“The force that makes the winter grow
Its feathered hexagons of snow,
and drives the bee to match at home
Their calculated honeycomb,
Is abacus and rose combined.
An icy sweetness fills my mind,
A sense that under thing and wing
Lies, taut yet living, coiled, the spring.”
Part 4: "The Abacus and the Rose" (fin)
Science and Human Values (1956, 1965)
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Jacob Bronowski 79
Polish-born British mathematician 1908–1974Related quotes

Source: Work Without Hope (1825), l. 1

The Rubaiyat (1120)
“And silence matched the silence under snow.”
Poem In the theatre; Quoted in: Tony Curtis (1985) Dannie Abse, p. 32

“Sweet spring, full of sweet days and roses,
A box where sweets compacted lie.”
Virtue, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Whatever Forms or Ceremonies spring
From Custom's Force, there lies the real Thing”
St. 1 & 2
Miscellaneous Poems (1773), Divine Love, The Essential Characteristic of True Religion
Context: Religion's Meaning when I would recall,
Love is to me the plainest Word of all.
Plainest, — because that what I love, or hate,
Shews me directly my internal State;
By its own Consciousness is best defin'd
Which way the Heart within me stands inclin'd. On what it lets its Inclination rest,
To that its real Worship is address'd;
Whatever Forms or Ceremonies spring
From Custom's Force, there lies the real Thing;
Jew, Turk or Christian be the Lover's Name,
If same the Love, Religion is the same.