“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?”
Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio
Canto XII, lines 95–96 (tr. C. E. Norton).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio
Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 239
“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?”
Dante Alighieri book Purgatorio
Canto XII, lines 95–96 (tr. C. E. Norton).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Purgatorio
Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist
"To Juan at the Winter Solstice" from Poems 1938-1945 (1946).
Poems
“They live indeed—the dead by whose example we are upward led.”
Florence Earle Coates book Mine and Thine
Taken from the inscription on Mrs. Coates' headstone which is excerpted from a memorial poem she wrote for Eliza Sproat Turner, who died on 20 June 1903. "In Memory: Eliza Sproat Turner" http://books.google.com/books?id=XCsXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA112#v=onepage&q=&f=false from Mine and Thine (1904).
Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer
Section 2 : Religion
Founding Address (1876), Life and Destiny (1913)
“With the troubled eyes of a youth
I envied
Birds flying—
Flying they sang.”
Takuboku Ishikawa (1886–1912) Japanese writer
A Handful of Sand ("Ichiaku no Suna"), as translated by Shio Sakanishi
Edwin Abbott Abbott book Flatland
Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 21. How I Tried to Teach the Theory of Three Dimensions to My Grandson, and With What Success
Context: When my Grandson entered the room I carefully secured the door. Then, sitting down by his side and taking our mathematical tablets, — or, as you would call them, Lines — I told him we would resume the lesson of yesterday. I taught him once more how a Point by motion in One Dimension produces a Line, and how a straight Line in Two Dimensions produces a Square. After this, forcing a laugh, I said, "And now, you scamp, you wanted to make me believe that a Square may in the same way by motion 'Upward, not Northward' produce another figure, a sort of extra Square in Three Dimensions. Say that again, you young rascal."At this moment we heard once more the herald's "O yes! O yes!" outside in the street proclaiming the Resolution of the Council. Young though he was, my Grandson — who was unusually intelligent for his age, and bred up in perfect reverence for the authority of the Circles — took in the situation with an acuteness for which I was quite unprepared. He remained silent till the last words of the Proclamation had died away, and then, bursting into tears, "Dear Grandpapa," he said, "that was only my fun, and of course I meant nothing at all by it; and we did not know anything then about the new Law; and I don't think I said anything about the Third Dimension; and I am sure I did not say one word about 'Upward, not Northward', for that would be such nonsense, you know. How could a thing move Upward, and not Northward? Upward and not Northward! Even if I were a baby, I could not be so absurd as that. How silly it is! Ha! ha! ha!"
“We can follow a steady upward course in a world of change without fear, welcoming opportunities”
Henry B. Eyring (1933) American Mormon leader
“Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how;
Everything is happy now,
Everything is upward striving”
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat
Prelude to Pt. I, st. 7
The Vision of Sir Launfal (1848)
Context: Joy comes, grief goes, we know not how;
Everything is happy now,
Everything is upward striving;
'Tis as easy now for the heart to be true
As for grass to be green or skies to be blue,—
'Tis the natural way of living:
Who knows whither the clouds have fled?
In the unscarred heaven they leave no wake;
And the eyes forget the tears they have shed,
The heart forgets its sorrow and ache;
The soul partakes the season's youth,
And the sulphurous rifts of passion and woe
Lie deep 'neath a silence pure and smooth,
Like burnt-out craters healed with snow.