Mephisto as 18th century Morpheus (From The Matrix)

Interesting new Faust hot-take inspired form a friend: Faust (Neo), clapped up in a tight office doing meaningless work that numbs the mind, has no purpose, at least no fruits of his labor. God (the machines) anoint him special so he's been given a pointless career in academia, but behind the scene he plays a …

Hume on the Self: A Bundle of Perceptions

For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure.  I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception.” ... …

Pound, Canto LXXXI

“Master thyself, then others shall thee beare” Pull down thy vanity Thou art a beaten dog beneath the hail, A swollen magpie in a fitful sun, Half black half white Nor knowst’ou wing from tail Pull down thy vanity How mean thy hates Fostered in falsity, Pull down thy vanity, Rathe to destroy, niggard in …

Goethe: Trilogy of Passion, Part III

III.  ATONEMENT.[Composed, when 74 years old, for a Polish lady, who excelled inplaying on the pianoforte.]PASSION brings reason--who can pacifyAn anguish'd heart whose loss hath been so great?Where are the hours that fled so swiftly by?In vain the fairest thou didst gain from fate;Sad is the soul, confused the enterprise;The glorious world, how on the sense …