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 BestonRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Embrace the night as a source of depth and inspiration rather than fearing it.
Henry Beston invites us to appreciate the night for its inherent beauty and the richness it brings to human experience. By overcoming the fear associated with darkness, we can access deeper emotions and a more profound connection to the world, allowing us to engage with the complexities of life in a more meaningful way.
Themes
NightFearEmotionPoetryHumanity
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about embracing life’s challenges, one might quote this to highlight the importance of facing fears.
More from Henry Beston
All quotes →If there is one thing clear about the centuries dominated by the factory and the wheel, it is that although the machine can make everything from a spoon to a landing-craft, a natural joy in earthly living is something it never has and never will be able to manufacture.
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The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter woods.
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Our fantastic civilization has fallen out of touch with many aspects of nature, and with none more completely than with night.
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When the Pleiades and the wind in the grass are no longer a part of the human spirit, a part of very flesh and bone, man becomes, as it were, a kind of cosmic outlaw, having neither the completeness nor integrity of the animal nor the birthright of a true humanity.
Henry BestonRead
Learn to reverence night and to put away the vulgar fear of it.
Henry BestonRead
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