What passages from literature or important historical documents should I memorise in order to enrich myself?

Spouting off some Tommy Paine is always not unwise. from age of reason:

"But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind, as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime."

“Nothing exists; all is a dream. God—man—the world—the sun, the moon, the wilderness of stars—a dream, all a dream; they have no existence. Nothing exists save empty space—and you! And you are but a thought.” ― Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger.

Basically all of Plato's Republic and most of his dialogues.

the magna carta
declaration of independence
the bill of rights
hobbes leviathan

That was his hunting diary you fucktard. He didn't catch anything that day.

we hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that governments are instituted among men to uphold these rights

something like that. also learn a shakespeare sonnet, that thumb biting exchange, plus a bible verse. throw in the first sentence of gravity's rainbow for good measure, plus others depending on your edgelord level (from nietzsche to quoting directly from mein kampt).

to be desu it won't enrich you at all - personally they just function as a bank i can draw from and manipulate to a comedic effect

Someone made a post just like this some months back and I reflexively observed that it makes good sense for an American to know the Declaration and the Constitution, possibly to the point of memorizing them.

I then took it upon myself to put this into practice; at one point, I had the declaration memorized in its entirety. The Indictment is a bit more detailed, but I have a good bead on the opening third and (pretty much) the closing third. Let me attempt the closing language from memory:

"In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms; our repeated petitions have been met only with repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.

"Nor have we been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to establish an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have have appealed to their native justice and conjured them by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably disrupt our communications and interrupt our correspondence. They too, have been deaf to the voice of Justice and Consanguinity. We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

[finishing in the next post]

"We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general Congress assembled, and appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare; that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegience to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that, as Free and Independent States, they have full power to Levy War, Conclude Peace, Contract Alliances, Establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things that Independent powers may of right do.

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance upon the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."

[fifty-six signatures, and, on the Engrossed Copy, a small, little-known verso label, added at some later date, identifying the document by name as the "Declaration of Independence".]

>nothing today
Louis the XIV had been dead for a while by then, so what did you expect? Also, theists btfo'd.

It is at work everywhere, functioning smoothly at times, at other times in fits and starts. It breathes, it heats, it eats. It shits and fucks. What a mistake to have ever said the id. Everywhere it is machines—real ones, not figurative ones: machines driving other machines, machines being driven by other machines, with all the necessary couplings and connections. An organ-machine is plugged into an energy-source-machine: the one produces a flow that the other interrupts. The breast is a machine that produces milk, and the mouth i machine coupled to it. The mouth of the anorexic wavers between several functions: its possessor is uncertain as to whether it is an eating-machine, an anal machine, a talking-machine, or a breathing machine (asthma attacks). Hence we are all handymen: each with his little machines. For every organ-machine, an energy-machine: all the time, flows and interruptions. Judge Schreber* has sunbeams in his ass. A solar anus. And rest assured that it works: Judge Schreber feels something, produces something, and is capable of explaining the process theoretically. Something is produced: the effects of a machine, not mere metaphors

Julius Caesar Funeral Oration
Gettysburg Address
Kennedy Inauguration Speech
Some Churchill Speeches

I prefer speeches/monologues over memorizing book text.

Damn this is a good list.

Loving Veeky Forums's selection here.

The Grand Inquisitor. Veeky Forums af.

>we hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal
I'm gonna have to stop you right there Nihilist