For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world islanded in a stream of stars - pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons across the eternal seas of space and time. Henry Beston More Quotes by Henry Beston More Quotes From Henry Beston We patronize the animals for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they are more finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other Nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time. Henry Beston fate taken men The three great elemental sounds in nature are the sound of rain, the sound of wind in a primeval wood, and the sound of outer ocean on a beach. Henry Beston nature rain beach Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. Henry Beston valleys sea love Wolves are not our brothers; they are not our subordinates, either. They are another nation, caught up just like us in the complex web of time and life. Henry Beston life-and-time caught brother The creatures with whom we share the planet and whom, in our arrogance, we wrongly patronize for being lesser forms, they are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the Earth. Henry Beston fishing sea rivers Hold your hands out over the earth as over a flame. To all who love her, who open to her the doors of their veins, she gives of her strength, sustaining them with her own measureless tremor of dark life. Touch the earth, love the earth, honor the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth's and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and dawn seen over ocean from the beach. Henry Beston ocean song beach The animal should not be measured by man. In a world older than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the sense we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. Henry Beston motivational inspirational moving It is only when we are aware of the earth and of the earth as poetry that we truly live. Henry Beston poetry earth Into every empty corner, into all forgotten things and nooks, nature struggles to pour life, pouring life into the dead, life into life itself. Henry Beston forgotten-things nature struggle Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night. Henry Beston astronomy night civilization I am glad that the country world...retains a power to use our English tongue. It is a part of its sense of reality, of its vocabulary of definite terms, and of its habit of earthly common sense. I find this country writing an excellent corrective of the urban vocabulary of abstractions and of the emotion disguised as thinking which abstractions and humbug have loosed upon the world. May there always be such things as a door, a milk pail, and a loaf of bread, and words to do them honor. Henry Beston writing country reality Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it, for, with the banishment of night from the experience of man, there vanishes as well a religious emotion, a poetic mood, which gives depth to the adventure of humanity. Henry Beston religious adventure travel Our civilization has fallen out of touch with night. With lights, we drive the holiness and beauty of night back to the forests and the sea; the little villages, the crossroads even, will have none of it. Are modern folk, perhaps, afraid of night? Do they fear that vast serenity, the mystery of infinite space, the austerity of stars? Henry Beston stars fear night The adventure of the sun is the great natural drama by which we live, and not to have joy in it and awe of it, not to share in it, is to close a dull door on nature's sustaining and poetic spirit. Henry Beston doors adventure drama The seas are the hearts blood of the earth. Plucked up and kneaded by the sun and the moon, the tides are systole and diastole of earth's veins. Henry Beston moon heart blood The adventure of the sun is the greatest natural drama by which we live. Henry Beston sun adventure drama The world today is sick to its thin blood for lack of elemental things, for fire before the hands, for water welling from the earth, for air, for the dear earth itself underfoot. In my world of beach and june these elemental presences lived and had their being. Henry Beston june fire beach We need another and a wiser and a perhaps more mystical concept of animals. Henry Beston vegetarianism animal needs The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter woods. Henry Beston summer country fall The seas are the heart's blood of the earth. Henry Beston sea heart blood
