All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
Oh, what a glory doth this world put on, for him who with a fervent heart goes forth under the bright and glorious sky, and looks on duties well performed, and days well spent.
William Shakespeare
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
As long as the Earth can make a spring every year, I can. As long as the Earth can flower and produce nurturing fruit, I can, because I'm the Earth. I won't give up until the Earth gives up.
Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life.
Alice Walker
Joseph Conrad
A Love So Beautiful Lyrics
The summer sun went down on our love long ago
We were all too young to understand to ever know
And when I think of you I fall in love again
And when I think of you I fall in love again
Michael Bolton
But in my heart I feel the same old afterglow
A love so beautiful in every way
A love so beautiful we let it slip away
That lovers drift apart and that's the way love goes
A love so beautiful a love so free
A love so beautiful a love for you and me
A love so beautiful in every way
A love so beautiful we let it slip away
A love so beautiful we let it slip away
A love so beautiful in every way
A love so beautiful we let it slip
You are My Constant, touching my skies
and surrounding me with the pleasure
of your existence.
This is an ancient truth
held by the hand of time
and cannot be concealed
or brought down,
futile is resistance.
I will never exhibit thorns
in between my words
or to your feelings
when walking alone
on the shores of my sea.
You are My Constant,
sailing always in the back of my mind,
a ship flying your colors
to the port of me.
You are My Constant.
The one I can never forget.
Without words you have spoken
to my heart
all these years.
You are my sun,
the light of all my hope.
My Constant,
the one I hold inside my heart,
most dear.
There is a massive distance
Sitting in the garden
The inner deepness of her words
When she writes about the rain
between her smile and tears
when she writes about the rain.
Because her faded dreams
put her mind at ease
behind the places
where she stands
in pain.
where one finds love
in those eyes
that speak of alone.
She writes lines
which intrigue mysteriously.
You can see her words dance
where she's walked,
when dawn breaks
across the trees.
hold on to each cloud,
crying out to the depths
of our bones.
They tell us our worst hours
contain the time outside
of her faded dreams
and that they too.....
will soon be gone.
we smile
behind the places
where we stood in pain.
You can see her words dance
where she's walked,
knowing......
they never speak
in vain.
![](http://i.imgur.com/yPVq0.jpg''g="")
Only Breath
Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
or cultural system. I am not from the East
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
am not an entity in this world or in the next,
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
first, last, outer, inner, only that
Rumi
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
breath breathing human being.
In my soul
In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church where I kneel.
Prayer should bring us to an altar where no walls or names exist.
rabi'a al adawiyya
Is there not a region of Love, where the Sovereignty is illuminated nothing,
Where ecstasy gets poured into itself and becomes lost,
Where the wing is fully alive but has no mind or body?
In my Soul there is a temple, a shrine, a mosque, a church that dissolves,
That dissolves in God.
Wonder
O Marvel! a garden amidst the flames.
In men whom men condemn as ill
Who now shall accuse and arraign us?
Ibn 'Arabi
My heart has become capable of every form:
it is a pasture for gazelles
and a convent for Christian monks,
and a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Kaa'ba,
and the tables of the Torah and the book of the Quran.
I follow the religion of Love:
whatever way Love's camels take,
that is my religion and my faith.
Men Whom Men Condemn as Ill
Joaquin Miller
I find so much of goodness still,
In men whom men pronounce divine
I find so much of sin and blot,
I do not dare to draw a line
Between the two, where God has not.
What man shall condemn and disown?
Since Christ has said only the stainless
Shall cast at his fellows a stone.
To live of love
To live of love it is to sail afar
Saint Teresa of Lisieux
And bring both peace and joy where'er I be.
0 Pilot blest! love is my guiding star;
In every soul I meet, Thyself I see.
Safe sail I on, through wind or rain or ice;
Love urges me, love conquers every gale.
High on my mast behold is my device:
"By love I sail!"
Go not to the temple
Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God,
Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God,
Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer,
Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees,
Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins,
by Rabindranath Tagore
First fill your own house with the Fragrance of love...
First remove the darkness of sin from your heart...
First learn to bow in humility before your fellowmen...
First bend down to lift someone who is down-trodden...
First forgive from your heart those who have sinned against you.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:1-8
A childlike mind, in its simplicity, practices that science of good to which the wise may be blind.
It always grieves me to contemplate the initiation of children into the ways of life when they are scarcely more than infants. - It checks their confidence and simplicity, two of the best qualities that heaven gives them, and demands that they share our sorrows before they are capable of entering into our enjoyments.
Friedrich Chiller
Charles Dickens
In the man whose childhood has known caresses and kindness, there is always a fibre of memory that can be touched to gentle issues.
In praising or loving a child, we love and praise not that which is, but that which we hope for.
George Eliot
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The most fortunate of us, in our journey through life, frequently meet with calamities and misfortunes which may greatly afflict us; and, to fortify our minds against the attacks of these calamities and misfortunes should be one of the principal studies and endeavors of our lives. The only method of doing this is to assume a perfect resignation to the Divine will, to consider that whatever does happen, must happen; and that, by our uneasiness, we cannot prevent the blow before it does fall, but we may add to its force after it has fallen. These considerations, and others such as these, may enable us in some measure to surmount the difficulties thrown in our way; to bear up with a tolerable degree of patience under the burden of life; and to proceed with a pious and unshaken resignation, till we arrive at our journey's end, when we may deliver up our trust into the hands of Him who gave it, and receive such reward as to him shall seem proportioned to our merit.
THOMAS JEFFERSON, letter to John Page, Jul. 15, 1763
Tomorrow, At Dawn
Tomorrow, at dawn, at the hour when the countryside whitens,
I will walk with my eyes fixed on my thoughts,
I will not look at the gold of evening which falls,
Victor Marie Hugo
I will set out. You see, I know that you wait for me.
I will go by the forest, I will go by the mountain.
I can no longer remain far from you.
Seeing nothing of outdoors, hearing no noise
Alone, unknown, my back curved, my hands crossed,
Sorrowed, and the day for me will be as the night.
Nor the distant sails going down towards Harfleur,
And when I arrive, I will place on your tomb
A bouquet of green holly and of flowering heather
If God has taught us all truth in teaching us to love, then he has given us an interpretation of our whole duty to our households. - We are not bom as the partridge in the wood, or the ostrich of the desert, to be scattered everywhere; but we are to be grouped together, and brooded by love, and reared day by day in that first of churches, the family.
Henry Ward Beecher
Introspection
I am convinced
Rod Farmer
poems are important
not the poets,
philosophies are important
not the philosophers,
celebrities should not
be celebrated
but most of my fellow
citizens package most
things in personalities,
even their concept of
the ultimate essence is
a god with a particularly
harsh personality;
I need essences,
the existential,
not personalities, which
can be so false, so cruel.
Fingers Pointing to the Moon
When I was in India, a Hindu holy
I was given this same image by
When I read in the newspaper of
Rod Farmer
man told me, a Western skeptic
and agnostic in religion, that each
religion is a different finger pointing
at the moon, yet too many people
see only the one finger before them
and not the moon itself.
a Zen Buddhist in Japan
and I appreciate the humility
and tolerance built into the fingers
pointing at the moon idea,
and I like to see the moon
from the perspectives of all
the many pointing fingers;
but some true believers want
only their own fingers to point
at the moon, they want to break
all the other fingers, including
my own nondenominational finger.
religious fanatics in America
and abroad, true believers, flying
planes into buildings, setting off
bombs, trying to force their
religions into public school,
reading all this, in fear I want
to hide all of my fingers in my
pockets, but instead I go outside
and point my finger at the moon.
Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone
who can completely turn your world around. You tell them
things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they
absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more.
You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never
come true, goals that were never achieved and the many
disappointments life has thrown at you. When something
wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it,
knowing they will share in your excitement.
There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but
only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be
yourself and not worry about what they will think of you
because they love you for who you are. The things that
seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song
or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your
heart to cherish forever.
In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation,
but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby.
Things that never interested you before become fascinating
because you know they are important to this person who is so
special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and
in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like
a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon.
You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly
a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely
different,exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in
knowing that they are a part of your life.
They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are
hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of
yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you
feel like you are not good enough, but rather they
build you up and show you the things about yourself that
make you special and even beautiful.
Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and
vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter
and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life
where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all.
A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through
a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face.
You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be
broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love
and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being
vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true
pleasure that’s so real it scares you.
Bob Marley
I'd like to add some beauty to life. I don't exactly want to make people KNOW more... though I know that IS the noblest ambition... but I'd love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me... to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn't been born.
L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams
Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps . . . perhaps . . . love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.
L.M. Montgomery
Some people come and go and are forgotten. But there are other people who share a part in our destinies. They come, they go, but they are never forgotten. They come, they go, but even after they go... they're still here. They never really went anywhere.
C. JoyBell C.
You've got this life and while you've got it,you'd better kiss like you only have one moment,try to hold someone's hand like you will never get another chance to, look into people's eyes like they're the last you'll ever see, watch someone sleeping like there's no time left, jump if you feel like jumping, run if you feel like running, play music in your head when there is none, and eat cake like it's the only one left in the world!
C. JoyBell C.
Every sight and sound inspiring, leading one far out of himself, yet feeding and building up his individuality.
At the touch of this divine light, the mountains seemed to kindle to a rapt, religious consciousness, and stood hushed like devout worshippers waiting to be blessed.
John Muir, Wilderness Essays
John Muir
I don't know where to find you
All of these nights without you
I close my eyes and I find a way
If you know where to find me
Don't let this light fade away
I don't know how to reach you
I hear your voice in the wind
I feel you under my skin
Within my heart and my soul
I wait for you
Adagio
All of my dreams surround you
I see and I touch your face
I fall into your embrace
When the time is right I know
You'll be in my arms
Adagio
No need for me to pray
I've walked so far
I've fought so hard
Nothing more to explain
I know all that remains
Is a piano that plays
If you know how to reach me
Before this light fades away
Before I run out of faith
Be the only man to say
That you'll hear my heart
That you'll give your life
Forever you'll stay
Don't let me run out of faith
Be the only man to say
That you believe, make me believe
You won't let go
Adagio
You have noticed that everything as Indian does
Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing, and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.
is in a circle, and that is because the
Power of the World always works in circles,
and everything tries to be round.....
The Sky is round, and I have heard
that the earth is round like a ball,
and so are all the stars.
The wind, in its greatest power, whirls.
Birds make their nest in circles,
for theirs is the same religion as ours....
Black Elk
Oglala Sioux Holy Man
When you die, only three things will remain of you, since you will abandon
all material things on the threshold of the Otherworld:
what you have taught to others, what you have created with your hands,
and how much love you have spread. So learn more and more in order to teach
wise,long-lasting values. Work more and more to leave the world things
of great beauty.And love people around you for the Light of Love heals everything.
François Bourillon
Cheerfulness Taught By Reason
I THINK we are too ready with complaint
O pusillanimous Heart, be comforted
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
In this fair world of God's. Had we no hope
Indeed beyond the zenith and the slope
Of yon gray blank of sky, we might grow faint
To muse upon eternity's constraint
Round our aspirant souls; but since the scope
Must widen early, is it well to droop,
For a few days consumed in loss and taint ?
And, like a cheerful traveller, take the road
Singing beside the hedge. What if the bread
Be bitter in thine inn, and thou unshod
To meet the flints ? At least it may be said
'Because the way is short, I thank thee, God.'
Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough.
George Washington
Long ago there was an Eastern Monarch who was troubled with many worries, harassed on all sides, so he called to him the wisest men in his counsel.
He asked them to create a motto, a few simple and magic words, that could help him in times of trouble and distress.
“It must be brief enough to be engraved on my ring.” he said.
That way he could have it close to him at all times.
The monarch lowered his gaze so that these men could not be shaken by the worry that plagued their ruler. He spoke, his words desperately trying to convey a courage that he hoped he would soon reclaim, “It must be appropriate in every situation, equally as useful in prosperity and adversity. It must be a motto wise and true. Something to last to the end of time. Simple words that any man, woman or child can be guided by their whole lives. In every circumstance, no matter what may happen”
For several days these wise men too to their task. They loved the monarch and it tore at their hearts to see him bear such a heavy sorrow.
Finally they emerged from their chambers and came to the Monarch with their magic words.
“These words shall comfort and give rise to wisdom for every change or or chance that life can take,” declared the wise men.
“Words that will fit every situation, good or bad, and our perceptions that cloud both extremes. Words to ease the heavy heart and tortured mind in every circumstance.”
And the words they gave the monarch to engrave of his cherished ring were:
And this too shall pass away
Art and Heart
Though critics may bow to art, and I am its own true lover,
It is not art, but heart, which wins the wide world over.
Though smooth be the heartless prayer, no ear in Heaven will mind it,
And the finest phrase falls dead if there is no feeling behind it.
Though the poet may spend his life in skilfully rounding a measure,
It is not the artist's skill which into our soul comes stealing
And therefore I say again, though I am art's own true lover,
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
From Poems of Passion (1883)
Though perfect the player's touch, little, if any, he sways us,
Unless we feel his heart throb through the music he plays us.
Unless he writes from a full, warm heart he gives us little pleasure.
So it is not the speech which tells,
but the impulse which goes with the saying;
And it is not the words of the prayer,
but the yearning back of the praying.
With a joy that is almost pain, but it is the player's feeling.
And it is not the poet's song,
though sweeter than sweet bells chiming,
Which thrills us through and through,
but the heart which beats under the rhyming.
That it is not art, but heart, which wins the wide world over.
The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanely sensitive. To them… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off… They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.
Pearl Buck
What am I in the eyes of most people — a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person — somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then — even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart. That is my ambition, based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Though I am often in the depths of misery, there is still calmness, pure harmony and music inside me. I see paintings or drawings in the poorest cottages, in the dirtiest corners. And my mind is driven towards these things with an irresistible momentum.
Vincent van Gogh
Whether it is the beautiful that brings to our hearts the love of truth and justice, or whether it is truth that teaches us how to find the beautiful in nature and how to love it, in eather case art does a noble work. It drags out the soul from its everyday shell, and brings it under the spell of its own mysterious and wonderful power, so that a memory of this experience stays with the people, sustains them in their daily labors, and refines their minds.
Helena Modjeska
Art
In placid hours well-pleased we dream
BY Herman Melville
Of many a brave unbodied scheme.
But form to lend, pulsed life create,
What unlike things must meet and mate:
A flame to melt—a wind to freeze;
Sad patience—joyous energies;
Humility—yet pride and scorn;
Instinct and study; love and hate;
Audacity—reverence. These must mate,
And fuse with Jacob’s mystic heart,
To wrestle with the angel—Art.
