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Wit is educated insolence.
--Aristotle, philosopher (384-322 BCE)
It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
--Aristotle
Common Sensibles: By an object peculiar to a patrticular sense, I mean one that cannot be perceived by any other sense, and in respect of which no deception is possible. Thus color is an object peculiar to sight, sound to hearing, and flavor to taste. Each sense judges the objects peculiar to it and is never decieved as to the existence of the color or sound that it percieves.
--Aristotle, quoted in The Man Who Tasted Shapes, pg 85
We are what we repeatedly do.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
--Aristotle
The high minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
--Aristotle
Music has a power of forming the character, and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young.
--Aristotle
Nature does nothing uselessly.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
All art, all education, can be merely a supplement to nature.
--Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
Democracy arose from men thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal in all respects.
--Aristotle: Politics, v, c.322 B.C.
We make war that we may live in peace.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
There is a foolish corner in the brain of the wisest man.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
Education is the best provision for the journey to old age.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.
--Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
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Men imagine that their minds have the command of language, but if often happens that language bears rule over their minds.
--Francis Bacon, and reprinted in With Good Reason, by S. Morris Engel, pg 18
To suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.
--Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.
--Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
Words, when written, crystallize history; their very structure gives permanence to the unchangeable past.
--Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.
--Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
Certainly virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed, or crushed: for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Natural abilities are like natural plants; they need pruning by study.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
A just fear of an imminent danger, though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause of war.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
There is a superstition in avoiding superstition.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
The speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but in love.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
If you dissemble sometimes your knowledge of that you are thought to know, you shall be thought, another time, to know that you know not.
--Sir Francis Bacon; Essays, Of Discourse
If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
The old age of the world . . . is the attribute of our own times, not of that earlier age in which the ancients lived; and which, though in respect of us it was the elder, yet in respect of the world, it was the younger.
--Sir Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (1605), and reprinted in Dinosaur In A Haystack as Bacon's Paradox, pg 78
For as knowledges are now directed, there is a kind of contract of error between the deliverer and the reeiver; for he that delievereth knowledge desireth to deliver it in such form as may be best believed, and not as may be best examined; and he that receiveth knowledge desireth rather present satisfaction than expectant inquiry.
--Sir Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning (1605), and reprinted in Dinosaur In A Haystack, pg 125
Death is a friend of ours; and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
What a man would like to be true he preferentially believes.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
There are two books laid before us to study, to prevent our falling into error; first, the volume of the Scriptures, which reveal the will of God; then the volume of the Creatures, which express His power.
--Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
--Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
In one and the same fire, clay grows hard and wax melts.
--Francis Bacon, essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
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Liberty is the right not to lie.
--Albert Camus, French writer, c. 1955
The main thing is that everything become simple, easy enough for a child to understand; that each act be ordered, that good and evil be decided arbitrarily, thus clearly.
--Albert Camus
Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
--Albert Camus, writer and philosopher (1913-1960)
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
--Albert Camus
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
--Albert Camus
At the age of thirty, a man ought to have control over himself, know the exact reckoning of his faults and virtues, recognize his limits, foresee his weaknesses -- be what he is. And above all accept them. Settle in to being neutral, but with a mask. I have known enough things to be able to surrender almost everything. There remains an amazing effort, daily, insistent. The effort of the hidden, without hope or bitterness. No longer negate anything since everything can be asserted.
Better than heart break.
--Albert Camus, (1913-1960), diary entry
And henceforth, the only honorable course will be to stake everything on a formidable gamble: that words are more powerful than munitions.
--Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)
Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.
--Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)
Freedom to publish and read does not necessarily assure a society of justice and peace, but without these freedoms it has no assurance at all.
--Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)
We can foresee a time when...the only people at liberty will be prison guards who will then have to lock up one another. When only one remains, he will be called the 'Supreme Guard; and that will be the ideal society in which problems of opposition, the headache of all twentieth century governments, will be settled once and for all.
--Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)
Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom.
--Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)
None of the evils which totalitarianism claims to cure are worse than totalitarianism itself.
--Albert Camus, 1956 (1913-1960)
I would like to be able to love my country, and justice too.
--Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)
A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad.
--Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate, 1960
There is no evil that cannot be surmounted by scorn.
--Albert Camus, writer, philosopher, Nobel laureate (1913-1960)
There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide.
--Albert Camus
Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.
--Albert Camus
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If you devote your life to seeking revenge, first dig two graves.
--Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)
Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
--Confucius
The superior man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what will sell.
--Confucius
Men's natures are alike; it is their habits that separate them.
--Confucius, Analects
It does not matter how slowly you go, so long as you do not stop.
--Confucius and teacher (551-478 BC)
When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves.
--Confucius and teacher (551-478 BC)
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
--Confucius and teacher (c. 551-478 BC)
He acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his actions.
--Confucius and teacher (551-478 BC)
A youth is to be regarded with respect. How do you know that his future will not be equal to our present?
--Confucius and teacher (551-497 BC) [Analects]
They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.
--Confucius and teacher (551-478 BC)
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
--Confucius and teacher (551-478 BC)
If a state is governed by the principles of reason, poverty and misery are subjects of shame; if a state is not governed by the principles of reason, riches and honors are subjects of shame.
--Confucius and teacher (551-478 BC)
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.
--Confucius and teacher (551-478 BC)
He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own.
--Confucius and teacher (551-478 BC)
If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
--Confucius and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)
An oppressive government is worse than a tiger.
--Confucius
To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutes perfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
--Confucius and teacher (c. 551-478 BCE)
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Good sense is of all things equally distributed among men. For everybody thinks himself so abundatly provide with it that even the msot difficult to pelase in all other aspect donot commonly desire more ot than they already possess.
--Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method, and reprinted in With Good Reason, by S. Morris Engel, pg 35
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
--Rene Descartes, 1596 - 1650
Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.
--Rene Descartes, (1596-1650)
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
--Rene Descartes, (1596-1650)
To know what people really think, pay regard to what they do, rather than what they say.
--Rene Descartes, (1596-1650)
The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries.
--Rene Descartes, (1596-1650)
Common sense is the best distributed commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.
--Rene Descartes, (1596-1650)
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
--Rene Descartes, (1596-1650)
The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues.
--Rene Descartes, (1596-1650)
In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn than to contemplate.
--Rene Descartes, (1596-1650)
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Oh how sweet it is to hear one's own convictions from another's lips.
--Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.
--Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Boldness has genius in it. If you can dream it, do it.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Habit is a man's sole comfort. We dislike doing without even unpleasant things to which we have become accustomed.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
I call architecture frozen music.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Happy is the man who early learns the wide chasm that lies between his wishes and his powers.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
If any man wishes to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts; and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Things cannot disappear; they can only change.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
One can be instructed in society, one is inspired only in solitude.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Of freedom and of life he only is deserving Who every day must conquer them anew.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer, 1832
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That Adam had not, either by natural right of fatherhood or by positive donation from God, any such authority over his chidlren, nor dominion over the world, as is pretended.
That if he had, his heirs yet had no right to it.
That if his heirs had, there being no law of nature nor positive law of God that determines which is the right heir in all cases that may arise, the right of succession, and consequently of bearing rule, could not have been certainly determined.
That if even that had been determined, yet the knowledge of which is the eldest line of Adam's posterity, being so long since utterly lost, that in the races of mankind and families of the world there remains not to one above another the least pretence to be the eldest house, and to have the right of inheritance.
All these premise having, as I think, been clearly made out, it is impossible that the rulers now on earth should make any benefit, or derive any the least shadow of authority from that which is held to be the foundation of all power, Adam's private dominion and paternal jurisdiction; . . .
--John Locke, A Trestise on Civil Governement, circa 1689
To understand political power aright, and derive it from its original, we must consider what state all men are naturally in, and that is a state of perfect freedom to order their actions and dispose of their possessions and persons as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.
--John Locke, A Trestise on Civil Governement, circa 1689
But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence; though man in thta state have have an uncontrollable liberty to dispose of his person or possessoins, yet he has not liberty to destoy hiself, or so much as any creature in his possession, but where some nobler use than its bare preservation calls for it.
--John Locke, A Trestise on Civil Governement, circa 1689
The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one; and resson, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that, being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
--John Locke, A Trestise on Civil Governement, circa 1689
And hence it is that he who attempts to get another man into his aboslute power does thereby put himself into a state of war with him; it being to be understood as a declaration of a design upon his life. For I have reason to conclude that he who would get me into his power without my consent, would use me as he pleased when he had got met there, and destroy me too, when he had a fancy to it; for nobody can desire to have hin his absolute power, unless it be to compel me by force to that
which is against the right of my freedom, i.e., make me a slave.
--John Locke, A Trestise on Civil Governement, circa 1689
The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will of legilative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule. The liberty of man in society is to be under no other legislative power but that established by consent in the commonwealth; nor under the dominion of any will or restraint of any law, but what that legislative shall enact according to the trust put in it.
--John Locke, A Trestise on Civil Governement,
circa 1689
Though the earth and all inferior creatures be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person; this nobody has any right to but himself.
--John Locke, A Trestise on Civil Governement, circa 1689
Since you are pleased to inquire what are my thoughts bout the mutual toleration of Christians in their different professions of religions, I must needs answer you freely, that I esteem that toleration to be the chief characteristic mark of the true Church.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
. . . for everyone is orthodox to himself . . .
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
For whatsoever some people boast of the antiquity of places and names, or of the pomp of their outward worship;; others, of the reformation of their discipline; all, of the orthodoxy of their faith; -- for everyone is orthodox to himelf -- these things, and all others of this nature, are much rather marks of men striving for power and empoire over one another, than of the Church of Christ.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
Let anyone have never so true a claim to all these things, yet if he be destitute of charity, meekness, and good-will in general towards all mankind, even to those that are not Christians, he is certainly yet short of being a true Christian himself.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
The business of true religion is quite another thing. It is not instituted in order to the erection of an external pomp, nor to the obtaining of ecclesiastical dominion, nor to the exercising of compulsive force, but to the regulating of men's lives, according to the rules of virtue and peity. Whosever will list himself under the banner of Christ, must in the first place, and above all things, make war upon his own lusts and vices.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
It would indeed, be very hard for one that appears careless about his own slavation to persuade me that he were extremely concernd for mine. For it is impossible that those whould sincerely and heartily apply themselves to make other people Christians, who have not really embraced the Christian religion in their own hearts.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
That any man should think fit to cause another man -- whose salvation he heartily desires -- to expire in tomrents, and that even in an unconverted state, would, I confess, seem very strange to me, and I think, to any other also. But nobody, surel, will ever believe that sch a carriage can procceed from charity, lover, or good-will. If anyone maintain that men ought to be complelled by fire and sword to profess certain doctrines, and conform to this or that exterior worship, without any
regard unto their morals; if anyone endeavour to convert those that are erroneous unto the faith, by forcing them to pfroess things that they do not believe, and allowing them to practise things that the Gospel does not permit, it cannot be doubted indeed but such a one is desirous to have a numerous assembly joined in the same profession with himself; but that he principally intends by those means to compose a truly Christian Church, is altogether incredible.
--John Locke, A Letter
Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
Though if infidels were to be converted by force, if those that are either blind or obstinate were to be drawn off frm their errors by armed soldiers, we know very well that it was much more easy for HIm to do it with armies of heavenly legions, than for any son of the Church, how potent soever, with all his dragoons.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
. . . I desire to mind them of, that the Gospel frequently declares that the true disicples of Christ must suffer persecution; but that the Church of Christ should persecute others, and force others by fire and sword to embrace her faith and doctrine, I could never yet find in any of the books of the New Testament.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
If any man err from the right way, it is his own misfortune, no injury to thee; nor therefore art thou to punish him in the things of this life because thou supposest he will be miserable in that which is to come.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
For every church is orthodox to itself; to others, erroneous or heretical. For whatsoever any church believes, it believes to be true; and the contrary unto those things, it pronounces to be error. So that the controversy between these chrches about the truth of their doctries, and the purity of their worship, is on both sides equal; . . .
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
I will not undertake to represent how happy and how great would be the fruit, both in Church and State, if the pulpits everywhere sounded with this doctrine of peace and toleration, lest I should sem to reflect too severely upon those men whose dignity I desire not to detract from, nor wuld have it diminished either by others or themselves. But this I say, that thus it ought to be.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
No man is angry with another for an error committed in sowing his land or in marrying his daughter. Nobody corrects a spendtrhift for xonsuming his subatnce in tverns. Let any man pull down, or build, or make whatsoever expenses he pelase, nobody murmurs, nobody contrls hm; he has his liberty. But if any man do not frequent the church, if he do not there conform his behaviour exactly to the accustomed ceremonies, or if he brings not his children to be initiated in the sacred mysteries of this
or the other congregation, this immediately causes an uproar.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
Let them not call in the magistrate's authority to the aid of their eloquence or learning, lest perhaps, whilst they pretend only love for the truth, this their inteperate zeal, breathing nothing but fire and sward, betwry their ambition and show that hwha they deisre is temporal dominion. For it will be very diffficult to persuade men of sense that he who with dry eyes and satisfaction of mind cand delive his broer to the executioner to be burnt alive, does sincerely and hearitly concern
himself to save that brother from the flames of hell in the world to come.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
But, it may be said, there are a thousand ways to wealth, but one only way to heaven. It is well said, indeed, especially by those that plead for complelling men into this or the other way. For if there were sevaral ways that led thither, there would not be so much as a pretence left for compulsion.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
. . . our modern Engish history affords us fresh examples in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, how easily and smoothly the clergy changed their decrees, their articles of faith, their form of worship, everything according to the inclination of those kings and queens.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
The principal and chief care of everyone ought to be of his ow sould first, and, in the next place, of the public peace; though yet there are very few will think it is peace there, where they see all laid waste.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
There are two sorts of contests amonst men, the one managed by law, the other by force; and these are of that nature that where the one ends, the other always begins.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
But it is not my business to inquire into the power of the magistrate in the different constituions of nations. I only know what usuually happens where controversies arise without a judge to determine them.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
Another more secret evil, but more dangersous to the communwealth, is when men arrogate to themselves, and to those of their own sect, some peculiar prerogative covered over with a sapecious show of decieful words, , but in effect opposit to the civil right of the community.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
Some enter into company for trade and profit, others for want of business have their clubs for clare. Newighbourhood joins some, and religions others. But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious comontions, and that is oppression.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
Thus if solemn assemblies, observation so festival, pubilc worship be permitted to any one sort of professors, all these thins ought to be permitted to the Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, ARminians, Quakers, and others, with the same liberty. Nay,if we may openly speak the truth, and as becomes one man to another, neither Pagan nor Mahometan, nor Jew, ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion. The Gospel commands no such thing. The Church
which "judgeth not those that are without" [I Cor. 5:12, 13] wants it not. And the commonwealth, which embraces indifferently all men that are honest, peaceable, and industrious, requires it not. Shall we suffer a Pagan to deal and trade with us, and shall we not suffer him to pray unto and worship God? If we allow he Jews to have private h ouss and dwellings amonst us, why should we not allow them to have synagogues? is their doctrine mroe falsse, their worship more abonimable, or is the civil
peace more endangered by their meeting in public than in their private house? But if thse things may be grantewd to Jews and Pagans, surely the condition of any Christians ought not to be worse than theirs in a Christian commonwealth.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
It is not the diversity of opinions (which cannot be avoided), but the refusal of toleration to those that are of different opinions (which might have been granted), that has produce all the bustles and wars that have been in the Christian world upon account of religion. The heads and leaders of the Church, moved by avariceand insatiable desire of dominions, making use of the immoderate ambition of magistrates and the dredulous supperstition of the giddy multitude, have incensed and animated
them against those that dissent from themselves. by preaching unto them, contrary to the laws of the Gospel and to the precepts of charity, that schismatics and heretics are to be outed of their possessions and destroyed.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
For who does not see that these good men are indeed more ministers of the govenment han ministers of the Gospel, and that by flattering the ambition and favouring thed ominiln of princes and men in authority, the endeavour with all ther might to promote that tryanny in the commonwealth which othersese the should not be able to esetablish in the Church? This is the unhappy agreement that we see between the Church and State. Whereas if each of them would contain itself within its own bounds --
the one attending to the worldly welfare of the commonwealth, the other to the salvation of souls -- it is impossible that any discord should ever have happened between them.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
God Almighty grant, I beseech Him, that the gospel of peace may at length be preached, and that civil magistrates, growing more careful to conform their own consciences to the law of God and less solicitious about the binding of other men's consciences by human laws, may, like fathers of their country, direct all their counsels and endeavours to promote universally the civil welfare of all their children, except only of such as are arrogant, ungovernable, and injurious to their brethren; and
that all ecc lesiastical men, who boast themselves to be he successors of the Apostles, walking peacably and modstly in the Apostles' steps, without intermeddling with state affairs, may apply themselves wholly to promte the salvation of souls.
--John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration, circa 1690
Our incomes are like our shoes; if too small, they gall and pinch us; but if too large, they cause us to stumble and to trip.
--John Locke (1632-1704)
We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas, and not for things themselves.
--John Locke (1632-1704)
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
--John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1690
The use of extraordinary power in extraordinary times, soon becomes the ordinary use of power in ordinary times.
--John Locke, philosopher, (1632 -1704)
So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with.
--John Locke (1632-1704)
We should have a great many fewer disputes in the world if words were taken for what they are, the signs of our ideas, and not for things themselves.
--John Locke (1632-1704)
It is one thing to show a man that he is in error, and another to put him in possession of truth.
--John Locke
Where is the man that has uncontestable evidence of the truth of all that he holds, or of the falsehood of all he condemns?
--John Locke, English philosopher, essayist, 1689
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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
Enduring habits I hate.... Yes, at the very bottom of my soul I feel grateful to all my misery and bouts of sickness and everything about me that is imperfect, because this sort of thing leaves me with a hundred backdoors through which I can escape from enduring habits.
--Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science, 1882
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
"I have done that," says my memory. "I cannot have done that" -- says my pride, and remains adamant. At last -- memory yields.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Freedom is the will to be responsible to ourselves.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Give me today, for once, the worst throw of your dice, destiny. Today I transmute everything into gold.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
(Unpublished fragments dating to Nov 1882 - Feb 1883)
Only sick music makes money today.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Without music, life would be a mistake.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
We are so fond of being out among nature, because it has no opinions about us.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
One must have a good memory to be able to keep the promises that one makes.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
I am not a human being. I am dynamite.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
In the mountains of truth you never climb in vain.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Light, grows all that I perceive,
Ash, all that I leave,
I consume myself and glow,
Flame I am assuredly....
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
At bottom, every man knows perfectly well that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Growth in wisdom can be measured precisely by decline in bile.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
There are no facts, only interpretations.
--Friedrich Nietzsche
Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.
--Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
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The heart has its reasons, which reason knows not.
--Blaise Pascal, Pensees, quoted in The Man Who Tasted Shapes, pg 223
Words differently arranged have different meanings, and meanings differently arranged have a different effect.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
Experience makes us see an enormous difference between piety and goodness.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
Words differently arranged have different meanings, and meanings differently arranged have a different effect.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
A man does not show his greatness by being at one extremity, but rather by touching both at once.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
Eloquence is a painting of the thoughts.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
The collapse of stellar systems will occur -- like creation -- in grandiose splendour.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
There are only two kinds of men: the righteous who believe themselves sinners; the sinners who believe themselves righteous.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
If all men knew what others say of them, there would not be four friends in the world.
--Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662)
Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything.
--Blaise Pascal
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They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.
--Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)
If one sins against the laws of proportion and gives something too big to something too small to carry it -- too big sails to too small a ship, too big meals to too small a body, too big powers to too small a soul -- the result is bound to be a complete upset. In an outburst of hubris the overfed body will rush into sickness, while the jack-in-office will rush into the unrighteousness that hubris always breeds.
--Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.
--Plato
Muscial training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten.
--Plato, and reprinted in Media Violence: Opposing Viewpoints, pg 171
An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.
--Plato (427-347 BCE)
As empty vessels make the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest blabbers.
--Plato (427-347 BCE)
You cannot step twice into the same rivers; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.
--Plato (427-347 BCE)
The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.
--Plato (427-347 BCE)
You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of discussion.
--Plato (427-347 BCE)
Let early education be a sort of amusement, you will then better be able to find out the natural bent of the child.
--Plato (427-347 BCE)
A young person cannot judge what is allegorical and what is literal; anything that he receives into his mind at that age is likely to become indelible and unalterable; and therefore it is most important that the tales which the young first hear should be models of virtuous thoughts.
--Plato's Republic
[And still the foundation of Harmful to Minors censorship in the 21st century.]
The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be governed by men worse than themselves.
--Plato (427-347 BCE)
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Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.
--Plutarch
Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.
--Plutarch
No beast is more savage than man when possessed with power answerable to his rage.
--Plutarch
So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history.
--Plutarch
The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.
--Plutarch
To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.
--Plutarch
It is certainly desirable to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
--Plutarch, 'Morals,' 100 A.D.
Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.
--Plutarch, Lives
For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.
--Plutarch, Morals
The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education.
--Plutarch, Morals
When the candles are out all women are fair.
--Plutarch, Morals
In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.
--Plutarch, biographer and philosopher (circa 46-120)
Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.
--Plutarch
To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.
--Plutarch
Learn to be pleased with everything; with wealth, so far as it makes us beneficial to others; with poverty, for not having much to care for; and with obscurity, for being unenvied.
--Plutarch
It is a thing of no great difficulty to raise objections against another man's oration -- nay, it is a very easy matter; but to produce a better in its place is a work extremely troublesome.
--Plutarch, biographer and philosopher (circa 46-120)
The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled.
--Plutarch, biographer and philosopher (circa 46-120), On Listening to Lectures
We ought not to treat living creatures like shoes or household belongings, which when worn with use we throw away.
--Plutarch, biographer and philosopher (circa 46-120)
In words are seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the speaker.
--Plutarch, biographer and philosopher (circa 46-120)
The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.
--Plutarch, biographer and philosopher (circa 46-120)
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As is a tale, so is life: not how long it is, but how good it is, is what matters.
Seneca
Throughout the whole of life one must continue to learn to live, and what will amaze you even more, throughout life one must learn to die.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, quoted in The Road Less Travelled, pg 74
Nil sapientae odiosus acumine nimio.
Nothing is more distasteful to good sense than too much cunning.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (BCE 3-65 CE) Roman poet and philosopher
It is easier to exclude harmful passions than to rule them, and to deny them admittance than to control them after they have been admitted.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)
Democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE) "Epistulse morales"
All art is but an imitation of nature.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)
Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)
Why does no one confess his sins? Because he is yet in them. It is for a man who has awoke from sleep to tell his dreams.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca, writer and philosopher (BCE 3-65 CE)
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I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live.
--Socrates, Greek philosopher, c. 399 BC
Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth.
--Socrates, Greek philosopher, c. 400 B.C.
If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.
--Socrates (469?-399
I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, I am a mischievous person.
--Socrates
Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
--Socrates
I am that gadfly which God has given the State and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you . . . I dare say that you may feel irritated at being suddenly awakened when you are caught napping; and you may think that if you were to strike me dead, as Anytus advises, which you easily might, then you would sleep on for the remainder of your lives, unless God in his care of you gives you another gadfly.
--Socrates, philosopher
(469?-399 BCE)
I'm not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.
--Socrates (469?-399 B.C.)
In all of us, even in good men, there is a lawless wild-beast nature, which peers out in sleep.
--Socrates (469?-399 B.C.)
Our youth love luxury. They have bad manners and contempt for their elders and love idle chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants not the servants of the household. They contradict their parents, chatter before company. gobble up their food, and tyrannize their teachers.
--attributed to Socrates c.450 BCE
Remember that there is nothing stable in human affairs; therefore avoid undue elation in prosperity, or undue depression in adversity.
--Socrates (469?-399 BCE)
Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.
--Socrates (469?-399 BCE)
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There is no more irritating fellow than the man who tries to settle an argument about communism, or justice, or liberty, by quoting from Webster.
--Mortimer J. Adler, philosopher, educator, and author (1902-2001)
The purpose of learning is growth, and our minds, unlike our bodies, can continue growing as we continue to live.
--Mortimer J. Adler, philosopher, educator, and author (1902-2001)
Intolerance of ambiguity is the mark of an authoritarian personality.
--Theodor Adorno, sociologist, philosopher, musicologist, and composer, (1903-1969)
We are never more discontented with others than when we are discontented with ourselves.
--Henri Frederic Amiel and writer (1821-1881)
Truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.
--Henri Frederic Amiel and writer (1821-1881)
Life is short. Be swift to love! Make haste to be kind!
--Henri Frederic Amiel and writer (1821-1881)
To learn new habits is everything, for it is to reach the substance of life. Life is but a tissue of habits.
--Henri Frederic Amiel and writer (1821-1881)
A belief is not true because it is useful.
--Henri Frederic Amiel and writer (1821-1881)
We must have the courage to be happy.
--Henri Frederic Amiel and writer (1821-1881)
An error is the more dangerous in proportion to the degree of truth which it contains.
--Henri Frederic Amiel and writer (1821-1881)
Can you walk on water? You have done no better than a straw. Can you fly in the air? You have done no better than a bluebottle. Conquer your heart; then you may become somebody.
--Ansari of Herat
Observe your enemies, for they first find out your faults.
--Antisthenes (c. 445-365 B.C.E.)
The noblest kind of retribution is not to become like your enemy.
--Marcus Auerelius
Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.
--Marcus Aurelius (121-180), Roman emperor
The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
--Marcus Aurelius (121-180), Roman emperor
If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
--Marcus Aurelius, philosopher, writer, and Emperor (121-80)
The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.
--Marcus Aurelius, philosopher, writer, and Emperor (121-80)
You will find relief from vain fancies if you do every act in life as though it were your last.
--Marcus Aurelius, philosopher, writer, and Emperor (121-80)
We catch songs, we don't compose them...
--Howard Bad Hand, Lakota Sioux
Simplicity is something that our
Fundamental nature inherently
Possesses. If we prepare in
Advance and nurture it within
Ourselves, then wherever we happen to
Be, whether in wealth and high rank,
Or poverty and low status,
In foreign lands, or in difficult
Circumstances, we deal with
Whatever situation we are in
By retaining our simplicity there.
It is not increased when we do great
Deeds or reduced when we are
Dwelling in obscurity.
Wherever we go, we are at peace,
Because we have found simplicity.
--Nie Bao (1487-1563)
While I admit the universe has a sense of humor I doubt very much that this is a joke.
--Reverend Bemethiel Far-Traveller, Andromeda (Angel Dark, Demon Bright)
Work on good prose has three steps: a musical stage when it is composed, an architectonic one when it is built, and a textile one when it is woven.
--Walter Benjamin, critic and philosopher (1982-1940)
The question is not can they reason? Nor can they talk? But can they suffer?
--Jeremy Bentham, jurist and philosopher (1748-1832)
As to the evil which results from a censorship, it is impossible to measure it, for it is impossible to tell where it ends.
--Jeremy Bentham, jurist and philosopher (1748-1832)
As to the evil which results from a censorship, it is impossible to measure it, for it is impossible to tell where it ends."
--Jeremy Bentham
Freedom of religion means the right of the individual to choose and to adhere to whichever religious beliefs he may prefer, to join with others in religious associations to express these beliefs, and to incur no civil disabilities because of his choice.
--Joseph L. Blau, author, philosopher, 1949
The power of the world always works in circles, the sky is round, and I have heard the earth is round like a ball, and so are all the stars. The wind in its greatest power, whirls. Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours. The sun comes forth and goes down in a circle, the moon does the same. And both always come back to where they were. The life of man is a circle from childhood to childhood. And so it is in everything where power moves.
--Black Elk
I have been asked many question in my life about poetry, religion, life, and I have given precisely the same number of answers, but I have nver, I repeat, never, satisified a single interlocutor. What was this? Because all questioning is a way of avoiding the real answer, which, as Zen tells us, is really know already. Every man is enlightened, but whishes he wasn't. Every man knows he must love his enemies, and sell all he has and give to the poor, but he doesn't wish to know it -- so
he asks questions.
--R.H. Blyth, Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 19
Literature is the language of society, as speech is the language of man.
--Louis de Bonald and politician (1754-1840)
It is not life and wealth and power that enslave men, but the cleaving to life and wealth and power.
--Buddha (c. 563-483 BCE)
However many holy words you read, However many you speak, what good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?
--Buddha (c. 566-480 B.C.)
Three things can not hide for long: the Moon, the Sun and the Truth.
--Buddha (c. 566-480 B.C.)
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.
--Buddha (c. 566-480 B.C.)
You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.
--Buddha (c. 566-480 B.C.)
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe simply because it has been handed down for many generations. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of Teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with reason and is conducive to the good
and benefit of one and all. Then accept it and live up to it.
--Buddha (c. 566-480 B.C.)
Entangled by the bonds of hate, he who seeks his own happiness by inflicting pain on others, is never delivered from hatred.
--Buddha (c. 566-480 B.C.)
There is no fire like passion, there is no shark like hatred, there is no snare like folly, there is no torrent like greed.
--Buddha (c. 566-480 B.C.)
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned.
--Buddha (c. 566-480 B.C.)
To every man is given the key to the gates of Heaven. The same key opens the gates of Hell.
--Buddhist saying
Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but
the image of violence and militarism.
--Buddhist leader in Viet Nahm, circa 1967, quoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. in Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
Il y à parler que toute idée publique, toute convention reçle;e, est un sottise, car elle a convenu au plus grand nombre.
The odds are that every popular idea, every accepted convention is nonsense, because it has suited itself to the majority.
--Sébastien Chamfort (1741-1804), Maximes et Pensée
Nothing is more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have.
--Emile Chartier (1868-1951)
It does not require many words to speak the truth.
--Chief Joseph, native American leader (1840-1904)
I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.
--Chuang Tzu, mystic and philosopher (c. 4th century BC)
Rewards and punishments are the lowest form of education.
--Chuang Tzu, mystic and philosopher (c. 4th century BC)
Men cannot see their reflection in running water, but only in still water.
--Chuang Tzu (c. 4th century BCE)
Nobody has things just as he would like them. The thing to do is to make a success with what material I have. It is a sheer waste of time and soulpower to imagine what I would do if things were different. They are not different.
--Dr. Frank Crane
What is life --
It is the flash of a firefly in the night
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.
--Crowfoot, Native American warrior and orator (1821-1890)
Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.
--Dhammapada
If one speaks or acts with a cruel mind, misery follows, as the cart follows the horse... If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows, as a shadow follows its source.
--Dhammapada
Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?
--Diogenes
The pen is the interpreter of the heart.
--Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, philosopher, 1631
If you want to establish some conception of a society, go find out who is in gaol.
--John Dewey, American philosopher
The serious threat to our democracy is not the existence of foreign totalitarian states. It is the existence within our own personal attitudes and within our own institutions of conditions whic h have given a victory to external authority, discipline, uniformity and dependence upon The Leader in foreign countries. the battle field is also accordingly here -- within ourselves and our institutions.
--John Dewey, American philosopher, and quoted in Escape From Freedom, pg 19-20
Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose? Nothing else. Tell me then, you men, do you wish to live in error? We do not. No one who lives in error is free. Do you wish to live in fear? Do you wish to live in sorrow? Do you wish to live in tension? By no means. No one who is in a state of fear or sorrow or tension is free, but whoever is delivered from sorrows or fears or anxieties, he is at the same time also delivered from servitude.
--Epictetus
When you have shut your doors and darkened your room, remember, never to say that you are alone; for you are not alone, but God is within and your genius is within.
--Epictitus (c.55-c.135 AD)
A ship ought not to be held by one anchor, nor life by a single hope.
--Epictetus (c.55-c.135 AD)
If the gods listened to the prayers of men, all humankind would quickly perish since they constantly pray for many evils to befall one another.
--Epicurus (c. 341-270 B.C.)
Why should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?
--Epicurus (c. 341-270 B.C.)
Whenever morality is based on theology, whenever right is made dependent on divine authority, the most immoral, unjust, infamous things can be justified and established.
--Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872)
In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence, the second listening, the third remembering, the fourth practicing, the fifth -- teaching others.
--Ibn Gabirol (c. 1022-1058)
Evil (ignorance) is like a shadow--it has no real substance of its own, it is simply a lack of light. You cannot cause a shadow to disappear by trying to fight it, stamp on it, by railing against it, or any other form of emotional or physical resistance. In order to cause a shadow to disappear, you must shine light on it.
--Shakti Gawain
[Ms. Gawain is a New Age Guru.]
Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.
--Shakti Gawain
Your greatest fears in love may echo pain from your past, but you can let go of the defenses keeping you from happiness.
--Taro Gold
Concede Today, Succeed Tomorrow:
There is no better remedy for turmoil than to let it take its course and come to rest by itself, especially when public or private matters cause turbulence in the sea around you. In storms of passion it is wise to seek a safe harbor with smoother waters. Many times an evil is made worse by the remedies used; here, leave things to nature, or there, to God. The learned physician needs just as much wisdom in order not to prescribe as to prescribe, and often the greater art lies in doing nothing.
The way to avoid an oncoming whirlwind is to step aside to safety, and let it blow itself out. To concede today may be the best way to succeed tomorrow. It takes little to muddy a spring of sweet water; it serves best being left alone.
--Baltasar Gracian (1599 - 1658), translated by J. Leonard Kaye, The Wisdom of Baltasar Gracian
The Real Danger of a World in Chaos is the Unhinging of Your Own Integrity:
The world is in chaos. Honorable dealing is deteriorating, good friends are few, truth is held in disrepute, good service is underpaid, poor service is overpaid. Whole nations are committed to evil dealings: With one you fear insecurity, with another, inconsistency, with a third, betrayal. This being what it is, let the bad faith of others serve not as an example, but as warning. The real danger of the situation lies in the unhinging of your own integrity: accepting less than your best, being
overly tolerant of stupidity, forgiving incompetence, fraternizing with the nonspiritual. The man of principle never forgets what he is, because he clearly sees what the others are.
--Baltasar Gracian (1599 - 1658), translated by J. Leonard Kaye, The Wisdom of Baltasar Gracian
Too Much Time is Spent on the Pursuit of Wealth, Too Little on the Thinking Spirit:
With limited exception, philosophy, built on a system of truths, stands discredited today, even though it was once the major pursuit of the sages. In today's generation there appears to be little time available beyond the pursuit of wealth and pleasure. Forgotten is the pleasure found in the art of thinking clearly or in deductive reasoning to gain knowledge. The tools of philosophy -- reason, observation, faith, and intuition -- lie rusted in sad ruins as the world speeds through the
universe in search of itself. Although the science of thinking lives in loneliness, and at times is even degraded, it is to be noted that the question of how man acquires knowledge and
--Baltasar Gracian (1599 - 1658), translated by J. Leonard Kaye, The Wisdom of Baltasar Gracian
Those who insist on the dignity of their office show they have not deserved it.
--Baltasar Gracian and writer (1601-1658)
Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.
--Baltasar Gracian
What experience and history teach is this -- that people and governments never have learned anything from history, or acted on principles deduced from it.
--G.W.F. Hegel (1770 - 1831), Philosophy of History, Introduction
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
--Heraclitus (c. 540-470 BCE)
It is hard to fight with one's heart's desire. Whatever it wishes to get, it purchases at the cost of soul.
--Heraclitus (c. 540-470 BCE)
He that can bind can release; and therefore he that is bound to himself only, is not bound.
--Thomas Hobbes, philosopher, reprinted in Suicide: Opposing Viewpoints, pg 19
The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause. A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business.
--Eric Hoffer and author (1902-1983)
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
--Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)
Rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength.
--Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)
There would be no society if living together depended upon understanding each other.
--Eric Hoffer and author (1902-1983)
Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
--Eric Hoffer and author (1902-1983)
In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
--Eric Hoffer and author (1902-1983)
You must dare to disassociate yourself from those who would delay your journey... Leave, depart, if not physically, then mentally. Go your own way, quietly, undramatically, and venture toward trueness at last.
--Vernon Howard
A perfect solitude is perhaps the greatest punishment we can suffer. Every pleasure languishes when enjoyed apart from company and every pain becomes more cruel and intolerable. . . . Let all the powers and elements of nature conspire to serve and obey one man: Let the sun rise and set at his command: The sea and rivers roll as he pleases, and the earth furnish sponaneously whatever may be useful or agreeable to him: he will still be miserable, till you give him some one person at least,
with whom he may share his happiness, and whose esteem and friendship he may enjoy.
--David Hume, Scottish philosopher, and reprinted in Adam and Eve and Pinnochio, pg 147
The greatest absurdities in the world become correct, as soon as they have got Usage fully on their side, just as the worst usurper becomes legitimate, as soon as he is completely established on his throne.
--Otto Jespersen, 1874
Often war is waged only in order to show valor; thus an inner dignity is ascribed to war itself, and even some philosophers have praised it as an ennoblement of humanity, forgetting the pronouncement of the Greek who said, "War is an evil in as much as it produces more wicked men than it takes away.
--Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.
--Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.
--Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Two things fill the soul with wonder and reverence, increasing evermore as I meditate more closely upon them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
--Immanuel Kant, Kritikderpraktischen Vernunfe, 1788
If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the bottom of everything there were only a wild ferment, a power that twisting in dark passions produced everything great or inconsequential, if an unfathomable, insatiable emptiness lay hid beneath everything, what would life be but despair?
--Søren Kierkegaard, Fear & Trembling
Once you label me you negate me.
--Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste they hurry past it.
--Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought, which they seldom use.
--Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), c. 1850
An unconscious relationship is more powerful than a conscious one.
--Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
--Krishnamurti
The establishment of inner harmony is to be attained neither in the past nor in the furure, but where the past and the future meet, which is the now. When you have attained that point, neither time nor space exist. It is that NOW which is liberation, which is perfect harmony, to which the men of the past and the men of the future must come.
--Krishnamurti, philosopher, reprinted in Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 22
But we find it difficult to be alert, to be aware, and we prefer to dull our minds by following a method, by accepting authorities, superstitions, and gratifying theories; so our minds become weary, exhaused and insensitive. Such a mind cannot be in a state of creativeness. That state of creativeness comes only when the self, which is the process of recognition and accumulation, ceases to be; because, after all, consciousness as the "me" is the center of recognition, and recognition is merely
the process of the accumulation of experience. But we are all afraid to be nothing, because we all want to be something. The little man wants to be a big man, the unvirtuous wants to be virtuous, the weak and obscure crave power, position, and authority. This is the incessant activity of the mind. Such a mind cannot be quiet and therefore can never understand the state of creativeness.
--J. Krishnamurti, Self Knowledge essay, reprinted in The Gospel According to Zen, pg 103-104
In order to transform the world about us, with its misery, wars, unemployment, starvation, class divisions, and utter confusion, there must be a tranformation in ourselves. The revolution must begin with oneself -- but not according to any belief or ideology, beacuse revolution based on an idea, or in conformity to a particular pattern, is obviously no revolution at all. To bring about a fundamental revolution in oneself, one must unerstand the whole process of one's thought and feeling in
relationship. That it the only solution to all our problems -- not to have more disciplines, more beliefs, more ideologies and more teachers. If we can understnad ourselves as we are from moment to moment without the process of accumulation, then we shall see how there comes a tranquillity that is not a product of the mind, a tranquillity that is neither imagined nor cultivate; and only in that state of tranquillity can there be creativeness.
--J. Krishnamurti, Self Knowledge essay,
reprinted in The Gos pel According to Zen, pg 104
Knowing ignorance is strength; ignoring knowledge is sickness.
--Lao Tzu (6th century BCE)
To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
--Lao Tzu (6th century B.C.)
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.
--Lao Tzu (circa 6th century BC)
Clay is moulded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing. Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.
--Lao Tzu (circa 6th century BC)
To know that you do not know is the best. To pretend to know when you do not know is disease.
--Lao Tzu (circa 6th century BC)
The living are soft and yielding; the dead are rigid and stiff. Living plants are flexible and tender; the dead are brittle and dry.
--Lao Tzu, philosopher (6th century BCE)
Intuition is the clear conception of the whole at once.
--Jean Gaspard Lavater (1741-1801), Swiss philospher
[...] Buddhists say everyone has a Buddha-seed within them; everyone can become a Buddha. Hindus point to the whole cosmos and say "That art Thou!" The Christian mystic Meister Eckhart was singing the same liberating song when he wrote "God became man so that man might become God." Eckhart also wrote that each of us contains a "God-seed" in us, urging us to grow into our most divine, holy, self. That's the same kind of God Muslims speak of when they say that this God is closer to you than your jugular vein. And isn't this also the same message that astronomer Carl Sagan had when he said that if the Big Bang theory is correct, we're all made of stardust, born with a yearning for the infinite?
Whatever brand of religion you follow, whether organized or unorganized, I urge you to grow into its most free expressions if you want a richer life. Open-minded religions unite us through our deep commonalities, rather than dividing us by our more superficial differences.
--Rev. Dr. Davidson Loehr, Practice faith that improves today, not fears tomorrow, 05 Apr 2003
What, then, is the purpose of life? To live it fully, in the style of your own unique self or soul; to become a better person, partner, parent and citizen; to make the world a little more compassionate and understanding because you're here. There's nothing to fear but inauthenticity and a lack of courage, a lack of faith that life, and you, are profoundly good and can almost always be trusted.
--Rev. Dr. Davidson Loehr, Practice faith that improves today, not fears tomorrow, 05 Apr 2003
To kill time is not murder, it's suicide.
--William James (1842-1910)
As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.
--William James (1842-1910)
There are two kinds of people: those who are alive, and those who are afraid. The only way to get a bigger helping of life is to be in the first group.
--Rev. Dr. Davidson Loehr, Practice faith that improves today, not fears tomorrow, 05 Apr 2003
You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.
--Moses ben Maimon (1135-1204)
Every ruling class develops a mythology, justifying its abuse of power and its exploitation of the subjects.
--Karl Marx, philosopher, 1848
History will demostrate the inherent superiority of socialism.
--Karl Marx, philosopher, 1848
Last words are for fools who haven't said enough.
--Karl Marx, philosopher, 1883
To feed men and not to love them is to treat them as if they were barnyard cattle. To love them and not respect them is to treat them as if they were household pets.
--Mencius AKA Meng Zu (c.371-c.289 BC)
If you know the point of balance,
You can settle the details.
If you can settle the details,
You can stop running around.
Your mind will become calm.
If your mind becomes calm,
You can think in front of a tiger.
If you can think in front of a tiger,
You will surely succeed.
--Mencius (Mengzi Meng-Tse)
When good government prevails men of little worth submit to men of great worth. When bad government prevails men of little power submit to men of great power.
--Mencius, 300 BCE
Happy the people whose annals are blank in the history books!
--Charles de Montesquieu and writer (1689-1755)
Whenever a philosopher says something is really real, you can be really sure that what he says is 'really real' isn't real, really.
--G.E. Moore, Cambridge professor, quoted in Common Sense, pg 119
The true rôle of collective existence . . . is to learn, to discover, to know. Eating, drinking, sleeping, living, in a word, is a mere accessory. In this respect, we are not distinguished from the brute. Knowledge is the goal. If I were condemned to choose between a humanity materially happy, glutted after the manner of a flock of sheep in a field, and a humanity existing in misery, but from which emanated, here and there, some eternal truth, it is on the latter that my choice would
fall.
--M. Naquet, L'Anarchie et le Collectivisme, 114, and reprinted in Science and Art Under Socialism, Selected Papers of Bertrand Russell, pg 112
Nature's plan goes on with us and without us. Be patient. Those who plant a seed play an intimate role in the experience of life. Connecting the miracle of a seed to the forces of earth and sky brings immeasurable joy to one's heart.
--Native American Seed Company catalog
We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.
--Karl Popper, philosopher, near the end of World War II
Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.
--Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
Liberty is a food easy to eat, but hard to digest; it takes very strong stomachs to stand it.
--Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1772
The happiest is the person who suffers the least pain; the most miserable who enjoys the least pleasure.
--Jean-Jacques Rousseau and author (1712-1778)
Your depression is connected to your insolence and refusal to praise.
--Jalalu'l-Din Rumi, Muslim mystic, and reprinted in Further Along the Road Less Travelled, pg 189
I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He was not there; I went to the temple of the Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not find a trace of Him anywhere. I searched on the mountains and in the valleys, but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I able to find Him. I went to the Kaaba in Mecca, but He was not there either. I questioned the scholars and philosophers, but He was beyond their understanding. I then looked into my heart, and it was there where He dwelled that
I saw Him; He was nowhere else to be found.
--Jalalu'l-Din Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273)
Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.
--Jalalu'l-Din Rumi, poet and mystic (1207-1273)
What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.
--George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952)
There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar: it keeps the mind nimble, it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor.
--George Santayana (1863-1952)
All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible.
--George Santayana
The wisest mind has something yet to learn.
--George Santayana
Matters of religion should never be matters of controversy. We neither argue with a lover about his taste, nor condemn him, if we are just, for knowing so human a passion.
--George Santayana (1863-1952)
It is easier to make a saint out of a libertine than out of a prig.
--George Santayana (1863-1952)
Those who forget the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.
--George Santayana
There are books in which the footnotes or comments scrawled by some reader's hand in the margin are more interesting that the text. The world is one of these books.
--George Santayana (1863-1952)
Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim.
--George Santayana; The Life of Reason (1905) Vol. 1:
The soul is the voice of the body's interests.
--George Santayana
Desire in no way implies by itself the sexual act, does not pose it thematically, does not even sketch it, as one sees in the case of young children, or adults ignorant of the "technic" of love.
--Jean-Paul Sartre, and reprinted in On the Nature of Things Erotic, by F. Gonzalez Crussi, pg 13
Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does.
--Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980)
When the rich make war it's the poor that die.
--Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980)
Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.
--Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980)
I refuse to place in the same category the actions of an organization of poor peasants, hunted, obliged to maintain an iron discipline in their ranks, and those of an immense army backed up by a higly industrialized country of 200 million inhabitants. And then, it is not the Vietnamese who have invaded American nor who have rained down a deluge of fire upon a foreign people. In the Algerian war, I always refused to place on an equal footing the terrorism by means of bombs which was the only
wepaon available to the Algerians, and the actions and exactions of a rich army of half a million men occupying the entire country. The same is true in Vietnam.
--Jean-Paul Sartre, quoted in Thinking Tuna Fish, Talking Death, by Robert Scheer, pg
120
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect.
--Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860)
Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, "Lighthouses" as the poet said "erected in the sea of time." They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind, Books are humanity in print. -
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.
--Arthur Schopenhauer
Journalists are, in the very nature of their calling, alarmists; and this is their way of giving interest to what they write. Herein they are like little dogs; if anything stirs, they immediately set up a shrill bark.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
The first forty years of life give us the text; the next thirty supply the commentary on it.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Compassion is the basis of morality.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
The fundament upon which all our knowledge rests is the inexplicable.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Any book which is at all important should be reread immediately.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Every person takes the limits of their own field of vision for the limits of the world.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
A Prayer For Animals
Hear our humble prayer, O God, for our friends, the animals.
Especially for animals who are suffering; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death.
We entreat for them all thy mercy and pity, and for those who deal with them, we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kind words.
Make us, ourselves, to be true friends to animals and so to share the blessings of the merciful.
--Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (1875-1965)
Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
--Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (Nobel 1952)
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.
--Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.
--Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (1875-1965)
As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.
--Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, and musician (1875-1965)
To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.
--Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)
An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight... The truly wise person is color-blind.
--Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)
The fundamental idea of good is that it consists in preserving life, in favoring it, in wanting to bring it to its highest value, and evil consists in destroying life, doing it injury, hindering its development.
--Albert Schweitzer
Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.
--Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)
Simplicity doesn't mean to live in misery and poverty. You have what you need, and you don't want to have what you don't need.
--Charan Singh, mystic (1916-1990)
Zen teaches, not by word, but by direct pointing, by engaging us in a game or contest with ourselves in which the only answer is a new level of consciousness. Zen is the game of insight, the game of discovering who we are underneath the masks and roles that we call our personality. Normally we asssume that our personality is our true self and that the ego is free, independent, and totally different from everyone else. But the object of Zen is to see quite clearly that the personality which we
think is ourself is a masquerade or a "put-on", a role that is being played out by the universal Self which is the same in each individual.
--Robert Sohl and Audrey Carr, Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 7
When the Buddha first had his enlightenment, he was asked, "Are you a God?" "No," he replied. "Are you a saint?" "No." "Then what are you?" And he answered, "I am awake."
--Robert Sohl and Audrey Carr, Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 7
Through confusing words and abstractions with reality itself, we have created an artificial role or personality for ourselves and in the process forgotten that it is just a role and not the real source of our actions. Society has tricked us into the belief that our minds are inside our heads and act independently from it at the same time that it is also telling us who we are and what we should be doing. But since the mind then includes all of one's social relationships, it is not inside the
skin of the individual at all but is actually outside of it.
--Robert Sohl and Audrey Carr, Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 9
The ego-contradiction is the basic thorn which society has implanted since childhood and from which we are suffering without being able to see the vicious circle involved. We have been convinced that we are free and independent agents and yet, the very agent referred to is actually a social role that is defined by other people and has no real freedom to act at all.
--Robert Sohl and Audrey Carr, Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 10
When beginning to understand the trap involved, the usual question is to ask what one should do to get out of it. And here is where Zen is rather ingenious. For we are told to "do" nothing to get out of it since the very "doing" will only be another level of the same contradiction that one is trying to see through. Instead of "doing," of for that matter "not doing," we need a kind of passive awareness of ourselves in every situation.
--Robert Sohl and Audrey Carr, Games Zen Masters Play:
Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 10
Baso used to sit cross-legged from morning till night in constant meditation. His master Nangaku saw him and asked: "Why are you sitting cross-legged in mediation?" "I am trying to become a Buddha," he answered. The master picked up a brick and began polishing it on a stone nearby. "What are you dong, Master? asked Baso. "I am trying to turn this brick into a mirror," was the answer. "No amount of polising will turn the brick into a mirror, sir." "If so, no amount of sitting cross-legged will make you into a Buddha," retorted the master.
Nangaku's point is not that there is anything inherently wrong with sitting cross-legged, but that the idea of becoming a Buddha is still based on a division between present and future, between ourselves and something else which stands apart from us. It is this very type of thinking based on an illusory separation of subject an object which traps us in a vicious circle of goals, never realizing that we are already one with the universe and therefore have nothing outside of ourselves be be
gained.
--Robert Sohl and Audrey Carr, Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 13
Zen is the very essense of life itself, the merging of opposites in which man merges with the universe and realizes his true identity. We live supposedly in a world of opposites, of white against black, of here versus there. But beneath this level of opposition lies a sea of tranquility in which all things are complentary rather than contradictory.
On the sea of death and life,
the diver's boat is freighted
With "is" and "Is not";
But if the bottom is broken through,
"Is and "Is not" disappear.
When the bottom is broke through and "Is and "Is not" disappear, there is still something which remains, however difficult it may be to define. Thus we are told that before we study Zen the mountains are moutains and the rivers are rivers. While we are studying Zen, however, the mountains are no longer mountains and the rivers no longer rivers. But then when our study of Zen is completed, the mountains are once again mountains and the rivers once again rivers.
--Robert Sohl and Audrey
Carr, Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 14
Zen is an "open secret" which has been right in front of our eyes from the very beginning. As it is stated in the Zenrin Kushu:
Nothing whatever is hidden;To confuse the indivisible nature of reality with the differentiations and conceptual pigeonholes of language is the basic ignorance from which Zen seeks to free us.
From of old, all is clear as daylight.
Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
--Denis Diderot, French philosopher, writer, critic (1713-1784)
There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.
--Denis Diderot, French philosopher, writer, critic (1713-1784)
Good music is very close to primitive language.
--Denis Diderot (1713-1784)
Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles.
--Og Mandino
When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kind of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.
--Robert T. Pirsig, author and philosopher (1928- )
The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose that I am here and you are out there.
--Yasutani Roshi, Zen master (1885-1973)
Life is difficult; Be good to yourself
--Solomon the Wise (Ecclesiastes; paraphrased)
Reading is seeing by proxy.
--Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)
The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.
--Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
If a triangle could speak, it would say, that God is eminently triangular, while a circle would say that the divine nature is eminently circular.
--Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)
Since no one can give up his freedom to judge and think as he pleases, it follows that any attempt in a country will be a total failure if it makes men speak only as prescribed by authority despite their various and contrasting opinions.
--paraphrase of Baruch Spinoza's Political-Theological Treatise
Zen is like looking for the spectacles that are sitting on your nose, [or] like looking for an ox when you are riding on the back of it.
--D.T. Suzuki, reprinted in Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 7
The truth is, Zen is extremely elusive as far as its outward aspects are concerned; when you think you have caught a glimpse of it, it is no more there; from afar it looks so approachable, but as soon as you come near it you see it even further away from you than before.
--D.T. Suzuki, reprinted in Games Zen Masters Play: Writings of R.H. Blyth, pg 12
The butterfly counts not years but moments and has time enough.
--Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
The question why there is evil in existence is the same as why there is imperfection... But this is the real question we ought to ask: Is this imperfection the final truth, is evil absolute and ultimate?
--Rabindranath Tagore, (1861-1941)
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.
--Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.
--Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
The mountain remains unmoved at seeming defeat by the mist.
--Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of his tail.
--Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
A mind all logic is like a knife all blade. It makes the hand bleed that uses it.
--Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.
--Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
He alone may chastise who loves.
--Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)
The great rulers - the people do not notice their existence. The lesser ones they attach to and praise them. The still lesser ones - they fear them. The still lesser ones - they despise them. For where faith is lacking it cannot be met by faith.
--Tao Te Ching
When the master governs, the people are hardly aware that he exists.
Next best is the leader who is loved.
Next, one who is feared.
The worst is someone who is despised.
The master doesn't talk. He acts.
When his work is done, the people say, "Amazing, we did it by ourselves!"
--Tao Te Ching ch.17
Stand before it and there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.
Stay with the ancient Tao, Move with the present.
--tao te ching - lao tse
The secret of Happiness is Freedom, and the secret of Freedom is Courage.
--Thucydides, Greek philosopher, historian, c. 400 A.D.
Sometimes to remain silent is to lie.
--Miguel de Unamuno and writer (1864-1936)
In the old days, way before our time, people were all Gods. But unfortunately, they very badly misused their Divinity. That's why Brahma, the Upper-God, decided to terminate their Divinity and to hide it in a place not to be found.
The problem was to choose a suitable place. When the Half-Gods gathered to solve this problem, they proposed: 'Let us bury the Divinity of man in the Earth'
But Brahma answered: 'No, this won't be sufficient because mankind will dig deep and discover this Divinity anew'.
The Half-Gods than found another place. 'Let's sink the Divinity into the deepest ocean on Earth'. But Brahma also held back on this idea and responded: 'No, because sooner or later, mankind will dive into the deepest places in all the oceans and will certainly find the Divinity'.
The Half-Gods didn't have any further clue how to solve this problem. They exclaimed: 'There's nowhere on Earth this Divinity can be successfully hidden, as man will climb the mountains, dig into the ground and dive deep in the oceans. There is no place where humankind's curiosity will not search'.
And Brahma answered: 'This is what we'll do: we will hide it in the deepest part of man himself, because this is the only place where man will never look'.
Since then, humankind has criss-crossed the Earth, dived, dug, and explored every inch of the Earth, searching for something that can only be found deep in himself.
--Unknown
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.
"One is evil -- he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
"The other is good -- he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you -- and inside every other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee replied simply, "The one you feed."
--Unknown
[Apparently a Cherokee tale, but I don't know for sure.]
"How can I do what you say," asked the child, "and still be me?"
"Look at me," said the tree. "I bend in the wind, droop in the rain. Yet I always remain myself, a tree."
"Look at me," said the man. "I can't change."
"Look at me," said the tree. "I change every season from green to brown to green again, from bud to flower to fallen leaf. Yet I always remain myself, a tree."
"I can't love anymore," said the woman. "With my love, I have given away all that I am."
"Look at me," said the tree. "There are robins in my branches, owls in my trunk, moss and ladybugs living on my bark. They may take what I have, but not what I am."
Whether we know it or not, we are like the tree. Only our pride hangs on to a false sense of self, wanting to keep everything, refusing to follow advice or orders. What we do doesn't matter; how we do it is what counts.
--Unknown
The basic difficulty seems to be that people I religious circles alwaays need someone or something to blame. I even catch myself doing it when I thing about Baptist preachers. Religion somehow attracts thoe who like to lay down the law and point the finger of accusation, seldom realizing, incidentally, that the congregation just adores a colforful scolding
--Alan Watts, This is My Body essay, reprinted in The Gospel According to Zen, pg 112
Obviously, as so many Christians seem to fear, this vision of God-as-all might be used as a rationalization for indulgence in total wickedness. But fire is not untrue, or something to be abolished, because it can be used to burn people alive.
--Alan Watts, This is My Body essay, reprinted in The Gospel According to Zen, pg 112
The difficulty with the material world is that it collapses when you lean on it and turns to a fine powder when you clutch it. Material pleasure, even of the refined order, is never enough, if "enough" is what you are seeking. If there is that strange, deep longing in the heart for something that is "the answer" -- the gorgeous, golden glory you have always wanted but have never been able to find or define, the thing that is finally for real and for keeps, the eternal home -- then anything in
the physical or intellectual universe that is asked to be that will collapse. But it is sour grapes to despise the material world for that reason.
--Alan Watts, This is My Body essay, reprinted in The Gospel According to Zen, pg 114
The answer, the eternal home, will never, never be found so long as you are seeking it, for the simple reason that it is yourself -- not the self that you are aware of and that you can love or hate, but the one that always vanishes when you look for it. As soon as you realize that you are the Center, you have no further need to see it, to try to make it an object or an experience. This is why the mystics call the highest knowledge unknowing.
--Alan Watts, This is My Body essay,
reprinted in The Gospel According to Zen, pg 114-115
Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be on the side of truth.
--Richard Whately, philosopher, reformer, theologian, economist (1787-1863)
Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.
--Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (1861-1947)
It is the business of the future to be dangerous; and it is among the merits of science that it equips the future for its duties.
--Alfred N. Whitehead and mathemetician (1861-1947)
Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them.
--Alfred N. Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (1861-1947)
We think in generalities, but we live in detail.
--Alfred N. Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (1861-1947)
The order of nature cannot be justified by the mere observation of nature.
--[?] Alfred N. Whitehead, mathematician and philosopher (1861-1947)
I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning, or destroyed it altogether.
--Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947
If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have [sic] defined an aggressive sociopath -- a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.
--Bill Whittle
Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination.
--Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
--Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
Frivolous speculation is when patience reveals all.
--Yoda
Try not, do! -- or do not; there is no try.
--Yoda
Always in motion the future is.
--Yoda
If a tree falls in the middle of the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?
It is not within your experience, so it does not matter if it made a sound.
--Zen Koan
No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.
--Zen saying
There is really nothing you must be.
And there is nothing you must do.
There is nothing you must have.
And there is nothing you must know.
There is really nothing you must become.
However, it helps to understand that fire burns,
and when it rains, the earth gets wet.
--Zen poetry(?)
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