I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel's heap of winter nuts. There was no strength in my knowledge any more and I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird.
Stephen Vincent BenetRead
Go play with the towns you have built of blocks, The towns where you would have bound me! I sleep in my earth like a tired fox, And my bufdfalo have found me.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire for freedom and playfulness despite constraints.
In this quote, Benet reflects on the themes of creativity and the self-imposed boundaries that can stifle one's true nature. The imagery of towns built from blocks symbolizes limitations and societal expectations, while the reference to sleep and a tired fox suggests a longing for rest and the natural world's acceptance, ultimately revealing a desire for liberation and self-discovery through imaginative play.
In practice
In a motivational speech about creative expression, you could use this quote to encourage individuals to embrace their creative sides.
I tried to think of my knowledge, but it was a squirrel's heap of winter nuts. There was no strength in my knowledge any more and I felt small and naked as a new-hatched bird.
Grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years - a brotherhood not of words but of acts and deeds.
It is forbidden to go east, but I have gone, forbidden to go on the great river, but I am there. Open your hearts, you spirits, and hear my song.
Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth. Our children know and suffer the armed men.
You can't depend on the kind of folks people think they are - you've got to go by what they do. And I wouldn't give much for a man that some folks hadn't thought was a fool, in his time.
We can no longer take our own way of life for granted - we know that it may be challenged. And we know this, too - and know it ever more deeply - we know that freedom and democracy are not just big words mouthed by orators but the rain and the wind and the sun, the air and the light by which we breathe and live.
I got over the loss of his desk and chair, but never the desire to produce a string of words more precious than the emeralds of Cortés.
I have offered myself to the inkwell of the wordsmith that I might be shaped into new terms of being.
I'm not an actor because I want my picture taken. I'm an actor because I want to be part of the human exchange.
Ah, to build, to build! That is the noblest art of all the arts. Painting and sculpture are but images, Are merely shadows cast by outward things On stone or canvas, having in themselves No separate existence. Architecture, Existing in itself, and not in seeming A something it is not, surpasses them As substance shadow.
To me, Godard did to movies what Bob Dylan did to music: they both revolutionized their forms.
If typography is calling attention to itself, it's taking that attention away from what the words are saying.
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