In Others' Words

Look unto the rock whence ye were hewn.Isaiah 51:1
Originally this was a lighthearted thought, then I began to listen to Audrey Assad's "Show Me" (again) because it pertained to this post (again); and it's extraordinary how solemn I become when listening to those words...  But I'll try to be lighthearted, for all our sakes.

I really enjoy doing the monthly "Snippets" posts, I really do.  There is a powerful strain of the child in me that delights in pulling out my word-paintings and showing them off and putting them up on the fridge and all that.  But I'm not all Snippets, I'm not even all novel.  Just the other day an aunt and uncle came to visit, and my uncle expressed his perplexity in sorting out the origins of his own thoughts because, as he said, he has read so widely and deeply and imbibed the thoughts of so many others that it is now impossible to determine if a doctrine or idea that he holds was conjured first by him or was planted by someone else.

I was cheered to hear this because I am just that way myself.  Everything begins to blend together into a contiguous whole in my mind and I can't always remember who thought what.  So in honour of all those others, whoever and wherever and whenever they may be, I want to take a minute to jot down some of the quotes that are not mine, but inspire me when I write Plenilune.

* * * * *"Love is a force to be reckoned with."Abigail Hartman
"Not a whit.  We defy augury."Hamlet, William Shakespeare
For one thing, they were all as fair-skinned as himself, and most of them had fair hair...  Most of them had legs bare to the knee.  Their tunics were of fine, bright, hardy colours - woodland green, or gay yellow, or fresh blue.  Instead of turbans they wore steel or silver caps, some of them set with jewels, and one with little wings on each side of it.  A few were bare-headed.  The swords at their sides were long and straight, not curved like Calormene scimitars.  And instead of being grave and mysterious like most Calormenes, they walked with a swing and let their arms and shoulders go free, and chatted and laughed.  One was whistling.  You could see that they were ready to be friends with anyone who was friendly, and didn't give a fig for anyone who wasn't.  Shasta thought he had never seen anything so lovely in his life.
The Horse and His Boy, C.S. Lewis

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."The Tempest, William Shakespeare
"Good wombs have borne bad sons."The Tempest, William Shakespeare
"We deal not in the menace of shadows."(I have since forgot.)
"Whatsoever troubles beset a king, he would care only to rule over a free people."King Alfred
"Whosoever is overcome of desire and turns his gaze upon the darkness, he shall look on hell and lose the thing he loves."from The Golden Warrior
By a route obscure and lonely,Haunted by ill angels only,Where an Eidolon named NightOn a black throne reigns upright;I have reached these lands but newlyFrom an ultimate dim Thule -From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,Out of Space - out of Time.Dreamland, E.A. Poe
"Pray that thy last days, and last works, may be the best; and that when thou comest to die, thou mayest have nothing else to do but die."Vavasor Powell
The whole world is a theatre for the glory of God.Richard Sibbes
You could raise me like a banner in a battlePut victory like a fire behind my shining eyesI would drift like falling snow over the embersBut for now just let me lie"Show Me," Audrey Assad
This world is as wild as an old wife's tale,And strange the plain things are;The earth is enough and the air is enoughFor our wonder and our war;But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swingsAnd our peace is put in impossible thingsWhere clashed and thundered unthinkable wingsRound an incredible star.from Christmas Poem, G.K. Chesterton
Aikin's How still looks down on Keskadale and the low ground toward Derwentwater, marking the place where Aikin the Beloved was laid, with his great sword Wave-flame in his hand and his hound Garm at his feet, after the last battle of all.The Shield Ring, Rosemary Sutcliff
"To hold a pen is to be at war."Voltaire
Lord Brandoch Daha sat still in his golden chair, scarce changing his pose of easeful grace.  But all his frame seemed alight with action near to birth, as the active principle of light pulses and grows in the sky at sunrise.  He looked at the Queen, his eyes filled with a wild surmise."The Worm Ouroboros, E.R. Eddison
"Don't!" said he.  "Oh, Lewis, you don't understand.  Take me back to Malacandra?  If only he would!  I'd give anything I possess..."Perelandra, C.S. Lewis
Thank Heaven! at last the trumpets pealBefore our strength gives way.For King or for the Commonweal -No matter which they say,The first dry rattle of new-drawn steelChanges the world today!from Edgehill Fight, Rudyard Kipling

I sing of warfare and a man at war.
Aeneid, Virgil

Your grace rings out so deep,
It makes my resistance seem so small.
"Hold Me, Jesus," Rich Mullins

 With all simplicity, with the gracefulness and graciousness which singleness of eye bestows, move freely amongst the elements of time with a heart full of eternity.
Robert Candlish 

"It is a new beginning - a new beginning, Esca."
The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff