“Indolence is heaven’s ally here,
And energy the child of hell:
The Good Man pouring from his pitcher clear
But brims the poisoned well.”

Timoleon, Fragments of a Lost Gnostic Poem of the Twelfth Century, Fragment 2

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Indolence is heaven’s ally here, And energy the child of hell: The Good Man pouring from his pitcher clear But brims…" by Herman Melville?
Herman Melville photo
Herman Melville 144
American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet 1818–1891

Related quotes

Will Carleton photo

“To appreciate heaven well
'T is good for a man to have some fifteen minutes of hell.”

Will Carleton (1845–1912) poet.

Gone with a handsomer Man, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Erhard Milch photo

“He is a shrewd, Napoleonic, short man, who is very affable, but as poisonous as hell with his affability.”

Erhard Milch (1892–1972) German general

Leon Goldensohn, January 22, 1946

Ron English photo

“No evil comes from the fear of hell, no good comes from the promise of heaven.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Death and the Eternal Forever (2014)

Silius Italicus photo

“And their manliness is slowly sapped and weakened by the seductive poison of indolence.”
Blandoque veneno desidiae virtus paulatim evicta senescit.

Book III, lines 580–581
Punica

Lope De Vega photo

“To turn your face from clear proofs of deceit,
To drink poison as if it were a soothing liquor,
To disregard gain and delight in being injured.
To believe that heaven can lie contained in hell;
To devote your life and soul to being disillusioned;
This is love; whoever has tasted it, knows.”

Huir el rostro al claro desengaño,
beber veneno por licor süave,
olvidar el provecho, amar el daño;
creer que un cielo en un infierno cabe,
dar la vida y el alma a un desengaño;
esto es amor. Quien lo probó lo sabe.
Sonnet, "Desmayarse, atreverse, estar furioso", line 9, from Rimas (1602); cited from José Manuel Blecua (ed.) Lírica (Madrid: Clásicos Castalia, [1981] 1999) p. 136. Translation from Eugenio Florit (ed.) Introduction to Spanish Poetry (New York: Dover, [1964] 1991) p. 65.

Claude Monet photo

“I am working from morning to evening, brimming with energy.. I'm fencing and wrestling with the sun. And what a sun it is! In order to paint here, one would need gold and precious stones. It is quite remarkable.”

Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter

Quote in a letter from Cote d'Azure to sculptor and friend Auguste Rodin, 1 February 1888; as cited in R. Gordon and A. Forge (1983), Monet, p. 123
1870 - 1890

Charles Nodier photo
Robert Jeffress photo

“God sends good people to Hell. Not only do religions like Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism—not only do they lead people away from from God, they lead people to an eternity of separation from God in Hell. You know Jesus was very clear: Hell is not only going to be populated by murderers, and drug dealers, and child dealers; Hell is going to be filled with good religious people who have rejected the truth of Christ.”

Robert Jeffress (1955) Pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas

"Politically Incorrect", First Baptist Church, Dallas, Texas, , quoted in * 2011-10-11
Perry Endorser Calls Judaism, Catholicism Path to Hell
Tim
Murphy
Mother Jones
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2011/10/watch-perry-endorser-jeffress-calls-judaism-catholicism-path-hell

Friedrich Schiller photo

“Dare to be wise! Energy and spirit is needed to overcome the obstacles which indolence of nature as well as cowardice of heart oppose to our instruction.”

Letter 8; Variant: The greater part of men are much too exhausted and enervated by their struggle with want to be able to engage in a new and severe contest with error. Satisfied if they themselves can escape from the hard labour of thought, they willingly abandon to others the guardianship of their thoughts.
On the Aesthetic Education of Man (1794)
Context: Dare to be wise! Energy and spirit is needed to overcome the obstacles which indolence of nature as well as cowardice of heart oppose to our instruction. It is not without significance that the old myth makes the goddess of Wisdom emerge fully armed from the head of Jupiter; for her very first function is warlike. Even in her birth she has to maintain a hard struggle with the senses, which do not want to be dragged from their sweet repose. The greater part of humanity is too much harassed and fatigued by the struggle with want, to rally itself for a new and sterner struggle with error. Content if they themselves escape the hard labor of thought, men gladly resign to others the guardianship of their ideas, and if it happens that higher needs are stirred in them, they embrace with a eager faith the formulas which State and priesthood hold in readiness for such an occasion.

“Some old man memory jumps to a child
— Spark from the days of energy.
And the child hoards it like a bitter toy.”

Stephen Spender (1909–1995) English poet and man of letters

"Fall of a City"
Selected Poems (1941)
Context: All the lessons learned, unlearned;
The young, who learned to read, now blind
Their eyes with an archaic film;
The peasant relapses to a stumbling tune
Following the donkey`s bray;
These only remember to forget. But somewhere some word presses
On the high door of a skull and in some corner
Of an irrefrangible eye
Some old man memory jumps to a child
— Spark from the days of energy.
And the child hoards it like a bitter toy.

Related topics