„The Men! O what venerable and reverend creatures did the aged seem! Immortal Cherubims! And young men glittering and sparkling Angels, and maids strange seraphic pieces of life and beauty! Boys and girls tumbling in the street, and playing, were moving jewels. I knew not that they were born or should die; But all things abided eternally as they were in their proper places.“
Third Century, sect. 3.
Centuries of Meditations
Thomas Traherne16
English poet 1636 - 1674Related quotes
„Our fathers did not say it, because they did not mean it. They were men who meant what they said, and who said what they meant, and meaning all men, they said all men. They were patriots asserting a principle and ready to die for it, not politicians pettifogging for the presidency“
— George William Curtis American writer 1824 - 1892
1850s, The Present Aspect of the Slavery Question (1859)
Context: The principle of our Revolution, as defined by its leaders with sublime simplicity, was, that as Liberty is a natural right of man, every man has consequent equal rights in society, subject indeed to limitation, but not to annihilation. 'But', cries Mister Douglas, in his Memphis speech last November. I quote his words,. It would have been very easy to say this. Our fathers did not say it, because they did not mean it. They were men who meant what they said, and who said what they meant, and meaning all men, they said all men. They were patriots asserting a principle and ready to die for it, not politicians pettifogging for the presidency.
„For us humanity was a distant goal toward which all men were moving, whose image no one knew, whose laws were nowhere written down.“
— David Zindell, book Neverness
Emil Sinclair
Neverness (1988)
„Why were the little girls all frightened
To be just what they are
The boys were told to ask themselves
How high how far
The girls were told to reach the shelves
While the boys were reaching stars
That's why little girls were frightened
To be just what they are.“
— Harry Chapin American musician 1942 - 1981
Why Do Little Girls?
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)
„Christianity was the temple that was to be eternal, and on it, as unconscious builders, men were laboring in all the ages from the creation.“
— Cyrus David Foss American bishop 1834 - 1910
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 132.
„I do not want to see that girl again:
I did not like her: and I should not mind
If she were done away with, killed, or ploughed.
She did not seem to serve a useful end :
And certainly she was not beautiful.“
— James Kenneth Stephen English poet, tutor to Prince Albert Victor 1859 - 1892
In the Backs.
„It was not until our rising that all the Greeks were brought into communication. There were men who knew of no place beyond a mile of their own locality.“
— Theodoros Kolokotronis Greek general 1770 - 1843
Theodoros Kolokotronis' memoirs (1846), quoted in: Jim Potts (2010) The Ionian Islands and Epirus: A Cultural History, p. 176
„Why did the little girls grow crippled
While the little boys grow strong
The boys allowed to come of age
The girls just came along
The girls were told sing harmonies
The boys could all sing songs
That's why little girls grew crippled
While little boys grew strong.“
— Harry Chapin American musician 1942 - 1981
Why Do Little Girls?
Song lyrics, Living Room Suite (1978)
„Venerable Svasti and the young buffalo boys were rivers that flowed from that source. Wherever the rivers flowed, the Buddha would be there.“
— Thich Nhat Hanh Religious leader and peace activist 1926
Old Path White Clouds : Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (1991) Parallax Press ISBN 81-216-0675-6
„You are a human boy, my young friend. A human boy. O glorious to be a human boy!… O running stream of sparkling joy To be a soaring human boy!“
— Charles Dickens, book Bleak House
Source: Bleak House (1852-1853), Ch. 19
„And among his hearers were a few good men,
Many who were evil,
And most who were neither,
Like all men in all places.“
— T.S. Eliot 20th century English author 1888 - 1965
Choruses from The Rock (1934)
Context: There came one who spoke of the shame of Jerusalem
And the holy places defiled;
Peter the Hermit, scourging with words.
And among his hearers were a few good men,
Many who were evil,
And most who were neither,
Like all men in all places.
„I do not know why it distressed me so much to see an animal die when human death did not move me. Perhaps because they were more beautiful, and there is no corruption in them, while in the best of men there can always be found some guilt or wickedness which seems to have earned him death.“
— Tanith Lee, book The Birthgrave
Book Two, Part IV “War March”, Chapter 3 (p. 246)
The Birthgrave (1975)
„Rouze up, O Young Men of the New Age!“
Ibid
Milton (c. 1809)
Context: Rouze up, O Young Men of the New Age! set your foreheads against the ignorant Hirelings! For we have Hirelings in the Camp, the Court & the University, who would, if they could, for ever depress Mental & prolong Corporeal War.
„Aristippus being asked what were the most necessary things for well-born boys to learn, said, "Those things which they will put in practice when they become men."“
— Diogenes Laërtius biographer of ancient Greek philosophers 180 - 240
Aristippus, 4.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers
„If men were angels, no government would be necessary.“
— James Madison 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817) 1751 - 1836
Federalist No. 51 (6 February 1788)
1780s, Federalist Papers (1787–1788)
Context: If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.
„I knew I was weird by the time I was four. I knew I wasn't like other boys. I knew I was more fearful. I didn't like the rough and tumble most boys were into. I knew I was a sissy.“
— Robert Crumb American cartoonist 1943
"Simon Hattenston talks to Robert Crumb" http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2005/mar/07/robertcrumb.comics, The Guardian, 7 March 2005.
„And when Dan'l Webster finished he didn't know whether or not he'd saved Jabez Stone. But he knew he'd done a miracle. For the glitter was gone from the eyes of the judge and jury, and, for the moment, they were men again, and knew they were men.“
— Stephen Vincent Benét, book The Devil and Daniel Webster
The Devil and Daniel Webster (1937)
Context: Then he turned to Jabez Stone and showed him as he was — an ordinary man who'd had hard luck and wanted to change it. And, because he'd wanted to change it, now he was going to be punished for all eternity. And yet there was good in Jabez Stone, and he showed that good. He was hard and mean, in some ways, but he was a man. There was sadness in being a man, but it was a proud thing too. And he showed what the pride of it was till you couldn't help feeling it. Yes, even in hell, if a man was a man, you'd know it. And he wasn't pleading for any one person any more, though his voice rang like an organ. He was telling the story and the failures and the endless journey of mankind. They got tricked and trapped and bamboozled, but it was a great journey. And no demon that was ever foaled could know the inwardness of it — it took a man to do that.
The fire began to die on the hearth and the wind before morning to blow. The light was getting gray in the room when Dan'l Webster finished. And his words came back at the end to New Hampshire ground, and the one spot of land that each man loves and clings to. He painted a picture of that, and to each one of that jury he spoke of things long forgotten. For his voice could search the heart, and that was his gift and his strength. And to one, his voice was like the forest and its secrecy, and to another like the sea and the storms of the sea; and one heard the cry of his lost nation in it, and another saw a little harmless scene he hadn't remembered for years. But each saw something. And when Dan'l Webster finished he didn't know whether or not he'd saved Jabez Stone. But he knew he'd done a miracle. For the glitter was gone from the eyes of the judge and jury, and, for the moment, they were men again, and knew they were men.
„I was not hostile to the white men. Sometimes my young men would attack the Indians who were their enemies and took their ponies. They did it in return.“
— Crazy Horse Oglala Sioux chief 1840 - 1877
As quoted in Literature of the American Indian (1973) by Thomas Edward Sanders and Walter W. Peek, p. 294
Context: My friend, I do not blame you for this. Had I listened to you this trouble would not have happened to me. I was not hostile to the white men. Sometimes my young men would attack the Indians who were their enemies and took their ponies. They did it in return. We had buffalo for food, and their hides for clothing and for our tepees. We preferred hunting to a life of idleness on the reservation, where we were driven against our will. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to leave the reservation to hunt. We preferred our own way of living. We were no expense to the government. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers were sent out in the winter, they destroyed our villages. The "Long Hair" [Custer] came in the same way. They say we massacred him, but he would have done the same thing to us had we not defended ourselves and fought to the last. Our first impulse was to escape with our squaws and papooses, but we were so hemmed in that we had to fight. After that I went up on the Tongue River with a few of my people and lived in peace. But the government would not let me alone. Finally, I came back to the Red Cloud Agency. Yet, I was not allowed to remain quiet. I was tired of fighting. I went to the Spotted Tail Agency and asked that chief and his agent to let me live there in peace. I came here with the agent [Lee] to talk with the Big White Chief but was not given a chance. They tried to confine me. I tried to escape, and a soldier ran his bayonet into me. I have spoken.
„Though he had never smelled the death of men before, he knew the smell as if it were a knowledge born into him.“
— Robert Olmstead American writer 1954
Coal Black Horse (2007)
„The young men were born with knives in their brain, a tendency to introversion, self-dissection, anatomizing of motives.“
— Ralph Waldo Emerson American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803 - 1882
1860s, Life and Letters in New England (1867)