[Image: The Night Watch, by Rembrandt van Rijn. Click the photo for a larger view. For more information about the painting, see the note at the foot of this post.]
From whiskey river:
Desert Places
Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.The woods around it have it — it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less —
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars — on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.
(Robert Frost [source])
…and:
Watch out for intellect,
because it knows so much it knows nothing
and leaves you hanging upside down,
mouthing knowledge as your heart
falls out of your mouth.
(Anne Sexton, from “Admonitions to a Special Person” [source])
…and:
If you think you’re enlightened go spend a week with your family.
(Baba Ram Dass [widely quoted, but I haven’t yet found a source])