Oh! Kipling!
I'm partial to certain Kipling, mainly because he was partial to engineers.
From The Sons of Martha, speaking of engineers (and IMO expressing the essence of humanism, though I don't know if that was Kipling's intent):
And from Hymn of Breaking Strain:
I'm partial to certain Kipling, mainly because he was partial to engineers.
From The Sons of Martha, speaking of engineers (and IMO expressing the essence of humanism, though I don't know if that was Kipling's intent):
Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make a path more fair or flat:
Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of Martha spilled for that:
Not as a ladder from earth to Heaven, not as a witness to any creed,
But simple service simply given to his own kind in their common need.
And from Hymn of Breaking Strain:
We only of Creation
(0h, luckier bridge and rail)
Abide the twin damnation-
To fail and know we fail.
Yet we - by which sole token
We know we once were Gods-
Take shame in being broken
However great the odds-
The burden of the Odds.
Oh, veiled and secret Power
Whose paths we seek in vain,
Be with us in our hour
Of overthrow and pain;
That we - by which sure token
We know Thy ways are true -
In spite of being broken,
Because of being broken
May rise and build anew
Stand up and build anew!