“I don't mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface.”
James Nicoll (1961) Canadian fiction reviewer
Livejournal post http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/176181.html (2005) <br class="br">2000s
“.. the flat surface of a perfectly calm ocean [which] disturbs us.... by all the unknown that is hidden in the depth.”
Quote of De Chirico, April/May 1919; as quoted in 'Giorgio de Chirico', MoMa online https://www.moma.org/artists/1106#fnref1 <br class="br">De Chirico compared the metaphysical work of art to this image of a calm ocean <br class="br">1908 - 1920
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Giorgio de Chirico23
Italian artist 1888–1978Related quotes
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“This violence is a calm that disturbs you.”
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Albert Pike book Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Source: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. I : Apprentice, The Twelve-Inch Rule and Common Gavel, p. 1
Context: Though Masonry neither usurps the place of, nor apes religion, prayer is an essential part of our ceremonies. It is the aspiration of the soul toward the Absolute and Infinite Intelligence, which is the One Supreme Deity, most feebly and misunderstandingly characterized as an "architect." Certain faculties of man are directed toward the Unknown — thought, meditation, prayer. The unknown is an ocean, of which conscience is the compass. Thought, meditation, prayer, are the great mysterious pointings of the needle. It is a spiritual magnetism that thus connects the human soul with the Deity. These majestic irradiations of the soul pierce through the shadow toward the light.
It is but a shallow scoff to say that prayer is absurd, because it is not possible for us, by means of it, to persuade God to change His plans. He produces foreknown and foreintended effects, by the instrumentality of the forces of nature, all of which are His forces. Our own are part of these. Our free agency and our will are forces. We do not absurdly cease to make efforts to attain wealth or happiness, prolong life, and continue health, because we cannot by any effort change what is predestined. If the effort also is predestined, it is not the less our effort, made of our free will.