“Even though the eagle,
King of birds,
Can with his powerful sight
Gaze steadfastly upon
The brightness of the sun;
Yet do the weaker eyes of the bat
Fail and falter in the same.”
The Twelve Beguines
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John Ruysbroeck90
Flemish mystic 1293–1381Related quotes
“Though the sun beat all day upon the mud,
Still foul the mud remains and bright the sun.”
Guido Guinizzelli (1230–1276) Italian poet
Fere lo sol lo fango tutto ’l giorno;
Vil riman, ne il sol perde colore.
Canzone. (Poeti del Primo Secolo, Firenze, 1816, p. 92).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 302.
Francis William Bourdillon (1852–1921) British poet
"Light" (popularly known as "The Night has a Thousand Eyes"), published in The Spectator (October 1873).
Context: p>The Night has a thousand eyes,
And the Day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.</p
Davy Crockett (1786–1836) American politician
As quoted in David Crockett : His Life and Adventures (1875) by John Stevens Cabot Abbott, Ch. 11
Khalil Gibran book Jesus, The Son of Man
A Man From Lebanon: Nineteen Centuries Afterward
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)
Context: Master, Master Poet,
Master of words sung and spoken,
They have builded temples to house your name,
And upon every height they have raised your cross,
A sign and a symbol to guide their wayward feet,
But not unto your joy.
Your joy is a hill beyond their vision,
And it does not comfort them.
They would honour the man unknown to them.
And what consolation is there in a man like themselves, a man whose
kindliness is like their own kindliness,
A god whose love is like their own love,
And whose mercy is in their own mercy?
They honour not the man, the living man,
The first man who opened His eyes and gazed at the sun
With eyelids unquivering.
Nay, they do not know Him, and they would not be like Him.
Lydia Maria Child (1802–1880) American abolitionist, author and women's rights activist
Marius amid the Ruins of Carthage
Julian (emperor) (331–363) Roman Emperor, philosopher and writer
Upon The Mother Of The Gods (c. 362-363)
Context: To what purpose, pray, exist all these things that be born? Whence come male and female? Whence the difference in kind of all things that be, amongst visible species, unless there be certain pre-existing and previously established Reasons and Causes subsisting beforehand, in the nature of a pattern? With regard to which, though we are dull of sight, yet let us strive to clear away the mist from the eyes of the soul.