Whitman

To a Certain Cantatrice

  Here, take this gift,
  I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or general,
  One who should serve the good old cause, the great idea, the
      progress and freedom of the race,
  Some brave confronter of despots, some daring rebel;
  But I see that what I was reserving belongs to you just as much as to any.

- Walt Whitman

Excerpt: On the Prophet's Birthday: Old Guards, New Guards and Rear

"The Prophet was personally troubled about the messages he received that commanded him to convert the entire world to the new faith.

When the early Muslims first fled from Mecca to Medina, Muhammad was welcomed as a peacemaker among warring tribes and faiths.

His approach was conciliatory, and all sides recognized him as a fair arbiter. Islam sees itself as a faith that is far more inclusive than exclusive.

Therefore, when Muhammad was forced to lead battles in defense of the faith, and afterwards when he turned on former Christian and Jewish allies, a dangerous rift became part of the Muslim worldview, at once aiming for universal peace and brotherhood but using violent means to get there. This will always occur as long as human nature is divided. "What we say" and "what we do" have been perpetually at odds."

- Deepak Chopra, (read the rest of article here)

(Italics and line breaks are mine)

Great Passions Detach Us From All Else

 

"But Love, almighty Love, seems in a moment to have removed me to a prodigious distance from every object but you alone. In the midst of crowds I remain in solitude. Nothing but you can lay hold of my mind, and that can lay hold of nothing but you. I appear transported to some foreign desert with you (oh, that I were really thus transported!), where, abundantly supplied with everything, in thee, I might live out an age of uninterrupted extasy."

- Richard Steele, "Love Letters of Great Men"