[Socrates] And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them? 

[Glaucon] Yes, he said. 

[Socrates] And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?

[Glaucon] True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads? 

[Socrates] Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave? 

[Glaucon] You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.

[Socrates] And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

[Glaucon] I see. 

[Socrates] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: —Behold! human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that…

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

… the reason is you.

so that every death i die a thousand deaths while burning

but the suffering continues for all eternity, never ceasing in magnitude

i have become nothingness, and i have never existed

i stare into its eye and see nothing but my soul on fire

the horrors of the abyss

the unrepentant, that which laughs in the face of God

a crusade of a storm of steel and brawn and unjust might destroying villages

a silent death of carbon monoxide sweeping across the land, killing everything

a leading cause of premature death and sickness