J. Alden Brett
- Carl Lotave's Epitaph (Summit of Pike's Peak)
I knew a man in whom art lived and died, with genius flamed, full blown by passion's wind- whose tyrant heart, fierce, arrogant and proud still trod with kings the commonest of dust. O princely hand- mistaken prodigal- great pagan- we deign to lift to thee who challenged life- whose ardent zeal forever climbed and never feared to fall- one draught of pure and envious salute! Through pain thy courage opened wide the rift of God's infinity! Farewell, O soul.. on starlit seas adrift.
Rainer Maria Rilke
- The Panther
His vision, from the constantly passing bars, has grown so weary that it cannot hold anything else. It seems to him there are a thousand bars, and behind the bars, no world. As he paces in cramped circles, over and over, the movement of his powerful soft strides is like a ritual dance around a center in which a mighty will stands paralyzed. At times, the curtain of the pupils lifts, quietly. An image enters in, rushes down through the tense, arrested muscles, plunges into the heart and is gone.
Charles Dickens
- Mr. M'Choakumchild observing his students
He went to work in this preparatory lesson, not unlike Morgiana in the Forty Thieves: looking into all the vessels ranged before him, one after another, to see what they contained. Say, good M'Choakumchild. When from thy boiling store, thou shalt fill each jar brim full by-and-by, dost thou think that thou wilt always kill outright the robber Fancy lurking within - or sometimes only maim and distort him!
