You speak in my heart and say, “Seek my face.”
Your face, Lord, will I seek.

—Psalm 27

Books were still governed by the old rule,
Born of a belief that visible beauty
Is a little mirror for the beauty of being.

—CZESLAW MILOSZ, A Treatise on Poetry

What will our children’s children say
About our art-monsters in future years
When Christian quiet relaxes the nations
And, as in the sunburst of the Renaissance,
Paint shall be gorgeous and, I hope, holy?

—KARL SHAPIRO, Trial of a Poet