“We must not only open our eyes, but our arms, our wings.”
Light (1919), Ch, XXI - No!
Context: Ah, there are cloudy moments when one asks himself if men do not deserve all the disasters into which they rush! No — I recover myself — they do not deserve them. But we, instead of saying "I wish" must say "I will." And what we will, we must will to build it, with order, with method, beginning at the beginning, when once we have been as far as that beginning. We must not only open our eyes, but our arms, our wings.
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Henri Barbusse 197
French novelist 1873–1935Related quotes
“If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.”
As quoted in Building A Life Of Value : Timeless Wisdom to Inspire and Empower Us (2005) by Jason A. Merchey, p. 74
"What Has Become"
For Whom The Troubadour Sings (2010)
Context: If a fist can hold a sword, and a fist can clench a pen, but the points of both are missed, by dull, tarnished pride of men. We must open up our hands, raise our palms up high to see, the mazes of our unique selves, end with similarity.
“We can open our hearts to God, but only with Divine help.”
Quaestiones de veritate disputatae q 24, art. 15, ad 2
"The Bat," ll. 5-10
Open House (1941)
Context: He loops in crazy figures half the night
Among the trees that face the corner light.
But when he brushes up against a screen,
We are afraid of what our eyes have seen:
For something is amiss or out of place
When mice with wings can wear a human face.
Speech at Founding Rally of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (28 June 1964), as quoted in By Any Means Necessary (1970)
By Any Means Necessary (1970)