“
Inspiration is a word used by people who aren't really doing anything.
”
”
Nick Cave
“
Be ruthless about protecting writing days, i.e., do not cave in to endless requests to have "essential" and "long overdue" meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance. I must therefore guard the time allotted to writing as a Hungarian Horntail guards its firstborn egg.
”
”
J.K. Rowling
“
Why are you still here?" she asked. "Shouldn't you be in a cave somewhere inspiring people?
”
”
Kristin Cashore (Fire (Graceling Realm, #2))
“
It's a wonderful life if you can find it.
”
”
Nick Cave (Complete Lyrics 1978-2007)
“
All right, I've been thinking, when life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade! Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager!
Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man whose gonna burn your house down - with the lemons!
”
”
Portal 2
“
Get out from your house, from your cave, from your car, from the place you feel safe, from the place that you are. Get out and go running, go funning, go wild, get out from your head and get growing, dear child.
”
”
Dallas Clayton
“
The world is only as fair as you can make it. Takes a lot of fight. A lot of fight. But if you stay in here, in your little cave, that's one less fighter on the side of fair.
”
”
Libba Bray (Beauty Queens)
“
That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they'd never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind's first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle--behold, the Running Man.
Distance running was revered because it was indispensable; it was the way we survived and thrived and spread across the planet. You ran to eat and to avoid being eaten; you ran to find a mate and impress her, and with her you ran off to start a new life together. You had to love running, or you wouldn't live to love anything else. And like everyhing else we ove--everything we sentimentally call our 'passions' and 'desires' it's really an encoded ancestral necessity. We were born to run; we were born because we run. We're all Running People, as the Tarahumara have always known.
”
”
Christopher McDougall (Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen)
“
All of our days are numbered; we cannot afford to be idle. To act on a bad idea is better than to not act at all because the worth of the idea never becomes apparent until you do it. Sometimes this idea can be the smallest thing in the world, a little flame that you hunch over and cup with your hand and pray will not be extinguished by all the storm that howls about it. If you can hold on to that flame great things can be constructed around it that are massive and powerful and world changing – all held up by the tinniest of ideas.
”
”
Nick Cave
“
If the bombs go off the sun will still be shining, because I've heard it said that
every mushroom cloud has a silver lining.
”
”
Adam Young Owl City Cave In
“
We are familiar with people who seek out solitude: penitents, failures, saints, or prophets. They retreat to deserts, preferably, where they live on locusts and honey. Others, however, live in caves or cells on remote islands; some-more spectacularly-squat in cages mounted high atop poles swaying in the breeze. They do this to be nearer God. Their solitude is a self-moritification by which they do penance. They act in the belief that they are living a life pleasing to God. Or they wait months, years, for their solitude to be broken by some divine message that they hope then speedily to broadcast among mankind.
Grenouille's case was nothing of the sort. There was not the least notion of God in his head. He was not doing penance or wating for some supernatural inspiration. He had withdrawn solely for his own pleasure, only to be near to himself. No longer distracted by anything external, he basked in his own existence and found it splendid. He lay in his stony crypt like his own corpse, hardly breathing, his heart hardly beating-and yet lived as intensively and dissolutely as ever a rake lived in the wide world outside.
”
”
Patrick Süskind (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)
“
When the world caves in
Still my hope will cling
To Your promise
Where my courage ends
Let my heart find strength
In Your presence
”
”
Hillsong
“
Patanjali, Buddha, Moses and Jesus did not go to workshops or seminars or even churches. They went directly to nature: sat under a Bodhi tree or on top of a mountain or in a cave. … It is time to return to the source of this inspiration – the earth itself.
”
”
Dolores LaChapelle (Earth Wisdom)
“
Não tenhamos pressa, mas não percamos tempo.
”
”
José Saramago (The Cave)
“
There is something you can't fix, can't heal, or can't escape, and all you can do it trust God. Finding ultimate refuge in God means you become so immersed in his presence, so convinced of his goodness, so devoted to his lordship that you find even the cave is a perfectly safe place to be because he is there with you.
”
”
John Ortberg
“
We often hesitate to follow our intuition out of fear. Most usually, we are afraid of the changes in our own life that our actions will bring. Intuitive guidance, however, is all about change. It is energetic data ripe with the potential to influence the rest of the world. To fear change but to crave intuitive clarity is like fearing the cold, dark night while pouring water on the fire that lights your cave. An insight the size of a mustard seed is powerful enough to bring down a mountain-sized illusion that may be holding our lives together. Truth strikes without mercy. We fear our intuitions because we fear the transformational power within our revelations.
”
”
Caroline Myss
“
Who knows their own story? Certainly it makes no sense when we are living in the midst of it. It's all just clamor and confusion. It only becomes a story when we tell it and retell it. Our small precious recollections that we speak again and again to ourselves and to others, first creating the narrative of our lives and then keeping the story from dissolving into darkness.
”
”
Nick Cave
“
Imagine in vibrant detail your heart’s desire—a reality only you can envision, an adventure only you can direct.
Then cradle your creation. Caress it. Mold it. Coddle it until it comes to life.
And when your precious treasure grows so grand as to steal your breath away, set it free for all the world to experience. For that is how you live your dreams.
”
”
Richelle E. Goodrich (Eena, The Curse of Wanyaka Cave (The Harrowbethian Saga #3))
“
In its mythology, Mithra, the Persian god of light and wisdom, was born of a virgin in a cave on the 25th December and later, as an adult, undertook long voyages for the purposes of illuminating mankind. His disciples were twelve; he was betrayed, sentenced to death, and after his death, he was buried in a tomb from which he rose from the dead. The Mithrian religion also states that at the end of all time, Mithra will come again to judge the living and the dead. In this religious cult, Mithra was called the Saviour and he was sometimes illustrated as a lamb. Its doctrine included baptism, the sacramental meal (the Eucharist), and the belief in a saviour god that died and rose from the dead to be the mediator between God and mankind. The adherents of this religion believed in the resurrection of the body, universal judgement, and therefore in heaven and hell.
”
”
Anton Sammut (The Secret Gospel of Jesus, AD 0-78)
“
If all the people who were called "crazy" started acting "normal", we'd probably still be living in caves.
”
”
Joana James
“
I would still rather feel things and live life to the fullest rather than hide in a cave and attempt to protect myself from the uncertainties of the world.
”
”
Elizabeth Berrien (Creative Grieving: A Hip Chick's Path from Loss to Hope)
“
That's the thing about rocks--they don't break easily. When I held them, I wanted to be like them-strong and steady, weathered but not broken.
”
”
Ellen Dreyer (The Glow Stone)
“
Polygamy is a luxury of the cave-people, and monogamy is an existential responsibility of the civilized society.
”
”
Abhijit Naskar (Wise Mating: A Treatise on Monogamy (Humanism Series))
“
Vulnerability is essential to spiritual and creative growth. Finding enormous strength through vulnerability. You're being open to whatever happens, including failure and shame. The two are connected, maybe - vulnerability and freedom.
”
”
Nick Cave (Faith, Hope and Carnage)
“
Dogs could die, and bears and deer and other people. That was acceptable, because it was remote. His father could not die. The earth might cave in under him in one vast sink-hole and he could accept it. But without Penny, there was no earth. Without him there was nothing.
”
”
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (The Yearling)
“
Here they were. Two souls, buried alive beneath the earth beside the sea, in a place of nowhere - an empty cave that felt impossibly full as Juliette took flight where there was no sky.
”
”
Amanda Dykes (Set the Stars Alight)
“
When I think about the past and how blind I was in that life, I compare it to being a god and losing everything when being cast out. I had the unlimited power to destroy myself and everything around me. It’s like having been in a cave for years and I’m finally out of the cave. The sun burns my eyes and skin. I don’t recognize my surroundings. No one looks authentic, and now I’m on the hunt for people that have the pieces to my puzzle that will help me on my quest. I have no cave to hide in, and I’m just left with the sediment of a previous life and my own mortality.
”
”
Phil Volatile (My Mind's Abyss)
“
You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully when we allow the unexpected to happen.
Every day, God gives us the sun - and also one moment when we have the ability to change everything that makes us unhappy. Every day, we try to pretend that we haven't perceived that moment, that it doesn't exist - that today is the same as yesterday and will be the same as tomorrow. But if people really pay attention to their everyday lives, they will discover that magic moment. It may arrive in the instant when we are doing something mundane, like putting our front-door key in the lock; it may lie hidden in the quiet that follows the lunch hour or in the thousand and one things that all seem the same to us. But that moment exists - a moment when all the power of the stars becomes a part of us and enables us to perform miracles.
Joy is sometimes a blessing, but it is often a conquest. Our magic moment helps us to change and sends us off in search of our dreams. Yes, we are going to suffer, we will have difficult times, and we will experience many disappointments - but all of these are transitory; it leaves no permanent mark. And one day we will look back with pride and faith at the journey we have taken.
Pitiful is the person who is afraid of taking risks. Perhaps, this person would never be disappointed or disillusioned; perhaps she won't suffer the way people do when they have a dream to follow. But when the person looks back - she will never hear her heart saying 'What have you done with the miracles that God planted in your days? What have you done with the talents God has bestowed upon you? You buried yourself in a cave because you were fearful of losing those talents. So this is your heritage, the certainty that you wasted your life.'
Pitiful are the people who must realize this. Because when they are finally able to believe in miracles, their life's magic moments will have already passed them by.
”
”
Paulo Coelho (By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept)
“
Because those events are so real that they cast their shadow forward and backwards through all time, whenever men think of these matters at all. Even if they are mired in ignorace, they will see...fragments of the Truth, as men imprisoned in a cave see shadows cast by the sun. Likewise, all men derive their moral intuitions from God; how not? There is no other source, just as there is no other way to make a wheel than to make it round.
”
”
S.M. Stirling
“
—¿Dios? ¿Dios? Te he oído hablar de muchos dioses.
Si te refieres a Mitra...
—Mitra, Apolo, Arturo, Cristo, llámalo como quieras —dije—.
¿Qué importa el nombre que le den los hombres? Es la misma luz, y los hombres deben vivir con esta luz o morir. Yo sólo sé que Dios es la fuente
de toda la luz que ilumina la tierra y que su designio está en todo el mundo y pasa por cada hombre como un gran río que no podemos detener ni desviar; solo podemos beber de él mientras vivimos y encomendar nuestros cuerpos en él cuando morimos.
”
”
Mary Stewart (The Crystal Cave (Arthurian Saga, #1))
“
You need to accept your greatness, you need to rise up into your full stature, because if you don’t, you are going to continually bow down low to enter into the caves of those who would have you believing that you were born for caves; when in fact, those are their caves and they were born for them. You think that you’re not allowed to stand tall in your mind, heart and body— but you are! And when you do, you’ll see how little those caves and the people in them, really are. It’s difficult, because you want everyone to matter, but really, most of them just don’t. Only a few do. Most of them aren’t even worth being mad at.
”
”
C. JoyBell C.
“
For those living in a dark cave... sometimes all it takes is for someone to throw us a lifeline.
”
”
Martin R. Lemieux
“
When we set goals that feel safe and achievable, we are caving in to our own preconceived notions of what we are capable of.
”
”
Ruth Soukup (31 Days To A Clutter Free Life: One Month to Clear Your Home, Mind & Schedule)
“
Only a small crack ... but cracks make caves collapse.
”
”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“
In a cave where everything is fragranced with water, she asks for a daughter instead of praying for a son.
”
”
Nikita Gill (The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom)
“
You see, when we set goals that feel safer and achievable, we are caving in to our own preconceived notions of what we are capable of. We’re not pushing past our comfort zone; we’re just settling for status quo.
”
”
Ruth Soukup (Do It Scared: Finding the Courage to Face Your Fears, Overcome Adversity, and Create a Life You Love)
“
The theory of positivity teaches us to, "always look on the bright side" and to, "point out the bright side to others". However, any highly empathic individual will know, that this mindset alienates us from other people. What connects us with other people is the ability to identify with what they are feeling and thinking, regardless of whether or not we've actually been in their place before. If you want to point someone out to the light, first you need to get into their dark cave with them, light a candle, and say, "Hey, I'm here with you and look, remember what the light feels like?" That's the kind of positivity that actually bears real change in people, in the world.
”
”
C. JoyBell C.
“
My friend tells me that memory fails me in part because nature mercifully wishes to hide from us things which are painful. The spider-web of protective forgetfulness is woven over the mouth of the cave which conceals the raw head and bloody bones of our misfortunes.
"But the greatest men," says King Lamus, "are those that refuse to be treated like squalling children, who insist on facing reality in every form, and tear off ruthlessly the bandages from their own wounds.
”
”
Aleister Crowley (Diary of a Drug Fiend)
“
Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through merry flowers of June,
Over grass and under stone,
And under mountains in the moon.
Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.
”
”
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (The Lord of the Rings, #0))
“
You can Live in your Cave or Dance to your Grave.-RVM
”
”
R.V.M.
“
Creative problem solving is not necessarily tantamount to cheating.
”
”
V. St. Clair (Cave of Nightmares (The Broken Prism, #1))
“
Be brave. Don't just live in your cave till your grave.-RVM
”
”
R.V.M.
“
Here is our rapin' cave. It's not much of a cave... and we haven't done much rapin'... but man, we've had some good times.
”
”
Jeffrey Hale
“
A man who has lived his entire life in a cave does not mourn the sun until he sees it, and once he has, he can never go back underground
”
”
Seanan McGuire (Down Among the Sticks and Bones (Wayward Children, #2))
“
If you travel beyond the cave door, you may just discover things that help solve your cave problems.
”
”
Neil deGrasse Tyson (Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization)
“
Because of this one brave, new-thinking man, summer lives in the winter cave.
”
”
Ray Bradbury (The Halloween Tree)
“
Aristotle thought earthquakes were caused
by winds trapped in subterranean caves.
We’re more scientific now, we know
it’s just five guys fracking the fuck out of the world while it’s still legal.
”
”
Anne Carson (Norma Jeane Baker of Troy)
“
Sometimes the fact that you can't sense God isn't an indication that He is not there. It is just an indication that you are hanging out in the wrong place.The cave is not a physical location, it is a state of mind.
”
”
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
“
His vast room was vacant and dark, cave-like, with him as the only occupant, alone in his chair and staring at the candle's flame on his desk, which seemed to live and breathe. He didn't quite know why, but he felt alone.
”
”
Nick Oliveri (Becoming the Conjurer)
“
But, in a way, that sense of death being present, and all those wild, traumatized feelings that went with it, ultimately gave us this weird, urgent energy. Not at first, but in time. It was an energy that allowed us to do anything we wanted to do. Ultimately, it opened up all kinds of possibilities and a strange reckless power came out of it. It was as if the worst had happened and nothing could hurt us, and all our ordinary concerns were little more than indulgences. There was a freedom in that.
”
”
Nick Cave (Faith, Hope and Carnage)
“
He tapped another rhythm against the table, and the pins shifted, making new landmarks emerge among all the others: Gildingham, the goblins’ golden capital, which seemed to be tucked among the Andes Mountains—and probably inspired the human myths of El Dorado. Ravagog, the ogre stronghold on the Eventide River, which was apparently hidden in the lushest part of central Asia. Loamnore, a city Sophie assumed was the dwarven capital, since the enormous metropolis was under the Gobi desert rather than above it. And Marintrylla, an island near New Zealand that was probably the trollish capital and seemed to be an intricate network of caves and bridges.
”
”
Shannon Messenger (Legacy (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #8))
“
The Psalms are pure praise inspired by the breath of God. Praise is a matter of life and breath. As long as we have breath, we are told to praise the Lord. The Psalms release an anointing of praise that will lift heaviness off the human heart. The Psalms are meant to do to you what they did to David; they will bring you from your cave of despair into the glad presence of the King who likes you just the way you are.
”
”
Brian Simmons (The Psalms, Poetry on Fire (The Passion Translation Book 2))
“
I followed all the advice my mind could compute and digested it to the best of my ability. I’d run, work out, eat healthy, and then swallow a fifth of whiskey. The man cave below my home began to look like a recycling center for Crown Royal and Jack Daniels distilleries. I discovered that empty whiskey bottles made an eerily satisfying thud when stacked up like cordwood. The sturdy glass was much thicker and stronger than my own skin, and I admired their resilience to outside forces.
”
”
Kenton Geer (Vicious Cycle: Whiskey, Women, and Water)
“
In certain ancient civilizations and indigenous cultures there was often a process of initiation that young people would go through before they became adults. In some Native American traditions, for example, the initiate would be put out into the wilderness without any food or any other provisions for survival. He would have to rely on the Universe and his own soul. During the experience, the initiate would fast. He would experience himself confronting the Universe alone. He would be out there for a number of days. This would open up the initiate to a direct experience of something beyond the usual egoic mind and all of its concerns. The initiate would be thrust into an experience that would take him beyond his small, limited self. Such a process existed in our own Tradition going back to the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. What was Muhammad doing in a cave when the first revelations of the Qur‘an began if not going through what Native Americans would call a „Vision Quest“? He received direct revelation and inspiration through this practice. (p. 12)
”
”
Kabir Helminski (In the House of Remembering: The Living Tradition of Sufi Teaching)
“
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:—
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
”
”
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.
“
The supposedly eyewitness authority of the Pseudo-Turpin finds a parallel in another genre in which vernacular prose was pioneered: that of the historical memoir. There were twelfth-century verse histories narrated by authors who had personally participated in the events they describe, such as the Third Crusade. But the Fourth Crusade of 1202-4 saw a switch to prose. This shameful fiasco, in which the crusaders were induced to turn aside from the Holy Land and attack instead the Christian city of Constantinople, inspired two contrasting accounts. Robert de Clari--ignorant of higher-level strategy, but all agog at the splendours of Constantinople--gives a worm's eye view. Geoffroi de Villehardouin, by contrast, has a top diplomat's suave authority and a leader's eye for the aesthetics of war--the splendid sight of a fleet, or the noble heroism of a ruler. For both authors the medium of prose seems to convey the purported authenticity and transparency of lived experience.
”
”
Sarah Cay Terence Cave Malcolm Bowie
“
The thunder howled and the rain splashed, the leaves played with the breeze and the lightning flashed, and the tigress growled at last.
She looked here and she looked there, she hadn't seen so much rain anywhere, a desire suddenly came in her heart, a mad longing that had to start, she felt deep love in the rain, looking at her cubs all over again
But two years ago she had been wounded, By cowardly men who wanted her grounded, They were afraid of her power, they wanted to capture her and to enslave her in their tower
They laid traps and they waited in the trees, The jungle was full of birds and the bees, The tigress was out hunting for meat, her cubs awaiting in the cave for their treat
There was something missing in the air, the fragrance of jasmine was not there, The tigress looked up into the trees and saw the men's faces painted in grease, She challenged them looking into their eyes, And saw fear, fright , and faces full of lies! She roared with all her might, This was her land, She had all the right!
The cowardly men crouching behind the trees, Fired their guns in twos and threes, The brave Tigress looked them in the eye, She was the fire and she was the sky, Indomitable force, invincible power, She was the Tigress, The Queen in her Empire
None of the bullets could break her Spirit,
Only one could graze her right leg a bit, She roared with all her heart's might, For she was the Queen for all to sight!
The guns emptied and no more bullets to shoot, The cowardly men jumped from the trees and ran away in two hoots! The Tigress laughed and loudly roared,
For she was the power and her Spirit soared
She is the Tigress inside every Woman,
She has the Power to defeat any Man,
Love her and she would love you back,
Respect her and she would respect you back,
Dare to harm her and she would defeat you till the Last!
”
”
Avijeet Das
“
The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. Oh, what a pleasure that was! Mollie Katzen's handwritten and illustrated recipes that recalled some glorious time in upstate New York when a girl with an appetite could work at a funky vegetarian restaurant and jot down some tasty favorites between shifts. That one had the Pumpkin Tureen soup that Margo had made so many times when she first got the book. She loved the cheesy onion soup served from a pumpkin with a hot dash of horseradish and rye croutons. And the Cardamom Coffee Cake, full of butter, real vanilla, and rich brown sugar, said to be a favorite at the restaurant, where Margo loved to imagine the patrons picking up extras to take back to their green, grassy, shady farmhouses dotted along winding country roads.
Linda's Kitchen by Linda McCartney, Paul's first wife, the vegetarian cookbook that had initially spurred her yearlong attempt at vegetarianism (with cheese and eggs, thank you very much) right after college. Margo used to have to drag Calvin into such phases and had finally lured him in by saying that surely anything Paul would eat was good enough for them.
Because of Linda's Kitchen, Margo had dived into the world of textured vegetable protein instead of meat, and tons of soups, including a very good watercress, which she never would have tried without Linda's inspiration. It had also inspired her to get a gorgeous, long marble-topped island for prep work. Sometimes she only cooked for the aesthetic pleasure of the gleaming marble topped with rustic pottery containing bright fresh veggies, chopped to perfection.
Then Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells caught her eye, and she took it down. Some pages were stuck together from previous cooking nights, but the one she turned to, the most splattered of all, was the one for Onion Soup au Gratin, the recipe that had taught her the importance of cheese quality. No mozzarella or broken string cheeses with- maybe- a little lacy Swiss thrown on. And definitely none of the "fat-free" cheese that she'd tried in order to give Calvin a rich dish without the cholesterol.
No, for this to be great, you needed a good, aged, nutty Gruyère from what you couldn't help but imagine as the green grassy Alps of Switzerland, where the cows grazed lazily under a cheerful children's-book blue sky with puffy white clouds.
Good Gruyère was blocked into rind-covered rounds and aged in caves before being shipped fresh to the USA with a whisper of fairy-tale clouds still lingering over it. There was a cheese shop downtown that sold the best she'd ever had. She'd tried it one afternoon when she was avoiding returning home. A spunky girl in a visor and an apron had perked up as she walked by the counter, saying, "Cheese can change your life!"
The charm of her youthful innocence would have been enough to be cheered by, but the sample she handed out really did it.
The taste was beyond delicious. It was good alone, but it cried out for ham or turkey or a rich beefy broth with deep caramelized onions for soup.
”
”
Beth Harbison (The Cookbook Club: A Novel of Food and Friendship)
“
Many say that Western Civ and this kind of Great Books education is an elitist enterprise dominated by dead white males. But Western Civ was and remains radicalism—a subversive, revolutionary counterculture that makes it impossible to remain fat and happy within the status quo. Western Civ is Socrates, a man so dangerous, his city couldn’t tolerate him living within it. Western Civ offers ways to step out of the cave and see reality in its true colors, not just as the shadows that ideologues are content to see. Western Civ took me outside the assumption of my time, outside the values of the modern meritocracy and America’s worship of success. Western Civ inspired me to spend my life pursuing a philosophy—to spend decades trying to find a worldview that could handle the complexity of reality, but also offer a coherent vision that could frame my responses to events and guide me through the vicissitudes of life. Western Civ is the rebel base I return to when I want to recharge my dissatisfactions with the current world. Once you’ve had a glimpse of the highest peaks of the human experience, it’s hard to live permanently in the flatlands down below. It’s a little hard to be shallow later in life, no matter how inclined in that direction you might be.
”
”
David Brooks (The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life)
“
The chain of events that began with the intense rivalry between the Roman Empire and Persia had extraordinary consequences. As the two great powers of late antiquity flexed their muscles and prepared for a final showdown, few could have predicted that it would be a faction from the far reaches of the Arabian peninsula that would rise up to supplant both. Those who had been inspired by Mu  ammad truly inherited the earth, establishing perhaps the greatest empire that the world has seen, one that would introduce irrigation techniques and new crops from the Tigris and Euphrates to the Iberian peninsula, and spark nothing less than an agrarian revolution spanning thousands of miles. 98 The Islamic conquests created a new world order, an economic giant, bolstered by self-confidence, broad-mindedness and a passionate zeal for progress. Immensely wealthy and with few natural political or even religious rivals, it was a place where order prevailed, where merchants could become rich, where intellectuals were respected and where disparate views could be discussed and debated. An unpromising start in a cave near Mecca had given birth to a cosmopolitan utopia of sorts.
”
”
Peter Frankopan (The Silk Roads: A New History of the World)
“
Be brave. Don't just live in your cave till your grave.
”
”
R.V.M.
“
Ladies ....a man does not want peace at home; he needs it. Home is supposed to be a refuge for a man; a hiding place, a cave to hide in, a place he can be away from the world that worked hard on him. You need to go home and study your home and see if it is a place someone can come into. How does it look physically? How does it look psychologically? How does it look emotionally? Study your home. Is it a place a man would love to stay and hide from the world?
”
”
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
“
The Coming Out
Dawn has ushered in
Yet another era
Whilst the sun sets on the other
Bidding it farewell
Rotating like the globe
Each era getting its time to shine
Like a star as it should
Fulfilling its destiny before the sun sets
Ushering out yet another era
Shuttered for too long
Shunned
Dismissed
Scattered underground among thorns
Bristles,debris and twigs
Among inhabitable bats, rats and stones
Stalactites as chandeliers
Stalagmites as cedar floors
Mustaches touching their feet
Beards touching the ground
Disheveled unshaven hairs covered their entire bodies
The people looked around
They noticed their sharp resemblance
To the animals living above them
Surely the people thought...
They must have evolved from these creatures living above them
And as time passes they outgrew their long tails
“Oh God!” Pleaded the people
“Did You not make room for us too?”
God heard the pleas of the people and pitied them
And God showed the people mercy
Grateful were the people
Pale from the dark shelter of the caves and unshaven hairs
They were guided to a place where they could share in the land
The people thanked God for taking them to green pastures
They set up systems
On the money the people put God first and boldly proclaimed
“In Almighty God We Trust"
The people established a Holiday specifically to thank God for remembering them
God prospered the people He brought out from the underground caves
As time passes the people became selfish, greedy and violent
The underground people forgot how God took them out of the dark caves
The people from below forgot God's mercy
Because the people lived among the stony caves
They knew not how to make the land productive
The people sought expertise exploitively
The people concocted and instituted bitter irrational laws
To hold the experts as hostages against their will
Experts brought great success
The experts grew crops that were traded profitably
Experts were unpaid
Even with the huge booming success of the crops they grew
The people that came out from below the caves
Unrelentingly wants everything above the caves
As the era rotates
From one era to the next
Like each era is destined to be
Until the era's sun sets
”
”
Maisie Aletha Smikle
“
Our Father Hallowed be YHWH
YHWH mighty God. Our Redeemer. Our Deliverer. Our Solace. Our Comforter. We glorify You. You indeed are the most supreme. Ruler of all things visible and invisible. O mighty Father, YHWH, our God who is...who will...and forever will be because Thou changeth not. We magnify You. You O mighty God delivered Yeshua from under the grave and Caucasions from under the cave. Hear O God our cry and our plea. Deliver us from all evil and lead us not into temptation we beseech Thee O YHWH. Show us Your mercy in the name of Yeshua. We give Thee thanks. Amen.
”
”
Maisie Aletha Smikle
“
These mechs—rays—stim—have been used always as the forbidden fruit of life, the last treasure in the temple of secrecy which has consumed the ancient science. The orgies which the uses of such stimulants inspire have been going on secretly since the earliest times—beneath the temples and in the secret pleasure palaces of the world. (Shaver here seems to be talking of our modern world, not of ancient Mu. —Ed.)
These orgies still go on, and are more deadly than before—more filled with de accumulated in the apparatus, the stim itself concealing the deadly rays whose effect is explained as the sad results of overindulgence; which is untrue—the stim is a beneficial of great virtue and leaves one stronger and wiser after use.
“The legend of the sirens is an example of ancient mechs which no one could resist—in the hands of evil degenerates it became a deadly attraction—drawing shiploads of men to death and the ships to looting.
“The course of history, the battles, the decisions of tyrants and kings—was almost invariably decided by interfering control from the caverns and their hidden apparatus. This interference, this use of the apparatus in a prankish, evil, destructive way, is the source of god worship, the thrill of divinity, the sensing of the invisible, the prostration of the will before the stronger will of the ray gen (hidden and unknown as it was).
“The remarkable part of it all is that it still goes on today. Emotional and mental stim—unsuspected by such as you and the average citizen—used in mad prankishness, all come from the ancient apparatus. If you will remember your stage fright in the school play, the many other times when your emotions seem to have gone awry without sufficient reason—were these natural?
“The dero of the caves are the greatest menace to our happiness and progress; the cause of many mad things that happen to us, even so far as murder. Many people know something of it, but they say they do not. They are lying. They fear to be called mad, or to be held up to ridicule. Examine your own memory carefully. You will find many evidences of outside stim, some good, some evil—but mostly evil.
”
”
Richard S. Shaver (The Shaver Mystery, Book One)
“
Gildingham, the goblins’ golden capital, which seemed to be tucked among the Andes Mountains—and probably inspired the human myths of El Dorado. Ravagog, the ogre stronghold on the Eventide River, which was apparently hidden in the lushest part of central Asia. Loamnore, a city Sophie assumed was the dwarven capital, since the enormous metropolis was under the Gobi desert rather than above it. And Marintrylla, an island near New Zealand that was probably the trollish capital and seemed to be an intricate network of caves and bridges.
”
”
Shannon Messenger (Flashback (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #7))
“
When you just can’t bear all the selfishness, lies and spite,
When it feels like the weight of the world is on your shoulders,
When you’re tired of with fortune, putting up a fight,
When you think you’re stuck in a dark cave with no light between the boulders-
Just remember, that after the darkest hour only, comes the dawn,
And many doors will open up, if you just learn to carry on!
”
”
Neelam Saxena Chandra (Winter Shall fade)
“
True blindness occurs when a person disregards the sole source of light within the cave.
”
”
Kwesi Eyiah
“
They were here to catch a glimpse of the kaleidoscope of color within their souls. To examine closely the beauty that lurks inside all of us but is rarely seen. They were here to explore the radiant spectrum of their inner selves, to uncover a magical primal strength inherited from their ancestors. They sought treasures buried in caves that many feared to enter.
”
”
Ronald Duren Jr. (The Art of Forging Mettle: A Blueprint for the Evolution of Mental Toughness and Leadership for a Shifting World)
“
Groceries, baby, listen to your friend Richard. You go set your lily-white ass down in that meditation cave every day for the next three months and I promise you this--you're gonna start seeing some stuff that's so damn beautiful it'll make you wanna throw rocks at the Taj Mahal.
”
”
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
“
We have no idea that there is a larger world of truth outside these confines, and we mistake these phantom images for reality. We laugh, cry, love and fight in a phantom world. The task of the philosopher is to break those chains, exit the cave, and see the deeper causes of things—to gaze, however tenuously, at the sun that casts light on this whole farce and, by doing so, inspire others to follow suit. When we mistake the shadows for truth, we take the changing appearances of the senses to be the whole of reality.
”
”
Kevin Perry (Philosophy)
“
Worry is like an endless dark cave which leads nowhere - instead, seize the light of day through some form of self improvement and stay out of the cave.
”
”
D Cimino
“
You can Live in your Cave OR Dance to your Grave.
”
”
R.V.M.
“
God's voice will be heard in the cave but only His visions will be revealed to you on the mountain. (A bit deep). God will always love you and will always speak to you but when you lose your perspective, you won't see his plan.
”
”
Patience Johnson (Why Does an Orderly God Allow Disorder)
“
I love a mysterious underground and have exploited this in many of my books: the ice tunnels of Greenland, the volcanic tubes of Iceland, the mysterious passageways beneath an ancient African hillside or a Buddhist monastery in central China. And of course, London's famous tube system, setting for my book LONDON UNDERGROUND. It's a funny sort of fixation, especially given my mother's claustrophobia, which I saw her deal with on many occasions. We once lined up to take a tour into the Lascaux Caverns in France to see the ancient cave paintings. My mother didn't make it past the first quirky turn into the depths, and she sent me on by myself. Given her interest in history and archaeology, which she used as the basis for a series of mysteries she published and which inspired my own writing, it always surprised me she still loved to write about places she could never visit.
”
”
Chris Angus
“
In all my twenty years of wandering over the restless waters of the globe I can only remember one Christmas Day celebrated by a present given and received. It was, in my view, a proper live-sea transaction, no offering of Dead Sea fruit; and in its unexpectedness perhaps worth recording. Let me tell you first that it happened in the year 1879, long before there was any thought of wireless message, and when an inspired person trying to prophesy broadcasting would have been regarded as a particularly offensive nuisance and probably sent to a rest-cure home. We used to call them madhouses then, in our rude, cave-man way.
”
”
Charles Dickens (Delphi Christmas Collection Volume I (Illustrated) (Delphi Anthologies Book 6))
“
Parts of her that had been separated for transit were still in limbo, unwrapping, trying to find their way home to her body.
Wolf, D.C.. q-cave (p. 7). D. C. Wolf. Kindle Edition.
”
”
D.C. Wolf (q-cave)
“
But mysterious caves and tunnels always have luminous fungi, strangely bright crystals or at a pinch merely an eldritch glow in the air, just in case a human hero comes in and needs to see in the dark. Strange but true.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (Men at Arms (Discworld, #15; City Watch, #2))
“
You cannot kill giants while running from rabbits.
You cannot scale mountains while hiding in caves.
You cannot take territory if you give away your inheritance.
And, you cannot cast out of the atmosphere what resides in your heart.
”
”
Prophet Michael A Dalton
“
the key to happiness is understanding how the real world works. This idea stood in contrast to Plato-inspired utopian dreams, including John Calvin’s Geneva (a favorite target in the Enlightenment). Our highest ideals are not reflections of some transcendent reality, Enlightenment thinkers argued, or some higher truth. They are just that, ideals: insubstantial playthings of the mind that can deceive as often as they can inspire.
”
”
Arthur Herman (The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization)
“
It was built sometime in the thirteenth century by one Dermid MacArbin,’ Tony replies. ‘The clan was here before that, of course, but just living in hovels or caves in the mountains. This Dermid was the second son, and therefore of little importance in the scheme of things, but, being of an ambitious turn of mind, he killed his elder brother, and threw his body into the loch, thereby becoming head of the clan. Dermid’s first act as chief was to set about the building of a stronghold – Castle Darroch. Some say he imported an Italian architect, others that he designed the place himself; in any case it is a very creditable piece of work, considering the primitive tools at his command. Every stone had to be hewn out of the solid rock, and carried up the cliff by human labour – of course, the whole clan toiled at it, and, I expect, they cursed old Dermid properly when his back was turned. Dermid must have been very proud of the castle – it must have been exciting watching it grow, day by day, and seeing his dream take – shape but he never lived to enjoy it, for the very day that it was finished his brother’s ghost rose up out of the loch and carried him off.’ The scene is so awe-inspiring that the story is easily believed – those dark green waters look as though they could hold many a fearsome secret.
”
”
D.E. Stevenson (Mrs Tim of the Regiment (Mrs. Tim #1))
“
The End of What Begun by Maisie Aletha Smikle
All that begun
Have spun
Time has come
Thread is always broken at the end
Teeth clatter
Fowls flutter
All that matter
Went clitter clatter
Mountains shuddered and fled
To roaring river beds
Valleys climbed up instead
Rocks flew topsy turvy hitting everybody's head
Trees took refuge in caves
Sparrows flew by and waved
Bringing news of a tidal wave
Into caves splashed the waves
Caves caved in
And there was no inn
The inns caved in
And waves dived in
Grasping tree trunks
Carried by the waves
Floating on the ebb of the tide
Animals and all glide and took a ride
A ride to hide from an end
Which has come
For what had begun
Has spun reaching it's broken end
”
”
Maisie Aletha Smikle
“
Life is like a big cave with numerous doors. Only there's mist around our eyes, and we can't see them.
When one door closes, the other opens, and when the second one closes, third opens and so on and so forth.
So never give up....
”
”
Neelam Saxena Chandra
“
A hundred miles beyond the point, the farthest point, the most distant point on the horizon. Out past the alkali flats and sinks; Misfit and Stillwater, Humboldt and Carson. Out over the mountains, ice age islands and archipelagos, Ichthyosaur, Columbian Mastodon boned talus slopes and scree fields. Beyond the Saltbrush, Bitterbrush, Creosote Plants and Rabbitbrush, petrified Redwood forests and Mount Mazama blowouts. Out over the playas, hoodos and springs, koi ponds and basins. Beyond the mustangs, horned lizards, whiptails and rattlers and over the abandoned mines; silver and gold, copper, bornite and cinnabar. Out past the hematite and jasper, chert and agate. Out over Lovelock, Spirit Cave and Wizard's Beach. Beyond the grinding rocks, diorite and granitic boulders cast adrift in a sea of sand, dust and wind. Beyond the Rye Grass, Rice Grass and Bunchgrass. Out over the land into the distance and beyond. The distance of a thousand years, a million years, a century, a lifetime. A distance of roads forgotten and graves abandoned, misplaced Iris and Lilac the only indication of a person's passing. Out past Bonneville, Daggett, Donner and Walker. The two tracks, the single tracks, the deer and coyote tracks, lizard tracks and no tracks at all.
Out over the land.....
”
”
P Edmonds Young
“
A hundred miles beyond the point, the farthest point, the most distant point on the horizon.
Out past the alkali flats and sinks; Misfit and Stillwater, Humboldt and Carson. Out over the mountains, ice age islands and archipelagos, Ichthyosaur, Columbian Mastodon boned talus slopes and scree fields. Beyond the Saltbrush, Bitterbrush, Creosote Plants and Rabbitbrush, petrified Redwood forests and Mount Mazama blowouts. Out over the playas, hoodos and springs, koi ponds and basins. Beyond the mustangs, horned lizards, whiptails and rattlers and over the abandoned mines; silver and gold, copper, bornite and cinnabar. Out past the hematite and jasper, chert and agate. Out over Lovelock, Spirit Cave and Wizard's Beach. Beyond the grinding rocks, diorite and granitic boulders cast adrift in a sea of sand, dust and wind. Beyond the Rye Grass, Ricegrass and Bunchgrass. Out over the land and into the distance and beyond. The distance of a thousand years, a million years, a century, a lifetime. A distance of roads forgotten and graves abandoned, misplaced Iris and Lilac the only indication of a person's passing. Out past Bonneville, Daggett, Donner and Walker. The two tracks, the single tracks, the deer tracks, coyote tracks, lizard tracks and no tracks at all.
Out over the land.....
”
”
P. Edmonds Young (The Leaving Time)
“
For Plato, of course, there existed beyond the realm of ordinary sense-experience the world of Forms, for which outward, earthly appearances—including symbols such as language itself—were mere and meager representations. Words were simply incapable of accurately describing or illustrating this divine realm. The logic and reason of the Aristotelians occupied its true home only in the sphere of sense-experience—in what Pletho had nonchalantly dismissed as the world of oysters and embryos. The Aristotelian philosophy on which western Christianity depended therefore offered a misguided point of departure in any quest for inexpressible truths and eternal verities. The clumsy wordings of dogmas, liturgies, creeds: such things were mere shadow puppets on the wall of the Platonic cave; debates framed by Aristotelian philosophy could never hope to approach or capture their proper forms. On the other hand, Plato’s philosophy, with its belief in a unity embracing scattered differences, offered a more promising chance to find a concord between the Greeks and the Latins. Bessarion and Traversari duly worked out a compromise on the fraught question of the Procession of the Holy Spirit. They came up with the argument that since the saints in both the East and West had been inspired by the same Holy Spirit, it scarcely mattered whether this Holy Spirit proceeded from both the Father and the Son or simply from the Father. It was, after all, merely a matter of semantics—of whether one believed that “from” (εκ) and “through” (διά) meant the same thing. As Bessarion put it in the context of another dispute, the two parties “agreed in substance and differed only in words.
”
”
Ross King (The Bookseller of Florence: The Story of the Manuscripts That Illuminated the Renaissance)
“
What if you have a pen and you can sketch a dream of another's?
Sounds beautiful, right? It is even more wonderfully beautiful when you actually do it, for dreams are connected like all of our souls. Dreams are like little stars of our soul, and when you paint one with the stardust of your soul, be it yours or another's, the sky of your soul would always sparkle with the light of a tranquil smile.
There is nothing more valuable than holding a hand and telling that person that you believe in that soul and that nothing is truly impossible, after all each and every soul is a reflection of this infinite Universe. There is no treasure richer than a smile of a heart, and when you sprinkle your goodness around and embrace all with the bliss of your own soul, with the love of your heart and the light of your mind, your door of happiness would always be unlocked where you can walk in anytime, and no matter how dark this cave of reality might be, the sky inside that door is always the brightest with a thousand sunshine of an infinite halo of dreams.
I know and I have seen that when you are good while most of the people around would embrace you, get inspired and try to walk with you, there would also be a few who would doubt you and even try to pull you down by demotivating or derogatory words but do not let them win over your stardust, rather shine so bright that even their darkness is eaten up by your light.
Let your good heart be your strength and walk with courage that God is the ultimate witness and the judge of all. Don't even halt for a second to think if you would help another, no matter how distant that person might be, in fact even if that person hasn't been good to you, or scarred you, you stay true to your path and treat everyone with compassion and love and know that in the book of Life every chapter finds a beginning and an ending, you paint that ending with a smile on the heart of every person you meet, knowing that smiles are the brightest sunshine of this Universe.
The world might try to distract you and your mind might try to tell you that it doesn't matter, but then stay focused on this journey of Love and listen to your heart who knows that everything matters at the end of the day, after all nothing goes in waste ever.
Help everyone even if that costs you something, because your help might just bring the most needed smile in a heart and every smile shines with a thousand radiance.
Go an extra mile, and stay connected with every soul you have met in this voyage of Life because everyone you have come across has shaped your soul and your destination bit by bit.
Value friends and family and say thank you and sorry often, not as a formality but as a reminder that every action or thought counts, knowing that relationships bloom like a watered plant.
Resonate love and light and stay kind, no matter what falls on your path, because eventually all it takes is an iota of love to declutter a cloud of darkness.
Let the goodness of your heart be your guide and keep holding that pen to sketch a dream of another's, because every dream is a painting of a soul in the Infinite canvas of this beautiful Universe.
So, I decide to hold the pen and sketch a dream of another's. Do you?
”
”
Debatrayee Banerjee
“
Consider how you can use visual pattern to define a space for its purpose and activity...
- In the bathroom, you might want to use rippled or soft undulating patterns to remind yourself of the calmness of water, think water surface, sand, or shell patterns.
- In the living room, leafy patterns and forest-inspired shapes and patterns can be relaxing and restorative.
- Retreats or quiet spaces such as bedrooms or home offices might benefit from images of sheltered or secluded natural spaces, for example cave-like patterns.
- By contrast, lively spaces may suit patterns of more dynamic natural systems, such as waterfalls and rivers.
Remember that there is a balance to strive for here. Subtlety is key, so the patterns don't dominate the space and overwhelm you. Also keep in mind that there are no straight lines in nature, so hard edges can appear harsh.
”
”
Oliver Heath (Design A Healthy Home: 100 ways to transform your space for physical and mental wellbeing)
“
How do you make anyone actually want to do any of this stuff? How do you flip the internal switch that changes us all back into the Natural Born Runners we once were? Not just in history, but in our own lifetimes. Remember? Back when you were a kid and you had to be yelled at to slow down? Every game you played, you played at top speed, sprinting like crazy as you kicked cans, freed all, and attacked jungle outposts in your neighbors’ backyards. Half the fun of doing anything was doing it at record pace, making it probably the last time in your life you’d ever be hassled for going too fast. That was the real secret of the Tarahumara: they’d never forgotten what it felt like to love running. They remembered that running was mankind’s first fine art, our original act of inspired creation. Way before we were scratching pictures on caves or beating rhythms on hollow trees, we were perfecting the art of combining our breath and mind and muscles into fluid self-propulsion over wild terrain. And when our ancestors finally did make their first cave paintings, what were the first designs? A downward slash, lightning bolts through the bottom and middle—behold, the Running Man.
”
”
Christopher McDougall (Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen)
“
The commencement of the Divine Inspiration to Allah's Messenger was in the form of good dreams which came true like bright day light, and then the love of seclusion was bestowed upon him. He used to go into seclusion in the cave of Hira where he used to worship (Allah alone) continuously for many days before his desire to see his family.
”
”
Muhammad Bukhari (Sahih Al Bukhari Hadith Volume 1 of 9 In English Only Translation Book 1 to 12: Kindle)
“
Low anthropology powerfully reframes the way we approach the good or beautiful things done by otherwise disreputable individuals -- namely, as evidence of grace rather than defilement. As musician Nick Cave notes, "Perhaps beauty can be measured by the distance it has travelled to come into being. That bad people make good art is a cause for hope.
”
”
David Zahl (Low Anthropology: The Unlikely Key to a Gracious View of Others (and Yourself))
“
... autour de cette place banale, avec son PMU, sa boulangerie, son agence immobilière, et non loin de l'église toujours vide, un monde jouissait pleinement de son sursis. Et en ce beau dimanche de mai qui tirait vers le soir, le temps était si bon, la vie si patiente qu'il était presque impossible de deviner l'immense accumulation de gaz qui ronflait dans les caves de cet univers inquiet de sa fin.
”
”
Nicolas Mathieu (Connemara)
“
The West has been compassionate, visionary, and creative during certain periods of history, yet dynamic, hardheaded, and imperialistic in others—even at the same time. Its technologies have saved millions and killed hundreds of thousands of others at a single press of a button. Its theologies have inspired some of the greatest works in human history, and also burned helpless victims at the stake. Its ideologies have created the freest and most dynamic societies in the world, and also the most brutal tyrannies in the history of man. Why? Much, if not all, the answer lies in the perpetual struggle between Plato and Aristotle.
”
”
Arthur Herman (The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization)
“
The following, then, were the daughters of Nereus:{157} Ploto, “the swimmer”; Eukrante, “the bringer of fulfilment”; Sao, “the rescuer”; Amphitrite (who, as I shall later tell, became the wife of Poseidon); Eudora, “she of good gifts”; Thetis (of whom I have spoken and shall speak again); Galene, “calm weather”; Glauke, “the sea-green”; Kymothoe, “the wave-swift”; Speio, “the dweller in caves”; Thoe, “the nimble”; Halia, “the dweller in the sea”; Pasithea; Erato, “the awakener of desire” (which is the name also of one of the Muses); Eunike, “she of happy victory”; Melite; Eulimene, “she of good haven”; Agaue, “the noble”; Doto, “the giver”; Proto, “the first”; Pherousa, “the bringer”; Dynamene; Nesaia, “the dweller on islands”; Aktaia, “the dweller on coasts”; Protomedeia, “the first ruleress”; Doris (who, like Eudora, whose name has the same meaning, is also one of the Okeaninai); Panopeia; Galateia (that Aphrodite-like sea-goddess who was wooed by the Kyklops Polyphemos—the enemy, later on, of Odysseus—and was loved by the beautiful Akis); Hippothoe, “swift as a mare”; Hipponoe, “unruly as a mare”; Kymodoke, “the wave-gatherer”; Kymatolege, “the wave-stiller”; Kymo, “the wave-goddess”; Eione, “the snore-goddess”; Halimede, “the sea-goddess of good counsel”; Glaukonome, “the dweller in the green sea”; Pontopereia, “the seafarer”; Leiagora and Euagora, “the eloquent”; Laomedeia, “ruleress of the people”; Polynoe, “giver of reason”; Autonoe, “giver of inspiration”; Lysianassa, “the redeeming mistress”; Euarne; Psamathe, “the sand-goddess”; Menippe, “the courageous mare”; Neso, “the island-goddess”; Eupompe, “she of good escort”; Themisto (a sort of double of the great goddess Themis); Pronoe, “the provident”; and Nemertes, “the truthful”, who in knowing and telling the truth resembles her immortal father.
”
”
Karl Kerényi (The Gods of The Greeks)
“
Leave the cave of darkness, move into God's light, and begin blessed birth!
”
”
Joseph S. Spence Sr.
“
Nature Thou Art Beautiful
Tiny waterfalls tumbling down elegant slopes of smoothly eroded treacherous rocks.....
Trees magnificently and beautifully displayed.
Their branches sheltering little springs that sprout from beneath.
Soft clouds beckon from above.
Like wool blankets, hovering over trees, mountains, hills, cliffs, caves and plains.
Moistening hilltops, freshly fallen leaves, trees, grass, valleys and meadows with their heavenly dew.
Wind hearkens it's ears, to the voice of the One who speaks the language of the winds.
The winds obey and swaying breeze gently rock nature sweetly, to slumber.....
The stars shine, the moon is bright and it's a starry night. O slumber thou art indeed sweet. O nature's lullabies have rocked me to sleep...
Zzzz... and the night is spent....
"Hello!" greets the Sun.
"I'm here to start all over again!
”
”
Maisie Aletha Smikle
“
The Tide
Gushing to the shore
I must have more
I aim to reach a beach
That's beyond my reach
Be still whispers the wave
You may just land in a cave
I can't be still my name is Tide
I shall not hide
I'll take your foam
You need not groan
I'll take to shore what weighs you down
And fossils that you refuse to own
Soon I will land
On the soft sand
Then turn around for a trip again
Doing my part to keep the ocean clean
I go up and I go down
I rise and I fall
I ebb and I flow
Just to make the ocean glow
I bring you measures
Of timeless treasures
I bring you archaeological fossils
I shall n’t be still
For soon I will turn around
To return again
With gifts from the ocean
And endless fun beneath the sun
”
”
Maisie Aletha Smikle
“
We do things we don’t want to do in order to avoid doing the things we actually want to do.
”
”
Cave Man (Modern Human's Handbook)
“
Together with Aristotle, he created a civic tradition founded on the heroic image of the orator, who inspires his countrymen by a combination of eloquence, rational argument, and moral vision, and by doing so rallies his nation in a time of crisis. From Washington’s farewell speech to Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Kennedy’s inaugural, Cicero and Aristotle would inspire a vital part of American political culture.
”
”
Arthur Herman (The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization)
“
Christianity, Origen sometimes implies, is nothing less than Platonism for the masses.37 However, the figure at the center of his sermons and his pastoral work was Jesus. Origen devoted more of his attention to Jesus as a person than any previous Christian thinker. He saw him not only as the son of God and the Messiah (the principal theme of Saint Paul’s epistles), but as a role model and inspiration for the individual Christian. Jesus served as a walking, talking example of how anyone could live in conformity with the highest moral principles: in short, as the consummate Socratic philosopher.
”
”
Arthur Herman (The Cave and the Light: Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization)