“I detect
More good than evil in humanity.
Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes,
And men grow better as the world grows old.”
Optimism
Poetry quotes, Poems of Pleasure (1900)
Context: I find a rapture linked with each despair,
Well worth the price of anguish. I detect
More good than evil in humanity.
Love lights more fires than hate extinguishes,
And men grow better as the world grows old.
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Ella Wheeler Wilcox 46
American author and poet 1850–1919Related quotes
Let the Great World Spin (2009), Book One: A Fear of Love
“You darkness, that I come from, I love you more than all the fires that fence in the world.”
“Men grow tired of sleep, love, singing and dancing, sooner than of war.”
A misquotation http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2009-August/092648.html of:
Πάντων μὲν κόρος ἐστὶ καὶ ὕπνου καὶ φιλότητος
μολπῆς τε γλυκερῆς καὶ ἀμύμονος ὀρχηθμοῖο,
τῶν πέρ τις καὶ μᾶλλον ἐέλδεται ἐξ ἔρον εἷναι
ἢ πολέμου· Τρῶες δὲ μάχης ἀκόρητοι ἔασιν.
Men get
Their fill of all things, of sleep and love, sweet song
And flawless dancing, and most men like these things
Much better than war. Only Trojans are always
Thirsty for blood!
Iliad, XIII, 636–639 (tr. Ennis Rees)
The misquotation implies that an overweening love of war was the norm, whereas the real quote decries the Trojans as inhumane for keeping the war going.
Misattributed
“Love commingled with hate is more powerful than love. Or hate.”
On Boxing (1987)
The First Revelation, Chapter 9
Context: Because of the Shewing I am not good but if I love God the better: and in as much as ye love God the better, it is more to you than to me. I say not this to them that be wise, for they wot it well; but I say it to you that be simple, for ease and comfort: for we are all one in comfort. For truly it was not shewed me that God loved me better than the least soul that is in grace; for I am certain that there be many that never had Shewing nor sight but of the common teaching of Holy Church, that love God better than I. For if I look singularly to myself, I am right nought; but in general I am, I hope, in oneness of charity with all mine even-Christians.
Pt. 2, Ch. 5 - p.139
Giovanni's Room (1956)