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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:18:17 GMT 10
Politics is very much like taxes — everybody is against them, or everybody is for them as long as they don't apply to him
To the victor belongs the responsibility of good government
My generation has failed miserably. We've failed because of lack of courage and vision. It requires more courage to keep the peace than to go to war
We have had two chickens in every pot, two cars in every garage, and now we have two headaches for every aspirin
I think the reporter should get his facts straight before he distorts them
There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets
It makes no difference if I burn my bridges behind me — I never retreatBro. Fiorello LaGuardiaUS Congressman & New York Mayor (Born this day 1882) When I make a mistake, it's a beaut!
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:19:28 GMT 10
If we reject science, we reject the common man
You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions
Today's interpretations of religion are often backward and contradict the needs of civilization
It's clearly more important to treat one's fellow man well than to be always praying and fasting and touching one's head to a prayer mat
If you want to move people, you look for a point of sensitivity, and in Egypt nothing moves people as much as religion
In Egypt today most people are concerned with getting bread to eat. Only some of the educated understand how democracy works
The criminal is trying to solve his immediate problemsNaguib MahfouzEgyptian novelist, 1988 Nobel laureate (Born this day 1911) If the urge to write should ever leave me, I want that day to be my last
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:21:20 GMT 10
There are a lot of clear thinkers everywhere
It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes ... we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions — especially selfish ones
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny
Anyone who has proclaimed violence his method inexorably must choose lying as his principle
Violence can only be concealed by a lie, and the lie can only be maintained by violence
You can only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power — he's free again
Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God
Aleksandr SolzhenitsynRussian writer ( Cancer Ward, Nobel 1970) (Born this day 1918) If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:22:05 GMT 10
Power! Did you ever hear of men being asked whether other souls should have power or not? It is born in them. You may dam up the fountain of water, and make it a stagnant marsh, or you may let it run free and do its work; but you cannot say whether it shall be there; it is there. And it will act, if not openly for good, then covertly for evil; but it will act
Perhaps the old monks were right when they tried to root love out; perhaps the poets are right when they try to water it. It is a blood-red flower, with the color of sin; but there is always the scent of a god about it
The troubles of the young are soon over; they leave no external mark. If you wound the tree in its youth the bark will quickly cover the gash; but when the tree is very old, peeling the bark off, and looking carefully, you will see the scar there still. All that is buried is not dead
Men are like the earth and we are the moon; we turn always one side to them, and they think there is no other, because they don't see it — but there is
Of all cursed places under the sun, where the hungriest soul can hardly pick up a few grains of knowledge, a girls’ boarding-school is the worst. They are called finishing schools, and the name tells accurately what they are. They finish everything but imbecility and weakness, and that they cultivate
We all enter the world little plastic beings, with so much natural force, perhaps, but for the rest / blank; and the world tells us what we are to be, and shapes us by the ends it sets before us. To you it says / Work; and to us it says / Seem! To you it says / As you approximate to man's highest ideal of God, as your arm is strong and your knowledge great, and the power to labor is with you, so you shall gain all that human heart desires. To us it says / Strength shall not help you, nor knowledge, nor labor. You shall gain what men gain, but by other means. And so the world makes men and women
We were equals once when we lay new-born babes on our nurse's knees. We will be equal again when they tie up our jaws for the last sleepOlive SchreinerSouth African writer and anti-war campaigner (Died this day 1920) Everything has two sides — the outside that is ridiculous, and the inside that is solemn
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:31:20 GMT 10
Liberation cannot be desired because desire is the bondage. When you are desireless, you are liberated
Tao mystics never talk about God, reincarnation, heaven, hell. No, they don't talk about these things. These are all creations of human mind: explanations for something which can never be explained, explanations for the mystery
Whenever I meet prostitutes, they never speak of sex. They inquire about the soul, and about God. I also meet many ascetics and monks, and whenever we are alone they ask about nothing but sex. I was surprised to learn that ascetics, who are always preaching against sex, seem to be captivated by it. They are curious about it and disturbed by it; they have this mental complex about it, yet they sermon- ize about religion and about the animal instincts in man. And sex is so natural
Anybody who gives you a belief system is your enemy, because the belief system becomes the barrier for your eyes, you cannot see the truth
It is not decided by votes what is true; otherwise we could never come to any truth, ever. People will vote for what is comfortable — and lies are very comfortable because you don't have to do anything about them, you just have to believe. Truth needs great effort, discovery, risk, and it needs you to walk alone on a path that nobody has traveled before
All the Buddhas of all the ages have been telling you a very simple fact: Be — don't try to become. Within these two words — ‘being’ and ‘becoming,’ your whole life is contained. Being is enlightenment, becoming is ignorance
Tantra says there is nobody above you whom you have to follow, through whom you have to get your patternOsho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)Indian professor of philosophy and cult leader (“Orange People”) (Born this day 1931) Let this truth go as deep in you as possible: that life is already here, arrived. You are standing on the goal. Don't ask about the path
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 11, 2013 6:32:14 GMT 10
There is a power to the street that's part of the democratic process when all else has failed
I think people are entitled to march without a permit. When you have a few hundred thousand people on the street you have permission
The issue of civil rights was too much for the establishment to handle. One of the chapters of history that's least studied by historians is the 300 to 500 riots in the U.S. between 1965 and 1970
Most centrist Democrats ... try to distance themselves from controversies that recall the 1960s. There are journalistic centrists as well, who avoid hard truths for the sake of acceptance and legitimacy
Rather than distance ourselves from the past, as the centrist amnesiac would counsel, perhaps we should finally peel back the scabs and take a closer look at why all the wounds haven't healed
Neoconservatives and the Pentagon have good reason to fear the return of the Vietnam Syndrome. The label intentionally suggests a disease, a weakening of the martial will, but the syndrome was actually a healthy American reaction to false White House promises of victory, the propping up of corrupt regimes, crony contracting and cover-ups of civilian casualties during the Vietnam War that are echoed today in the news from Baghdad
There has to be an inner peace process that treats gang members like traumatized war victims who lack counseling, jobs, and respect. A lot of that has got to be self-administered in affinity groups, counseling groups, in jail and out of jail, with resources and professional helpTom HaydenUS social and political activist and politician (Born this day 1939) It takes a certain kind of bravery and a certain kind of goodness to be able to not just put your destructive past behind you, but to continue to take harassment from society and from police for your past
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 12, 2013 8:41:05 GMT 10
Thursday’s Quotes:You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes
Be convinced that, if man were able to reach the end without preparatory studies, such studies would not be preparatory but tiresome and utterly superfluous
Consequently he who wishes to attain to human perfection, must therefore first study Logic, next the various branches of Mathe- matics in their proper order, then Physics, and lastly Metaphysics
He, however, who begins with Metaphysics, will not only become confused in matters of religion, but will fall into complete infidelity
You will certainly not doubt the necessity of studying astronomy and physics, if you are desirous of comprehending the relation between the world and Providence as it is in reality, and not according to imagination
Do not consider it proof just because it is written in books, for a liar who will deceive with his tongue will not hesitate to do the same with his pen
Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know,' and thou shalt progressMaimonidesJewish philosopher, Talmudic scholar (Died this day 1204) Anticipate charity by preventing poverty
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 12, 2013 8:42:17 GMT 10
Organic life beneath the shoreless waves was born and nurs'd in ocean's pearly caves; First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass, move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; These, as successive generations bloom, new powers acquire and larger limbs assume; Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, and breathing realms of fin and feet and wing
Would it be too bold to imagine that, in the great length of time since the earth began to exist, perhaps millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind would it be too bold to imagine that all warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament, which the great First Cause endued with animality, with the power of acquiring new parts, attended with new propensities, directed by irritations, sensations, volitions and associations, and thus possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity, and of delivering down these improvements by generation to its posterity, world without end!
Owing to the imperfection of language the offspring is termed a new animal, but it is in truth a branch or elongation of the parent; since a part of the embryon-animal is, or was, a part of the parent; and therefore in strict language it cannot be said to be entirely new at the time of its production; and therefore it may retain some of the habits of the parent-system
Such is the condition of organic nature! whose first law might be expressed in the words 'Eat or be eaten!' and which would seem to be one great slaughter-house, one universal scene of rapacity and injustice!
Man is an eating animal, a drinking animal, and a sleeping animal, and one placed in a material world, which alone furnishes all the human animal can desire. He is gifted besides with knowing faculties, practically to explore and to apply the resources of this world to his use. These are realities. All else is nothing; conscience and sentiment are mere figments of the imagination. Man has but five gates of knowledge, the five senses; he can know nothing but through them; all else is a vain fancy, and as for the being of a God, the existence of a soul, or a world to come, who can know anything about them? Depend upon it, my dear madam, these are only the bugbears by which men of sense govern fools
Philosophers have … been called unbelievers; unbelievers of what? Of the fictions of fancy, of witchcraft, hobgoblins, apparitions, vampires, fairies; of the influence of the stars on human actions, miracles wrought by the bones of saints, the flight of ominous birds, the predictions from the bones of dying animals, expounders of dreams, fortune-tellers, conjurors, modern prophets, necromancy, cheiromancy, animal magnetism, metallic tractors, with endless variety of folly?
The great CREATOR of all things has infinitely diversified the works of his hands, but has at the same time stamped a certain similitude on the features of nature, that demonstrates to us, that the whole is one family of one parentBro. Erasmus DarwinEnglish physician, scientist and poet (Lunar Society founder & grandfather of Charles) (Born this day 1731) E canchis amnia“Everything from shells” (motto on his book plate, 1771)
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 12, 2013 8:43:43 GMT 10
Among the strange things of this world, nothing seems more strange than that men pursuing happiness should knowingly quit the right and take a wrong road, and frequently do what their judgments neither approve nor prefer
We perceive that a great breach has been made in the moral and physical systems by the introduction of moral and physical evil; how or why, we know not; so, however, it is, and it certainly seems proper that this breach should be closed and order restored
Man, in his present state, appears to be a degraded creature; his best gold is mixed with dross, and his best motives are very far from being pure and free from earth and impurity
It certainly is very desirable that a pacific disposition should prevail among all nations
Almost all nations have peace or war at the will and pleasure of rulers whom they do not elect, and who are not always wise or virtuous
It is too true, however disgraceful it may be to human nature, that nations in general will make war whenever they have a prospect of getting anything by it; nay, absolute monarchs will often make war when their nations are to get nothing by it, but for the purposes and objects merely personal, such as thirst for military glory, revenge for personal affronts, ambition, or private compacts to aggrandize or support their particular families or partisans. These and a variety of other motives, which affect only the mind of the sovereign, often lead him to engage in wars not sanctified by justice or the voice and interests of his people
The Americans are the first people whom heaven has favoured with an opportunity of deliberating upon and choosing forms of government under which they should liveBro. John JayAmerican politician, statesman, revolutionary, diplomat and jurist (Born this day 1745) Those who own the country ought to govern it
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Post by Tamrin on Dec 12, 2013 8:47:09 GMT 10
Truth lies within a little and certain compass, but error is immense
The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to mount the first principles, and take nobody's word about them
Nations, like men, have their infancy
Patriotism must be founded on great principals and supported by great virtue
The landed men are the true owners of our political vessel, the moneyed men are no more than passengers in it
Pride defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt
The greatest art of a politician is to render vice serviceable to the cause of virtueBro. Henry St John, 1st Viscount BolingbrokeEnglish statesman and philosopher (Died this day 1751) It is the modest, not the presumptuous, inquirer who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths
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