To realize that we are one with the Creator, as Beethoven did, is a wonderful and awe-inspiring experience. Very few human beings ever come into that realization and that is why there are so few great composers or creative geniuses in any line of human endeavor. I always contemplate all this before commencing to compose... Spirit is the creative energy of the Cosmos. Our soul is not conscious of its power until it is enlightened by the Spirit. Therefore, to evolve and grow, we must learn how to use and develop our own soul forces... The real genius draws on the Infinite Source of Wisdom and Power.
~ from TALKS WITH GREAT COMPOSERS by Arthur M. Abell with thanks to Ray Berry
Dark and cold we may be, but this Is no winter now: the frozen misery Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move: The thunder is the thundering of the floes, The thaw, the flood, the upstart spring. Thank God our time is now when wrong Comes up to face us everywhere, Never to leave us til we take The longest stride of soul we ever took. Affairs are now soul-size. The enterprise Is exploration into God.
~ from "A Sleep of Prisoners" in SELECTED PLAYS by Christopher Fry
