Quotes on Enchantment

The self torturing sophist, wild Rousseau, The apostle of affliction he, who threw Enchantment over passion, and from woe Wrung overwhelming eloquence.

affliction passion wild enchantment

The only words that ever satisfied me as describing Nature are the terms used in fairy books, charm, spell, enchantment. They express the arbitrariness of the fact and its mystery.

mystery nature charm words fact express fairy books enchantment

Only those who truly love and who are truly strong can sustain their lives as a dream. You dwell in your own enchantment. Life throws stones at you, but your love and your dream change those stones into the flowers of discovery. Even if you lose, or are defeated by things, your triumph will always be exemplary. And if no one knows it, then there are places that do. People like you enrich the dreams of the worlds, and it is dreams that create history. People like you are unknowing transformers of things, protected by your own fairy-tale, by love.

places dreams life change people history fairy-tale dream strong discovery lives flowers lose triumph things create worlds love enchantment stones

It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the old man of the sea, upon his back

poetry man poet poets critic forever sea cruel enchantment

'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, and robes the mountain in its azure hue

distance mountain enchantment view

A spider and a flyi heard a spiderand a fly arguingwait said the flydo not eat mei serve a great purposein the worldyou will have toshow me said the spideri scurry aroundgutters and sewersand garbage canssaid the fly and gatherup the germs oftyphoid influenzaand pneumonia on my feetand wingsthen i carry these germsinto households of menand give them diseasesall the people whohave lived the rightsort of life recoverfrom the diseasesand the old soaks whohave weakened their systemswith liquor and iniquitysuccumb it is my missionto help rid the worldof these wicked personsi am a vessel of righteousnessscattering seeds of justiceand serving the noblest usesit is true said the spiderthat you are moreuseful in a ploddingmaterial sort of waythan i am but i do notserve the utilitarian deitiesi serve the gods of beautylook at the gossamer websi weave they float in the sunlike filaments of songif you get what i meani do not work at anythingi play all the timei am busy with the stuffof enchantment and the materialsof fairyland my workstranscend utilityi am the artista creator and demi godit is ridiculous to supposethat i should be deniedthe food i need in orderto continue to createbeauty i tell youplainly mister fly it is alldamned nonsense for that foodto rear up on its hind legsand say it should not be eatenyou have convinced mesaid the fly say no moreand shutting all his eyeshe prepared himself for dinnerand yet he said i couldhave made out a casefor myself too if i hadhad a better line of talkof course you could said the spiderclutching a sirloin from himbut the end would have beenjust the same if neither ofus had spoken at allboss i am afraid that whatthe spider said is trueand it gives me to thinkfuriously upon the futilityof literaturearchy

funny humor food philosophy literature life people work art true end busy play gods seeds serve serving eat wicked ridiculous nonsense fly afraid great made liquor creator give enchantment

We have inhabited both the actual and the imaginary realms for a long time. But we don't live in either place the way our parents or ancestors did. Enchantment alters with age, and with the age. We know a dozen Arthurs now, all of them true. The Shire changed irrevocably even in Bilbo's lifetime. Don Quixote went riding out to Argentina and met Jorge Luis Borges there. Plus c'est la même chose, plus ça change.

imagination change age time live true parents fiction lifetime place imaginary books enchantment ancestors argentina riding

If you still believe in magic, you're subject to enchantment.

magic believe enchantment

Truly, there is magic in fairytales. For it takes but a simply-uttered to allure and spellbind an audience.

magic imagination storytelling richelle richelle-goodrich fairy-tales story fairytale enchantment

I had cooperated. I could not have refused. I was smitten with her, half in love but also afraid, because in my life (and she seemed to know this) I had not loved anyone without having been wounded. Love was power and possession, love caused pain: you were never more exposed than when you were in love, never more wounded; possession was an enslavement, something stifling.

power possession enchantment

It was a way of recognizing places of enchantment: people falling asleep like this.

sleep enchantment

Through the forest have I gone. But Athenian found I none, On whose eyes I might approveThis flower's force in stirring love. Night and silence.--Who is here?Weeds of Athens he doth wear: This is he, my master said, Despised the Athenian maid; And here the maiden, sleeping sound, On the dank and dirty ground. Pretty soul! She durst not lieNear this lack-love, this kill-courtesy. Churl, upon thy eyes I throwAll the power this charm doth owe. When thou wakest, let love forbidSleep his seat on thy eyelid: So awake when I am gone; For I must now to Oberon.

puck enchantment