Sublime Quotes - Page 4

• The most sublime courage I have ever witnessed has been among that class too poor to know they possessed it, and too humble for the world to discover it.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Courage, Humble, Class

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• Freemasonry is a moral order, instituted by virtuous men, with the praiseworthy design of recalling to our remembrance the most sublime truths, in the midst of the most innocent and social pleasures, founded on liberality, brotherly love and charity.

  Andrew Jackson

  Men, Order, Remembrance

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• The transformation of nature, a total fusion of science, art and technology in a sublime statement of human dignity and intelligence through the settlements we build for ourselves.

  Paulo Mendes da Rocha

  Art, Technology, Fusion

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• Life is not mean, it is grand; if it is mean to any, he or she makes it so. God made it glorious. It is paved with diamonds; its banks he fringed with flowers. He overarched it with stars. Around it He spread the glory of the physical universe-suns, moon, worlds, constellations, systems-all that is magnificent in motion, sublime in magnitude, and grand in order and obedience. God would not have attended life with this broad march of grandeur if it did not mean something.

  Orison Swett Marden

  Life, Stars, Flower

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• There are great truths at the foundation of Freemasonry, truths which it is its mission to teach and which is constituting the very essence of, that sublime system which gives the venerable institution its peculiar identity as a science of morality, and it behooves every disciple diligently to ponder and inwardly digest.

  Albert Pike

  Essence, Giving, Identity

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• Rich in saving common-sense, And, as the greatest only are, In his simplicity sublime.

  Alfred Lord Tennyson

  Common Sense, Simplicity, Saving

  Alfred Tennyson Tennyson, Baron, Alfred Lord Tennyson (2014). “Fifty Poems”, p.154, Cambridge University Press

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• When a man gets talking about himself, he seldom fails to be eloquent and often reaches the sublime.

  Josh Billings

  Men, Talking, Failing

  Josh Billings (1972). “Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything, Distilled from Josh's Rum and Tansy New England Wit by Donald Day”

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• Oh! weep not that our beauty wears Beneath the wings of Time; That age o'erclouds the brow with cares That once was raised sublime... But mourn the inward wreck we feel As hoary years depart, And Time's effacing fingers steal Young feelings from the heart!

  Robert Montgomery

  Heart, Years, Wings

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• Do not direct all your energies towards seeking pleasure but rather towards a sublime ideal. Your energies will then serve you and contribute to the realisation of your goal or ideal.

  Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

  Goal, Energy, Pleasure

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• Under the sublime law of progress, the present outgrows the past. The great heart of humanity is heaving with the hopes of a brighter day. All the higher instincts of our nature prophesy its approach; and the best intellects of the race are struggling to turn that prophecy into fulfilment.

  Horace Mann

  Struggle, Heart, Past

  Horace Mann (1895). “Helps to Self-culture”

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• Suffering ignites the spark of contact with the sublime and offers proof of humanity.

  Lydia Millet

  Grief, Humanity, Suffering

  Lydia Millet (2005). “Oh Pure and Radiant Heart”, p.214, Soft Skull Press

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• In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. God himself culminates in the present moment and will never be more divine in the lapse of the ages. Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but when I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away but eternity remains.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Time, Fishing, Age

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• How sublime Upon a time-blanch’d cliff to muse, and, while The eagle glories in a sea of air, To mingle with the scene around! - Survey The sun-warm heaven.

  Robert Montgomery

  Nature, Air, Eagles

  Robert Montgomery (1829). “A universal prayer ; Death ; A vision of heaven ; and A vision of hell”, p.142

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• The effectiveness of a doctrine does not come from its meaning but from its certitude. No doctrine however profound and sublime will be effective unless it is presented as the embodiment of the one and only truth

  Eric Hoffer

  Effectiveness, Profound, Doe

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• It is sublime to think and say of another, I need never meet, or speak, or write to him: we need not reinforce ourselves, or send tokens of remembrance; I rely on him as on myself: if he did thus and thus, I know it was right.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Trust, Writing, Thinking

  Ralph Waldo, Emerson, (2013). “Nature - Conduct of Life”, p.225, Read Books Ltd

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• Word-work is sublime... because it is generative; it makes meaning that secures our difference, our human difference-the way in which we are like no other life. We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.

  Toni Morrison

  Differences, Meaning Of Life, May

  Nobel Prize for Literature Lecture, delivered 7 December 1993

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• The elements that unite to make the Grand Canyon the most sublime spectacle in nature are multifarious and exceedingly diverse.

  John Wesley Powell

  Elements, Canyons, Grand Canyon

  John Wesley Powell (2008). “Canyons of the Colorado”, p.394, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Of all tools, an observatory is the most sublime. . . . What is so good in a college as an observatory? The sublime attaches to the door and to the first stair you ascent, that this is the road to the stars.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Stars, College, Doors

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Lee Grossman (2005). “A Year with Emerson: A Daybook”, p.162, David R. Godine Publisher

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• In the life of husband and wife together, fatherhood and motherhood represent such a sublime "novelty" and richness as can only be approached "on one's knees".

  Pope John Paul II

  Faith, Husband, Inspiration

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• It's been written that the most sublime figure in American history was George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. He personified a people who knew that it was not enough to depend on their own courage and goodness, that they must also seek help from God - their Father and preserver. Where did we begin to lose sight of that noble beginning, of our conviction that standards of right and wrong do exist and must be lived up to? Do we really think that we can have it both ways, that God will protect us in a time of crisis even as we turn away from him in our day-to-day life?

  Ronald Reagan

  God, Father, Thinking

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• Give up money, give up fame, give up science, give the earth itself and all it contains rather than do an immoral act. And never suppose that in any possible situation, or under any circumstances, it is best for you to do a dishonorable thing, however slightly so it may appear to you.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Giving Up, Practice, Comfort

  "Jefferson: Political Writings".

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• The soul is the perceiver and revealer of truth. We know truth when we see it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they choose ... We distinguish the announcements of the soul, its manifestations of its own nature, by the term Revelation. These are always attended by the emotion of the sublime. For this communication is an influx of the Divine mind into our mind. It is an ebb of the individual rivulet before the flowing surges of the sea of life. Every distinct apprehension of this central commandment agitates men with awe and delight.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Communication, Men, Sea

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• Arise! Arise! A tidal wave is coming! Onward! Men and women, down to the Chandala (Pariah) - all are pure in his eyes. Onward! Onward! There is no time to care for name, or fame, or Mukti, or Bhakti! We shall look to these some other time. Now in this life let us infinitely spread his lofty character, his sublime life, his infinite soul. This is the only work - there is nothing else to do.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Character, Eye, Men

  Swami Vivekananda (2007). “Prabuddha Bharata: Or Awakened India”

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• I still believe that capitalism is too harsh and I believe that, even within that, there is a lot of satisfaction and beauty if you happen to be one of the lucky ones, although that doesn't eradicate the reality of the suffering. It's all true at once, kind of humming and sublime.

  George Saunders

  Believe, Reality, Suffering

  "On "Tenth of December": An Interview With George Saunders" by Deborah Treisman, www.newyorker.com. January 24, 2013.

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• Our agency, given us through the plan of our Father, is the great alternative to Satan's plan of force. With this sublime gift, we can grow, improve, progress, and seek perfection. Without agency, none of us could grow and develop by learning from our mistakes and errors and those of others.... I do not really think the devil can make us do anything. Certainly he can tempt and he can deceive, but he has no authority over us that we do not give him.

  James E. Faust

  Father, Mistake, Thinking

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