“No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person.”

— Willa Cather , book Alexander's Bridge

Alexander's Bridge (1912) Ch. 8
Context: No one can build his security upon the nobleness of another person. Two people, when they love each other, grow alike in their tastes and habits and pride, but their moral natures (whatever we may mean by that canting expression) are never welded. The base one goes on being base, and the noble one noble, to the end.

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Willa Cather 99

American writer and novelist 1873–1947

George Kelly (psychologist) (1905–1967) American psychologist and therapist

Source: The function of interpretation in psychotherapy. 1959, p. 21

“To build a secure relationship, caretake the insecurity and unsafety of the other person in the relationship. And recognize when you feel insecure or unsafe in your relationship so that you can very quickly initiate re-establishing security and safety with the other person.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

“If a man who makes to another person, upon a solemn occasion, an assertion, upon which that person acts, he lies under an obligation to make good his assertion.”

John Romilly, 1st Baron Romilly (1802–1874) English Whig politician and judge

In Re Ward (1862), 31 Beav. 7.

“Before hastening to secure a possible reward of five taels by dragging an unobservant person away from a falling building, examine well his features lest you find, when too late, that it is one to whom you are indebted for double that amount.”

Ernest Bramah book The Wallet of Kai Lung

The Confession of Kai Lung
The Wallet of Kai Lung (1900)

““I think you serve a great purpose, Hawkmoon. I think your destiny is a noble one.”
Hawkmoon laughed. “And yet I do not pine for a noble destiny—merely a secure one.””

Michael Moorcock book The Sword of the Dawn

The Sword of the Dawn (1968)
Source: Book 2, Chapter 11 “The Parting” (p. 380)

“How should one approach the person of van Gogh in order to be able to build a statue of him? How can one place him outside of himself, separate him from the tragic character of his life? How can one build a statue in the open air which simultaneously evokes the rare and the new person who was van Gogh, as also the enormity of the new aspect of the current and future art of painting?”

Ossip Zadkine (1890–1967) French sculptor

Quote in: 'Le Maillet et le Ciseau', (early 1956); as quoted in Zadkine and Van Gogh, ed. Garance Schabert and Ron Dirven (transl. Anne Porcelijn), Vincent van Goghhuis, Zundert & Scriptum Art, Schiedam 2008, p.29
1940 - 1960