A HANDFUL OF QUOTATIONS

 

A HANDFUL OF QUOTATIONS

It is no small pleasure to have in your personal library a book of quotations, alphabetically arranged on various subjects.  I have one.  I read it quit often and find it a great treasure of innumerable thinkers’ views, ideas, suggestions, beliefs, experiences, etc.  Here is a handful of such quotations from the writings of some men of letters.  More may follow some other day.  

1.      ‘Therefore,’ I said rather carelessly, ‘we would have to eat again the fruit of the tree of knowledge, so as to return to the state of innocence?’ ‘Quite so ,’ he replied ; ‘this is the last chapter of the history of the world.’ HEINRICH VON KLEIST

2.      It makes all the difference whether you hear an insect in the bedroom or in the garden. ROBERT LYND

3.      Perpetual inspiration is as necessary to the life of goodness, holiness and happiness as perpetual respiration is necessary to animal life. WILLIAM LAW

4.      Every man has a scheme that won’t work. E. W. HOWE

5.      A man afflicted with constitutional melancholy must divert distressing thoughts, and not combat with them. To attempt to think them down is madness. He should have a lamp constantly burning in his bed chamber during the night, and if wakeful or disturbed , take a book to read, and compose himself to rest. To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise. SAMUEL JOHNSON

            G.R.Kanwal

            4^th AUGUST 2023

 

OF POLITICS AND POLITICIANS

 

OF POLITICS AND POLITICIANS

            Politics is defined as the art or science of government; political views, affairs, questions, policies, ideologies, beliefs, convictions, etc. it can be both profession and means of social service. Selfless politics is now rare. A politician is a person who follows politics as a career and joins a political party. In comparison, a statesman is far superior to a politician. He takes a highly mature, wise and broadminded part in state affairs. His decisions are farsighted and above party politics.   

                        HERE ARE SOME VALUABLE QUOTES:

1. There is no gambling like politics.---Former U.K. Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881).
2. A politician is like quick-silver: if you try to put your finger on him, you find nothing under it. English writer Austin O’Malley (1858-1932).
3. Part honesty is party expediency. Grover Cleveland, 24^th U.S.Prsident (1837-1908).
4. Two kinds of men generally best succeed in political life : men of no principle but of great talent: and men of no talent , but of one principle --- that of obedience to their superiors.
5. The man who can make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, grow on the spot where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind , and render more essential service to the country than the whole race of politicians put together. Jonathan Swift (!667-1745)

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G.R.Kanwal

3^rd  August 2023

 

 

 

 

O that ‘twere possible

 

          O that ‘twere possible

O THAT ‘twere possible

After long grief and pain

To find the arms of my true love

Round me once again! …

 

A shadow flits before me,

Not thee, but like to thee:

Ah, Christ ! that it were possible

For one short hour to see

The souls we loved, that they might tell us

What and where they be!

 

            This is a very short poem by the English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-92). AS Arthur Compton Rickett says there is no other poet who more completely reflects in his verse the questions that were agitating the minds of the average Englishman in Victorian times.

 

The question here is the poet’s reunion with his lady love whose separation has caused him long grief and pain. The arms he wishes to find again are of that true love who is no longer in this world.

 

He sees her as a shadow but not as the real self.  He then prays to Lord Christ could He make it possible for bereaved people to see for one short hour the souls they loved and know from them where and in what form they currently are. This appears impossible to the poet, hence he entitles his poem : O that ‘were possible. 

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G. R. Kanwal

24 July 2023

LEISURE

                    LEISURE

                                                                                           

                                                                LEISURE

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or crows.

No time to see, when we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

            This short but very impressive poem belongs to the Welsh poet and writer William Henry Davies (1871-1940). He spent most of his time in the United States and the United Kingdom as a tramp. Despite this fact, he became a prominent poet of his time. He is however continued to be known as a tramp poet.

 

            Leisure is a world famous poem. It draws the difference between a cares--laden and a carefree life which allows people some leisure to watch nature with all its beautiful varieties. There is a latent criticism of modern man’s life-style of too much interest in duties and lack of interest in beauties. The message of the poet is : live a rich carefree life instead of poor life full of routine cares of daily life.  

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G.R.Kanwal

23 July 2023

HOW TO PRAY

 

                                HOW  TO  PRAY

In answer to a devotee’s question : ”How Should I Pray” Osho, the Indian mystic, Godman and philosopher (1931-1990), does not speak of rituals.  He answers the question in his own unique way.

Osho’s  original name was Chandra Mohan Jain. As  a Godman he became Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Osho is his mystical short name. 

He was a tireless speaker and always full of amazing thoughts and ideas. He disagreed on many  orthodox views, beliefs and rituals and became a controversial figure all over the world where he established his ashrams. He published many discourses on the subject of Prayer. This is how he answered his devotee:

All the religions say that God is Father. In fact, the emphasis should be that man is the child. That is the real meaning when we call God the ‘the Father’. But we have forgotten, God is the Father but we are not His children. Forget whether He is Father or not. You just be a child --spontaneous, true, authentic. Don’t ask me and don’t ask anybody how to pray, Let the moment decide, let the moment be decisive, and the truth of the moment should be your Prayer.

What a wonderful answer !

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G. R. Kanwal

22^nd July 2023

 

 

 

 

 

I LOVE ALL BEAUTEOUS THINGS

I LOVE ALL BEAUTEOUS THINGS

I love all beauteous things,

I seek and adore them :

God hath no better praise,

And man in his hasty days

Is honoured for them.

 

I too will something make

And joy in the making ;

Altho’ to-morrow it seem

Like the empty words of a dream

Remembered on waking.

 

This short poem is about the creation of beautiful things . If man creates them in his fast-running days, he is honoured by God because God praises beauty. The author of this poem is the English poet Robert Bridges who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930.  He was a doctor, a sensitive scholar and an excellent artist. He sought and worshipped beautiful things.  Beauty  to him was as  important as his religion. Poet Arthur Symons (1865-1945) said Bridges puts into his verse only what remains when all the others have finished …It is nearest in words to silence.

 

Before concluding, let me say that  many philosophers have stated it as man’s earthly duty to leave it more beautiful than he finds  it.

      

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G. R. Kanwal

16^th July 2023

 

 

 

The Glories of our Blood and State

 

 

                                The Glories of our Blood and State

                  ‘‘ The Glories of our Blood and State” is the title of a lyrical poem written by the English dramatist James Shirley (September 1596 -- October 1666). This very popular lyric which has found place in many anthologies has been taken from the play Ajax and Ulysses. His plays, say Legouis  and Cazamian , are  among the most  correct and among the most outstanding of those which appeared in the reign of Charles I, that is from 1625 until the theatres were closed in 1642.

The text of the lyric reads as follows:

The glories of our blood and state

Are shadows, not substantial things;

There is no armour against Fate;

Death lays his icy hands on kings:

Sceptre and crown Must tumble down ,

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and spade. 

 

Some men with swords may reap the field,

And plant fresh laurels where they kill;

But their strong nerves at last must yield;

They tame but one another still.

Early or late,

They stoop to fate,

And must give up their murmuring breath,

When they, pale captives, creep to death.

 

The garlands wither on your brow,

Then boast no more your mighty deeds ;

Upon Death’s purple altar now

See where the victor-victim bleed;:

Your heads must come

To the cold tomb;

Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.

            The moral of the poem is that Death is a great  leveller. It makes no distinction between the rich and the poor, the high and the low ; all  have to die. The glories of our blood and state are transient. Victors are no better than victims. No body is exempted from death. Everyone  has to die sooner or later. What survives and blossoms  are not the  possessions of a person  but his good deeds.    

 

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G. R. Kanwal

15^th July 2023