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I think it is our privilege and felicity to love God for his beauty, without claiming or expecting love from him.

— Robinson Jeffers

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Source, in full

Letter to Sister Mary James Power (1 October 1934); published in The Wild God of the World : An Anthology of Robinson Jeffers (2003), edited by Albert Gelpi, p. 189; also partly quoted in the essay "Robinson Jeffers, Pantheist Poet" by John Courtney

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More quotes by Robinson Jeffers

I have seen these ways of God: I know of no reason
For fire and change and torture and the old returnings.

Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.

At least Love your eyes that can see, your mind that can
Hear the music, the thunder of the wings. Love the wild swan.

Love the Wild Swan (1935)

Know that however ugly the parts appear
the whole remains beautiful.

The Answer (1936)

Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
formerly used to kill men, but here
In the sense of a symbol.

Contemplation of The Sword (1938)

All Robinson Jeffers quotes →

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Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.

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To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.

Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals (1929)

Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.

Sanu Sharma

Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.

Alexander Pope

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Robinson Jeffers (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.