Eden Quotes

• The world was all before them, where to choose Their place of rest, and Providence their guide: They hand in hand, with wandering steps and slow, Through Eden took their solitary way.

  John Milton

  Hands, World, Way

  Paradise Regained bk. 4, l. 220 (1671) SeeWilliamWordsworth 12

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• A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean question: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well - or ill?

  John Steinbeck

  Life, Integrity, Character

  John Steinbeck (1952). “East of Eden, And, The Wayward Bus”

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• We must cultivate our own garden.

  Voltaire

  Healing, Garden, Pulling Weeds

  1759 Candide, ch.30.

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• Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified?

  Chuck Palahniuk

  Garden, Apples, Judging

  Chuck Palahniuk (1999). “Survivor: A Novel”, Anchor

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• What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang?

  Countee Cullen

  Strong, Stars, Men

  1925 On These I Stand,'Heritage'.

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• The male has been persuaded to assume a certain onerous and disagreeable role with the promise of rewards -- material and psychological. Women may in the first place even have put it into his head. BE A MAN! may have been, metaphorically, what Eve uttered at the critical moment in the garden of Eden.

  Wyndham Lewis

  Men, Garden, Promise

  Wyndham Lewis (1989). “The Essential Wyndham Lewis: An Introduction to His Work”, Andre Deutsch Limited

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• Eden ha[s] put his country in a position where she sustained the greatest diplomatic reverse since Bismarck in similar circumstances had called Palmerston's bluff in the matter of Schleswig-Holstein...Further damage was done when Russia proved by her action in Spain, that she was not a good European as Mr. Eden had assured the world was the case.

  Anthony Eden

  Country, Russia, Spain

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• No, it is not only our fate but our business to lose innocence, and once we have lost that, it is futile to attempt a picnic in Eden.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Fate, Picnics, Innocence

  'Out of a Book' in 'Orion III' (ed. Rosamund Lehmann et al, 1946)

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• Little deeds of kindness
  Little words of love;
  Help to make earth an Eden
  Like the heaven above.

  Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney

  Love, Happiness, Thank You

  Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney, “Little Things”

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• The voice that breathed o'er Eden, That earliest wedding day.

  John Keble

  Wedding, Voice, Love And Marriage

  'Holy Matrimony' (1869)

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• Temptation has been here ever since the Garden of Eden.

  Jerry Falwell

  Garden, Temptation, Has Beens

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• Love doesn't grow on trees like apples in Eden - it's something you have to make. And you must use your imagination too.

  Joyce Cary

  Love, Valentines Day, Apples

  Joyce Cary (1958). “First trilogy: Herself surprised: To be a pilgrim. The horse's mouth”

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• 

  The free exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.

  John Steinbeck

  Freedom, I Hate You, Mind

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.116, Penguin

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• This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, This other Eden, demi-Paradise.

  William Shakespeare

  Kings, Precious Stones, Paradise On Earth

  'Richard II' (1595) act 2, sc. 1, l. 40

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• I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents.... The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul?

  John Steinbeck

  Believe, Eggs, Perfect

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.66, Penguin

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• To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace.

  Milan Kundera

  Letting Go, Dog, Stress

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• This I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected.

  John Steinbeck

  Freedom, Fighting, Mind

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.116, Penguin

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• Responsibility is what awaits outside the Eden of Creativity.

  Nadine Gordimer

  Creativity, Responsibility

  Nadine Gordimer (2012). “Telling Times: Writing and Living, 1950-2008”, p.409, A&C Black

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• Fake is as old as the Eden tree.

  Orson Welles

  Fake People, Fake, Tree

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• There is one sure thing about the fall of gods: they do not fall a little; they crash and shatter.

  John Steinbeck

  Fall, Littles, Crash

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.21, Penguin

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• No bird has ever uttered note That was not in some first bird's throat; Since Eden's freshness and man's fall No rose has been original.

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich

  Fall, Men, Rose

  Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1897). “The Writings of Thomas Bailey Aldrich”

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• Maybe-- maybe love makes you suspicious and doubting. Is it true that when you love a woman you are never sure-- never sure of her because you aren't sure of yourself?

  John Steinbeck

  Doubt, Maybe Love, Suspicious

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.64, Penguin

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• But 'Thou mayest!'! Why, that makes a man great, that gives him stature with the gods, for in his weakness and his filth and his murder of his brother he has still the great choice. He can choose his course and fight it through and win

  John Steinbeck

  Brother, Fighting, Winning

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.265, Penguin

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• There is a contest old as Eden, which still goes on - the conflict between right and wrong, between error and truth. In this conflict every human being has a part.

  Matthew Simpson

  Errors, Goes On, Conflict

  Matthew Simpson (1885). “Sermons”

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• It would be absurd if we did not understand both angels and devils, since we invented them.

  John Steinbeck

  Angel, Devil, Would Be

  John Steinbeck (2002). “East of Eden”, p.116, Penguin

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