“You are the jailer and the jailed,
You the impaler and the one that your own
Million-fleshed self in dreams by night
do hold in thrall and now at noon must kill.”

— Ray Bradbury

Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)

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Ray Bradbury 401

American writer 1920–2012

Related quotes

“You are the jailer and the jailed,
You the impaler and the one that your own
Million-fleshed self in dreams by night
do hold in thrall and now at noon must kill.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)

“You must not take out your sword because if you try to kill someone, you must die for it yourself. What you must do instead is kill yourself, kill your own mind.”

Taisen Deshimaru (1914–1982) Japanese Buddhist monk

As quoted in A Galaxy Not So Far Away : Writers and Artists on Twenty-five Years of Star Wars (2002) by Glenn Kenny, p. 99

“The orders are rigorous: you should not neglect your work load. They are to proceed with the building work by night and in the heat of noon. You will not be sleeping during the night or in the heat of noon!”

Shulgi

Correspondence of the Kings of Ur, Letter from Shulgi to Puzur-Shulgi about work on the fortress Igi-hursanga http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/section3/tr3108.htm

“The Self is only one. Do you feel hurt if you blame yourself or scorn yourself for your errors? If you hold the Self there is no second person to scorn you. When you see the world you have lost hold of the Self. On the contrary, hold the Self and the world will not appear.”

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian religious leader

Abide as the Self

“What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!”

Nathaniel Hawthorne book The House of the Seven Gables

Source: The House of the Seven Gables (1851), Ch. XI : The Arched Window

“It was just noon that Saturday morning when the sheriff reached the jail with Lucas Beauchamp though the whole town (the whole county for that matter) had known since the night before that Lucas had killed a white man.”

William Faulkner book Intruder in the Dust

The opening sentence of the novel, Ch. 1
Intruder in the Dust (1948)

“You are not lost. It's just that your own thoughts are being kept from you, or hidden away. But the mind is strong. It survives even without thought. Even with everything taken away, it holds a seed-your self. You must believe in your powers.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 24: Shadow Grounds

“Kill one man, and you are a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you are a conqueror. Kill them all, and you are a god.”

Jean Rostand (1894–1977) French writer

See also "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic." (misattributed to Joseph Stalin)

“You must read, you must persevere, you must sit up nights, you must inquire, and exert the utmost power of your mind. If one way does not lead to the desired meaning, take another; if obstacles arise, then still another; until, if your strength holds out, you will find that clear which at first looked dark.”

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) Italian author and poet

“And the world is busting at its seams;
And you're just a prisoner of your dreams.
Holding on for your life 'cause you work all day
To blow 'em away in the night.”

Bruce Springsteen (1949) American singer and songwriter

"Night"
Song lyrics, Born to Run (1975)

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