Source: Poison
Johnny Got His Gun (1938)
Context: There's a game out there, and the stakes are high. And the guy who runs it figures the averages all day long and all night long. Once in a while he lets you steal a pot. But if you stay in the game long enough, you've got to lose. And once you've lost there's no way back, no way at all.
“Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. ”
Golden Sayings of Epictetus
Context: A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path—he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you do not show it him, you should not mock, but rather feel your own incapacity. (63).
Letter to Abigail Adams (17 July 1775)
1770s
Source: Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife
Source: The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013), Chapter 10 (p. 151)
“There's a new path
That we found just today
I was lost in the forest
And you showed me the way…”
Song lyrics, Islands (1987)
“If a hint is not taken, if a word is missed, it is lost forever; for He does not speak twice.”
1910s, At the Feet of the Master (1911)
Context: These are not my words; they are the words of the Master who taught me. Without Him I could have done nothing, but through His help I have set my feet upon the Path. You also desire to enter the same Path, so the words which He spoke to me will help you also, if you will obey them. It is not enough to say that they are true and beautiful; a man who wishes to succeed must do exactly what is said. To look at food and say that it is good will not satisfy a starving man; he must put forth his hand and eat. So to hear the Master's words is not enough, you must do what He says, attending to every word, taking every hint. If a hint is not taken, if a word is missed, it is lost forever; for He does not speak twice.
Four qualifications there are for this pathway:
Section IX, "Man Alone with Himself" / aphorism 494
Human, All Too Human (1878), Helen Zimmern translation
