
Source: The Riverworld series, To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971), Chapter 1 (p. 4)
Source: Selected Essays (1904), "Priest and Prophet" (1893), p. 133
Source: The Riverworld series, To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971), Chapter 1 (p. 4)
Örn Úlfar
Heimsljós (World Light) (1940), Book Two: The Palace of the Summerland
The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Weight Of Authority
Context: In regard, then, to the sacred tradition of humanity, we learn that it consists, not in propositions or statements which are to be accepted and believed on the authority of the tradition, but in questions rightly asked, in conceptions which enable us to ask further questions, and in methods of answering questions. The value of all these things depends on their being tested day by day. The very sacredness of the precious deposit imposes upon us the duty and the responsibility of testing it, of purifying and enlarging it to the utmost of our power. He who makes use of its results to stifle his own doubts, or to hamper the inquiry of others, is guilty of a sacrilege which centuries shall never be able to blot out. When the labours and questionings of honest and brave men shall have built up the fabric of known truth to a glory which we in this generation can neither hope for nor imagine, in that pure and holy temple he shall have no part nor lot, but his name and his works shall be cast out into the darkness of oblivion for ever.
(from To Walk a Lifetime in Michael Jackson’s Moccasins).
From Articles, Essays, and Poems, On Michael Jackson
An Intimate History of Humanity (1994)
Context: Even Gandhi, with all his charisma, did not "melt the hearts" of his oppressors, as he had hoped. After softening, hearts harden again. Asoka too was wrong to think that he was changing the course of history, and that his righteousness would last "as long as the sun and the moon."
"Boadicea" (1782).
Context: "Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway;
Where his eagles never flew,
None invincible as they."Such the bard's prophetic words, Pregnant with celestial fire, Bending as he swept the chords Of his sweet but awful lyre.
“The Son of the widow
You raised from the dead…
Where did His soul go
When He died again?”
Son of a Widow, the final lines of the album.
Catch For Us The Foxes (2004)