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I Quotes

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All I Quotes

“I am someone who has stepped through the door, someone who has accepted the possibility of a life beyond routine and self-misery. I have accepted the challenge of life and I now see it as something that must be overcome. I challenge you, young man, to see the weight and measure of life, to look for the places in between here and there, and to try and battle against that devil that screams in your head, that devil that wants to make you take the easy path, that makes you want to hate yourself and the world, that wants to make you think that somehow you are special in your struggles and in your fate. Wake up boy, or the only thing that you will ever find at the end of all your routine and self-misery, is your death”

“I am someone who proudly and humbly affirms that love is the mystery-of-mysteries, and that nothing measurable matters 'a very good God damn'; that 'an artist, a man, a failure' is no mere whenfully accreting mechanism, but a givingly eternal complexity-neither some soulless and heartless ultrapredatory infra-animal nor any understandingly knowing and believing and thinking automaton, but a naturally and miraculously whole human being-a feelingly illimitable individual; whose only happiness is to transcend himself, whose every agony is to grow.”

“i am something very gentle, very jealous of the selfless way my heart pumps blood for my ungrateful body, of how the bones in my spine uplift my head, despite how i insist we're crumbling, we're crumbling, always crying over spilled milk, when i could be strong like stainless steel or spider silk, when i could be kevlar instead of the honeycombed human digging out bullets, when i could be the tornado instead of Dorothy missing Kansas, when i could be a bone-dry Martini instead of the one retching, when i could be something like you, the shoulder to lean on and not the one reeling, the one picking up eggshells and never the one breaking.”

“I am sometimes asked how it feels to have exposed the magic trick of the priesthood and robbed people of their faith and belief. I recall the words of Musashi who said, "Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is, and you must bend to its power or live a lie.”

“I am sometimes perplexed by people who refer to defensive rifles, or defensive rifle shooting. The defensive arm is the pistol, since you have it at hand to meet situations that you do not anticipate. If you have the luxury of anticipating a lethal encounter, you pick up a long arm, either a rifle or a shotgun, but in that case you go on to the attack. Thus rifle shooting is offensive, and pistol shooting is defensive. Of course, life does not always duplicate theory, and there are exceptions to everything, but nevertheless the rifle is not a defensive weapon in concept.”

“I am sometimes tempted to feel like God has become distant from me or turned his face away. I sometimes feel as if God's love for me has grown cool. Perhaps he has turned his attention elsewhere or turned down his affections. But then I think of our planet, I think of our sun, and I think of our God. Surely he is not a God who forsakes his people when they need him, his children when they cry out for him. Surely he is not a God who is least present when most needed. He promises that his eye is upon us and his ear is toward us, so when we cry out, he hears and delivers. He promises he is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Is my spirit not crushed? is my heart not broken? Am I not crying out? Then surely God is near. Surely God has not turned away. Surely he is not ignoring my cries.”

“I am somewhat influenced by the years that I've spent trying to actually get things done, whether it was reforming education in Arkansas or a survey and Legal Services Corporation board when President [Jimmy ]Carter appointed me and trying to get lawyers for poor people. I have worked in these areas. I know it's more than just a hope. You've got to translate it into a policy that leads to action.”

“I am somewhat of a meliorist. That is to say, I act as an optimist because I find I cannot act at all, as a pessimist. One often feels helpless in the face of the confusion of these times, such a mass of apparently uncontrollable events and experiences to live through, attempt to understand, and if at all possible, give order to; but one must not withdraw from the task if he has some small things to offer - he does so at the risk of diminishing his humanity.”