Notable quotes, excerpts, and profound lines.

[covingtoncat73]

“When I am dead, and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain drenched hair,
Tho you should lean above me broken hearted,
I shall not care.
For I shall have peace.
As leafey trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough.
And I shall be more silent and cold hearted
Than you are now”
― Sara Teasdale

[bfisher]

Wonderful Sara Teasdale quote. Thank you for that.

"April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."

- T.S.Eliot, The Waste Land

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Wonderful Sara Teasdale quote. Thank you for that.

"April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain."

- T.S.Eliot, The Waste Land

(and National Poetry Month to boot! )

[covingtoncat73]

"'The first part of the Ordeal of the Key,' he said, 'is the nice cup of tea. Do you take sugar?'" ~Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere

[kennyc]

On Fear

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
- Frank Herbert - Dune - Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.
- T.H. White, The Once and Future King

I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
- Sarah Williams

"I saw how men died. I saw how they bore pain. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief; I saw the dark lines that despair drew on a face; I saw courage and steadfastness. I saw faith shine in the eyes of those who trusted in what I could only think was an illusion and I saw the gallantry that made a man greet the prognosis of death with an ironic joke because he was too proud to let those about him see the terror of his soul."
- W. Somerset Maugham

"The future was uncertain, absolutely, and there were many hurdles, twists, and turns to come, but as long as I kept moving forward, one foot in front of the other, the voices of fear and shame, the messages from those who wanted me to believe that I wasn't good enough, would be stilled."
– Chris Gardner The Pursuit of Happyness

[AlexBell]

'Then could be seen the power of beauty, when it is adorned: for Chloe, richly dressed, with her hair plaited and her face washed, appeared far handsomer to all who saw her, so that even Daphnis scarcely recognised her.'

Longus, in Daphnis and Chloe,, written about 300 AD

[covingtoncat73]

“…a book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work…”
–Benjamin Franklin

[covingtoncat73]

"The eternal principle, which never was born, never will die: it is in all things: it is in you now. You are a wave on the face of the ocean. When the wave is gone, is the water gone? Has anything happened? Nothing has happened. It is a play, a game, a dance."
Joseph Campbell, Baksheesh & Brahman

[astrangerhere]

“We're all fools," said Clemens, "all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, I'm not a fool today. I've learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and live accordingly.”

Ray Bradbury | The Illustrated Man

[kennyc]

Love it!!

[WT Sharpe]

I fall a lot, but other than that I can pretty much control my liquor.
— Chelsea Handler (Chelsea Joy Handler, 25 February 1975 - ); My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands (2005).

[AlexBell]

'I composed the four following books, as an offering to Love, the Nymphs, and Pan, and also as a work that will afford pleasure to many, in the hope that it may heal the sick, console the sorrowful, refresh the memory of him who once has loved, and instruct him who has never yet felt its flame. For no one has yet escaped, or ever will escape, the attack of Love, as long as beauty exists and eyes can see. May God grant that, unharmed ourselves, we may be able to describe the lot of others!'

From the preface to Daphnis and Chloe, by Longus, written in the 2nd or 3rd century CE

[kennyc]

Happy Birthday Eudora Welty!

"It was December—a bright frozen day in the early morning. Far out in the country there was an old Negro woman with her head tied in a red rag, coming along a path through the pinewoods. Her name was Phoenix Jackson. She was very old and small and she walked slowly in the dark pine shadows, moving a little from side to side in her steps, with the balanced heaviness and lightness of a pendulum in a grandfather clock. She carried a thin, small cane made from an umbrella, and with this she kept tapping the frozen earth in front of her. This made a grave and persistent noise in the still air that seemed meditative, like the chirping of a solitary little bird...."

from A Worn Path my favorite story of hers originally published in 1941 in The New Yorker.

[orlok]

Are we, I hope so...? I am currently reading a BBC publication of the nations favourite poems, as voted by the public in a nationwide poll. The poem below did not get included in the top 100, but rather appears in the Foreword. It was left in an envelope by a soldier for his parents to be opened in the event of his death, and who was subsequently killed in Northern Ireland. At first believed to be have written by the soldier, this was not the case*. I personally found it very moving:

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there; I did not die.


(*it's origin is disputed, but is now thought to most likely to have been written by Mary Elizabeth Frye, who was living in Baltimore at the time, and wrote it in 1932).

[covingtoncat73]

"Art is here to prove, and to help one bear, the fact that all safety is an illusion." ~James Baldwin