"It is a fact that a man’s dying
is more the survivors’ affair than his own.
Whether he realizes it or not,
he illustrates the pertinence of the adage:
So long as we are, death is not;
and when death is present, we are not.
In other words, 

between death and us there is no rapport;
it is something with which 

we have nothing to do —
and only incidentally the world and nature.
And that is why all living creatures 

can contemplate it with composure,
with indifference, unconcern, 

with egoistic irresponsibility."

(Behrens from The Magic Mountain)

"Life, young man, is a female.

A sprawling female,

with swelling breasts close to each other,

great soft belly between her haunches,

slender arms, bulging thighs,

half-closed eyes. She mocks us.

She chal-lenges us to expend our manhood

to its uttermost span,

to stand or fall before her.

To stand or fall.

To fall, young man—

do you know what that means?

The defeat of the feelings,

their overthrow when confronted by life —

that is impotence.

For it there is no mercy,

it is pitilessly, mockingly condemned.—

Not a word, young man!

Spewed out of the mouth.

Shame and ignominy are soft words

for the ruin and bankruptcy,

the horrible disgrace.

It is the end of everything,

the hellish despair, the Judgment Day."

(Herr Peeperkorn from The Magic Mountain)

"I know what death is,

I am an old retainer of his;

and believe me, he’s overrated.

Almost nothing to him.

Of course, all kinds of beastliness

can happen beforehand —

but it isn’t fair to count those in,

they are as living as life itself,

and can just as well lead up to a cure.

But about death —

no one who came back from it

could tell you anything,

because we don’t realize it.

We come out of the dark

and go into the dark again,

and in between

lie the experiences of our life.

But the beginning and the end,

birth and death,

we do not experience;

they have no subjective character,

they fall entirely in the category

of objective events,

and that’s that.”

(Behrens from Magic Mountain)

"We have been born and brought up

in a social order that is now

obviously a failure

in quite primary respects.

Our social order is bankrupt.

It is not delivering the goods.

It is defaulting and breaking up.

War, pervading and increasing brutality,

lack of any real liberty,

economic mismanagement,

frightful insufficiency

in the midst of

possible super-abundance..."

(H.G.Wells - Star Begotten (1937))

"From the coast of gold,

across the seven seas,

I'm travelling on,

far and wide,

But now it seems,

I'm just a stranger to myself,

And all the things

I sometimes do,

it isn't me

but someone else.

(Art by M. Bondar)

So understand
Don't waste your time
always searching for
those wasted years,
Face up...
make your stand,
And realise
you're living
in the golden years."

...

:)

:)

“A hero is born among a hundred,

a wise man is found among a thousand,

but an accomplished one

might not be found

even among a hundred thousand men. ”

― Plato

"We are the Black Knights

We are born to dominate

Because we are Death

We are Darkness

And we are Hate...

...All is dead, all is black

The Black Knights are victorious

We are the mightiest

Our kingdom will last forever."

‘O salute, O Satana,

O ribellione,

O forza vindice

della ragione!. . .’

(Giosuè Carducci)

"Hail, O Satan 

O rebellion, 

O you avenging force 

of human reason!..."

“The essential act of war is destruction,

not necessarily of human lives,

but of the products of human labour.

War is a way of shattering to pieces,

or pouring into the stratosphere,

or sinking in the depths of the sea,

materials which might otherwise be used

to make the masses too comfortable,

and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.”

(George Orwell)

(Grzegorz Kmin)

“Oh, l’amour, tu sais—

Le corps, l’amour, la mort,

ces trois ne font qu’un.

Car le corps, c’est la maladie et la volupté,

et c’est lui qui fait la mort, oui,

ils sont charnels tous deux,

l’amour et la mort,

et voilà leur terreur

et leur grande magie!

"Oh, love, you know,

body, love, death,

these three are one.

Because the body is disease and pleasure,

and the body is the source of death,

yes, they are both carnal,

love and death,

and that's their terror

and their great magic!

(Thomas Mann - Magic Mountain)