“Of nothing comes nothing: springs rise not above
Their source in the far-hidden heart of the mountains:
Whence then have descended the Wisdom and Love
That in man leap to light in intelligent fountains?”

—  John Townsend Trowbridge

The missing Leaf.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Of nothing comes nothing: springs rise not above Their source in the far-hidden heart of the mountains: Whence then h…" by John Townsend Trowbridge?
John Townsend Trowbridge photo
John Townsend Trowbridge 11
American author 1827–1916

Related quotes

Dan Brown photo

“Nothing is hidden that will not be made known; nothing is secret that will not come to light.”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

Philip José Farmer photo

“We hope to breed a race of men whose power
Dwells in hearts as open as all Space
Itself, who ask for nothing but the light
That rinses the heart of hate so that the stars
Above will be below when man has Love.”

Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) American science fiction writer

Sestina of the Space Rocket (1953)
Context: Yes, we hope to seed a new, rich earth.
We hope to breed a race of men whose power
Dwells in hearts as open as all Space
Itself, who ask for nothing but the light
That rinses the heart of hate so that the stars
Above will be below when man has Love.

Henryk Sienkiewicz photo

“But I think happiness springs from another source, a far deeper one that doesn't depend on will because it comes from love.”

Henryk Sienkiewicz book Quo Vadis

Source: Quo Vadis

Tom Stoppard photo

“I shall have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love, love, love, above all. Love as there has never been in a play. Unbiddable, ungovernable, like a riot in the heart and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture.”

Tom Stoppard (1937) British playwright
Raymond Queneau photo

“Being or nothing, that is the question. Ascending, descending, coming, going, a man does so much that in the end he disappears.”

Raymond Queneau book Zazie in the Metro

Source: Zazie in the Metro

Wang Wei photo

“In the mountains a night of rain,
And above the trees a hundred springs.”

Wang Wei (699–759) a Tang dynasty Chinese poet, musician, painter, and statesman

As quoted in Lin Yutang's My Country and My People (1936), p. 247

John Ruysbroeck photo

“Here comes Jesus, and sees the man, and shows to him, in the light of faith, that He is according to His Godhead immeasurable and incomprehensible and inaccessible and abysmal, transcending every created light and every finite conception. And this is the highest knowledge of God which any man may have in the active life: that he should confess in this light of faith that God is incomprehensible and unknowable. And in this light Christ says to man’s desire: Make haste and come down, for to-day I must abide at thy house. This hasty descent, to which he is summoned by God, is nothing else than a descent through desire and through love into the abyss of the Godhead, which no intelligence can reach in the created light. But where intelligence remains without, desire and love go in. When the soul is thus stretched towards God, by intention and by love, above everything that it can understand, then it rests and dwells in God, and God in it. When the soul climbs with desire above the multiplicity of creatures, and above the works of the senses, and above the light of nature, then it meets Christ in the light of faith, and becomes enlightened, and confesses that God is unknowable and incomprehensible. When it stretches itself with longing towards this incomprehensible God, then it meets Christ, and is filled with His gifts. And when it loves and rests above all gifts, and above itself, and above all creatures, then it dwells in God, and God dwells in it.”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

From Evelyn Underhill, http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/asm/index.htm Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage
The Spiritual Espousals (c. 1340)

Socrates photo

“One thing I know, that I know nothing. This is the source of my wisdom.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin photo

“A breeze passes in the night. When did it spring up? Whence does it come? Whither is it going? No man knows.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

The Divine Milieu, p. 128
The Divine Milieu (1960)

Joel Barlow photo

“Of these no more. From Orders, Slaves and Kings,
To thee, O Man, my heart rebounding springs.
Behold th' ascending bliss that waits your call,
Heav'n's own bequest, the heritage of all.
Awake to wisdom, seize the proffer'd prize;
From shade to light, from grief to glory rise.”

Joel Barlow (1754–1812) American diplomat

The Conspiracy of Kings (1792)
Context: Of these no more. From Orders, Slaves and Kings,
To thee, O Man, my heart rebounding springs.
Behold th' ascending bliss that waits your call,
Heav'n's own bequest, the heritage of all.
Awake to wisdom, seize the proffer'd prize;
From shade to light, from grief to glory rise.
Freedom at last, with Reason in her train,
Extends o'er earth her everlasting reign…

Related topics