The Flame Quotes

“Fare thee well my nightingale
I lived but to be near you
Though you are singing somewhere still
I can no longer hear you”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“I pray for courage

I pray for courage
Now I’m old
To greet the sickness
And the cold

I pray for courage
In the night
To bear the burden
Make it light

I pray for courage
In the time
When suffering comes and
Starts to climb

I pray for courage
At the end
To see death coming
As a friend”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“I tried to cry, there were no tears
I tried to laugh, there was no scorn
I tried to run, there was no road
I tried to die, I was not born”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“When I am alone
You'll come back to me
It's happened before
It's called memory

I'm not even sure
If I know where to start
But starting is second
First we must part
I'm too tired now
To fight anymore
We're saying goodbye
At the innermost door”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“I never think about The Past but sometimes The Past thinks about me and sits down ever so lightly on my face—”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame: Poems, Notebooks, Lyrics, Drawings

“As he died to make men holy, let us die to make things cheap.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“Crazy to Love You"

I had to go crazy to love you
Had to go down to the pit
Had to do time in the tower
Now I'm too tired to quit

I had to go crazy to love you
You who were never the one
Whom I chased through the souvenir heartache
My braids and my blouse all undone

Sometimes I'd head for the highway
I'm old and the mirrors don't lie
But crazy has places to hide me
Deeper than saying goodbye

I had to go crazy to love you
Had to let everything fall
Had to be people I hated
Had to be no one at all

Tired of choosing desire
I've been saved by a blessed fatigue
The gates of commitment unwired
And nobody trying to leave

Sometimes I'd head for the highway
I'm old and the mirrors don't lie
But crazy had places to hide me
Deeper than saying goodbye”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“to the young let me say:
I am not sage, rebbe, roshi, guru,
I am Bad Example.
to experienced persons
who have criticized my life work
as cheap, superficial, pretentious, insignificant:
you do not know
how Right you are.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“to the young let me say:
I am not sage, rebbe, roshi, guru
I am Bad Example.
to experienced persons
who have criticized my life work
as cheap, superficial, pretentious, insignificant:
you do not know
how Right you are”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“We made a little garden
in the middle of L.A.
so our hearts
they wouldn’t harden & our spirits
they could play”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“My love is blonde and ancient
I met her by the sea
she was putting things together
and she needed some of me”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“I'm your man.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“Straighten up, little warrior [...]
It's not as though you
wasted your life
by loving me.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“the flags from the nation
but your absence comes
from a terrible sleep
under a huge museum
Enter the moth holes
of my longing”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“And that was my mistake
I didn't kill the snake
I gave the snake a break
Unbiblical”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame:Poems and Selections From Notebooks

“But I know she's coming and I know she will look
That's the longing and this is the book”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“It was nothing, it was business but it left an ugly mark.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“The party is over but I've landed on my feet
And I'm standing here on this corner
Where there used to be a street”
― Leonard Cohen , The Flame

“I was funding my depression; meeting Christ and reading Marx.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“All your stupid charities have armed the poor against you.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“No juice to be hopeless, no heart to be sad.
I tried in the wind, tried in the sand.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“to the young let me say:
I am not sage, rebbe, roshi, guru
I am Bad Example.
to experienced persons
who have criticized my life work
as cheap, superficial, pretentious, insignificant:
you do not know
how Right you are.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“I was always working steady
But I never called it art
Meeting Jesus reading Marx
Sure it failed my little fire
But it's bright the dying spark
Go tell the young messiah
What happens to the heart.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“I was always working steady
But I never called it art
Meeting Jesus reading Marx
Sure it failed my little fire
But it's bright the dying spark
Go tell the young messiah
What happens to the heart”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“I was always working steady, but I never called it art.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“steer your way through the pain that is far more real than you”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame

“No soy un santo ni un asesino; no amo ni mato. Hago el amor y arranco las alas de las moscas.”
― Leonard Cohen, The Flame