#alphonse constant

When it speaks, the moon falls blood-red from heaven.

To know, to dare, to will, to keep silence.

An intelligence illuminated by study, an intrepidity which nothing can check, a will which cannot be broken, and a prudence which nothing can corrupt and nothing intoxicate.

What is called the imagination within us is only the soul’s inherent faculty of assimilating the images and reflections contained in the living light, being the Great Magnetic Agent ... The man of genius differs from the dreamer and the fool in this only, that his creations are analogous to truth, while those of the fool and the dreamer are lost reflections and betrayed images.

And the black angel is only my shadow.

His lamp represents learning; the mantle which enwraps him, his discretion; while his staff is the emblem of his strength and boldness. He knows, he dares and is silent. He knows the secrets of the future, he dares in the present, and he is silent on the past. He knows the failings of the human heart; he dares to make use of them to achieve his work; and he is silent as to his purposes.