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28226 |
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Date: August 11, 2024 at 16:30:30
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: On Good and Evil from The Prophet/Gibran |
URL: https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/khalil-gibran/the-prophet/text/on-good-and-evil |
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And one of the elders of the city said, Speak to us of
Good and Evil.
And he answered:
Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil.
For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and
thirst?
Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark
caves, and when it thirsts it drinks even of dead waters.
You are good when you are one with yourself.
Yet when you are not one with yourself you are not evil.
For a divided house is not a den of thieves; it is only a
divided house.
And a ship without rudder may wander aimlessly among
perilous isles yet sink not to the bottom.
You are good when you strive to give of yourself.
Yet you are not evil when you seek gain for yourself.
For when you strive for gain you are but a root that
clings to the earth and sucks at her breast.
Surely the fruit cannot say to the root, “Be like me,
ripe and full and ever giving of your abundance.”
For to the fruit giving is a need, as receiving is a need
to the root.
You are good when you are fully awake in your speech,
Yet you are not evil when you sleep while your tongue
staggers without purpose.
And even stumbling speech may strengthen a weak tongue.
You are good when you walk to your goal firmly and with
bold steps.
Yet you are not evil when you go thither limping.
Even those who limp go not backward.
But you who are strong and swift, see that you do not
limp before the lame, deeming it kindness.
You are good in countless ways, and you are not evil when
you are not good,
You are only loitering and sluggard.
Pity that the stags cannot teach swiftness to the
turtles.
In your longing for your giant self lies your goodness:
and that longing is in all of you.
But in some of you that longing is a torrent rushing with
might to the sea, carrying the secrets of the hillsides
and the songs of the forest.
And in others it is a flat stream that loses itself in
angles and bends and lingers before it reaches the shore.
But let not him who longs much say to him who longs
little, “Wherefore are you slow and halting?”
For the truly good ask not the naked, “Where is your
garment?” nor the houseless, “What has befallen your
house?”
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Responses:
[28228] [28227] [28230] [28229] [28237] |
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28228 |
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Date: August 17, 2024 at 15:37:05
From: et, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: On Good and ... |
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In the walue scale good involves an 8 and no good a 4
less is 3 and more is 7 with the worst at 1 and best at
9... but sideline that me wanted to ask if them who know
shoulda not ask the ignorant a question to ponder and
wonder to maybe get to know such accordingly this is
related to the agile and strong or them with a home
asking the lame and homeless bout who to restore agility
and build a home...
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Responses:
None |
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28227 |
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Date: August 14, 2024 at 14:30:14
From: sandy - socal mountain, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: On Good and Evil from The Prophet/Gibran |
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Responses:
[28230] [28229] [28237] |
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28230 |
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Date: August 17, 2024 at 19:20:20
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: On Good and Evil from The Prophet/Gibran |
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Most welcome sandy...laughing at myself, thanked you for
commenting but up on the next The Prophet chapter I posted,
above, half asleep here, sorry...lol...
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Responses:
None |
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28229 |
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Date: August 17, 2024 at 19:18:36
From: shadow, [DNS_Address]
Subject: On Freedom from The Prophet/Gibran |
URL: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/148573/on-freedom |
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Thank you sandy...you're helping me remember to come back
and do a few more before I forget again... ;)
Copying this chapter from a different source, differently
formatted in bodytext, hope it comes out okay...
***
And an orator said, Speak to us of Free-
dom.
And he answered:
At the city gate and by your fireside I
have seen you prostrate yourself and worship
your own freedom,
Even as slaves humble themselves before
a tyrant and praise him though he slays
them.
Ay, in the grove of the temple and in
the shadow of the citadel I have seen the
freest among you wear their freedom as a
yoke and a handcuff.
And my heart bled within me; for you
can only be free when even the desire of
seeking freedom becomes a harness to you,
and when you cease to speak of freedom
as a goal and a fulfilment.
You shall be free indeed when your days
are not without a care nor your nights with-
out a want and a grief,
But rather when these things girdle your
life and yet you rise above them naked and
unbound.
And how shall you rise beyond your
days and nights unless you break the chains
which you at the dawn of your under-
standing have fastened around your noon
hour?
In truth that which you call freedom is
the strongest of these chains, though its
links glitter in the sun and dazzle your eyes.
And what is it but fragments of your own
self you would discard that you may become
free?
If it is an unjust law you would abolish,
that law was written with your own hand
upon your own forehead.
You cannot erase it by burning your law
books nor by washing the foreheads of your
judges, though you pour the sea upon them.
And if it is a despot you would dethrone,
see first that his throne erected within you is
destroyed.
For how can a tyrant rule the free and
the proud, but for a tyranny in their own
freedom and a shame in their own pride?
And if it is a care you would cast off, that
care has been chosen by you rather than
imposed upon you.
And if it is a fear you would dispel, the
seat of that fear is in your heart and not in
the hand of the feared.
Verily all things move within your being
in constant half embrace, the desired and
the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished,
the pursued and that which you would
escape.
These things move within you as lights
and shadows in pairs that cling.
And when the shadow fades and is no
more, the light that lingers becomes a
shadow to another light.
And thus your freedom when it loses its
fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater
freedom.
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Responses:
[28237] |
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28237 |
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Date: August 28, 2024 at 14:12:24
From: sandy - socal mountain, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: On Freedom from The Prophet/Gibran |
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I forget to come and check here. It use to be a habit
back in the day. Hope to get more subtle reminders in
my brain to check the posts here, lol
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Responses:
None |
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