Michael Moorcock book The City in the Autumn Stars
Source: The City in the Autumn Stars (1986), Chapter 14 (p. 376)
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 211.
Michael Moorcock book The City in the Autumn Stars
Source: The City in the Autumn Stars (1986), Chapter 14 (p. 376)
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America
1961, UN speech
Context: Ladies and gentlemen of this Assembly, the decision is ours. Never have the nations of the world had so much to lose, or so much to gain. Together we shall save our planet, or together we shall perish in its flames. Save it we can — and save it we must — and then shall we earn the eternal thanks of mankind and, as peacemakers, the eternal blessing of God.
François Fénelon (1651–1715) Catholic bishop
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 542.
Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) prominent Canadian psychiatrist in the late 19th century
First Words
Cosmic Consciousness (1901)
Context: Cosmic Consciousness … is a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary man. This last is called Self Consciousness and is that faculty upon which rests all of our life (both subjective and objective) which is not common to us and the higher animals, except that small part of it which is derived from the few individuals who have had the higher consciousness above named. To make the matter clear it must be understood that there are three forms or grades of consciousness. (1) Simple Consciousness, which is possessed by say the upper half of the animal kingdom. By means of this faculty a dog or a horse is just as conscious of the things about him as a man is; he is also conscious of his own limbs and body and he knows that these are a part of himself. (2) Over and above this Simple Consciousness, which is possessed by man as by animals, man has another which is called Self Consciousness. By virtue of this faculty man is not only conscious of trees, rocks, waters, his own limbs and body, but he becomes conscious of himself as a distinct entity apart from all the rest of the universe. It is as good as certain that no animal can realize himself in that way. … The animal is, as it were, immersed in his consciousness as a fish in the sea, he cannot, even in imagination, get outside of it for one moment so as to realize it. … Cosmic Consciousness is a third form which is as far above Self Consciousness as is that above Simple Consciousness. With this form, of course, both simple and self consciousness persist (as simple consciousness persists when self consciousness is acquired), but added to them is the new faculty … The prime characteristic of cosmic consciousness is, as its name implies, a consciousness of the cosmos, that is, of the life and order of the universe … Along with the consciousness of the cosmos there occurs an intellectual enlightenment or illumination which alone would place the individual on a new plane of existence — would make him almost a member of a new species. To this is added a state of moral exaltation, an indescribable feeling of elevation, elation and joyousness, and a quickening of the moral sense, which is fully as striking and more important both to the individual and to the race than is the enhanced intellectual power. With these come, what may be called, a sense of immortality, a consciousness of eternal life, not a conviction that he shall have this, but the consciousness that he has it already.
James Hudson Taylor A Retrospect
(J. Hudson Taylor. A Retrospect. Philadelphia: China Inland Mission, n.d., 20).
“One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.”
John Donne book Holy Sonnets
No. 10, line 13
Holy Sonnets (1633)
Arthur Kenney (1776–1855) Irish dean
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 395.
“The starlight of heaven above us shall quiver
As our souls flow in one down eternity’s river.”
Thomas Osborne Davis (Irish politician) (1814–1845) Irish writer and activist
The Welcome.
Henry Melvill (1798–1871) British academic
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 231.