#faithfulness

She sang, as requested. There was much about love in the ballad: faithful love that refused to abandon its object; love that disaster could not shake; love that, in calamity, waxed fonder, in poverty clung closer. The words were set to a fine old air -- in themselves they were simple and sweet: perhaps, when read, they wanted force; when well sung, they wanted nothing. Shirley sang them well: she breathed into the feeling, softness, she poured round the passion, force: her voice was fine that evening; its expression dramatic: she impressed all, and charmed one. On leaving the instrument, she went to the fire, and sat down on a seat -- semi-stool, semi-cushion: the ladies were round her -- none of them spoke. The Misses Sympson and the Misses Nunnely looked upon her, as quiet poultry might look on an egret, an ibis, or any other strange fowl. What made her sing so? They never sang so. Was it proper to sing with such expression, with such originality -- so unlike a school girl? Decidedly not: it was strange, it was unusual. What was strange must be wrong; what was unusual must be improper. Shirley was judged. ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#empathy #expectations #expression #faithfulness #feeling

Faithfulness to the past can be a kind of death above ground. Writing of the past is a resurrection; the past then lives in your words and you are free. ↗

— Jessamyn West

#death #faithfulness #free #ground #kind

Does God think that, because it is raining, I am not going to destroy the world? - Lope de Aguirre after going mad in the Amazon ↗

— David Grann

#anger #faithfulness #madness #rain #anger

By faithfulness we are collected and wound up into unity within ourselves, whereas we had been scattered abroad in multiplicity. ↗

— Saint Augustine

#been #collected #faithfulness #had #into

Unfaithfulness in the keeping of an appointment is an act of clear dishonesty. You may as well borrow a person's money as his time. ↗

— Horace Mann

#appointment #borrow #clear #dishonesty #his

Ecclesiasticism in science is only unfaithfulness to truth. ↗

— Thomas Huxley

#science #truth #unfaithfulness

Kindness and faithfulness keep a king safe, through kindness his throne is made secure. ↗

— King Solomon

#his #keep #kindness #king #made

Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved. ↗

— Martin Luther

#battle #courage #faithfulness #loyalty #courage

You have my whole heart. You always did. ↗

— Cormac McCarthy

#fidelity #love #faith

Being faithful in the smallest things is the way to gain, maintain, and demonstrate the strength needed to accomplish something great. ↗

— Alex Harris

#faithfulness #life #strength-of-character #faith