“Unknown, Incomprehensible, whateíer you choose to call it, call;
But leave it vague as airy space, dark in its darkness mystical.”
The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî (1870)
Context: Grant an Idea, Primal Cause, the Causing Cause, why crave for more?
Why strive its depth and breadth to mete, to trace its work, its aid to íimplore?
Unknown, Incomprehensible, whateíer you choose to call it, call;
But leave it vague as airy space, dark in its darkness mystical.
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Richard Francis Burton 78
British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, … 1821–1890Related quotes
“This source is called darkness.
Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding.”
Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 1, as translated by J.H.McDonald (1996) http://www.wright-house.com/religions/taoism/tao-te-ching.html [Public domain translation]
Context: The tao that can be described
is not the eternal Tao.
The name that can be spoken
is not the eternal Name.
The nameless is the boundary of Heaven and Earth.
The named is the mother of creation.
Freed from desire, you can see the hidden mystery.
By having desire, you can only see what is visibly real.
Yet mystery and reality
emerge from the same source.
This source is called darkness.
Darkness born from darkness.
The beginning of all understanding.
"Sick Love," lines 10–12, from Poems 1929.
Poems
“We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life.”
The Saviors of God (1923)
Context: We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life. As soon as we are born the return begins, at once the setting forth and the coming back; we die in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of life is death! But as soon as we are born we begin the struggle to create, to compose, to turn matter into life; we are born in every moment. Because of this many have cried out: The goal of ephemeral life is immortality! In the temporary living organism these two streams collide … both opposing forces are holy. It is our duty, therefore, to grasp that vision which can embrace and harmonize these two enormous, timeless, and indestructible forces, and with this vision to modulate our thinking and our action.
“The love game is never called off on account of darkness.”
Source: Arbutus Yearbook, Indiana University., 1912, p. 249; Quoted in: Ralph Louis Woods (1967) The modern handbook of humor. p. 277.
Saddam Hussein Farewell Letter http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16368242/ (MSNBC online)
Statement in a farewell letter written to the Iraqi people, written Nov. 5, 2006, released Dec. 27, 2006.
Source: Station Eleven (2014), Chapter 23 (p. 139)