"I've read all the books but one Only remains sacred: this Volume of wonders, open Always before my eyes."

--

Source : Kathleen Raine (1989). “Selected Poems”, p.139, SteinerBooks

Kathleen Raine

#Book Quotes #Eye Quotes #Sacred Quotes

“I love working with a stylist but I also love having personal relationships with designers. A stylist is great for pulling together an entire outfit, accessories included, and for shaking me out of my comfort zone.”
“I consider my films to be poems that are all as personal as my writing and as hand-made.”
“Scapegoating worked in practice while it still had religious powers behind it. You loaded the sins of the city on to the goatâ€™s back and drove it out, and the city was cleansed. It worked because everyone knew how to read the ritual, including the gods. Then the gods died, and all of a sudden you had to cleanse the city without divine help. Real actions were demanded instead of symbolism The censor was born, in the Roman sense. Watchfulness became the watchword: the watchfulness of all over all. Purgation was replaced by the purge.”
“Money is the god of our time, and Rothschild is his prophet.”
“Is there anything on earth which would have meaning and would even change the course of events not only on earth, but in other worlds?â€ I asked my teacher. â€œThere is,â€ my teacher answered me. â€œWell, what is it?â€ I asked. â€œItâ€™s...â€ began my teacher and suddenly fell silent. I stood and waited intently for his answer. But he was silent. And I stood and was silent. And he was silent. And I stood, silent. And he was silent. Weâ€™re both standing and silent. Ho-la-la! Weâ€™re both standing and silent. Ho-le-le! Yes, yes, weâ€™re both standing and silent! 16-17 July 1937”
“Religion is not a matter of God, church, holy cause, etc. These are but accessories. The source of religious preoccupation is in the self, or rather the rejection of the self. Dedication in the obverse side of self-rejection. Man alone is a religious animal because, as Montaigne points out, it is a malady confined to man, and not seen in any other creature, to hate and despise ourselves.”
“Politics are always a struggle for power, disguised and modified by prudence, reason and moral pretext.”
“A hero does for others. He would do anything for people he loves, because he knows it would make their lives better. I am not that kind of person, but I want you to be. You could give something to her, to me, to those children in the quarter. You could give something I never could ... The white people out there are saying you don't have it-that you're a hog, not a man. But I know they are wrong.”

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