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Sunday, November 17, 2024
Post #3256
—Sir P. Sidney
Sunday, January 08, 2023
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Thursday, September 24, 2020
"Sweet Dreams"
Had lotsa dreams ne'er a one sweet
Dreamt a fine gal went out to eat
Opened her mouth she had no teeth
On to the next one kinda neat
Walked on the moon a major feat
Just some dreams I'm here to tout
But "sweet" ain't what they's all about
A little weird they are no doubt
When doors lead in but take me out
To lands of strange where sleep does scout.
—holden klass
Monday, February 11, 2019
Post #2761
—Julio Cortázar
Thursday, June 01, 2017
Post #2349
Dogs dream of bones, and fishermen of fish.
—Theocritus
Wednesday, April 05, 2017
Post #2308
—Henri-Frédéric Amiel
Monday, April 15, 2013
Post #1232
—Zora Neale Hurston
Friday, November 09, 2012
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Post #612
—Edgar Allen Poe
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Improvise · Adapt · Overcome
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The Penalty of Leadership
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. ¶Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. ¶In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. ¶The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. ¶When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. ¶If his work be mediocre, he will be left severely alone – if he achieve a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a -wagging. ¶Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. ¶Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. ¶Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. ¶Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. ¶The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by. ¶The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy – but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. ¶There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions – envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. ¶And it all avails nothing. ¶If the leader truly leads, he remains – the leader. ¶Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. ¶That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. ¶That which deserves to live — lives.
written by Theodore F. MacManus
A deadly viper once bit a hole snipe's hide; But 'twas the viper, not the snipe, that died.
- dave
- El Paso, Texas, United States
- Native Texan · Navy Veteran · Various Scars and Tattoos · No Talent yet a Character