Life and Existence

We are all visionaries, and what we see is our soul in things.

Man cannot live without some vision of himself. But still less can he live with a vision that is not true to his inner experience and inner feeling.

One should stick by one’s own soul, and by nothing else. In one’s soul, one knows the truth from the untruth, and life from death. And if one betrays one’s own soul-knowledge, one is the worst of traitors.

And if tonight my soul may find her peace In sleep, and sink in good oblivion, And in the morning wake like a new-opened flower Then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.

And if tonight my soul may find her peace In sleep, and sink in good oblivion, And in the morning wake like a new-opened flower Then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.

Sin is a queer thing. It isn’t the breaking of divine commandments. It is the breaking of one’s own integrity.

The center of the universe is still the self.

The living self has one purpose only: to come into its own fullness of being, as a tree comes into full blossom, or a bird into spring beauty, or a tiger into luster.

To make us feel small in the right way is a function of art.

Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains.

Deep meaning oft lies hid in childish play.

A great novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed.

Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.

Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.

Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.

Term, holidays, term, holidays, till we leave school, and then work, work, work till we die.

The tragedy is when you’ve got sex in the head instead of down where it belongs.

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

You know a real friend? Someone you know will look after your cat after you are gone.

One does not expect old heads on young shoulders.

One does not expect old heads on young shoulders.

A WOMAN HAS TO LIVE HER LIFE, OR LIVE TO REPENT NOT HAVING LIVED IT.

Character is what you know you are, not what others think you have.

Life is ours to be spent, not to be saved.