β
A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.
β
β
Steve Martin
β
Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.
β
β
Ralph Waldo Emerson
β
And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.
β
β
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
β
I've found that there is always some beauty left -- in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.
β
β
Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl)
β
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
β
β
Walt Whitman
β
How happy is the blameless vestalβs lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each prayβr accepted, and each wish resignβd
β
β
Alexander Pope (Eloisa to Abelard)
β
Laughter is sunshine, it chases winter from the human face.
β
β
Victor Hugo (Les MisΓ©rables)
β
Don't worry, little dhampir. You might be surrounded by clouds, but you'll always be like sunshine to me.
β
β
Richelle Mead (Shadow Kiss (Vampire Academy, #3))
β
Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...
"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...
β
β
Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden)
β
I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.
β
β
Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer (Tropic, #1))
β
Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
β
β
J.M. Barrie
β
Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.
β
β
Louisa May Alcott
β
Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.
β
β
Hans Christian Andersen (The Complete Fairy Tales)
β
Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.
β
β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
β
Be an encourager. Scatter sunshine. Who knows whose life you might touch with something as simple as a kind word.
β
β
Debbie Macomber
β
I crossed the street to walk in the sunshine.
β
β
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
β
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.
β
β
John Muir (The Mountains of California)
β
The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.
β
β
Norman Vincent Peale (Power of Positive Thinking)
β
It takes sunshine and rain to make a rainbow. There would be no rainbows without sunshine and rain.
β
β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine.
β
β
Ralph Waldo Emerson
β
As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?
β
β
Anne Frank (The Diary of a Young Girl)
β
I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house."
[Notebook, Oct. 10, 1842]
β
β
Nathaniel Hawthorne (The American Notebooks: The Centenary Edition (Volume 8))
β
Keep your face to the sun and you will never see the shadows.
β
β
Helen Keller
β
The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.
β
β
Walt Whitman
β
Hope itself is like a star- not to be seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and only to be discovered in the night of adversity.
β
β
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
β
Some people seemed to get all sunshine, and some all shadowβ¦
β
β
Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)
β
Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins.
β
β
Gustave Flaubert (November)
β
What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.
β
β
Joseph Addison
β
Some people are so much sunshine to the square inch.
β
β
Walt Whitman
β
It was June, and the world smelled of roses. The sunshine was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.
β
β
Maud Hart Lovelace (Betsy-Tacy and Tib (Betsy-Tacy, #2))
β
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.
β
β
John Ruskin
β
Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.
β
β
Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)
β
We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won't do harm - yes, choose a place where you won't do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.
β
β
E.M. Forster (A Room with a View)
β
I feel like Iβve been split open and stuffed with sunshine.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3))
β
You are the light to my dark, Sunshine,β he said in a raw voice. His lips brushed against mine as he spoke. βWithout you, Iβm lost.
β
β
Ana Huang (Twisted Love (Twisted, #1))
β
Love is the jelly to sunshineβs peanut butter. And if I tell you that Iβm in sandwich with you, Iβm not just saying it to get in your Ziploc bag.
β
β
Jarod Kintz (Love quotes for the ages. Specifically ages 18-81.)
β
She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust.
β
β
Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1))
β
A boy may be as disagreeable as he pleases, but when a girl refuses to crap sunshine on command, the world mutters darkly about her moods.
β
β
Scott Lynch (The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3))
β
Good morning, sunshine." Kenji blinks in our direction.
"Morning," I say back.
"I wasn't talking to you," he says, trying to smile.
"I was talking to the sunshine.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Ignite Me (Shatter Me, #3))
β
You know I'm old in some ways-in others-well, I'm just a little girl. I like sunshine and pretty things and cheerfulness-and I dread responsibility.
β
β
F. Scott Fitzgerald (This Side of Paradise)
β
I believe in some blending of hope and sunshine sweetening the worst lots. I believe that this life is not all; neither the beginning nor the end. I believe while I tremble; I trust while I weep.
β
β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Villette)
β
Youβre our chemist, Wylan,β said Nina hopefully. βWhat do you think?β
Wylan shrugged. βMaybe. Not all poisons have an antidote.β
Jesper snorted. βThatβs why we call him Wylan Van Sunshine.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2))
β
I'm not a concept. Too many guys think I'm a concept or I complete them or I'm going to 'make them alive'β¦but I'm just a fucked up girl who's looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours.
β
β
Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: The Shooting Script)
β
This is life, and I will not lie by saying every day will be sunshine. But there will be sunshine again, and that is a very different thing to say. That is truth.
β
β
Brandon Sanderson (Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4))
β
Good morning, Sunshine.
β
β
Katja Millay (The Sea of Tranquility)
β
What? Sunshine fits you. It's bright and warm and happy. Just. Like. You.
β
β
Katja Millay (The Sea of Tranquility)
β
I was born to catch dragons in their dens / And pick flowers / To tell tales and laugh away the morning / To drift and dream like a lazy stream / And walk barefoot across sunshine days.
β
β
James Kavanaugh (Sunshine Days and Foggy Nights)
β
I don't put up with being messed around, and I don't suffer fools gladly. The short version of that is that I'm a bitch. Trust me, I can provide character references.
β
β
Robin McKinley (Sunshine)
β
You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled - not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (Grishaverse, #0.5, 2.5, 2.6))
β
Not only did
I love her,
but I could tell
the universe loved
her, too.
More than others.
She was different.
After all; I would
be a fool not to
notice the way the
sunshine played with
her hair.
β
β
Christopher Poindexter
β
Even trained for years as they all had been in precision of language, what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine?
β
β
Lois Lowry (The Giver (The Giver, #1))
β
Minho snickered and leaned back in his chair. βMan, you are one butt-load of sunshine, let me tell you.
β
β
James Dashner (The Maze Runner (The Maze Runner, #1))
β
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!
β
β
Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa)
β
No, I don't miss you... Not in a way that one is missed.
But I think of you.
Sometimes.
In the way that one might think of the summer sunshine
On a winter night...
β
β
Sreesha Divakaran (Those Imperfect Strokes)
β
Call me Sunshine again, and I will murder you, cocksucker.
β
β
Katja Millay (The Sea of Tranquility)
β
Love comforeth like sunshine after rain,
But Lust's effect is tempest after sun.
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain;
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done.
Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies;
Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies.
β
β
William Shakespeare (The Complete Sonnets and Poems)
β
I believe in the hands that work, in the brains that think, and in the hearts that love...I believe in sunshine, fresh air, friendship, calm sleep, beautiful thoughts.
β
β
Elbert Hubbard
β
As long as you're alive, there's always a chance things will get better."
"Or worse," said Liraz.
"Yes," he conceded. "Usually worse."
Hazael cut in. "My sister, Sunshine, and my brother, Light. You two should rally the ranks. You'll have us killing ourselves by morning.
β
β
Laini Taylor (Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2))
β
Γ, Sunlight! The most precious gold to be found on Earth.
β
β
Roman Payne
β
For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened - then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk.
β
β
F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
β
The train is roaring toward you and the villain is twirling his moustache and you're fussing that he's tied you to the tracks with the wrong kind of rope.
β
β
Robin McKinley (Sunshine)
β
Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.
β
β
Luther Burbank
β
Adventures are not all pony-rides in May-sunshine.
β
β
J.R.R. Tolkien
β
What did you call her?" she asks but I don't think it's her real question.
"Sunshine," I say, and she smiles like she believes it's perfect and she may be the only person other than me who would think so.
"What is she to you?" she whispers. The real question and I know the answer even if I don't know how to say it.
Drew's muffled voice rises up from the floor before I can respond.
"Family," he says.
And he's right.
β
β
Katja Millay
β
It will,β Wit said, βbut then it will get better. Then it will get worse again. Then better. This is life, and I will not lie by saying every day will be sunshine. But there will be sunshine again, and that is a very different thing to say. That is truth. I promise you, Kaladin: You will be warm again.
β
β
Brandon Sanderson (Rhythm of War (The Stormlight Archive, #4))
β
His heart was like a sensitive plant, that opens for a moment in the sunshine, but curls up and shrinks into itself at the slightest touch of the finger, or the lightest breath of wind.
β
β
Anne BrontΓ« (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall)
β
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows. It's what the sunflowers do.
β
β
Helen Keller
β
Sunshine, if I ever disappear, please tell people that I ran after the Devil, trying to get my soul back.
β
β
April Genevieve Tucholke (Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (Between, #1))
β
Laughter is a sunbeam of the soul.
β
β
Thomas Mann (The Magic Mountain)
β
But sometimes it's the sunshine that frightens us more than the big black shadows.
β
β
Megan Hart (Broken)
β
But I have seen the best of you and the worst of you, and I choose both. I want to share every single one of your sunshines and save them for later. I will tuck them into my pockets so I can give them back to you when the rain falls hard. Friend, I want to be the mirror that reminds you to love yourself. I want to be the air in your lungs that reminds you to breath. When the walls come down, when the thunder rumbles, when nobody else is home, hold my hand, and I promise I wonβt let go.
β
β
Sarah Kay
β
Josh isnβt in love with me and Iβm not in love with him.β
βSell it to someone whoβs buying, Sunshine. Have you seen the way he looks at you?β Iβve seen the way he looks at me but I donβt know what it means. βLike youβre a seventeenth-century, hand-carved table in mint condition.
β
β
Katja Millay (The Sea of Tranquility)
β
Good Morning, Sunshine!" Josh F**king Bennett. By now, I'm pretty sure that if I were to find his birth certificate that is exactly what it would say.
β
β
Katja Millay (The Sea of Tranquility)
β
Once, long ago in her world, a sunny day in spring was her favorite, but now a sunny day in winter delights her more. It is the perfect metaphor for their love.
Sunshine on ice.
She warms his frost. He cools her fever.
β
β
Karen Marie Moning (Shadowfever (Fever, #5))
β
Karou wished she could be the kind of girl who was complete unto herself, comfortable in solitude, serene. But she wasn't. She was lonely, and she feared the missingness within her as if it might expand and... cancel her. She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust.
β
β
Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1))
β
As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness -- just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.
β
β
Laura Ingalls Wilder (Writings to Young Women from Laura Ingalls Wilder: On Wisdom and Virtues (Writings to Young Women on Laura Ingalls Wilder #1))
β
Outside the windows the day was bright: golden sunshine, blue sky, pleasant wind . . . I wanted to punch the happy day in the face, grab it by the hair, and beat it until it told me what the hell it was so happy about.
β
β
Ilona Andrews (Magic Rises (Kate Daniels, #6))
β
I don't know how to say it - after all this time, I'm not even sure that I can - but I have to break her last rule, because if she knows nothing else, I need her to know this one thing.
'I love you, Sunshine,' I tell her, before I lose my nerve. 'And I don't give a shit whether you want me to or not.
β
β
Katja Millay (The Sea of Tranquility)
β
my mother
is pure radiance.
she is the sun
i can touch
and kiss
and hold
without
getting burnt.
β
β
Sanober Khan
β
Di mana pun dia berada. Dan kuharap dia tahu bahwa selama aku masih bernafas, aku akan selalu mencintainya. Sepenuh hatiku. Selamanya. -Alex Hirano
β
β
Ilana Tan (Sunshine Becomes You)
β
(on grief) And you do come out of it, thatβs true. After a year, after five. But you donβt come out of it like a train coming out of a tunnel, bursting through the downs into sunshine and that swift, rattling descent to the Channel; you come out of it as a gull comes out of an oil-slick. You are tarred and feathered for life.
β
β
Julian Barnes (Flaubert's Parrot)
β
We are all dying, every moment that passes of every day. That is the inescapable truth of this existence. It is a truth that can paralyze us with fear, or one that can energize us with impatience, with the desire to explore and experience, with the hope- nay, the iron-will!- to find a memory in every action. To be alive, under sunshine, or starlight, in weather fair or stormy. To dance with every step, be they through gardens of flowers or through deep snows.
β
β
R.A. Salvatore
β
Oh, are you doing magic? Letβs see it, then.β
She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.
βEr β all right.β
He cleared his throat.
βSunshine, daisies, butter mellow,
Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow.β
He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.
βAre you sure thatβs a real spell?β said the girl. βWell, itβs not very good, is it? Iβve tried a few simple spells just for practice and itβs all worked for me. Iβve learned all our course books by heart, of course.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1))
β
But friendship is precious, not only in the shade but in the sunshine of life; & thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine. I will recur for proof to the days we have lately passed. On these indeed the sun shone brightly.
β
β
Thomas Jefferson (Letters of Thomas Jefferson)
β
walaupun tidak ada hal lain di dunia ini yang bisa kau percayai, percayalah bahwa aku mecintaimu. sepenuh hatiku.
β
β
Ilana Tan (Sunshine Becomes You)
β
She was like the sun,
She knew her place in the world -
She would shine again regardless
of all the storms and changeable weather
She wouldn't adjust her purpose
for things that pass.
β
β
Nikki Rowe
β
We met at the wrong time. Thatβs what I keep telling myself anyway. Maybe one day years from now, weβll meet in a coffee shop in a far away city somewhere and we could give it another shot.
β
β
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
β
I love the night passionately. I love it as I love my country, or my mistress, with an instinctive, deep, and unshakeable love. I love it with all my senses: I love to see it, I love to breathe it in, I love to open my ears to its silence, I love my whole body to be caressed by its blackness. Skylarks sing in the sunshine, the blue sky, the warm air, in the fresh morning light. The owl flies by night, a dark shadow passing through the darkness; he hoots his sinister, quivering hoot, as though he delights in the intoxicating black immensity of space.
β
β
Guy de Maupassant
β
Love is an engraved invitation to grief.
β
β
Sunshine O'Donnell (Open Me)
β
Around us, life bursts with miracles--a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.
β
β
Thich Nhat Hanh
β
When I was a child, all problems had ended with a single word from my father. A smile from him was sunshine, his scowl a bolt of thunder. He was smart, and generous, and honorable without fail. He could exile a trespasser, check my math homework, and fix the leaky bathroom sink, all before dinner. For the longest time, I thought he was invincible. Above the petty problems that plagued normal people.
And now he was gone.
β
β
Rachel Vincent (Alpha (Shifters, #6))
β
Γ, Wanderess, Wanderess
When did you feel your
most euphoric kiss?
Was I the source
of your greatest bliss?
β
β
Roman Payne
β
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated
β
β
Thomas Paine (The Crisis)
β
Feeling at peace, however fragilely, made it easy to slip into the visionary end of the dark-sight. The rose shadows said that they loved the sun, but that they also loved the dark, where their roots grew through the lightless mystery of the earth. The roses said: You do not have to choose.
β
β
Robin McKinley (Sunshine)
β
It is a strange world, a sad world, a world full of miseries, and woes, and troubles. And yet when King Laugh come, he make them all dance to the tune he play. Bleeding hearts, and dry bones of the churchyard, and tears that burn as they fall, all dance together to the music that he make with that smileless mouth of him. Ah, we men and women are like ropes drawn tight with strain that pull us different ways. Then tears come, and like the rain on the ropes, they brace us up, until perhaps the strain become too great, and we break. But King Laugh he come like the sunshine, and he ease off the strain again, and we bear to go on with our labor, what it may be.
β
β
Bram Stoker (Dracula)
β
The sun,--the bright sun, that brings back, not light alone, but new life, and hope, and freshness to man--burst upon the crowded city in clear and radiant glory. Through costly-coloured glass and paper-mended window, through cathedral dome and rotten crevice, it shed its equal ray.
β
β
Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist)
β
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that! I'm always gonna love you, no matter what. No matter what happens. You're my son and you're my blood. You're the best thing in my life. But until you start believing in yourself, you ain't gonna have a life.
β
β
Sylvester Stallone (Rocky Balboa)
β
When someone you love dies, you are given the gift of "second chances". Their eulogy is a reminder that the living can turn their lives around at any point. Youβre not bound by the past; that is who you used to be. Youβre reminded that your feelings are not who you are, but how you felt at that moment. Your bad choices defined you yesterday, but they are not who you are today. Your future doesnβt have to travel the same path with the same people. You can start over. You donβt have to apologize to people that wonβt listen. You donβt have to justify your feelings or actions, during a difficult time in your life. You donβt have to put up with people that are insecure and want you to fail. All you have to do is walk forward with a positive outlook, and trust that God has a plan that is greater than the sorrow you left behind. The people of quality that were meant to be in your life wonβt need you to explain the beauty of your heart. They already understand what being human is----a roller coaster ride of emotions during rainstorms and sunshine, sprinkled with moments when you can almost reach the stars.
β
β
Shannon L. Alder
β
The big difference between my mom and me-- besides the fact that she is dead normal and I'm a magic-handling freak-- is that she's the real thing. She may have a slight problem seeing other people's points of view, but she's honest about it. She's a brass-bound bitch because she believes she knows best. I'm a brass-bound bitch because I don't want anyone getting close enough to find out what a whiny little knot of naked nerve endings I really am.
β
β
Robin McKinley (Sunshine)
β
Like the most of you, I was raised among people who knew - who were certain. They did not reason or investigate. They had no doubts. They knew that they had the truth. In their creed there was no guess β no perhaps. They had a revelation from God. They knew the beginning of things. They knew that God commenced to create one Monday morning, four thousand and four years before Christ. They knew that in the eternity β back of that morning, he had done nothing. They knew that it took him six days to make the earth β all plants, all animals, all life, and all the globes that wheel in space. They knew exactly what he did each day and when he rested. They knew the origin, the cause of evil, of all crime, of all disease and death.
At the same time they knew that God created man in his own image and was perfectly satisfied with his work... They knew all about the Flood -- knew that God, with the exception of eight, drowned all his children -- the old and young -- the bowed patriarch and the dimpled babe -- the young man and the merry maiden -- the loving mother and the laughing child -- because his mercy endureth forever. They knew too, that he drowned the beasts and birds -- everything that walked or crawled or flew -- because his loving kindness is over all his works. They knew that God, for the purpose of civilizing his children, had devoured some with earthquakes, destroyed some with storms of fire, killed some with his lightnings, millions with famine, with pestilence, and sacrificed countless thousands upon the fields of war. They knew that it was necessary to believe these things and to love God. They knew that there could be no salvation except by faith, and through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
Then I asked myself the question: Is there a supernatural power -- an arbitrary mind -- an enthroned God -- a supreme will that sways the tides and currents of the world -- to which all causes bow?
I do not deny. I do not know - but I do not believe. I believe that the natural is supreme - that from the infinite chain no link can be lost or broken β that there is no supernatural power that can answer prayer - no power that worship can persuade or change β no power that cares for man.
Is there a God?
I do not know.
Is man immortal?
I do not know.
One thing I do know, and that is, that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be.
We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellow-men. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine β with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy.
β
β
Robert G. Ingersoll (The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol 1: Lectures)