Great Throughts Treasury

"I work all day, and get half drunk at night. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In time the curtain edges will grow light. Till then I see what's really always there: Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, Making all thought impossible but how And where and when I shall myself die. Arid interrogation: yet the dread Of dying, and being dead, Flashes afresh to hold and horrify. The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse – The good not used, the love not given, time Torn off unused – nor wretchedly because An only life can take so long to climb Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never: But at the total emptiness forever, The sure extinction that we travel to And shall be lost in always. Not to be here, Not to be anywhere, And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true. This is a special way of being afraid No trick dispels. Religion used to try, That vast moth-eaten musical brocade Created to pretend we never die, And specious stuff that says no rational being Can fear a thing it cannot feel, not seeing That this is what we fear – no sight, no sound, No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with, Nothing to love or link with, The anesthetic from which none come round. And so it stays just on the edge of vision, A small unfocused blur, a standing chill That slows each impulse down to indecision. Most things may never happen: this one will, And realization of it rages out In furnace fear when we are caught without People or drink. Courage is no good: It means not scaring others. Being brave Lets no-one off the grave. Death is no different whined at than withstood. Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape. It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know, Have always known, know that we can't escape Yet can't accept. One side will have to go. Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring Intricate rented world begins to rouse. The sky is white as clay, with no sun. Work has to be done. Postmen like doctors go from house to house. " - Philip Larkin, fully Philip Arthur Larkin

"When a person is afraid of something, he is actually subjugated to that very thing. If he is not afraid, he remains above it." - Pinchas Shapiro of Koretz, aka Pinchas or Pinchos of Koretz

"To be afraid of death is only another form of thinking that one is wise when one is not; it is to think that one knows what one does not know. No one knows with regard to death whether it is not really the greatest blessing that can happen to man; but people dread it as though they were certain it is the greatest evil. " - Plato NULL

"I am always afraid of your 'something shall be done'." - Plautus, full name Titus Maccius Plautus NULL

"But I'd rather help than watch. I'd rather have a heart than a mind. I'd rather expose too much than too little. I'd rather say hello to strangers than be afraid of them. I would rather know all this about myself than have more money than I need. I'd rather have something to love than a way to impress you. " - Po Bronson

"The thread of life is very light which can break any time with a scissor or a knife Life is an adventure very very dangerous it has many creatures it has many features Life is fun forget all tension and don't be afraid if shot by a gun! " - Pooja Natarajan

"Do not be afraid to take a chance on peace, to teach peace, to live peace...Peace will be the last word of history. " - Pope John Paul II, born Karol Józef Wojtyła, aka Saint John Paul the Great NULL

"At the end of the day, the American people are going to be faced with some very tough judgments, because, at the current course this president is pursuing, I'm afraid that the next president will inherit this situation, with all of its complexity and all of its heartbreak… And let's not kid ourselves. I think this administration is also focused on Iran. And I think we need to send a very strong message that an administration with its track record of failure, of arrogance, of refusal to listen and learn from the disastrous steps that have, unfortunately, been taken should not be rushing off and putting American service members in harm's way and possibly widening the conflict." - Hillary Rodham Clinton

"We have to realize that we are as deeply afraid to live and to love as we are to die." - R. D. Laing, fully Ronald David Laing

"You cannot help being a politician. You cannot live for an hour without being a politician. But what a man generally means when he says that he is not a politician I am afraid is this--that he has been all his life enjoying his political privilege and grossly neglecting his political duties; and in that sense the observation is scarcely to his credit. As a matter of fact, politics, properly understood, is simply Science of Life--the doctrine of the way in which I am to do my duty to my neighbor, which is an essential part of true religion. It is nothing in the world except religion applied to human society; in fact, it is the practical recognition of the Second Table of the Law of God." - Hugh Price Hughes

"Being an artist means not numbering or counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn't force its sap, standing confidently in storms, not afraid that summer may not come." - Rainer Maria Rilke, full name René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke

"I am so afraid of people's words. They describe so distinctly everything: And this they call dog and that they call house, here the start and there the end. I worry about their mockery with words, they know everything, what will be, what was; no mountain is still miraculous; and their house and yard lead right up to God. I want to warn and object: Let the things be! I enjoy listening to the sound they are making. But you always touch: and they hush and stand still. That's how you kill." - Rainer Maria Rilke, full name René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke

"Sex is difficult; yes. But those tasks that have been entrusted to us are difficult; almost everything serious is difficult; and everything is serious. If you just recognize this and manage, out of yourself, out of your own talent and nature, out of your own experience and childhood and strength, to achieve a wholly individual relation to sex (one that is not influenced by convention and custom), then you will no longer have to be afraid of losing yourself and becoming unworthy of your dearest possession." - Rainer Maria Rilke, full name René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke

"Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust.... and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it." - Rainer Maria Rilke, full name René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke

"Time is not a measure. A year does not count, ten years mean nothing. Being an artist means not tell, is growing like a tree that does not hasten its sap and stands serenely, to the great winds of spring, not afraid that summer may not come. The summer is coming. But it only comes to those who wait, as quiet as if in front eternity. " - Rainer Maria Rilke, full name René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke

"He who has realized God does not look upon a woman with the eye of lust; so he is not afraid of her. He perceives clearly that women are but so many aspects of the Divine Mother. He worships them all as the Mother Herself." - Ramakrishna, aka Ramakrishna Paramhamsa or Sri Ramakrishna, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay NULL

"It is not lust alone that one should be afraid of in the life of the world. There is also anger. Anger arises when obstacles are placed in the way of desire." - Ramakrishna, aka Ramakrishna Paramhamsa or Sri Ramakrishna, born Gadadhar Chattopadhyay NULL

"There was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark, afraid of the future, afraid of the past, afraid of the present, afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves." - Ray Bradbury, fully Ray Douglas Bradbury

"You're a hopeless romantic, said Faber. It would be funny if it were not serious. It's not books you need, it's some of the things that once were in books. The same things could be in the 'parlor families' today. The same infinite detail and awareness could be projected through the radios, and televisors, but are not. No, no it's not books at all you're looking for! Take it where you can find it, in old phonograph records, old motion pictures, and in old friends; look for it in nature and look for it in yourself. Books were only one type or receptacle where we stored a lot of things we were afraid we might forget. There is nothing magical in them at all. The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us. Of course you couldn't know this, of course you still can't understand what i mean when i say all this. You are intuitively right, that's what counts." - Ray Bradbury, fully Ray Douglas Bradbury

"You're afraid of making mistakes. Don't be." - Ray Bradbury, fully Ray Douglas Bradbury

"A writer who is afraid to overreach himself is as useless as a general who is afraid to be wrong." - Raymond Chandler, fully Raymond Thornton Chandler

"Aversion from reproof is not wise. It is a mark of a little mind. A great man can afford to lose; a little, insignificant fellow is afraid of being snuffed out." - Richard Cecil

"There is a manifest want of spiritual influence on the ministry of the present day. I feel it in my own case and I see it in that of others. I am afraid there is too much of a low, managing, contriving, maneuvering temper of mind among us. We are laying ourselves out more than is expedient to meet one man's taste and another man's prejudices. The ministry is a grand and holy affair, and it should find in us a simple habit of spirit and a holy but humble indifference to all consequences. A leading defect in Christian ministers is want of a devotional habit." - Richard Cecil

"It would be deeply depressing if the only way children could get moral values was from religion. Either from scripture, and God knows we don't want them to get it from scripture, I mean, just look at scripture. Or, from being afraid of God, being intimidated by God. Anybody who is good for only those two reasons is not really being good at all. Why not teach children things like the Golden Rule, do as you would be done by, how would you like it if other children did that to you, so why do you do it to them... I think it's depressing that anybody should suggest that you actually need God in order to be moral. I would hope that our morals come from a better source than that, and therefore they are genuinely moral rather than based on outmoded scripture, or based on fear." - Richard Dawkins

"Natural men labor to quiet all checks of conscience by sensuality; men are loath to know themselves as they are; they are of the devil's mind, they would not be tormented before their time; such men when they are alone, are afraid of themselves." - Richard Sibbes (or Sibbs)

"If you've a notion of what man's heart is, wouldn't you say that maybe the whole effort of man on earth to build a civilization is simply man's frantic and frightened attempt to hide himself from himself? That there is a part of man that man wants to reject? That man wants to keep from knowing what he is? That he wants to protect himself from seeing that he is something awful? And that this 'awful' part of himself might not be as awful as he thinks, but he finds it too strange and he does not know what to do with it? We talk about what to do with the atom bomb... But man's heart, his spirit is the deadliest thing in creation. Are not all cultures and civilizations just screens which men have used to divide themselves, to put between that part of themselves which they are afraid of and that part of themselves which they wish, in their deep timidity, to try to preserve? Are not all of man's efforts at order an attempt to still man's fear of himself?" - Richard Wright, fully Richard Nathaniel Wright

"For the first time, because the people of the world want peace, and the leaders of the world are afraid of war, the times are on the side of peace." - Richard Nixon, fully Richard Milhous Nixon

"Men generally are afraid of a wife who has more understanding than themselves." -

"If you're afraid to die, you're afraid to live. You can't have one without the other." - Rita Mae Brown

"A sense of wonder is in itself a religious feeling. But in so many people the sense of wonder gets lost. It gets scarred over. It's as though a tortoise shell has grown over it. People reach a stage where they're never surprised, never delighted. They're never suddenly aware of glorious freedom or splendour in their lives. This is very unhappy, very unfortunate. The attitude is often self-induced. It is fear. People are afraid to be happy." - Robertson Davies

"I was afraid and did not know what I feared, which is the worst kind of fear." - Robertson Davies

"Tell us your phobias and we will tell you what you are afraid of." - Robert Benchley, fully Robert Charles Benchley

"There's nothing I'm afraid of like scared people." - Robert Frost

"Many people hold onto a grudge because it offers the illusion of power and a perverse feeling of security. But in fact, we are held hostage by our anger. It is never too late to forgive. But you can forgive too soon. I am especially wary of what I call "saintly forgiveness." Premature forgiveness is common among people who avoid conflict. They're afraid of their own anger and the anger of others. But their forgiveness is false. Their anger goes underground. I define forgiving as letting someone back into your heart. This returns us to a loving state -- and not merely within the relationship -- we feel good about ourselves and the world. True forgiveness isn't easy, but it transforms us significantly. To forgive is to love and to feel worthy of love. In that sense, it is always worthwhile." - Robert Karen

"Men generally are afraid of a wife who has more understanding than themselves." -

"At the dawn I seek Thee, Refuge and rock sublime,— Set my prayer before Thee in the morning, And my prayer at eventime. I before Thy greatness Stand, and am afraid:— All my secret thoughts Thine eye beholdeth Deep within my bosom laid. And withal what is it Heart and tongue can do? What is this my strength, and what is even This the spirit in me too? But verily man’s singing May seem good to Thee; So will I thank Thee, praising, while there dwelleth Yet the breath of God in me." - Salomon ibn Gabirol, aka Solomon ben Judah or Avicebron

"Your true reality is that which is within your breast. A man is where his heart is!" - Sharafuddin Ahmad ibn Yahya Maneri, fully Hazrat Makhdum Shaikh Sharafuddin Yahya Maneri

"As government expands, liberty contracts." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan

"Double, no triple, our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan

"If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party." - Ronald Reagan, fully Ronald Wilson Reagan

"Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more -- more unseen forms become manifest to him." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"Tend to your vital heart, and all that you worry about will be solved." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"The intellectual quest is exquisite like pearls and coral, but it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether, Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to the wonder." - Rumi, fully Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rumi NULL

"A person who tries to find out too much about other people's affairs is likely to suffer injury or harm; a warning to mind one's own business." - Russian Proverbs

"Beware of the goat from its front side, of the horse - from its back side, and the evil man - from any side." - Russian Proverbs

"Don't be afraid of the dog who barks, but be afraid of the one, who is silent and wags its tail." - Russian Proverbs

"You will reap what you will sow. (You will be rewarded or punished in accordance with what you have done to deserve it)" - Russian Proverbs

"Conventions, love had to end in marriage. I'm afraid it did." - Bette Davis, Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis

"Discipline is a symbol of caring to a child. He needs guidance. If there is love, there is no such thing as being too tough with a child. A parent must also not be afraid to hang himself. If you have never been hated by your child, you have never been a parent." - Bette Davis, Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis

"There are, I should say, four elements in a redemptive community. It is personal, with things happening between people as well as to and in them individually; it is compassionate, always eager to help, observant but non-judgmental toward others, breathing out hope and concern; it is creative, with imagination about each one in the group and its work as a whole, watching for authentic new vision coming from any of them; and it is expectant, always seeking to offer to God open and believing hearts and minds through which He can work out His will, either in the sometimes startling miracles He gives or in steady purpose through long stretches where there is no special opening. It may fairly be said that unless one enmeshes himself in this redemptive fellowship of the church, he lessens his chances of steady growth and effectiveness." - Sam Shoemaker, fully Samuel "Sam" Moor Shoemaker, III