Thoughts that transcend time from Union Bank of Switzerland

from ‘Ulysses’

performed by Sir John Gielgud

Come, my friends,

’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Alfred Tennyson

Thoughts that transcend time from Union Bank of Switzerland

There is a Tide in the Affairs of Men

performed by Sir John Gielgud

There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat;

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures.

William Shakespeare

Thoughts that transcend time from Union Bank of Switzerland

The Road Not Taken

performed by Alan Bates

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Thoughts that transcend time from Union Bank of Switzerland

Invictus

performed by Alan Bates

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

W. E. Henley

Thoughts that transcend time from Union Bank of Switzerland

A Man’s Ideal

performed by Ben Kingsley

To live as gently as I can;

To be, no matter where, a man;

To take what comes of good or ill

And cling to faith and honour still;

To do my best and let that stand,

The record of my brain and hand,

And then should failure come to me,

Still work and hope for victory.

To have no secret place wherein

I stoop unseen to shame and sin;

To be the same when I’m alone,

As when my every deed is known.

To live undaunted, unafraid

Of any step that I have made;

To be without pretence or sham,

Exactly what men think I am.

Edgar A. Guest

Thoughts that transcend time from Union Bank of Switzerland

Ozymandias

performed by Ben Kingsley

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Thoughts that transcend time from Union Bank of Switzerland

Climbing A TOWER

performed by Ying Ruocheng

The white sun has sunk behind the hills.

The Yellow River is pouring into the sea.

To see still farther into the horizon,

Let us go up one more storey!

Wang Zihuan

Thoughts that transcend time from Union Bank of Switzerland

FROM ‘THE WAY OF LAO TZU’ (TAO TE CHING)

Performed by Ying Ruocheng

He who knows others is clever;

He who knows himself has discernment.

He who overcomes others has force;

He who overcomes himself is strong.

He who knows contentment is rich;

He who perseveres is a man of purpose;

He who does not lose his station will endure;

He who lives out his days has had a long life.

Lao Tzu

Thoughts that transcend time from Union Bank of Switzerland

frOM ‘DESIDERATA’

performed by Ying Ruocheng

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Max Ehrmann