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W.S. Merwin 17
American poet 1927–2019Related quotes

My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity (2013), p. 6

“We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time.”
Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Context: There is an extraordinary silence in the West. Basically, Christianity in the Middle East and in Africa is being wiped out – I mean not just ideologically but physically, and people are being enslaved and killed because they are Christians. And your country and my country (Wales) are doing nothing about it.... This is a unique age. We don't want to be judgmental. Every other age that's come before us has believed exactly the opposite. I mean, T. S. Eliot referred to 'the common pursuit of true judgement.' Yes, that's what it's about. Getting our judgments right, getting them accurate.... We have lost our moral compass completely, and unless we find it, we’re going to lose our civilization. I think we're going to lose Western European Christian civilization anyway.

This last line references the last line of his DNC speech in 1980 where he said "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
2000s, DNC Speech (2008)
And this November the torch will be passed again to a new generation of Americans, so with Barack Obama and for you and for me, our country will be committed to his cause. The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.

“We have so far to go to realize our human potential for compassion, altruism, and love.”
Source: Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating

2010s, 2016, July, (21 July 2016)