“I hang by a thread, but it is (if I may so speak) of Christ's spinning”

Letter 56 to Lady Kenmure
Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Andrew Bonar)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I hang by a thread, but it is (if I may so speak) of Christ's spinning" by Samuel Rutherford?
Samuel Rutherford photo
Samuel Rutherford 36
Scottish Reformed theologian 1600–1661

Related quotes

Semyon Timoshenko photo

“We'll spin them out like a bobbin thread.”

Semyon Timoshenko (1895–1970) Soviet military commander

To Ralph Parker, about the Nazis. Quoted in "Timoshenko: Marshal of the Red Army" - Page 91 - by Walter Mehring - 1942

Marcus Aurelius photo

“Whatever may happen to thee, it was prepared for thee from all eternity; and the implication of causes was from eternity spinning the thread of thy being, and of that which is incident to it.”

Alternate Translation: Whatever may befall you, it was preordained for you from everlasting.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book X, 5

Thomas Mann photo

“I have an epic, not a dramatic nature. My disposition and my desires call for peace to spin my thread, for a steady rhythm in life and art.”

Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German novelist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate

Nobel Banquet Speech (10 December 1929) http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1929/mann-speech.html

Nisargadatta Maharaj photo

“(…) This must be well grasped; the world hangs on the thread of consciousness, no consciousness, no world.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

Awareness and consciousness
Source: "I am That."

Edith Wharton photo

“No insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity.”

Source: "The House of Mirth" http://books.google.com/books?id=plFdLlYHwZ8C&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=No+insect+hangs+its+nest+on+threads+as+frail+as+those+which+will+sustain+the+weight+of+human+vanity.&source=bl&ots=j0EPPhjIZW&sig=MQMjyNy5yKK97Ok4bGqRWfC3obE&hl=en&ei=T5F0TMqyMIuisAOczpyMBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=No%20insect%20hangs%20its%20nest%20on%20threads%20as%20frail%20as%20those%20which%20will%20sustain%20the%20weight%20of%20human%20vanity.&f=false (1905), ch. X, pg. 69

Martin Luther photo

“Let us keep to Christ, and cling to Him, and hang on Him, so that no power can remove us.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 433

“The threads of wyrd are a dimension of ourselves that we cannot grasp with words. We spin webs of words, yet wyrd slips through like the wind.”

Brian Bates (1944) British academic

The Way of the Wyrd : Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer (1983)
Context: The threads of wyrd are a dimension of ourselves that we cannot grasp with words. We spin webs of words, yet wyrd slips through like the wind. The secrets of wyrd do not lie in our word-hoards, but are locked in the soul. We can only discern the shadows of reality with our words, whereas our souls are capable of encountering the realities of wyrd directly. This is why wyrd is accessible to the sorcerer: the sorcerer sees with his soul, not with eyes blinkered by the shape of words.
Do not live your life searching around for answers in your word-hoard. You will find only words to rationalize your experience. Allow yourself to open to wyrd and it will cleanse, renew, change, and develop your casket of reason. Your word-hoard should serve your experience, not the reverse.

Sara Teasdale photo

“I may not speak till Eros' torch is dim,
The god is bitter and will have it so.”

Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American writer and poet

"Roundel"
Helen of Troy and Other Poems (1911)

Related topics