“Take the joy and bear the sorrow,
looking past your hopes and fears:
learn to recognize the measured
dance that orders all our years.”

—  Archilochus

Fragment 67

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 29, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Take the joy and bear the sorrow, looking past your hopes and fears: learn to recognize the measured dance that orde…" by Archilochus?
Archilochus photo
Archilochus 19
Ancient Greek lyric poet -680–-645 BC

Related quotes

David Hume photo

“A propensity to hope and joy is real riches: One to fear and sorrow, real poverty.”

Part I, Essay 18: The Sceptic
Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary (1741-2; 1748)

Archilochus photo

“Keep some measure in the joy you take in luck, and the degree you
give way to sorrow.”

Archilochus (-680–-645 BC) Ancient Greek lyric poet

Fragment 67, as translated by R. Lattimore http://www.rhapsodes.fll.vt.edu/arkhilokhos67.htm
Variant translations:
Soul, my soul, don't let them break you,
all these troubles. Never yield:
though their force is overwhelming,
up! attack them shield to shield...
"Archilochos: To His Soul" : A fragment http://web.archive.org/20030629194753/geocities.com/joncpoetics/translations/Archsoul.htm as translated from the Greek by Jon Corelis http://web.archive.org/20030805055937/www.geocities.com/joncpoetics/
Take the joy and bear the sorrow,
looking past your hopes and fears:
learn to recognize the measured
dance that orders all our years.
"Archilochos: To His Soul" : A fragment, as translated from the Greek by Jon Corelis
Fragments
Context: Heart, my heart, so battered with misfortune far beyond your strength,
up, and face the men who hate us. Bare your chest to the assault
of the enemy, and fight them off. Stand fast among the beamlike spears.
Give no ground; and if you beat them, do not brag in open show,
nor, if they beat you, run home and lie down on your bed and cry.
Keep some measure in the joy you take in luck, and the degree you
give way to sorrow. All our life is up-and-down like this.

Meister Eckhart photo

“Love is the root of all joy and sorrow. Slavish fear of God is to be put away. The right fear is the fear of losing God.”

Meister Eckhart (1260–1328) German theologian

Sermon III : The Angel's Greeting
Meister Eckhart’s Sermons (1909)
Context: When man humbles himself, God cannot restrain His mercy; He must come down and pour His grace into the humble man, and He gives Himself most of all, and all at once, to the least of all. It is essential to God to give, for His essence is His goodness and His goodness is His love. Love is the root of all joy and sorrow. Slavish fear of God is to be put away. The right fear is the fear of losing God. If the earth flee downward from heaven, it finds heaven beneath it; if it flee upward, it comes again to heaven. The earth cannot flee from heaven: whether it flee up or down, the heaven rains its influence upon it, and stamps its impress upon it, and makes it fruitful, whether it be willing or not. Thus doth God with men: whoever thinketh to escape Him, flies into His bosom, for every corner is open to Him. God brings forth His Son in thee, whether thou likest it or not, whether thou sleepest or wakest; God worketh His own will. That man is unaware of it, is man's fault, for his taste is so spoilt by feeding on earthly things that he cannot relish God's love. If we had love to God, we should relish God, and all His works; we should receive all things from God, and work the same works as He worketh.

John Dewey photo
Robert Browning photo
Honoré de Balzac photo

“Excess of joy is harder to bear than any amount of sorrow.”

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) French writer

On porte encore moins facilement la joie excessive que la peine la plus lourde.
Part II, ch. L
Letters of Two Brides (1841-1842)

Cassandra Clare photo
David Bowie photo

“Let's dance for fear your grace should fall
Let's dance for fear tonight is all”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Let's Dance
Song lyrics, Let's Dance (1983)

Jiddu Krishnamurti photo

“The understanding of relationship, fear, pleasure and sorrow is to bring order in our house. Without order you cannot possibly meditate.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

The Network of Thought (1982) http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=8&chid=56898 J.Krishnamurti Online. Serial No. 332. , p. 96
1980s
Context: The understanding of relationship, fear, pleasure and sorrow is to bring order in our house. Without order you cannot possibly meditate. Now the speaker puts meditation at the end of the talks because there is no possibility of right meditation if you have not put your house, your psychological house, in order. If the psychological house is in disorder, if what you are is in disorder, what is the point of meditating? It is just an escape. It leads to all kinds of illusions.

Related topics