Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) I exist as I am, that is enough. If no other in the world be aware I sit content, and if each and all be aware I sit content... I am larger, better than I thought; I did not know I held so much goodness. All …
Seneca On Time
Seneca (c. 4 BC – AD 65) Set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands… Certain moments are torn from us… some are gently removed… others glide beyond our reach. The most disgraceful …
Duke Ellington On Jazz And Freedom
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) Jazz is a good barometer of freedom. In its beginnings, the United States spawned certain ideals of freedom and independence through which, eventually, jazz was evolved, and the music is so free, that many people say it is the only unhampered, unhindered expression of …
Yehuda Amichai On Poets
Yehuda Amichai (May 03, 1924 – September 22, 2000) I think when you’re a poet you have to forget you’re a poet — a real poet doesn’t draw attention to the fact he’s a poet. The reason a poet is a poet is to write poems, not to advertise himself as a poet.
Bruce Lee On Simplicity
Bruce Lee (November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) It is not daily increase but daily decrease; hack away the unessential.
May Sarton On Rinsing The Eye
May Sarton pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995) Between me and everything I see. The glass is pain. How to slide it away, Unblur my vision? “We must rinse the eye,” My old friend, the poet, Used to say. But that was in Belgium Many years ago. Raymond …
Karen Armstrong On Compassion
Karen Armstrong (November 14, 1944 -) Compassion... asks us to look into our own hearts, discover what gives us pain, and then refuse, under any circumstance whatsoever, to inflict that pain on anybody else.
