The following are selections from poems, novels, stories, religious texts, songs, and more submitted by members of the Stanford community. They reflect a broad range of perspectives about how we relate to God, the Divine, or living conscientiously in the world.
This anthology will be updated regularly as people continue to submit texts that have inspired and influenced their lives.
~~
And when the hourglass has run out, the hourglass of temporality, when the noise of secular life has grown silent and its restless or ineffectual activism has come to an end, when everything around you is still, as it is in eternity, then - whether you were man or woman, rich or poor, dependent or independent, fortunate or unfortunate, whether you ranked with royalty and wore a glittering crown or in humble obscurity bore the toil and heat of the day, whether your name will be remembered as long as the world stands and consequently as long as it stood or you are nameless and run nameless in the innumerable multitude, whether the magnificence encompassing you surpassed all human description or the most severe and ignominious human judgment befell you - eternity asks you and every individual in these millions and millions about only one thing: whether you have lived in despair or not, whether you have despaired in such a way that you did not realize that you were in despair, or in such a way that you covertly carried this sickness inside of you as your gnawing secret, as a fruit of sinful love under your heart, or in such a way that you, a terror to others, raged in despair. And if so, if you have lived in despair, then, regardless of whatever you won or lost, everything is lost for you, eternity does not acknowledge you, it never knew you - or, still more terrible, it knows you as you are known and it binds you to yourself in despair.
- "The Sickness unto Death" by Søren Kierkegaard, translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong
Contributed by Anonymous
- "The Sickness unto Death" by Søren Kierkegaard, translated by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong
Contributed by Anonymous
~~
First of all, the Law of Love is the deepest law of our nature, not something extraneous and alien to our nature. Our nature itself inclines us to love, and to love freely.
- Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 121
Contributed by Ross Feehan_
- Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, p. 121
Contributed by Ross Feehan_
~~
Or is it that you [God] have no need to be contained in anything, because you contain all things in yourself and fill them by reason of the very fact that you contain them? For the things which you fill by containing them do not sustain and support you as a water-vessel supports the liquid which fills it. Even if they were broken to pieces, you would not flow out of them and away. And when you pour yourself out over us, you are not drawn down to us but draw us up to yourself: you are not scattered away, but you gather us together.
- Saint Augustine, Confessions, Book I.3
Contributed by Anonymous_
- Saint Augustine, Confessions, Book I.3
Contributed by Anonymous_
~~
_"Who am I?"
Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Contributed by Morielle Stroethoff
Christian
Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were
compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Contributed by Morielle Stroethoff
Christian
~~
_Is there any deed in the world that would be nobler than service to the common good? Is there any greater blessing conceivable for a man, than that he should become the cause of the education, the development, the prosperity and honor of his fellow-creatures? No, by the Lord God! The highest righteousness of all is for blessed souls to take hold of the hands of the helpless and deliver them out of their ignorance and abasement and poverty, and with pure motives, and only for the sake of God, to arise and energetically devote themselves to the service of the masses, forgetting their own worldly advantage and working only to serve the general good.
- Baha'i Writings, "The Secret of Divine Civilization," ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Contributed by Sadaf Sobhani
Baha'i
- Baha'i Writings, "The Secret of Divine Civilization," ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
Contributed by Sadaf Sobhani
Baha'i
~~
_"Heaven"
FISH (fly-replete, in depth of June,
Dawdling away their wat'ry noon)
Ponder deep wisdom, dark or clear,
Each secret fishy hope or fear.
Fish say, they have their Stream and Pond;
But is there anything Beyond?
This life cannot be All, they swear,
For how unpleasant, if it were!
One may not doubt that, somehow, Good
Shall come of Water and of Mud;
And, sure, the reverent eye must see
A Purpose in Liquidity.
We darkly know, by Faith we cry,
The future is not Wholly Dry.
Mud unto mud! -- Death eddies near --
Not here the appointed End, not here!
But somewhere, beyond Space and Time.
Is wetter water, slimier slime!
And there (they trust) there swimmeth One
Who swam ere rivers were begun,
Immense, of fishy form and mind,
Squamous, omnipotent, and kind;
And under that Almighty Fin,
The littlest fish may enter in.
Oh! never fly conceals a hook,
Fish say, in the Eternal Brook,
But more than mundane weeds are there,
And mud, celestially fair;
Fat caterpillars drift around,
And Paradisal grubs are found;
Unfading moths, immortal flies,
And the worm that never dies.
And in that Heaven of all their wish,
There shall be no more land, say fish.
- Rupert Brooke
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
- From "Pale Blue Dot", a book by Carl Sagan
“I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I'm dead.”
- A quote from American novelist Kurt Vonnegut's short book, "God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian"
Contributed by Jimmy Grayson
Atheist/Humanist
_
FISH (fly-replete, in depth of June,
Dawdling away their wat'ry noon)
Ponder deep wisdom, dark or clear,
Each secret fishy hope or fear.
Fish say, they have their Stream and Pond;
But is there anything Beyond?
This life cannot be All, they swear,
For how unpleasant, if it were!
One may not doubt that, somehow, Good
Shall come of Water and of Mud;
And, sure, the reverent eye must see
A Purpose in Liquidity.
We darkly know, by Faith we cry,
The future is not Wholly Dry.
Mud unto mud! -- Death eddies near --
Not here the appointed End, not here!
But somewhere, beyond Space and Time.
Is wetter water, slimier slime!
And there (they trust) there swimmeth One
Who swam ere rivers were begun,
Immense, of fishy form and mind,
Squamous, omnipotent, and kind;
And under that Almighty Fin,
The littlest fish may enter in.
Oh! never fly conceals a hook,
Fish say, in the Eternal Brook,
But more than mundane weeds are there,
And mud, celestially fair;
Fat caterpillars drift around,
And Paradisal grubs are found;
Unfading moths, immortal flies,
And the worm that never dies.
And in that Heaven of all their wish,
There shall be no more land, say fish.
- Rupert Brooke
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
- From "Pale Blue Dot", a book by Carl Sagan
“I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I'm dead.”
- A quote from American novelist Kurt Vonnegut's short book, "God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian"
Contributed by Jimmy Grayson
Atheist/Humanist
_
~~
_No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
- John Donne
Note: These famous words by John Donne were not originally written as a poem - the passage is taken from the 1624 Meditation 17, from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and is prose
Contributed by Anonymous
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
- John Donne
Note: These famous words by John Donne were not originally written as a poem - the passage is taken from the 1624 Meditation 17, from Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions and is prose
Contributed by Anonymous
~~
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
- 1 John 3:18 New International Version (Bible)
Contributed by Anonymous_
- 1 John 3:18 New International Version (Bible)
Contributed by Anonymous_
~~
_Lord grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Serenity Prayer, often credited to Reinhold Neibuhr
Contributed by Anonymous
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
- Serenity Prayer, often credited to Reinhold Neibuhr
Contributed by Anonymous
~~
About what one can not speak, one must remain silent.
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, translation, sourced from WikiQuote
Contributed by Phil Nova
Atheist
_
- Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, translation, sourced from WikiQuote
Contributed by Phil Nova
Atheist
_
~~
_"Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love."
- Albus Dumbledore (in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling)_
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
"There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."
- Albus Dumbledore (in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philospher's Stone" by J.K. Rowling)
Contributed by Anonymous
_
- Albus Dumbledore (in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling)_
"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
"It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live."
"There are all kinds of courage. It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends."
- Albus Dumbledore (in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's/Philospher's Stone" by J.K. Rowling)
Contributed by Anonymous
_
~~
___O incomparable Giver of life, cut reason loose at last!
Let it wander grey-eyed from vanity to vanity.
Shatter open my skull, pour in it the wine of madness!
Let me be mad, as You; mad with You, with us.
Beyond the sanity of fools is a burning desert
Where Your sun is whirling in every atom:
Beloved, drag me there, let me roast in Perfection!
- Rumi, "Let Me Be Mad"
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow; he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
- James Allen, "As A Man Thinketh"_
Your brightness is my darkness.
I know nothing of You and, by myself,
I cannot even imagine how to go about knowing You.
If I imagine You, I am mistaken.
If I understand You, I am deluded.
If I am conscious and certain I know You, I am crazy.
The darkness is enough.
- Thomas Merton, written on Christmas Day 1941 at Gethsemane, from "Dialogues with Silence: Prayers and Drawings"
God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one._
- Rumi
Contributed by Aldric Ulep
Unity Christianity
Let it wander grey-eyed from vanity to vanity.
Shatter open my skull, pour in it the wine of madness!
Let me be mad, as You; mad with You, with us.
Beyond the sanity of fools is a burning desert
Where Your sun is whirling in every atom:
Beloved, drag me there, let me roast in Perfection!
- Rumi, "Let Me Be Mad"
Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstances grow; he then becomes the rightful master of himself.
- James Allen, "As A Man Thinketh"_
Your brightness is my darkness.
I know nothing of You and, by myself,
I cannot even imagine how to go about knowing You.
If I imagine You, I am mistaken.
If I understand You, I am deluded.
If I am conscious and certain I know You, I am crazy.
The darkness is enough.
- Thomas Merton, written on Christmas Day 1941 at Gethsemane, from "Dialogues with Silence: Prayers and Drawings"
God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one._
- Rumi
Contributed by Aldric Ulep
Unity Christianity
~~
_Glad sight wherever new with old
Is joined through some dear homeborn tie;
The life of all that we behold
Depends upon that mystery.
Vain is the glory of the sky,
The beauty vain of field and grove,
Unless, while with admiring eye
We gaze, we also learn to love.
- William Wordsworth
Contributed by Heidi Thorsen
Christian - Protestant
Is joined through some dear homeborn tie;
The life of all that we behold
Depends upon that mystery.
Vain is the glory of the sky,
The beauty vain of field and grove,
Unless, while with admiring eye
We gaze, we also learn to love.
- William Wordsworth
Contributed by Heidi Thorsen
Christian - Protestant
~~
___This above all: to thine ownself be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
- Polonius, in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (Act 1, Scene 3)_
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it...
- The Declaration of Independence
Before Tao was subjected to discriminations, words had not yet come to have precise definitions. But once 'right' was distinguished, boundaries became defined. Let me say this about boundaries: there is a left and a right; there is sorting and assessment; there is division and discrimination; there is competition and conflict--the philosophers called these the Eight Virtues! Beyond the Six Realms, the sage embodies childlike clarity: he doesn't try to sort things out. Within the Six Realms, he sorts, but does not assess. On the true motives of former emperors as they are presented in the Annals and Classics, he assesses, but does not discriminate. There are things the dividers cannot divide, things discriminators cannot discriminate.
'What things?'—the sage embraces things, though throngs of men discriminate among them and make a great show of their discrimination. Therefore I say, 'Those who discriminate cannot see.'
- _"The Essential Chuang Tzu" (Zhuangzi), translated by Sam Hamill and J.P. Seaton. Page 14.
Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha: Mark 12:29-31
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself...
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible (New Revised Standard Version With Apocrypha), Leviticus 19:18
The wise
teach without telling,
allow without commanding,
have without possessing,
care without claiming.
In this way we harvest eternal importance
because we never announce it.
- "Tao Te Ching" (Daodejing), translated by Ralph Alan Dale. Verse 2/Page 5.
Contributed by Anonymous
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
- Polonius, in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" (Act 1, Scene 3)_
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness--That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive to these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it...
- The Declaration of Independence
Before Tao was subjected to discriminations, words had not yet come to have precise definitions. But once 'right' was distinguished, boundaries became defined. Let me say this about boundaries: there is a left and a right; there is sorting and assessment; there is division and discrimination; there is competition and conflict--the philosophers called these the Eight Virtues! Beyond the Six Realms, the sage embodies childlike clarity: he doesn't try to sort things out. Within the Six Realms, he sorts, but does not assess. On the true motives of former emperors as they are presented in the Annals and Classics, he assesses, but does not discriminate. There are things the dividers cannot divide, things discriminators cannot discriminate.
'What things?'—the sage embraces things, though throngs of men discriminate among them and make a great show of their discrimination. Therefore I say, 'Those who discriminate cannot see.'
- _"The Essential Chuang Tzu" (Zhuangzi), translated by Sam Hamill and J.P. Seaton. Page 14.
Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these.
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha: Mark 12:29-31
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself...
- The New Oxford Annotated Bible (New Revised Standard Version With Apocrypha), Leviticus 19:18
The wise
teach without telling,
allow without commanding,
have without possessing,
care without claiming.
In this way we harvest eternal importance
because we never announce it.
- "Tao Te Ching" (Daodejing), translated by Ralph Alan Dale. Verse 2/Page 5.
Contributed by Anonymous
~~
_People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Contributed by Lanh Anh Le
Buddhism
- Thich Nhat Hanh
Contributed by Lanh Anh Le
Buddhism
~~
_For any human being, the purification of character is done thus . . . with good thoughts, good words, good deeds.
Blessed is one who adds to the happiness of another.
Love came up to me showing me that a contented mind is best for growth.
The three greatest concerns of men are these: to make him who is an enemy a friend, to make righteous him who is wicked, and to make the ignorant learned.
- Zoroaster's Gathas
There is only one correct path: the path of asha (righteousness)
- Zoroaster
Suffer no anxiety, for he who is a sufferer of anxiety becomes regardless of enjoyment of the world and the spirit, and contraction happens to his body and soul.
- Zoroaster
Doing good to others is not only a duty; it is a joy because it increases one's own happiness
- Zoroaster
Contributed by Burjis Godrej
Zoroastrian
Blessed is one who adds to the happiness of another.
Love came up to me showing me that a contented mind is best for growth.
The three greatest concerns of men are these: to make him who is an enemy a friend, to make righteous him who is wicked, and to make the ignorant learned.
- Zoroaster's Gathas
There is only one correct path: the path of asha (righteousness)
- Zoroaster
Suffer no anxiety, for he who is a sufferer of anxiety becomes regardless of enjoyment of the world and the spirit, and contraction happens to his body and soul.
- Zoroaster
Doing good to others is not only a duty; it is a joy because it increases one's own happiness
- Zoroaster
Contributed by Burjis Godrej
Zoroastrian