Quote from Goethe's Faust

"Das Pergament, ist das der heil'ge Bronnen,
woraus ein Trunk den Durst auf ewig stillt?
Erquickung hast du nicht gewonnen,
wenn sie dir nicht aus eigner Seele quillt."

now let me see if i can find a english translation of this.

update: found it

Is parchment, then, the holy fount before thee,
A draught wherefrom thy thirst forever slakes?
No true refreshment can restore thee,
Save what from thine own soul spontaneous breaks.

Bayard Taylor



Vindt ge op het perkament de heilige bronnen,
waaruit een dronk uw dorst tevreden stelt?
Geen lafenis hebt gij gewonnen,
Zo zij niet uit de eigen ziel opwelt.

C.S Adema van Scheltema

Joss Mckinley *Underneath an Abject Window

Found this site with great pictures of Joss McKinley. Check them here.

Here is his homepage

Zen

"A student asked Soen Nakagawa during a meditation retreat, "I am very discouraged. What should I do?" Soen replied, "Encourage others." -- Story from Essential Zen

Stars

Had to think of this poem last night when i gazed up watching the stars..


Walt Whitman

When I heard the Learn’d Astronomer

When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them,
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.

and this it comes from a letter from Stendhal to his sister:
"Wat baat het mij om te weten dat de zon om de aarde draait, of de aarde om de zon, indien ik door de kennis van deze dingen de dagen verlies die mij zijn gegeven om ervan te genieten?"

eh in a bad translation from me:

"What's the benefit for me to know that the sun spins round the earth, or the earth round the sun, when through that knowledge i am loosing the days which where given me to enjoy
them.."

and he finished with "Many people, my sweet Pauline, are foolish enough for that; but we will not be."