“Without a name and nothing to be desired,
If only imagined but imagined well.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet
Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942), It Must Be Abstract
“Without a name and nothing to be desired,
If only imagined but imagined well.”
Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet
Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942), It Must Be Abstract
“Peace means nothing without freedom.”
Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer
Source: Kingdom of the Wicked
“Belief means nothing without actions”
Randa Abdel-Fattah (1979) contemporary Australian writer of novels for young adults
Source: Does My Head Look Big In This?
“Beware, lastly, of imagining you shall obtain the end without using the means conducive to it.”
John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian
Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm"
Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)
Context: Beware, lastly, of imagining you shall obtain the end without using the means conducive to it. God can give the end without any means at all; but you have no reason to think He will. Therefore constantly and carefully use all those means which He has appointed to be the ordinary channels of His grace. Use every means which either reason or Scripture recommends, as conducive (through the free love of God in Christ) either to the obtaining or increasing any of the gifts of God. Thus expect a daily growth in that pure and holy religion which the world always did, and always will, call “enthusiasm;” but which, to all who are saved from real enthusiasm, from merely nominal Christianity, is “the wisdom of God, and the power of God;” the glorious image of the Most High; “righteousness and peace;” a “fountain of living water, springing up into everlasting life!”
Amir Taheri (1942) Iranian journalist
When the Ayatollah Dictates Poetry http://www.aawsat.net/2015/07/article55344336/when-the-ayatollah-dictates-poetry, Ashraq Al-Awsat (Jul 11, 2015).
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
Last interview (1980)
Context: I’m 40, I wanna talk to the people my age. I’m happy if the young people like it, and I’m happy if the old people like it, I’m talkin’ to guys and gals that have been through what we went through, together — the sixties group that has survived. Survived the war, the drugs, the politics, the violence on the street – the whole she-bang – that we’ve survived it and we’re here. And I’m talkin’ to them. And the "Woman" song is to Yoko, but it’s to all women. And, because my role in society – or any artist or poet’s role – is to try to express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel, not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all. And it’s like that’s the job of the artist in society, not to... they’re not some alienated being living on the outskirts of town. It’s fine to live on the outskirts of town, but artists must reflect what we all are. That’s what it’s about – artists, or poets or whatever you wanna call it. And that’s what I’m tryin’ to express on behalf of all the men to all the women, through my own feelings about women – when it dawned on me, "God! It is the other half of the sky" as the late-great Chairman MacDougal said, right? I mean, they are the other half of the sky, and without them there is nothing. And without us there’s nothing. There’s only the two together creating children, creating society. So what’s all this B. S. about, you know, "women are this" and "men are that" – we’re all human, man. We’re all human. And, I am tryin’ to say it to Yoko, but to all women, you know? On behalf of all men, in a way. If that’s taken it too much on meself, I feel that artists are that – they’re reflections of society... Mirrors.
Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) Austrian writer
Confusion of Feelings or Confusion: The Private Papers of Privy Councillor R. Von D (1927)