Tao Te Ching
Allen Ginsberg
1926 – 1997 CE
Eloquent instigator, figurehead and voice for the Beat Generation of the ’50s, the counterculture of the 60’s and the flowering of Buddhism in America during the 70’s and 80’s; Ginsberg symbolized a powerful influence against materialism, the military-industrial complex, and conformity. His poem "Howl” written during a time when homosexuality was a crime in every U.S. state was confiscated by police, seized by US Customs, and started a famous obscenity trial that led to more legal and cultural acceptance for the LGBT community. For decades, a powerful advocate for free speech, gay rights, and non-conformity; a tireless opponent and protestor against the Viet Nam War, the War on Drugs, imperialism, the failure to protect refugees, and persecution of minorities; at the request of his Tibetan teacher Chögyam Trungpa and along with Anne Waldman started The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.
Eras
Unlisted Sources
Howl
Sulfur 31
Quotes by Allen Ginsberg (11 quotes)
“Our heads are round so thought can change direction.”
Chapters:
12. This Over That
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“Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.”
Chapters:
13. Honor and Disgrace
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“Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness.”
Chapters:
18. The Sick Society
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“I don'think there is any truth. There are only points of view.”
Chapters:
20. Unconventional Mind
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“Everything is holy! everybody's holy! everywhere is holy! everyday is in eternity! Everyman's an angel!”
Chapters:
25. The Mother of All Things
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“What if someone gave a war and Nobody came?”
Chapters:
31. Victory Funeral
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“We eat reality sandwiches. But allegories are so much lettuce. Don't hide the madness.”
Chapters:
33. Know Yourself
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“To gain your own voice you have to forget about having it heard.”
Chapters:
44. Fame and Fortune
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“Every American wants MORE MORE of the world… But the mistake made in America is persons accumulate more more dead matter… at the expense of what really counts… You own twice as much rug if you're twice as aware of the rug.”
Chapters:
46. Enough
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“Whitman’s breakthru from official conventional nationalist identity to personal self, to subject, subjectivity, to candor of person, sacredness of the unique eccentric curious solitary personal consciousness changed written imaginative conception of the individual around the whole world, and inspired a democratic revolution of mental nature from Leningrad and Paris to Shanghai and Tokyo.”
from Sulfur 31
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“What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?”
from Howl
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