Justice and mercy/ Are human dreams, they do not concern the birds nor the fish nor eternal God.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that concepts like justice and mercy are human ideals and do not apply to nature or a higher power.
Robinson Jeffers highlights the notion that justice and mercy are constructs of human society, emphasizing that these ideals are not relevant to the natural world—symbolized by birds and fish—or to God, who exists beyond human concerns. This perspective invites reflection on the inherent differences between human values and the indifferent realities of nature and divinity.
In practice
During a lecture on ethics, this quote could be used to illustrate the limitations of human concepts when discussing the natural order.
As for me, I would rather be a worm in a wild apple than a son of man. But we are what we are, and we might remember not to hate any person, for all are vicious; And not to be astonished at any evil, all are deserved; And not to fear death; it is the only way to be cleansed.
Nature knows that people are a tide that swells and in time will ebb, and all their works dissolve ... As for us: We must uncenter our minds from ourselves. We must unhumanize our views a little and become confident as the rock and ocean that we are made from.
Does it matter whether you hate yourself? At least love your eyes that can see, your mind that can hear the music, the thunder of the wings.
Poetry is not a civilizer, rather the reverse, for great poetry appeals to the most primitive instincts.
I've changed my ways a little, I cannot now Run with you in the evenings along the shore, Except in a kind of dream, and you, if you dream a moment, You see me there.
You making haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly long or suddenly A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing republic.
Where books are burned in the end people will be burned too.
The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.
Sometimes he did not know if he slept or just thought about sleep.
I want to go ahead of Father Time with a scythe of my own.
Don't minimize the importance of luck in determining life's course.
Our surest protection against assault from abroad has been not all our guards, gates and guns, or even our two oceans, but our essential goodness as a people. Our richest asset has been not our material wealth but our values.
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