"La plus commune façon d'amollir les coeurs de ceux qu'on a offensez, lors qu'ayant la vengeance en main, ils nous tiennent à leur mercy, c'est de les esmouvoir par submission à commiseration et à pitié. Toutesfois la braverie, et la constance, moyens tous contraires, ont quelquefois servi à ce mesme effect." - Michel de Montaigne
So I tolerate the intolerable
Because compassion cuts off wisdom
Whenever two lanes merge to one.
That's just science. What irks
Is this belief I could exist outside of it,
That, when the smoke rose, and the pawns
Were left on the board, it would be
Like I'd been there. Even those who try
To disappear need external validation, I hold
As I bear that last candle over the threshold
Not to see, but to know it won't go out
After the million lips have mistaken its flame
For an invitation to darkness.
There's too much light, until there is no more,
As truth must fold completely into lie
For what just happened to be revealed,
As curtain opened on an empty stage --
It's what's best for the patrons, they say,
When it's the actor himself
Who demanded the chairs be empty
For the performance of his life,
Only then to know that everything he did
Deserved applause.
