Soldier ask not
They are fools that think that wealth or women or strong drink or even drugs can buy the most in effort out of the soul of a man. These things offer pale pleasures compared to that which is greatest of them all, that task which demands from him more than his utmost strength, that absorbs him, bone and
sinew and brain and hope and fear and dreams -- and still calls for more.
They are fools that think otherwise. No great effort was ever bought.
No painting, no music, no poem, no cathedral in stone, no church, no state was ever raised into being for payment of any kind. No parthenon, no Thermopylae was ever built or fought for pay or glory; no Bukhara sacked, or China ground beneath Mongol heel, for loot or power alone. The payment for doing these
things was itself the doing of them.
To wield oneself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and
so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man!
-- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
Shared by Narendra Shenoy on the clear writing WhatsApp group
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Comments ( 2 )
manan dedhia
a year ago
Sounds very pithy and convincing as poetic prose, but completely devoid of factual understanding of human behavior.
Saurabh Hirani
a year ago
The title of this post is interesting. It reminds me of a snippet from this poem https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45319/the-charge-of-the-light-brigade Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.
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