#paradise

The sun tells the best joke of a day full of them, setting so spectacularly that you can almost smell the tropical paradise lazing somewhere over this rim of endless, gray socialist towers. Miles of square windows explode orange, red, and purple, like a million TV sets broadcasting the apocalypse. Clouds unspool. The sky drains of birds. ↗

— Tod Wodicka

#birds #clouds #prague #sunset #tropical-paradise

A book of verses underneath the bough A flask of wine, a loaf of bread and thou Beside me singing in the wilderness And wilderness is paradise now. ↗

— Omar Khayyám

#love #paradise #poetry #love

Paradise is a state of being, more than just the name of a suburb or a home. ↗

— Raquel Cepeda

#home #paradise #spirituality #state-of-being #suburbia

So heavenly love shall outdo hellish hate, Giving to death, and dying to redeem, So dearly to redeem what hellish hate So easily destroy'd, and still destroys, In those who, when they may, accept not grace. ↗

— John Milton

#death

We are all the product of things we've never seen and people we never met. In fact, if just one little detail had been changed in their lives, we may not even exist! ↗

— Melanie Johnston

#genealogy #the-last-lord-of-paradise #change

A soldier came to Hakuin and asked "Is there really a paradise and a hell?" "Who are you?" inquired Hakuin. "I am a samurai," the warrior replied. "You, a samurai!" exclaimed Hakuin. "What kind of ruler would have you as his guard? Your face looks like that of a beggar!" The soldier became so angry that he began to draw his sword, but Hakuin continued. "So you have a sword! Your weapon is probably as dull as your head!" As the soldier drew his sword Hakuin remarked "Here open the gates of hell!" At these words, the samurai, perceiving the discipline of the master, sheathed his sword and bowed. "Here open the gates of paradise," said Hakuin ↗

— Hakuin Ekaku

#paradise #warrior #inspirational

The Prologue to TERRITORY LOST "Of cats' first disobedience, and the height Of that forbidden tree whose doom'd ascent Brought man into the world to help us down And made us subject to his moods and whims, For though we may have knock'd an apple loose As we were carried safely to the ground, We never said to eat th'accursed thing, But yet with him were exiled from our place With loss of hosts of sweet celestial mice And toothsome baby birds of paradise, And so were sent to stray across the earth And suffer dogs, until some greater Cat Restore us, and regain the blissful yard, Sing, heavenly Mews, that on the ancient banks Of Egypt's sacred river didst inspire That pharaoh who first taught the sons of men To worship members of our feline breed: Instruct me in th'unfolding of my tale; Make fast my grasp upon my theme's dark threads That undistracted save by naps and snacks I may o'ercome our native reticence And justify the ways of cats to men. ↗

— Henry N. Beard

#humor #milton #paradise-lost #inspirational

In a republic, that paradise of debility, the politician is a petty tyrant who obeys the laws. ↗

— Emile M. Cioran

#obeys #paradise #petty #politician #republic

We save paradise by an intense education program where you get people that you can trust to talk sanely about the environment and hope that the message will get through. ↗

— Arthur Boyd

#education #environment #get #hope #intense

On my return to Cornwall I discovered that I was living in a tropical paradise. For now I am content to explore my own home and our nearest neighbour France. ↗

— John Dyer

#content #cornwall #discovered #explore #france