Time is a dream ... a destroying dream;_x000D_ _x000D_ It lays great cities in dust, it fills the seas;_x000D_ _x000D_ It covers the face of beauty, and tumbles walls.
Interpretation
Time is ephemeral and ultimately destructive, affecting everything from beauty to civilizations.
This quote reflects on the transient nature of time, suggesting that it has the power to erode beauty and topple great accomplishments, symbolized by cities and walls. Aiken emphasizes the relentless passage of time, which, despite being an intangible concept, leaves a tangible impact on the world around us.
In practice
In a lecture about the philosophy of time, this quote can illustrate the concept of impermanence.
One cricket said to another -_x000D_ _x000D_ come, let us be ridiculous, and say love!_x000D_ _x000D_ love love love love love_x000D_ _x000D_ let us be absurd, woman, and say hate!_x000D_ _x000D_ hate hate hate hate hate_x000D_ _x000D_ and then let us be angelic_x000D_ _x000D_ and say nothing.
Music I heard with you was more than music, and bread I broke with you was more than bread. Now that I am without you, all is desolate; all that was once so beautiful is dead.
You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else, for that matter. Too much is the same as not enough. Without imitating anyone else, you should have as much weaponry as suits you.
The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you or anybody else knows you are and as everything in living is made up of finding out what you are it is extraordinarily difficult really not to know what you are and yet to be that thing.
Who included me among the ranks of the human race?
Only free men can negotiate; prisoners cannot enter into contracts. Your freedom and mine cannot be separated.
The world doesn't want to be punished. It wants to remain in darkness. It doesn't want to be told that what it believes is false. If you also don't want to be corrected, then you might as well leave the church and spend your time at the bar and brothel. But if you want to be saved-and remember that there's another life after this one-you must accept correction.
To conclude that women are unfitted to the task of our historic society seems to me the equivalent of closing male eyes to female facts.
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