"Let a man turn to his own childhood—no further—if he will renew his sense of remoteness, and of the mystery of change."

Alice Meynell Literature See all quotes by Alice Meynell →

React to this quote

More by Alice Meynell

“I run, I run, I am gathered to thy heart.”

“To mount a hill is to lift with you something lighter and brighter than yourself or than any meaner burden. You lift the world, you raise the horizon; you give a signal for the distance to stand up.”

“Men in cities look upward not much more than animals, and these—except the dog when he bays the moon—look skyward not at all.”

“Compassion in the highest degree is the divinest form of religion.”

“If there is a look of human eyes that tells of perpetual loneliness, so there is also the familiar look that is the sign of perpetual crowds.”

“Childhood is but change made gay and visible.”

Resonant Thoughts

"Over the last 50,000 years, modern humans have been subjected to enormous evolutionary pressures, in part from the consequences of their own social culture. They explored new ranges and climates and d…"

— Nicholas Wade

Literature1942

#change

"In general, human societies are not innovative. They are hierarchical and ritualistic. Suggestions for change are greeted with suspicion: they imply an unpleasant future variation in ritual and hierar…"

— Carl Sagan

Science1934–1996

#time

"The mystery of the poor is this: That they are Jesus, and what you do for them you do for Him. It is the only way we have of knowing and believing in our love. The mystery of poverty is that by sharin…"

— Dorothy Day

Politics1897–1980

#knowledge

"A sillie swaine, passing over an arm of the sea with his seede corne in a sacke, by mischance at the landing, his sacke fell into the water, and so his corne being lefte there till the next low water,…"

— Hugh Plat

Technology1552–1608

#time