Canto XXVII, lines 61–66 (tr. Sinclair).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno
“[I]sn't it sad to go to your grave without ever wondering why you were born? Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be part of it?”
Source: Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder
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Richard Dawkins 322
English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author 1941Related quotes
Vol. II, ch. 2
Dead Souls (1842)
Context: Rus! Rus! I see you, from my lovely enchanted remoteness I see you: a country of dinginess, and bleakness and dispersal; no arrogant wonders of nature crowned by the arrogant wonders of art appear within you to delight or terrify the eyes... So what is the incomprehensible secret force driving me towards you? Why do I constantly hear the echo of your mournful song as it is carried from the sea through your entire expanse?... And since you are without end yourself, is it not within you that a boundless thought will be born?
1962, First letter to Nikita Khrushchev
1988 National Day Rally, when he discussed the leadership transition to Goh Chok Tong in 1990. As quoted in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: Volume 2, The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
1980s