„Poetry is a purging of the world's poverty and change and evil and death. It is a present perfecting, a satisfaction in the irremediable poverty of life.“
— Wallace Stevens American poet 1879 - 1955
Opus Posthumous (1955), Adagia
Related quotes
„People say having kids is life changing, well that doesn't necessarily mean a good thing, does it? I could take one of my legs off. That would change my life.“
— Karl Pilkington English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer 1972
The Moaning of Life, Karl on Kids
„Scientists are an agnostic lot, of course—well, most educated people are, aren’t they?“
— Frederik Pohl American science fiction writer and editor 1919 - 2013
Waiting for the Olympians (p. 269)
„Life and death are balanced as it were on the edge of a razor.“
X. 173–174 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Iliad (c. 750 BC)
Original: (el) Ἐπὶ ξυροῦ ἵσταται ἀκμῆς
...ὄλεθρος...Ἀχαιοῖς ἠὲ βιῶναι.
„Life and death are balanced as it were on the edge of a razor.“
— Samuel Butler novelist 1835 - 1902
The Iliad of Homer, Rendered into English Prose (1898), Book X
„The noblest people are those despising wealth, learning, pleasure and life; esteeming above them poverty, ignorance, hardship and death.“
— Diogenes of Sinope ancient Greek philosopher, one of the founders of the Cynic philosophy -404 - -322 BC
Stobaeus, iv. 29a. 19
Quoted by Stobaeus
„Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work.“
— Beatrix Potter English children's writer and illustrator 1866 - 1943
„The world rolls round for ever like a mill;
It grinds out death and life and good and ill;
It has no purpose, heart or mind or will.“
— James Thomson (B.V.) Scottish writer (1834-1882) 1834 - 1882
Part VIII
The City of Dreadful Night (1870–74)
„Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life.“
— James Clavell, book Shōgun
Source: Shōgun (1975), Ch. 56
„Most people think it takes a long time to change. It doesn’t. Change is immediate! Instantaneous! It may take a long time to decide to change…but change happens in a heartbeat!“
— Andy Andrews author and corporate speaker 1959
Source: The Noticer: Sometimes, All a Person Needs Is a Little Perspective
„We can follow a steady upward course in a world of change without fear, welcoming opportunities“
— Henry B. Eyring American Mormon leader 1933
„Sometimes the most important changes start in small places. The tides of history can leave people in conflict and exile and poverty. It takes time for those circumstances to change. But the recognition of a common humanity, the reconciliation of people bound by blood and a belief in one another -- that’s where progress begins. Understanding, and listening, and forgiveness.“
— Barack Obama 44th President of the United States of America 1961
2016, Remarks to the People of Cuba (March 2016)
„People are the most difficult thing in the world to change“
— Gena Showalter American writer 1975
Source: Oh My Goth
„Philosophy takes it upon itself to throw off the fear of things earthly, to rob death of its poisonous sting.“
— Franz Rosenzweig Jewish theologian and philosopher 1886 - 1929
The Star of Redemption (1921), p. 3.
„A rising economic tide is bad for people who live off of the poverty of others.“
— Jonah Goldberg American political writer and pundit 1969
February 2001 http://web.archive.org/web/20010105/www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/jonah021501.asp
2000s, 2001
„The hard thing about death is that nothing ever changes. The hard thing about life is that nothing stays the same.“
— Sue Grafton American writer 1940 - 2017
Source: J is for Judgment
„There are some things that do not change. Where there are valuable goods, there will be thieves. Where there are thieves, there will be people who organize them—and take most of the profits.“
— Sarah Zettel American writer 1966
Source: Bitter Angels (2009), Chapter 19 (p. 245)