How cruel is reason! How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is meditation! How subtle is the lack of reason! - Djuna Barnes

And once Father Lucas said to me, 'Be simple, Matthew, life is a simple book, and an open book, read and be simple as the beasts in the field; just being miserable isn't enough — you've got to know how.' So I got to thinking and I said to myself, 'This is a terrible thing that Father Lucas has put on me — be simple like the beasts and yet think and harm nobody.

One sees you sitting in the sun Asleep; With the sweeter gifts you had And didn't keep, One grieves that the altars of Your vice lie deep.

For most people, life is nasty, brutish, and short; for me, it has simply been nasty and brutish.