Post your favourite quote or poem!

[Ellethwyn]

One of my favorite poets is Emily Dickinson.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me.



A Light exists in Spring

A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period —
When March is scarcely here

A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.

It waits upon the Lawn,
It shows the furthest Tree
Upon the furthest Slope you know
It almost speaks to you.

Then as Horizons step
Or Noons report away
Without the Formula of sound
It passes and we stay —

A quality of loss
Affecting our Content
As Trade had suddenly encroached
Upon a Sacrament.



Because I could not stop for Death

Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.

[Mortimer]

Eat my shorts ... - Bart Simpson

[Celestia]

It’s a bit cliche but one of my favorite poems (since I was a kid) is Nothing gold can stay by Robert Frost.

[gixajo]

3 different poems in 3 different languages I like. (I don´t know if the most I like, but I like them).

In Spanish.

It's quite long, so I'll only post the first three verses.

Spoiler!

Coplas a la muerte de su padre- Jorge Manrique (1440-1479)

Recuerde el alma dormida,
avive el seso y despierte,
contemplando
cómo se passa la vida,
cómo se viene la muerte
tan callando;
cuán presto se va el plazer,
cómo después, de acordado,
da dolor;
cómo, a nuestro parescer,
cualquiera tiempo passado
fue mejor.

Y pues vemos lo presente
cómo en un punto s’es ido
y acabado,
si juzgamos sabiamente,
daremos lo no venido
por passado.
No se engañe nadie, no,
pensando que ha de durar
lo que espera,
más que duró lo que vio,
porque todo ha de passar
por tal manera.

Nuestras vidas son los ríos
que van a dar en la mar
que es el morir;
allí van los señoríos
derechos a se acabar
y consumir;
allí los ríos caudales,
allí los otros, medianos
y más chicos,
allegados son iguales
los que viven por sus manos
y los ricos.

In English.

Spoiler!

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.

And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

In French.

Spoiler!

Chanson d’automne
Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)

Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon coeur
D’une langueur
Monotone.

Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l’heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure

Et je m’en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m’emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.

[lei.talk]

en knivlös man är en livlös man

[Plutarch]

These are from my notes of Plutarch’s essay On Contentment, which I read a little while ago. I suppose, from a modern perspective, something of a self-help book (except, it directs you to goodness, not selfishness or manipulation).

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/279462.Essays

https://b-ok.cc/book/2957381/70db02

The importance of activity for contentment

Spoiler!

Inertia is in fact no good as a treatment for a body suffering from numbness and, as psychiatry, it is equally ineffective to try to remove agitation and distress from the mind by means of laziness, weakness and betrayal of friends, household and country.

The importance of good actions

Spoiler!

Contentment and discontent should be defined not by the frequency or rarity of one’s actions, but by their goodness or badness: the omission of good deeds is . . . just as annoying and disturbing as the commission of bad deeds.

The importance of engendering of rationality within us for satisfaction

Spoiler!

Consider people who are scared of sailing or who get seasick: they imagine that the voyage will pass more easily if they exchange a skiff for a merchant ship, and then the merchant ship for a trireme; but this gets them nowhere, because they take their sickness and fears with them. This is an analogy for exchanging one way of life for another; it does not eradicate from the mind the factors which make it distressed and disturbed, which are unworldliness, lack of discrimination and not being able, or not knowing how, to make proper use of one’s present circumstances.

Spoiler!

It is the shoe that bends along with the foot, not the other way around; and likewise, an implication of what we have been saying is that disposition molds life. I mean, the notion that familiarity makes the best life pleasant for anyone who has chosen it is wrong: it is rational intelligence which makes the life one already has both the best one and the most pleasant one.

How to make the best out of a situation

Spoiler!

Where our situations are concerned, it may be true that we do not control the throw of the dice, but it is our job, if we are sensible, to accommodate ourselves to whatever fortune deals us and to allocate everything to a place where, as each situation arises, if it is congruent, we can maximize its benefit, and if it is unwelcome, we can minimize its harm.

Spoiler!

Thyme, the most acrid and dry of plants, provides bees with honey; and likewise intelligent people can invariably find something congruent with and useful to themselves from the most forbidding of situations.

Spoiler!

The chief thing, then, to practice and pursue is the attitude exemplified by the man whose stone missed his dog and hit his stepmother: ‘That’s not bad either!’ he said.

Reflect on other men with identical circumstances

Spoiler!

Another thing that is important for contentment is to reflect on famous men, and how they have not been affected at all by circumstances identical to one’s own.

Spoiler!

When we have a fever, everything tastes bitter and unpleasant, but once we have seen other people taking the same food without revulsion, we stop blaming the food and drink, and start to blame ourselves and our illness. In the same way, we will stop blaming and being disgruntled at circumstances if we see other people cheerfully accepting identical situations without getting upset.

How to avoid being annoyed or infected by others’ flaws

Spoiler!

If you show yourself to be as lenient and moderate as circumstances permit, then your pleasure in your own attitude will outweigh your distress at others’ unsatisfying and iniquitous behavior.

Spoiler!

You should consider, then, how utterly illogical it is for us to connive at ourselves getting cross and irritated because not everyone with whom we have dealings and who crosses our paths is fair and congenial.

A helpful attitude towards unwelcome events

Spoiler!

No rational argument checks the downward slide of our emotions as well as one which reminds us that, in common with others and thanks to our nature, there are things which we cannot avoid.

Spoiler!

We can also say the same thing as Menander – ‘It is impossible for anyone still living to say, “That won’t happen to me” ’ – but add that it is possible for anyone still living to say, ‘Here’s what I will not do: I will not lie, I will not mislead, I will not steal, I will not intrigue.’

Spoiler!

The point is that fortune can make us fall ill, can deprive us of our wealth, can ruin our relationship with the people or the king, but it cannot make someone who is good, brave and high-minded into a bad, cowardly, mean-spirited, petty and spiteful person.

[Batavia]

„Am Abend, wenn die Glocken Frieden läuten,
Folg ich der Vögel wundervollen Flügen,
Die lang geschart, gleich frommen Pilgerzügen,
Entschwinden in den herbstlich klaren Weiten.

Hinwandelnd durch den dämmervollen Garten
Träum ich nach ihren helleren Geschicken
Und fühl der Stunden Weiser kaum mehr rücken.
So folg ich über Wolken ihren Fahrten.

Da macht ein Hauch mich von Verfall erzittern.
Die Amsel klagt in den entlaubten Zweigen.
Es schwankt der rote Wein an rostigen Gittern,

Indes wie blasser Kinder Todesreigen
Um dunkle Brunnenränder, die verwittern,
Im Wind sich fröstelnd blaue Astern neigen.“



"In the evening, when the bells ring peace,
If I follow the birds wonderful flights,
The long-gathered, pious pilgrimages,
Disappear into the autumnal clear expanses.

Walking through the dim garden
Do I dream of their brighter fortunes
And feel the hours wise hardly move anymore.
So I follow their journeys above clouds.

A breath of decay makes me tremble.
The blackbird complains in the defoliated branches.
The red wine sways on rusty grids,

Meanwhile, like pale children death dance
Around dark well edges that weather,
In the wind, shivering blue asters tilt."

Georg Trakl - Verfall (Decay)

[Kess]

Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.

-Sun Tzu

[CosmoLady]

“The sanity of the individual lies in the continuity of his memory; the sanity of a group lies in the continuity of its traditions.”

-Will Durant, The Pleasures of Philosophy, 1953

[Dick]

I torch my soul to show the world that I am pure

A crown of horns
An image formed, deformed
The mark I've borne

Consume my love, devour my hate
Soon I'll find myself alone
To relax and fade away

I shall be free