Quotes: Mystery
Mystery here is not merely an absence of answers but a force that unsettles and calls. Agatha Christie frames it through the fierce, law-defying power of maternal attachment; William Blake places doors between what is known and what is hidden; Rumi speaks of an inner turning toward the divine. Together they treat mystery as both a pressure and an invitation.
The running question these voices pose is a practical one: will you shrink from the unknown or step through it? Mystery demands choices about fear, trust and meaning, leaving you to bear the risk and to find the possible gain.
4 quotes on this theme, each with its source and insight
The quotes
“A mother's love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crushes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.”
Source: The Last Séance, The Hound of Death and Other Stories · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The sentence appears in Agatha Christie’s short story “The Last Séance,” and multiple sources link it to that story and the collection The Hound of Death and Other Stories.
Christie describes maternal love as an overwhelming, lawless force that can turn ruthless when a child is threatened. The line comes from her supernatural short story “The Last Séance” and reads more like a warning than a sentimental praise.
“There are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- Quote investigators report no evidence for this wording in Blake and trace a similar formulation to Ray Manzarek, cited in Newsweek (c.1967).
- What remains uncertain
- The attribution to Blake is likely apocryphal; similarity to Blake’s authentic «doors of perception» line seems to have encouraged the false credit.
The image of «doors» frames knowing as a threshold—what we perceive determines what we can know. The exact wording, however, is not found in Blake; it likely owes its form to later rock‑era paraphrases that echo Blake’s famous line about the doors of perception.
“The past is an interpretation. The future is an illusion. The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead, time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness. If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
MisattributedWhat we know
- What is documented
- Evidence indicates the wording is not found in authenticated medieval texts of Shams and is chiefly circulated in modern collections tied to the 'forty rules' motif.
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution to Shams Tabrizi is apocryphal or unverified; the most plausible origin is modern literary sources rather than a direct medieval statement.
The passage urges living in the present as the path to illumination: time is felt inwardly, not as a straight line, and eternity as timelessness. These are Sufi-friendly themes, but the exact wording is modern and not reliably from Shams Tabrizi.
“There is no such thing as chance; there are only appointments.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- Evidence links the wording to Diane Dufresne’s repertoire and stage lines—reported as an opening line or refrain—without a single documented original publication.
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution is disputed: some sources credit Paul Éluard, but that claim is not firmly established and remains contested.
The line reframes chance as meaningful encounter: instead of random events, it suggests moments meant to meet us. It circulates as a stage lyric tied to Diane Dufresne’s performances, which explains its dramatic rhythm, though the precise origin isn’t proven.