“But when the country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir.”

“At the word I turned hastily to another column and found the news that had stirred him. And even in the midst of world-shaking events it stirred me too. For a brief moment I forgot the war and was back in that cheerful world where we used to be happy, where we greeted the rising sun with light hearts and saw its setting without fear. In that cheerful world I can hardly recall a time when a big man with a black beard was not my King … I owe more undiluted happiness to him than to any man that ever lived. For he was the genial tyrant in a world that was all sunshine.”

“I can think of no more stirring symbol of man’s humanity to man than a fire engine.”

“the set pieces
of your faces stir me —
leading citizens —
but not
in the same way.”

“I had innumerable visions at that time [c. 1903]; wherever I looked, Nature was alive, the sky, the clouds, on every stone and among the branches of the trees, everywhere my creatures stirred and lived their still or wild, lively lives, arousing my excitement and crying out to be painted.”

“The slightest stirring in the air can set a hurricane in motion a thousand miles off. (Acheron)”

“Youth is the time when hearts are large,
And stirring wars
Appeal to the spirit which appeals in turn
To the blade it draws.”

“Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe.”

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.”

“When politicians start talking about large groups of their fellow Americans as 'enemies,' it's time for a quiet stir of alertness. Polarizing people is a good way to win an election, and also a good way to wreck a country.”