“He wandered away, weeping, away from the farm and up to the rocks at the foot of the mountain, quite overpowered by the evil that seems so often to prevail in life and even to rule it. But what do you think he heard from the rocks at the foot of the mountain? Why, he heard the most delightful singing!”

— Halldór Laxness

excerpt from the mother's story in "Of Song"
Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People) (1935), Book One, Part II: Free of Debt

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Halldór Laxness 216

Icelandic author 1902–1998

Jeff Stilson American comedian

Comedy Central Presents Jeff Stilson (2003)

“THE fountain's low singing is heard on the wind,
Like a melody bringing sweet fancies to mind;
Some to grieve, some to gladden: around them they cast
The hopes of the morrow, the dreams of the past.
Away in the distance is heard the vast sound,
From the streets of the city that compass it round,
Like the echo of mountains, or ocean's deep call;
Yet that fountain's low singing is heard over all.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

The Middle Temple Gardens
The Vow of the Peacock (1835)

“I love the joy of mountains
Wandering free with no concerns
Every day I find food for this old body
There's leisure for thinking, nothing to do
Often I carry an ancient book
Sometimes I climb a rock pavilion
To look down a thousand foot precipice
Overhead are swirling clouds
A cold moon chilly cold
My body feels like a flying crane”

Han-shan Chinese monk and poet

Cold Mountain Transcendental Poetry

“A man sat on a rock and sought
Refreshment from his thumb;
A dinotherium wandered by
And scared him some.
His name was Smith. The kind of rock
He sat upon was shale.
One feature quite distinguished him—
He had a tail.”

David Law Proudfit (1842–1897) American writer

Prehistoric Smith, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“He went up on the mountain beside the giant stone
They knew he was insane so they left him alone
He'd given up enlisting help for there was no one else
He spent his days devising ways to stop the rock himself
One night while he was working building braces on the ledge
The ground began to rumble the rock trembled on the edge.”

Harry Chapin (1942–1981) American musician

The Rock
Song lyrics, Portrait Gallery (1975)

“So it was that Lone came to know himself; and like the handful of people who have done so before him he found, at this pinnacle, the rugged foot of a mountain.”

Theodore Sturgeon book More Than Human

Source: More Than Human (1953), Chapter 1, p. 60

“I’ve not done any of this for superstardom, quite the opposite. I threw away the rock star mantle. And for that, there’s resentment too: ‘How dare he, how dare he.’”

John Lydon (1956) English singer, songwriter, and musician

Interview with Los Angeles Times, 2015

“For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps, it was only an echo.”

Lois Lowry book The Giver

Source: The Giver

“I would hit you on the head with a rock and drag you away from this. But it would only shatter the rock.”

Jim Butcher Captain's Fury

Source: Captain's Fury

“Adieu to disappointment and spleen. What are men to rocks and mountains?”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Variant: What are men to rocks and mountains?
Source: Pride and Prejudice

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Halldór Laxness 216

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