Remarks by May (Julian) Sinclair | V2Melody Quotations

“I look and look, so that I may remember it.”

A simple and affecting expression of the desire to preserve a moment of beauty in memory. · A Journal of Impressions in Belgium, September 1914

“All that I can see or feel at the moment is this beauty.”

Capturing the overwhelming power of beauty even in the immediate presence of war. · A Journal of Impressions in Belgium, September 1914

“This country is formed for the very expression of peace.”

Her striking response to the peaceful beauty of the Flemish landscape in wartime. · A Journal of Impressions in Belgium, September 1914

“Nothing can take from us that run from Ostend to Ghent.”

Celebrating an exhilarating moment of freedom and movement amid the uncertainty of war. · A Journal of Impressions in Belgium, September 1914

“I have set down the day's imperfect or absurd impression.”

Valuing the authenticity of immediate impressions over polished hindsight. · Introduction, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium

“I pledged myself to set down only what I had seen or felt.”

Expressing her commitment to firsthand experience rather than second-hand accounts. · Introduction, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium

“This record has at least the value of a human document.”

Defending personal testimony as valuable even when it cannot claim complete factual precision. · Introduction, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium

“There were other things of which I was dead sure.”

Distinguishing factual uncertainty from the certainty of deeply experienced impressions. · Introduction, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium

“I make no apology for my many errors.”

A memorable declaration of intellectual honesty about the limitations of personal observation. · Introduction, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium

“The slight lapse of time, so far from dulling or blurring that memory, crystallized it and made it sharp and clean.”

An eloquent observation that distance can sometimes sharpen rather than diminish memory. · Introduction, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium

“Each day had its own unique and incorruptible memory.”

Reflecting on the lasting distinctiveness of lived experience and memory. · Introduction, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium

“This is a Journal of Impressions, and it is nothing more.”

A candid statement of her intention to record subjective experience rather than objective history. · Introduction, A Journal of Impressions in Belgium

“The individual triumphs when the Will-to-live is capable of sublimation.”

Presenting personal development as the transformation of instinctive energy into higher purposes. · A Defence of Idealism

“The quest for ultimate reality is as much a necessity of thought as it is a passion of the soul.”

Uniting intellectual enquiry with a deeply emotional and spiritual impulse. · A Defence of Idealism

“The mystic seeks God, for the most part, not in the outer world of art and science and action, but in the darkest and most secret recesses of his own soul.”

Her penetrating description of the inward direction of mystical experience. · A Defence of Idealism

“There is no arguing against certainties like these.”

A forceful assertion of the authority of deeply felt experience. · A Defence of Idealism

“Moments of danger that are moments of sure and perfect happiness, because then the adorable Reality gives itself to our very sight and touch.”

Describing moments of intense experience in which danger and profound happiness become strangely united. · A Defence of Idealism

“Moments when the human creature we have known all our life without truly knowing it reveals its incredible godhead.”

Suggesting that a person can suddenly be perceived as possessing a deeper, almost divine reality. · A Defence of Idealism

“Moments when things that we have seen all our lives without truly seeing them change to us in an instant of time.”

Capturing the sudden transformation of ordinary perception into heightened awareness. · A Defence of Idealism

“Moments when eternal Beauty is seized travelling through time.”

A striking description of sudden experiences in which beauty seems to transcend ordinary time. · A Defence of Idealism

“No reasoning allows or accounts for these moments.”

Recognising experiences of profound perception that seem to exceed rational explanation. · A Defence of Idealism

“There are, after all, different kinds of certainty.”

Allowing for forms of knowledge that cannot be reduced to ordinary intellectual proof. · A Defence of Idealism

“In our present existence we are spirit; but so limited in our experiences that we know the appearances of Spirit far better than we know Spirit itself.”

Reflecting on the difficulty of recognising the spiritual dimension of human existence. · A Defence of Idealism

“The soul itself may figure as a phenomenon or aspect of the underlying Reality.”

Connecting individual consciousness with her conception of an underlying ultimate Reality. · A Defence of Idealism

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