#si

Suicide in the trenches: I knew a simple soldier boy Who grinned at life in empty joy, Slept soundly through the lonesome dark, And whistled early with the lark. In winter trenches, cowed and glum With crumps and lice and lack of rum, He put a bullet through his brain. No one spoke of him again. * * * * * You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye Who cheer when soldier lads march by, Sneak home and pray you'll never know The hell where youth and laughter go. ↗

— Siegfried Sassoon

#life

It's like this when you fall hard for a musician. It's a crush with religious overtones. You listen to the songs and you memorize the words and the notes and this is a form of prayer. You attend the shows and this is the liturgy. You're interested in relics -- guitar picks, set lists, the sweaty napkin applied to His brow. You set up shrines in your room. It's not just about the music. It's about who you are when you listen to the music and who you wish to be and the way a particular song can bridge that gap, can make you feel the abrupt thrill of absolute faith. ↗

— Steve Almond

#music #music-obsession #faith

But I saw the pain and sadness in everything, and swirled it round my mouth like a fine wine. ↗

— Emma Forrest

#life #pain #sorrow #life

It is desirable that a man live in all respects so simply and preparedly that if an enemy take the town... he can walk out the gate empty-handed and without anxiety. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#simple #simple-life #simple-living #simplicity #life

But we believe – nay, Lord we only hope, That one day we shall thank thee perfectly For pain and hope and all that led or drove Us back into the bosom of thy love. ↗

— George MacDonald

#hope #pain #life

Yes, now you know. Now you know! That's what it was to be alive. To move about in a cloud of ignorance; to go up and down trampling on the feelings of those...of those about you. To spend and waste time as though you had a million years. To be always at the mercy of one self-centered passion, or another. Now you know — that's the happy existence you wanted to go back to. Ignorance and blindness. ↗

— Thornton Wilder

#life #our-town #simon-stimson #time #life

She was still there inside me now, just as she always was: a life put on hold, a memory I didn't know how to handle. ↗

— Banana Yoshimoto

#life

Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life. Linus Pauling ↗

— Linus Pauling

#linus-pauling #the-artist-s-way #life

Fortunately, God made all varieties of people with a wide variety of interests and abilities. He has called people of every race and color who have been hurt by life in every manner imaginable. Even the scars of past abuse and injury can be the means of bringing healing to another. What wonderful opportunities to make disciples! ↗

— Charles R. Swindoll

#comparison #discipleship #god #leadership #witnessing

How can one ever do anything nobly Christian, living among people with such petty thoughts? ↗

— George Eliot

#pride #self-centeredness #life