LIFE

  
Those who are not hopeless are worried that one day their lives will end. And, if you live long enough, of course, you long for it to end. That’s been my desire in recent times. I only hope to become extinct. But before all that, you must try everything. Have children. Behave in such a way that monuments are built to you. Rule the world! Have streets and theaters named after you. Write your autobiography. These are ways to stay alive….

-- Quentin Crisp

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals,
despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and          crazy,
devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God,
have patience and indulgence toward the people,
take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,
go freely with powerful and uneducated persons and with the young and with the  mothers of families,
re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,
dismiss whatever insults your own soul,
and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but
in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes
and in every motion and joint of your body….

-- Walt Whitman


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