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At every moment he beholdeth a wondrous world, a new creation, and goeth from astonishment to astonishment, and is lost in awe at the works of the Lord of Oneness. (Bahá'u'lláh)

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Mashriqu'l-Adkar: Literally "the Dawning-place of the praise of God",
the designation of the Bahá'í House of Worship and its dependencies. (Bahá'u'lláh, The Kitab-i-Aqdás)

Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the infinite. (George Bancroft)

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
(William Blake)

O people of the world! Build ye houses of worship throughout the lands in the name of Him Who is the Lord of all religions. Make them as perfect as is possible in the world of being, and adorn them with that which befitteth them, not with images and effigies. Then, with radiance and joy, celebrate therein the praise of your Lord, the Most Compassionate. Verily, by His remembrance the eye is cheered and the heart is filled with light. (Bahá’u'lláh)

Myriads of mystic tongues find utterance in one speech, and myriads of hidden mysteries are revealed in a single melody; yet, alas, there is no ear to hear, nor heart to understand. (Bahá’u'lláh)

I dreamed That stone by stone I reared a sacred fane,
A temple, neither Pagoda, Mosque nor Church,
But loftier, simpler, always open-doored
To every breath from heaven, and Truth and Peace
And Love and Justice came and dwelt therein.
(Tennyson, Akbar's Dream, 1892)

Any great work of art ... revives and readapts time and space, and the measure of its success is the extent to which it makes you an inhabitant of that world—the extent to which it invites you in and lets you breathe its strange, special air." (Leonard Bernstein: What Makes Opera Grand? Vogue)

The Word of God may be likened unto a sapling, whose roots have been implanted in the hearts of men. It is incumbent upon you to foster its growth through the living waters of wisdom, of sanctified and holy words, so that its root may become firmly fixed and its branches may spread out as high as the heavens and beyond. (Bahá'u'lláh)

The object becomes aesthetically significant when it becomes metaphysically significant. (Joseph Campbell)

One should photograph objects, not only for what they are, but for what else they are. (Minor White)

Verily, the clouds of the mercy of thy Lord have poured forth the rain of His greatest gift; the heat of the Sun of Truth hath become intense upon the plains, valleys and hills, and the winds of fecundation of the mercy of thy Lord have blown o'er the gardens, mountains and thickets. Therefore, O thou tree, be verdant, blossom, put forth leaves and bear beautiful fruits in this most Supreme Paradise! ('Abdu'l-Bahá)

Developing a composition is a continuous flow of ideas, where the artist combines, adds, reduces, adapts and discards the various elements in an unending discovery of new possibilities. (Alessandra Bitelli)

Everything shows me its face, its innermost being, its secret soul, which is more often silent than heard. (Wassily Kandinsky)

A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know. (Diane Arbus)

Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content. (Helen Keller)

Blessed is he who, at the hour of dawn, centring his thoughts on God, occupied with His remembrance, and supplicating His forgiveness, directeth his steps to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar and, entering therein, seateth himself in silence to listen to the verses of God, the Sovereign, the Mighty, the All-Praised. Say: The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar is each and every building which hath been erected in cities and villages for the celebration of My praise. (Bahá'u'lláh

Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one consciously, by means of certain external symbols, conveys to others the feelings one has experienced, whereby people so infected by these feelings, also experience them. (Leo Tolstoy, What is Art?)

The arts are encroaching one upon another, and from a proper use of this encroachment will rise the art that is truly monumental. (Wassily Kandinsky)

If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself. Also, you will have betrayed your community in failing to make your contribution. (Rollo May)

O well-beloved ones! The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch. (Bahá’u'lláh)

Unto none is given to quaff even a dewdrop thereof unless he entereth within this city, a city whose foundations rest upon mountains of crimson-coloured ruby, whose walls are hewn of the chrysolite of divine unity, whose gates are made of the diamonds of immortality, and whose earth sheddeth the fragrance of divine bounty. (Bahá’u'lláh)

This is that which hath descended from the realm of glory, uttered by the tongue of power and might, and revealed unto the Prophets of old. We have taken the inner essence thereof and clothed it in the garment of brevity, as a token of grace unto the righteous, that they may stand faithful unto the Covenant of God, may fulfill in their lives His trust, and in the realm of spirit obtain the gem of Divine virtue. (Bahá'u'lláh)

Today is the great day of one of the revelations of this world. The interrelationships of these individual realms were illumined as by a flash of lightning; they burst unexpected, frightening, and joyous out of the darkness. Never were they so strongly tied together and never so sharply divided. (Wassily Kandinsky)

It's a blue world
It takes somebody to help somebody
Oh it's a blue world
It's a new world
It needs somebody to love somebody
Oh it's a blue world
(Moody Blues, Justin Hayward: Blue World)

I did comprehend the whole world ... and the abyss and ocean and all things. In these things I beheld naught but divine power. (Angela of Foligno)

Whereupon the clouds of the Divine Will were raised to rain upon thee the outpourings of heavenly wisdom, to divest thee of all that thou hadst acquired aforetime, to draw thee from the realms of contradiction unto the retreats of oneness, and to lead thee to the sacred streams of His Law. Perchance thou mayest quaff therefrom, repose therein, quench thy thirst, refresh thy soul, and be numbered with those whom the light of God hath guided aright in this day. (Bahá'u'lláh