February 2012
3 posts
3 tags
The Last Question - Isaac Asimov
The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:
Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the cold, clicking,...
2 tags
Desert Moon
She still stands there like a night watcher, seeing us all, guarding us all. Though sleepy in her Waning crescent phase, she guides me as I cross this empty desert road. ‘Hotel’ says the sign across the road Must stop, have some sleep. It’s too late to be wander around. Too early to go to work… At distance, a column of black smoke emerges. The war still goes on...
1 tag
Unless...
Unless one is wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profession of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating.
- Oscar Wilde, The Model Millionaire.
October 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Don't ask me
Seek no advice in my words, son. I might be older than you, but there are more questions than answers revolving inside my head.
“What about experience?”, you say. Well, that’s crap. No one can pass it further. If so, there will be no more suffering in this world. I don’t know about you, son, but I still see a lot of pain and sadness lingering around.
So, trail your own...
1 tag
We could...
We could have gone all the way to the Great Wall of China If you’d only had a little more faith in me In lieu of diamonds, gold and platinum reminders will still shine bright All the king’s men and all the king’s horses Can’t put you together the way you used to be We could have been standing on the Great Wall of China
- Billy Joel, The Great Wall of China
September 2011
1 post
1 tag
“Hold on a second…You’re not just some guy in a bat costume, are you?...”
– Hal Jordan, Justice League 01
August 2011
1 post
1 tag
Outras Guerras
- Seu coração é nobre Jon, mas aprenda aqui uma lição. Não podemos por o mundo nos eixos. Não é esse o nosso propósito. A Patrulha da Noite tem outras guerras a travar.
G. R. R. Martin, A Fúria dos Reis
July 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Fahrenheit 451, a temperatura na qual os livros...
Publicado em 1953, Fahrenheit 451, do autor americano Ray Bradbury, é uma distopia estranhamente familiar. Numa época não tão distante, a sociedade é oprimida por um regime totalitário que controla qualquer forma de informação ou conhecimento transmitido à população.
A regra geral é não pensar, apenas entreter-se. Assim, as famílias passam a maior parte do tempo em frente a telas de TV,...
1 tag
Charles Darwin. Uma biografia em dois volumes
Uma dica de leitura para os apreciadores de biografias e ciências. Está chegando ao Brasil pela Editora da UNESP dois volumes escritos por Janet Browne (catedrática de História da Ciência da Harvard University) que compõem uma das mais completas biografias acerca do naturalista inglês que mudou a forma de compreendermos a variedade de vida na Terra: Charles Darwin.
Publicado originalmente em...
June 2011
4 posts
1 tag
Nascidos das profundezas
No mundo real o politicamente correto não existe. Que civilidade é essa que mal disfarça nossos piores instintos? Pacifismo, quando? Somos predadores! Queremos paz, sim, mas que fazer com o tédio?
Cristina Lasaitis, Fábulas do tempo e da eternidade.
1 tag
Sussurro
Os insetos giram em torno do candeeiro. A noite se apossa do mundo, e há vezes em que a gente tem de murmurar, dizer alguma coisa. A planície tudo traga. Então a gente sussurra, como que para comprovar que está vivo.
-Sylvia Iparraguire, A Terra do Fogo
1 tag
Atemporal
Uma angústia no peito.
Na janela do tempo, o futuro vem chegando. Rápido demais.
Passageiro acidental, alheio ao grande plano do Mundo, sigo sem entender esse intrincado mecanismo.
Na contramão da linha cronal busco janelas antigas, na vã esperança de me encontrar. Já nem sei quem sou.
O desconforto aumenta e a memória enfraquece. Estou preso, cativo da nostalgia, imerso no silêncio. A janela...
“I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupery
May 2011
13 posts
1 tag
“It’s not because things are difficult that we dare not venture. It’s because we...”
– Seneca
1 tag
Vento e palavras
Vento e palavras. Vento e palavras. Somos apenas humanos, e os deuses nos moldaram para o amor. Esta é a nossa grande gloria e nossa grande tragédia.
George Martin, Guerra dos tronos
1 tag
The Clock Was Tickin'
And the weeks fly by and the years roll on
Sometimes dreams are all you got to keep you going when the day gets long
And you gave up so many just to make a livin’
That clock up on the wall was tickin’
- Brandon Flowers, The Clock Was Tickin’
1 tag
“He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive...”
– Douglas Adams
1 tag
Wartime Prayers
Because you cannot walk with the holy if you’re just a halfway decent man
I don’t pretend that I’m a mastermind with a genius marketing plan
I’m trying to tap into some wisdom
Even a little drop will do
I want to rid my heart of envy
And cleanse my soul of rage before I’m through
- Paul Simon, Wartime Prayers
1 tag
Maybe tonight
See? Everything is exactly the same. Nothing has changed except me and the whole world. But there’s a fair chance we both end tonight.
1 tag
The crippled knight
How do I supposed to fight the enemies outside if I’m stuck within myself? I’m unable to cast a move, to brandish a sword or save a peasant from injustice.
No. Disappointment, frustration and humiliation is all I have left. This and the certainty that solitude will be my only companion throughout this miserable journey that now i call my life.
I’m tired to strive against my...
“Nós, os idiotas, precisamos de alguém que nos salve dos sorrisos na fila do...”
– A Vida é Cheia de Som e Fúria (via hellfireclub)
1 tag
Na muralha
A noite chega, e agora começa a minha vigia. Não terminará até minha morte. Não tomarei esposa, não possuirei terras, não gerarei filhos. Não usarei coroas e não conquisterei glórias. Viverei e morrerei em meu posto. Sou a espada na escuridão. Sou o vigilante nas muralhas. Sou o fogo que arde contra o frio, a luz que trás consigo a alvorada, a trombeta que acorda os que dormem, o escudo que...
1 tag
“Eu nem ao menos sou o que sei.”
– Carlos Schroeder, As certezas e as palavras
“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
– Maya Angelou
“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
– Douglas Adams - English humorist & science fiction novelist (1952 - 2001)
1 tag
“It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure...”
– Franz Kafka, The Trial
January 2011
3 posts
1 tag
Estóico
O único porto seguro nesta vida agitada e violenta é desprezar tudo o que acontece, manter-se firme em seus propósitos, receber de forma madura os golpes da sorte sem se perturbar ou se esquivar - Sêneca
1 tag
“Todas as coisas, Lucílio, nos são alheias; só o tempo é nosso.”
– Sêneca, Cartas a Lucilio
1 tag
“Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.”
– Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha
November 2010
1 post
1 tag
Pointed pencils
“It don’t matter; I withdraw my opinion, for all that. My young lady says, ‘Do it.’ And I say, ‘Miss, it shall be done.’ Here I am, with my book and my pencil—the latter not pointed so well as I could wish, but when christians take leave of their senses, who is to expect that pencils will keep their points? Give me your orders, Mr. Jennings. I’ll have them...
September 2010
2 posts
1 tag
Como um caldeirão rachado
[…] como se a plenitude da alma não transbordasse às vezes nas metáforas mais vazias, já que ninguém pode algum dia exprimir exatamente suas necessidades ou seus conceitos, nem suas dores, já que a palavra humana é como um caldeirão rachado, no qual batemos melodias próprias para fazer dançar os ursos, quando desejaríamos enternecer as estrelas.
- Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
1 tag
Work
We spend half life at work. A third of our lives traveling to work and the other two thirds working out how much better in life we’ve done if we’ve had concentrated in maths at school.
- Jeff Green
August 2010
1 post
1 tag
Looking for
It’s never where You think you’ll find it The thing, you think You’re looking for Well, it could take You all of your lifetime Still you’ll never quite be sure.
July 2010
3 posts
“It turns out that we and every other living creature are marching to the...”
– BBC - The Story of Science - How Did We Get Here
“We are just the latest in a long line of lucky survivors. Born at of death,...”
– BBC - The Story of Science - How Did We Get Here
To Conquer the World
“I wanted to conquer the world, you see, to understand it, to force it to understand me. I wanted to affirm it and if possible renew and reform it. “
- Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game
June 2010
2 posts
“Some say that I’m a wise man, some think that I’m a fool
It...”
– Procol Harum, In held ‘Twas in I
Magister Ludi
Where passion dominates, that does not signify the presence of greater desire and ambition, but rather the misdirection of these qualities toward an isolated and false goal, with a consequent tension and sultriness in the atmosphere.
Those who direct the maximum force of their desires toward the center, toward true being, toward perfection, seem quieter than the passionate souls because the flame...
May 2010
3 posts
1 tag
Dreaming while you sleep
All my life you lie silently there All my life in a world so unfair All my life and only I’ll know why and it will live inside of me, I will never be free all my life, trapped in her memory all my life Till the day that you open your eyes, please open your eyes.
- Genesis (from the We Can’t Dance album - 1991)
1 tag
O fanático da desconfiança e sua garantia
O antigo: Amigo, amigo! Tuas palavras, elas próprias, são palavras de um fanático!
Pirro: Tens razão! Quero ser desconfiado a respeito do todas as palavras.
O antigo: Então deves ficar calado.
Pirro: Vou dizer aos homens que devo ficar calado e que eles devem desconfiar do meu silêncio.
O antigo: Renuncias, pois, a teu projeto?
Pirro: Pelo contrário - acabas de me indicar a porta por onde devo entrar.
O antigo: Não sei realmente se ainda nos compreendemos perfeitamente.
Pirro: Provavelmente não.
O antigo: Contanto que tu te compreendas bem a ti mesmo! - Pirro se volta sorrindo - Ai meu amigo! Calar-se e rir. Será essa agora toda a tua filosofia?
Pirro: Nâo seria a pior.
1 tag
Status Quo
‘Stuff your eyes with wonder,’ he said, ‘live as if you’d drop dead in ten seconds.
‘See the world. It’s more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its...
April 2010
6 posts
1 tag
“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are...”
– M. Scott Peck
1 tag
“The most successful people are those who are good at plan B.”
– James Yorke
1 tag
“The whole course of human history may depend on a change of heart in one...”
– M. Scott Peck
1 tag
Flying at Night
Above us, stars. Beneath us, constellations. Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies like a snowflake falling on water. Below us, some farmer, feeling the chill of that distant death, snaps on his yard light, drawing his sheds and barn back into the little system of his care. All night, the cities, like shimmering novas, tug with bright streets at lonely lights like this.
- Ted Kooser
1 tag
“Until the become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they they have...”
– George Orwell, 1984
1 tag
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted,...”
– George Orwell, 1984
March 2010
4 posts
1 tag
Spring must strike again
Stand up to the blow that fate has struck upon you Make the most of all you still have coming to you Lay down on the ground and let the tears run from you Crying to the grass and trees and heaven finally on your knees Let me live again, let life come find me wanting Spring must strike again against the shield of winter Let me feel once more the arms of love surround me Telling me the...
1 tag
Undisclose Desires
I want to reconcile the violence in your heart I want to recognize your beauty’s not just a mask I want to exorcize the demons from your past I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart
- Muse
1 tag
“É melhor, muito melhor, contentar-se com a realidade; se ela não é tão brilhante...”
– Machado de Assis