from green to black

from my phone

i decided to hang around the library in the hopes of
picking up a "teach yourself vietnamese book". instead,
i found meself a book of quotes. they are especially
encouraging because they remind me of what i think i
am and how i used to be.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

-wiliam ernest henley


I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said:
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert.
Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies,
whose frown And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-percy b shelly


isnt it strange
that princes and kings
and clowns that fool around
in sawdust rings
and common people like you and me
are builders for eternity

each is given a bag of tools
a shapeless mass
a book of rules
and each must build
while he has life
a stumbling block or a stepping stone
- r l sharpe


if you can keep your head when all about you
are losing theirs and blaming it on you

if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
but make allowance for their doubting too

if you can wait and not be tired by waiting
or being lied about, dont deal in lies
or being hated, dont give way to hating
and yet dont look to good nor talk too wise

if you can dream and not make dreams your master

if you can think and not make thoughts your aim

if you can meet with triumph and disaster
and treat those two imposters just the same

if you can bear the truth you've spoke
twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools
or watch the things you gave your life to, broken
and stoop and build them with worn out tools

if you can make one heap of all your winnings
and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss
and lose and start again at your beginnings
and never breathe a word about your loss

if you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
to serve your turn long after they are gone
and so hold on when there is nothing
in you except the will which says to them
hold on

if you can talk with the crowd and keep your virtue
or walk with kings nor lose the common touch

if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you

if all men count with you, but none too much

if you can fill the unforgiving minute
with sixty seconds worth of distance run
yours is the earth and everything thats in it
and
which is more
you'll be a man my son
- rudyard kipling


it is NOT the critic who counts,
nor the man who points out
where the strong man stumbled
or where a doer of deeds could have done better

the credit belongs to the man in the arena
whose face is marred by dust
and sweat and blood,
who strives valiantly, who errs ,
and who comes up short again and again,
who knows the great enthusiasms
the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause

the man who at best knows the triumph of high
achievement and who at worst, if he fails, fails while
daring greatly, so that his
place will never be with those cold
timid souls who never knew victory or defeat.
- theodore roosevelt


will you realize once and for all that
it is not death that is the source of a
mean and cowardly spirit, but rather
the fear of death. against this fear
then i would have you discipline yourself....

there is no use spending your life
agonizing over the things that are not
dependent upon your will, such as
money, possessions, fame and political
power. likewise, there is no use trying
to avoid things that are not dependent
upon your will such as the tyranny of
a ruler, imprisonment and physical danger.

those who merely tremble and mourn and seek to
avoid misfortune ought to be pitied.

what would have become of hercules
if there had not been a lion a hydra, a stag and a boar
and unjust brutal men, whom he drove forth and cleansed this world of?

what would he have done if there had been nothing
of the sort? is it not plain that he would have
wrapped himself up and slept and slumbered all
his life in ease and luxury? he would never
have been a hercules at all!

what use would he have made of his
arm and his might and his endurance
and noble heart had he not been stimulated
and trained by such perils and opportunities?
-epictetus

come, my friends
tis not too late to seek a newer world
push off, and sitting well in order smite
the sounding furrows for my purpose hold.

to sail beyond the sunset and the baths of all
the western stars, until i die. it may be that the gulfs will
wash us down

it may be we shall touch the happy isles,
and see the great achilles, whom we knew.
tho much is taken, much abides, and tho we
are not now that strength which in old days, moved
earth and heaven, that which we are, we are.
one equal temper of heroic hearts,
made weak by time and fate,
but strong in will.
to strive, to seek, to find , and not to yield
-alfred lord tennyson

some posts from my mobile phone from the library
ill tidy up when i get to an actually computer. (done)
be inspired.

posted by green unseen @ 10:17 PM