“The Books That The World Calls Immoral Are Books That Show The World Its Own Shame.”

from Vahan Teryan's letter to Antharam Miskaryan (translated by Tathev Simonyan)

“We worship perfection because we can’t have it; if we had it, we would reject it. Perfection is inhuman, because humanity is imperfect.”

― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Every time I read or watch Lord of the Rings I can’t help but think about how Tolkien had survived one of the bloodiest, most cruel, most dirtiest and darkest wars in human history, came back and wrote this:

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”

And this:

"'I wish it need not have happened in my time,' said Frodo.

'So do I,' said Gandalf, 'and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'"

And this:

"I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend."

And this:

“Many that live deserve death and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be so eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the wise cannot see all ends."

And this:

“True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare one.”

And clearly they were all written partly because he survived the war, because of what he’d seen and done and learned. But at the same time the unwillingness to lose faith, the courage and strength that this man had to believe in these things after going through hell! It makes the nihilists look so cheap, so uninteresting! People who’ve went through concentration camps and wars believe in humanity anyway, isn’t that proof that hope and love exist? And many, many, many of them did not return or returned broken and cruel and traumatised to the point when no faith in others was possible for them, and nobody can blame them. But there were many who refused to lose faith and hope. They have seen some the worst that life has to offer and came back believing that we shouldn’t be eager to deal out death and judgement and should love only that which the sword defends.

No matter how many people say that humanity is horrible and undeserving of love, and life is dark and worthless, and love doesn’t exist I remember this and have hope anyway. Because there were people who have actually had all reason to believe in the worst and still believed in the good, so the good must be real. The good is real, even despite the evil, and we must trust in it.

subtitles from Science Gossip, 1900

“the literal meaning of life is whatever you’re doing that prevents you from killing yourself”

- Albert Camus

when will someone make a sapphic dark academia book WHEN??

Leah Raeder, Black Iris

"i can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people."

isaac newton

"The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans."

Sherwood Smith

the flowers of your love are suffocating me

The Roses of Heliogabalus - Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (detail) // “Monster” (1994-2001) - Naoki Urasawa // Samuel Cirnansck at Sao Paulo Fashion Week Summer (2012) // x // “Hanahaki Disease” Part 2 - Celeste Durham // “hanahaki disease” - ari // Hannibal (2013-2015)

blood red on snow white