“England may as well dam up the waters of the Nile with bulrushes as to fetter the step of Freedom, more proud and firm in this youthful land than where she treads the sequestered glens of Scotland, or couches herself among the magnificent mountains of Switzerland.” WellsMayWaterFreedomStepsLandProudMountainEnglandFirmMagnificentScotlandCouchesSwitzerlandDamsFettersNile Author:Lydia M. Child
“The water-lily, in the midst of waters, opens its leaves and expands its petals, at the first pattering of the shower, and rejoices in the rain-drops with a quicker sympathy than the packed shrubs in the sandy desert.” FirstsWaterFreedomRainDesertMidstRejoiceShowersLiliesPetalsSandyShrubsWater LilyRain Drop Author:Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“The point of the dragonfly's terrible lip, the giant water bug, birdsong, or the beautiful dazzle and flash of sunlighted minnows,is not that it all fits together like clockwork--for it doesn'tbut that it all flows so freely wild, like the creek, that it all surges in such a free, finged tangle. Freedom is the world's water and weather, the world's nourishment freely given, its soil and sap: and the creator loves pizzazz.” WorldTogetherBeautifulGivenWaterNatureFreedomFitTerribleFlowLipsCreatorWeatherGiantsSoilWildernessFlashBugsNourishmentSapClockworkDazzleCreeksBirdsongDragonfliesMinnowsPizzazz Author:Annie Dillard
“The sole work and deed of universal freedom is therefore death, a death too which has no inner significance or filling, for what is negated is the empty point of the absolutely free self. It is thus the coldest and meanest of all deaths, with no more significance than cutting off a head of cabbage or swallowing a mouthful of water.” SelfDeathWaterFreedomCuttingEnlightenmentEmptyUniversalDeedsSignificanceSoleFillingSwallowingCabbageCutting Off Book:Phenomenology of Spirit Source: Phenomenology of Spirit
“Today, supremely, it behooves us to remember that a nation shall be saved by the power that sleeps in its own bosom; or by none; shall be renewed in hope, in confidence, in strength by waters welling up from its own sweet, perennial springs. Not from above; not by patronage of its aristocrats. The flower does not bear the root, but the root the flower.” DoeTodayRememberNationsWaterFreedomSleepDemocracySweetFlowerBearsSpringRootsSavedBosomsPatronage Author:Woodrow Wilson