Charles E. Burchfield, Journals, August 11, 1914

I wonder how many who viewed this spectacle could do so without entertaining an aspiration to something nobler than they had yet achieved? Indeed & I saw no one so much as giving the sky a second glance, if a first.

Most people start out in life with the idea that life is a burden thrust upon them against their will when it is the highest gift God can bestow, better than any promises of future bliss, if he ever made any; and so they go thru life looking forward to heaven they imagine will come, going thru a set form of religious duties to prepare themselves for it, and spurn the heaven that is here on earth – which requires neither money nor religious rites for its possession – there is no mortgage on it.

Charles E. Burchfield, August 11, 1914