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GOD & GOING HOME

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GOD

see "RELIGION" for related links

-

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
--Cecil Frances Alexander (1818—1895)
English hymnwriter.
"All Things Bright and Beautiful" [1848] st. 1

& note:

He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834)
English poet, critic, and philosopher.
_The Rime of the Ancient Mariner_ [1798]

-

Every man thinks God is on his side.
The rich and powerful know he is.
--Jean [-Marie-Lucien-Pierre] Anouilh (1910—1987)
French playwright.
_L'Alouette_ (The Lark) [1952]

When a pious visitor inquired sweetly, 'Henry,
[David Thoreau] have you made your peace with
God?' he replied 'We have never quarelled.'
--Brooks Atkinson (1894—1984)
American journalist and critic.
_Henry Thoreau, The Cosmic Yankee_ [1927]

Put your trust in God, my boys,
And keep your powder dry.
--Valentine Blacker (1778—1823)
Army officer in the East India Company.
"Oliver's Advice." [1834]

If God is, whence come evil things? If He is
not, whence come good?
--Boethius [Anicius Manlius Severinus] (480?—524)
Roman scholar and Christian philosopher.
_The Consolation of Philosophy_

[On seeing criminals being led to their execution:]
But for the grace of god there goes John Bradford.
--John Bradford (1510—1555)
English Protestant martyr.
Quoted in _The Writings of John Bradford_ [1853].

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
--John Bradshaw (1602—1659)
English lawyer.
He presided at the trial of Charles I. Buried in Westminster Abbey,
his body was exhumed at the Restoration and hanged in public, like
that of Cromwell.
Quoted in Thomas Jefferson , Letter to Edward Everett [24 February 1823].

Nobody talks so constantly about God as
those who insist there is no God.
--Heywood Broun (1888—1939)
American journalist & father of Heywood Hale Broun.

And lips say, 'God be pitiful,'
Who ne'er said, 'God be praised.'
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806—1861)
_The Cry of the Human_, l. 7 [1844]

God's in His Heaven,
All's right with the world.
--Robert Browning (1812—1889)
English poet.
_Pippa Passes_ [1841]

God is usually on the side of the big squadrons
and against the small ones.
--Roger Bussy-Rabutin (1618—1693)
French soldier and poet.
_Letter to the Comte de Limoges_ [18 October 1677].

When I was young, I said to God, 'God, tell me the mystery of the
universe.' But God answered, 'that knowledge is for me alone.' So I
said, 'God, tell me the mystery of the peanut.' Then God said, 'Well,
George, that's more nearly your size.'
--George Washington Carver (1864—1943)
American agricultural chemist and agronomist.

If I did not believe in God, I should still want
my doctor, my lawyer and my banker to do so.
--G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874—1936)
English essayist, novelist, and poet.

The celestial order and the beauty of the universe compel
me to admit that there is some excellent and eternal Being,
who deserves the respect and homage of men.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero (106—43 BC)
Roman orator and statesman.

Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith's door
And heard the anvil sing the vesper chime;
Then, looking in, I saw upon the floor
Old hammers, worn with blasting years of time.
"How many anvils have you had," said I,
"To wear and batter all these hammers so?"
"Just one," said he; and then, with twinkling eye,
"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know."
And so I thought, the anvil of God's Word
For ages, skeptic blows have beat upon.
Yet tho' the noise of falling blows was heard
The anvil is unharmed — the hammers gone.
--John Clifford,
"The Advil Of God's Word"

And almost everyone when age,
Disease, or sorrows strike him,
Inclines to think there is a God,
Or something very like Him.
--Arthur Hugh Clough (1819—1861)
English poet.
"Dipsychus" [1865]

-

The blasphemous words whereof Arabella was
found guilty were spoken in great passion occasioned
by the spilling of some scalding pitch upon one of
his feet.

By an act passed in Maryland, 30 Oct. 1704, to
punish Blasphemy, for the first offense the offender
is to be bored through his tongue and fined 20
pounds sterling to H.M. [Queen Anne] towards
defraying the County charge where such offense was
committed, or if ye party hath not an estate sufficient
to answer that sum, then to suffer six months
imprisonment ... the said Charles Arabella in
having been bored through the tongue and lain in
prison six months has thereby fully suffered ye
penalty of the Law for such his offense ... The
premises considered, if H.M. shall judge him a
fit object of her royal compassion and shall be
graciously pleased to order that he be released
out of prison.

--Council of Trade and Plantations to Lord Dartmouth,
secretary of state, Whitehall, [19 December 1710].

-

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform.
--William Cowper (1731—1800)
English poet and hymnodist.
"Light Shining Out of Darkness" [1779 hymn]

I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose.
--Clarence Darrow (1857—1938)
American lawyer.
Speech in Toronto, Canada [1930].

I cannot look at the universe as the result of blind chance,
yet I can see no evidence of beneficent design, or indeed
of design of any kind.
--Charles Darwin (1809—1882)
English naturalist.
Letter to J.D. Hooker [12 July 1870].

Poor Mexico, so far from God and
so close to the United States.
--Porfirio Dνaz (1830—1915)
Mexican soldier and president of Mexico [1877—1880 & 1884—1911].
Attributed in Hudson Strode _Timeless Mexico_ [1944].

I read about an Eskimo hunter who asked the local missionary
priest, 'If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?'
'No,' said the priest, 'not if you did not know.' 'Then why,' asked
the Eskimo earnestly, 'did you tell me?'
--Annie Dillard (1945— )
American author and winner of Pulitzer Prize.
_Pilgrim at Tinker Creek_, ch. 7 [1974]

If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in
immortality, not only love but every living force
maintaining the life of the world would at once
be dried up. Moreover, nothing then would be
immoral, everything would be permissible,
even cannibalism.
--Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821—1881)
Russian novelist, journalist, and short story writer.
_The Brothers Karamazov_ [1879—1880], bk. II, ch. 6

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects
of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own —
a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither
can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body,
although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or
ridiculous egotism.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.
Quoted in David E. Rowe _Einstein on Politics_. p. 229 [2007].

Long Island represents the American's idea of what God
would have done with Nature if he'd had the money.
--Peter Fleming (1907—1971)
English travel writer.
Letter to Rupert Fleming [29 September 1929].

[Remark while moving along a line of sailors passing
ammunition, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 7 December 1941:]
Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
--Howell Forgy (1908—1972)
American naval chaplain.
Quoted in "N.Y. Times" [1 November 1942].

God helps those who help themselves.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [1736]

God is always with the strongest battalions.
--Frederick II [Frederick the Great] (1712—1786)
King of Prussia [1740—1786].
Letter to Duchess Louise Dorothea von Gotha [8 May 1760].

-

Where does the world come from? She hadn't the
faintest idea. Sophie knew that the world was only a
small planet in space. But where did space come from?

It was possible that space had always existed, in
which case she would not also need to figure out
where it came from. But could anything have always
existed? Something deep down inside her protested
at the idea. Surely everything that exists must
have had a beginning? So space must sometime have
been created out of something else.

But if space had come from something else, then that
something else must also have come from something.
Sophie felt she was only deferring the problem. At
some point, something must have come from nothing.
But was that possible? Wasn't that just as
impossible as the idea that the world had always
existed?

They had learned at school that God created the
world. Sophie tried to console herself with the
thought that this was probably the best solution to
the whole problem. But then she started to think
again. She could accept that God had created space,
but what about God himself? Had he created himself
out of nothing?

Again there was something deep down inside her that
protested. Even though God could create all kinds
of things, he could hardly create himself before he
had a "self" to create with. So there was only one
possibility left: God had always existed. But she
had already rejected that possibility! Everything
that existed had to have a beginning.

--Jostein Gaarder (1952— )
Norwegian author.
_Sophie's World_ [1996], "The Garden of Eden"

-

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who
has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has
intended us to forego their use.
--Galileo Galilei (1564—1642)
Tuscan astronomer and physicist.
Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany [1615].

When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of
the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.
--Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869—1948)
Indian statesman and leader of the nationalistic movement against British rule.
Quoted in _The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi_
Published by Publications Division, Ministry of Information
and Broadcasting, Govt. of India [1958].

No matter how I probe and prod
I cannot quite believe in God.
But oh! I hope to God that he
Unswervingly believes in me.
--E.Y. "Yip" Harburg (1896—1981)
American songwriter.
"The Agnostic" [1965]

The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is
that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes,
wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by
their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery.
Yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays
all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in
all history.
--Robert Heinlein (1907—1988)
American science-fiction writer.
_Time Enough for Love_ "Intermission" [1973]

All gods and devils that have ever
existed are within us.
--Hermann Hesse (1877—1962)
German novelist, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.
_Reflections_ [1974], #307

When men cease to be faithful to their God, he who
expects to find them so to each other will be much
disappointed.
--George Horne (1730—1792)
English divine.
_Commentary on the Book of Psalms_ [1833]

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is tramping out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
--Julia Ward Howe (1819—1910)
American Unitarian lay preacher.
"Battle Hymn of the Republic" [1862]

God will not look you over for medals, degrees
or diplomas, but for scars.
--Elbert Hubbard (1859—1915)
American editor, publisher, and author who died in the sinking of the "Lusitania."

God became a man, granted.
The devil became a woman.
--Victor Hugo (1802—1885)
French poet, dramatist, and novelist.
_Ruy Blas_ [1838], act II, sc. V

All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their
strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.
--Aldous Huxley (1894—1963)
English novelist (grandson of T.H. Huxley.)

-

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak
minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and
call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with
boldness even the existence of God; because if there be one,
He must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of
blindfolded fear.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
Letter to Peter Carr [10 August 1787].


The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts
only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for
my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It
neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
_Notes on the State of Virginia_, query 17 [1784]

-

Young man —
Your arm's too short to box with God.
--James Weldon Johnson (1871—1938)
American teacher, poet, songwriter, and civil rights activist.
"The Prodigal Son" l. 2 [1927]

'Twas only fear first in the world made gods.
--Ben Jonson (c.1573—1637)
English dramatist and poet.
_Sejanus_, II, ii [1603]

-

If you want to make God laugh, tell him what you're
doing tomorrow.
--The Rev. Mychal Judge, 68, of New York,
a Franciscan monk and New York Fire Department
chaplain, was killed by debris falling from the
World Trade Center.

Judge, a 68-year-old Franciscan priest, died
while giving last rites to a firefighter who
perished when the twin towers collapsed after
two hijacked passenger jets rammed into them
on Tuesday. The Franciscan priest had removed
his fire hat to pray when he was hit by falling
debris. The funeral Mass for Judge took place
at St. Francis of Assisi Church, across from
the firehouse of Engine Co. 1/Ladder Co. 24,
which lost seven firefighters in the disaster.

-

For if the God does not exist it would of course be
impossible to prove it: and if he does exist it would
be folly to attempt it....the paradox is the source of
the thinker's passion, and the thinker without paradox
is like a lover without feeling; a paltry mediocrity.
--Sφren Kierkegaard (1813—1855)
Danish philosopher.
"Philosophical Fragments" [1844]

A man with God is always in the majority.
--John Knox (1505 to 1515—1572)
Scottish religious leader.
Quoted in Inscription on Reformation Monument, Geneva, Switzerland.

All God's children are not beautiful. Most
of God's children are, in fact, barely presentable.
--Fran Lebowitz (1946— )
American humorist.
_Metropolitan Life_ "Manners" [1978]

I'd always suspected that there was a God, even when
I thought I was an atheist — just in case.
--John Lennon (1940—1980)
English pop singer and songwriter.
In _The Beatles Anthology_ [2000], "John Lennon."

The human race has suffered for centuries and is still
suffering from the mental disorder known as religion,
and atheism is the only physician that will be able to
effect a permanent cure.
--Joseph Lewis

"God is on our side."
"It is more important to know that we are on God's side."
--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].
Reply to delegation that visited him during the war as
quoted in Ralph Keyes _The Quote Verifier_, p. 129 [2006].

Abide with me: fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide:
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
--Henry Francis Lyte (1793—1847)
British hymn-writer.
"Eventide" [1847]

[On his controversial goal against England in the 1986 World Cup:]
The goal was scored a little bit by the hand of God
and another bit by the head of Maradona.
--Diego Maradona (1960— )
Argentine football player.
In "Guardian" [1 July 1986].

If an all-good and all-powerful God created the world, why did he create
evil? The monks said, so that man by conquering the wickedness in him,
by resisting temptation, by accepting pain and sorrow and misfortune as
the trials sent by God to purify him, might at long last be made worthy to
receive his grace. It seemed to me like sending a fellow with a message
to some place and just to make it harder for him you constructed a maze
that he had to get through, then dug a moat that he had to swim and finally
built a wall that he had to scale. I wasn't prepared to believe in an all-wise
God who hadn't common sense. I didn't see why you shouldn't believe in
a God who hadn't created the world, but had to make the best of the bad
job he'd found, a being enormously better, wiser and greater than man,
who strove with the evil he hadn't made and who might be hoped in the
end to overcome it. But on the other hand I didn't see why you should.
--W. Somerset Maugham (1874—1965)
English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer.
_The Razor's Edge_ [1944], ch. 4

Man is quite insane. He would not know how to create
a mite, and he creates gods by the dozens.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
_Essais_ (Essays) [94 chapters written 1571—1580 & published 1580;
the last 13 chapters were written 1585—1587 & published 1588.]
Bk. 3, ch. 2 [1580].

Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and myself founded empires;
but on what foundation did we rest the creations of our
genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded an empire upon
love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804—1815].

-

What is it: is man only a blunder of God,
or God only a blunder of man?
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_Twilight of the Idols_ [1888]


God is dead, but given the way of men, there may still be caves for
thousands of years in which his shadow will be shown. And we —
we still have to vanquish his shadow, too.
--Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844—1900)
German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture.
_The Gay Science_ (Die frφhliche Wissenschaft), bk. 3 [1882]

-

God is Spanish and fights for our nation these
days.
--Olivares, Gaspar de Guzmαn y Pimentel (1587—1645)
Spanish prime minister [1623-1643].

He was an embittered atheist (the sort of atheist who does
not so much disbelieve in God as personally dislike Him).
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_Down and Out in Paris and London_, ch. 30 [1933]

[Expedit esse deos, et, ut expedit, esse putemus]
It is convenient that there be gods, let us believe
that there are.
--Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.—18 A.D.)
Roman poet.
_Ars Amatoria_, bk. 1 l. 637

God is or he is not.' But to which side shall we incline?
. . . Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God
is. Let us estimate the two chances. If you win, you win
everything; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then
ithout hesitation that He is!
--Blaise Pascal (1623—1662)
French mathematician, physicist, and moralist.
_Pensιes_ ("Thoughts"), no. 680 [1658]. Known as "Pascal's wager."

One, on God's side, is a majority.
--Wendell Phillips (1811—1884)
American abolitionist and reformer.
"Harper's Ferry" Lecture in Brooklyn, N.Y. [1 November 1859].

-

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
"An Essay on Man", [1733], epistle II


An honest man's the noblest work of God.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
"An Essay on Man", Epistle 4, l. 248 [1734]

-

You see many stars at night in the sky but find them not
when the sun rises; can you say that there are no stars
in the heaven of day? So, O man! because you behold not
God in the days of your ignorance, say not that there is
no God.
--Ramakrishna (1836—1886)
Hindu religious leader, founder of the school of religious
thought that became the Ramakrishna Order.

As the custom, although without legal warrant, had grown
up, I might have felt at liberty to keep the inscription (In
God we trust) had I approved of its being on the coinage.
But as I did not approve of it, I did not direct that it
should again be put on. ... very firm conviction that to
put such a motto on coins . . . not only does no good but
does positive harm. ... In all my life I have never heard
any human being speak reverently of this motto on the coins
or show any sign of its having appealed to any high emotion
in him, the existence of this motto on the coins was a
constant source of jest and ridicule.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].

The difficulty is old, but none the less real. An omnipotent
Being who created a world containing evil not due to sin
must Himself be at least partially evil.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_Religion and Science_ [1935]

I fear God, and next to God, I chiefly fear him who fears Him not.
--Sa'di [Muslih-uddin] (c. 1213—1292)
Iranian poet.
Quoted in James Wood (ed.)
_Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and
Modern, English and Foreign Sources_, p. 166 [1893].

I would rather believe that God did not exist than
believe that He was indifferent.
--George Sand [pseudonym of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dupin] (1804—1876)
French author.

A baby is God's opinion that life should go on.
--Carl Sandburg (1878—1967)
American poet.
"Remembrance Rock", ch. 2 [1948]

That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as
anything so brief could be on so great a subject.
--George Santayana (1863—1952)
Spanish-born philosopher and critic.
_The Life of Reason_ [1905], ch. 3, "Reason in Religion"

God helps those who help themselves.
--Algernon Sidney (1622—1683)
English Whig politician.
_Discourses Concerning Government_ [1698], Ch. 2

The body of a young woman is God's greatest achievement. . . Of course,
He could have built it to last longer but you can't have everything.
--Neil Simon (1927— )
American playwright.
_The Gingerbread Lady_ [1970]

If you tell your troubles to God, you put them into the grave;
they will never rise again when you have committed them to
Him. If you roll your burden anywhere else, it will roll back
again like the stone of Sisyphus.
--Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834—1892)
English nonconformist preacher.

God heard the embattled nations sing and shout
'Gott strafe England!' and 'God save the King!'
God this, God that, and God the other thing—
'Good God!' said God, 'I've got my work cut out.'
--J.C. Squire (1884—1958)
English man of letters.
_The Dilemma_ [1916]

If you talk to God, you are praying; if God
talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
--Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
American psychiatrist.
_The Second Sin_ "Schizophrenia" [1973]

The gods are on the side of the stronger.
--Tacitus [or Publius Cornelius Tacitus or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus]
(c.55—c.117), Roman orator, lawyer, senator, and historian.
_Histories_, bk. 4, ch. 17

What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare
fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance,
when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster!
--Jeremy Taylor (1613—1667)
English Anglican clergyman and writer.

Cast all your cares on God; that anchor holds.
--Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809—1892)
English poet.

For man proposes, but God disposes.
--Thomas a' Kempis (1380—1471)
German ascetical writer.
_The Imitation of Christ_, bk. 1, ch. 19, sec. 2 [c.1420]

If man had created man, he would be ashamed
of his performance.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
_Notebooks_ [1935]

-

I want my attorney, my tailor, my servants, and
even my wife to believe in God, and I think that
then I shall be robbed and cuckolded less often.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
_Dialogues Between A, B, and C_ [1768]


If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
_Epξtres_, No. 96 [1770]

-

For those who believe in God, no
explanation is necessary.
For those who do not believe in
God, no explanation is possible.
--Franz Werfel (1890—1945)
German poet, playwright, and novelist.
_Das Lied von Bernadette_ (The Song of Bernadette) [1941]

Where was God in all this? Was this another test, one more?
Or a punishment? And if so, for what sins? What crimes were
being punished? Was there a misdeed that deserved so many
mass graves? Would it ever again be possible to speak of
justice, of truth, of divine charity, after the murder of one
million Jewish children?
--Eliezer [Elie] Wiesel (1928— )
Romanian Jew and Holocaust survivor.
Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
"To Be a Jew" in _A Jew Today_, tr. Marion Wiesel [1978]

So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths …
while just the act of being kind is all the world
needs.
--Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850—1919)
American author and poet.
"The World's Need"
In Kate Louise Roberts
_Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations_, p. 665 [1922].

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
_An Ideal Husband_, act 2 [1895]

^

[...] Which brings us to the most famous statement in all of modern philosophy:
Nietzsche's "God is dead." The year was 1882. The book was Die Frohliche
Wissenschaft (The Gay Science). Nietzsche said this was not a declaration
of atheism, although he was in fact an atheist, but simply the news of an event.
He called the death of God a "tremendous event," the greatest event of modern
history. The news was that educated people no longer believed in God, as a
result of the rise of rationalism and scientific thought, including Darwinism, over
the preceding 250 years. But before you atheists run up your flags of triumph,
he said, think of the implications. "The story I have to tell," wrote Nietzsche, "is
the history of the next two centuries." He predicted (in Ecce Homo) that the
twentieth century would be a century of "wars such as have never happened
on earth," wars catastrophic beyond all imagining. And why? Because human
beings would no longer have a god to turn to, to absolve them of their guilt; but
they would still be racked by guilt, since guilt is an impulse instilled in children
when they are very young, before the age of reason. As a result, people would
loathe not only one another but themselves. The blind and reassuring faith they
formerly poured into their belief in God, said Nietzsche, they would now pour
into a belief in barbaric nationalistic brotherhoods. "If the doctrines ... of the lack
of any cardinal distinction between man and animal, doctrines I consider true
but deadly" — he says in an allusion to Darwinism in Untimely Meditations - "are
hurled into the people for another generation ... then nobody should be surprised
when ... brotherhoods with the aim of the robbery and exploitation of the non-
brothers ... will appear in the arena of the future."
--Tom Wolfe (1931— )
American journalist and novelist.
_Hooking Up_ [2000]
(ellipis in original text.)

^

If oxen and horses and lions had hands
and were able to draw with their hands
and do the same things as men,
horses would draw the shapes of gods
to look like horses and oxen would draw
them to look like oxen, and each would
make the gods bodies have the same
shape as they themselves had.
--Xenophanes (c. 560—478 B.C.),
Greek philosopher and poet.

-

To those who believe in God, no explanation is
necessary. To those who do not, no explanation
is possible.
--anon.

-----

pantheon [PAN-thee-on; -uhn], noun:
1. A temple dedicated to all the gods; especially (capitalized),
the building so called at Rome.
2. The collective gods of a people; as, a goddess of the Greek pantheon.
3. A public building commemorating and dedicated to the famous
dead of a nation.
4. A group of highly esteemed persons.



GOING HOME

.
.

see "HOME & FAMILY" for related links


When I departed Hollywood forever, in 1940, I
thought that getting away from the place would
automatically cure me of its pestiferous disease,
playfully referred to there as 'going Hollywood.'
I retired first to my father's home in Wichita, but
there I found that the citizens could not decide
whether they despised me for having once been
a success away from home or for now being a
failure in their midst.
--Louise Brooks (1906—1985)
American motion-picture actress.
_Lulu in Hollywood_ [1982]

In sorrow he learned this truth:
Though one may return to the place of his birth,
He cannot go back to his youth.
--John Burroughs (1837—1921)
American naturalist and writer.
"The Return"

I learned ... that one can never go back, that
one should not ever try to go back — that the
essence of life is going forward. Life is really
a one-way street, isn't it?
--Agatha Christie (1890—1976)
British crime fiction writer.

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
--John Howard Payne (1791—1852)
American actor, dramatist, and songwriter.
"Home, Sweet Home" [1823 song]

^

The Monterey Peninsula [ . . . ] is a beautiful place, clean,
well run, and progressive. The beaches are clean where
once they festered with fish guts and flies. The canneries
which once put up a sickening stench are gone, their places
filled with restaurants, antique shops, and the like. They fish
for tourists now, not pilchards, and that species they are not
likely to wipe out. And Carmel, begun by starveling writers
and unwanted painters, is now a community of the well-to-do
and the retired. If Carmel's founders should return, they could
not afford to live there, but it wouldn't go that far. They would
be instantly picked up as suspicious characters and deported
over the city line.

The place of my origin had changed, and having gone away
I had not changed with it. In my memory it stood as it once
did and its outward appearance confused and angered me.

What I am about to tell must be the experience of very many
in this nation where so many wander and come back. I called
on old and valued friends. I thought their hair had receded a
little more than mine. The greetings were enthusiastic. The
memories flooded up. Old crimes and old triumphs were
brought out and dusted. And suddenly my attention wandered,
and looking at my ancient friend, I saw that his wandered also.
And it was true what I had said to Johnny Garcia — I was the
ghost. My town had grown and changed and my friend along
with it. Now returning, as changed to my friend as my town
was to me, I distorted his picture, muddied his memory.
When I went away I had died, and so became fixed and
unchangeable. My return caused only confusion and
uneasiness. Although they could not say it, my oId friends
wanted me gone so that I could take my proper place in
the pattern of remembrance — and I wanted to go for the
same reason. Tom Wolfe was right. You can't go home
again because home has ceased to exist except in the
mothballs of memory.

--John Ernst Steinbeck (1902—1968)
American novelist.
_Travels With Charley_ [1962]

^

You can't go back home to your family —
To a young man's dream of fame and glory,
To the country cottage away from strife and conflict,
To the father you have lost,
To the old forms and systems of things,
Which seemed everlasting but are changing all the time.
--Thomas Wolfe (1900—1938)
American novelist.
_You Can't Go Home Again_ [1940]


end page



| GAMBLING - GARDENS | GARFIELD - GENERATION GAP | GENEROSITY -GENTLEMEN | GEOGRAPHY - GERSHWIN | GHOSTS - GLASSES | GLOBALIZATION - GOALS | GOD & GOING HOME | GOLF | GOOD DEEDS - GOODBYES | GOODNESS - GOVERNMENT | GRACE - GRATITUDE | GRAVEYARDS - GROWING | GROWING OLDER - PAGE 1 (A-L) | GROWING OLDER - PAGE 2 (M-Z) | GROWING UP - GULLIBLE |
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| Return Home | The Credits | The Cast | Act 1 | Act 2 | Act 3 | The End | The Reviews | Photos |
 
     



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