“And what he fears he cannot make attractive with his touch he abandons.”
Et quae
Desperat tractata nitescere posse relinquit.
Source: Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (c. 18 BC), Line 149 (tr. H. R. Fairclough)
My Reviewers Reviewed (lecture from June 27, 1877, San Francisco, CA)
Context: The brave men of the past endured the instruments of torture. They were stretched upon racks; their feet were crushed in iron boots; they stood upon the shores of exile and gazed with tearful eyes toward home and native land. They were taken from their firesides, from their wives, from their children; they were taken to the public square; they were chained to stakes, and their ashes were scattered by the countless hands of hatred. I am satisfied. The disciples of fear cannot touch me.
“And what he fears he cannot make attractive with his touch he abandons.”
Et quae
Desperat tractata nitescere posse relinquit.
Source: Ars Poetica, or The Epistle to the Pisones (c. 18 BC), Line 149 (tr. H. R. Fairclough)
“This man belongs to me now! You cannot touch him!”
Eagle Woman (1820–1888) American peace activist (born 1820, near Big Bend of the Missouri River [in what is now South Dakota], U.S.…
To a raiding band, after protecting an ambushed white soldier with her shawl, as quoted in Eagle Woman Who All Look At, 2010, South Dakota Hall of Fame – Champions of Excellence, 2019-08-15 http://sdexcellence.org/Eagle_Woman_Who_All_Look_At_2010,<br><br>Alternatively, "This Man belongs to me now! You cannot mutilate him nor touch him!" as quoted in [Joseph Agonito, Brave Hearts: Indian Women of the Plains, https://books.google.com/books?id=QZ7RDAAAQBAJ, 1 October 2016, TwoDot, 978-1-4930-1906-9]
“Fear is inevitable, I have to accept that, but I cannot allow it to paralyze me.”
Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer
Source: The Sum of Our Days: A Memoir
Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet
Ibid., p. 100
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Entre mim e a vida há um vidro ténue. por mais nitidamente que eu veja e compreenda a vida, eu não lhe posso tocar.
Fernand Léger (1881–1955) French painter
quote, 1945
Quote, 1945 of Fernand Leger, in Abstract Painting, Michel Seuphor, Dell Publishing Co., 1964, p. 33
Quotes of Fernand Leger, 1940's
Stephen Levine (1937–2016) American poet and author
“That which we fear to touch is often the very fabric of our salvation.”
Don DeLillo book Libra
Variant: What we are reluctant to touch often seems the very fabric of our salvation.
Source: Libra
“Ripples on a pond cannot touch a bird hovering above it.”
John C. Wright (1961) American novelist and technical writer
Source: Titans of Chaos (2007), Chapter 18, “Dream Storm” Section 14 (p. 250)