“Ah, many a one has started forth with hope and purpose high; Has fought throughout a weary life, and passed all pleasure by; Has burst all flowery chains by which men aye have been enthralled; Has been stone-deaf to voices sweet, that softly, sadly called; Has scorned the flashing goblet with the bubbles on its brim; Has turned his back on jewelled hands that madly beckoned him; Has, in a word, condemned himself to follow out his plan By stern and lonely labor--and has died, a conquered man!” MenHas BeensHandsPurposeVoicePleasurePlansSweetLaborStonesLonelyDiedChainsBubblesWearyDeafScorned Book:Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl : and Other Poems Source: Drift: A Sea-shore Idyl : and Other Poems
“Centres, or centre-pieces of wood, are put by builders under an arch of stone while it is in the process of construction till the keystone is put in. Just such is the use Satan makes of pleasures to construct evil habits upon; the pleasure lasts till the habit is fully formed; but that done the habit may stand eternal. The pleasures are sent for firewood, and the hell begins in this life.” MayDoneUseLastsEvilProcessPleasureHellPiecesHabitEternalStonesWoodsThis LifeSatanConstructionCentreConstructsBuilderArchesKeystonesFirewood Author:Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“There's something about materials like copper, woods, stone, trees, shells. You walk outside and these materials are part of the world before we touched anything. There's a feeling of pleasure that many of us have in materials that have some presence before us, like clay and wood and copper.” WorldFeelingsWalksPleasureTreeMaterialsStonesWoodsTouchedShellsClayCopper Author:Jessica Stockholder
“In that sweet mood when pleasure loves to pay Tribute to ease; and, of its joy secure, The heart luxuriates with indifferent things, Wasting its kindliness on stocks and stones, And on the vacant air.” HeartJoyNaturePleasurePayAirSweetStonesSafetyMoodSecureEaseIndifferentTributeVacantKindlinessPleasure Love Book:The Poems of William Wordsworth Source: The Poems of William Wordsworth
“The garden reconciles human art and wild nature, hard work and deep pleasure, spiritual practice and the material world. It is a magical place because it is not divided. The many divisions and polarizations that terrorize a disenchanted world find peaceful accord among mossy rock walls, rough stone paths, and trimmed bushes. Maybe a garden sometimes seems fragile, for all its earth and labor, because it achieves such an extraordinary delicate balance of nature and human life, naturalness and artificiality. It has its own liminality, its point of balance between great extremes.” WorldLifeHumansArtSometimesHardSeemsEarthSpiritualPleasurePracticePathAchieveRocksMaterialsHard WorkWallBalanceGardenLaborStonesExtraordinaryExtremesPeacefulHuman LifeRoughDivisionDividedFragileDelicateAccordReconcileFinding PeaceSpiritual PracticeMaterial WorldPolarizationArtificialityMagical PlacesDisenchanted Author:Thomas Moore