“Opening, my eyes say 'Let there be light',
Closing, they shut me in a coffin.”
"The Human Situation"
The Still Centre (1939)
Context: And if this I were destroyed,
The image shattered,
My perceived, rent world would fly
In an explosion of final judgement
To the ends of the sky,
The colour in the iris of the eye.
Opening, my eyes say 'Let there be light',
Closing, they shut me in a coffin.
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Stephen Spender 76
English poet and man of letters 1909–1995Related quotes
Was falsely attributed to Rutherford by Joni Eareckson-Tada in Heaven: Your Real Home http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=cQrPd8R0o0kC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false (2010), p. 259 From Edward Payson in " Momentos of Rev. Edward Payson D.D., ed. Edwin L. Janes (New York: Nelson & Phillips, 1873), p. 87 https://archive.org/details/mementosofrevedw00pays/mode/2up.
The Original version reads: "... for if you should see a man shut up in a close room, idolizing a set of lamps, and rejoicing in their light, and you wished to make him truly happy, you would begin by blowing out all his lamps, and then throw open the shutters, to let in the light of heaven."
Ref: en.wikiquote.org - Samuel Rutherford / Misattributed
“Let me light my lamp", says the star, "And never debate if it will help to remove the darkness”
“Every closed eye is not sleeping, and every open eye is not seeing.”
“With open eyes, you watch; with closed eyes, you see.”
“A Book,” p. p. 92
The Creator (2000), Sequence: “Nostalgic Elements”
Original: (it) Rivolgo il mio sguardo al cielo, chiudo gli occhi creando con la mente un insieme di pensieri, abbraccio il sentimento che emana il mio cuore... lasciando vivere dentro me una dolce melodia del suono.
Source: prevale.net
“It is no advantage to be near the light if the eyes are closed.”
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 607
