The sequoias belong to the silences of the milleniums. Many of them have seen a hundred human generations rise, give off their little clamors and perish. They seem indeed to be forms of immortality standing here amoing the transitory shapes of time.
Interpretation
The sequoias symbolize eternal endurance and witness the fleeting nature of human existence.
In this quote, Edwin Markham reflects on the ancient sequoia trees, which have stood tall for millennia, observing countless human lives come and go. They represent a form of immortality, contrasting the transient nature of humanity, as these majestic trees continue to thrive while human generations rise and fall.
In practice
In a speech about environmental conservation, you might use this quote to emphasize the importance of protecting ancient trees.
Greed and Gain, grim guardians of the great god Mammon, continually cry in the ears of the poor, 'Give us your little ones!' And forever do the poor push out their little ones at the imperious ukase, feeding the children to a blind Hunger that is never filled.
Sorrows come to stretch out places in the heart for joy.
There is a destiny which makes us brothers; none goes his way alone. All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.
The crest and crowning of all good, life's final star, is Brotherhood.
He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him In ! From the poem " Outwitted
For all your days be prepared, and meet them ever alike. When you are the anvil, bear - when you are the hammer, strike.
A horse is freedom so indominable that it becomes useless to imprison it to serve man: it lets itself be domesticated, but with a simple, rebellious toss of the head-shaking its mane like an abundance of free-flowing hair-it shows that its inner nature is always wild, translucent and free.
Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.
Nature tells every secret once.
The road made wet by the water of August shines like it was cut in full moonlight
Ripe vegetables were magic to me. Unharvested, the garden bristled with possibility. I would quicken at the sight of a ripe tomato, sounding its redness from deep amidst the undifferentiated green. To lift a bean plant's hood of heartshaped leaves and discover a clutch of long slender pods handing underneath could make me catch my breath.
Sometimes I feel like I’m actually on the wrong planet. It’s great when I’m in my garden, but the minute I go out the gate I think, ‘What the hell am I doing here?
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