Great idea.

I have found John Milton's 'Paradise Lost' to be an inspiration during my PCS, for a number of reasons. One of them is the recurring theme of heaven and hell as internal states, which can be brought about by imagination or force of will regardless of a person's true situation.

The evidence on head injury suggests that an 'internal locus of control' is one of the factors which suggests a positive outcome. I take this to mean, in part, the idea that I myself, rather than my PCS or anything else, can control how I feel.

This idea is seen a number of times in Paradise Lost, most strikingly in this passage. The quote is from Satan (Milton believed strongly in robust rational debate and so often gave his 'bad guys' some of the best and most persuasive lines). Satan has just been expelled from heaven and found himself in hell for all eternity - in theory at least the worst thing that could possibly happen to anyone. Yet his optimism, defiance and strength of will is very inspiring:-

The theme returns at the end of the poem, after Adam and Eve have been expelled from Eden and condemned to a 'Fallen' life of work and sorrow. Yet having been told about the future salvation of mankind they are told that they will:-

And in the final lines of the poem, despite having been expelled from the Garden of Eden, they are still there in spirit, as they

Thanks for that, Klaus; I love Paradise Lost.

The sources for some of my earlier quotes are The Enchiridion, by Epictetus; The Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius; and Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl. I recommend all of them highly.

The Enchiridion is available for free on audiobook here:

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/boo...izabeth-carter

The same site also has The Consolation of Philosophy, which is much longer:

http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/boo...hy-by-boethius

Here's another quote from Man's Search for Meaning:


"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one last thing: the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

"No one can live happily who has regard to himself alone and transforms everything into a question of his own utility; you must live for your neighbor, if you would live for yourself."

--Seneca

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main."

--John Donne

On His Blindness

by John Milton

When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide,
"Doth God exact day labour, light denied?"
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts. Who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly: thousands at his bidding speed,
And post o'er land and ocean without rest;
They also serve who only stand and wait."

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.... I could be bounded in a nut shell and count myself a king of infinite space"

Hamlet

“Those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”
― Bernard Baruch

"Obey God and leave all the consequences to Him."

- Dr. Charles Stanley

"Brokenness is God’s requirement for maximum usefulness."

- Dr. Charles Stanley

Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. James 1:5 (Bible KJV)

I exist as I am, that is enough,

If no other in the world be aware I sit content,

And if each and all be aware I sit content.

One world is aware,and by far the largest to me, and that is myself.

And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years,

I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait.

--Walt Whitman, from Leaves of Grass

"I began to understand that the promises of the world are for the most part vain phantoms, and that to have faith in oneself and to become something of worth and value is the best and safest course."

--Michelangelo