
"No Self Surrender"
What Buddhists Believe (1993)
"No Self Surrender"
What Buddhists Believe (1993)
Letter to James Hessey (October 9, 1818)
Letters (1817–1820)
Context: I have written independently without Judgment. I may write independently, and with Judgment, hereafter. The Genius of Poetry must work out its own salvation in a man: It cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself — That which is creative must create itself — In Endymion, I leaped headlong into the sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the Soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a, silly pipe, and took tea and comfortable advice. I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 127.
“Work out your own damnation,” he said breathlessly, “in fear and trembling.”
Source: Down and Out in Purgatory (2016), p. 114 (parodying Philippians 2.12) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians+2%3A12&version=KJV
“Do your own thing, be your own king, that’s my philosophy. Lead or get out of the way.”
Nine Kinds of Naked (2008)
1920s, Second State of the Union Address (1924)
Source: One Door Away from Heaven (2001), chapter 73, pp. 604, 605
Context: What will you find behind the door that is one door away from Heaven? […] If your heart is closed, then you will find behind that door nothing to light your way. But if your heart is open, you will find behind that door people who, like you, are searching, and you will find the right door together with them. None of us can ever save himself; we are the instruments of one another's salvation, and only by the hope that we give to others do we lift ourselves out of the darkness into light.