“The Laws Of God, The Laws Of ManThe laws of God, the laws of manHe may keep that will and can;Not I: Let God and man decreeLaws for themselves and not for me;And if my ways are not as theirsLet them mind their own affairs.Their deeds I judge and much condemn,Yet when did I make laws for them?Please yourselves, Say I, and theyNeed only look the other way.But no, they will not; they must stillWrest their neighbor to their will,And make me dance as they desireWith jail and gallows and hellfire.And how am I to face the oddsOf man’s bedevilment and God’s?I, a stranger and afraidIn a world I never made.They will be master, right or wrong;Though both are foolish, both are strong.And since, my soul, we cannot flyTo Saturn nor to Mercury,Keep we must, if keep we canThese foreign laws of God and man.”

− A.E. Housman −