Willfulness Quotes (page 322)
Civilization, in fact, grows more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. Wars are no longer waged by the will of superior men, capable of judging dispassionately and intelligently the causes behind them and the effects flowing out of them. The are now begun by...
H. L. Mencken
The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud --- the obstacles of life and its suffering. ... The mud speaks of the common ground that humans share, no matter what our stations in life. ... Whether we have it all or we have nothing, we are all faced with the same obstacles: sadness, loss, illness, dying and death. If we are to strive as human beings to gain more wisdom,...
Goldie Hawn
Jesus never commanded believers to produce fruit. Fruit is the *purpose* of the branch, but it is not the *responsibility* of the branch. The branch cannot produce anything on it's own. However, if it remains attached to the vine, it will receive life-sustaining sap, nourishment, strength, everything it needs.
Charles R. Swindoll
The moose will perhaps one day become extinct; but how naturally then, when it exists only as a fossil relic, and unseen as that, may the poet or sculptor invent a fabulous animal with similar branching and leafy horns,? a sort of fucus or lichen in bone,? to be the inhabitant of such a forest as this!
Henry David Thoreau
Raise from your bed of languor. Raise from your bed of dismay. Your friends will not come tomorrow. As they did not come today. You must rely on yourself, they said, You must rely on yourself, Oh but I find this pill so bitter said the poor man. As he took it from the shelf. Crying, O sweet Death come to me. Come to me for company, Sweet Death it is only you I can. Constrain for company.
Stevie Smith
I thought of you and how you love this beauty, And walking up the long beach all alone. I heard the waves breaking in measured thunder. As you and I once heard their monotone. Around me were the echoing dunes, beyond me. The cold and sparkling silver of the sea --We two will pass through death and ages lengthen. Before you hear that sound again with me.
Sara Teasdale