2
" But yester-night I prayed aloud
In anguish and in agony,
Up-starting from the fiendish crowd
Of shapes and thoughts that tortured me:
A lurid light, a trampling throng,
Sense of intolerable wrong,
And whom I scorned, those only strong!
Thirst of revenge, the powerless will
Still baffled, and yet burning still!
Desire with loathing strangely mixed
On wild or hateful objects fixed.
Fantastic passions! maddening brawl!
And shame and terror over all!
Deeds to be hid which were not hid,
Which all confused I could not know
Whether I suffered, or I did:
For all seemed guilt, remorse or woe,
My own or others still the same
Life-stifling fear, soul-stifling shame. "
― Samuel Taylor Coleridge , The Complete Poems
7
" No, no, I will not live among the wild scenes of nature, the enemy of all that lives. I will seek the towns—Rome, the capital of the world, the crown of man's achievements. Among its storied streets, hallowed ruins, and stupendous remains of human exertion, I shall not, as here, find every thing forgetful of man; trampling on his memory, defacing his works, proclaiming from hill to hill, and vale to vale,—by the torrents freed from the boundaries which he imposed—by the vegetation liberated from the laws which he enforced—by his habitation abandoned to mildew and weeds, that his power is lost, his race annihilated for ever. "
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley , The Last Man
17
" When I ask you to listen to meand you start to give me advice,you have not done what I asked.When I ask you to listen to meand you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way,
you are trampling on my feelings.When I ask you to listen to meand you feel you have to do something to solve my problem,you have failed me, strange as that may seem.Listen! All I ask is that you listen.Not talk or do—just hear me.I can do for myself. I’m not helpless.Maybe discouraged and faltering, but not helpless.When you do something for me that I can, and need to do for myself,
you contribute to my fear and weakness. But when you accept as a simple factthat I am feeling what I feel no matter how irrational it might be,
then I can get on with understanding what is behind this feeling.Perhaps that is why prayer works for so many people.God is silent and He doesn’t give advice or try to fix things.He just listens and lets you work it out for yourself.So, please listen and just hear me.And if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn.Then I’ll listen to you. "
19
" If a man happen to take it into his head to assassinate with his own hands, or with the sword of justice, those whom he calls heretics, that is, people who think, or perhaps only speak, differently upon a subject which neither party understands, he will be as much inclined to do this at one time as at another. Fanaticism never sleeps: it is never glutted: it is never stopped by philanthropy; for it makes a merit of trampling on philanthropy: it is never stopped by conscience; for it has pressed conscience into its service. Avarice, lust, and vengeance, have piety, benevolence, honour; fanaticism has nothing to oppose it. "
― Jeremy Bentham , The Principles of Morals and Legislation
