“The safeguard of morality is religion, and morality is the best security of law as well as the surest pledge of freedom.” – Alexis de Tocqueville
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First Principles: The Safeguard of Morality Is Religion, and Morality Is the Best Security of Law As Well As the Surest Pledge of Freedom
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Alexis de Tocqueville, First Principles, Freedom, Morality, Pledge, Religion, Safeguard, Security of Law
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Thought For the Day: The Important Thing Is Not To Stop Questioning. Curiosity Has Its Own Reason For Existing
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.” – Albert Einstein
Neon Eye Cage Conclusions
Neon Eye Cage Conclusions
by Michael Doyle
In the heart of the neon eye cage of the city
The glitz is overdone and isn't really pretty
But despite the walk-in of unsteady delusions
It is a happenstance that brings certain conclusions
One of these is the need to reach unity
Of some kind that coexists within the variety
Of choices that we have staring us in the face
As the essence of beauty lingers in its trace
It's in the acquiring habits of reading
That we find our minds and hearts pleading
To develop the uncharted regions of our minds
It's across the pages read that we steadily find
All those things that remind and grow to bind
Us to peace and refuges of insight that are kind
We find an agreement that poetry wears the crown
As we learn enough rules to break and then choke down
That a successful life carries the burdens of memory
And how most of us string it together in fragility
That only mediocre persons are always at their best
While the rest of us struggle forward in this test
We walk forward, bleeding into life's firing line
Finding love sometimes good, despite our funny Valentines
Lost in the fallen moments of our colorful imaginarium
That too often turns bleak like a faded screamnasium
The greater tragedy is not that no one gets out alive
But that so many cease to love before we at last arrive
At the pearly gates, we were taught leads to sanctuary
Finding that our best attempts are sadly quite contrary
To that golden rule that serves as a splendid quotation
Useful as it is as we struggle with our life's narration
Just another moment of sheer-headed, stolen consequence
As Heaven and Hell weigh our measure in recompense
(c)January 26, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Agreement, Arrive, Beauty, Best, Best Attempt, Bind, Bleed, Break, Burden, Cease, Choice, Choke Down, City, Coexist, Conclusion, Contrary, Crown, Delusion, Essence, Face, Firing Line, Fragility, Funny Valenines, Glitz, Golden Rule, Greater Tragedy, Habit, Happenstance, Heart, Heaven and Hell, Insight, Kind, Life's Narration, Love, Measure, Mediocre Persons, Memorry, Mind, Minds and Hearts, Neon Eye Cage, Pages, Peace, Pearly Gates, Poetry, Poetry and Poems, Pretty, Quotation, Read, Recompense, Refuge, Rules, Sanctuary, Stare, Stolen Consequence, Struggle, Successful Life, Test, Trace, Uncharted Regions, Unity, Variety
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Thought For the Day: Fear of Serious Injury Cannot Alone Justify Suppression of Free Speech and Assembly
“Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.” – Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941)
First Principles: The Greatest Good We Can Do For Our Country Is To Heal Its Party Divisions and Make Them One People
“The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.” —Thomas Jefferson (1801)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Country, First Principles, Greatest Good, Heal, One People, Party Divisions, Thomas Jefferson
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…Maybe Tomorrow…
...Maybe Tomorrow...
by Michael Doyle
Tomorrow isn't really about tomorrow
So much as it about avoiding sorrow
The kind that grows, and we borrow
When we're struck deep in our marrow
Waiting for the moment's opportunity
We push forward to relentlessly
Filled with the confidence of dreams
That play in our mind like the scenes
Of the movie of our life written as we go
There it is now on the screen like a show
As we find that tomorrow's best preparation
Is in what we choose as today's narration
Believe me that the faithfulness we believe
Is the primary driver of what we conceive
It is our self-doubt that serves to deceive
And so I urge you all to leave it at believe
Believe in yourself, in you dreams and story
Being bold enough to live for all your glory
In the fullness of what your life may bring
When you believe in everything and then cling
That your words of promise is what you must do
That voice inside that calls and is ever true
Never be stopped by the troubles of yesterday
But do what you must and do it in every way
Your future is largely in your steady hands
And you can't go wrong within God's commands
But to do what your inner still voice asks
These are things meant to be your living tasks
And to deny what it is that your life asks
Is to deny your promise and needed tasks
That cannot possibly ever be right
Let's set our sights on tomorrow and hold tight
(c) January 25, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged As We Go, Avoid, Borrow, Choose, Confidence, Dreams, Grow, Marrow, Maybe, Moment, Movie of Our Life, Narration, Opportunity, Play, Poetry and Poems, Preparation, Relentlessly, Scenes, Screen, Show, Sorrow, Struck, Tomorrow
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Thought For the Day: There Are Three Rules For Writing A Novel. Unfortunately, No One Knows What They Are
“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” – William Somerset Maugham
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Know, Novel, Rules, Thought For the Day, Three, Unfortunate, William Somerset Maugham, Write
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First Principles: National Defense Is One of the Cardinal Duties of A Statesman
“National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman.” – John Adams (1815)
Clearly, that includes defending the borders of our republic. The surge of illegal immigration cannot be allowed to go unchecked.
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Cardinal, Duty, Factional Differences, First Principles, Irrespective, John Adams, National Defense, One, Party Politics, Statesman
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Time and Illusion
Time and Illusion
by Michael Doyle
Walking through life's many miles
I count my wins by my smiles
Some might think I've been abused
But mostly, I stand amused
All the countless false charges
Designed by enemies to somehow enlarge
The bad things I've sometimes done
In the end, I think it's me who has won
Laid across my feathery bed
Whispering traces through my head
All this time and it's illusions
Have walked me past any confusion
Fighting the clock of future recollections
Laughing at the points in their connections
I'm no longer nostalgic about my sorrow
Instead, I lean in hard for my tomorrows
I have seen that you're as big as you love
Guided there when I listen to God above
And that you're as small as what annoys
You into irritation above all of life's joys
When we allow lesser evils to open our door
The greater evils find their way to pour
Through and compete with better opportunities
It seems so subtle how we lose to the impurity
Conversely, we find friendship multiplies the good
While dividing all the evil that is understood
Finding good advice in the humorous jokes we tell
The smile shared is deeper than the best details
In the end, we find we are not prisoners behind
The locked doors of the ignorance of closed minds
Especially when we read what others will not read
And, in this, begin to find the clarity that we need
(c) January 24, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Abused, Amused, Annoys, Bad Things, Behind, Big, Clarity, Closed Minds, Compete, Confusion, Connections, Countless, Design, Details, Divding, Done, Door, End, Enemies, Enlarge, Evil, False Charges, Feathery Bed, Fighting the Clock, Friendship, Future Recollection, God, Good, Good Advice, Greater Evils, Guide, Head, Humorous Jokes, Ignorance, Illusion, Impurity, Irritation, Laugh, Lean In Hard, Lesser Evils, Life's Joys, Life's Many Miles, Listen, Locked Doors, Love, Need, Nostalgic, Open, Opportunities, Poetry and Poems, Points, Pour, Prisoners, Read, Seen, Small, Smiles Shared, Sorrow, Subtle, Time, Tomorrow, Walk, Whisper, Won
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First Principles: I Have Sworn Upon the Altar of God, Eternal Hostility Against Every Form of Tyranny Over the Mind of Man
“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” – Thomas Jefferson (1800)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Altar, Eternal Hostility, First Principles, Form, God, Mind of Man, Sworn, Thomas Jefferson, Tyranny
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