Curse Quotes - page 16
Our folks understood that there was a war upon us and that school was a weapon that outdid any Glock. Yet the whole process-with its equally spaced desks, precisely timed periods and lectures, with its standardized pencils and tests-felt unnatural to me. But much as I hated their terms, having been impressed into them, I hated more the failing. So I was left with a great unconscious sadness, an emptiness which, even when I was alone, I was not fully aware. But it worked on me like an invisible weight, altered my laughter, posture, my approach to girls. Fuck what you have heard or what you have seen in your son. He may lie about homework and laugh when the teacher calls home. He may curse his teacher, propose arson for the whole public system. But inside is the same sense that was in me. None of us ever want to fail. None of us want to be unworthy, to not measure up.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
For many years he has not breathed the air,
The wholesome open air; the sun, the moon,
The stars, the clouds, the fair blue heaven, the spring,
The flowers, the trees, and the sweet face of man,
Song, or words yet more musical than song,
Affections, feelings, social intercourse
(Unless remembered in his fairy dreams)
Have all been strangers to his solitude! -
A curse is set on him, like poverty,
Or leprosy, or the red plague, but worse, -
The heart has sent its fire up to the brain,
And he is mad.
Letitia Elizabeth Landon