“The world is dark around us and the prospect seems deepening in gloom. and yet there is light ahead.”
Founding Address (1876)
Context: The world is dark around us and the prospect seems deepening in gloom. and yet there is light ahead. On the volume of the past in starry characters it is written — the starry legend greets us shining through the misty vistas of the future — that the great and noble shall not perish from among the sons of men, that the truth will triumph in the end, and that even the humblest of her servants may in this become the instrument of unending good. We are aiding in laying the foundations of a mighty edifice, whose completion shall not be seen in our day, no, nor in centuries upon centuries after us. But happy are we, indeed, if we can contribute even the least towards so high a consummation. The time calls for action. Up, then, and let us do our part faithfully and well. And oh, friends, our children's children will hold our memories dearer for the work which we begin this hour.
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Felix Adler 99
German American professor of political and social ethics, r… 1851–1933Related quotes
“And yet, through the gloom and the light,
The fate of a nation was riding that night.”
Pt. I, The Landlord's Tale: Paul Revere's Ride, st. 8.
Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863-1874)
Preface
His Master's Voice (1968)
Context: Clarity of thought is a shining point in a vast expanse of unrelieved darkness. Genius is not so much a light as it is a constant awareness of the surrounding gloom, and its typical cowardice is to bathe in its own glow and avoid, as much as possible, looking out beyond its boundary. No matter how much genuine strength it may contain, there is also, inevitably, a considerable part that is only the pretense of that strength.
Source: The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror
“maybe death
isn't darkness, after all,
but so much light
wrapping itself around us”
Source: Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays
Section 4.22 <!-- p. 246 -->
The Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet (1972)
Context: Gregory of Nyssa points out that Moses's vision of God began with the light, with the visible burning bush, the bush which was bright with fire and was not consumed; but afterwards, God spoke to him in a cloud. After the glory which could be seen with human eyes, he began to see the glory which is beyond and after light.
The shadows are deepening all around us. Now is the time when we must begin to see our world and ourselves in a different way.
By Still Waters (1906)
“Surrounded by darkness yet enfolded in light”
Source: Moloka'i