“Her breath a warm fire
In every lovers heart
A mistress to magicians
And a dancer to the gods”
Cat Stevens (1948) British singer-songwriter
Angelsea
Song lyrics, Catch Bull at Four (1972)
I. 599–600 (tr. Robert Fagles); hence the expression "Homeric laughter".
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
“Her breath a warm fire
In every lovers heart
A mistress to magicians
And a dancer to the gods”
Cat Stevens (1948) British singer-songwriter
Angelsea
Song lyrics, Catch Bull at Four (1972)
Brian Wilson (1942) American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer
OffBeat interview (2005)
“Good humor and laughter are far too wonderful not to come straight from the heart of God.”
Beth Moore (1957) American evangelist
Romain Rolland (1866–1944) French author
Jean-Christophe (1904 - 1912), Journey's End: The Burning Bush (1911)
Context: God was not to him the impassive Creator, a Nero from his tower of brass watching the burning of the City to which he himself has set fire. God was fighting. God was suffering. Fighting and suffering with all who fight and for all who suffer. For God was Life, the drop of light fallen into the darkness, spreading out, reaching out, drinking up the night. But the night is limitless, and the Divine struggle will never cease: and none can know how it will end. It was a heroic symphony wherein the very discords clashed together and mingled and grew into a serene whole! Just as the beech-forest in silence furiously wages war, so Life carries war into the eternal peace.
The wars and the peace rang echoing through Christophe. He was like a shell wherein the ocean roars. Epic shouts passed, and trumpet calls, and tempestuous sounds borne upon sovereign rhythms. For in that sonorous soul everything took shape in sound. It sang of light. It sang of darkness, sang of life and death. It sang for those who were victorious in battle. It sang for himself who was conquered and laid low. It sang. All was song. It was nothing but song.
“Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.”
Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Protestant theologian
As quoted in The Harper Book of Quotations (1993) by Robert I. Fitzhenry, p. 223.
“You are the only you God made… God made you and broke the mold.”
Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer
Source: Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot