But at my back I always hearTime’s wingèd chariot hurrying near;And yonder all before us lieDeserts of vast eternity… Let us roll all our strength and allOur sweetness up into one ball,And tear our pleasures with rough strifeThrough the iron gates of life:Thus, though we cannot make our sunStand still, yet we will make him…
“The world always seems brighter when you’ve just made something that wasn’t there before.” Neil Gaiman This rather cheery quote by Gaiman prompts a challenge of sorts from me. For making something isn’t what makes the world brighter, making something you care about making is what brightens the world. For in the making of something…
“Man, like a bridge, was designed to carry the load of the moment , not the combined weight of a year all at once.” – William A. Ward I’m not going to run a postscript on what happened over the last year – plenty of people have already written about that. A year ago we…
“A stone, because of its makeup, will return to earth if you throw it up in the air. Likewise, the more one pushes the intelligent person away from the life he was born for, the more he inclines towards it.” – Musonius Rufus What of our makeup? Are we drawn towards our inclinations, like gravity…
“In this symposium my part is only to sit in silence. To express one’s feelings as the end draws near is too intimate a task. But one thought that comes to me as a listener-in. The riders in the race do not stop short when they reach the goal. There is a little finishing canter…
“Do not think that what is hard for you to master is humanly impossible; and if it is humanly possible, consider it to be within your reach.” – Marcus Aurelius Some days, when generally tapped out and the mind empty of original thought, I return to stoicism for a reset. I’m generally amazed at how…
“How quietly Ibegin again from this momentlooking at the clock, I start over So much time haspassed, and is equaledby whateversplit-second is present from thismoment this momentis the first”– Wendell Berry, Be Still In Haste Two weeks into the New Year. About as distracting a beginning to a New Year as I can ever recall….
“What is the state of things, then? It is this: I do not regard a man as poor, if the little which remains is enough for him. I advise you, however, to keep what is really yours; and you cannot begin too early. For, as our ancestors believed, it is too late to spare when…
“If by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose: The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone.” – John McPhee Now and then I re-read that quote to shake myself out of my own head. The implications of that McPhee sentence are profound…
“I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colours richer, and it is tinged a little with sorrow and a premonition of death. Its golden richness speaks not of…
