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Post by Tamrin on Jan 19, 2014 9:31:14 GMT 10
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity
Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality
All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry
After reading all that has been written, and after thinking all that can be thought, on the topics of God and the soul, the man who has a right to say that he thinks at all, will find himself face to face with the conclusion that, on these topics, the most profound thought is that which can be the least easily distinguished from the most superficial sentiment
In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed
Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant
I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call itEdgar Allan PoeAmerican writer, poet, editor and literary critic (Born this day 1809) All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 19, 2014 9:32:27 GMT 10
Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening
There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day
I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it
Many of us spend half of our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing
Germany was the cause of Hitler as much as Chicago is responsible for the Chicago Tribune
The English have an extraordinary ability for flying into a great calm
His huff arrived and he departed in itAlexander WoollcottAmerican critic and commentator ( The New Yorker) (Born this day 1887) Nothing risque, nothing gained
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 19, 2014 9:33:15 GMT 10
My New Year’s Eve Toast: to all the devils, lusts, passions, greeds, envies, loves, hates, strange desires, enemies ghostly and real, the army of memories, with which I do battle — may they never give me peace
Anticipation! It occurred to him that his anticipation was more pleasant to him than the experiencing
A rush of panic comforted him with its familiarity
How easy it was to lie when one had to lie!
Honesty, for me, is usually the worst policy imaginable
I find the public passion for justice quite boring and artificial
Neither life nor nature cares if justice is ever done or notPatricia HighsmithAmerican novelist and short-story writer (Born this day 1921) Perhaps God and the Devil danced hand in hand around every single electron
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 19, 2014 9:35:34 GMT 10
A human group transforms itself into a crowd when it suddenly responds to a suggestion rather than to reasoning, to an image rather than an idea, to an affirmation rather than to proof, to the repetition of a phrase rather than to arguments, to prestige rather than to competence
Democracy tends to ignore, even deny, threats to its existence because it loathes doing what is needed to counter them. It awakens only when the danger becomes deadly, imminent, evident. By then, either there is too little time left for it to save itself, or the price of survival has become crushingly high
It’s a metaphysical choice that science makes when it states that with the help of our concepts we can discover the ultimate nature of a phenomenal world that exists independently of our concepts
Strangely, it is always America that is described as degenerate and 'fascist,' while it is solely in Europe that actual dictatorships and totalitarian regimes spring up
Even during the Cold War, although it was the U.S.S.R. that annexed Eastern Europe, made satellites out of several African countries and invaded Afghanistan, and although it was the People's Republic of China that marched into Tibet, attacked South Korea and subjugated three Indochinese countries, it remained dogma among Europeans--from Sweden to Sicily, from Athens to Paris--that the only power that could be fingered as "imperialistic" was America
It is unlikely that we will ever be capable of building a world that is qualitatively better than we ourselves are
Anarchy leads to despotism / Despotism leads to anarchyJean-François RevelFrench journalist, author and philosopher (Born this day 1924) Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 19, 2014 9:36:19 GMT 10
I believe that the very effort to convert anybody is violence, it is interfering in his individuality, in his uniqueness, into his freedom
The whole existence is simple, but man's mind has been cultivated, conditioned, educated, programmed in such a way that the simplest thing becomes crooked. The moment it reaches to your mind it is no longer simple. The mind starts inter- preting it, finding things in it which are not there, ignoring things which are there
If there is pain, use it as an awareness, as meditation, as a sharpening of the soul. And when pleasure is there, use it as a droning, as a forgetfulness. Both are ways to reach God. One is to remember yourself totally, and one is to forget yourself totally
Let this become your key — next time when anger comes, just watch it. Don't say, “I am angry.” Say, “Anger is there and I am watching it.” And see the difference! The difference is vast. Suddenly you are out of the grip of anger. If you can say, “I am just a watcher, I am not anger,” you are out of the grip [similarly of sadness and other psychic states]
When you become good at the art of letting sufferings go, then you'll come to realize what you were dragging around with you. And for that, no one else other than you was responsible
Laughter brings you to reality as it is. The world is a play of God, a cosmic joke. And unless you understand it as a cosmic joke you will never be able to understand the ultimate mystery
I am saying something about the ineffable. I am saying something about the ultimate mystery. You can understand it, yet you can never understand it totally. It is elusive, it escapes. It is within reach, but it is not within grasp. You are always coming closer and closer to it, but you never arrive. And the day you arrive, then you are no more there; the distinction between the seeker and the sought disappears. Then you are it. That art thou — then you are it!Osho, aka Bhagwan Shree RajneeshIndian guru (Died this day 1990) We are all one. In the human form we are pioneers embarked on a wonderful journey, exploring and experiencing the physical world
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 19, 2014 9:37:28 GMT 10
A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning
I think Ginsberg has done more harm to the craft that I honor and live by than anybody else by reducing it to a kind of mean that enables the most dubious practitioners to claim they are poets because they think, If the kind of thing Ginsberg does is poetry, I can do that
I do think the author ought to be able to give a good reason for the way things are in his poem. Not a bad question to ask oneself
To say that it’s wrong to feel this way is not the point; you do feel it. All you see is a flash of fire and, depending on your altitude, you don`t even see that sometimes
Detachment produces a peculiar state of mind. Maybe that's the worst sentence of all, to be deprived of feeling what a human being ought to be entitled to feel
The true feeling of sex is that of a deep intimacy, but above all of a deep complicity
I want a fever, in poetry: a fever, and tranquillityJames DickeyAmerican poet and novelist (Died this day 1997) You are bound, my hunch is, to make it just fine
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 20, 2014 8:02:07 GMT 10
Monday’s Quotes:A wholesome oblivion of one's neighbours is the beginning of wisdom
Races and nations are thus ever ready to believe the worst of one another
In their work, then, as in their play, men and women are more and more coming to share with each other as comrades, and really the fun of life seems in no wise diminished as a consequence
All religions have periods in their history which are looked back to with retrospective fear and trembling as eras of persecution, and each religion has its own book of martyrs
The spiritual element, the really important part of religion, has no concern with Time and Space, temporary mundane laws, or conduct
We have, of course, long since ceased to think of Nature as the sympathetic mirror of our moods, or to imagine that she has any concern with the temporal affairs of man
It is the fine excesses of life that make it worth livingRichard Le GallienneEnglish writer ( Maker of Gainborg) (Born this day 1866) Organized Christianity has probably done more to retard the ideals that were its founder's than any other agency in the world
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 20, 2014 8:03:03 GMT 10
Acting is all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made
At my age flowers scare me
First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up and finally, you forget to pull it down
You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old
Fall in love with what you do for a living. I don't care what it is. It works
Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city
Retire? I'm going to stay in show business until I'm the only one leftGeorge Burns (born Nathan Birnbaum)American comedian, actor and writer (Born this day 1896) Say goodnight, Gracie
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 20, 2014 8:03:46 GMT 10
To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance
Taste is the only morality. Tell me what you like and I'll tell you what you are
He that would be angry and sin not, must not be angry with anything but sin
Whereas it has long been known and declared that the poor have no right to the property of the rich, I wish it also to be known and declared that the rich have no right to the property of the poor
The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed and educated till it attains years of discretion
All great and beautiful work has come of first gazing without shrinking into the darkness
Let us reform our schools, and we shall find little reform needed in our prisonsJohn RuskinEnglish writer, critic and commentator (Died this day 1900) Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you
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Post by Tamrin on Jan 20, 2014 8:07:19 GMT 10
To succeed in business it is necessary to make others see things as you see them
The more you own, the more you know you don't own
I consider a good reputation is a great part of the human happiness. Some people, if they are very, very rich can permit themselves certain negligence to their reputations
I hate the opera. I think I must have a tin ear. No matter how hard I concentrate it still sounds like a bunch of Italian chefs screaming risotto recipes at each other
Millions do not always add up to what a man needs out of life
After a certain point, money is meaningless. It ceases to be the goal. The game is what counts
We must free ourselves of the hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high windsAristotle OnassisTurkish-Greek-Argentine shipping magnate (Born this day 1906) It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light
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