Quotes about the sun
page 24

Ali Khamenei photo
Tiberius photo
John Keats photo
Walt Whitman photo
Johannes Kepler photo

“Now because 18 months ago the first dawn, 3 months ago broad daylight but a very few days ago the full sun of the most highly remarkable spectacle has risen — nothing holds me back. I can give myself up to the sacred frenzy, I can have the insolence to make a full confession to mortal men that I have stolen the golden vessel of the Egyptians to make from them a tabernacle for my God far from the confines of the land of Egypt. If you forgive me I shall rejoice; if you are angry, I shall bear it; I am indeed casting the die and writing the book, either for my contemporaries or for posterity to read, it matters not which: let the book await its reader for a hundred years; God himself has waited six thousand years for his work to be seen.”

Book V, Introduction
Variant translation: It may well wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.
As quoted in The Martyrs of Science; or, the Lives of Galileo, Tycho Brahe, and Kepler (1841) by David Brewster, p. 197. This has sometimes been misquoted as "It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer."
Variant translation: I feel carried away and possessed by an unutterable rapture over the divine spectacle of heavenly harmony... I write a book for the present time, or for posterity. It is all the same to me. It may wait a hundred years for its readers, as God has also waited six thousand years for an onlooker.
As quoted in Calculus. Multivariable (2006) by Steven G. Krantz and Brian E. Blank. p. 126
Mysterium Cosmographicum (1596), Harmonices Mundi (1618)

Benny Tai photo

“There will be darker times ahead for Hong Kong, but the sun will rise again. We need to keep strong.”

Benny Tai (1964) Hong Kong activist and writer

"There will be darker times ahead for Hong Kong but the sun will rise again" (April 19, 2019)

Townes Van Zandt photo
Townes Van Zandt photo
Algernon Charles Swinburne photo

“All Egypt aches in the sun's sight;”

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909) English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic
Victor Hugo photo
William Wordsworth photo
Isaac Asimov photo

“Start with a planet like the earth, with a complement of simple compounds bound to exist upon it, add the energy of a nearby sun, and you are bound to end with nucleic acids. You can't avoid it.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

"Constructing a Man" in Is Anyone There? (1967), p. 93
General sources

Ron Paul photo

“What is most dangerous is that although this virus will eventually disappear, the assault on our civil liberties is not likely to be reversed. From this point on, whenever local officials, county officials, state governors, or federal bureaucrats decide there is sufficient reason to suspend the Constitution they will not hesitate to do so. Anyone who challenges the suspension of the Constitution “for our own good” will be labeled “unpatriotic” and perhaps even reported to the authorities. We have already seen hotlines springing up across the country for Americans to report other Americans who dare venture outside to enjoy the sun and build up their vitamin D protection against the coronavirus. The government is justified in cancelling the Constitution, we are told, because we are in an emergency situation caused by the Covid-19 virus. But do people forget that the Constitution itself was written and adopted while we were in an “emergency situation”? Did the framers of the Constitution fail to add an 11th Amendment to the Bill of Rights saying, “oh by the way, none of this counts if we get sick?””

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

Of course not! Those who wrote our Constitution understood that these rights are not granted by the government, but rather by our Creator. Thus it was never a question as to when or under what conditions they could be suspended: the government had no authority to suspend them at all because it did not grant them in the first place.
2020, End the Shutdown; It’s Time for Resurrection!

Tecumseh photo

“The white men aren't friends to the Indians... At first they only asked for land sufficient for a wigwam; now, nothing will satisfy them but the whole of our hunting grounds from the rising to the setting sun.”

Tecumseh (1768–1813) Native American leader of the Shawnee

Quoted in Seeking a Nation Within a Nation, CBC Canada https://www.cbc.ca/history/EPCONTENTSE1EP5CH12LE.html

Liu Xiao Ling Tong photo

“How could Sun Wukong crush in female monsters? When you want to spoof something, spoof your grandparents rather than Journey to the West!”

Liu Xiao Ling Tong (1959) Chinese actor

(zh-CN) 孙悟空怎么能跟女妖谈恋爱呢?要恶搞,回去恶搞你爷爷奶奶去,别恶搞《西游记》!

Source: [六小龄童:要恶搞,就去恶搞你爷爷奶奶!, http://book.people.com.cn/GB/69360/5535778.html, People's Daily Online, 11 January 2019, 29 March 2007]

Gavin Free photo

“If we have the smegging compass, Jeremy, you don't need to look at the farting sun.”

Gavin Free (1988) English filmmaker

"Let's Play Minecraft: Ep. 236 - Voyage of the Dumb Treaders" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1MLhR5OzWw. youtube.com. December 2, 2016. Retrieved February 21, 2019.

Robert Graves photo
Robert Graves photo
Jackson Browne photo

“Like the rest of them,
will you also examine the white, crystal today
in the haze and mist of slimy yesterday?
Do what you will
but keep it in mind:
the sun has also been accused
of having necked and cuddled the night.”

Parveen Shakir (1952–1994) Pakistani writer and poet

Sessions of Sweet, Silent Thought: translated by Mirza Nehal Ahmad Baig, p. 20
Poetry, Keep it in Mind

Bhagawan Nityananda photo
Ibn Hazm photo
Ibn Hazm photo
Alice Meynell photo
Giordano Bruno photo

“Cause, Principle, and One eternal
From whom being, life, and movement are suspended,
And which extends itself in length, breadth, and depth,
To whatever is in Heaven, on Earth, and Hell;
With sense, with reason, with mind, I discern,
That there is no act, measure, nor calculation, which can comprehend
That force, that vastness and that number,
Which exceeds whatever is inferior, middle, and highest;
Blind error, avaricious time, adverse fortune,
Deaf envy, vile madness, jealous iniquity,
Crude heart, perverse spirit, insane audacity,
Will not be sufficient to obscure the air for me,
Will not place the veil before my eyes,
Will never bring it about that I shall not
Contemplate my beautiful Sun.”

Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) Italian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer

"Of Love" as translated in The Infinite in Giordano Bruno : With a Translation of His Dialogue, Concerning the Cause, Principle, and One (1978) by Sidney Thomas Greenburg, p. 89
Variant translation:
<p>Cause, Principle and One, the Sempiterne,
On whom all being, motion, life, depend.
From whom, in length, breadth, depth, their paths extend
As far as heaven, earth, hell their faces turn :
With sense, with mind, with reason, I discern
That not, rule, reckoning, may not comprehend
That power and bulk and multitude which tend
Beyond all lower, middle, and superne.</p><p> Blind error, ruthless time, ungentle doom,
Deaf envy, villain madness, zeal unwise,
Hard heart, unholy craft, bold deeds begun,
Shall never fill for one the air with gloom,
Or ever thrust a veil before these eyes,
Or ever hide from me my glorious sun.</p>
As quoted in "Giordano Bruno" by Thomas Davidson, The Index Vol. VI. No. 36 (4 March 1886), p. 429
Cause, Principle, and Unity (1584)

Stephen Vincent Benét photo
Stephen Vincent Benét photo
Annie Besant photo
Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo

“Shall we fight or shall we fly?
Good Sir Richard, tell us now,
For to fight is but to die!
There'll be little of us left by the time this sun be set.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate

And Sir Richard said again: "We be all good English men.
Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil,
For I never turn'd my back upon Don or devil yet."
St. 4
The Revenge (1878)

Fannie Hurst photo
Prevale photo

“In difficult moments, look for the sun inside you.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Nei momenti difficili, cerca il sole che è dentro di te.
Source: prevale.net

Al-Mutanabbi photo
Felix Adler photo
Alexis Karpouzos photo
Marcus Tullius Cicero photo
Khalil Gibran photo
Muhammad photo

“O my uncle! by God if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left on condition that I abandon this course, until God has made me victorious, or I perish therein, I would not abandon it.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

https://hawzah.net/fa/Magazine/View/2689/3869/29058
Sunni Hadith

Paulo Coelho photo
Paulo Coelho photo

“Like the sun, life spreads its light in all directions.”

Manuscript Found in Accra (2012), Which direction to take

Isaac Asimov photo
Viktor Pinchuk photo
Charles Wesley photo
John Steinbeck photo
Faiz Ahmad Faiz photo
Menotti Lerro photo

“Remember that the sun doesn’t belong more to a man than to you. Never let yourself to be put in the shadow.”

Menotti Lerro (1980) Italian poet

Donna Giovanna, Act I, scene ii.
Theater Quotes

William Henry Davies photo
Example (musician) photo

“'Cause we
About it
It's deep
How we found it
Sleep
I doubt it
When the sun hits your eyes and I'm with you”

Example (musician) (1982) English rapper and singer

"Sun hits your Eyes" (song, 2020)
("Sun hits your Eyes" on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baz6UHWygv0
Non-album singles, As lead artist

Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Mwanandeke Kindembo photo
Lou Reed photo

“Impossible doesn't mean very difficult, very difficult is winning the Nobel Prize, impossible is eating the sun.”

Lou Reed (1942–2013) American musician

In the video game Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors, after Reed murders the player on the "Impossible" difficulty level.
Source: Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors - The Impossible Level https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWlbzdaJJ_s

Bruce Sterling photo
Charles Fillmore photo

“…and i am learning to hope
like a bird
learns
its first
affair
with wind
and sun
like an orange
learns
to take flight
into the mouth
of a boy
in summer…”

Andrés Montoya (1968–1999) American writer

Source: Excerpt from his poem “three thousand lost kisses” https://poets.org/poem/three-thousand-lost-kisses

Edgar Guest photo
Edgar Guest photo
Louise Glück photo
Helen Blackwood, Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye photo
Clark Ashton Smith photo
Jami photo

“Were Women all like those whom here I name,
Woman to man I surely would prefer;
The Sun is feminine, nor deems it shame;
The Moon, though masculine, depends on her.”

Jami (1414–1492) Persian poet

Alluding to Rabia of Basra, Nafahat al-Uns, as quoted in A Literary History of Persia https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Literary_History_of_Persia/q_n1DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA299 by E. G. Browne, p. 299.

Ron English photo

“A shadow never sees the sun.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

Archilochus photo
Steve Forbert photo
Emily Brontë photo
Alfred, Lord Tennyson photo
Vincent Van Gogh photo

“It seemed to you perhaps as if the sun shone brighter and everything had acquired a new charm. At any rate, I believe this is always the effect of a serious love and that's a delightful thing.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Quote in his letter tot Theo, from The Hague, Sunday, 18 March 1883; as cited in letter 330 - complete vangoghletters online http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let330/letter.html
1880s, 1883

Alexis Karpouzos photo
Denise Levertov photo
Alexis Karpouzos photo