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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:03:35 GMT 10
There are certain truths about the universe and its constitution — as distinct from the particular things in it that come before our observation — which cannot be grasped by human reason or expressed in precise words: but they can be apprehended by some people at least, in a semi-mystical experience, called ecstasy, and a work of art is great insofar as this experience is caught and expressed in it. Because, however, the truths con- cerned transcend a language attuned to the description of material objects, the expression can only be through hieroglyphics, and it is of such hieroglyphics that literature consists
We are all the kindred of the mystics … Strange and far away from us though they seem, they are not cut off from us by some impassable abyss. They belong to us; the giants, the heroes of our race. As the achievement of genius belongs not to itself only but also to the society that brought it forth ... the supernal accomplishment of the mystics is ours also ... our guarantee of the end to which immanent love, the hidden steersman ... is moving ... us on the path toward the Real
I do not at all like this craving for absolute certainty that this or that experience of yours, is what it seems to yourself. And I am assuredly not going to declare that I am absolutely certain of the final and evidential worth of any of those experiences. They are not articles of faith
We have not fulfilled our destiny when we have sat down at a safe distance from it, purring like overfed cats, 'suffering is the ancient law of love' — and its highest pleasure into the bargain, oddly enough … A sponge cake and milk religion is neither true to this world nor to the next
In my lucid moments I see only too clearly that the only possible end of this road is complete, unconditional self-consecration, and for this I have not the nerve, the character or the depth. There has been some sort of mistake. My soul is too small for it and yet it is at bottom the only thing that I really want. It feels sometimes as if, whilst still a jumble of conflicting impulses and violent faults I were being pushed from behind towards an edge I dare not jump over
After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life
We must cast all things from us and strip ourselves of them and refrain from claiming anything for our ownEvelyn Underhill, English mystic and poet (Born this day 1875) All things are perceived in the light of charity, and hence under the aspect of beauty; for beauty is simply reality seen with the eyes of love
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:07:13 GMT 10
Book love ... is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures
Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who holds a low opinion of himself
No man thinks there is much ado about nothing when the ado is about himself
It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution
The man who worships mere wealth is a snob
A man's mind will very gradually refuse to make itself up until it is driven and compelled by emergency
They are best dressed, whose dress no one observesBro. Anthony TrollopeEnglish writer ( Tales of All Countries) (Died this day 1882) Life is so unlike theory
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:08:04 GMT 10
I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree
When you think of love and fame and all that might have come to pass, Then don't you feel a little shame? And don't you think you were an ass?
Love is made out of ecstasy and wonder; Love is a poignant and accustomed pain
Have pity on our foolishness and give us eyes, that we may see beneath the shopman's clumsy dress the splendor of humanity!
I saw him through a thousand veils, and has not this sufficed? Now, must I look on the Devil robed in the radiant Robe of Christ?
It is stern work, it is perilous work, to thrust your hand in the sun and pull out a spark of immortal flame to warm the hearts of men
For reckless leaps into darkness with hands outstretched to a star, there is jubilation in Heaven where the great dead poets areJoyce KilmerAmerican journalist and poet ( The Courage of Enlightenment) (Born this day 1886) Lord Byron and Shelley and Plunkett, McDonough and Hunt and Pearse — see now why their hatred of tyrants was so insistently fierce. Is Freedom only a Will-o'-the-wisp to cheat a poet's eye? Be it phantom or fact, it's a noble cause in which to sing and to die!
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:08:59 GMT 10
Symbols are to the mind what tools are to the hand — an extended application of its powers
Psychotherapy may begin with the primitive, but it must end with the divine, for both are integral factors in the human mind
The true nature of the gods is that of magical images shaped out of the astral plane by mankind's thought, and influenced by the mind
To say that a thing is imaginary is not to dispose of it in the realm of mind, for the imagination, or the image making faculty, is a very important part of our mental functioning
The driving forces of the universe, the framework upon which it is built up in all its parts, belong to another phase of manifestation than our physical plane, having other dimensions than the three to which we are habituated, and perceived by other modes of consciousness than those to which we are accustomed
The spirit of religious persecution is not the special failing of any particular faith, but springs eternal in the human breast
It has been well and truly said that in the exoteric church the ceremony is performed by one person for the benefit of the congregation; but in the Lodge the ceremony is performed by the congregation for the benefit of one personDion Fortune (born Violet Mary Firth)British occultist, author, psychologist, teacher, artist and mystic (Born this day 1890) A religion without a goddess is halfway to atheism
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:09:43 GMT 10
The artist, like the idiot, or clown, sits on the edge of the world, and a push may send him over it
The only difference between an artist and a lunatic is, perhaps, that the artist has the restraint or courtesy to conceal the intensity of his obsession from all except those similarly afflicted
A golf course outside a big town serves an excellent purpose in that it segregates, as though a concentration camp, all the idle and idiot well-to-do
It is, indeed, singular that western man, while refusing to place credence in any- thing he cannot see, while rejecting absolutely omens, prophesies, and visions, should at the same time, as he so often does, deny the evidence of his own eyes
Poetry is like fish: if it's fresh, it's good; if it's stale, it's bad; and if you're not certain, try it on the cat
In reality, killing time is only the name for another of the multifarious ways by which Time kills us
It is fatal to be appreciated in one's own timeSir Osbert SitwellEnglish author ( The Man who Lost Himself) (Born this day 1892) I have always said that if I were a rich man, I would employ a professional praiser
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:10:33 GMT 10
Nice work if you can get it, and you can get it if you try
Summertime and the livin' is easy, fish are jumpin', and the cotton is high. Oh yo' daddy's rich, and yo' ma is good lookin', so hush, little baby, don' yo' cry
I got rhythm, I got music, I got my man who could ask for anything more?
It ain't necessarily so, it ain't necessarily so. De t'ings dat yo' li'ble to read in de Bible, It ain't necessarily so
Deep, unspeakable suffering may well be called a baptism, a regeneration, the initiation into a new state
Old age adds to the respect due to virtue, but it takes nothing from the contempt inspired by vice; it whitens only the hair
Life is one long jubileeBro. Ira GershwinAmerican lyricist Nice Work if You Can Get It) (Born this day 1896) Damn it all! What rhymes with rhythm?
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:11:43 GMT 10
The study of women's intelligence and personality has had broadly the same history as the one we record for Negroes ... in drawing a parallel between the position of, and feeling toward women and Negroes, we are uncovering a fundamental bias of our culture (GM) The big majority of Americans, who are comparatively well off, have developed an ability to have enclaves of people living in the greatest misery almost without noticing them (GM) In a time of deepening crisis in the underdeveloped world, of social malaise in the affluent societies ... it seems likely that Gandhi's ideas and techniques will become increasingly relevant (GM) There is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of white Americans desire that there be as few Negroes as possible in America. If the Negroes could be eliminated from America or greatly decreased in numbers, this would meet the whites' approval —provided that it could be accomplished by means which are also approved. Correspondingly, an increase of the proportion of Negroes in the American population is commonly looked upon as undesirable (GM) White prejudice and discrimination keep the Negro low in standards of living, health, education, manners and morals. This, in its turn, gives support to white prejudice. White prejudice and Negro standards thus mutually ‘cause’ each other (GM) Where do these arms come from, these Saturday night specials that constitute the instrument of threats in bank robberies, or the hand grenades used by terrorists? How can their sales and their import be permitted? (AM) The inventions and the great discoveries have opened up whole continents to reciprocal communication and interchange, provided we are willing (AM) Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish sociologist & economist (Born this day 1898) & Alva Myrdal (married couple) My personal philosophy of life is one of ethics (AM)
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:13:19 GMT 10
1 of 3:I'm writing an unauthorized autobiography
What's another word for thesaurus?
Is “tired old cliché” one?
Why isn’t the word “phonetically” spelled with an “f”?
Why are there five syllables in the word “monosyllabic”?
Whose cruel idea was it for the word “lisp” to have an “s” in it?
I finally got around to reading the dictionary. Turns out the Zebra did itSteven Wright, American comedian (Born this day 1955) Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:14:09 GMT 10
2 of 3:One day I put instant coffee in my microwave oven and almost went back in time
I put tape on the mirrors in my house so I don't accidentally walk through into another dimension
I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory
I have an inferiority complex, but it’s not a very good one
Can you buy an entire chess set in a pawn shop?
I went to a general store, but they wouldn’t let me buy anything specific
I think it’s wrong that only one company makes the game MonopolySteven Wright(Born this day 1955) Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 6, 2013 7:14:57 GMT 10
3 of 3:It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it
A friend of mine once sent me a post card with a picture of the entire planet Earth taken from space. On the back it said, “Wish you were here”
I have an existential map. It has “You are here” written all over it
Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film
When I first read the dictionary, I thought it was a long poem about everything
Right now I’m having amnesia and déjà vu at the same time I think I’ve forgotten this before
If at first you don't succeed then skydiving definitely isn't for youSteven Wright(Born this day 1955) On the other hand, you have different fingers
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