Wednesday, 31 May 2023

THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS

'Holiness is the most beautiful, lovely thing. Men are apt to drink in strange notions of holiness from their childhood as if it were a melancholy, morose, and unpleasant thing: but there is nothing in it but what is sweet and ravishingly lovely. 'Tis the highest beauty and amiableness, vastly above all beauties; 'tis a divine beauty, makes the soul heavenly and far purer than anything here on earth - this world is like mire and filth and defilement compared to that soul which is sanctified - 'tis of a sweet, lovely, delightful, serene, calm, and still nature.'
Jonathan Edwards in Dane Ortlund, Edwards on the Christian Life, p.144.

SIN IS FALSE BEAUTY

'Sin is false beauty. It is ugliness masquerading as loveliness.'
Dane Ortlund, Edwards on the Christian Life, p.144.

Monday, 29 May 2023

POETRY DEFINED

'What is poetry? Poetry relates to language as music relates to noise. It is language made special, so that it will be remembered and valued.'
John Carey, A Little History of Poetry, p.1.

Wednesday, 24 May 2023

HOW TO UNDERMINE A FRIENDSHIP

'The way to make friends quarrel is to pit them in disputation under the public eye...'
Thomas Jefferson in Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson, p.173.

HOW TO ESCAPE MALICE

'If you meant to escape malice you should have confined yourself within the sleepy line of regular duty...'
Thomas Jefferson in Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, p.154.