#nobility

What's madness but nobility of soul At odds with circumstance? The day's on fire! I know the purity of pure despair, My shadow pinned against a sweating wall, That place among the rocks--is it a cave, Or winding path? The edge is what I have........ ....... Dark,dark my light, and darker my desire. My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly, Keeps buzzing at the sill. ~From "The Waking" by Theodore Roethke ↗

— Theodore Roethke

#nobility

Do you think it is a vain hope that one day man will find joy in noble deeds of light and mercy, rather than in the coarse pleasures he indulges in today -- gluttony, fornication, ostentation, boasting, and envious vying with his neighbor? I am certain this is not a vain hope and that the day will come soon. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#gluttony #good-deeds #hope #mercy #nobility-of-spirit

Knowledge was the great thing--not abstract knowledge in which Dr. Forester had been so rich, the theories which lead one enticingly on with their appearance of nobility, of transcendent virtue, but detailed, passionate, trivial human knowledge. ↗

— Graham Greene

#nobility

America is subsidizing what is left of the prestige and strength of the once mighty Britain. The sun has set forever on that monocled, pith-helmeted resident colonialist, sipping tea with his delicate lady in the non-white colonies being systematically robbed of every valuable resource. Britain's superfluous royalty and nobility now exist by charging tourists to inspect the once baronial castles, and by selling memoirs, perfumes, autographs, titles, and even themselves. ↗

— Malcolm X

#nobility

After joyfully working each morning, I would leave off around midday to challenge myself to a footrace. Speeding along the sunny paths of the Jardin du Luxembourg, ideas would breed like aphids in my head—for creative invention is easy and sublime when air cycles quickly through the lungs and the body is busy at noble tasks. ↗

— Roman Payne

#health #jardin-du-luxembourg #nobility #noble #paris

Pride is always a better lever against the nobility than reason. ↗

— Patrick Rothfuss

#pride #reason #nobility

If an honest man is the noblest work of God, then Mr. Lincoln's title to high nobility is clear and unquestioned. ↗

— Matthew Simpson

#god #high #honest #honest man #lincoln

You are new here, so I will explain. In this land, nobility comes not from one’s fathers or a title or from the land one owns, but from one’s actions.” His voice was hard-edged, and his words seemed harsh to her. “The MacKinnon brothers are the highest nobility to those who live on the frontier—true warriors, men who know how to fight and survive, men who put the lives of others before their own. Your family’s wealth, your title, your virtue—they mean nothing out here. They won’t fill your belly, and they won’t keep you alive. What matters most right now is your survival. (Joseph to Lady Sarah) ↗

— Pamela Clare

#integrity #nobility #title #family

Any noble cause will encounter its share of setbacks. The strength of that cause is measured in how the men who fight for it respond. We refuse to give up, which is why we will prevail eventually. ↗

— D.B. Jackson

#character #nobility #strength #men

The human element, the human flaw and the human nobility - those are the reasons that chess matches are won or lost. ↗

— Viktor Korchnoi

#element #flaw #human #human element #lost