“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.” – Viktor E. Frankl
Monday, January 20, 2014
finding Meaning
“Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.” – Viktor E. Frankl
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow | Video on TED.com
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has contributed pioneering work to our understanding of happiness, creativity, human fulfillment and the notion of "flow" -- a state of heightened focus and immersion in activities such as art, play and work.
Why you should listen to him:
Csikszentmihalyi teaches psychology and management at Claremont Graduate University, focusing on human strengths such as optimism, motivation and responsibility. He's the director the the Quality of Life Research Center there. He has written numerous books and papers about the search for joy and fulfillment.
"A man obsessed by happiness."Richard Flaste, New York Times Read more about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the TED Blog »
Quotes by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
-
“You know that what you need to do is possible to do, even though difficult, and sense of time disappears. You forget yourself. You feel part of something larger.”
— on experiencing ‘flow’ Watch this talk »
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the Web
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow | Video on TED.com
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_on_flow.html
Zorba the Greek
“Every man has his folly, but the greatest folly of all, in my view, is not to have one.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Let your youth have free reign, it won't come again, so be bold and no repenting.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint the paradise, then in you go.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“For I realize today that it is a mortal sin to violate the great laws of nature. We should not hurry, we should not be impatient, but we should confidently obey the eternal rhythm.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“When everything goes wrong, what a joy to test your soul and see if it has endurance and courage! An invisible and all-powerful enemy—some call him God, others the Devil, seem to rush upon us to destroy us; but we are not destroyed.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Life is trouble. Only death is not. To be alive is to undo your belt and *look* for trouble.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“You can knock on a deaf man's door forever.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“This is true happiness: to have no ambition and to work like a horse as if you had every ambition. To live far from men, not to need them and yet to love them. To have the stars above, the land to your left and the sea to your right and to realize of a sudden that in your heart, life has accomplished its final miracle: it has become a fairy tale.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“God changes his appearance every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Free yourself from one passion to be dominated by another and nobler one. But is not that, too, a form of slavery? To sacrifice oneself to an idea, to a race, to God? Or does it mean that the higher the model the longer the longer the tether of our slavery?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Once more there sounded within me the terrible warning that there is only one life for all men, that there is only one life for all men, that there is no other and that all that can be enjoyed must be enjoyed here. In eternity no other chance will be given to us.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“All those who actually live the mysteries of life haven't the time to write, and all those who have the time don't live them! D'you see?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“the highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Look, one day I had gone to a little village. An old grandfather of ninety was busy planting an almond tree. ‘What, grandfather!’ I exclaimed. ‘Planting an almond tree?’ And he, bent as he was, turned around and said: ‘My son, I carry on as if I should never die.’ I replied: ‘And I carry on as if I was going to die any minute.’
Which of us was right, boss?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“I was happy, I knew that. While experiencing happiness, we have difficulty in being conscious of it. Only when the happiness is past and we look back on it do we suddenly realize - sometimes with astonishment - how happy we had been.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“When shall I at last retire into solitude alone, without companions, without joy and without sorrow, with only the sacred certainty that all is a dream? When, in my rags—without desires—shall I retire contented into the mountains? When, seeing that my body is merely sickness and crime, age and death, shall I—free, fearless, and blissful—retire to the forest? When? When, oh when?”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek
“Throughout my life my greatest benefactors have been my travels and my dreams. Very few men, living or dead, have helped me in my struggles.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“Beauty is merciless. You do not look at it, it looks at you and does not forgive.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“Ideal teachers are those
who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to
cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse,
encouraging them to create bridges of their own.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“Freedom was my first great desire. The second, which remains hidden within me to this day, tormenting me, was the desire for sanctity. Hero together with saint: such is mankind's supreme model.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco
“Discipline is the highest of all virtues. Only so may strength and desire be counterbalanced and the endeavors of man bear fruit.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, The Rock Garden
“My entire soul is a cry, and all my work is a commentary on that cry.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes, and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. . . . All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness, is a simple, frugal heart.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis
“The canary began to sing again. The sun had struck it, and its throat and tiny breast had filled with song. Francis gazed at it for a long time, not speaking, his mouth hanging half opened, his eyes dimmed with tears.
"The canary is like man's soul," he whispered finally. "It sees bars round it, but instead if despairing, it sings. It sings, and wait and see, Brother Leo: one day its song shall break the bars.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Saint Francis
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Rick Hanson - - Hardwiring Happiness
Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a neuropsychologist and New York Times best-selling author.
- Hardwiring Happiness,
- Buddha’s Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom, and
- Just One Thing: Developing a Buddha Brain One Simple Practice at a Time.
and Mother Nurture.
Founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom and an Affiliate of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, he’s been an invited speaker at Oxford, Stanford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide.
An authority on self-directed neuroplasticity, Dr. Hanson’s work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, FoxBusiness, Consumer Reports Health, U.S. News and World Report, and O Magazine.
He edits the Wise Brain Bulletin, and his weekly e-newsletter – Just One Thing – has over 90,000 subscribers, and
- also appears on Huffington Post, Psychology Today, and other major websites.
He has several audio programs with Sounds True, and his first book was Mother Nurture: A Mother’s Guide to Health in Body, Mind, and Intimate Relationships.
A summa cum laude graduate of UCLA, Dr. Hanson is a trustee of Saybrook University. He also served on the board of Spirit Rock Meditation Center for nine years, and was President of the Board of FamilyWorks, a community agency.
He began meditating in 1974, trained in several traditions, and leads a weekly meditation gathering in San Rafael, CA.
For more information about Rick, please go to www.RickHanson.net
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Bringing back a Wandering Attention - William James
William James was interested in mindfulness and attention:
“The faculty of voluntarily bringing back a wandering attention, over and over again, is the very root of judgment, character, and will. No one is compos sui [master of himself] if he have it not. An education which should improve this faculty would be the education par excellence.”
William James, Psychology: Briefer Course, p. 424 (Harper Torchbooks, 1961)
Monday, September 17, 2012
Practice Patience for Patience is the beginning of Mindfulness
- Patience is the companion of wisdom.
- -- Saint Augustine (354 AD - 430 AD)
- There art two cardinal sins from which all others spring: Impatience and Laziness.
- -- Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924)
- If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention, than to any other talent.
- - Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)
Patience serves as a protection against wrongs as clothes do against cold. For if you put on more clothes as the cold increases, it will have no power to hurt you. So in like manner you must grow in patience when you meet with great wrongs, and they will then be powerless to vex your mind.
- -- Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519)
- Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew.
- -- Saint Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622)
- Patience is the best remedy for every trouble.
- - Titus Maccius Plautus (254 BC - 184 BC), Rudens
- Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.
- - Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)
- A high hope for a low heaven: God grant us patience!
- - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Love's Labour's Lost, Act I, sc. 1
- A very little thief of occasion will rob you of a great deal of patience
- -William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Coriolanus, Act II, sc. 1
- Had it pleas'd heaven to try me with affliction... I should have found in some place of my soul a drop of patience.
- - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Othello, Act IV, sc. 2
- How poor are they that have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
- - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Othello, Act II, sc. 3
- How poor are they who have not patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees.
- - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)
- I do oppose my patience to his fury, and am arm'd to suffer with a quietness of spirit, the very tyranny and rage of his.
- - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), The Merchant of Venice, Act IV, sc. 1
- Patience is sottish, and impatience does become a dog that's mad
- - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, sc. 15
- Though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod.
- - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Henry V, Act II, sc. 1
- Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper sprinkle cool patience.
- - William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616), Hamlet, Act III, sc. 4
Patience, my lord. Why, 'tis the soul of peace.
Of all the virtues 'tis near'st kin to heaven.
It makes men look like gods; the best of men
That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer,
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
The first true gentleman that ever breath'd.
- Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton
The Honest Whore Part One, act V scene II
-
Patience is the ballast of the soul, that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms: and he, that will venture out without this to make him sail even and steady will certainly make shipwreck, and drown himself; first, in the cares and sorrows of this world; and, then, in perdition.
- Ezekiel Hopkins, Death disarmed of it Sting Of Patience under Afflictions.
-
Patience is the guardian of faith, the preserver of peace, the cherisher of love, the teacher of humility; Patience governs the flesh, strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, extinguishes envy, subdues pride; she bridles the tongue, refrains the hand, tramples upon temptations, endures persecutions, consummates martyrdom; Patience produces unity in the church, loyalty in the State, harmony in families and societies; she comforts the poor and moderates the rich; she makes us humble in prosperity, cheerful in adversity, unmoved by calumny and reproach; she teaches us to forgive those who have injured us, and to be the first in asking forgiveness of those whom we have injured; she delights the faithful, and invites the unbelieving; she adorns the woman, and approves the man; is loved in a child, praised in a young man, admired in an old man; she is beautiful in either sex and every age.
- Bishop Horne, Discourses on Several Subjects and Occasions Patience Portrayed
Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim.
Have patience and endure; this unhappiness will one day be beneficial.
- Ovid, Amorum (16 BC), III. 11. 7.
Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.
Persevere and preserve yourselves for better circumstances.
Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), I. 207.
Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.
Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), V. 710.
Patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains.
- William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude In Reflections And Maxims (1682) no. 234.
Font plus que force ni que rage.
By time and toil we sever
What strength and rage could never.
Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, II. 11.
Rule by patience, Laughing Water!
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha (1855), Part X. Hiawatha's Wooing.
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, A Psalm of Life, Stanza 9.
All things come round to him who will but wait.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tales of a Wayside Inn, The Student's Tale, Part I.
Endurance is the crowning quality,
And patience all the passion of great hearts.
James Russell Lowell, Columbus, line 241.
Sua quisque exempla debet æquo animo pati.
Every one ought to bear patiently the results of his own conduct.
Phaedrus, Fables, I. 26. 12.
La patience est amère, mais son fruit est doux.
Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Nihil tam acerbum est in quo non æquus animus solatium inveniat.
There is nothing so disagreeable, that a patient mind can not find some solace for it.
Seneca, De Animi Tranquilitate, X.
Furor fit læsa sæpius patientia.
Patience, when too often outraged, is converted into madness.
-- Syrus, Maxims. 289.
La patience est l'art d'espérer.
Patience is the art of hoping.
-- Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, Réflexions, CCLI.
It is not necessary for all men to be great in action. The greatest and sublimest power is often simple patience.
- Horace Bushnell, p. 443.
Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear;
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.
- George Croly, p. 444.
Patience! why, it is the soul of peace; of all the virtues it is nearest kin to heaven; it makes men look like gods. The best of men that ever wore earth about Him was a Sufferer,— a soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit; the first true gentleman that ever breathed.
- Thomas Decker, p. 443.
Patience is enduring love; experience is perfecting love; and hope is exulting love.
- Alexander Dickson, p. 442.
It is easy finding reasons why other folks should be patient.
- George Eliot, p. 443.
Patience is the ballast of the soul that will keep it from rolling and tumbling in the greatest storms.
- Bishop Hopkins, p. 442.
Dispose thyself to patience rather than to comfort, and to the bearing of the cross rather than to gladness.
- Thomas à Kempis, p. 442.
The holier one is, the more forbearing and loving he is; the more tender and patient and anxious to help others in every way. Think how forbearing and loving Christ is when we do wrong; and there we are to be like Him.
- Arthur Henry Kenney, p. 444.
Therefore, let us be patient, patient; and let God our Father teach His own lesson, His own way. Let us try to learn it well and quickly; but do not let us fancy that He will ring the school-bell, and send us to play before our lesson is learnt.
- Charles Kingsley, p. 443.
Be patient, my friends; time rolls rapidly away; our longing has its end. The hour will strike, who knows how soon?— when the maternal lap of everlasting Love shall be opened to us, and the full peace of God breathe around us from the palmy summits of Eden.
- Friedrich Wilhelm Krummacher, p. 613.
When I am about my work, sometimes called unexpectedly and suddenly from one thing to another, I whisper in my heart, " Lord, help me to be patient, help me to remember, and help me to be faithful. Lord, enable me to do all for Christ's sake, and to go forward, leaning on the bosom of His infinite grace."
-- Mary Lyon, p. 444.
We are waiting, Master, waiting,
Wayworn, pressed with toils and strife;
Waiting, hoping, watching, praying,
Till we reach the gates of life.
-- Ray Palmer, p. 613.
Not without design does God write the music of our lives. Be it ours to learn the time, and not be discouraged at the rests. If we say sadly to ourselves, "There is no music in a rest," let us not forget " there is the making of music in it." The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life. How patiently God works to teach us! How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!
- John Ruskin, p. 443.
Show yourself a Christian by suffering without murmuring. In patience possess your soul — they lose nothing who gain Christ.
- Samuel Rutherford, p. 444.
The disciples of a patient Saviour should be patient themselves.
- Charles Spurgeon, p. 442.
How poor are they that have not patience!
What wound did ever heal but by degrees?
-- William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act II, scene 3, line 376.
Had it pleas'd heaven
To try me with affliction * * *
I should have found in some place of my soul
A drop of patience.
-- William Shakespeare, Othello (c. 1603), Act IV, scene 2, line 47.
Like Patience gazing on kings' graves, and smiling
Extremity out of act.
- William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre (c. 1607-08), Act V, scene 1, line 139.
She sat like patience on a monument
Smiling at grief.
- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act II, scene 4, line 117.
He that will have a cake out of the wheat must tarry the grinding.
- William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida Act I, scene i.
Patience is the art of hoping.
- Marquis De Vauvenargues, Reflections and Maxims (1746) no. 251.
Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis.
Persevere and preserve yourselves for better circumstances.
-- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), I. 207.
Superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est.
Every misfortune is to be subdued by patience.
-- Virgil, Æneid (29-19 BC), V. 710.
With strength and patience all his grievous loads are borne,
And from the world's rose-bed he only asks a thorn.
- William R. Alger, Oriental Poetry, Mussud's Praise of the Camel.
I worked with patience which means almost power.
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh (1856), Book III, line 205.
And I must bear
What is ordained with patience, being aware
Necessity doth front the universe
With an invincible gesture.
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Prometheus Bound.
But there are times when patience proves at fault.
- Robert Browning, Paracelsus, scene 3.
There is however a limit, at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.
- Edmund Burke, Observations on a Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation.
Thus with hir fader for a certeyn space
Dwelleth this flour of wyfly pacience,
That neither by hir wordes ne hir face
Biforn the folk, ne eek in her absence,
Ne shewed she that hir was doon offence.
- Geoffrey Chaucer, The Clerkes Tale, V, line 13,254.
Patience is sorrow's salve.
- Charles Churchill, Prophecy of Famine, line 363.
Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.
- Benjamin Disraeli, Contarini Fleming, Part IV, Chapter V.
But the waiting time, my brothers,
Is the hardest time of all.
- Sarah Doudney, Psalms of Life, The Hardest Time of All.
The worst speak something good; if all want sense,
God takes a text, and preacheth patience.
- George Herbert, The Church Porch, Stanza 72.
Durum! sed levius fit patientia
Quicquid corrigere est nefas.
It is hard! But what can not be removed, becomes lighter through patience.
- Horace, Carmina, I. 24. 19.
For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill.
- Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes, line 352.
Source: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Patience
Saturday, September 15, 2012
You are the master of your fate and you create your own happiness.
If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?
- Hillel the Elder, 1st Century B.C.
It's never the events that happen to us that make us disturbed, but our view of them.
Epictetus, 1st Century A.D.
Happiness and misery depend as much on temperament as on fortune.
- Francois de la Rochefoucauld, 17th Century
Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
- Abe Lincoln
Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.
- Leo Tolstoy
To be in Hell is to drift; to be in Heaven is to steer.
- Geo. B. Shaw
.................
It is not that someone else is preventing you from living happily;
You yourself do not know what you want. Rather than admit this,
you pretend that someone is keeping you from excercising your liberty.
Who is this? It is yourself.
- Thomas Merton, 1961
.................................
I am responsible for the achievement of my desires.
I am responsible for my choices and actions...
I am responsible for my personal happiness.
- Dr. Nathaniel Branden
.....................................
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
- Thomas Jefferson
..................................
If you think you're free, there's no escape possible.
- Ram Dass
...............................
Happiness is something you can work at. It's a matter of identifying the things you do that get in the way of happiness, and figuring out what positive activities you can do everyday to augment it.
- David Lykken, U of Minnesota
.....................................
Depressed people are caught in a feedback loop in which distorted thoughts cause negative feelings, which then distort feelings further.
You can break the cycle by changing the thoughts.
A big part of cognitive therapy is training clients to catch the thoughts and distortions and then find alternative and more accurate ways of thinking.
Over many weeks,the client's thoughts become more realistic. The feedback loop is broken and the client's anxiety or depression abates.
- Jonathan Haidt, Psychologist and Happiness Researcher
.............................................
Friday, August 10, 2012
Define Success to properly set your compass on your single definite purpose
I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair. In these words he epitomized the history of the human race.
- Bertrand Russell
- Bertrand Russell
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure. ”
― Mark Twain
― Mark Twain
"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins
- not by strength but by perseverance."
- H. Jackson Brown
“Don't mistake activity with achievement.”
― John Wooden
― John Wooden
“Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
― Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
“Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning
“I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.”
― Amelia Earhart
― Amelia Earhart
“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, "Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody." ... [My dark side says,] I am no good... I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the "Beloved." Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen
Monday, June 25, 2012
Robbie Burns: To A Mouse
- TO A MOUSE
- ON TURNING HER UP IN HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER, 1785
I EE, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie,
- Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie!
- Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
- Wi' bickering brattle!
- I was be laith to rin an' chase thee,
- Wi' murd'ring pattle!
II - I'm truly sorry man's dominion
- Has broken Nature's social union,
- An' justifies that ill opinion
- Which makes thee startle
- At me, thy poor, earth-born companion
- An' fellow-mortal!
III - I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
- What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
- A daimen-icker in a thrave
- 'S a sma' request;
- I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
- And never miss't!
IV - Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
- Its silly wa's the win's are strewin!
- An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
- O' foggage green!
- An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
- Baith snell an' keen!
V - Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
- An' weary winter comin fast,
- An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
- Thou thought to dwell,
- Till crash! the cruel coulter past
- Out thro' thy cell.
VI - That wee bit heap o' leaves an stibble,
- Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
- Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
- But house or hald,
- To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
- An' cranreuch cauld!
VII - But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
- In proving foresight may be vain:
- The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
- Gang aft a-gley,
- An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
- For promis'd joy!
VIII - Still thou art blest, compared wi' me!
- The present only toucheth thee:
- But och! I backward cast my e'e,
- On prospects drear!
- An' forward, tho' I cannot see,
- I guess an' fear!
Source:
http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/to_a_mouse.html
Robert Burns by Alexander Nasmyth
(By permission of the National Galleries of Scotland)
(By permission of the National Galleries of Scotland)
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)