Quotes about city
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“In 20 or 30 years, you’ll be able to hold in your hand as much computing knowledge as exists now in the whole city, or even the whole world.”

Douglas Engelbart (1925–2013) American engineer and inventor

Source: https://via.hypothes.is/https://foresight.org/Updates/Update29/Update29.2.php#annotations:PoEiopu_Eee_awvQEu10ag

World, Knowledge

“We start from scratch, every generation. History does not bend inevitably toward justice, or freedom, or decency, or even stability. History doesn’t do that in Hong Kong, or in Moscow, or in Washington or New York City or Los Angeles. History goes where we push it. And if we don’t push, someone else will.”

Kevin D. Williamson (1972) American writer

2020s Source: "The End of (Whig) History" https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/07/the-end-of-whig-history/?taid=5efd8dac17654f00015ab42c&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter (1 July 2020), National Review

Justice, Angels, History, Freedom

“I don't think either one of them literally want to incite violence. But they have to realize that when they tell people to get up in your face, that there are some crazy unstable people out there. There are truly people who have anger issues. The guy that shot over two hundred rounds from a semi-automatic weapon at us at the ballfield, was an angry guy. He was a guy that would go down to the city council and yell and scream and get angry and red in the face. He once hit a neighbor with the butt of his gun. He had all of these anger issues. But then when people stoke that and say "get up in their face", "go to Washington."”

Rand Paul (1963) American politician, ophthalmologist, and United States Senator from Kentucky

He showed up at the ballfield that day, and as he started shooting at us he yelled "This is for healthcare!", and then when they were finally able to kill him in his pocket was a list of five or six conservative republicans that he came there intending to kill. So instead of saying "get up in their face", we should say let's have constructive dialog. Let's forcefully present our position in a verbal way and in an intellectual way. 2018-10-10 Rand Paul: There Will Be an 'Assassination' If Left Doesn't Ratchet Down the Rhetoric Discussion on Fox and Friends http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/10/10/rand-paul-there-will-be-assassination-if-left-doesnt-ratchet-down-rhetoric https://video.foxnews.com/v/5847225479001/?#sp=show-clips

People, Guy, Thinking, Anger

“Land monopoly—in the hands of individuals, corporations or syndicates—is at bottom the prime cause of the inequalities which obtain; which desolate fertile acres turned over to vast ranches and into bonanza farms of a thousand acres, where not one family finds a habitation, where muscle and brain are supplanted by machinery, and the small farmer is swallowed up and turned into a tenant or slave. While in large cities thousands upon thousands of human beings are crowded into narrow quarters where vice festers, where crime flourishes undeterred, and where death is the most welcome of all visitors.”

Timothy Thomas Fortune (1856–1928) American writer and activist

On the phenomenon that would come to be called primitive accumulation of capital, in Black and White: Land, Labor, and Politics in the South (1884)

Death, Family

“When white terrorists bomb a black church and kill five black children, that is an act of individual racism, widely deplored by most segments of the society. But when in that same city—Birmingham, Alabama—five hundred black babies die each year because of the lack of proper food, shelter and medical facilities, and thousands more are destroyed and maimed physically, emotionally and intellectually because of conditions of poverty and discrimination in the black community, that is a function of institutional racism.”

Stokely Carmichael (1941–1998) American activist

Black Power: The Politics of Liberation, 1967, p. 4, co-authored with Charles V. Hamilton

Children, Food, Communication, Baby

“Riding through the city on my bike all day
Cause the filth took away my license
It doesn't get me down and I feel OK
Cause the sights that I'm seeing are pricelessEverything seems to look as it should
But I wonder what goes on behind doors
A fella looking dapper, but he's sitting with a slapper
Then I see it's a pimp and his crack whore.”

Lily Allen (1985) English singer, songwriter, actress, and television presenter

LDN
Song lyrics, Alright, Still (2006)

Feeling, Whore

“Here was my city, immense, overpowering, flooded with energy and light... The world, at that moment , opened before me, challenging me, beckoning me, demanding something of me that it would take more than a lifetime to give, but raising all my energies by its own vivid promise to a higher pitch.”

Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic

Sketches from Life: The Autobiography of Lewis Mumford (1982), p. 130

World, Light

“It is a La Raza effort, the city and the people made this story happen.”

Mónica Esmeralda León (1991) actress

WBEZ Chicago 2017: Aurora Home To Only Latina-Owned Movie Studio In Midwest https://www.wbez.org/stories/aurora-home-to-only-latina-owned-movie-studio-in-midwest/f0e71eb9-ca0d-4f74-9960-605c42307e48/

People, Effort

“[T]he great Distributing House or Department Store... may be permitted to represent the modern spirit of organization. It is to the writer the most interesting of all forms of business, and by its constant and necessary publicity it occupies perhaps the most conspicuous place in the public mind. It usually employs the greatest number of people... It frequently... pays out in salaries and wages a larger sum weekly than any other single business, and is more often approached by those seeking opportunity to work than any other. Its daily transactions are large in volume, its cash handled is very great. It is intimately associated with every family in the community in supplying them with the necessities of life, and thus... enters into the daily life of the city in which it is.”

Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858–1947) America born English businessman

The Romance of Commerce (1918), A Representative Business of the Twentieth Century

Life, People, Family, Communication

“I am so surprised by New York City. I thought New York must be ugly and unpleasant, you know, I saw all those movies about New York….But New York is beautiful and the people here are really nice.”

Rina Mor (1956) Israeli lawyer and former Miss Universe

"Miss Universe Captivates New York" (1976)

People, Beauty

“We came down on them like a flood,
We went out among their cities,
We tore down the idol-temples,
We shat on the Buddha's head!”

Mahmud al-Kashgari (1029–1101) Medieval Arab scholar

Translation: English translation from the Turkic language. The Karakhanid Turkic Muslim writer Mahmud al-Kashgari recorded this short poem (in Turkic language) about the conquest of Khotan.
Attributed to Mahmud al-Kashgari in : Elverskog, Johan (2010). Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-8122-4237-9.

“It is better the truth should come little by little. I have learned that, being a priest. Perhaps, in the old days, they ate knowledge too fast.
Nevertheless, we make a beginning. it is not for the metal alone we go to the Dead Places now — there are the books and the writings. They are hard to learn. And the magic tools are broken — but we can look at them and wonder. At least, we make a beginning. And, when I am chief priest we shall go beyond the great river. We shall go to the Place of the Gods — the place newyork — not one man but a company. We shall look for the images of the gods and find the god ASHING and the others — the gods Lincoln and Biltmore and Moses. But they were men who built the city, not gods or demons. They were men. I remember the dead man's face. They were men who were here before us. We must build again.”

Stephen Vincent Benét book By the Waters of Babylon

Source: By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

Men, God, Truth, Books

“Now I tell what is very strong magic. I woke in the midst of the night. When I woke, the fire had gone out and I was cold. It seemed to me that all around me there were whisperings and voices. I closed my eyes to shut them out. Some will say that I slept again, but I do not think that I slept. I could feel the spirits drawing my spirit out of my body as a fish is drawn on a line.
Why should I lie about it? I am a priest and the son of a priest. If there are spirits, as they say, in the small Dead Places near us, what spirits must there not be in that great Place of the Gods? And would not they wish to speak? After such long years? I know that I felt myself drawn as a fish is drawn on a line. I had stepped out of my body — I could see my body asleep in front of the cold fire, but it was not I. I was drawn to look out upon the city of the gods.
It should have been dark, for it was night, but it was not dark. Everywhere there were lights — lines of light — circles and blurs of light — ten thousand torches would not have been the same. The sky itself was alight — you could barely see the stars for the glow in the sky. I thought to myself "This is strong magic" and trembled. There was a roaring in my ears like the rushing of rivers. Then my eyes grew used to the light and my ears to the sound. I knew that I was seeing the city as it had been when the gods were alive.”

Stephen Vincent Benét book By the Waters of Babylon

Source: By the Waters of Babylon (1937)

God, Lie, Feeling, Star

“For the man crucified on the crossed machine guns
Without name, without resurrection, without stars,
His dark head heavy with death and his flesh long sour
With the smell of his many prisons — John Smith, John Doe,
John Nobody — oh, crack your mind for his name!
Faceless as water, naked as the dust,
Dishonored as the earth the gas-shells poison
And barbarous with portent.
This is he.
This is the man they ate at the green table
Putting their gloves on ere they touched the meat.
This is the fruit of war, the fruit of peace,
The ripeness of invention, the new lamb,
The answer to the wisdom of the wise.
And still he hangs, and still he will not die
And still, on the steel city of our years
The light falls and the terrible blood streams down.”

Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) poet, short story writer, novelist

Source: Litany for Dictatorships (1935)

Death, Wisdom, War, Peace

“Finally, our greatest asset in this struggle is the American people--their willingness to pay the price for these programs--to understand and accept a long struggle--to share their resources with other less fortunate people-to meet the tax levels and close the tax loopholes I have requested--to exercise self-restraint instead of pushing up wages or prices, or over-producing certain crops, or spreading military secrets, or urging unessential expenditures or improper monopolies or harmful work stoppages--to serve in the Peace Corps or the Armed Services or the Federal Civil Service or the Congress--to strive for excellence in their schools, in their cities and in their physical fitness and that of their children--to take part in Civil Defense-to pay higher postal rates, and higher payroll taxes and higher teachers' salaries, in order to strengthen our society--to show friendship to students and visitors from other lands who visit us and go back in many cases to be the future leaders, with an image of America--and I want that image, and I know you do, to be affirmative and positive-and, finally, to practice democracy at home, in all States, with all races, to respect each other and to protect the Constitutional rights of all citizens.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

Source: 1961, Speech to Special Joint Session of Congress

Friendship, Children, People, Secret

“I first joined the Labour party in Liverpool because of what I saw of the poverty, the unemployment, and the endless infamies committed on the inhabitants of the back-streets of that city. I am horrified that the threat of unemployment and economic misery is now being deployed against the same kind of people once again.”

Michael Foot (1913–2010) British politician

Source: Press conference after his election as Labour leader (10 November 1980), quoted in Simon Hoggart and David Leigh, Michael Foot: A Portrait (1981), p. 57 and The Guardian (11 November 1980), p. 1

People

“Here are three meaningful actions we can all take on water: Use less. Pollute less. And from our backyards to our cities, make places that leave room for water in nature...”

Cynthia Barnett (1966) American journalist

Source: https://www.jou.ufl.edu/alumni-and-friends/cjc-environment-voices/cynthia-barnett/

Making love, Nature, Water

“It is the purity of a truth of which you have had only a glimpse. This is the feast, and the tiny tidbits you tasted before, back there, had made you hope for the existence of the Whole. The nameless emotion, longing, nostalgia, sense of destiny that you felt back there when you stared at the cloud layered sunset in Hawaii, when you stood quietly among the tall, waving trees in the silent forest, when a musical selection, passage, or song recalled memories of the past or brought forth a longing for which there was no associated memory, when you longed for the place where you belonged, whether city, town, country, nation, or family—these are now fulfilled. You are Home. You are where you belong. Where you always should have been.”

Robert Monroe (1915–1995) American founder of The Monroe Institute

Journeys Out of the Body (1971), Chapter 8. Because the Bible Tells Me So

Truth, Family, Hope, Music

“The old city of Ajoodhea is a ruin, with the exception of a few buildings along the bank of the river raised by wealthy Hindoos in honour of Ram, who once lived and reigned there, and is believed by all Hindoos to have been an incarnation of Vishnoo.”

William Henry Sleeman (1788–1856) British colonial administrator

Vol. 2, p. 27
‘A Journey Through The Kingdom Of Oudh (1849-1850)’ , 1858, quoted . in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.

“Ayodhya, an ancient Indian city, where the first Indian monarchs on the Ganges resided, was situated on the river Deva, in the latitude of 250, exactly in the spot where Faizabad now stands. It was the birthplace of Shirama, or Rama, an Indian hero, or the younger Bacchus, whose heroic achievements were celebrated in songs before the times of the Pagan Indians.”

Paulinus of St. Bartholomew (1748–1806) Austrian Carmelite missionary and Orientalist

Journey to the East Indies, 1800. as quoed in Kishore, Kunal (2016). Ayodhyā revisited.

Time

“Unlike the West, which is already nervous about the arrival of refugees, Moscow alone has taken in more Muslims than the whole of Europe has done by now. And nobody in the world is aware of it. And there is no hysteria, no police, no gas, no physical clashes. Of course, problems do arise sometimes with people who arrive but these problems get solved within the law, and most importantly, the good Orthodox-Muslim relations are creating an atmosphere for Muslims here to live peacefully and for the Orthodox to treat Muslims respectfully, with tolerance, like brothers. You probably felt what remarkable, good relations have developed between the Orthodox people and Muslims in Russia. We are very glad that finally this big mosque has been built in the city of Moscow to become a place of prayer for many Muslims who live in Moscow and visit Moscow.”

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow (1946) primate of the Russian Orthodox Church

24 September 2015 http://www.pravmir.com/west-should-learn-from-russia-to-accept-muslim-refugees-patriarch-kirill/ at a meeting with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at his residence in Peredelkino, Moscow Region.

People, World, Law, Problem

“Language is a city to the building of which every human being brought a stone; yet he is no more to be credited with the grand result than the acaleph which adds a cell to the coral reef which is the basis of the continent.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality

“The Palace of Justice in Brussels lies like a cyclops above the city, building a court of justice above a city, that is really something special.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

1940s

Justice

“Nothing is impossible. We need to dream, we need to be creative, and we all need to have an adventure in order to create miracles in the darkest of times. And whether it's about climate change or eradicating poverty or giving back to future generations what we've taken for granted, it's about adventure. And who knows, maybe there will be underwater cities, and maybe some of you will become the future aquanauts.”

Fabien Cousteau (1967) French filmmaker and oceanographer

What I learned from spending 31 days underwater https://www.ted.com/talks/fabien_cousteau_what_i_learned_from_spending_31_days_underwater (October 2014)

Dreams, Change, Time, Future

“We must reject any thinking of our cities as a "battlespace" that our uniformed military is called upon to "dominate."”

James Mattis (1950) 26th and current United States Secretary of Defense; United States Marine Corps general

At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors. Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict — a false conflict — between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part.
In Union There Is Strength (2020)

Thinking

“We will never agree to give up Jerusalem, a united city under Israeli sovereignty, and only Israeli. We will not accept a terrorist Palestinian state, we will not accept an agreement based on the 67 lines.”

Naftali Bennett (1972) Prime Minister of Israel

2014 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/176036

“Today, this city has been hardly populated since the foundation of Bangla or Fesabad- a new city where the Governor established his residence and in which a great number (of inhabitants of Oude) settled in.”

Joseph Tiefenthaler (1710–1785) Austrian missionary

“The beauty of the kingdom appears only to those in higher positions. To the king who has a high view over the whole city.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Beauty, Appearance

“The dirtier the city, the more disorganized the people.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People

“Cathedral cities, market towns, ports forgotten by the sea, spas long out of fashion, all these can decay beautifully, and often their charm increases as the life ebbs out of them. Industrial towns, like steam-engines, are only even tolerable if they are in working order and puffing away.”

J.B. Priestley (1894–1984) English writer

Bk 2, Ch. 6. ii
The Good Companions (1929)

Life, Fashion, Sea

“I really love the city and would always love to go home. I do fear coming home and do not feel safe coming back. It’s just not the same place that I grew up in.”

Glacier Kwong (1996) Hong Kong human rights activist

‘I fear coming home,’ says Hong Kong activist Glacier Kwong after pro-democracy lobbying effort in Germany https://hongkongfp.com/2020/10/09/i-fear-coming-home-says-hong-kong-activist-glacier-kwong-after-pro-democracy-lobbying-effort-in-germany/ (9 October 2020)

Love, Fear, Feeling, Home

“If God gives me a long life and allows me to carry out my task, then Brussels will become a city of exceptional category.”

Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians

Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-2-0 ISBN 9789463962094

Life, God

“Black clouds whelm on the city,
Till it seems the city must yield.
Our chain-mail glitters under the moon,
Metal scales agape.”

Li He (790–816) Chinese writer

Opening lines
"Ballad of the Grand Warden of Goose Gate" (《雁門太守行》)
Original: (zh-TW) 黑雲壓城城欲摧，甲光向日金鱗開。

“The amazing thing about cities is that they're worth so much more than it costs to build them.”

Paul Romer (1955) American economist

TED 2011 "The world's first charter city?" https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_romer_the_world_s_first_charter_city

“While I was in their city, it just seemed like such a mistake that I had ever left home, such an error in judgment in all our parts.”

Curtis Sittenfeld book Prep

Source: Prep (2005), p. 321

Error, Home, Parting

“I hope that when people see Asian women, they realize we are all different. A lot of time with Caucasian people, they just group us together as Asian. But even with different cities in China, people have different personalities.... We look Asian, but we still look different. We don't look the same.”

Liu Wen (model) (1988) Chinese model

Source: "Chinese Model Liu Wen Would Like to Remind Everyone That Not All Asians Look the Same" https://www.allure.com/story/liu-wen-model-interview in Allure (2 March 2016)

Women, People, Hope, Time

“No, I'm not interested, don't lead me into your rubbish, don't you keep taking us on your flights of fancy. Your city lily pad lefty map mindset.”

Bob Katter (1945) Australian politician

Source: Media Briefing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE2Ned5Tgwg?oneclick=true (Thursday, 13 February 2020)

“It wasn’t a city anymore, it was a collection of broken places separated by war without politics or acquisition so not war at all really but something more pathological.”

China Miéville Embassytown

Source: Embassytown (2011), Chapter 18 (p. 238)

War

“A being who can look without weeping on the heart-rending facts that fill the cities of our so-called civilisation has a psychology granitic enough to gaze unmoved on a hellful of roasting souls.”

J. Howard Moore (1862–1916)

Source: The New Ethics (1907), Human Attitude Toward Others, p. 45

Soul, Hell, Heart

“It was in those days when I wandered about hungry in Kristiania, that strange city which no one leaves before it has set its mark upon him. . . .”

Knut Hamsun book Hunger

Part One - p.3 (Book opening line) [Page numbers per the 2016 Canongate Books Ltd. paperback edition (which incorporates the 1996 Sverre Lyngstad translation into English).]
Novels, Hunger (1890)

“I have a glove into which I can put your whole city of Paris.”

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) Holy Roman Emperor

Context: Allegedly told to Francis I of France. The glove, gant in French, is a reference to the city of Ghent (Gandes in French), where Charles was born.

“Dublin's a big city, so Cork is much smaller, people are very friendly. It's a nice place to be, a lovely city, but it wasn't in my trajectory. I was very happily doing a busy job in Dublin. I had a lot of things going on. It came totally out of the blue.”

Fintan Gavin (1966) Irish Roman Catholic prelate (born 1966)

Source: ‘Covid accelerated change in the Church’: Bishop of Cork and Ross on challenges and his vision for the future https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-40771641.html (23 December 2021)

Love, People, Business

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, he who rules his own spirit than he who takes a city.”

book Bible

Source: Proverbs 16:32, AMP

Anger

“You have a tendency to think of wars as being fought in arenas set aside for fighting. But when you go through these farms and little towns, you realize wars are fought in people's backyards, stores, streets, and cities. It was all so very real then. It's real to me today.”

Lynn Compton book Call of Duty

Source: Call of Duty: My Life Before, During and After the Band of Brothers (2008), p. 246

War, People, Thinking, Fight

“Politicians in the city are terrified of political and media backlash for holding antifa and far-left protesters accountable. The local and national media are staunchly on the side of antifa, regardless of their violence against police and property.”

Andy Ngo (1986) American conservative journalist and social‐media personality

Source: Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy (2021), pp. 60-61

“Sliding through the city with no safety on.”

Darrell Edward Brooks (1982) American rapper and suspect of 2021 Waukesha parade attack

song lyrics

“We stand in millions against violence, we firmly believe that we cannot let a handful of individuals steal our peace. We cannot allow them to steal our streets and take our city hostage.”

Miguel Ángel Alba Díaz (1951) Mexican Roman Catholic bishop

Source: Bishop Alba: "We cannot allow criminals steal our streets, steal our peace" http://fides.org/en/news/36886-AMERICA_MEXICO_Bishop_Alba_We_cannot_allow_criminals_steal_our_streets_steal_our_peace (3 December 2014)

Peace

“We are proud individuals living on the city
But the flames couldn't go much higher
We find gods and religions to
To paint us with salvation”

Paolo Nutini (1987) Scottish musician

Source: Song Iron Sky

God, Religion, Painting

“I saw old-fashioned cities, quiet streets, small shops, colorful flags and ornaments and decorations—life before machine guns, before communism and capitalism and the ambitions of generals.”

Jack Cady (1932–2004) American writer

Source: Kilroy Was Here (1996), p. 138

Life, Color, Communication, Fashion

“In cities where shelling persists, where people find themselves under debris, unable to get out of basements for days, we need safe corridors for humanitarian aid and evacuation of civilians to safety. We need those in power to close our sky!”

Olena Zelenska (1978) Ukrainian architect and screenwriter

I Testify... (2022)

People

“Cities have a spirit and reveal their secrets if you listen.”

Lamia Abbas (1929–2021) Iraqi poet

jadaliyya.com, Oct 17, 2015 https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/32602

Secret

“We are not rich people. We are poor people. But with the word that we have been taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, as espoused by Minister Alim, that miraculous result was brought about and so the city council should be commended for recognizing that effort.”

Louis Farrakhan (1933) leader of the Nation of Islam

The Washington Post Interview (March 3, 1990)

People, Effort

“Boston is not a city that takes our rights lightly. Here in the birthplace of revolution, we have always, always fought for each other. We're damn good at it.”

Michelle Wu (1985) City Councilor in Boston, Massachusetts

24 June 2022 "Boston Mayor Michelle Wu says overturning Roe v. Wade will 'ruin lives'" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrmQGDRoWCY

“See the last chapter in Genesis where Cain, the murderer of his brother, went forth with his sons to found the city. The City is still murdering his brother.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

“I spoke the other day to the art historian Vanni Scheiwiler who publishes in Milan. But Signor Scheiwiler is pessimistic; he says that under the influence of the new conformism the city, after all the cultural centre of Italy, has been undergoing a decline in intellectual vitality. Anyone who comes up with something that does not fit in with the line is promptly put down by being called a Fascist. The word Fascist is reported so often that one wonders whether it hasn’t lost all meaning! This reminded me of what Ignazio Silone said in 1945 soon after he returned to Italy from his Zurich exile: “The fascism of tomorrow will never say ‘I am Facism’. It will say: ‘I am anti-Facism’.””

Ignazio Silone (1900–1978) Italian author and politician

Source: https://books.google.de/books?id=CPdKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT250 PT250 books.google Source: François Bondy: Italian Censorship (European Notebook). Encounter Band 47, No. 2 (1976) August, p. 51 books.google https://books.google.de/books?id=iS0dAQAAMAAJ&q=silone; Reprint in: European Notebooks 1954-1985, Routledge, New York 2017,

Art

“I know that our efforts all come to nothing. Analyze life, tear its trappings off, lay it bare with thought, with logic, with philosophy, and its emptiness is revealed as a bottomless pit; its nothingness frankly confesses to nothingness, and Despair comes to perch in the soulI know the end of us all is nothing, I know that at the end of Time, the reward of our toil will be nothing — and again nothing. I know that all our handiwork and all our ideas will be destroyed. I know that not even ash will be left from the fires that consume us. I know that our ideals, even those we achieve, will vanish in the eternal darkness of oblivion and final non-being. There is no hope, none, in my heart. I know, No promise, none, can I make to myself and to others. No recompense can I expect for my labors. No fruit will be born of my thoughts. I know the time — eternal seducer of all men, eternal cause of all effects — offers me nothing but the blank prospect of annihilation. So, my dignity is broken and weak, in recognition of my impending defeat.

The man who is alone, who stands on his own feet, who is stripped bare, who asks for nothing and wants nothing, who has reached the apex of disinterestedness not through blind renunciation but through excess of clear vision, turns to the world which stretches out before him as a burned prairie, as a devastated city — a world in which no churches, asylums, refuges, ideals, are left — and says: «Though you promise me nothing I am still with you, I am still an atom of your energies, my work is part of your work; I am your companion and your mirror as you march on your merciless way. But I owe nothing to any one. I would be responsible to freedom alone.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: https://alexiskarpouzos.medium.com/at-the-end-of-time-alexis-karpouzos-0b5a34cfbbe9

Life, Men, World, Hope