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Quote by Donal Ryan

“They loved him, or loved the thought of him, what they thought he was: a man who could easily have had a good life who chose instead their life: spite and bitterness and age-fogged glasses of watery whiskey in dark, cobwebbed country bars, shit-smeared toilets, blood-streaked piss, and early death. He could have helped it but didn't. They couldn't help it and loved him for being worse than them. He was the king of the wasters.”

Quote by Donal Ryan

Work

The Spinning Heart

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Author

Donal Ryan
Donal Ryan

Donal Ryan is an Irish writer known for his distinctive literary style and profound themes. His works often explore social inequality, historical memory, and human experience. Born in 1977, Ryan's work has gained widespread recognition in the literary world. more

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“Haven't you got it through your head that human thought is a thing of the past & that philosophy is worse than Bertillon's guide to harassed cops? You make me laugh with your metaphysical anguish, it's just that you're scared silly, frightened of life, of men of action, of action itself, of lack of order. But everything is disorder, dear boy. Vegetable, mineral & animal, all disorder, & so is the multitude of human races, the life of man, thought, history, wars, inventions, business & the arts, & all theories, passions & systems. It's always been that way. Why are you trying to make something out of it? And what will you make? What are you looking for? There's no truth. There's only action, action subjected to every possible & imaginable contingency & contradiction. Life. Life is a crime, theft, jealousy, hunger, lies, disgust, stupidity, sickness, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, piles of corpses. What can you do about it, my poor friend?”

“For "as great a blessing as government is," the Rev. Peter Whitney explained, "like other blessings, it may become a scourge, a curse, and severe punishment to a people." What made it so, what turned power into a malignent force, was not its own nature so much as the nature of man—his susceptibility to corruption and his lust for self-aggrandizement.”

“-Would you wish us to invest it for you? -No, I would like you to set up a trust for dumb animals. -What kind of dumb animals do you have in mind, Miss Donahue? -Oh, stray dogs. Rats. Birds. -We could still invest it for you. Then the animals would get the income without touching the capital. -No, I don't wish to invest it. I don't want them to get rich. They might become human.”

“Trust and condemnation work hand in hand for both work on the concept of experience, of knowing it, observing it, realizing it, understanding it and finally accepting it in either of the two categories for the root remains the same 'Expectation'. Expectation leads one to think that 'I would achieve something if trust is there' and when the expectation is not achieved the process of condemning begins. Imagine a situation where the basis of doing something is not expectation but remains mystical in nature. This is a state of liberation from the most difficult process as without Expectation, Trust is absent and Condemnation ceases to exist. This is a pure state for it helps one to unravel the human nature and the neutral mindest, openness emerges leading one to grow more and more within.”