Here is a collection of quotations, poems and thoughts that have resonated with me at varying epochs of my life. I save them here mainly to save them for myself, but in sharing them I hope perhaps you’ll discover some writer or philosopher for yourself. Some are well-known, some obscure.
If you discover any errors or misquotes, or inaccuracies in referencing the source, please do tell me.
I am compelled into this country.
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both,
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as far that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.
If I cannot sway the heavens, I’ll wake the powers of hell!
Copyright mmxxiv Ryan Moore. All rights reserved unless otherwise specified.