Daily Quotes

[Tamrin]

Friday’s Quotes:

What a father says to his children is not heard by the world, but it will be heard by posterity


The conscience of children is formed by the influences that surround them;
their notions of good and evil are the result of the moral atmosphere they breathe


Many young people get worked up about opinions that they will share in 20 years

You prove your worth with your actions, not with your mouth

A man never describes his own character so clearly as when he describes another


Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good; try to use ordinary situations

Never write on a subject until you have read yourself full of it

Jean Paul
German poet and humorist
(Born this day 1763)



Never part without loving words to think of during your absence.
It may be that you will not meet again in life

[Tamrin]

Democracy is the destiny of humanity; freedom its indestructible arm


The government of the republic will fulfill its duty to defend its independence,
to repel foreign aggression, and accept the struggle to which it has been
provoked, counting on the unanimous spirit of the Mexicans and on the
fact that sooner or later the cause of rights and justice will triumph


In use of the broad powers with which I have been invested,
I have found it proper to declare that
1. Priests of any cult who, abusing their ministry, excite hate or
disrespect for our laws, our government, or its rights, will be
punished by three years’ imprisonment or deportation.
2. Because of the present crisis all cathedral chapters are suppressed,
except for that of Guadalajara because of its patriotic behavior.
3. Priests of all cults are forbidden from wearing their vestments
or any other distinguishing garment outside of the churches…
All violators will be punished with fines of ten to one hundred
pesos or imprisonment from fifteen to sixty days.


Adversity, Citizen Deputies, discourages none but contemptible peoples;
ours has been ennobled by great feats and we are far from being shorn of
the immense obstacles, material and moral, which the country will oppose…


There is no help but in defense but I can assure you... the Imperial
Government will not succeed in subduing the Mexicans, and its armies
will not have a single day of peace... we must stop them, not only for
our country but for the respect of the sovereignty of the nations


Mexicans: let us now pledge all our efforts to obtain and consolidate
the benefits of peace. Under its auspices, the protection of the laws
and of the authorities will be sufficient for all the inhabitants of the
Republic. May the people and the government respect the rights of all


Law has always been my shield and my sword


Bro. Benito Pablo Juárez
President of México (1858-72)
(Born this day 1806)



Entre los Individuos, como entre Las Naciones, El respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz

(“Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace”)

[Tamrin]

Who has words at the right moment?


Conventionality is not morality


I am always easy of belief when the creed pleases me


Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never
been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow firm there, firm as weeds among stones


Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation


True enthusiasm is a fine feeling whose flash I admire where-ever I see it


Let your performance do the thinking


Charlotte Bronte
English novelist and poet
(Born this day 1816)



I am no bird; and no net ensnares me;
I am a free human being with an independent will

[Tamrin]

No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship
of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other's worth


The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal
the anguish of the wound, but the loss cannot be repaired


How little do they see what really is, who frame their judgments upon that which seems


A stubborn mind conduces as little to wisdom or
even to knowledge, as a stubborn temper to happiness


Never let a man imagine that he can pursue a good end by evil means,
without sinning against his own soul. The evil effect on himself is certain


There is a magic in that little world, home; it is a mystic circle that
surrounds comforts and virtues never known beyond its hallowed limits


It has been more wittily than charitably said that hell is paved
with good intentions; they have their place in heaven also


Robert Southey
English Poet Laureate (The Curse of Kehama)
(Died this day 1843)



It is not for man to rest in absolute contentment. He is born to hopes
and aspirations as the sparks fly upward, unless he has brutified his
nature and quenched the spirit of immortality which is his portion

[Tamrin]

In Australia, not reading poetry is the national pastime


Gossip isn't scandal and it's not merely malicious.
It's chatter about the human race by lovers of the same


Those wearing tolerance for a label call other views intolerable


When blithe to argument I come, though armed with facts, and merry, may Pro-
vidence protect me from the fool as adversary, whose mind to him a kingdom is
where reason lacks dominion, who calls conviction prejudice and prejudice opinion


Praise is warming and desirable. But it is an earned thing.
It has to be deserved, like a hug from a child


Nothing fails like success; nothing is
so defeated as yesterday's triumphant cause


Seventy is wormwood, Seventy is gall
but its better to be seventy, than not alive at all


Phyllis McGinley
US poet and author (Husbands Are Difficult, Boys Are Awful)
(Born this day 1905)



Words can sting like anything, but silence breaks the heart

[Tamrin]

Only the poor will help the poor


[Battler]... a conscientious person working against many
odds to make a living; one whose life is a constant struggle


If Australia is The Lucky Country, the Aborigines must be the unluckiest people in the world


And the nearer a white Australian is to Aborigines the more likely he is to be racist


The truth is impossible to comprehend even when one is willing to tell it. For the truth
resides in memory and memory is clouded with repression and a desire to embellish


The recollections of any individual are conditioned by
the general truths to which he or she has tried to live


To recall an event is to interpret it, so the truth is altered by the very act of
remembering. Therefore the truth, like God, does not exist — only the search for it


Frank Hardy
Australian novelist (Power Without Glory)
(Born this day 1917)



No man is so gullible when it comes to a bit of bulldust sprinkled on the old national ethos than the Australian,
who really believes the sun shines nowhere else except out of his arse and his beer is really the best

[Tamrin]

A star is shining within us and that is our Spirit


Self-realization is the first encounter with reality


You cannot know the meaning of your life until you are connected to the power that created you


Divinity is not a fashion. It is the way of life.
It is the need of your being. You have to become that


Freedom is when you really get your own powers which are within you. In your central
nervous system and in your conscious mind, you must feel the existence of the Spirit


It's our duty to see that our children grow as great people.
Greater than us. They have to look after the world


You are not this body, you are not this mind, — you are the Spirit ... This is the greatest truth


Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi (Nirmala Srivastava)
Indian founder of Sahaja Yoga
(Born this day 1923)



How to do meditation, many people ask Me. Don't do anything, to just go into thought-
less awareness. Try to go to the thoughtless awareness. If you can get into that condition
of thoughtless awareness you've done your job, because that's the point where you are
with the truth, with the reality, with the joy, with everything that is so fundamental.
When you meditate try not to, not to make some sort of a function out of it – no. Medit-
ation is something silencing yourself, silencing your thoughts and going to that deep
ocean which is within you itself. But supposing you don’t do that, if you don't meditate.
I can make out immediately those who are meditating and those who are not, it's not diffi-
cult for Me. Those who do not meditate are always hesitating and they are confused, they
can't understand; and that's why meditation is the most important thing in Sahaja Yoga

[Tamrin]

I believe in clear-cut positions. I think that the most arrogant position is this apparent, multi-
disciplinary modesty of "what I am saying now is not unconditional, it is just a hypothesis,"
and so on. It really is a most arrogant position. I think that the only way
to be honest and expose yourself to criticism is to state clearly and
dogmatically where you are. You must take the risk and have a position


The same philantropists who give millions for AIDS or education in tolerance
have ruined the lives of thousands through financial speculation and thus
created the conditions for the rise of the very intolerance that is being fought


When we are shown scenes of starving children in Africa, with a call for us to do something to help
them, the underlying ideological message is something like: "Don't think, don't politicize, forget
about the true causes of their poverty, just act, contribute money, so that you will not have to think!


It is more satisfying to sacrifice oneself for the poor victim than to enable the other to
overcome their victim status and perhaps become even more successful than ourselves


The true ethical test is not only the readiness to save the victims, but also — even more,
perhaps — the ruthless dedication to annihilating those who made them victims


One does not wait for the "ripe" objective circumstances to make a revolution,
circumstances become "ripe" through the political struggle itself


Populism is ultimately sustained by the frustrated exasperation of ordinary people, by the cry
"I don't know what's going on, but I've just had enough of it! It cannot go on! It must stop!”


Slavoj Žižek
Slovenian sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic
(Born this day 1949)



True universalists are not those who preach global tolerance of
differences and all-encompassing unity, but those who engage in a
passionate struggle for the assertion of the Truth which compels them

[Tamrin]

[Tamrin]

Saturday’s Quotes:

Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen


As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live


It is in self-limitation that a master first shows himself


Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public


If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words


Few people have the imagination for reality


Mysteries are not necessarily miracles


Bro. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(Died this day 1832)



More Light!

(last words)