June 2010
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“I was born modest; not all over, but in spots.”
—Mark Twain
“Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise.”
—William Shakespeare
“A superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.”
—Confucius
“In childhood be modest, in youth temperate, in adulthood just, and in old age prudent.”
—Socrates
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To A Stranger
PASSING Stranger! you do not know how longingly I look upon you,
You must be he I was seeking, or she I was seeking, (it comes to me as of a dream,)
I have somewhere surely lived a life of joy with you,
All is recall’d as we flit by each other, fluid, affectionate, chaste, matured,
You grew up with me, were a boy with me or a girl with me,
I ate with you and slept with you, your body has become not yours
only nor left my body mine only,
You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass, you take
of my beard, breast, hands, in return,
I am not to speak to you, I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake
at night alone,
I am to wait, I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
“This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.”
—Walt Whitman
“Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.”
—Plutarch
“And it is not our part here to take thought only for a season, or for a few lives of Men, or for a passing age of the world.”
—J.R.R. Tolkien
