Governments may change, and opinions, and the very appearance of lands themselves, but the slowest thing to change is religion. What has once been associated with worship becomes holy in itself, and self-perpetuating, always built upon the foundation of mingled awe and attraction which the unknown has for the mind of man.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

Categorized in : Men Self Land

The sunset caught me, turned the brush to copper,/ set the clouds/ to one great roof of flame/ above the earth.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

sunset flames clouds

Outwardly I am 83, but inwardly I am every age, with the emotions... by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

Outwardly I am 83, but inwardly I am every age, with the emotions and experience of each period.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

emotion periods age

Only of one thing I am sure: by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

Only of one thing I am sure:

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

ageless one-thing dream

During much of my life, I was anxious to be what someone else wanted me to be. Now I have given up that struggle. I am what I am.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

anxious given struggle

Today I walked on the lion-coloured hills with only cypresses for company, until the sunset caught me, turned the brush to copper set the clouds to one great roof of flame above the earth, so that I walk through fire, beneath fire, and all in beauty. Being alone I could not be alone, but felt (closer than flesh) the presence of those who once had burned in such transfigurations. My happiness ran through the centuries in one continual brightness. Looking down, I saw the earth beneath me like a rose petaled with mountains, fragrant with deep peace.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

sunset flames night

I say that almost everywhere there is beauty enough to fill a person's life if one would only be sensitive to it. but Henry says No: that broken beauty is only a torment, that one must have a whole beauty with man living in relation to it to have a rich civilization and art. . . . Is it because I am a woman that I accept what crumbs I may have, accept the hot-dog stands and amusement parks if I must, if the blue is bright beyond them and the sunset flushes the breasts of sea birds?

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

sunset dog art

Little I ask by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

Little I ask

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

charity littles world

I saw the lovely arch Of rainbow span the sky, The gold sun burni... by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

I saw the lovely arch Of rainbow span the sky, The gold sun burning As the rain swept by.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

lovely rain sky

there is something dangerous about mirrors. ... What dynamite we handle when we lift a mirror or bend towards one! I seldom do.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

furniture dangerous mirrors

To a life that seizes by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

To a life that seizes

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

locality accidents seems

But calm, white calm, was born into a swan. by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

But calm, white calm, was born into a swan.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

swans calm white

When I dream, I am ageless. by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

When I dream, I am ageless.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

ageless aging dream

People don't feel so quarrelsome in warm weather. They get crotchety in the fall and begin to go to law about things after the first hard frosts.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

law weather fall

At a touch, he explodes like a snapdragon into loud purrs. by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

At a touch, he explodes like a snapdragon into loud purrs.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

loud cat

No wonder the tulip is the patron flower of Holland. Looking at it one almost smells fresh paint laid on in generous brilliance: doors, blinds, whole houses, canal boats, pails, farm wagons - all painted in greens, blues, reds, pinks, yellows.

Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth

smell flower doors