Hays translation
Suppose that men kill thee, cut thee in pieces, curse thee. What then can these things do to prevent thy mind from remaining pure, wise, sober, just? For instance, if a man should stand by a limpid pure spring, and curse it, the spring never ceases sending up potable water; and if he should cast clay into it or filth, it will speedily disperse them and wash them out, and will not be at all polluted. How then shalt thou possess a perpetual fountain? By forming thyself hourly to freedom conjoined with contentment, simplicity and modesty.
VIII, 51
Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VIII
“I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I sha’n’t be gone long.”
You come too.
"The Pasture", st. 1 (1914)
General sources
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Robert Frost 265
American poet 1874–1963Related quotes
" Autumn in King's Hintock Park http://www.naic.edu/~gibson/poems/hardy2.html" (1901), lines 1-6, from Time's Laughingstocks (1909)
“One does not throw out dirty water as long as one doesn't have any clean water.”
Statement about Hans Globke, as quoted in "In eigener Sache" at n-tv (8 June 2006) http://www.n-tv.de/politik/BND-ueberprueft-Eichmann-Infos-article184945.html
“I don’t stop when I’m tired. I only stop when I’m done…”
Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah and Insha Allah
A Picnic of Poems in Allah's Green Garden (2011)