Light

"Light became their favorite subject on account of its mathematical obediance and freedom of movement. They were more interested in the play of its colors, and thus they named after it their great enterprise, the Enlightenment."

"In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don't."

"[W]ith regard to light, that it consists of vibrations was almost proved by the phenomena of diffraction, while those of polarisation showed the excursions of the particles to be perpendicular to the line of propogation; but the phenomena of dispersion, etc., require additional hypotheses which may be very complicated. Thus, the further progress of molecular speculation appears quite uncertain. If hypotheses are to be tried haphazard, or simply because they will suit certain phenomena, it will occupy the mathematical physicists of the world say half a century on the average to bring each theory to the test, and since the number of possible theories may go up into the trillion, only one of which can be true, we have little prospect of making further solid additions to the subject in our time."

"Once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light's winning."

"Lampposts look in the glow of their defeated light robbed by the fog but cannot tell if the streets lying by stretching limbs in courtyards are sleeping face downwards or supine."

"This evening, too the Sun had to tell the same story before he went away, leaving the forlorn moon hankering after his light."

"Should I complete this poem or should I put my room’s light out?"

"I propose to discuss this afternoon certain effects of the energy which is continuously pouring out from the sun on all sides with the speed of light—the energy which we call sunlight when we enjoy the brilliance of a cloudless sky, which we call heat when we bask in its warmth, the stream of radiation which supports all life on our globe and is the source of all our energy. ... ... Beyond the violet are the still shorter waves, which affect a photographic plate or a fluorescent screen, and will pass through certain substances opaque to ordinary light. Here, for instance, is a filter, devised by Professor Wood, which stops visible rays, but allows the shorter invisible waves to pass and excite the fluorescence of a platinocyanide screen. Again, beyond the red end are still longer waves, which are present in very considerable amount, and can be rendered evident by their heating effect. We can easily filter out the visible rays and still leave these long waves in the beam by passing it through a thin sheet of vulcanite. A piece of phosphorus placed at the focus of these invisible rays is at once fired, or a thermometer quickly rises in temperature."

"God is the light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass.The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light, God guideth unto His light whome he will. And God speaketh to mankind in allegories, for God is knower of all things."

"In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary."

"Absolutely have to have dark in order to have light. [...] Gotta have opposites – dark and light, light and dark – continually in a painting. If you have light on light, you have nothing. If you have dark on dark, you basically have nothing. [...] You know, it's like in life: you've gotta have a little sadness once in a while, so you know when the good times come. I'm waiting on the good times now."

"Light seeking light doth light of light beguile: So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes"

"When there is the moon, the night automatically becomes beautiful; there might be no need for extra light. Light must be saved for those moments when the night is dark, and the moon doesn't appear in the sky."

"She had become such an integral part of my life that, without her light, presence, and solace, I would feel incomplete."

"Light taking forever to get here, more precious when it arrives."

"The path of the righteous ones is like the bright light that is getting lighter and lighter until the day is firmly established."

"Before God, who preserves all things alive, and Christ Jesus, who as a witness made the fine public declaration before Pontius Pilate, I give you orders to observe the commandment in a spotless and irreprehensible way until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the happy and only Potentate will show in its own appointed times. He is the King of those who rule as kings and Lord of those who rule as lords, the one alone having immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal might. Amen."

"There are two kinds of light — the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures."

"Among all the studies of natural causes and reasons, light most delights the contemplators; among the great things of mathematics, the certainty of its demonstrations most illustriously elevates the minds of its investigators; perspective must therefore be preferred to all human discourses and disciplines, in the study in which radiant lines are expounded by means of demonstrations and in which the glory is found not only of mathematics, but also physics: it is adorned with the flowers of one and the other."

"Love is not consolation, it is light."

"For many centuries before modern science, and for the first two and a half centuries of modern science, the division of reality into matter and light seemed self-evident. ...As long as the separation between the massive and the massless persisted, a unified description of the physical world could not be achieved."

"Light was once the sight of God. As the gaze of spanned space... In the night sky, planets and stars once played host to gods and angels, who in turn passed their gift of light to man..."

"With the passing of the Cathars and of Grosseteste, the religious tradition of angelic light faded. Over time, science pruned away the trappings of spirit to fashion a material and mathematical imagination of light. In doing so, it similarly reshaped its image of man and cosmos."

"Now that the sun is gleaming bright, Implore we, bending low, That He, the Uncreated Light, May guide us as we go."

"Misled by Fancy's meteor-ray, By passion driven; But yet the light that led astray, Was light from Heaven."

"Hinc lucem et pocula sacra."

"Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful."

"I shall light a candle of understanding in thine heart, which shall not be put out."

"Against the darkness outer God's light his likeness takes, And he from the mighty doubter The great believer makes."

"Mehr Licht!"

"Wo viel Licht is, ist starker Schatten."

"Blasted with excess of light."

"Like our dawn, merely a sob of light."

"The true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

"He was a burning and a shining light"

"Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you."

"The Light that Failed."

"The prayer of Ajax was for light; Through all that dark and desperate fight, The blackness of that noonday night."

"Fra l' ombre un lampo solo Basta al nocchier fugace Che già ritrova il polo, Già riconosce il mar."

"Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom."

"But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloisters pale, And love the high embowed roof, With antique pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight; Casting a dim religious light."

"It is manifest that everything in the world, whether it be substance or accident, produces rays in its own manner like a star... Everything that has actual existence in the world of the elements emits rays in every direction, which fill the whole world."

"Ex luce lucellum."

"Those having lamp will pass them on to others."

"Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night: God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light."

"Nur der Gewissenswurm schwärmt mit der Eule. Sünder und böse Geister scheun das Licht."

"But it is not necessary to light a candle to the sun."

"'Twas a light that made Darkness itself appear A thing of comfort."

"An unreflected light did never yet Dazzle the vision feminine."

"Thy prayer was "Light—more Light"—while Time shall last Thou sawest a glory growing on the night, But not the shadows which that light would cast, Till shadows vanish in the Light of Light."