Feast of Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c.326 We cannot understand the depth of the Christian doctrine of sin if we give it only a moral connotation. To break the basic laws of justice and decency is sin indeed. Man's freedom to honor principles is the moral dimension in his nature, and sin often appears as lawlessness. But sin has its root in something which is more than the will to break the law. The core of sin is our making ourselves the center of life, rather than accepting the holy God as the center. Lack of trust, self-love, pride, these are three ways in which Christians have expressed the real meaning of sin. But what sin does is to make the struggle with evil meaningless. When we refuse to hold our freedom in trust and reverence for God's will, there is nothing which can make the risk of life worth the pain of it.
Commemoration of Albrecht Dürer, artist, 1528, and Michelangelo Buonarrotti, artist, spiritual writer, 1564 On the Brink of Death. Now hath my life across a stormy sea Like a frail bark reached that wide port where all Are bidden, ere the final reckoning fall Of good and evil for eternity. Now know I well how that fond phantasy Which made my soul the worshipper and thrall Of earthly art, is vain; how criminal Is that which all men seek unwillingly. Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed, What are they when the double death is nigh? The one I know for sure, the other dread. Painting nor sculpture now can lull to rest My soul that turns to His great love on high, Whose arms to clasp us on the cross were spread.
We shouldn't deny the pain of what happens in our lives. We should just refuse to focus only on the valleys.
There is only on thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.
The coming of the printing press must have seemed as if it would turn the world upside down in the way it spread and, above all, democratized knowledge. Provide you could pay and read, what was on the shelves in the new bookshops was yours for the taking. The speed with which printing presses and their operators fanned out across Europe is extraordinary. From the single Mainz press of 1457, it took only twenty-three years to establish presses in 110 towns: 50 in Ita!0 in Germany, 9 in France, 8 in Spain, 8 in Holland, 4 in England, and so on.
Tender handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains.
The coward wretch whose hand and heart can bear to torture ought below, Is ever first to quail and start from the slightest pain or equal foe.
Only last night he felt deadly sick, and, after a great deal of pain, two black crows flew out of his mouth and took wing from the room.
Detested sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain.
The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.
When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all silver-white And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight, The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men: for thus sings he, Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo: O, word of fear, Unpleasing to a married ear!
Such pains, such pleasures now alike are o'er, And beaus and etiquette shall soon exist no more At their speed behold advancing Modern men and women dancing; Step and dress alike express Above, below from heel to toe, Male and female awkwardness. Without a hoop, without a ruffle, One eternal jig and shuffle, Where's the air and where's the gait? Where's the feather in the hat? Where the frizzed toupee? and where Oh! where's the powder for the hair?
From fibers of pain and hope and trouble And toil and happiness,--one by one,-- Twisted together, or single or double, The varying thread of our life is spun. Hope shall cheer though the chain be galling; Light shall come though the gloom be falling; Faith will list for the Master calling Our hearts to his rest,--when the day is done.
Go thou, deceased, to this earth which is a mother, and spacious and kind. May her touch be soft like that of wool, or a young woman, and may she protect thee from the depths of destruction. Rise above him, O Earth, do not press painfully on him, give him good things, give him consolation, as a mother covers her child with her cloth, cover thou him.
It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.
There are three kinds of death in this world. There's heart death, there's brain death, and there's being off the network. â¢Guy Almes A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist. â¢Steward Alsop I do not believe that any man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death. â¢Francis Bacon When one by one our ties are torn, and friend from friend is snatched forlorn; When man is left alone to mourn, oh! then how sweet it is to die! â¢Anna Letitia Barbauld Living is death; dying is life. We are not what we appear to be. On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that citizens; on this side orphans, on that children. â¢Henry Ward Beecher Loss and possession, Death and life are one. There falls no shadow where There shines no sun. â¢Hilaire Belloc Death is as sure for that which is born, as birth is for that which is dead. Therefore grieve not for what is inevitable. â¢Bhagavad Gita How long after you are gone will ripples remain as evidence that you were cast into the pool of life? â¢Grant M. Bright No one's death comes to pass without making some impression, and those close to the deceased inherit part of the liberated soul and become richer in their humanness. â¢Hermann Broch Though it be in the power of the weakest arm to take away life, it is not in the strongest to deprive us of death. â¢Sir Thomas Browne Men are never really willing to die except for the sake of freedom: therefore they do not believe in dying completely. â¢Albert Camus Well, there's a remedy for all things but death, which will be sure to lay us flat one time or other. â¢Miguel De Cervantes Death is the liberator of him whom freedom cannot release, the physician of him whom medicine cannot cure, and the comforter of him whom time cannot console. â¢Charles Caleb Colton I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat. â¢Joseph Conrad While I thought that I was learning how to live, I have been learning how to die. â¢Leonardo Da Vinci Death be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so. For, those, whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow. Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me. â¢John Donne A dead atheist is someone who is all dressed up with no place to go. â¢James Duffecy Death is the king of this world: 'Tis his park where he breeds life to feed him. Cries of pain are music for his banquet â¢George Eliot Death is the last enemy: once we've got past that I think everything will be alright. â¢Alice Thomas Ellis The pride of dying rich raises the loudest laugh in hell. â¢John W. Foster Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure in life. â¢Charles Frohman Plan for this world as if you expect to live forever; but plan for the hereafter as if you expect to die tomorrow. â¢Ibn Gabirol Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling. â¢Andre Gide Death is the only inescapable, unavoidable, sure thing. We are sentenced to die the day we're born. â¢Gary Mark Gilmore Death is a commingling of eternity with time; in the death of a good man, eternity is seen looking through time. â¢Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Man has the possibility of existence after death. But possibility is one thing and the realization of the possibility is quite a different thing. â¢George Gurdjieff Oh you who have been removed from God in his solitude by the abyss of time, how can you expect to reach him without dying? â¢Hallaj Death is like an arrow that is already in flight, and your life lasts only until it reaches you. â¢Georg Hermes The call of death is a call of l
All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing.
Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion of death.
The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.
It is very iniquitous to make me pay my debtsâyou have no idea of the pain it gives one.
Most people don't realize that large pieces of coral, which have been painted brown and attached to the skull by common wood screws, can make a child look like a deer.
I am convinced that we have a degree of delight, and that no small one, in the real misfortunes and pains of others.
Why, all delights are vain, but that most vain Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain: As, painfully to pore upon a book, To seek the light of truth, which truth the while Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look.
But what we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope.