Wise Words
Hymn of Apollo, Percy Bysshe Shelley
I.
The sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie,
Curtained with star-inwoven tapestries,
From the broad moonlight of the sky,
Fanning the busy dreams from my dim eyes,–
Waken me when their Mother, the gray Dawn,
Tells them that dreams and that the moon is gone.
II.
Then I arise, and climbing Heaven’s blue dome,
I walk over the mountains and the waves,
Leaving my robe upon the ocean foam;
My footsteps pave the clouds with fire; the caves
Are filled with my bright presence, and the air
Leaves the green Earth to my embraces bare.
III.
The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill
Deceit, that loves the night and fears the day;
All men who do or even imagine ill
Fly me, and from the glory of my ray
Good minds and open actions take new might,
Until diminished by the reign of Night.
IV.
I feed the clouds, the rainbows, and the flowers,
With their ethereal colors; the Moon’s globe,
And the pure stars in their eternal bowers,
Are cinctured with my power as with a robe;
Whatever lamps on Earth or Heaven may shine,
Are portions of one power, which is mine.
V.
I stand at noon upon the peak of Heaven;
Then with unwilling steps I wander down
Into the clouds of the Atlantic even;
For grief that I depart they weep and frown:
What look is more delightful than the smile
With which I soothe them from the western isle?
VI.
I am the eye with which the Universe
Beholds itself, and knows it is divine;
All harmony of instrument or verse,
All prophecy, all medicine, is mine,
All light of art or nature; – to my song
Victory and praise in its own right belong.
Wise Words, Lao Tzu
“When goodness is lost, it is replaced by morality.”
“Without darkness, there can be no light.”
“The usefulness of a pot comes from its emptiness.”
“The best people are like water, which benefits all things and does not compete with them. It stays in lowly places that others reject. This is why it is so similar to the Way.”
“When people see some things as beautiful, other things become ugly. When people see some things as good, other things become bad.”
“Try to change it and you will ruin it. Try to hold it and you will lose it.”
“Those who know do not say. Those who say do not know.”
“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.”
“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
“A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.”
“A journey of a thousand miles starts under one’s feet.”
“The more that laws and regulations are given prominence, the more thieves and robbers there will be.”