AIM Profile Quotes

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AIM PROFILE QUOTES

August 2005-February 2006:
"Is there not in every human soul an essential spark, an element of the divine, indestructible in this world and the next, which goodness can preserve, nourish, and fan into glorious flame, and which evil can never quite extinguish?"
-Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables."

February 2006-March 2006:
"It is a mistake to suppose that the state of being in love, be it never so happy and innocent, makes a man perfect. As we have seen, it makes him forgetful. If he forgets to be evil, he also forgets to be good. The sense of gratitude and obligation, the recollection of everyday essentials-- all this tends to disappear . . . Certainly, he had nothing against her-- far from it. It was simply that with all his warmth bestowed on one, he had none for any other." -Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables."

March 2006-May 2006:
"I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that even though I do not know you and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you, I love you. With all my heart, I love you."
-Valerie, "V for Vendetta."

May 2006-June 2006:
"I made up my mind, the moment I became aware of his affections for you, that I would keep my interest in you hidden so that he could have you."
-The Chairman, Arthur Golden, "Memoirs of a Geisha."

June 2006-July 2006:
"O serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! Fiend angelical! Dove-feather'd raven! Wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of divinest show-- just opposite to what thou justly seem'st!"
-Juliet, William Shakespeare, "Romeo and Juliet."

July 2006-August 2006:
"Fear not the flame of my love's candle; let it be the sun in your world of darkness. Give unto me all that frightens you. I'll have your nightmares for you, if you'll sleep soundly." -Evanescence, "Give Unto Me."

August 2006-September 2006:
"Each man's life represents a road towards himself, an attempt at such a road, the intimation of a path. No man has ever been completely and entirely himself. Yet each man strives to become that-- one in an awkward, the other in a more intelligent way, each as best as he can." -Hermann Hesse, "Demian."

September 2006-November 2006:
"In my forlorn state
I feel like a floating reed
ready to break free
at the roots and drift away--
if the waters would but tempt me."
Wabinureba
Mi o ukikusa no
Ne o taete
Sasou mizu araba
Inamu to zo omou
-Ono no Komachi, "The Kokinshuu."

November 2006-December 2006:
("A gentle, shy woman of the second kind may pretend not to notice things about which she might justifiably complain. To all outward appearances, she has nothing on her mind. But when she reaches the breaking point, she flees in secret to some remote mountain dwelling or isolated shore, leaving behind an indescribably poignant letter, a pathetic poem, and mementos . . . " Genji, Murasaki Shikibu, "Genji Monogatari.")

"But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes, and I know in 1605 he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail-- he can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten-- but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed firsthand the power of ideas; I've seen people kill in the name of them and die defending them. But you cannot kiss an idea-- cannot touch it, or hold it. Ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love. And it is not an idea that I miss; it is a man." -Evey, "V for Vendetta."

December 2006-January 2007:
Koishinaru
Mi no okotari zo
Toshi henuru
Araba au yo no
Kokorozuyosa
"With me unresolved
To die of the love I feel,
The years have gone by--
My heart strengthened by the thought
That, living, I may see him again."
-Fujiwara no Teika, "The Shinkokinshuu"

January 2007-February 2007:
"Which father, which teacher, could prevent him from living his own life, from soiling himself with life, from loading himself with sin, from swallowing the bitter drink himself, from finding his own path? Do you think, my dear friend, that anybody is spared this path? Perhaps your little son, because you would like to see him spared sorrow and pain and disillusionment? But if you were to die ten times for him, you would not alter his destiny in the slightest." -Vasudeva, Hermann Hesse, "Siddhartha"

February 2007-March 2007:
"He now felt as if ordinary people were his brothers. Their vanities, desires, and trivialities no longer seemed absurd to him; they had become understandable, lovable, and even worthy of respect. There was the blind love of a mother for her child, the blind foolish pride of a fond father for his only son, the blind eager strivings of a young vain woman for ornament and the admiration of men. All these little simple, foolish, but tremendously strong, vital, passionate urges and desires no longer seemed trivial . . . He saw people live and do great things, travel conduct wars, suffer and endure immensely, and he loved them for it." -Hermann Hesse, "Siddhartha"

March 2007-May 2007:
"There's so much beauty in the world, sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much; my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst-- and then I remember to relax and stop trying to hold on to it and then it flows through me like rain, and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life. You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure, but don't worry-- you will someday." -Lester Burnham, "American Beauty"

May 2007-June 2007:
"Each one of us continues to carry the heart of each self we've ever been, at every stage along the way, and a chaos of everything good and rotten. And we have to carry this weight all alone, through each day that we live. We try to be as nice as we can to the people we love, but we alone support the weight of ourselves." -Yoshimoto Banana, "Goodbye Tsugumi"

June 2007-September 2007:
"If you do not find an intelligent companion, a wise and well-behaved person going the same way as yourself, then go on your way alone, like a king abandoning a conquered kingdom, or like a great elephant in the deep forest." -Buddha

September 2007-October 2007:
"I could tear open my bosom with vexation to think how little we are capable of influencing the feelings of each other. No one can communicate to me those sensations of love, joy, rapture, and delight which I do not naturally possess; and, though my heart may glow with the most lively affection, I cannot make the happiness of one in whom the same warmth is not inherent." -Werther, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "The Sorrows of Young Werther"

October 2007-November 2007:
"Oftentimes I say to myself, 'Thou alone art wretched: all other mortals are happy, none are distressed like thee!' Then I read a passage in an ancient poet, and I seem to understand my own heart." -Goethe, "The Sorrows of Young Werther"
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Kokoro: Sensei's Last Testament

November 2007-December 2007:
V: No more tricks. No more lies. Only truth. And the truth is you made me understand that I was wrong, that the choice to pull this lever is not mine to make.
Evey: Why?
V: Because this world, the world that I'm a part of and that I helped shape, will end tonight, and tomorrow a different world will begin that different people will shape-- and this choice belongs to them.
Evey: Where are you going?
V: The time has come for me to meet my maker and to repay him in kind for all that he's done.
Evey: V, wait! Please; you don't have to do this. You could let it go. We could leave here together.
V: No. You were right about what I am. I have no tree waiting for me. All I want, all I deserve, is at the end of that tunnel.
Evey: That's not true.
(V: I can't.)
-"V for Vendetta"

December 2007-January 2008:
"Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life . . . You give them a piece of you. They didn't ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like 'maybe we should be just friends' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love." -Neil Gaiman

January 2008-February 2008:
"I am a writer, writer of fictions; I am the heart that you call home. And I've written pages upon pages trying to rid you from my bones." -The Decemberists, "The Engine Driver"

February 2008-April 2008:
Evey: "Leave me alone! I hate you!"
V: "That's it! See, at first I thought it was hate, too. Hate was all I knew; it built my world, it imprisoned me-- taught me how to eat, how to drink, how to breathe. I thought I'd die with all my hate in my veins. But then something happened. It happened to me,-- just as it happened to you."
Evey: "Shut up! I don't want to hear your lies!"
V: "Your own father said that artists use lies to tell the truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something true about yourself."
Evey: "No."
V: "What was true in that cell is just as true now. What you felt in there has nothing to do with me."
Evey: "I can't feel anything anymore!"
V: "Don't run from it, Evey. You've been running all your life."
Evey: "I can't-- can't breathe. Asthma . . . asthma . . . when I was little . . . "
V: "Listen to me, Evey. This may be the most important moment of your life. Commit to it."
-V for Vendetta

April 2008-July 2008:
Tsuki ya aranu
haru ya mukashi no
haru naranu
waga mi hitotsu wa
moto no mi ni shite.
"Is this moon
The same moon?
Is this spring the same spring?
Only my body
Is the same body as before." -Ariwara no Narihira

July 2008-January 2009:
"I'd only told them the truth. Was that so selfish? Our integrity sells for so little, but it's all that we really have. It is the very last inch of us, but within that inch, we are free." -Valerie, V for Vendetta

January 2009-Present:
"A furious wind had blown up from nowhere and struck down the unwary couple. When they finally picked themselves up off the ground, they saw that they were covered in dirt from head to foot. This they recognized. But when and how they had fallen, neither could say . . . They could find no reason whatsoever for what they had done. It was this particularly that had caused them pain. They resented bitterly the cruel fate whose whim had so suddenly struck them down, though guiltless, and had hurled them for amusement into a pit it had prepared to receive them." -Natsume Soseki, Mon

SONGS

September 2007
"So Close" by Evanescence

October 2007
"Mr. Brightside" by The Killers
"No Good Deed" from Wicked
"March to the Scaffold" from Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz
"Suicide Medicine" by Rocky Votolato
"The Blower's Daughter" by Damien Rice

December 2007
"Going Under" by Evanescence
"Farewell" by Apocalyptica

January 2008
"Read My Mind" by The Killers

February 2008
"Dance Floor Anthem (I Don't Wanna Be In Love)" by Good Charlotte

March 2008
"Never Too Late" by Three Days Grace

April/May 2008:
"Other Side of the World" by KT Tunstell

October 2008
"Say" by Jon Mayer
"Electric Feel" by MGMT

November 2008
"Hands Held High" by Linkin Park
"World" by Five for Fighting
"American Boy" by Estelle and Kanye West

December 2008
"Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen
"Another Day" from Rent
"Untouched" by The Veronicas

January 2009
"Love Lockdown" by Kanye West
"Understanding" by Evanescence
"Layla" by Derek and the Dominoes

February 2009
"Last Song I'm Wasting On You" by Evanescence
"Blue and Yellow" by The Used