*
This is the reason why the PAST has such magical power. The beauty of its motionless and silent pictures is like the enchanted purity of late autumn, when the leaves, through on breath would make them fall, still glow against the sky in golden glory.
The Past does not change or strive; like Duncan, after life's fitful fever it sleeps well, what was eager and grasping, what was petty and transitory, has faded away, the things that were beautiful and eternal shine out of it like stars in the night.
Its beauty to a soul not worthy of it, is unendurable; but to a soul which has conquered Fate, it is the key of religion.
*
To every man comes, sooner or later, the great renunciation. For the young, there is nothing unattainable; a good thing desired with the whole force of a passionate will, and yet impossible, is to them not credible.
Yet, by death, by illness, by poverty, or by the voice of duty, we must learn, each one of us, that the whole world was not made for us, and that, whoever beautiful may be the things we crave, Fate may nevertheless forbid them.
It is the part of courage, when misfortune comes, to bear without repining the ruin of our hopes, to turn away our thoughts from vain regrets.
This degree of submission to Power is not only just and right: it is the very gate of wisdom.
A Free Man's Worship,
Bertrand Russell.
This is the reason why the PAST has such magical power. The beauty of its motionless and silent pictures is like the enchanted purity of late autumn, when the leaves, through on breath would make them fall, still glow against the sky in golden glory.
The Past does not change or strive; like Duncan, after life's fitful fever it sleeps well, what was eager and grasping, what was petty and transitory, has faded away, the things that were beautiful and eternal shine out of it like stars in the night.
Its beauty to a soul not worthy of it, is unendurable; but to a soul which has conquered Fate, it is the key of religion.
*
To every man comes, sooner or later, the great renunciation. For the young, there is nothing unattainable; a good thing desired with the whole force of a passionate will, and yet impossible, is to them not credible.
Yet, by death, by illness, by poverty, or by the voice of duty, we must learn, each one of us, that the whole world was not made for us, and that, whoever beautiful may be the things we crave, Fate may nevertheless forbid them.
It is the part of courage, when misfortune comes, to bear without repining the ruin of our hopes, to turn away our thoughts from vain regrets.
This degree of submission to Power is not only just and right: it is the very gate of wisdom.
A Free Man's Worship,
Bertrand Russell.
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