No obligation

I have no obligation to take you seriously.

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The universe doesn't know

The universe doesn't know how to value the unique.

I've yet to

I've yet to understand a single thing.

I long to be

I long to be less use, and therefore less used.

The lucky ones

Most people have little acquaintance with love.
Perhaps they are, after all, the lucky ones.

The utilitarian

Never let the utilitarian cook your food, warm your bed, or write your poetry.

All over the place

All over the place is where I most want to be.

The shrapnel

Overload your mind until it explodes,
and then investigate the shrapnel.

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Every philosophy

Every philosophy is improved when stripped of wishful thinking.

Never trust anyone

Never trust anyone telling you what is sufficient.

Not everything

Not everything transcended is error.
Not everything enlightened is needed.

"Don't be dualistic"

"Don't be dualistic" is such a dualistic stricture.

More noes

There are more noes in a single yes than yeses in all the noes ever.

The sweetest things

The sweetest things, too, are made of lies.

Merry Christmas!

Ignorance is

Ignorance is the most dangerous force in the universe.

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Not always

Peace is not always worth the cost.

When change is inevitable

When change is inevitable, everything is provisional.

The wisest thing

The wisest thing is to strive to become wise.

There is no life

There is no life; there is only living.

Do we distract ourselves?

Do we distract ourselves with art, or do we distract ourselves with asking ourselves if we distract ourselves with art?

Inattention

Inattention is the death-before-death.

The last thing to feel

The last thing to feel is regret over the loss of feeling.

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One difference

Gods barter; muses give.

Our duty

Our duty is to ignore duty.

Intention

Intention is the rarest thing in the universe.

What worked

What worked the last time may fail the next.

Mirth

Mirth is a symptom, not the cure.

On art

Art is what we have in lieu of communication.

The distance

The distance from slavery to salary is smaller than they'd have you think.

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On poetry

Poetry is a surrogate for intimacy.

Every sentence

Every sentence is about sentience.

Beware

Beware their wares.

What doesn't change

What doesn't change is our desire for (and suspicion of) change.

On chivalry

Chivalry is not only dead, it is deprecated, perhaps inconceivable.

There is meaning

There is meaning in meaninglessness, but it is not nutritious.

Sometimes

Sometimes it is rational to be idle.

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Freedom must include the freedom

Freedom must include the freedom to ignore norms, and the most onerous outcomes of doing so.

We must be free to desire

We must be free to desire, and, where ethical, to pursue our desires.

I am not large enough

I am not large enough to become as large as I intended to become.

On freedom

Freedom, as we so often see, includes the freedom to choose to be constrained.

Reason

Reason is my favorite irrationality.

We devour

We devour the devalued.

The problem (Godin)

The problem with getting what you want is that now you have a hole, because you don’t want that thing anymore, you have it.

Seth Godin

Mortality

Mortality is immoral.

Chaos, storms (King)

For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all. Don't we all secretly know this? It's a perfectly balanced mechanism of shouts and echoes pretending to be wheels and cogs, a dreamclock chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life. Behind it? Below it and around it? Chaos, storms. Men with hammers, men with knives, men with guns. Women who twist what they cannot dominate and belittle what they cannot understand. A universe of horror and loss surrounding a single lighted stage where mortals dance in defiance of the dark.

Stephen King, 11/22/63

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The possibility

Agency must be permitted the possibility of passivity.

Good philosophy

Good philosophy is realization, not rationalization.

What is most human

Perhaps what is most human is to say what it is to be human.

What keeps us from

What keeps us from immediately rejecting our emotions as primitive and flawed is our emotional attachment to them.

Thoughtfully reject

To maximize your growth as human, you must thoughtfully reject many of society's mistaken assumptions and demands.

There is no freedom

There is no freedom if one cannot choose to be idle.

The ambiguous human

The ambiguous human is of course driven to reduce ambiguity.

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Freedom is impossible

Freedom is impossible because there is no freedom from necessity.

Glory

We award glory poorly.

To the degree

We are human to the degree we encourage our receptivity.

All preference

All preference is provisional.

Which version

Which version of the vision?

What we do should be determined

What we do should be determined by who we are but too often isn't.

Give me all the ills

Give me all the ills resulting from curiosity over all the boons born of unkindness.

It's not a poem

It's not a poem until I dream the lines together.

Rejecting mysticism

Rejecting mysticism doesn't necessary preclude one from an attraction to mystery.

On immortality

Immortality is a better oblivion than oblivion.

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Genre

Genre is ungenerous.

Don't

Don't even be your own slave.

To meditate

To meditate is to mediate.