It was a November night of wind.
Leaves tore past the window.
God had the book of life open at PLEASURE
and was holding the pages down in one hand
because of the wind from the door.
For I made their flesh as a sieve
wrote God at the top of the page
and then listed in order:
Alcohol
Blood
Gratitude
Memory
Semen
Song
Tears
Time.
Authentic tradition remains hidden; only the decaying [verfallende] tradition chances upon [verfällt auf] a subject and only in decay does its greatness become visible.
– Ten Unhistorical Aphorisms on Kabbalah
We have seen, then, that certain socioeconomic changes, notably the decline of the middle class and the rising power of monopolistic capital, had a deep psychological effect… Nazism resurrected the lower middle class psychologically while participating in the destruction of its old socioeconomic position. It mobilized its emotional energies to become an important force in the struggle for the economic and political aims of German imperialism.
-from Escape from Freedom
He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sun rise.
A bureaucrat enjoys my works,
And his deep cosmic projects shirks?
Forswears voluminous reports,
For my quick wit and dry retorts?
I must your guilt, my Muse, berate –
You block the progress of the state.
– trans. by Garry Wills