illegitimi non carborundum
@paddy12.bsky.social
literature, philosophy, art, history
Pinned
The same roar after every sentence when the leader speaks. The same hatred of aliens. The same preparedness for violence. The same wounded manhood.
—Sven Lindquist, Exterminate All the Brutes (trans. Joan Tate)
—Sven Lindquist, Exterminate All the Brutes (trans. Joan Tate)
Yew, little yew, you are conspicuous in graveyards; ivy, little ivy, you are familiar in the dark wood.
—Irish, 12th century
—Irish, 12th century
October 30, 2025 at 12:45 AM
Yew, little yew, you are conspicuous in graveyards; ivy, little ivy, you are familiar in the dark wood.
—Irish, 12th century
—Irish, 12th century
Human history is the story of men working through their mommy issues.
—me
—me
October 30, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Human history is the story of men working through their mommy issues.
—me
—me
Conscience, Judas
Nikolai Ge, 1891
Nikolai Ge, 1891
October 30, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Conscience, Judas
Nikolai Ge, 1891
Nikolai Ge, 1891
It is not the fear of falling so much as the fear that you can’t trust yourself not to throw yourself off.
—Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Cafe
—Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Cafe
October 28, 2025 at 2:31 AM
It is not the fear of falling so much as the fear that you can’t trust yourself not to throw yourself off.
—Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Cafe
—Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Cafe
Alfred the Great, Saint James Cathedral
October 28, 2025 at 2:30 AM
Alfred the Great, Saint James Cathedral
wee come to seeke a grave
—John Donne
—John Donne
October 28, 2025 at 2:21 AM
wee come to seeke a grave
—John Donne
—John Donne
bike ride, Wyoming, 2014
October 28, 2025 at 2:14 AM
bike ride, Wyoming, 2014
For pride is a stubborn insistence on being what we are not and never were intended to be. Pride is a deep, insatiable need for unreality, an exorbitant demand that others believe the lie we have made ourselves believe about ourselves.
—Thomas Merton, The New Man
—Thomas Merton, The New Man
October 28, 2025 at 2:12 AM
For pride is a stubborn insistence on being what we are not and never were intended to be. Pride is a deep, insatiable need for unreality, an exorbitant demand that others believe the lie we have made ourselves believe about ourselves.
—Thomas Merton, The New Man
—Thomas Merton, The New Man
There is only one small step—no a quantum leap—between domestic abuse, workplace inequality, daily harassment, sexual assault, cultural belittlement, a lack of opportunities, and the murder of hundreds of thousands of women in Mexico and throughout the world.
—Grieving, by Cristina Rivera Garza
—Grieving, by Cristina Rivera Garza
October 28, 2025 at 2:09 AM
There is only one small step—no a quantum leap—between domestic abuse, workplace inequality, daily harassment, sexual assault, cultural belittlement, a lack of opportunities, and the murder of hundreds of thousands of women in Mexico and throughout the world.
—Grieving, by Cristina Rivera Garza
—Grieving, by Cristina Rivera Garza
He hath scattered them that are proude in the ymmaginacion of their hertes. He hath putt Doune the mygthy from their seates, and hath exalted them of lowe degre. He hath filled the hungry with goode thinges: And hath sent awaye the ryche empty. He hath remembred mercy ...
—Gospell of Luke, 1528
—Gospell of Luke, 1528
October 19, 2025 at 5:53 PM
He hath scattered them that are proude in the ymmaginacion of their hertes. He hath putt Doune the mygthy from their seates, and hath exalted them of lowe degre. He hath filled the hungry with goode thinges: And hath sent awaye the ryche empty. He hath remembred mercy ...
—Gospell of Luke, 1528
—Gospell of Luke, 1528
Let us choose the good part, which is to suffer with them that suffer, and let us say with lips and heart to the victims of calamity, like the good Christian to Mary: “Fac me tecum plangere,” – Make me to lament with thee.
—The Garden of Epicurus, Anatole France
—The Garden of Epicurus, Anatole France
October 4, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Let us choose the good part, which is to suffer with them that suffer, and let us say with lips and heart to the victims of calamity, like the good Christian to Mary: “Fac me tecum plangere,” – Make me to lament with thee.
—The Garden of Epicurus, Anatole France
—The Garden of Epicurus, Anatole France
"But there is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power."
—the city priest, Msimangu
from Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
—the city priest, Msimangu
from Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
October 4, 2025 at 9:37 PM
"But there is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power."
—the city priest, Msimangu
from Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
—the city priest, Msimangu
from Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton
In everyone there sleeps
A sense of life lived according to love.
To some it means the difference they could make
By loving others, but across most it sweeps
As all they might have done had they been loved.
—Philip Larkin, “Faith Healing”
A sense of life lived according to love.
To some it means the difference they could make
By loving others, but across most it sweeps
As all they might have done had they been loved.
—Philip Larkin, “Faith Healing”
October 4, 2025 at 9:35 PM
In everyone there sleeps
A sense of life lived according to love.
To some it means the difference they could make
By loving others, but across most it sweeps
As all they might have done had they been loved.
—Philip Larkin, “Faith Healing”
A sense of life lived according to love.
To some it means the difference they could make
By loving others, but across most it sweeps
As all they might have done had they been loved.
—Philip Larkin, “Faith Healing”
To trust anyone or to admit any hope of a better world is criminally foolish, as foolish as it is to stop working for it. It sounds silly to say work without hope, but it can be done; it’s only a form of insurance; it doesn’t mean work hopelessly.
—Keith Douglas, killed in Normandy, June, 1944
—Keith Douglas, killed in Normandy, June, 1944
October 4, 2025 at 10:56 AM
To trust anyone or to admit any hope of a better world is criminally foolish, as foolish as it is to stop working for it. It sounds silly to say work without hope, but it can be done; it’s only a form of insurance; it doesn’t mean work hopelessly.
—Keith Douglas, killed in Normandy, June, 1944
—Keith Douglas, killed in Normandy, June, 1944
WOMAN: To her eye: the spirit of Bezalel, the strength of the three locks of hair, the beauty of the father of peace, the depth of Ididia.
MAN: To his beloved, firmly stored in eternal memory: whatever leads to that state in whose fullness nothing is lacking.
—Letters of Abelard and Heloise
MAN: To his beloved, firmly stored in eternal memory: whatever leads to that state in whose fullness nothing is lacking.
—Letters of Abelard and Heloise
August 10, 2025 at 4:10 AM
WOMAN: To her eye: the spirit of Bezalel, the strength of the three locks of hair, the beauty of the father of peace, the depth of Ididia.
MAN: To his beloved, firmly stored in eternal memory: whatever leads to that state in whose fullness nothing is lacking.
—Letters of Abelard and Heloise
MAN: To his beloved, firmly stored in eternal memory: whatever leads to that state in whose fullness nothing is lacking.
—Letters of Abelard and Heloise
Cease from your wickedness, learn to behave well, devote yourselves to justice, rescue the wronged, uphold the rights of the orphan and grant the widow justice. And come, let us reason together, says the Lord.
—Book of Isaiah
—Book of Isaiah
August 10, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Cease from your wickedness, learn to behave well, devote yourselves to justice, rescue the wronged, uphold the rights of the orphan and grant the widow justice. And come, let us reason together, says the Lord.
—Book of Isaiah
—Book of Isaiah
The number of those who pretend unto salvation, and those infinite swarms who thinke to pass through the eye of this Needle, hath much amazed me.
—Sir Thomas Browne
—Sir Thomas Browne
August 10, 2025 at 4:04 AM
The number of those who pretend unto salvation, and those infinite swarms who thinke to pass through the eye of this Needle, hath much amazed me.
—Sir Thomas Browne
—Sir Thomas Browne
wall of a deserted kasr, Morocco, 2012
August 8, 2025 at 11:23 PM
wall of a deserted kasr, Morocco, 2012
I saw all the violence and unreason crossing in the air; ourselves small; a tumult outside: something terrifying: unreason—shall I make a book out of this?
—Virginia Woolf
—Virginia Woolf
August 8, 2025 at 11:13 PM
I saw all the violence and unreason crossing in the air; ourselves small; a tumult outside: something terrifying: unreason—shall I make a book out of this?
—Virginia Woolf
—Virginia Woolf
Men have conceived not only of elves, but they have imagined gods, and worshipped them, even worshipped those most deformed by their authors’ own evil.
—Tolkien
—Tolkien
August 8, 2025 at 11:12 PM
Men have conceived not only of elves, but they have imagined gods, and worshipped them, even worshipped those most deformed by their authors’ own evil.
—Tolkien
—Tolkien
War is less costly than servitude. The choice is always between Verdun and Dachau.
—Jean Dutuourd, 1940, qtd in "The Price of Glory", by Alistair Horne
—Jean Dutuourd, 1940, qtd in "The Price of Glory", by Alistair Horne
August 7, 2025 at 3:39 AM
War is less costly than servitude. The choice is always between Verdun and Dachau.
—Jean Dutuourd, 1940, qtd in "The Price of Glory", by Alistair Horne
—Jean Dutuourd, 1940, qtd in "The Price of Glory", by Alistair Horne
Dürer, "Cain Killing Abel"
August 7, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Dürer, "Cain Killing Abel"
Let her choose as her companion not a girl who is pretty or graceful or who sings sweetly with a clear voice, but one who is serious, pale, a bit shabby and not too cheerful.
—Saint Jerome, “On the Education of Little Paula” (trans. Carolinne White)
—Saint Jerome, “On the Education of Little Paula” (trans. Carolinne White)
August 7, 2025 at 3:34 AM
Let her choose as her companion not a girl who is pretty or graceful or who sings sweetly with a clear voice, but one who is serious, pale, a bit shabby and not too cheerful.
—Saint Jerome, “On the Education of Little Paula” (trans. Carolinne White)
—Saint Jerome, “On the Education of Little Paula” (trans. Carolinne White)
And how
The earth looked up in wonder at the new
Light of the shining sun, and how from clouds
The rain came down in showers, then woods arose,
And living creatures wandered on the sides
Of mountains unaware of what they were.
—Virgil, Eclogues VI
The earth looked up in wonder at the new
Light of the shining sun, and how from clouds
The rain came down in showers, then woods arose,
And living creatures wandered on the sides
Of mountains unaware of what they were.
—Virgil, Eclogues VI
August 7, 2025 at 3:32 AM
And how
The earth looked up in wonder at the new
Light of the shining sun, and how from clouds
The rain came down in showers, then woods arose,
And living creatures wandered on the sides
Of mountains unaware of what they were.
—Virgil, Eclogues VI
The earth looked up in wonder at the new
Light of the shining sun, and how from clouds
The rain came down in showers, then woods arose,
And living creatures wandered on the sides
Of mountains unaware of what they were.
—Virgil, Eclogues VI
Like others, we shall look for our mortal bodies,
But none of us will ever put his on again;
It is not just for a man to have what he takes from himself.
We shall drag them here, and through the mournful wood
Our bodies will be hung, each one upon
The thorny tree of his tormented shade.
—Inferno
But none of us will ever put his on again;
It is not just for a man to have what he takes from himself.
We shall drag them here, and through the mournful wood
Our bodies will be hung, each one upon
The thorny tree of his tormented shade.
—Inferno
August 7, 2025 at 3:30 AM
Like others, we shall look for our mortal bodies,
But none of us will ever put his on again;
It is not just for a man to have what he takes from himself.
We shall drag them here, and through the mournful wood
Our bodies will be hung, each one upon
The thorny tree of his tormented shade.
—Inferno
But none of us will ever put his on again;
It is not just for a man to have what he takes from himself.
We shall drag them here, and through the mournful wood
Our bodies will be hung, each one upon
The thorny tree of his tormented shade.
—Inferno