The single greatest thing written by anyone, ever

Cafe Society
141

Then the King will say to those at his right hand, “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?”

And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”

Matthew 25:34-40

142

Forgive the bump. I’m always way behind reading CS.

I was never a horsey girl; had no patience with Misty or any of the horse books, but I loved Black Beauty, simply because it was an engaging story. Late in the story, Beauty is stabled with, literally, an old war horse, who was in the Crimean War. One day he tells Beauty about what was clearly the Charge of the Light Brigade.

*"My dear master and I were at the head of the line, and as all sat motionless and watchful, he took a little stray lock of my mane which had turned over on the wrong side, laid it over on the right and smoothed it down with my hand; then, patting my neck, he said ‘We shall have a day of it today, Bayard, my beauty; but we’ll do our duty as we always have done.’

“That morning he stroked my neck more, I think, than he had ever done before; quietly on and on, as if he were thinking of something else. I loved to feel his hand on my neck, and arched my crest proudly and happily; but I stood very still, for I knew all his moods, and when he liked me to be quiet and when gay.” *

Then the call to battle. Mayhem, slaughter, shouting and cannons booming. Then his master falls, very likely dead before he hit the ground. For the first time, the horse was overpowered by fear, and began running wild. Someone else mounted him, and both survived to retreat. Not the end of his army career, but certainly the end of his innocence.

*I said, “I have heard people talk about war as if it was a very fine thing.”

“Ah!” he said. “I should think they have never seen it. No doubt it is very fine when there is no enemy, only just exercise, parade, and sham-fight. Yes, it is very fine then; but when thousands of good, brave men and horses are killed or crippled for life, then it has a very different look.”

“Do you know what they fought about?” said I.

“No,” he said, “that is more than a horse can understand; but the enemy must have been awfully wicked people if it was right to go all that way across the sea on purpose to kill them.”*

143

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

144

I’ll add 2 passages by Gene Wolfe. Each left me thunderstruck.

the narrator is resting high upon a mountainside, staring into a clear night sky and contemplating the shapes of constellations as he becomes aware of them.

145

What a wonderful thread. I have read so many passages that moved and changed me, it is hard to define a single great one. But there was one that changed me the most. My contribution as the single most important thing I’ve ever read:

All bolding mine.

ETA: I realize this must sound like some kind of atheist credo. It’s not. This passage is about so much more than atheism.

146

I agree with a lot that’s already been posted, esp. the Declaration of Independence, Tolkien’s writings, and Shelley’s Ozymandias, but I’ve always liked this June 11, 1963 speech of John F. Kennedy’s:

"We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?

"Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise. The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or state or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them. The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand. Redress is sought in the streets, in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives.

“We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is a time to act in the Congress, in your state and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives. It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all. Those who do nothing are inviting shame, as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right, as well as reality…”

147

I’ve got some Peter Beagle in mind, and maybe some Aldous Huxley, but this is at hand; Gerald Durrell, from ‘My Family and Other Animals’:

The phosphorescence was particularly good that night. By plunging your hand into the water and dragging it along you could draw a wide golden-green ribbon of cold fire across the sea, and when you dived as you hit the surface it seemed as though you had plunged into a frosty furnace of glinting light. When we were tired we waded out of the sea, the water running off our bodies so that we seemed to be on fire, and lay on the sand to eat.

148

Reading this thread reminds me of something Gandalf said: “Not all tears are evil.”

" . . . until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness." (Tolkien, of course, at the Field of Cormallen.)

149

I can think of a tremendous amount of things written that I enjoy more than GG Marquez, but I still think the opening line from One Hundred Years of Solitude is the single best written sentance ever:

*Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía habría de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo. *

This is translated:
*
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.*

But I don’t think it captures the original. The last part of the sentence should read: Brought him [up, as in to the peaks/mountains] so he would experience the snow/ice.

Hielo = ice, but seeing that this is about going up some mountain to glaciers and noting how rare snow is in Latin American [lowland] countries, I think snow is a better word. Some native Spanish speaker will be along shortly to slap me for taking Castellano and routing it through Swedish as a way to write it in English. However, I’d write that line:

Many years later, in front of the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that long lost afternoon when his father introduced him to snow.

150

“Front Toward Enemy”

Instruction written on the business side of a M18A1 Claymore antipersonnel mine

151

President Abraham Lincoln’s letter to Mrs. Bixby (1864).

*Dear Madam,

I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle.

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save.

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,

A. Lincoln
*

The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution (1787).

*We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
*

President George Washington’s letter to the Elders of the Jewish Temple of Newport, R.I. (1790).

*…It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens…
*

Sullivan Ballou’s letter to his wife (1861).

*My very dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write again, I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more…

I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans on the triumph of the Government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution. And I am willing — perfectly willing — to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt . . .

Sarah my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battle field.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them for so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when, God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood, around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. Forgive my many faults and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often times been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness . . .

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the gladdest days and in the darkest nights … always, always, and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath, as the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by. Sarah do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again…
*
(Sullivan Ballou was killed a week later at the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861).
The death of King Elessar, J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King, Appendix A (1954).

*"… even as he took her hand and kissed it, he fell into sleep. Then a great beauty was revealed in him, so that all who after came there looked on him in wonder; for they saw that the grace of his youth, and the valour of his manhood, and the wisdom and majesty of his age were blended together. And long there he lay, an image of the splendour of the Kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world."
*

152

Recently someone said that Barrak Obama’s speech on race replaced Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech as the most moving oratory they’ve ever heard. I haven’t listened the whole thing in probably 25 years, so I found it on YouTube and watched it again. Obama’s speech was excellent, but IMO it doesn’t even come close to the poetry and rhetorical perfection of I Have a Dream. All these years later, that speech still makes me cry.

153

James Baldwin:
“The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”

From the book “A River Runs Through It”:
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”

154

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote:

“Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people”

155

From Robert Sothey’s “The Battle of Blenheim”

“Why, 'twas a very wicked thing!”
Said little Wilhelmine.
“Nay … nay … my little girl,” quoth he,
“It was a famous victory.”

156

Elendil’s Heir: I nearly added Sullivan’s letter with the post I made, but I figured one Civil War reference was enough. :slight_smile:

Amazing how such hard men wrote such beautiful poetry to their wives. Some of General Jackson’s letters to his wife still amaze me, considering how…well…how emotionless he could be.

I believe 100 years hence, this soldiers final remarks will be my generation’s Sullivan Ballou.

157

You know, even though Ms. Bixby was a Confederate sympathizer and the 1860’s equivalent of a welfare queen; and even though some people think Lincoln didn’t write it, to me that letter will always perfectly capture the essence of Lincoln’s greatness.

158

Rime 0f the Ancient Mariner by Coleridge.

159

Yes, and it turned out that “only” two of her boys are confirmed to have died in the Union’s service. Nevertheless, great words from a great man.

160

Regards,
Shodan