Anyone who speaks has no reality.

 Anyone who speaks has no reality.

― Atrona Grizel

The sound of the television can be heard even from here. They’ve turned the volume all the way up. Not because they can’t hear the noise, but because they don’t want to hear the silence.

― Atrona Grizel

A random homeless person living on the streets has far more to say than all TED speakers combined. But because they are uncertified, they are deemed “invalid.”

― Atrona Grizel

I climbed to the moon tonight.
It had cast down a long, unending ladder right beside me.
I placed my foot on it gently.
No one heard me.

Then I rose very high, above the clouds.
Then I held onto the moon.
I pulled the ladder up behind me, so no one could come after.

“You’ve endured well,” luna told me.
“It’s time to leave now.”
It held me tightly in its arms.
It had missed its son.

“Where have you been all this time?” it asked.
And at that moment, I understood that it had been waiting for me all along.
Patiently and silently.

While I was fighting creatures on earth,
it had been fighting so I could fight creatures in the sky.
I should have understood from the expression on the full moon,
from how directly it stared into my eyes,
on those nights when a gentle gloom covered everything.

And now we were embracing.
I could not believe we were finally side by side.
Perhaps I did not want to believe, so the taste would not fade too quickly.

Right then it pulled me into space.
It was done, we were leaving.
We were transcending reality together.

Here, they could no longer reach us.
Here, they could no longer separate us.
Because here, there was no one but us.

I kissed it on the cheek and a taste of stone and chalk filled my mouth.
It, however, kissed me on my heart, and the taste it took in was me.

I entrusted my hand to it,
and with joy I gave my heart to being drawn into its fairy-tale dimension,
into the depths of space.

― Atrona Grizel

Something written in the Cyrillic alphabet immediately reminds me of space. It feels like the language of the universe.

― Atrona Grizel

When what is known to be good briefly reveals its darker side—when it behaves in a way typically aligned with evil—the effect is quietly profound. The unexpectedness of such a shift is what lends it power. The presence of evil within what is deemed good strikes with uncommon force, as if it were a kind of superpower.

― Atrona Grizel

A person who finds it natural that the U.S. dollar is the world’s main currency, yet would find it unimaginable if the world’s main currency were the Soviet ruble, reveals exactly whose puppet their mind is: capitalism. Capitalism has commodified even minds themselves, making its own existence seem natural—indeed, embraced as a source of freedom—and thus causing people’s sense of belonging to be tied to the First World, leading them to spew hatred toward everything beyond it. For capital didn’t just win markets—it colonized imagination, to the point that anything clashing with the liberal dogma became a “totalitarian concern.” Had the USSR won the Cold War, what would seem extraordinary today would not be the ubiquity of the ruble but that of the dollar—just as what would seem strange would not be speaking Russian but speaking English—for minds would have evolved accordingly, as extensions of history once again. What is seen here, then, is not a simple flow of history but the fact that minds serve as carriers of invisible ideologies—and are predisposed to do so.

― Atrona Grizel

A person born a fool will die a fool. If they had the ability to question, they would have done so long ago.

― Atrona Grizel

Where there is intense hardship, philosophy withers; after all, why ponder the nature of existence when survival itself is uncertain? A person on the verge of starving to death thinks only of immediate needs—food, shelter, rest, and so on—as is natural. They do not contemplate the nature of the food they’ve found, the process by which it came to be, or whether their attraction to it stems from their own will. They simply eat it. For such a person, questions like “Why do I eat?” or “Am I eating by my own will?” are not merely luxuries; they are irrelevant.

― Atrona Grizel

There are those who dream of having the “perfect” appearance, amassing great wealth, driving the latest luxury cars, owning the “coziest” homes, speaking all languages, having all hobbies, going to the “best” schools, writing bestselling books, singing chart-topping songs, performing in front of massive crowds, having an army of friends, becoming an activist who reshapes lives, launching groundbreaking tech startups, giving debates on television programs, dedicating oneself to a pursuit, having the “ideal” spouse, bringing “good” things to the world, ruling nations, traveling to every country, dining at the “finest” restaurants, breaking world records, starring in blockbuster films, winning gold medals, being awarded on the world stage, influencing billions on social media, and so on. And then, there are those who dream of a reality where none of these even exist.

― Atrona Grizel

The moment a person speaks from the edge of the abyss, society calls for medics, prescriptions, therapies, and the soft language of “recovery” or the “healing journey.” Because they cannot face the persistent silence beneath everything, so they build temples, create religions, cling to ideologies, forge belief systems, and become addicted to digital devices in an attempt to mute this silence. Yet it still remains loud, always remains loud.

― Atrona Grizel

Pain can only be neutralized or transformed, but it can never be “vanished” or “destroyed.”

― Atrona Grizel

Yes, I am an addict. Not to alcohol or cigarettes, but to music and dreams.

― Atrona Grizel

Suicide is misunderstood not because it is tragic, but because it is viewed only as tragic.

― Atrona Grizel

There is no such thing as “morality”; when a famous person can throw money around and thus get whatever they want under the label of “formality” and “legitimacy,” the so-called defenders of morality are nothing more than servants of those capitalists.

― Atrona Grizel

One can’t find what cannot be found.

― Atrona Grizel

To be in the dump is cleaner than to be on the podium.

― Atrona Grizel

If I were unable to recognize myself in the mirror—which I already do not—it would not horrify me. This is usually what frightens the alienated. But myself—the thing I call “I”—lies precisely in this hallucinatory state of existence. If I cannot recognize myself, then I am exactly that unrecognizable being. If I am fond of myself, I am fond of my dream. And since I am nothing but a fantasy, nothing can take my reality away from me—for one cannot turn a being that is already a ghost into a ghost.

― Atrona Grizel

I have grown so accustomed to my own mind during the long years of solitude that I now need to make an active effort if I am to accept that the rabble, too, possesses worldviews worthy of being taken seriously.

― Atrona Grizel

I feel as though any human relationship I have is violating my inner world—bits to be weeded out.

― Atrona Grizel

The true nature of revolution is an exchange of tyrants, for this is the fate of all kinds of such external dependencies and fanatical commitments.

― Atrona Grizel

People believe they must do something, that they must “change the world.” But these are neither genuine tears nor genuine actions; they are merely expressions of their inability to accept and embrace things as they are.

― Atrona Grizel

Activism is an attempt to escape from the self by drowning it in the suffering of others. The activist is someone who cannot bear their seemingly empty existence, so they project their dissatisfaction onto the world.

― Atrona Grizel

To denounce “injustice,” to combat it, is to imagine that the universe has erred in its course and requires human intervention to “correct” it. Yet injustice is not an accident; it is the nature of things.

― Atrona Grizel

What gives professors authority is the people who sustain the superstition that a piece of paper—a diploma—is a mystical tool that unlocks the secrets of the universe.

― Atrona Grizel

“Why are you always so silent?” they say. Because I know that salvation has never been in humans. Even a bottle of alcohol is more helpful than speaking with people.

― Atrona Grizel

In the dead of night, the door was knocked upon. Exactly three times. Yet there is no other life around here. When I went to see who it was, the wind greeted me. It had come to visit. As soon as I invited it inside, it slipped away through the window.

― Atrona Grizel

A person’s seemingly profound thoughts become empty the moment they set out to “save” the world, for civilization is not broken; it is beyond repair.

― Atrona Grizel

I found a mirror that reflects not myself but the “self I ought to be.” And when I stood before it, I could not recognize the person it showed.

― Atrona Grizel