“She stood there, and at once I knew
The bitter thing that I must do.
There could be no surrender now;
Though Sleep and Death were whispering low.”
Source: Young Adventure (1918), The Quality of Courage
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Stephen Vincent Benét 102
poet, short story writer, novelist 1898–1943Related quotes

on his painting 'The sick Child'
As quoted in 'From my rotting body, flowers shall grow, and I am in them, and that is eternity', Potter P. Emerg Infect Dis, 2011
after 1930

“The worst thing about death is that you once were, and now you are not.”
O pior da morte é que antes estavas e agora não estás.
Interview, O Saramago que conheço http://www.portal730.com.br/wellington-borges/o-saramago-que-conheco, Portal 730, 2010.

But a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped to the rapture of living. Night fled before the day of thought, and love and joy and hope came up in a passion of obedience to knowledge. Can anyone who has escaped such captivity, who has felt the thrill and glory of freedom, be a pessimist?
Optimism (1903)

Song lyrics, Motherland (2001), The Worst Thing
Variant: once I came close to that most elusive fire
burning with hopeless love and desire
but it was just about the worst thing that I could do
it was just about the worst thing I could do