Springs

Famous quotes containing the word springs:

    Justice has its anger, my lord Bishop, and the wrath of justice is an element of progress. Whatever else may be said of it, the French Revolution was the greatest step forward by mankind since the coming of Christ. It was unfinished, I agree, but still it was sublime. It released the untapped springs of society; it softened hearts, appeased, tranquilized, enlightened, and set flowing through the world the tides of civilization. It was good. The French Revolution was the anointing of humanity.
    Victor Hugo (1802–1885)

    Our hearts seemed safe in our breasts and sang to the
    Light—
    The marrow in the bone
    We dreamed was safe . . . the blood in the veins, the
    sap in the tree
    Were springs of Deity.
    Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)

    A human action becomes genuinely important when it springs from the soil of a clear-sighted awareness of the temporality and the ephemerality of everything human. It is only this awareness that can breathe any greatness into an action.
    Václav Havel (b. 1936)