“If the red slayer think he slays,
Or if the slain think he is slain,
They know not well the subtle ways
I keep, and pass, and turn again.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Brahma

Brahma http://www.humanitiesweb.org/human.php?s=l&p=c&a=p&ID=20567&c=323, st. 1. <br class="br">Composed in July 1856 this poem is derived from a major passage of the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most popular of Hindu scriptures, and portions of it were likely a paraphrase of an existing translation. Though titled "Brahma" its expressions are actually more indicative of the Hindu concept "Brahman" <br class="br">1860s, May-Day and Other Pieces (1867) <br class="br">Variant: If the red slayer think he slays, <br> Or if the slain think he is slain, <br> They know not well the subtle ways <br> I keep, and pass, and turn again.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Dec. 2, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If the red slayer think he slays, Or if the slain think he is slain, They know not well the subtle ways I keep, and …" by Ralph Waldo Emerson?

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

Ralph Waldo Emerson727

American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

Related quotes

“I think the slain care little if they sleep or rise again.”

Aeschylus Agamemnon

trans. https://archive.org/stream/agamemnonofaesch015545mbp/agamemnonofaesch015545mbp#page/n38/mode/1up Gilbert Murray <br class="br">Oresteia (458 BC), Agamemnon

“830. He thinkes not well that thinkes not againe.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

Jacula Prudentum (1651)

“There is a road that turning always
Cuts off the country of Again.
Archers stand there on every side
And as it runs time's deer is slain
And lies where it has lain.”

Edwin Muir (1887–1959) British poet, novelist and translator

"The Road" http://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/muire-journeysandplaces/muire-journeysandplaces-00-h.html#The_Road, Journeys and Places (1937)

“We can estimate very surely and truthfully that in the forty years that have passed, with the infernal actions of the Christians, there have been unjustly slain more than twelve million men, women, and children. In truth, I believe without trying to deceive myself that the number of the slain is more like fifty million.”

Bartolomé de las Casas (1474–1566) Spanish Dominican friar, historian, and social reformer

History of the Indies (1561)

“Men think it right to eat animals, because they are led to believe that God sanctions it. This is untrue. No matter in what books it may be written that it is not sinful to slay animals and to eat them, it is more clearly written in the heart of man than in any books that animals are to be pitied and should not be slain any more than human beings. We all know this if we do not choke the voice of our conscience.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

The Pathway of Life: Teaching Love and Wisdom (posthumous), Part I, International Book Publishing Company, New York, 1919, p. 68

“The important thing, I think, is not to be bitter. You know, if it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. I think that the worst you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Love and Death (1975)

“They will come back, come back again,
As long as the red earth rolls.
He never wasted a leaf or a tree.
Do you think he would squander souls?”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

“Well, Gosse, would you like to know what I think of Churton Collins? I think he's a Louse on the Locks of Literature.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

Evan Charteris, Life and Letters of Sir Edmund Gosse (1931), p. 197

“He makes a pained sound. "Bloody hell, woman, I think a part of me wants to keep you this way.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Dreamfever

“He had to keep thinking of them because if he forgot them and did not think of them they might forget about him. And he had to keep hoping.”

Gary Paulsen book Hatchet

Source: Hatchet

Related topics