Quotations

"Dizang asked Fayan: "Where are you going?"
Fayan said, "Around on pilgrimage."
Dizang said, "What is the purpose of pilgrimage?"
Fayan said, "I don't know."
Dizang said, "Not knowing is most intimate."

— Zen koan

"You can measure the depth of a person’s awakening by how they serve others."

— Kobo-Daishi, Japanese monk, born 774

"That night, I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me, a Child of Faith. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both."

— Maximilian Kolbe, Polish Franciscan friar, born 1894

"I want to cultivate the seed that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown."

— Kathe Kollwitz, German printmaker, born 1867

"To this day I do not know whether the power which has inspired my works is something related to religion, or is indeed religion itself."

— Kathe Kollwitz, German printmaker, born 1867

"While I drew, and wept along with the terrified children I was drawing, I really felt the burden I am bearing. I felt that I have no right to withdraw from the responsibility of being an advocate."

— Kathe Kollwitz, German printmaker, born 1867

"When my desire grows too fierce, I wear my bed clothes inside out, dark as the night’s rough husk."

— Ono no Komachi, Japanese waka love poet, born c. 825

"Undisturbed, my garden fills with summer growth— how I wish for one who would push the deep grass aside."

— Ono no Komachi, Japanese waka love poet, born c. 825

"Poetry helps me understand who I am. It helps me understand the world around me. But above all, what poetry has taught me is the fact that I need to embrace mystery in order to be completely human."

— Yusef Komunyakaa, American poet, born 1941

"Poets are seen as the caretakers of language, so working with words no matter what the form is what we do."

— Yusef Komunyakaa, American poet, born 1941

"Contemplate the wonders of creation, the Divine dimension of their being, not as a dim configuration that is presented to you from a distance, but as the reality in which you live."

— Abraham Isaac Kook, Jewish Torah scholar, born 1865

"There could be a freeman with the spirit of the slave, and there could be a slave with a spirit full of freedom; whoever is faithful to his self – he is a freeman, and whoever fills his life only with what is good and beautiful in the eyes of others – he is a slave."

— Abraham Isaac Kook, Jewish Torah scholar, born 1865

"When the spirit shines, even foggy skies make pleasant light."

— Abraham Isaac Kook, Jewish Torah scholar, born 1865

"I don't speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don't have the power to remain silent."

— Abraham Isaac Kook, Jewish Torah scholar, born 1865