“The nightsea journey may be absurd, but here we swim, will-we nill-we, against the flood, onward and upward, toward a shore that may not exist and couldn't be reached if it did.”

Night-sea Journey
Lost In the Funhouse (1968)

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 "The nightsea journey may be absurd, but here we swim, will-we nill-we, against the flood, onward and upward, toward a s…" by John Barth?

John Barth photo

John Barth8

American writer 1930

Related quotes

“… "You may not see the ocean, but right now we are in the middle of the ocean, and we have to keep swimming.”

Tracy Kidder (1945) writer

Source: Strength in What Remains: A Journey of Remembrance and Forgiveness

“Let it be understood that the end of our existence here is that we may be more God-like … and that we are placed here to grow strong and noble, and not merely to enjoy.”

Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) American clergyman and activist

Source: Life Thoughts (1858), p. 28

“If it be heaven toward which we journey, it will be holiness in which we delight”

Henry Melvill (1798–1871) British academic

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 317.
Context: If it be heaven toward which we journey, it will be holiness in which we delight; for if we cannot now rejoice in having God for our portion, where is our meetness for a world in which God is to be all in all forever and forever?

“We know that this is a power which may be abused; but that is no argument against its existence. For protection against abuses by legislatures the people must resort to the polls, not to the courts.”

Morrison Waite (1816–1888) American politician

Munn v. Illinois, 94 U.S. 113 (1877)

“Go now. Our journey is done. And may we meet again, in the clearing, at the end of the path.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“If hope be fixed on Christ as the Rock of Ages, a rock rent, if we may use the expression, on purpose that there might be a holding-place for the anchors of a perishing world, it may well come to pass that we enjoy a calm as we journey through life, and draw near the grave.”

Henry Melvill (1798–1871) British academic

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 101.

“It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work,
and that when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

“Whatever plane our consciousness may be acting in, both we and the things belonging to that plane are, for the time being, our only realities. As we rise in the scale of development we perceive that during the stages through which we have passed we mistook shadows for realities, and the upward progress of the Ego is a series of progressive awakenings, each advance bringing with it the idea that now, at last, we have reached "reality"; but only when we shall have reached the absolute Consciousness, and blended our own with it, shall we be free from the delusions produced by Maya [illusion].”

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891) occult writer

“It may be that when we no longer know which way to go that we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

“With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2009, First Inaugural Address (January 2009)

Related topics