“There Poetry shall tune her sacred voice,
And wake from ignorance the Western World.”

— Samuel Johnson

The Tragedy of Irene (1749), Act IV, Sc. 1

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Samuel Johnson 362

English writer 1709–1784

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“There will be no security in our world, no release from agonizing tension, no genuine progress, no enduring peace, until, in Shelley's fine words, "reason's voice, loud as the voice of nature, shall have waked the nations."”

Ralph Bunche (1904–1971) American diplomat

Some Reflections on Peace in Our Time (1950)

“Tell mankind Jehovah reigns;
He shall bind the world in chains,
So as it shall never slide,
And with sacred justice guide.
Let the smiling heavens rejoice,
Joyful earth exalt her voice;
Let the dancing billows roar,
Echoes answer from the shore,
Fields their flowery mantles shake;
All shall in their joy partake;
While the wood-musicians sing
To the ever-youthful spring.
Fill His courts with sacred mirth;
Lo! He comes to judge the earth:
Justly He the world shall sway,
And His truth to men display.”

Henry More (1614–1687) British philosopher

"A Hymn of Praise" (1668)

“Oh, if I had Orpheus' voice and poetry
with which to move the Dark Maid and her Lord,
I'd call you back, dear love, from the world below.”

Euripidés Alcestis

Source: Alcestis (438 BC), l. 358
Context: Oh, if I had Orpheus' voice and poetry
with which to move the Dark Maid and her Lord,
I'd call you back, dear love, from the world below.
I'd go down there for you. Charon or the grim
King's dog could not prevent me then
from carrying you up into the fields of light.

“Shall I now ask these palette-slaves what poetry means, and in how many forms it appears to us? They want to chain her [poetry], just as they are tied up themselves to their master's palette, [or] to some part of the sacred history.... to a folktale.... a miraculous landscape.... or other pompous imaginations.”

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek (1803–1862) painter from the Northern Netherlands

(original Dutch, citaat van B.C. Koekkoek:) Zal ik nu deze palet-slaven vragen, wat poezij is, en onder hoe vele vormen zij zich aan ons vertoont of voordoet? Zij willen haar gekluisterd hebben, evenals zij aan het palet van hun meester gebonden zijn, aan het een of andere gedeelte der gewijde geschiedenis.. ..aan ene volkslegende.. ..een wonder vreemd landschap.. ..en meer andere hoogdravende voorstellingen.
Koekkoek refers to the German painters who rejected the Dutch (often more realistic) landscape-painters, as 'non-poetic' artists]
Source: Herinneringen aan en Mededeelingen van…' (1841), p. 28