webcraft
Well-Known Member
From the \'It\'s later than you think\' department
This quote came to me via a passing copy of May's Yachting World. I liked it so much I thought I would put it up here for those of you who missed it. The quote is from Sterling Hayden, a Hollywood actor who starred in Dr Strangelove among others and was at the height of his career when he abandoned it to set sail in a schooner called Wanderer.
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‘To be truly challenging a voyage, like life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest.
. . . “I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it.”
What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine. And before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need, really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in – and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all, in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be, bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?’
Sterling Hayden , from his book ‘ Voyage ’
This quote came to me via a passing copy of May's Yachting World. I liked it so much I thought I would put it up here for those of you who missed it. The quote is from Sterling Hayden, a Hollywood actor who starred in Dr Strangelove among others and was at the height of his career when he abandoned it to set sail in a schooner called Wanderer.
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‘To be truly challenging a voyage, like life, must rest on a firm foundation of financial unrest.
. . . “I’ve always wanted to sail to the south seas, but I can’t afford it.”
What these men can’t afford is not to go. They are enmeshed in the cancerous discipline of security. And in the worship of security we fling our lives beneath the wheels of routine. And before we know it our lives are gone.
What does a man need, really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in – and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That’s all, in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade.
The years thunder by. The dreams of youth grow dim where they lie caked in dust on the shelves of patience. Before we know it, the tomb is sealed.
Where, then, lies the answer? In choice. Which shall it be, bankruptcy of purse or bankruptcy of life?’
Sterling Hayden , from his book ‘ Voyage ’