“Long time thou'lt toil to gather up the heap
Which thou canst scatter in a single day.”
Fragment 19
Fabulae Incertae
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Diphilus 6
Athenian poet of New ComedyRelated quotes
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 369.
Sādhanā : The Realisation of Life http://www.spiritualbee.com/spiritual-book-by-tagore/ (1916)
Context: This "I" of mine toils hard, day and night, for a home which it knows as its own. Alas, there will be no end of its sufferings so long as it is not able to call this home thine. Till then it will struggle on, and its heart will ever cry, "Ferryman, lead me across." When this home of mine is made thine, that very moment is it taken across, even while its old walls enclose it. This "I" is restless. It is working for a gain which can never be assimilated with its spirit, which it never can hold and retain. In its efforts to clasp in its own arms that which is for all, it hurts others and is hurt in its turn, and cries, "Lead me across". But as soon as it is able to say, "All my work is thine," everything remains the same, only it is taken across.
Where can I meet thee unless in this mine home made thine? Where can I join thee unless in this my work transformed into thy work? If I leave my home I shall not reach thy home; if I cease my work I can never join thee in thy work. For thou dwellest in me and I in thee. Thou without me or I without thee are nothing.
Polonius, Act I, scene iii.
Source: Hamlet (1600–1)
“Count not that thou hast lived that day, in which thou hast not lived with God.”
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 117.
Judy's letter to the dispersed members of the Church of Omaha, in "And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire" (1972)
Context: To you who are scattered and broken, gather again and mend. Rebuild always, and again I say rebuild. Renew the face of the earth. It is a loved face, but now it is covered with the webs of tired spiders.
“Sum up at night what thou has done by day.”
This line, in the more grammatical form, "Sum up at night what thou hast done by day", is from George Herbert's The Temple, The Church Porch, line 451.
Misattributed
Spiritual Canticle of The Soul and The Bridegroom
Home at last; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
20th century