“Your face is neither infinite nor ephemeral.
You can never see your own face,
only a reflection, not the face itself.”
"Looking For Your Own Face" as translated by Coleman Barks in The Hand of Poetry: Five Mystic Poets of Persia
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Attar of Nishapur 18
Persian Sufi poet 1145–1230Related quotes
Yes, he thought, the good face pain. But the great—they embrace it.
Aftermaths (p. 253)
Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986)
“Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.”
Variant: Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. It's what the sunflowers do.
Four Minute Essays Vol. 5 (1919), The Human Heart
2000s
Source: [Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message, 2002, 9780849943270, 90]
Source: Until I Find You
Come Follow To You, Vol. 2, Chapter 4; in Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic (2000), Part 2.
The She-Ancient, in Pt. V
Source: 1920s, Back to Methuselah (1921)
Context: Art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul. But we who are older use neither glass mirrors nor works of art. We have a direct sense of life. When you gain that you will put aside your mirrors and statues, your toys and your dolls.
Thus spoke Jesus, and unto all the kingdoms of the earth I was blinded, and unto all the cities of walls and towers; and it was in my heart to follow the Master to His kingdom.
James The Son Of Zebedee: On The Kingdoms Of The World
Jesus, The Son of Man (1928)