Justprompts- Voltaire Quote
Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.
~Voltaire
My friends are going to die. It's funny, we all know it; I will die with them, and they will die, and they believe their dead bodies will be a message to the world. I think, perhaps, we shall just be dead. It is too easy to ignore a dead man; he does not shout, or plead, or speak at all. We shall be buried together and forgotten, one more silly mess of students who didn't know what they were doing. This revolution of theirs will go unmarked; if only I could make them see. I look at my Apollo, and imagine his pretty eyes glassy, his golden hair matted with blood. Dead.
I turn my gaze to all of them, the boisterous, happy revel, and imagine them dead. No more laughter, no more poetry, no one to fill these seats and carouse the night away, lifted up by friends and philosophy, driven by the power of their belief-- all dead. Quiet in the cafe; silence in the streets; empty seats in lecture halls, the schools where these boys should be. And I, R, the cynic; I will die with them. I have no wish to walk away from them, into a world where I shall never see them again. I cannot live without friends, so I shall die. I only wish I could see what they see; a world waiting to be reborn, the France they could create, the Paris they could save. I would give anything to feel that fire in the blood, that conviction and strength in the spine, what gives them that powerful look, what makes Apollo shine like the sun, that belief.
But I cannot. I believe in my wine glass; I take strength in my drink. It is enough to sit so close and never understand, as long as they let me play soldier. As long as I die with them, I die content, never a breath away from their divinity, never too far to touch them. They will never understand me, and I cannot hope to understand them, but I gladly stand beside their glory, and I hope they gladly let me. I watch my splendid statue speak, and though I am not compelled, I am moved; to die for him is a great thing indeed.
~Voltaire
My friends are going to die. It's funny, we all know it; I will die with them, and they will die, and they believe their dead bodies will be a message to the world. I think, perhaps, we shall just be dead. It is too easy to ignore a dead man; he does not shout, or plead, or speak at all. We shall be buried together and forgotten, one more silly mess of students who didn't know what they were doing. This revolution of theirs will go unmarked; if only I could make them see. I look at my Apollo, and imagine his pretty eyes glassy, his golden hair matted with blood. Dead.
I turn my gaze to all of them, the boisterous, happy revel, and imagine them dead. No more laughter, no more poetry, no one to fill these seats and carouse the night away, lifted up by friends and philosophy, driven by the power of their belief-- all dead. Quiet in the cafe; silence in the streets; empty seats in lecture halls, the schools where these boys should be. And I, R, the cynic; I will die with them. I have no wish to walk away from them, into a world where I shall never see them again. I cannot live without friends, so I shall die. I only wish I could see what they see; a world waiting to be reborn, the France they could create, the Paris they could save. I would give anything to feel that fire in the blood, that conviction and strength in the spine, what gives them that powerful look, what makes Apollo shine like the sun, that belief.
But I cannot. I believe in my wine glass; I take strength in my drink. It is enough to sit so close and never understand, as long as they let me play soldier. As long as I die with them, I die content, never a breath away from their divinity, never too far to touch them. They will never understand me, and I cannot hope to understand them, but I gladly stand beside their glory, and I hope they gladly let me. I watch my splendid statue speak, and though I am not compelled, I am moved; to die for him is a great thing indeed.