The heart's actionsare neither the sentence nor its reprieve. Salt hay and thistles, above the cold granite. One bird singing back to another because it can't not.

Jane Hirshfield
The heart's actionsare neither the sentence nor its reprieve. Salt...
The heart's actionsare neither the sentence nor its reprieve. Salt...
The heart's actionsare neither the sentence nor its reprieve. Salt...
The heart's actionsare neither the sentence nor its reprieve. Salt...
About This Quote

Nelson Mandela said: “The heart's actions are neither the sentence nor its reprieve. Salt hay and thistles, above the cold granite. One bird singing back to another because it can't not.” In this quote he is speaking about how love and human kindness can make a difference in the world. Love, like salt, prepares the earth for growth and flowers; like thistles, weeding them out before they become a problem.

We cannot stop the evil that is committed in this world, but we can choose to love our neighbors and create a better world for all of us. One bird singing back to another because it can't not.

Source: Come, Thief: Poems

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  3. The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it. - Jane Kenyon

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More Quotes By Jane Hirshfield
  1. Hope is the hardest love we carry.

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  3. As some strings, untouched, sound when no one is speaking. So it was when love slipped inside us.

  4. Poetry's work is the clarification and magnification of being.

  5. One way poetry connects is across time.. .. Some echo of a writer's physical experience comes into us when we read her poem.

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