Go to! Cast dust on those deaf skies, who spurn
Thy orisons and bootless prayers, and learn
To quaff the cup, and hover round the fair;
Of all who go, did ever one return?
Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات], Bod. # 97 [tr. Whinfield (1883), # 267]
(Source)
Given as # 149 in Whinfield's 1882 edition. Calcutta manuscript # 271. Alternate translations:Behold the dawn arise, O fountain of delights. Drink your wine and touch your lute, for the life of those who sleep will be but brief; and of those who have gone hence, not one will e'er return.
[tr. McCarthy (1879), # 44]Go, on the earth and the heavens cast dust and all their care;
Drink wine and follow the trace of the pleasant-visaged fair.
Where is the good of obedience? Where is the profit of prayer?
Of all that have gone before us, there's none returneth e'er.
[tr. Payne (1898), # 463]Go! throw dust upon the face of the heavens,
drink wine, and consort with the fair of face;
what time is this for worship? and what time is this for supplication?
since, of all those that have departed, not one has returned?
[tr. Heron-Allen (1898), # 97]Go, thou, cast dust on the heaven above us,
Drink ye wine, and beauty seek today!
What use in adoration? What need for prayer?
For of all the gone no one comes again.
[tr. Cadell, after Nicholas (1879), # 228]Go then, cast dust on heaven's sapphire stair,
Drink wine, love beauty, in this world of men.
What place for pious deeds? What need for prayer?
Of the departed, none comes back again.
[tr. Cadell (1899), # 105]Go! On earth's face, in Heaven's face high in air
Flung dust, drink wine and woo the sweet-faced fair!
What time is there for worship? What for prayer?
For none of all those gone returneth e'er.
[tr. Thompson (1906), # 312]Fling dust at heaven, that every offering spurns;
Drink wine, and love while thy desire yet burns;
What time is this to worship or to pray?
Of all that have departed, none returns.
[tr. Talbot (1908), # 97]Go! throw dust upon the head of the heavens and the
world. Drink ever wine and hover about the fair-faced ones.
What place is there for worship? what place for prayer?
for of all those who are gone not one has come back.
[tr. Christensen (1927), # 56]Go, throw dust on the Sphere of this world,
Drink wine and court those whose face is resplendent like the moon.
What place is this for worship and for prayer?
Since from all who have left no news returns.
[tr. Rosen (1928), # 174]Ascend the skies, fling the dust on earth, 'tis base,
Yea seek His love, and linger on His face.
Thy rites and prayers will not profit there,
The path you once have plied you can't retrace.
[tr. Tirtha (1941), # 3.49]
Quotations about:
self-help
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
MACBETH: Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?DOCTOR:Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.MACBETH: Throw physic to the dogs. I’ll none of it.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 5, sc. 3, l. 50ff (5.3.50-58) (1606)
(Source)
The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight; that he shall not be a mere passenger, but shall do his share in the work that each generation of us finds ready to hand; and, furthermore, that in doing his work he shall show, not only the capacity for sturdy self-help, but also self-respecting regard for the rights of others.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1902-11-11), State Chamber of Commerce Banquet, New York City
(Source)
This first part of this passage was quoted by Ronald Reagan at a fundraising dinner for Sen. Mack Mattingly in Atlanta (1985-06-05), discussing reform measures to close up tax loopholes.
I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
(Attributed)
Mentioned frequently as being part of his earlier speeches, but unsourced. Also found as "failed to see the slightest scintillation of an answer until I prayed with my legs."
You cannot push anyone up the ladder unless he is willing to climb.
Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) American industrialist and philanthropist
(Attributed)
Most common form of an adage Carnegie frequently used regarding charity. Variants:
- "It is of no use to boost a man up a ladder unless he is willing to climb himself." -- In Cyrus Holdridge, "A Millionaire and His Hobby," Our Day (Jan 1900).
- "You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb a little himself." -- Elbert Hubbard, Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Business Men, Vol. 25 (1909).
Marriage is a step so grave and decisive that it attracts light-headed, variable men by its very awfulness. They have been so tried among the inconstant squalls and currents, so often sailed for islands in the air or lain becalmed with burning heart, that they will risk all for solid ground below their feet. Desperate pilots, they run their sea-sick, weary bark upon the dashing rocks. It seems as if marriage were the royal road through life, and realised, on the instant, what we have all dreamed on summer Sundays when the bells ring, or at night when we cannot sleep for the desire of living. They think it will sober and change them. Like those who join a brotherhood, they fancy it needs but an act to be out of the coil and clamour for ever. But this is a wile of the devil’s. To the end, spring winds will sow disquietude, passing faces leave a regret behind them, and the whole world keep calling and calling in their ears. For marriage is like life in this — that it is a field of battle, and not a bed of roses.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1876-08), “Virginibus Puerisque, Part 1,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 34
(Source)
Collected in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 1, part 1 (1881).
Life as a "bed of roses" is an old phrase, originating in 13th Century French literature, and popularized in English in Christopher Marlowe's poem (pub. 1599)), "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love."
Helpe thy selfe, and God will helpe thee.
George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 537 (1640 ed.)
(Source)
For more discussion of this and other closely related quotations: God helps those who help themselves - Wikipedia
Heaven ne’er helps the men who will not act.
Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Philoctetes, fragment 288 (c. 409 BC)
(Source)
As translated in Edward Plumptre, The Tragedies of Sophocles, "Fragments," frag. 288 (2d ed., 1878), based on Karl Wilhelm Dindorf's numbering.
Common variant: "Heaven helps not the men who will not act."
The sentiment is a frequently repeated one. For more discussion of this family of quotations, see: God helps those who help themselves - Wikipedia.
Spuriously attributed to Sydney Smith, William Shakespeare, and Cicero. See George Herbert.
