Sebastian Venable
"He wasn't a family snob or a money snob, but he was a snob alright. He was a snob about loveliness and elegance in things - about personal charm and physical grace in people." -from Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams
Posts
The Nature of Art
"Art is not merely an imitation of the reality of nature, but in truth a metaphysical supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest." -Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) The Birth of Tragedy , ch. 24 (1872)
Look Yonder - Nature
"After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on; you have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains." Walt Whitman (1819-92) Specimen Days and Collect , "New Themes Entered Upon" (1882)
Disturb Us
Disturb us, Lord, when We are too pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true Because we dreamed too little, When we arrived safely Because we sailed too close to the shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess We have lost our thirst For the waters of life; Having fallen in love with life, We have ceased to dream of eternity And in our efforts to build a new earth, We have allowed our vision Of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly, To venture on wilder seas Where storms will show Your mastery; Where losing sight of land, We shall find the stars. We ask you to push back The horizons of our hopes; And to push back the future In strength, courage, hope, and love. -Sir Francis Drake (1577)