
“Poets and prophets do not go into committees.”
Eminent Indians (1947)
Festival Prayer Book: Pesah (1971) p.IX
“Poets and prophets do not go into committees.”
Eminent Indians (1947)
Source: The Sacred Depths of Nature (1998), p. 173
Context: The tapestry maker first strings the warp, long strong fibers anchored firmly to the loom, and then interweaves the weft, the patterns, the color, the art. The epic of evolution is our warp, destined to endure, commanding our universal gratitude and reverence and commitment. And then, after that, we are all free to be artists, to render in language and painting and song and dance our ultimate hopes and concerns and understandings of human nature. Throughout the ages, the weaving of our religious weft has been the province of our prophets and gurus and liturgists and poets. The texts and art and ritual that come to us from these revered ancestors include claims about Nature and Agency that are no longer plausible. They use a different warp. But for me at least, this is just one of those historical facts, something that can be absorbed, appreciated, and then put aside as I encounter the deep wisdom embedded in these traditions and the abundant opportunities that they offer to experience transcendence and clarity.
Source: Reason and Hope: Selections from the Jewish Writings of Hermann Cohen (1971), p. 124
“Thus much, Samothrace, has the poet proclaimed thee to the nations and the light of day; there stay, and let us keep our reverence for holy mysteries.”
Hactenus in populos vati, Samothraca, diem que
missa mane sacrisque metum servemus opertis.
Source: Argonautica, Book II, Lines 439–440
Source: Caldecott and Co.: Notes on Books and Pictures
Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Ch.2 The Social Aims of Jesus, p. 53
Volume 1, p. 19
The Prophets (1962)
CityPAC Questionnaire, 2000 Congressional Primary http://www.democrats.org/page/speakout/unfit
2000-03
As quoted in the Washington Post (27 July 1959)