opus doctore est, non tortore

or so says justus lipsius in de cruce libri tres

*


Thomas Nash - Original Santa (1865)

"Our Lord says he inflames his people, where he says in Luke 12 'I came into this world to light a fire: what should I want but that it burn?' ... for he who gives love is God." - Fra Teofilo da Vairano, On the Grace of the New Testament

"When it is evening, ye say, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the sign of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it..." - Matthew 16:2-4


Norman Rockwell - Santa & His Expense Book (1920)


"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." - Luke 2:1-8


N.C. Wyeth - Old Kris: The Country Gentleman

"Moeris: Lady Circe, will you please explain to me: What are those lights glowing in the night? What could lie concealed beneath their surface?
Circe: Those are the learned, the wise, and the illustrious, in among the idiots, the asses and the obscure." -- The Song of Circe by Giordano Bruno, the academic of no academy, called the nuisance

"If he doesn’t put you in jail, wonderful. Nobody with any sense likes to go to jail. But if he puts you in jail, you go in that jail and transform it from a dungeon of shame to a haven of freedom and human dignity. [Applause] And even if he tries to kill you, (He can’t kill you) you’ll develop the inner conviction that there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they are worth dying for. (Yes) [Applause] And I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live. "-mlk, jr (detroit, celebrating alabama. in the time before r shelby and the auto bailout)