“The evening sky was streaked with purple, the color of torn plums, and a light rain had started to fall when I came to the end of the blacktop road that cut through twenty miles of thick, almost impenetrable scrub oak and pine and stopped at the front gate of Angola penitentiary.” EndsLightFallCuttingSkyFrontsColorRainTwentiesMilesEveningGatesThickTornPurpleOaksPlumsEvening SkyAngola Author:James Lee
“At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes into these precincts. Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredits our heroes. Here we find Nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come to her.” MenWorldFirstsRealityFallCitiesStepsWiseJudgingHeroCircumstancesShameFoolishForestsGatesCustomsFirst StepsSanctityDwarfsDiscredit Book:Essays and Lectures Source: Essays and Lectures
“It was a cold hard easterly morning when he latched the garden gate and turned away. The light snowfall which had feathered his schoolroom windows on the Thursday, still lingered in the air, and was falling white, while the wind blew black.” StillsHardLightFallBlackNatureWhiteMorningAirWindColdGardenWindowGatesThursdaySnowfall Book:Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated) Source: Delphi Complete Works of Charles Dickens (Illustrated)
“Do not be inaccessible. None is so perfect that he does not need at times the advice of others. He is an incorrigible ass who will never listen to any one. Even the most surpassing intellect should find a place for friendly counsel. Sovereignty itself must learn to lean. There are some that are incorrigible simply because they are inaccessible: They fall to ruin because none dares to extricate them. The highest should have the door open for friendship; it may prove the gate of help. A friend must be free to advise, and even to upbraid, without feeling embarrassed.” NeedsShouldMayDoeHelpingFeelingsFallPerfectDoorsAdviceProveHighestShould HaveDareIntellectAssRuinsFriendlyGatesEmbarrassedSovereigntyAdviseInaccessibleSurpassingIncorrigibleUpbraid Book:The Art of Worldly Wisdom Source: The Art of Worldly Wisdom
“An identity is questioned only when it is menaced, as when the mighty begin to fall, or when the wretched begin to rise, or when the stranger enters the gates, never, thereafter, to be a stranger.” FallIdentityStrangerGatesWretched Author:James A. Baldwin