“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.”
Source: Much Ado About Nothing
“The ashes of your existence will fertilize the soil for the universe to follow.”
Source: Sandman Slim
1960s, October surprise speech (1968)
Context: What we won when all of our people united just must not now be lost in suspicion, distrust, selfishness, and politics among any of our people. Believing this as I do, I have concluded that I should not permit the Presidency to become involved in the partisan divisions that are developing in this political year. With America's sons in the fields far away, with America's future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world's hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office — the Presidency of your country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.
Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), The Right Relation of Reason to Religion, p.250
“Nagiko, I am waiting for you. Meet me at the library. Any library. Every library. Yours, Jerome.”
Jerome's suicide note
The Pillow Book
As quoted in A Tribute to Hinduism : Thoughts and Wisdom Spanning Continents and Time about India and Her Culture (2008) by Sushama Londhe, p. 191
“Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes.”
Address to the United Nations (28 August 1954); as quoted in The Macmillan Dictionary of Political Quotations (1993) by Lewis D. Eigen and Jonathan Paul Siegel, p. 698
1977 (from the poem, Douse the Flames)
