Of bliss and glad life there is little to be said, before it ends; as works fair and wonderful, while still they endure for eyes to see, are their own record, and only when they are in peril or broken for ever do they pass into song.
—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, Of the Sindar.
Loneliness
Now it is Loneliness who comes at night
Instead of Sleep, to sit beside my bed.
Like a tired child I lie and wait her tread,
I watch her softly blowing out the light.
Motionless sitting, neither left or right
She turns, and weary, weary droops her head.
She, too, is old; she, too, has fought the fight.
So, with the laurel she is garlanded.
Through the sad dark the slowly ebbing tide
Breaks on a barren shore, unsatisfied.
A strange wind flows... then silence. I am fain
To turn to Loneliness, to take her hand,
Cling to her, waiting, till the barren land
Fills with the dreadful monotone of rain.
—Katherine Mansfield, Loneliness.
Instead of Sleep, to sit beside my bed.
Like a tired child I lie and wait her tread,
I watch her softly blowing out the light.
Motionless sitting, neither left or right
She turns, and weary, weary droops her head.
She, too, is old; she, too, has fought the fight.
So, with the laurel she is garlanded.
Through the sad dark the slowly ebbing tide
Breaks on a barren shore, unsatisfied.
A strange wind flows... then silence. I am fain
To turn to Loneliness, to take her hand,
Cling to her, waiting, till the barren land
Fills with the dreadful monotone of rain.
—Katherine Mansfield, Loneliness.
Engineering Ethics
Contemporary duty ethicists recognize that many moral dilemmas are resolvable only by recognizing some valid exceptions to simple principles of duty.
—Introduction to Engineering Ethics p 54.
We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way—centered on money or pleasure or ambition—and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly.
—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
—Introduction to Engineering Ethics p 54.
We are all trying to let our mind and heart go their own way—centered on money or pleasure or ambition—and hoping, in spite of this, to behave honestly and chastely and humbly.
—C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
What is important?
One never forgets what is important. I learned that only later, when I was somewhat older. Nothing secondary remains—it gets thrown away along with one's dreams.
—Sándor Márai, Embers (trans. Carol Brown Janeway).
—Sándor Márai, Embers (trans. Carol Brown Janeway).
I wish you'd stop quoting!
"Mrs. Who, I wish you'd stop quoting!" Charles Wallace sounded very annoyed.
"But she finds it so difficult to verbalize, Charles dear. It helps her if she can quote instead of working out words of her own."
—Madeline L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time p28.
"But she finds it so difficult to verbalize, Charles dear. It helps her if she can quote instead of working out words of her own."
—Madeline L'Engle, A Wrinkle in Time p28.
The Tempest
Me, poor man!—my library was dukedom large enough.
—Prospero, in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act I Scene II.
—Prospero, in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Act I Scene II.
Calvin's Institutes I
Shall we, indeed, distinguish between right and wrong by that judgment which has been imparted to us, yet will there be no judge in heaven? Will there remain for us even in sleep some remnant of intelligence, yet will no God keep watch in governing the world? Shall we think ourselves the inventors of so many arts and useful things that God may be defrauded of his praise?
—John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion I. v. 5.
—John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion I. v. 5.
If a prophet is deceived
If the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the LORD, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
—Ezekiel 14:9 ESV, quoted in John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, I. xviii. 2.
If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?
—Amos 3:6 NASB.
—Ezekiel 14:9 ESV, quoted in John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, I. xviii. 2.
If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?
—Amos 3:6 NASB.
George MacDonald
From Eden's bowers the full-fed rivers flow,
To guide the outcasts to the land of woe:
Our Earth one little toiling streamlet yields,
To guild the wanderers to the happy fields.
—George MacDonald, epigraph to Phantastes ch X.
From dreams of bliss shall men awake
One day, but not to weep:
The dreams remain; they only break
The mirror of the sleep.
—George MacDonald, epigraph to Phantastes ch XVIII, adapted from Jean Paul's Hesperus:
Ja es wird zwar ein anderes Zeitalter kommen, woes Licht wird, und wo der Mensch aus erhabnen Traümen erwacht, und die Traüme—wieder findet weil er nichts verlor als den Schlaf.
To guide the outcasts to the land of woe:
Our Earth one little toiling streamlet yields,
To guild the wanderers to the happy fields.
—George MacDonald, epigraph to Phantastes ch X.
From dreams of bliss shall men awake
One day, but not to weep:
The dreams remain; they only break
The mirror of the sleep.
—George MacDonald, epigraph to Phantastes ch XVIII, adapted from Jean Paul's Hesperus:
Ja es wird zwar ein anderes Zeitalter kommen, woes Licht wird, und wo der Mensch aus erhabnen Traümen erwacht, und die Traüme—wieder findet weil er nichts verlor als den Schlaf.
Adelaide
Alas, how easily things go wrong!
A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
And life is never the same again.
Alas, how hardly things go right!
'Tis hard to watch in a summer night,
For the sigh will come, and the kiss will stay,
And the summer night is a wintry day.
— George MacDonald, Phantastes ch XIX.
And yet how easily things go right,
If the sigh and a kiss of a summer's night
Come deep from the soul in the stronger ray
That is born in the light of the winter's day.
And things can never go badly wrong
If the heart be true and the love be strong,
For the mist, if it comes, and the weeping rain
Will be changed by the love into sunshine again.
— Lorettus S. Metcalf, The Forum
A sigh too much, or a kiss too long,
And there follows a mist and a weeping rain,
And life is never the same again.
Alas, how hardly things go right!
'Tis hard to watch in a summer night,
For the sigh will come, and the kiss will stay,
And the summer night is a wintry day.
— George MacDonald, Phantastes ch XIX.
And yet how easily things go right,
If the sigh and a kiss of a summer's night
Come deep from the soul in the stronger ray
That is born in the light of the winter's day.
And things can never go badly wrong
If the heart be true and the love be strong,
For the mist, if it comes, and the weeping rain
Will be changed by the love into sunshine again.
— Lorettus S. Metcalf, The Forum
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