metagraph to an anniversary
Click to view“Ma, sendo l’intento mio scrivere cosa utile a chi la intende, mi è parso più conveniente andare drieto alla verità effettuale della cosa, che alla immaginazione di essa. E molti si sono immaginati repubbliche e principati che non si sono mai visti né conosciuti essere in vero; perché elli è tanto discosto da come si vive a come si doverrebbe vivere, che colui che lascia quello che si fa per quello che si doverrebbe fare, impara più tosto la ruina che la preservazione sua: perché uno uomo, che voglia fare in tutte le parte professione di buono, conviene rovini infra tanti che non sono buoni.”
“But as my intention is to write something of use to those who understand it, it appears to me more proper to go straight to the real truth of the matter than to its imaginary state. And many have imagined republics and principalities that have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live, that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done, will sooner learn to bring about his own ruin than his preservation; and hence a man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in every matter, must necessarily come to grief among so many who are not good.”
- Niccolò Machiavelli, Il Principe, 1532
“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked.
“Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
“What brought it on?”
“Friends,” said Mike. “I had a lot of friends. False friends. Then I had creditors, too. Probably had more creditors than anybody in England.”
“Tell them about in the court,” Brett said.
“I don’t remember,” Mike said. “I was just a little tight.”
“Tight!” Brett exclaimed. “You were blind!”
“Extraordinary thing,” Mike said. "Met my former partner the other day. Offered to buy me a drink.”
“Tell them about your learned counsel,” Brett said.
“I will not,” Mike said. “My learned counsel was blind, too. I say this is a gloomy subject. Are we going down and see these bulls unloaded or not?”
“Let’s go down.”
- Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, 1926
Jim Bennett: I’ve been up two and a half million.
Frank: What you got on you?
Jim Bennett: Nothing.
Frank: What you put away?
Jim Bennett: Nothing.
Frank: You get up two and a half million dollars, any asshole in the world knows what to do. You get a house with a 25 year roof, an indestructible Jap-economy shitbox, you put the rest into the system at three to five percent to pay your taxes and that’s your base, get me? That’s your fortress of fucking solitude. That puts you, for the rest of your life, at a level of fuck you. Somebody wants you to do something, fuck you. Boss pisses you off, fuck you! Own your house. Have a couple bucks in the bank. Don’t drink. That’s all I have to say to anybody on any social level. Did your grandfather take risks?
Jim Bennett: Yes.
Frank: I guarantee he did it from a position of fuck you. A wise man’s life is based around fuck you. The United States of America is based on fuck you. You have a navy? Greatest army in the history of mankind? Fuck you! Blow me. We’ll fuck it up ourselves.
- The Gambler, 2014
I broke bad the day my father burned in a fire that started in 2 places at once, 3 years & 5 months after sprouting my 1st crack on 9/11.
I broke bad gradually & then suddenly: 8 years of assclowning-gradually; 18 days of watching my father die-suddenly.
An asshole differs from an assclown: as cutting in line, from broaching rear entry; as arrogating privileges, from reclaiming rights.
All you giving up rights to line up for the sake of craven politeness: do as I do, or hope & pray to catch up with me on the other side.
All you frantically boarding up the rear entry: stock up on glue & lube, ere you get fisted & splintered.