a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by kleinbl00
kleinbl00  ·  3947 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Secret Life of W.H. Auden

    Evil is unspectacular and always human,

    And shares our bed and eats at our own table,

    And we are introduced to Goodness every day.

    Even in drawing-rooms among a crowd of faults;

    he has a name like Billy and is almost perfect

    But wears a stammer like decoration:

    And every time they meet the same thing has to happen;

    It is the Evil that is helpless like a lover

    And has to pick a quarrel and succeeds,

    And both are openly destroyed before our eyes.

Some of that might make the book. The full Weil quote:

    “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.”