James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat
An Incident in a Railroad Car
Source: The Persians (472 BC), lines 818–820 (tr. S. G. Benardete)
James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat
An Incident in a Railroad Car
Hartley Coleridge (1796–1849) British poet, biographer, essayist, and teacher
Sylphs
Poems (1851), Prometheus
Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
“Too dark the place and too inscrutable
where mortal men their deepest thoughts control.”
Torquato Tasso (1544–1595) Italian poet
Chè 'n parte troppo cupa, e troppo interna
Il pensier de' mortali occulto giace.
Canto V, stanza 41 (tr. Wickert)
Gerusalemme Liberata (1581)
George Saintsbury (1845–1933) British literary critic
Vol. 1, pp. 4–5
A History of Criticism and Literary Taste in Europe from the Earliest Texts to the Present Day
Allen Tate (1899–1979) American poet, essayist and social commentator
A Carrion, from Poems (1961).
“Poets are witnesses to Being before the philosophers are able to bring it into thought.”
William Barrett (philosopher) book Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy
Source: Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958), Chapter Five, Christian sources, p. 105
Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer
Your Thought and Mine
Context: Your thought advocates fame and show. Mine counsels me and implores me to cast aside notoriety and treat it like a grain of sand cast upon the shore of eternity. Your thought instills in your heart arrogance and superiority. Mine plants within me love for peace and the desire for independence. Your thought begets dreams of palaces with furniture of sandalwood studded with jewels, and beds made of twisted silk threads. My thought speaks softly in my ears, "Be clean in body and spirit even if you have nowhere to lay your head." Your thought makes you aspire to titles and offices. Mine exhorts me to humble service.
Joseph Campbell book The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Source: The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Chapter 1
Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer
Founding Address (1876)
Context: The world is dark around us and the prospect seems deepening in gloom. and yet there is light ahead. On the volume of the past in starry characters it is written — the starry legend greets us shining through the misty vistas of the future — that the great and noble shall not perish from among the sons of men, that the truth will triumph in the end, and that even the humblest of her servants may in this become the instrument of unending good. We are aiding in laying the foundations of a mighty edifice, whose completion shall not be seen in our day, no, nor in centuries upon centuries after us. But happy are we, indeed, if we can contribute even the least towards so high a consummation. The time calls for action. Up, then, and let us do our part faithfully and well. And oh, friends, our children's children will hold our memories dearer for the work which we begin this hour.