“Do I dare Disturb the universe?”
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author
Source: The Wasteland, Prufrock and Other Poems
“…and a little later comes the question that no one asks before acting or before speaking: 'Do I dare disturb the universe?', because everyone dares to do just that, to disturb the universe and to trouble it, with their small, quick tongues and their ill-intentioned steps.”
— Javier Marías, book Tu rostro mañana
...y un poco más tarde viene la pregunta que nadie se hace antes de obrar ni antes de hablar: ‘Do I dare disturb the universe?’, porque todo el mundo se atreve a ello, a turbar el universo y a molestarlo, con sus rápidas y pequeñas lenguas y con sus mezquinos pasos.
Source: Tu rostro mañana, 2. Baile y sueño [Your Face Tomorrow, Vol. 2: Dance and Dream] (2004), p. 111
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Javier Marías25
Spanish writer 1951Related quotes
T.S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)
Context: Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all: —
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
Nicholas Roerich (1874–1947) Russian painter, writer, archaeologist, theosophist, enlightener, philosopher
Notes on the Banner of Peace (24 May 1939)
Context: Where all the treasures of mankind must be saved, there one should find such a symbol that can open the inmost recesses of all hearts. The symbol of the Banner of Peace has been spread so surprisingly far and wide that people are quite sincerely asking whether it is original or an invention of later times. We have witnessed honest wonderment after having proved its ancient origins and spread. At present mankind is beginning to think with horror like troglodytes again, hoping to safeguard their property in underground depositories and caves. But the Banner of Peace just announces the principle. It argues that mankind has to find a way to agree, that its achievements are global and belong to all the nations. The Banner says: noli me tangere — do not touch — do not dare to disturb, to offend the Universal Treasure with a touch of destruction.
Li Bai (701–762) Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty poetry period
"The Summit Temple" (夜宿山寺), in The White Pony: An Anthology of Chinese Poetry from the Earliest Times to the Present Day (1947), p. 173
Michael Singer (1945) American landscape architect
Source: The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
“Everyone speaks well of his heart; no one dares speak well of his mind.”
François de La Rochefoucauld book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims
Chacun dit du bien de son coeur et personne n'en ose dire de son esprit.
Maxim 98.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher
Of Bashfulness
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)