All Quotes By Tag: Ruins

“Ruins are more beautiful than adorned castles, for ruins are the cathedrals of time.”

“Sometimes, what we need the most is the strength to survive in this world. Which forces us to pay, to watch the demons destroy the paradises we built and dance on its ruins.”

“Heroes and scholars represent the opposite extremes… The scholar struggles for the benefit of all humanity, sometimes to reduce physical effort, sometimes to reduce pain, and sometimes to postpone death, or at least render it more bearable. In contrast, the patriot sacrifices a rather substantial part of humanity for the sake of his own prestige. His statue is always erected on a pedestal of ruins and corpses… In contrast, all humanity crowns a scholar, love forms the pedestal of his statues, and his triumphs defy the desecration of time and the judgment of history.”

“Antique FoundationHere I built the ruin inMy voice on either side of meIn the temple the ocean couldNot be a crowd I minedThe shore with fog the sun driesThese bricks I built the vision inThe cinder block that is the cityWall this graveTone I speak with a pictureOf myself in my wallet •Don’t be fooled by grass and these wordsGrass whispersBecause they are real they areRuinous Here, the gossip is in the dustNot the sea cloud enters the openChild’s window dimming the silverFlute’s sheen Where is he Who hears inside the brick those notes?There is a rumor in the city we’ll existIf he plays his song no one knows •Follow that shadow don’t tell me it’s mineHere there is no being aloneHere are my hands which tore the leaves soQuietly in the temple the godEmerging from marble points at the chiselAt the base of his stone Did I tell youWhere I’m going? To the old manWho sings the marginWhere on wave-tip swords turn edge over edgeWound us and the shore with foam •My face on either side of my face I toreMy picture in half to show the gateYou must climb inside your breath to leaveAs fog the wind will bear you—If you’re lovely—away In the spare cloudsThe children’s chorus Do you hear?—Where were you, and where are you going?Here I built the ruin in the stone-crushed Sage leaves my hands scented as long ago When I liked to press the desert against my head to think”

“There’s no such thing as ruining your life. Life’s a pretty resilient thing, it turns out.”