get a Greyhound bus
“You may bury my body
Down by the highway side
So my old evil spirit
Can get a Greyhound bus, and ride.”
—Robert Johnson, Me and the Devil Blues.
these things must not lead us astray
“The eye is attracted by beautiful objects, by gold and silver and all such things. . . . But our ambition to obtain all these things must not lead us astray from you, O Lord, nor must we depart from what your law allows.”
—Saint Augustine (354-430), Confessions; translated from the Latin by R.S. Pine-Coffin, 1961.
The very air was blued!
“POGO: Gosh a mickel! Dickel-pickle! Gee willy-wobbles! Dog my cats! And rowrbazzle!
OWL: My, you is quite cussable.
CHURCHY: The very air was blued!
POGO: I blewed as hard as I could.”
—Walt Kelly, from Pogo, 1951.
the highest wisdom
“This is the highest wisdom that I own,
The best that mankind ever knew:
Freedom and life are earned by those alone
Who conquer them each day anew.”
—Goethe, Faust, 1790; translated from the German by Walter Kaufman, 1961.
To the tower sworn
“To see I was born,
To look is my call,
To the tower sworn,
I delight in all.”
—Goethe, Faust, 1790; translated from the German by Walter Kaufman, 1961.
Employ the sun and moon
“You know, the stage in Germany
Lets each do what he wants to do;
Tonight, therefore, I say to you,
Do not spare our machinery.
Employ the sun and moon, do not hold back!
Use all the stars we have in stock;”
—Goethe, Faust, 1790; translated from the German by Walter Kaufman, 1961.
the darkness
“I am part of the part that once was everything,
Part of the darkness which gave birth to light,
That haughty light which envies mother night
Her ancient rank and place and would be king’
Yet it does not succeed: however it contend,
It sticks to bodies in the end.
It streams from bodies, it lends bodies beauty,
A body won’t let it progress;
So it will not take long, I guess,
And with the bodies it will perish, too.”
—Goethe, Faust, 1790; translated from the German by Walter Kaufman, 1961.
life’s golden tree
“Gray, my dear friend, is every theory,
And green alone life’s golden tree.”
—Goethe, Faust, 1790; translated from the German by Walter Kaufman, 1961.
Color on color
“[L]ight descends, the deeps, too, are unsealed,
And I see twigs and branches growing
From the ravine where they could sleep concealed.
Color on color rises from the ground
Where dewy leaves and blossoms stand revealed,
And I behold a paradise around.”
—Goethe, Faust, 1790; translated from the German by Walter Kaufman, 1961.
The rainbow
“The rainbow mirrors human love and strife;
Consider it and you will better know:
In many-hued reflection we have life.”
—Goethe, Faust, 1790; translated from the German by Walter Kaufman, 1961.