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42e4ae1
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I don't know what's worse: to not know what you are and be happy, or to become what you've always wanted to be, and feel alone.
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loneliness
philosophy
melancholy
psychology
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Daniel Keyes |
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65e4482
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Thank God for books and music and things I can think about.
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books
music
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Daniel Keyes |
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5ac8f3b
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Now I understand that one of the important reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you've believed in all your life aren't true, and that nothing is what it appears to be.
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Daniel Keyes |
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e1afaba
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I am afraid. Not of life, or death, or nothingness, but of wasting it as if I had never been.
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fear
life
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Daniel Keyes |
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624da92
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Its easy to make frends if you let pepul laff at you.
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Daniel Keyes |
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27ae255
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That's the thing about human life--there is no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed.
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Daniel Keyes |
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41dddfa
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Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love. This is something else I've discovered for myself very recently. I present it to you as a hypothesis: Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis. And I say that the mind absorbed in and involved in itself as a self-centered ..
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love
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Daniel Keyes |
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61913f3
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How strange it is that people of honest feelings and sensibilty, who would not take advantage of a man born without arms or legs or eyes--how such people think nothing of abusing a man with low intelligence.
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Daniel Keyes |
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8ab131d
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Don't feel sorry for me. I'm glad I had a second chance in life like you said to be smart because I learned a lot of things that I never knew were in this world, and I'm grateful I saw it even for a little bit.
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Daniel Keyes |
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ad97209
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Punctuation, is? fun!
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punctuation
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Daniel Keyes |
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fd9d6e8
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A child may not know how to feed itself, or what to eat, yet it knows hunger.
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inspirational
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Daniel Keyes |
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2943542
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There are so many doors to open. I am impatient to begin." --Charlie Gordan"
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impatient
doors
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Daniel Keyes |
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f4bc7b9
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There are a lot of people who will give money or materials, but very few who will give time and affection.
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Daniel Keyes |
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5cd5857
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Why am I always looking at life through a window?
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flowers-for-algernon
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Daniel Keyes |
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08c3238
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I see now that the path I choose through the maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being--one of many ways--and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.
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growth
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Daniel Keyes |
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b3188f9
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Strange about learning; the farther I go the more I see that I never knew even existed. A short while ago I foolishly thought I could learn everything - all the knowledge in the world. Now I hope only to be able to know of its existence, and to understand one grain of it. Is there time?
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Daniel Keyes |
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0dce3cb
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Who's to say that my light is better than your darkness? Who's to say death is better than your darkness? Who am I to say?
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Daniel Keyes |
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07a18ff
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Just leave me alone. I'm not myself. I'm falling apart, and I don't want you here.
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flowers-for-algernon
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Daniel Keyes |
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9b62e1c
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I'm living at a peak of clarity and beauty I never knew existed. Every part of me is attuned to the work. I soak it up into my pores during the day, and at night--in the moments before I pass off into sleep--ideas explode into my head like fireworks. There is no greater joy than the burst of solution to a problem. Incredible that anything could happen to take away this bubbling energy, the zest that fills everything I do. It's as if all the..
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learning
meaning
life
truth
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Daniel Keyes |
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356eae1
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P.S. please if you get a chanse put some flowrs on Algernons grave in the bak yard.
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Daniel Keyes |
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a715fd4
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Even in the world of make-believe there have to be rules. The parts have to be consistent and belong together.
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on-fiction
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Daniel Keyes |
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419f814
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But I've learned that intelligence alone doesn't mean a damned thing. Here in your university, intelligence, education, knowledge, have all become great idols. But I know now there's one thing you've all overlooked: intelligent and education that hasn't been tempered by human affection isn't worth a damn...Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love...Intelligence ..
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intelligence
flowers-for-algernon
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Daniel Keyes |
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986a8e0
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No one really starts anything new, Mrs. Nemur. Everyone builds on other men's failures. There is nothing really original in science. What each man contributes to the sum of knowledge is what counts.
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Daniel Keyes |
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cbe6b2e
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How can I make him understand that he did not create me? He makes the same mistake as the others when they look at a feeble-minded person and laugh because they don't understand there are human feelings involved.
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Daniel Keyes |
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6a6b4ec
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Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined them in laughing at myself. That hurts the most.
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Daniel Keyes |
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a214ff7
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Even a feeble-minded man wants to be like other men." --Charlie Gordan"
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man
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Daniel Keyes |
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69954de
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I'm "exceptional"- a democratic term used to avoid the damning labels of "gifted" and "deprived" (which used to mean "bright" and "retarded") and as soon as "exceptional" begins to mean anything to anyone they'll change it. The idea seems to be: use an expression as long as it doesn't mean anything to anybody. "Exceptional" refers to both ends of the spectrum, so all my life I've been exceptional."
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people
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Daniel Keyes |
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34384d8
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Although we know the end of the maze holds death (and it is something I have not always known--not long ago the adolescent in me thought death could happen only to other people), I see now that the path I choose through that maze makes me what I am. I am not only a thing, but also a way of being--one of many ways--and knowing the paths I have followed and the ones left to take will help me understand what I am becoming.
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Daniel Keyes |
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a1af2cb
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So this is how a person can come to despise himself-knowing he's doing the wrong thing and not being able to stop.
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Daniel Keyes |
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1a2a95e
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I'm not close to him." He looked at me defiantly. "But he's put his whole life into this. He's no Freud or Jung or Pavlov or Watson, but he's doing something important and I respect his dedication - maybe even more because he's just an ordinary man trying to do a great man's work, while the great men are all busy making bombs."
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Daniel Keyes |
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e99bc07
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And now - Plato's words mock me in the shadows on the ledge behind the flames: '...the men of the cave would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes.
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plato
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Daniel Keyes |
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6b5ff8a
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The universe was exploding, each particle away from the next, hurtling us into dark and lonely space, eternally tearing us away from each other - child out of the womb, friend away from friend, moving from each other, each through his own pathway towards the goal-box of solitary death.
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Daniel Keyes |
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44408f4
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The only question now is: How much can I hang on to?
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flowers-for-algernon
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Daniel Keyes |
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6e4b0ec
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April 6--Today, I learned, the comma, this is, a, comma (,) a period, with, a tail, Miss Kinnian, says its, importent, because, it makes writing, better, she said, somebody, could lose, a lot, of money, if a comma, isnt in, the right, place, I got, some money, that I, saved from, my job, and what, the foundation, pays me, but not, much and, I dont see how, a comma, keeps, you from, losing it, But, she says, everybody, uses commas, so Ill,..
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Daniel Keyes |
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8227eb2
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The answer can't be found in books - or be solved by bringing it to other people. Not unless you want to remain a child all your life. You've got to find the answer inside you - feel the right thing to do. Charlie, you've got to learn to trust yourself
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choice
ethics
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Daniel Keyes |
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38af81f
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I can't afford to spend my time with anyone - there's only enough left for myself
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Daniel Keyes |
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df2e0e6
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Dr Strauss said I had something that was very good. He said I had a good motor-vation. I never ever knew I had that. I felt proud when he said that not every body with an eye-q of 68 had that thing. I don't know what it is or where I got it but he said Algernon had it too. Algernons motor-vation is the cheese they put in his box. But it cant be that because I didnt eat any cheese last week.
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Daniel Keyes |
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e4067a2
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I put Algernon's body in a cheese box and buried him in the backyard. I cried.
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Daniel Keyes |
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7df87cf
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I see now that when Norma flowered in our garden I became a weed, allowed to exist only where I would not be seen, in corners and dark places.
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Daniel Keyes |
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b6f4dd3
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Even in the world of make-believe there have to be rules. The parts have to be consistent and belong together. This kind of picture is a lie. Things are forced to fit because the writer or the director or somebody wanted something in that didn't belong. And it doesn't feel right.
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Daniel Keyes |
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fcc1199
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I'm like a man who's been half-asleep all his life, trying to find out what he was like before he woke up.
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Daniel Keyes |
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c611d7a
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I hate that mouse
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Daniel Keyes |
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b0a70f9
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I passed your floor on the way up, and now I'm passing it on the way down, and I don't think I'll be taking this elevator again.
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Daniel Keyes |
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c5c92cf
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Because I want to see. I've got to know what's going to happen while I'm still enough in control to be able to do something about it.
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flowers-for-algernon
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Daniel Keyes |