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A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 


Quotations by Bliss Carman – 28 August 2007
By Mary T. Hoffman

Here are a few quotations attributed to William Bliss Carman, the “unofficial poet laureate of Canada,” who published under the name “Bliss Carman.”

I especially like this first quotation. With all the destruction going on in the world, these words ring truer by the day.

“The greatest joy in nature is the absence of man.”

“There is only one way in the world to be distinguished: Follow your instinct! Be yourself, and you'll be somebody. Be one more blind follower of the blind, and you will have the oblivion you desire.”

“Set me a task in which I can put something of my very self, and it is a task no longer. It is joy and art.”

“What are facts but compromises? A fact merely marks the point where we have agreed to let investigation cease.”

“Whether it be to failure or success, the first need of being is endurance – to endure with gladness if we can, with fortitude in any event.”

For poems by Bliss Carman, see:
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/aprilnow.html
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/anapril.html
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/aprilian.html
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/underthe.html
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/thesoulof.html
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/theheretic.html
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/vestigia.html

Go on to: Confessions of a Fish Killer – 29 August 2007
Return to: Common Ailments – 27 August 2007
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