UKC

'Be bold, and enormous forces will come to your aid.'

Can't find the poem this is taken from - can anyone give me the title? Any assistance gratefully received

A similar quote BTW, that I also like and others may appreciate, from the Scottish philosopher William Murray:

'That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things happen to help one that would otherwise never have occurred.'

In reply to Steve Parker:


'...except the time that they do not and you die' Skyhook 2005

In reply to Skyhook: Er, yeah, that's the problem! That's where the bold bit comes in.

In reply to Steve Parker:

So these three gentlemen are applying for a job on a building site.

The foreman asks George "What is the difference between a joist and a girder"

"Easy", says George "A joist is a beam made out of wood, a girder is a beam made from Steel"

So the foreman sets George to work, and asks Andrew in "What is the difference" says the foreman "between a girder and a joist"

"A girder is made from steel" says Andrew "and is used to make Irn Bru. A joist is made from wood"

So the foreman sets Andrew to work, and gets Patrick in

"Patrick, what is the difference between a girder and a joist"

"Well, to be sure" says Patrick, reinforcing racial stereotypes "Goethe wrote Faust and Joyce wrote Ulysses"

Y.

In reply to Yrmenlaf:

Excellent

In reply to Yrmenlaf:

I like that!

In reply to Yrmenlaf: Hohoho... It's not from Faust though, is it? I sure don't remember it, if so.

In reply to Steve Parker:

Do you not think that the quote implies the inevitability of these 'forces'?

If so what does 'bold' mean here?

In reply to Steve Parker:

Don't know, I have never read Goethe. Or Joist.

Y.

Damn, does no one know this quote? It occurs along with a whole set of statements about boldness, along the lines of 'boldness has mystery, power and magic about it...'.
??????????

In reply to Skyhook: You have to do the first bit to get to the second - it's not a catch 22!

In reply to Steve Parker:

Does it always come? Is it always enough? Does Goethe speak about this?

In reply to Steve Parker:

A Google I've just done suggests it has been falsely attributed to Goethe. These replies are an identical query on another website in May:

"Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid," was attributed to Goethe. As near as I can tell, this is actually a quote from Basil King. Though Goethe said something I also find beautiful, which is, "Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
: --- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe 1749


The closest quote I could find is in W.B. (William Benjamin) Basil King's "Conquest of Fear" page 29: "Go at it boldy, and you'll find unexpected forces closing round you and coming to your aid."

In reply to Steve Parker:

Of course another rather similar genuine Goethe quote is:

You must be master and win,
Or serve and lose,
Grieve or triumph,
Be the anvil or the hammer.

(from Der Gross-Coptha, 1791, Act 2)

In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Cheers for that, Gordon. You must be better at googling than I am! I'm familiar with the 'genius, power and magic' quote, which, if I remember right, occurs amidst other lines on the theme of boldness and commitment. Perhaps the similarity of Goethe's lines to the 'mighty forces' quote explains the mis-attribution: it sounds like Goethe! Anyway, you may have given me what I need, which is the origin of the quote, whether by Goethe or not. I'll pursue it! Many thanks.
Steve.

In reply to Skyhook:

I think the idea is that in any process there will occur moments of crisis; if you find it in you to have faith in yourself and act with courage, then perhaps you will find yourself assisted in ways you did not expect. If you don't make that leap of faith, with the outcome always in doubt, you will never find out what might have been.

'...unable to make that decisive step from the clifftop, suspended forever on the brink of yourself, above your own jeering clamour.'

In reply to Steve Parker:

You will, in fact, in the words of Mr Graham Gooch, die a-wonderin'.

You have to imagine this delivered in a nasal, flat, estuary whine, of course, to get the full effect.

jcm

In reply to Gordon Stainforth: Weird, check out the T-shirt, only the spelling was wrong