“How great is the difference between The hidden child and the secret friend! For the friend makes only loving, Living but measured ascents toward God. But the child presses on to lose its own life upon the summits, in that simplicity which knoweth not itself.”
Evelyn Underhill Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man's Spiritual Consciousness (1912), p. 433
The Sparkling Stone (c. 1340)
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John Ruysbroeck 90
Flemish mystic 1293–1381Related quotes
“Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.”
Variant: The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.
Source: The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School
Source: The Valkyries (1992), p.132.
Context: The parents always insisted on telling their child that their secret friends didn't exist — perhaps because they had forgotten that they too had spoken to their angel at one time. Or, who knows, perhaps they thought they lived in a world where there was no longer any place for angels. Disenchanted, the angels had returned to God's side, knowing that they could no longer impose their presence.
The Kate Bush Story (2014)
Context: The Man with the Child in His Eyes is still one of those things, which right from the get-go … has its own life, because it's just a great song. … For all the time that she or I or anyone spend decorating and creating moods, its actually the key element of what your saying, the melody and the chords which still speak louder than all the stuff around, on a great song.
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 529.
Appreciations and Criticisms of the Works of Charles Dickens Chapter III "Pickwick Papers" (1911)