aphorisms: An aphorism expresses a general truth in a pithy sentence. 
Some sociolinguists consider the aphorism a compressed poetic genre 
in itself. - Wikipedia


Graduate Thoughts
-----------------

"Research" - Do you know how useless the word sounds. You are searching 
something somebody has already searched. Nobody likes a "researcher" 
not the person who searched before you and not the people who are paying 
you. 

In the end, if nothing works out, there's always graduate school - An undergraduate

You know what they say about academia - the fights are so vicious because 
the stakes are so low. - Unk

Computer science is as much about computers as astronomy is about telescopes
- Edgser Djikstra

Three Virtues of a Programmer: Laziness, Impatience & Hubris 
- Wall, Christiansen, Schwartz


War, Peace, Love & Sorrow
-------------------------

War determines not who is right but who is left. - Unk

All around him young men went crazy with guns and were awarded medals 
for it. - Joseph Heller

Walking along the deserted highway
I met a lonely stranger
I asked her "Will you walk with me?"
She smiled and didn't say
She just smiled and walked away

Let me walk the highway of stars
Let me walk the road of diamonds
But let me not see her face
For then the stars will become dim
And the diamonds stones, hard and cold

Every happy family is happy in the same way. Every sad family has its own 
story to tell - Leo Tolstoy

The darkness is mad and deep
It bites, it stings yet its mine to keep

On the furthest bounds of my sanity
On the breaking restraints of my mind
I have scratched your name
Over and over and over again
Tell me do you love me?
Tell me do you fear me?

Ask not what your country can do for you. In fact don't ask anything and 
keep your mouth shut.

It is important to ask yourself how much of what you are is because you wanted
it and how much of it is because you could not help yourself.

We are healed from suffering only by experiencing it to the full. - Proust

I have looked into the heart of creation
I have stood on the edge of eternity
I have jumped into the abyss of forever
I have eyed Death's unblinking stare
And all I ever felt, all I ever saw
Was that you were always there
You were always there.

Theirs not to reason why, 
Theirs but to do and die - Alfred, Lord Tennyson

I am tired of livin; 
And scared of dyin; 
But that ole man river just keeps rollin along 
- Oscar Hammerstein II (Showboat)

And yes there are people
They are people like him 
Who will stare into pictures 
Of happy families and joyful friends
And then try to steal a bit of that joy
A bit of that happiness.
To fill their empty lives
Be afraid of those people
For they are only empty abysses
That reflect your reality 
Trying to suck your dreams


Philosophy
----------

The perception of reality is as important as reality itself. -Unk

I will show you fear in a handful of dust - T.S Eliot

To see the world in a grain of sand - Willam Blake

To stare fear in the eye
To stand in the brink of madness 

Writing Rhyme is like pandering to the simplicity of the human heart and 
to the ease the brain might have in predicting the words to follow. Blank 
verse on the other hand, is incomplete prose masaquerading with the head of 
a poem.

How tragic, 
The cicada trapped
Under a warrior's helmet
- Bashou

Where have you searched for meaning O lost soul?
In crowded pilgrimages, in empty prayer halls
In the silence of the saints, in the lips of your lover
But you have always come back to me haven't you
I am your heart, your brain, you conscience, your thoughts
I am you

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Juvenal

Yesterday upon the stair
I met a man who wasn't there
He wasn't there again today
I wish that man would go away
- Unk

Vladimir: "Well? Shall we go?" 
Estragon: "Yes let's go." 
They do not move. 
- Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot)

In the festering depths of your abcessed mind 
In the divine elegance of you pure heart 
What darkness hath wrought its unholy kind 
Where love, kindness and faith find their part 
Reason desecrated, ripped, shorn 
Sacred emotions of glory and bliss 
Alone , all alone you shall lie lorn.
You shall always yearn for a lover's kiss.

Someday you will realize that all those blurbs, all those 
cliches, all that old wisdom you laughed at - will be the 
ones that give you solace when everything is gone.

It was a thoroughly plain sword, it did not have any hidden 
magical runes that glowed under starlight, it did not bestow 
invincible power to its bearer, it did not cut anything that 
opposed it into halves, in fact it wasn't very sharp, therefore 
it was the perfect sword for a king, it was the perfect sword 
for a legend.

We are all living in a dream, the dream of youth. -Unk

Let us all be selfless and giving, let us forget about money,
greed and need while we can. For soon we shall grow old and 
life will make us selfish, greedy and needy.

Let us laugh at people in adversity so when it is their turn to 
laugh at us we will not feel so bad.

In war, in love, in joy, in sorrow
In truth, in lies,in light, in darkness 
In my gods, in my devils 
In your gods, in your satans 
There is only one constant thing 
It is my body.

Better late than later

Gott ist tot! Gott bleibt tot! Und wir haben ihn getötet - Nietzsche

I am the feather floating on tides of time, I have been witness to 
destinies that changed life and lives that changed destiny, I have 
seen the mightiest fall to the strength of the innocent and I have 
seen the divine corrupted by the slow canker of power, I have seen 
destruction so dread to tear the very fabric of existence, I have 
seen creation so dear to dance in its wake of glorious life. Yet I 
will always be the feather floating on the tides of time.

The poet starts by saying that the fish is the queen of water thereby 
imposing a not-so-subtle hierachy and gender based uplifment (and 
denigration) however paradoxically in the very next line the poet 
implies that water is the life of fish implying the duality of hierarchy 
and its subjects and the parsitic symbiosis of power structures and 
the oppressed.

He was the kind of man who would brand himself a fool first in fear of 
other people later recognizing his foolishness.

Our Vices and Virtues are but a garb in which our personal demons force 
us to be what we are.

The hardest battle is often the battle with the self. -Unk

And then she stood in front of the mirror 
Letting her body loose, her eyes droopy 
In that vicarious pleasure of unbinding 
That delightful stench of mediocrity 
And felt the creeping contenment of ordinary.

In darkness
My heart beats
A stranger walks past.

When beggars die there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes. 
- Calpurnia (Julius Caesar)

What was God doing before the creation of the universe? Well, God was preparing
Hell for those who dared ask - Augustine

How loud do you have to shout to be heard in an empty room?


Meta
----

Quotes are like drugs, they make you high on words.

All generalizations are dangerous even this one - Unk

The poet presents his thoughts festively, on a carriage of rhythm: usually 
because they could not walk. - Nietzsche

Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, 
musical, self-sufficient - Walt Whitman