'There is no pain in life equal to that which two lovers can inflict on each other.'

— Cyril Connolly

“The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error... Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim.'

― Gustave Le…

“Progress is a pure illusion, it occurs only in the sphere of matter, but the spirit undeviatingly degrades. What our contemporaries consider as achievements are actually shameful vices… The end of the modern world is just the end of an illusion.”

— René Guénon

“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”

—Oscar Wilde

‘Scientific method ... is powerless
to explain the consciousness
that directs it.'

– Saul Bellow

“Every man's foremost task is the actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never-recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, and be it even the greatest, has already achieved.”

― Martin Buber

“That’s what I do: I make coffee and occasionally succumb to suicidal nihilism. But you shouldn’t worry — poetry is still first. Cigarettes and alcohol follow.”

— Anne Sexton

'I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours.'

--Hunter S. Thompson

“Ultimately everything depends on the quality of the individual, but our fatally short-sighted age thinks only in terms of large numbers and mass organizations...”

― C.G. Jung

'There is among them an abundance of the vengeful disguised as judges, who constantly bear the word “justice” in their mouths like poisonous spittle, always with pursed lips, always ready to spit upon all who are not discontented but go their own way in good spirits…

The will…

“So when you find yourself locked onto an unpleasant train of thought, heading for the places in your past where the screaming is unbearable, remember there's always madness. Madness is the emergency exit.”

― Alan Moore

The Messiahs of Hope assure us
everything will be OK in the end.
But it won’t.

— Chris Hedges

“Cure yourself of your nostalgias, of the childish obsession with the beginning and the end of time. Eternity, that dead duration—only the weak are concerned with such things. Let the moment do its work, let it reabsorb your dreams.”

— Emil Cioran

'I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.'

-- Pablo Neruda

He who cannot obey himself
will be commanded. That is
the nature of living
creatures.

—Nietzsche

'A man is to be pitied who lacked the courage to accept the challenge of freedom and depart from the cushion of security and see life as it is instead of living it second-hand. Life has by-passed this man and he has watched from a secure place, afraid to seek anything better.…

Love can't be won or earned, for it is a spontaneous expression of affection and warmth in response to another person's being.

It's “I love you,” not “I love what you are doing.” Love implies an acceptance that was denied the child.

Once we give up our true self to play a…

“Why did I write?
Because I found life
unsatisfactory.”

― Tennessee Williams

A man once accused me of trying to assassinate his character. I said, “No, your character committed suicide a long time ago.”

~ Christopher Hitchens

if you want a revolution
return to your childhood
and kick out the bottom

dont mistake changing
headlines for changes

if you want freedom
dont mistake circles
for revolutions

think in terms of living
and know
you are dying
& wonder why

--d.a.levy

poeticoutlaws.substack.com/p/tombstone-as…