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Post by Tamrin on Dec 10, 2013 7:18:56 GMT 10
Hope is nature's veil for hiding truth's nakedness
Second to agriculture, humbug is the biggest industry of our age
If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied
I am a misanthrope, but exceedingly benevolent; I am very cranky, and am a super-idealist ... I can digest philosophy better than food
I am not aware that I have deserved any notoriety, and I have no taste for its buzz.
I intend to leave after my death a large fund for the promotion of the peace idea, but I am skeptical as to its results
The capital ... shall form a fund, the interest of which shall be distributed annually as prizes to those persons who shall have rendered humanity the best services during the past year... One-fifth to the person having made the most important discovery or invention in the science of physics, one- fifth to the person who has made the most eminent discovery or improve- ment in chemistry, one-fifth to the one having made the most important discovery with regard to physiology or medicine, one-fifth to the person who has produced the most distinguished idealistic work of literature, and one-fifth to the person who has worked the most or best for advancing the fraternization of all nations and for abolishing or diminishing the standing armies as well as for the forming or propagation of committees of peaceAlfred Bernhard NobelSwedish chemist and inventor (Nobel Prizes) (Died this day 1896) Alfred Nobel — pitiable half-creature, should have been stifled by humane doctor when he made his entry yelling into life. Greatest merits: Keeps his nails clean and is never a burden to anyone. Greatest fault: Lacks family, cheerful spirits, and strong stomach. Greatest and only petition: Not to be buried alive. Greatest sin: Does not worship Mammon. Important events in his life: None(Self-description to his brother Ludwig, 1887)
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 10, 2013 7:23:05 GMT 10
There is an Indian proverb that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual . Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person
You are born, you are a he or a she, and you live until you die ... Willy-nilly
When you learn to read you will be born again ... and you will never be quite so alone again
Is it easier to be than to do?
It is an anxious, sometimes a dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by
I have never understood why “hard work” is supposed to be pitiable. True, some work is soul destroying when it is done against the grain, but when it is part of “making” how can you grudge it? You get tired, of course, but the struggle, the challenge, the feeling of being extended as you never thought you could be is fulfilling and deeply, deeply satisfying
'Sometimes,' she said, remembering that morning, 'I write poems that are taller than I am'Rumer Godden, OBEEnglish author ( Kingfishers Catch Fire) (Born this day 1907) A garden isn't meant to be useful. It's for joy
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 10, 2013 7:25:00 GMT 10
A fact is like a sack — it won't stand up if it's empty. To make it stand up, first you have to put in it all the reasons and feelings that caused it in the first place
Logic is one thing, the human animal another. You can quite easily propose a logical solution to something and at the same time hope in your heart of hearts it won't work out
You too must not count too much on your reality as you feel it today, since like yesterday, it may prove an illusion for you tomorrow
Each of us, face to face with other men, is clothed with some sort of dignity, but we know only too well all the unspeakable things that go on in the heart
Anyone can be heroic from time to time, but a gentleman is something you have to be all the time
Every true man, sir, who is a little above the level of the beasts and plants does not live for the sake of living, without knowing how to live; but he lives so as to give a meaning and a value of his own to life
When you say you are in love with humanity, you are well satisfied with yourselfLuigi PirandelloItalian writer (Enrico IV, Nobel 1934) (Died this day 1936) The history of mankind is the history of ideas
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 10, 2013 7:28:07 GMT 10
The Wise are silent, the Foolish speak, and children are thus led astray
My fundamental interest, I suppose, is signs and proofs of other powers that lie hidden in us all; the extension, in other words, of human faculty. So many of my stories, therefore, deal with extension of consciousness; speculative and imaginative treatment of possibilities outside our normal range of consciousness ... Also, all that happens in our universe is natural; under Law; but an extension of our so limited normal consciousness can reveal new, extra- ordinary powers etc., and the word "supernatural" seems the best word for treating these in fiction. I believe it possible for our consciousness to change and grow, and that with this change we may become aware of a new universe. A "change" in consciousness, in its type, I mean, is something more than a mere extension of what we already possess and know
The dark side of life, and the horror of it, belonged to a world that lay remote from his own select little atmosphere of books and dreamings
No place worth knowing yields itself at sight, and those the least inviting on first view may leave the most haunting pictures upon the walls of memory
Certain houses, like certain persons, manage somehow to proclaim at once their character for evil. In the case of the latter, no particular feature need betray them; they may boast an open countenance and an ingenuous smile; and yet a little of their company leaves the unalt- erable conviction that there is something radically amiss with their being: that they are evil. Willy nilly, they seem to communicate an atmosphere of secret and wicked thoughts which makes those in their immediate neighbourhood shrink from them as from a thing diseased
When common objects in this way become charged with the suggestion of horror, they stimulate the imagination far more than things of unusual appearance; and these bushes, crowding huddled about us, assumed for me in the darkness a bizarre grotes- querie of appearance that lent to them somehow the aspect of purposeful and living creatures. Their very ordinariness, I felt, masked what was malignant and hostile to us
You know," he went on almost under his breath, "every man who thinks for himself and feels vividly finds he lives in a world of his own, apart, and believes that one day he'll come across, either in a book or in a person, the Priest who shall make it clear to him"Algernon Blackwood, CBEEnglish author ( The Willows) (Died this day 1951) Not easily may an individual escape the deep slavery of the herd
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 10, 2013 7:31:16 GMT 10
So many people are searching. They don't know why they are searching, and they don't know what they are searching for. They just search. You ask them what they are doing, and they say, "I'm searching for the truth." If only you understood who you are, you would know that truth resides in you
Ask yourself for a moment what is really important to you, not by anyone else's definition, but your own. Peel away all the roles that you act out every day, and you will find a being. A being that, amazingly enough, cannot be put in a box; a being that isn't good or bad — just a being. A being that wants to exist, that wants to learn, that wants to appreciate. A being that just wants to be
Consciousness is like that light in darkness: wherever it is, it has its radius, it has its circle, it has its influence. And darkness will not come there. It will stay away just that far, and take it (consciousness) wherever you can. And the darkness dare not impede in its path, that's what consciousness is, that's what reality is, that's what realization is. And even if you can do it once in your life, at least the candle is lit
When it comes to peace, we wait for the clouds to part or a magic wand to be waved, so then there shall be peace upon earth. I don't understand. If war requires active participation, which it does, then peace requires active participation as well. And that active participation is not going to happen by having a lot of debates. It is a matter of uncovering and looking at the reality of people, at what people want, whether they are rich or poor. We have learned about how we are different, but we haven't learned how to look at another human being like ourselves
We are all individuals. I can’t eat for you and you can’t eat for me. I can’t sleep for you and you can sleep for me. We are absolutely all individuals. When our purpose is fulfilled, it feels beautiful. That is, to me, the feeling of fulfillment
All your senses that have been going outside all your life, turn them around and put them inside to feel and to actually experience you
This is about understanding, not believing. This is about knowing; knowing the meaning of this life, the value of this breathGuru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat), Indian mystic (Born this day 1957) Go inside and experience that feeling that is within you. Experience that peace, experience that joy. Again and again, hone in to your basics, to your fundamentals
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 10, 2013 7:32:21 GMT 10
Pride makes us artificial and humility makes us real
The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another
To consider persons and events and situations only in the light of their effect upon myself is to live on the doorstep of hell
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them
We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen
Peace demands the most heroic labor and the most difficult sacrifice. It demands greater heroism than war. It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience
In the last analysis, the individual person is responsible for living his own life and for "finding himself." If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existenceThomas MertonFrench-US priest and author (7 Story Mountain) (Died this day 1968) I cannot make the universe obey me. I cannot make other people conform to my own whims and fancies. I cannot make even my own body obey me
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:11:50 GMT 10
Wednesday’s Quotes:We owe to our Mother-Country the Duty of Subjects but will not pay her the Submission of Slaves
Government is, or ought to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration and ... when any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a maj- ority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal
Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community
That the people have a Right to mass and to bear arms; that a well- regulated militia composed of the Body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper natural and safe defense of a free state, that standing armies, in time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided
That all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety
In all our associations; in all our agreements let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim — that all power was origin- ally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people
Happiness and Prosperity are now within our Reach; but to attain and preserve them must depend upon our own Wisdom and VirtueBro. George Mason, IV ("Father of the Bill of Rights") US patriot / UK traitor (U.S. Constitutional Convention) (Born this day 1725) Taught to regard a part of our own Species in the most abject and con- temptible Degree below us, we lose that Idea of the dignity of Man which the Hand of Nature had implanted in us, for great and useful purposes
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:13:02 GMT 10
At every step the child should be allowed to meet the real experience of life; the thorns should never be plucked from his roses
The educator must above all understand how to wait; to reckon all effects in the light of the future, not of the present
All philanthropy is only a savory fumigation burning at the mouth of a sewer. This incense offering makes the air more endurable to passers- by, but it does not hinder the infection in the sewer from spreading
Corporal punishment is as humiliating for him who gives it as for him who receives it; it is ineffective besides. Neither shame nor physical pain have any other effect than a hardening one
Everything, everything in war is barbaric ... But the worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being
The emancipation of women is practically the greatest egoistic movement of the nineteenth century, and the most intense affirmation of the right of the self that history has yet seen
Education can give you a skill, but a liberal education can give you dignityEllen KeySwedish author, feminist ( Courageous Woman) (Born this day 1849) Side by side with the class war, the culture war must ceaselessly be waged by the young and among the young upon whom rests the responsibility of making the new society better for all than the old could be
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:16:40 GMT 10
Destroy the world if even a single person doesn't have food
We shall not look at caste or religion. All human beings in this land — whether they be those who preach the Vedas or who belong to other castes — are one
Fools! Do you argue, that things ancient ought, on that account, to be true and noble! Fallacies and Falsehoods there were from time immemorial, and dare you argue that because these are ancient these should prevail?
In ancient times, do you think that there was not the ignorant, and the shallow minded? And why after all should you embrace so fondly a carcass of dead thoughts. Live in the present and shape the future, do not be casting lingering looks to the distant past for the past has passed away, never again to return
The Devil is a Five-headed Snake, says the father. The son says, Nay, it's a Six-headed one. And then their hearts burn with hate for each others — and they live apart for many years
Love, love, love otherwise die, die, die
Live in the present and shape the future
Subramanya Bharathi Indian poet, independence activist and reformer (Born this day 1882)
He who writes poetry is not a poet. He whose poetry has become his life, and who has made his life his poetry — it is he who is a poet
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:17:20 GMT 10
Somewhere in our doctrine is hidden a concept, unjustified by experience, which we must eliminate to open up the road
I believe there is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our road behind us as we proceed. We do not find signposts at crossroads, but our own scouts erect them, to help the rest
We have sought for firm ground and found none. The deeper we penetrate, the more restless becomes the universe; all is rushing about and vibrating in a wild dance
The continuity of our science has not been affected by all these turbulent happenings, as the older theories have always been included as limiting cases in the new ones
If God has made the world a perfect mechanism, He has at least conceded so much to our imperfect intellect that in order to predict little parts of it, we need not solve innumerable differential equations, but can use dice with fair success
There are metaphysical problems, which cannot be disposed of by declaring them meaningless. For, as I have repeatedly said, they are "beyond physics" indeed and demand an act of faith. We have to accept this fact to be honest. There are two objectionable types of believers: those who believe the incredible and those who believe that "belief" must be discarded and replaced by the "scientific method"
It is true that many scientists are not philosophically minded and have hitherto shown much skill and ingenuity but little wisdomMax BornGerman physicist (quantum mechanics, Nobel 1954) (Born born [pun intended] this day 1882) Intellect distinguishes between the possible and the impossible; reason distinguishes between the sensible and the senseless. Even the possible can be senseless
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