Quotations

"In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from  dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation. This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud."

— Thomas Merton, Anglo-American Catholic mystic, born 1915

"What I do is pray; how I pray is breathe."

— Thomas Merton, Anglo-American Catholic mystic, born 1915

"On the last day of the world I would want to plant a tree."

— W. S. Merwin, American poet, born 1927

"Laughter was the shape the darkness took around the first appearance of the light."

— W. S. Merwin, American poet, born 1927

"Now all my teachers are dead except silence."

— W. S. Merwin, American poet, born 1927

"We are asleep with compasses in our hands."

— W. S. Merwin, American poet, born 1927

"An hour comes to close a door behind me; the whole of night opens before me."

— W. S. Merwin, American poet, born 1927

"But sometimes the world disrobes, slips its dress off a shoulder, stops time for a beat. If we look up at that moment, it's not due to any ability of ours to pierce the darkness, it's the world's brief bestowal. The catastrophe of grace."

— Anne Michaels, Canadian poet, born 1958

"Something happened when I took your picture. I became enchanted by the sight of you, standing there. looking at the book, perfect in that gentle light. I took the photograph over and over, again and again, compulsively, knowing that when I stopped and set the camera down, the moment would be lost, as the dream dies when one awakens, and I could not bear to let it go."

— Duane Michals, American photographer, born 1932

"He who has rejected his demons badgers us to death with his angels."

— Henri Michaux, Belgian-French poet and painter, born May 24, 1899

"It is necessary to keep one's compass in one's eyes and not in the hand, for the hands execute, but the eye judges."

— Michelangelo, Italian artist, born 1475

"What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?"

— Michelangelo, Italian artist, born 1475

"The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has."

— Michelangelo, Italian artist, born 1475

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free."

— Michelangelo, Italian artist, born 1475