Light Quotes - Page 17

• There is no figure more common in scripture, and none more beautiful, than that by which Christ is likened unto light. Incomprehensible in its nature, itself the first visible, and that by which all things are seen, light represents to us Christ. Whose generation none can declare, but Who must shine upon us ere we can know aught aright, whether of things Divine or human.

  Herman Melville

  Beautiful, Shining, Generations

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• If cities were built by the sound of music, then some edifices would appear to be constructed by grave, solemn tones,--others to have danced forth to light fantastic airs.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Air, Cities, Sound

  Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Julian Hawthorne (2015). “Life and Genius of Nathaniel Hawthorne: Letters, Diaries, Reminiscences and Extensive Biographies: Autobiographical Writings of the Renowned American Novelist, Author of “The Scarlet Letter”, “The House of Seven Gables” and “Twice-Told Tales””, p.316, e-artnow

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• It is not strange that that early love of the heart should come back, as it so often does when the dim eye is brightening with its last light. It is not strange that the freshest fountains the heart has ever known in its wastes should bubble up anew when the lifeblood is growing stagnant. It is not strange that a bright memory should come to a dying old man, as the sunshine breaks across the hills at the close of a stormy day; nor that in the light of that ray, the very clouds that made the day dark should grow gloriously beautiful.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Beautiful, Death, Memories

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• Armour is light at table.

  George Herbert

  Tables, Armour

  George Herbert (1861). “The Poetical Works of G. H. and R. Heber. With Memoir”, p.272

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• The pure and benign light of revelation has had a meliorating influence on mankind.

  George Washington

  Influence, Christianity, Revelations

  George Washington (1855). “Maxims of Washington: Political, Social, Moral and Religious”, p.367

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• A Christian's wit is offensive light,
  A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight;
  Vig'rous in age as in the flush of youth,
  'Tis always active on the side of truth.

  William Cowper

  Christian, Grieving, Sight

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• If I freely may discover
  What should please me in my lover,
  I would have her fair and witty,
  Savouring more of court than city;
  A little proud, but full of pity;
  Light and humorous in her toying,
  Oft building hopes, and soon destroying,
  Long, but sweet in the enjoying;
  Neither too easy nor to hard;
  All extremes I would have barr'd.

  Ben Jonson

  Love, Sweet, Witty

  Ben Jonson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ben Jonson (Illustrated)”, p.690, Delphi Classics

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• O innocence, how glorious and happy a portion art thou to the breast that possesses thee! thou fearest neither the eyes nor the tongues of men. Truth, the most powerful of all things, is thy strongest friend; and the brighter the light is in which thou art displayed, the more it discovers thy transcendent beauties.

  Henry Fielding

  Art, Powerful, Eye

  Henry Fielding (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Fielding (Illustrated)”, p.1596, Delphi Classics

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• Every love has a poetic relevance of its own; each love brings to light only what to it is relevant. Outside lies the junk-yard of what does not matter.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Lying, Junk, Yards

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• And you, my Critics! in the chequer'd shade,
  Admire new light thro' holes yourselves have made.

  Alexander Pope

  Criticism, Shade, Holes

  Alexander Pope (1789). “The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: ...”, p.198

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• The Book, this Holy Book, on every line,
  Mark'd with the seal of high divinity,
  On every leaf bedew'd with drops of love
  Divine, and with the eternal heraldry
  And signature of God Almighty stamp'd
  From first to last; this ray of sacred light,
  This lamp, from off the everlasting throne,
  Mercy took down, and in the night of time
  Stood, casting on the dark her gracious bow;
  And evermore beseeching men With tears
  And earnest sighs, to read, believe and live.

  Robert Pollok

  Bible, Book, Believe

  Robert Pollok, “The Course Of Time. Book Ii.”

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• Hear all ye angels, progeny of light, Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers.

  John Milton

  Angel, Thrones, Virtue

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 5, l. 600

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• What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Of Attic taste?

  John Milton

  Choices, Taste, Neat

  John Milton (1861). “Paradise regained, Samson Agonistes, etc”, p.216

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• A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, As one great furnace, flamed; yet from those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Serv'd only to discover sights of woe, Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace And rest can never dwell, hope never comes That comes to all; but torture without end.

  John Milton

  Flames, Sight, Darkness

  'Paradise Lost' (1667) bk. 1, l. 61

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• Morn, Wak'd by the circling hours, with rosy hand Unbarr'd the gates of light.

  John Milton

  Morning, Hands, Hours

  John Milton, Henry John Todd (1852). “The Poetical Works of John Milton: With Notes of Various Authors; and with Some Account of the Life and Writings of Milton, Derived Principally from Original Documents in Her Majesty's State-paper Office”, p.381

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• And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim religious light. There let the pealing organ blow, To the full-voiced choir below, In service high, and anthems clear As may, with sweetness, through mine ear Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all heaven before mine eyes.

  John Milton

  Religious, Eye, Blow

  'Il Penseroso' (1645) l. 157

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• The sacred influence of light appears.

  John Milton

  Sacred, Influence

  John Milton (1773). “The First Six Books of Milton's Paradise Lost: Rendered Into Grammatical Construction ... with Notes Grammatical, Geographical, Historical, Critical, and Explanatory. To which are Prefixed Remarks on Ellipsis and Transposition ...”, p.171

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• It often happens that those who spend their time giving light to others, remain in darkness themselves.

  Mother Teresa

  Depression, Giving, Darkness

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• There are some people who don't conform to the signals. An ordinary well-regulated locomotive slows down or pulls up when it sees the red light hoisted against it. Perhaps I was born color blind. When I see the red signal -- I can't help forging ahead. And in the end, you know, that spells disaster.

  Agatha Christie

  Color, People, Pull Ups

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• Every night before I turn out the lights to sleep, I ask myself this question: Have I done everything that I can.... Have I done enough?

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Sleep, Night, Done

  Johnson, Lyndon B. (1966). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965”, p.398, Best Books on

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• The Sahara was a spectacle as alive as the sea. The tints of the dunes changed according to the time of day and the angle of the light: golden as apricots from far off, when we drove close to them they turned to freshly made butter; behind us they grew pink; from sand to rock, the materials of which the desert was made varied as much as its tints.

  Simone de Beauvoir

  Rocks, Sea, Desert

  Simone de Beauvoir (1965). “Force of circumstance”, G.P. Putnam's Sons

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• The glory of ancestors sheds a light around posterity; it allows neither good nor bad qualities to remain in obscurity.
  [Lat., Majorum gloria posteris lumen est, neque bona neque mala in occulto patitur.]

  Sallust

  Quality, Bad Qualities, Ancestry

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• Harmonious words render ordinary ideas acceptable; less ordinary, pleasant; novel and ingenious ones, delightful. As pictures and statues, and living beauty, too, show better by music-light, so is poetry irradiated, vivified, glorified', and raised into immortal life by harmony.

  Walter Savage Landor

  Ideas, Immortal Life, Ordinary

  Walter Savage Landor (1853). “The Works of Walter Savage Landor”, p.78

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• I learned what education really is: the penetrating deeper and rising higher into life, as well as making continually wider explorations; the rounding of the whole human being out of its nebulous elements into form, as planets and suns are rounded, until they give out safe and steady light. This makes the process a infinite one, not possible to be completed at any school.

  Lucy Larcom

  Education, School, Giving

  Lucy Larcom (1889). “A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory”

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• ... people are growing up in the slack flicker of a pale light which lacks the concentrated burn of a candle flame or oil wick or the bulb of a gooseneck desk lamp: a pale, wavering, oblong shimmer, emitting incessant noise, which is to real knowledge or discourse what the manic or weepy protestations of a drunk are to responsible speech. Drunks do have a way of holding an audience, though, and so does the shimmery ill-focused oblong screen.

  Adrienne Rich

  Growing Up, Real, Flames

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