#quintessence

It is something to have gazed on the constellated white, felt it running from the eyes and the pores: the salt of love. It is something to have whispered wild thank-yous in the only ways we know how. ↗

— Bryana Johnson

#free-verse #hamlet #poetry-life #shakespeare #the-quintessence-of-dust

Do you have any idea how mad you sound?’ ‘Indeed I do. I have in moments of doubt considered the question of my sanity.’ (...) ‘And?’ ‘Then I consider what a piece of work is man. How defective in reason, how mean his facilities, how ugly in form and movement, in action how like a devil, in apprehension how like a cow. The beauty of the world? The paragon of animals? To me the quintessence of dust. ↗

— Paul Hoffman

#apprehension #beauty #bosco #cale #consider

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculties! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? ↗

— William Shakespeare

#nature-of-man #quintessence-of-dust #shakespeare #theatre #beauty

Man is a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements; and so he is their quintessence. ↗

— Paracelsus

#earth #elements #extract #firmament #little

For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives. ↗

— Amy Lowell

#books #core #died #essence #heart

It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business. ↗

— Mahatma Gandhi

#business #easy #enemy #enough #friendly

This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? ↗

— William Shakespeare

#piece-of-work #quintessence-of-dust #shakespeare #soliloquy #william-shakespeare

The earth is the very quintessence of the human condition. ↗

— Hannah Arendt

#earth #human #human condition #quintessence #very

It seems not to have been written. It is the quintessence of life. It is the basic truth. ↗

— Brooks Atkinson

#been #life #quintessence #seems #truth

For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men lived and worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives. ↗

— Gene Fowler

#books #core #died #essence #heart