
1827 journal entry reproduced in Emerson: The Mind on Fire (1995), p. 82
Source: The Book of Tea
1827 journal entry reproduced in Emerson: The Mind on Fire (1995), p. 82
Variant: We never sit anything out. We are cups, quietly and constantly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
Source: Zen in the Art of Writing (1990) <!-- page 120 of the mass market paperback edition -->
Context: From now on I hope always to educate myself as best I can. But lacking this, in future I will relaxedly turn back to my secret mind to see what it has observed when I thought I was sitting this one out. We never sit anything out. We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.
Chimeras of Experience: A Conversation with Jonah Lehrer (2009)
Petronius, Ch. 72
Quo Vadis (1895)
Context: No God has promised me immortality; hence no surprise meets me. At the same time thou art mistaken, Vinicius, in asserting that only thy God teaches man to die calmly. No. Our world knew, before thou wert born, that when the last cup was drained, it was time to go, — time to rest, — and it knows yet how to do that with calmness. Plato declares that virtue is music, that the life of a sage is harmony. If that be true, I shall die as I have lived, — virtuously.
Source: Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 373.