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1 " If human pleasure did not have both a lid and a time limit, we would not bestir ourselves to do things that were not pleasurable, such as toiling for our subsistence. And then we would not survive. By the same token, should our mass mind ever become discontented with the restricted pleasures doled out by nature, as well as disgruntled over the lack of restrictions on pain, we would omit the mandates of survival from our lives out of a stratospherically acerbic indignation. And then we would not reproduce. As a species, we do not shout into the sky, “The pleasures of this world are not enough for us.” In fact, they are just enough to drive us on like oxen pulling a cart full of our calves, which in their turn will put on the yoke. As inordinately evolved beings, though, we can postulate that it will not always be this way. “A time will come,” we say to ourselves, “when we will unmake this world in which we are battered between long burden and brief delight, and will live in pleasure for all our days.” The belief in the possibility of long-lasting, high-flown pleasures is a deceptive but adaptive flimflam. It seems that nature did not make us to feel too good for too long, which would be no good for the survival of the species, but only to feel good enough for long enough to keep us from complaining that we do not feel good all the time. "
― Thomas Ligotti , The Conspiracy Against the Human Race
2 " Religious freedom doesn't include the freedom to disregard the law and restrict another's freedom to believe and act differently. No one's forcing Catholic nuns to practice birth control, or priests to wear condoms (good idea tho). If you really feel your religious beliefs conflict with the mandates of running a business, the solution is simple: Get your ass out of the boardroom and back to the pulpit (where it belongs). "
― Quentin R. Bufogle
3 " Today the journey is ended,I have worked out the mandates of fate;Naked, alone, undefended,I knock at the Uttermost Gate.Behind is life and its longing,Its trial, its trouble, its sorrow;Beyond is the Infinite MorningOf a day without a tomorrow.Go back to dust and decay,Body, grown weary and old;You are worthless to me from today—No longer my soul can you hold.I lay you down gladly foreverFor a life that is better than this;I go where partings ne'er severYou into oblivion's abyss.Lo, the gate swings wide at my knocking,Across endless reaches I seeLost friends with laughter come flockingTo give a glad welcome to me.Farewell, the maze has been threaded,This is the ending of strife;Say not that death should be dreaded—'Tis but the beginning of life. "
4 " Everything we do these days - our lust for ever more comfort, pleasure, and distraction, our refusal to engage with the mandates of reality, our fidelity to cults of technology and limitless growth, our narcissistic national exceptionalism - all of this propels us toward the realm where souls abandon all hope. "
