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“But I can't. Need is not quite belief.”
―
―
“Mother, whose heart hung humble as a button the bright splendid shroud of your son,
Do not weep.
War is kind.”
―
Do not weep.
War is kind.”
―
“Is it the sea you hear in me,
Its dissatisfactions?
Or the voice of nothing, that was you madness?
--from "Elm", written 19 April 1962”
― Ariel
Its dissatisfactions?
Or the voice of nothing, that was you madness?
--from "Elm", written 19 April 1962”
― Ariel
“We think ourselves possessed, or at least we boast that we are so, of liberty of conscience on all subjects and of the right of free inquiry and private judgment in all cases, and yet how far are we from these exalted privileges in fact. There exists, I believe, throughout the whole Christian world, a law which makes it blasphemy to deny, or to doubt the divine inspiration of all the books of the Old and New Testaments, from Genesis to Revelations. In most countries of Europe it is punished by fire at the stake, or the rack, or the wheel. In England itself, it is punished by boring through the tongue with a red-hot poker. In America it is not much better; even in our Massachusetts, which, I believe, upon the whole, is as temperate and moderate in religious zeal as most of the States, a law was made in the latter end of the last century, repealing the cruel punishments of the former laws, but substituting fine and imprisonment upon all those blasphemies upon any book of the Old Testament or New. Now, what free inquiry, when a writer must surely encounter the risk of fine or imprisonment for adducing any arguments for investigation into the divine authority of those books? Who would run the risk of translating Volney's Recherches Nouvelles? Who would run the risk of translating Dupuis? But I cannot enlarge upon this subject, though I have it much at heart. I think such laws a great embarrassment, great obstructions to the improvement of the human mind. Books that cannot bear examination, certainly ought not to be established as divine inspiration by penal laws... but as long as they continue in force as laws, the human mind must make an awkward and clumsy progress in its investigations. I wish they were repealed.
{Letter to Thomas Jefferson, January 23, 1825}”
― The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson & Abigail & John Adams
{Letter to Thomas Jefferson, January 23, 1825}”
― The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson & Abigail & John Adams
“In the Desert
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”
― The Black Riders and Other Lines
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;
“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”
― The Black Riders and Other Lines
Christy’s 2025 Year in Books
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