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Many words have been granted me. Some are wise, some are false, but only three are holy,I will it. Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me; the guiding star and the load stone which point the way. They point in but one direction. They point to me. I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe or if it is but a speck of dust lost in eternity. I know not, and I care not. For I know whatever happiness is possible to me on earth, and my happiness is not the means to any end. It is the end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose. Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice for their altars. I am a man. This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before. I do not surrender my treasures, nor do I share them. The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor. I guard my treasures: my thought, my will, my freedom; and the greatest of these is freedom. I am neither foe nor friend to my brothers but such as each shall deserve of me. To earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor my brothers with my love, but honor is a thing to be earned. I shall choose my friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters and I will choose only such as please me. Them I shall love and respect but neither command nor obey. We shall join hands when we wish or walk alone when we so desire. For in the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. Let each man keep his temple untouched and undefiled. Then let him join hands with others if he wishes, but only beyond his holy threshold. For the word we must never be spoken, save by ones own choice and has a second thought. This word must never be placed first within mans soul. Else it becomes a monster, the root of all evils on earth. The root of mans torture by men, and an unspeakable lie. The word we is a lime poured over men which sets and hardens to stone crushing all beneath it, and all that is white and all that is black is lost in the gray of it. It is the word by which the weak steal the might of the strong and by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages. What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, may reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools may dictate me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and the impotent are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey? I am done with this creed of corruption. I am done with the monster of we, the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame. Now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth. This god that man has sought since man came into being. This god who will grant them joy, peace, and pride. This god, this one word,I.
