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I smile when I'm angry, I cheat and I lie.
I do what I have to do to get by.
But I know what is wrong and I know what is right,
and I'd die for the truth in my secret life.
Leonard Cohen
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God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is alive. Magic is afoot. God is afoot. Magic is alive. Alive is afoot. Magic never died. God never sickened. Many poor men lied. Many sick men lied. Magic never weakened. Magic never hid. Magic always ruled. God is afoot. God was ruler though his funeral lengthened. Though his mourners thickened Magic never fled...
Leonard Cohen
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Anything, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, LSD, I'm for anything that works.
Leonard Cohen
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Avoid the flourish. Do not be afraid to be weak. Do not be ashamed to be tired. You look good when you're tired. You look like you could go on forever. Now come into my arms. You are the image of my beauty.
Leonard Cohen
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And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers.
There are heroes in the seaweed,
There are children in the morning,
They are leaning out for love,
And they will lean that way forever,
While Suzanne holds the mirror.
Leonard Cohen
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I've always held the song in high regard because songs have got me through so many sinks of dishes and so many humiliating courting events.
Leonard Cohen
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I have no idea what I am doing. It's hard to describe. As I approach the end of my life, I have even less and less interest in examining what have got to be very superficial evaluations or opinions about the significance of one's life or one's work. I was never given to it when I was healthy, and I am less given to it now.
Leonard Cohen
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I will not be held like a drunkard / under the cold tap of facts
Leonard Cohen
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This is the very contrary of dropping out. Most people can't wait to get home to their house or apartment and shut that door and turn on the TV. To me, that's dropping out.
Leonard Cohen
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I've dealt with depression ever since my adolescence. Moving into some periods, which were debilitating, when I found it hard to get off the couch, to periods when I was fully operative but the background noise of anguish still prevailed.
Leonard Cohen
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Like any dealer he was watching for the card
that is so high and wild
he'll never need to deal another.
He was just some Joseph looking for a manger.
Leonard Cohen
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I'm afraid to live any place but in expectation. I'm no life-risk.
Leonard Cohen
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You win a while, and then it's done - Your little winning streak.
Leonard Cohen
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Ah, you loved me as a loser, but now you're worried that I just might win
You know the way to stop me, but you don't have the discipline
How many nights I prayed for this, to let my work begin
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
Leonard Cohen
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Although only one man may be receiving the favors of a woman, all men in her presence are warmed. That's the great Generosity of women and the great generosity of of the Creator who worked it out is that there are no unilateral agreements on sexuality.
Leonard Cohen
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A woman watches her body uneasily, as though it were an unreliable ally in the battle for love.
Leonard Cohen
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Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
without your clothes
And everybody knows
Leonard Cohen
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In dreams the truth is learned that all good works are done in the absence of a caress.
Leonard Cohen
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Except for a couple of hours in the morning which I passed in the company of a sage I stayed in bed without food only a few mouthfuls of water you are a fine looking old man I said to myself in the mirror and what is more you have the correct attitude You don't care if it ends or if it goes on And as for the women and the music there will be plenty of that in Paradise Then I went to the Mosque of Memory to express my gratitude
Leonard Cohen
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I have a deep tribal sense. I grew up in a synagogue that my ancestors built. I sat in the third row. My family was decent. They were good people, they were handshake people. So I never had a sense of rebellion.
Leonard Cohen
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The candles burned
The moon went down
The polished hill
The milky town
Transparent, weightless, luminous
Uncovering the two of us
On that fundamental ground
Where love's unwilled, unleashed, unbound
And half the perfect world is found.
Leonard Cohen
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You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Leonard Cohen
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I participated in all these investigations that engaged the imagination of my generation at that time. I even danced and sang with the Hare Krishnas — no robe, I didn't join them, but I was trying everything.
Leonard Cohen
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If you're squeezed for information,
that's when you've got to play it dumb:
You just say you're out there waiting
for the miracle to come.
Leonard Cohen
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Fare thee well my nightingale, I lived but to be near you. Thow you are singing somewhere still I can no longer hear you.
Leonard Cohen
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Quote of the day
Now if the harvest is over, And the world cold, Give me the bonus of laughter, As I lose hold.
John Betjeman
Leonard Cohen
Creative Commons
Born:
September 21, 1934
Died:
November 7, 2016
(aged 82)
Bio:
Leonard Norman Cohen was a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, poet, novelist, and painter. His work mostly explored religion, politics, isolation, sexuality, and personal relationships.
Known for:
Popular Problems (2014)
Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967)
Old Ideas (2012)
The Future (1992)
Songs from a Room (1969)
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