Passion

"The fire which enlightens is the same fire which consumes."

- Henri Frederic Amiel, Philosopher, poet and critic

Temperance

"Moderation? It's mediocrity, fear, and confusion in disguise. It's the devil's dilemma. It's neither doing nor not doing. It's the wobbling compromise that makes no one happy. Moderation is for the bland, the apologetic, for the fence-sitters of the world afraid to take a stand. It's for those afraid to laugh or cry, for those afraid to live or die."

-Dan Millman

Advent

"Wakened by the solemn warning,

Let the earth-bound soul arise;

Christ, her Sun, all ill dispelling,

Shines upon the morning skies."

- Translated by Edward Caswall, Hark a Thrilling Voice is Sounding

Altitude

"The heights by great men reached and kept

Were not obtained by sudden flight,

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Ladder of Saint Augustine 

Pain

"When it has gone, passion leaves behind a dark longing for itself, and in disappearing throws us one last seductive glance. There must have been a kind of pleasure in having been beaten with her whip. In contrast, the more moderate feelings appear flat; apparently we still prefer a more violent displeasure to a weak pleasure."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All Too Human

Exalt

"Majesty, worship His Majesty,
Unto Jesus be all glory, honour, and praise.
Majesty, kingdom authority,
Flow from His throne, unto His own, His anthem raise."

- Jack Hayford, Majesty

Expression

 

“There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up a pen to write.”

- William Makepeace Thackeray, novelist (1811-1863)

Key

"Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."

- Rumi

Ray

 

"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."

- Terry Pratchett

Obscurity

"We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them

without removing our own skin."

- André Berthiaume

Daybreak

 

“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.”

- Rachel Carson

Detachment

“So I go on, still blind to all the consequences
of my actions and inactions
and to what I've lost and long forgotten.

In this comfortable disconnection
I'm accustomed, now, to unreality."

- Dave Pollard

Impression

"Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble."

- Samuel Johnson, English author, critic and lexicographer 

Majesty

"A thousand ages, in Thy sight, are like an evening gone;

Short as the watch that ends the night, before the rising sun."

- Isaac Watts, O God, Our Help in Ages Past