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Philip Levine4
Poet 1928–2015Related quotes
“This source is called darkness.
Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding.”
Laozi book Tao Te Ching
Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as translated by J.H.McDonald (1996) http://www.wright-house.com/religions/taoism/tao-te-ching.html [Public domain translation] <br class="br">Context: The tao that can be described<br>is not the eternal Tao.<br>The name that can be spoken<br>is not the eternal Name.<br>The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.<br>The named is the mother of creation.<br>Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.<br>By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.<br>Yet mystery and reality<br>emerge from the same source.<br>This source is called darkness.<br>Darkness born from darkness.<br>The beginning of all understanding.
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist
"90 North," lines 28-32
Blood for a Stranger (1942)
Context: I see at last that all the knowledgeI wrung from the darkness — that the darkness flung me —
Is worthless as ignorance: nothing comes from nothing,
The darkness from the darkness. Pain comes from the darkness
And we call it wisdom. It is pain.
Ted Dekker book House
Variant: The light came into the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it, but that no longer mattered because the light was now obliteration the darkness.
Source: House
“You have a dark heart in you, Valentine's daughter.”
Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls
Source: City of Lost Souls
“There is light in darkness, you just have to find it.”
Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist