“A light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet
Stanza 1. <br class="br"> Ode to Duty http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww271.html (1805)
Source: 1950s, The Organizational Revolution: A study in the ethics of economic organization, 1953, p. 253. cited in: D.A. Latzko (1995) " Kenneth E. Boulding (18 January 1910-19 March 1993) http://www.personal.psu.edu/~dxl31/research/otherstuff/boulding.html" in: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society.
“A light to guide, a rod
To check the erring, and reprove.”
William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet
Stanza 1. <br class="br"> Ode to Duty http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww271.html (1805)
William Kingdon Clifford (1845–1879) English mathematician and philosopher
The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Limits Of Inference
Context: A little reflection will show us that every belief, even the simplest and most fundamental, goes beyond experience when regarded as a guide to our actions. … Even the fundamental "I am," which cannot be doubted, is no guide to action until it takes to itself "I shall be," which goes beyond experience. The question is not, therefore, "May we believe what goes beyond experience?" for this is involved in the very nature of belief; but "How far and in what manner may we add to our experience in forming our beliefs?"
Simone Weil Letter to a Priest
Section 8
Letter to a Priest (1951)
Context: Every time that a man has, with a pure heart, called upon Osiris, Dionysus, Buddha, the Tao, etc., the Son of God has answered him by sending the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit has acted upon his soul, not by inciting him to abandon his religious tradition, but by bestowing upon him light — and in the best of cases the fullness of light — in the heart of that same religious tradition. … It is, therefore, useless to send out missions to prevail upon the peoples of Asia, Africa or Oceania to enter the Church.
Robert Owen (1771–1858) Welsh social reformer
Life of Robert Owen (1857) his autobiography, as quoted by Jim Herrick, in "Bradlaugh and Secularism: 'The Province of the Real'" (1990) http://www.positiveatheism.org/india/s1990c33.htm.
Daniel Steele (1824–1914) American Methodist pastor
Daniel Steele, Boston, March, 1888 in Forty Witnesses (1888) edited by S. Olin Garrison
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
Source: The Warrior Within : The Philosophies of Bruce Lee (1996), p. 126
Context: In life, what more can you ask for than to be real? To fulfill one’s potential instead of wasting energy on [attempting to] actualize one’s dissipating image, which is not real and an expenditure of one’s vital energy. We have great work ahead of us, and it needs devotion and much, much energy. To grow, to discover, we need involvement, which is something I experience every day — sometimes good, sometimes frustrating. No matter what, you must let your inner light guide you out of the darkness.
Ellen G. White (1827–1915) American author and founder/leader of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church
The SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 6, p. 1112.
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 320
John the Evangelist (10–98) author of the Gospel of John; traditionally identified with John the Apostle of Jesus, John of Patmos (author o…
Jesus in John 3:19-20 KJV
Gospel of John
John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic
The Spiritual Espousals (c. 1340)
Context: You should watch the wise bee and do as it does. It dwells in unity, in the congregation of its fellows, and goes forth, not in the storm, but in calm and still weather, in the sunshine, towards all those flowers in which sweetness may be found. It does not rest on any flower, neither on any beauty nor on any sweetness; but it draws from them honey and wax, that is to say, sweetness and light-giving matter, and brings both to the unity of the hive, that therewith it may produce fruits, and be greatly profitable. Christ, the Eternal Sun, shining into the open heart, causes that heart to grow and to bloom, and it overflows with all the inward powers with joy and sweetness. So the wise man will do like the bee, and he will fly forth with attention and with reason and with discretion, towards all those gifts and towards all that sweetness which he has ever experienced, and towards all the good which God has ever done to him. And in the light of love and with inward observation, he will taste of the multitude of consolations and good things; and will not rest upon any flower of the gifts of God, but, laden with gratitude and praise, will fly back into the unity, wherein he wishes to rest and to dwell eternally with God.