Sky Errata

I'd had that quotation* on my banner ("No sky is heavy if the heart is light. -- Winston Churchill") for almost as long as I've had this blog -- but only today it occurred to me to check the authenticity. Alas, the suspicion turned out right: it was mistaken. =X

From the time I first fell in love with that line until the last time I fiddled with its placement on my blog (a few days ago), I've continued being a collector of quotations, and have gradually learned (and thus suspected) that quotations are often paraphrased or wrongly attributed. In this case, it's both. The line originated not from Winston Churchill but from Rev. Charles Churchill, in a verse of his poem "The Prophecy of Famine: A Scots Pastoral":

Nothing but mirth can conquer fortune's spite;
No sky is heavy, if the heart be light:
Patience is sorrow's salve; what can't be cur'd,
So Donald right areeds, must be endur'd.

(Some doubts remain whether or not the comma should be there, as a Google Books result disagrees with the above punctuation. But given the "be", the line looks to me more natural with the comma.)

So now I've fixed the mistake, and posted this in hope that the next person needing to authenticate the quotation can have a more definite starting point than simply the comparative numbers of Google search results. =P


* Also, taking this opportunity, I've finally gone and cleared up** my occasional doubt about the usage of "quote" and "quotation", in both senses of "someone else's words" and "pricing estimate". The widespread use of "quote" as a noun has left me uncertain whether "quote" (n) means one and "quotation" (n) means the other. Well, (in case you want to know) I conclude that there is no such difference: for both meanings "quotation" is the correct noun, and "quote" is the informal noun (while the correct verb, of course).

** Also also, I went to check whether "cleared my doubt" was correct before finally putting down "cleared up my doubt". Obviously I'm now paranoid.

One Third

Only got a hundred years to live

And so much still to be done,
more still that can be done,

that I wonder if the next-life-I
will still be working on what I'm working on now,
adding, improving, (if ever) completing...

But it takes so long to grow up,
    to learn, to understand;
it takes so much to reach this place;

that perhaps the present-life-I

    having grown into the right circumstances,
                                            (I think)
    having met the right teachers,
                                            (I believe)

had better not count on that other hundred,

    not even on the rest of this hundred,

only now--

to do, do, do
as much as can be done.

This day has passed, and your life too has lessened.
Like a fish running short of water, for what do you rejoice?
Strive on diligently now, as if putting out a fire on your head.
May you be mindful of the transience, and be cautious not to be slack.
-- Samantabhadra Bodhisattva