Extinguish my eyes, I’ll go on seeing you. Seal my ears, I’ll go on hearing you. And without feet I can make my way to you, without a mouth I can swear your name. Break off my arms, I’ll take hold of you with my heart as with a hand. Stop my heart, and my… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
You darkness, that I come from, I love you more than all the fires that fence in the world, for the fire makes a circle of light for everyone, and then no one outside learns of you. — Rainer Maria Rilke, from Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, trans. Anita Barrows & Joanna… Continue reading Rainer Maria Rilke
“In us, there is a river of feelings, in which every drop of water is a different feeling, and each feeling relies on all the others for its existence. To observe it, we just sit on the bank of the river and identify each feeling as it surfaces, flows by, and disappears. – Thich Nhat… Continue reading Thich Nhat Hanh
You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame. How could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes? — Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Ernst Shcmeitzner, 1883-1885)
This flute is played with fire, not with wind, and without this fire you would not exist. It is the fire of love that inspires the flute. It is the ferment of love that completes the wine. The reed is a comfort to all estranged lovers. Its music tears our veils away. Have you ever… Continue reading Rumi
For language to have meaning there must be intervals of silence somewhere, to divide word from word and utterance from utterance. He who retires into silence does not necessarily hate language. Perhaps it is love and respect for language which imposes silence upon him. — Thomas Merton, Disputed Questions. (Harvest Books; 1st Harvest/HBJ ed edition,… Continue reading Thomas Merton
Enthusiasm is one of the subtlest means by which one may deceive as long as possible and successfully appear dumber than one actually is. — Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil. (Penguin Classics; Reissue edition April 29, 2003) Originally published 1886.
