24
" Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world. Here, there was the taint of of deepest sin in the most sacred of quality of human life, working such effect, that the world was only the darker for this woman's beauty, and the more lost for the infant that she had borne. "
― Nathaniel Hawthorne , The Scarlet Letter
26
" In America the taint of sectarianism lies broad upon the land. Not content with acknowledging the supremacy as the Deity, and with erecting temples in his honor, where all can bow down with reverence, the pride and vanity of human reason enter into and pollute our worship, and the houses that should be of God and for God, alone, where he is to be honored with submissive faith, are too often merely schools of metaphysical and useless distinctions. The nation is sectarian, rather than Christian.
Religion's first lesson is humility; its fruit, charity. In the great and sublime ends of Providence, little things are lost, and least of all is he imbued with a right spirit who believes that insignificant observances, subtleties of doctrine, and minor distinctions, enter into the great essentials of the Christian character. The wisest thing for him who is disposed to cavil at the immaterial habits of his neighbor, to split straws on doctrine, to fancy trifles of importance, and to place the man before principles, would be to distrust himself. "
― James Fenimore Cooper
32
" People worship god.
I worship this separation from you.
It is worth Haj to a hundred Meccas,
This separation from you.
People say I am as brilliant as the sun,
They say I am famous.
What a fire it has lit in me,
This separation from you.
Behind me is my shadow,
Ahead, is my darkness.
I fear that it might leave me,
This separation from you.
No taint of the body is in it,
Nor litter of the mind,
All has been winnowed out,
By this separation from you.
When sorrow comes, bringing with it
Loneliness and pain,
I pull it close to me,
This separation from you.
Sometimes it colors my words
Sometimes it weaves through my songs,
It has taught me great deal,
This separation from you.
When sorrow, defeated, fell at my feet,
Amazed at my fidelity,
The world came out to see
This separation from you.
Love earned me fame.
People flocked to praise me.
It wept in my embrace,
This separation from you.
The world turned out to tell me,
That I had been unwise.
It sat me on a throne today
This separation from you. "
― Shiv Kumar Batalvi , Shiv Kumar Samuchi Kavita
