James Baldwin





Perhaps everybody has a garden of Eden,
I don't know;
But they have scarcely seen their garden
before they see the flaming sword.
    Then perhaps, life only offers the choice
    of remembering the garden or forgetting it.
Either or, it takes strength to remember,
it takes another kind of strength to forget, it
takes a hero to do both.

People who remember court madness through pain,
the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence.
People who forget court another kind of madness,
the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence.

And the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember,
and madmen who forget.

Heroes are rare.

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