“Tempests, and bright lightnings, are to be sung; their nature is to be told, and from what cause they pursue their course; lest, having foolishly divided the heaven into parts, you should be anxious as to the quarter from which the flying flame may come, or to what region it may betake itself; and tremble to think how it penetrates through walled enclosures, and how, having exercised its power, it extricates itself from them. Of which phenomena the multitude can by no means see the causes, and think that they are accomplished by supernatural power.” ThinkingShouldMayMeanCoursesHeavenCausesFlyingPursueFlamesAccomplishedRegionsDividedAnxiousQuartersLightningMultitudesPenetrateTempestSupernatural PowersEnclosure Book:On the Nature of Things Source: On the Nature of Things
“If we once admit that our life is here for the purpose of race-improvement, then we question any religion which does not improve the race, or the main force of which evaporates, as it were, directing our best efforts toward the sky.... Improvement in the human race is not accomplished by extracting any number of souls and placing them in heaven, or elsewhere. It must be established on earth, either through achievement in social service, or through better children.” IfsHumansChildrenDoeSoulEarthLife IsPurposeForceHeavenSocialNumbersEffortRaceOur LivesSkyAtheismAchievementPositive AtheismImprovementHuman RaceAccomplishedElsewhereBest EffortSocial Service Author:Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“When a woman has the gift of silence she possesses a quality above the vulgar. It is a gift of Heaven seldom bestowed; without a little miracle it cannot be accomplished; and Nature suffers violence when Heaven puts a woman in the humor of observing silence.” LittlesSufferingHeavenSilenceQualityViolenceMiracleAccomplishedVulgarObserving Author:Pierre Corneille
“When a man or a woman holds fast to youth, even if successfully, there is something of the pitiful and the tragic involved. It is the everlasting struggle of the soul to retain the joy of earth, whose fleeing distinguishes it from heaven, and whose retention is not accomplished without an inner knowledge of its futility.” IfsMenSoulEarthJoyHeavenStruggleYouthInvolvedAccomplishedTragicEverlastingFutilityPitifulFleeingHold FastRetention Author:Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman