Quotes: Awe
Awe on this page is shown both as a sudden rupture in everyday thought and as something to be chased: a moment that takes you out of yourself and a practice that might be sustained. The voices collected here frame wonder as both a sensory shock and an inward stillness. Rumi urges immersion and active living, F. Scott Fitzgerald hopes for startling encounters and the courage to begin again, and Chris Evans seeks the quiet mind that follows an overwhelming sight. The thread that ties them is the question: how do we turn fleeting astonishment into lasting direction?
4 quotes on this theme, each with its source and insight
The quotes
“Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording is widely attributed to Hafez, but the provided evidence does not show a primary Persian source or a dated first appearance.
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution is disputed here: the phrase appears mainly in modern quote collections and lacks verification from a critical edition or original text.
The line urges you to keep close to whatever restores your sense of being alive — people, places, practices, or art that spark gratitude. Framed like a Persian lyric, it’s a practical call to favor vitality and presence over numbness.
“I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”
Source: Benjamin Button, written by Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) · Check the source
MisattributedWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording is recorded in the film’s script by Eric Roth and is spoken onscreen by the character Benjamin Button.
- What remains uncertain
- Common citations credit F. Scott Fitzgerald, but that attribution is apocryphal: the passage was written for the 2008 screenplay, not the 1922 story.
The lines are an appeal to personal reinvention and openness to new experience rather than a historical aphorism. They do not come from Fitzgerald’s 1922 story but from Eric Roth’s screenplay for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), where Benjamin reads them in a voice‑over letter. The passage frames life as improvable and restartable.
“The point is that when I see a sunset or a waterfall or something, for a split second it's so great, because for a little bit I'm out of my brain, and it's got nothing to do with me. I'm not trying to figure it out, you know what I mean? And I wonder if I can somehow find a way to maintain that mind stillness.”
Source: Interview, GQ — Chris Evans: American Marvel (Edith Zimmerman), June 14, 2011
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording is drawn from the GQ interview published June 14, 2011, where Evans speaks about being “out of my brain.”
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution is strong—it's a dated magazine interview—but printed transcriptions can slightly smooth spontaneous speech.
Evans describes that sudden, wordless pause the world gives you when a sunset or waterfall silences your inner chatter. It’s a candid interview moment—less a polished aphorism than a lived wish to hold onto that brief mind-stillness.
“Don't sit and wait. Get out there, feel life. Touch the sun, and immerse in the sea.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
MisattributedWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording is not found in standard editions of Rumi’s Persian works; it appears mainly in modern compilations and online posts.
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution to Rumi is disputed and likely apocryphal—the phrasing reads as a contemporary paraphrase rather than a traceable medieval line.
This line urges active engagement with life: abandon waiting, feel the world, and use elemental images — touch the sun, immerse in the sea — to express spiritual intensity and wholehearted presence, a hallmark of ecstatic poetry.