others, and until then, any further discussion of philosophy is hypothetical, stolen on self-condemnation; the strength of any particular philosophy lies in the power of the philosopher.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“It is why it gets so heated and blocks my ears in philosophical arguments, becomes too often the block, won't draw an argument, or quietly compute because then that argument will either be right, in which it is good, or else wrong, in which case it won't matter because I will appreciate it even more.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Writing here, I realise how much I must learn and how hard it will be to regain my moral integrity. It's not hard to begin. I think of every conscious addition that goes into pulling something back.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“The most incredible dream of love is the most beautiful sensation.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“God, how we loved. I thank God for those moments; nothing can ever make me forget them; they were so incredible. It’s funny how memories like that flood through one continually.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“I may get caught up somewhere I like and amongst people I like. These people certainly find my stutters very amusing and make no effort to hide that the workings of my mouth are comical.”

LifeTruthMemoriesSpeechReflectionContemplationAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“The real test is for a man to live with himself for an extended period. Alone, there is no room for insincerity or pretensions; he must know what he is. It is then that the doubts arise. If he can live with himself without going mad, then he has achieved something.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“A new leaf, a new day, a new place and ten thousand different possibilities – there is sadness at leaving new friends, but travelling is continually in this vein.”

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Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“Travelling can sometimes get sickening, and I am doing it because I am frightened of doing anything else and failing.”

LifeWisdomTruthTravelReflectionContemplationAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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“The more I travel, the less I know and can fathom out. I have learned a lot about people and places but still haven’t learned to live with myself. It will be a slow process. I suspect my every motive and every action is too conscious.”

LifeWisdomTruthTravelReflectionContemplationAttributed No Source

Author:Gordon Roddick, 1963

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