quotations about light
Moonlight drowns out all but the brightest stars.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN
The Lord of the Rings
As the eye is the best composer, so light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make beautiful; and the stimulus it affords to the sense, and a sort of infinitude which it hath like space and time, make all matter gay.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"Nature", Essays and Lectures
It is not necessary to light a candle to the sun.
ALGERNON SIDNEY
Discourses on Government
Light is a thing that can be measured. It has a speed of 186,000 miles per second, and it can be investigated in a number of different ways. It has physical properties. It does not have mass -- you cannot hold onto it -- but nonetheless it can be studied by physicists. It is really there. It is a real thing. Darkness, on the other hand, is nothing. It does not exist. There is nothing to count, nothing to measure, nothing to evaluate.
HARRY LEE POE
See No Evil: The Existence of Sin in an Age of Relativism
There is strong shadow where there is much light.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
Gotz von Berlichingen
Corruption springs from light: 'tis one same power
Creates, preserves, destroys; matter whereon
It works, on e'er self-transmutative form,
Common to now the living, now the dead.
PHILIP JAMES BAILEY
Festus
Every light is not the sun.
ALEXANDER
attributed, Day's Collacon
To every man, even though he be a slave, the light of heaven is sweet.
EURIPIDES
attributed, Day's Collacon
I think that people generally don't understand that light is a drug. Just like drugs, light can change the timing and abundance of chemicals in your body, hormones, neurotransmitters -- all those sorts of things. That's exactly what drugs do.
TRAVIS LONGCORE
"Boulder scientists contribute to global light pollution atlas", Daily Camera, June 20, 2016
Every man as well as every day has its lights and shades.
WINFIELD SCOTT
attributed, Day's Collacon
For this queen of colours, the light, bathing all which we behold, wherever I am through the day, gliding by me in varied forms, soothes me when engaged on other things, and not observing it. And so strongly doth it entwine itself, that if it be suddenly withdrawn, it is with longing sought for, and if absent long, saddeneth the mind.
ST. AUGUSTINE
The Confessions
Light is the first phenomenon of the world.
STAN PLACE & BOBBI RAY MADRY
The Art and Science of Professional Makeup
You may wonder why daylight is relevant to our modern building culture. Consider that human beings lived in close relationship to sunlight well into the 20th century. We woke to a reddish sunrise, spent the day in blueish light, with the peak intensity at midday, and fell asleep to the reddish sunset or the warm red glow of firelight. Given centuries of this primordial pattern, it's no coincidence that the shifts in color during the day regulate our physiology, at all scales, even at cellular levels.
ED CLARK & MARTY BRENNAN
"Why Light Matters: Designing with Circadian Health in Mind", Metropolis Mag, June 13, 2016
She was bendable light: she shone around every corner of my day.
JERRY SPINELLI
Stargirl
He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit i' th' centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun.
JOHN MILTON
Comus
Fear can only grow in darkness. Once you face fear with light, you win.
STEVE MARABOLI
Life, the Truth, and Being Free
In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.
AARON ROSE
attributed, Reader's Digest, 1998
The tapers in a church are but emblems of a desire for the light of God's presence therein.
ST. ZOSIMUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
A Testament of Hope
Every light has its shadow, and every shadow hath a succeeding morning.
COPERNICUS
attributed, Day's Collacon