“One candle is enough. Its gentle light
will be more suitable, will be more gracious
when the Shades arrive, the Shades of Love.”

—  Constantine P. Cavafy

To Call Up the Shades http://www.cavafy.com/poems/content.asp?id=17&cat=1
Collected Poems (1992)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "One candle is enough. Its gentle light will be more suitable, will be more gracious when the Shades arrive, the Shade…" by Constantine P. Cavafy?
Constantine P. Cavafy photo
Constantine P. Cavafy 62
Greek poet 1863–1933

Related quotes

Paul Valéry photo

“What is there more mysterious than clarity?… What more capricious than the way in which light and shade are distributed over hours and over men?”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Socrates, p. 107. Ellipsis in original.
Eupalinos ou l'architecte (1921)

Gwendolyn Brooks photo

“Is earnest enough, may earnest attract or lead to light;
Is light enough, if hands in clumsy frenzy, flimsy whimsically, enlist;
Is light enough when this bewilderment crying against the dark shuts down the shades?
Dilute confusion. Find and explode our mist.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

"garbageman: the man with the orderly mind"

Leonardo Da Vinci photo

“Light is the chaser away of darkness. Shade is the obstruction of light.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), III Six books on Light and Shade
Context: Light is the chaser away of darkness. Shade is the obstruction of light. Primary light is that which falls on objects and causes light and shade. And derived lights are those portions of a body which are illuminated by the primary light. A primary shadow is that side of a body on which the light cannot fall.

Ludovico Ariosto photo

“For hopeless love is but a dream and shade.”

Ludovico Ariosto book Orlando Furioso

Che l'amar senza speme è sogno e ciancia.
Canto XXV, stanza 49 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel photo

“The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel book Elements of the Philosophy of Right

Preface xxx
Variant: When philosophy paints its grey on grey, then has a shape of life grown old. By philosophy's grey on grey it cannot be rejuvenated but only understood. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.
As translated by T. M. Knox, (1952) <!-- p. 13 -->
Source: Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820/1821)
Context: Only one word more concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late. Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready. History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom. When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. The owl of Minerva takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering.

Shivaji photo

“Next, the Emperor Nuruddin Jahangir for 22 years spread his gracious shade on the head of the world and its dwellers, gave his heart to his friends and his hand to his work, and gained his desires. The Emperor Shah Jahan for 32 years cast his blessed shade on the head of the world and gathered the fruit of eternal life,—...”

Shivaji (1627–1680) founder of Maratha Empire

....
Letter to Aurangzeb

Robert Hall photo

“The friendship of high and sanctified spirits loses nothing by death but its alloy; failings disappear, and the virtues of those whose faces we shall behold no more appear greater and more sacred when beheld through the shades of the sepulchre.”

Robert Hall (1764–1831) British Baptist pastor

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 254.

Thomas Tickell photo

“Nor e'er was to the bowers of bliss conveyed
A fairer spirit or more welcome shade.”

Thomas Tickell (1685–1740) English poet and man of letters

On the Death of Mr. Addison (1721), line 45.

Dante Alighieri photo

“Love and the gracious heart are a single thing…
one can no more be without the other
than the reasoning mind without its reason.”

Dante Alighieri book Vita Nuova

Amore e 'l cor gentil sono una cosa...
e così esser l'un sanza l'altro osa
com'alma razional sanza ragione.
Source: La Vita Nuova (1293), Chapter XVI (tr. Mark Musa)

Related topics