Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed —

I, too, am America.

Langston Hughes, “I, Too”

Heresies — as many as are divorced from the truth — are conspicuous, even to themselves, by their insane contrivance.

Athanasius, Orations against the Arians, Book 1. Tr. Rusch

Οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτως ἀγαθὸν 
ὡς τὸ οἰκειοῦσθαι τῷ Θεῷ

Nothing is as good
as intimacy with God

John Chrysostom, On Philippians, 5.2

Now shall my inward joys arise,

And burst into a Song;

Almighty Love inspires my Heart,

And Pleasure tunes my Tongue.

God on his thirsty Sion-Hill

Some Mercy-Drops has thrown,

And solemn Oaths have bound his Love

To show’r Salvation down.

Why do we then indulge our Fears,

Suspicions and Complaints?

Is he a God, and shall his Grace

Grow weary of his saints?

Isaac Watts

Problem II

— no matter what we do

the machines

just move the hunger two flights higher,

now it rests in the heart.

Rolf Jacobsen (1975) Trans. Roger Greenwald, h/t Pome by Matthew Ogle

…put down that gun, you need a sandwich.

Mary Karr, “The Voice of God”

All night the truth happens.

Michael Ondaatje (1974), from “Country Night” h/t Pome By Matthew Ogle

There are no unsacred places; 

there are only sacred places

and desecrated places.

Wendell Berry, “How to be a Poet”

οἱ γὰρ ἄνθρωποι πρὸς ἃ ἔπασχον τὴν μνήμην ἐποιοῦντο.

Thucydides, 2.54.