Quotes

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They must find it difficult...
Those who have taken authority as the truth,
rather than true as the authority.

- Gerald Massey
 
Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Richard M. Nixon


Try and fail, but don’t fail to try.
Stephen Kaggwa


The worst thing one can do is not to try, to be aware of what one wants and not give in to it, to spend years in silent hurt wondering if something could have materialized – and never knowing.
David Viscott
 
A humorous quote that was circulating on Facebook - not sure who wrote it up.

"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that you can never quite be sure of their origin."

- Abraham Lincoln
 
John F. Schumaker, In Search of Happiness (p.75, 77)

The concept of time is one of the great historical killers of happiness. Early in the Palaeolithic era, time did not exist beyond one's interaction with the natural world. There were no hints of the perpetual time crunch in which over-stressed moderns find themselves...As the concept of time evolved and came to be measured more precisely, the past and future began to dilute the immediacy of experiences, and to block access to our emotions.
 
Probably one of the most important things I had to learn was to start to take full responsibility for my actions, only then could I look at the underlying causes for my programs, and start to Work on them. What really stood out for me from the book "Myth of Sanity" was this part. It’s about a guy named Garrett who has multiple personalities, and Dr. Martha Stout asked him the following questions (p.158):

Q: Could one of your personalities, say, buy a car, or have a friend or a lover the others disliked?
A: Sure. Sometimes I get strange messages on my answering machine from people I don’t know. I have CDs that I hate. I have no idea how I got them. Sure.
Q: What if one of your personalities did something really bad – committed a crime, perhaps – who is responsible in that case?
A: I am.
Q: Wait a minute. I thought you didn’t have a sense of I.
A: Doesn’t matter. I am.

Dr. Stout writes:

“Bear in mind, also, that – for anyone – perhaps nothing defines unified personhood so solidly as the courage of strong commitment to personal responsibility. Garrett could so easily have claimed to be non compos mentis, with gigantic believability and reams of medical records to back him up. But he never made that claim. Instead, […], he was dedicated to the defining feature of responsibility for his actions, regardless of which ego state had performed them. And for that reason, I had already begun to think of him as someone who might, quite possibly, recover.”
 
Here's a little mine of some of my all time favorite quotes...maybe some possible candidates for "Quote of the day" on SoTT

H.D. Thoreau-

Talk of mysteries! — Think of our life in nature, — daily to be shown matter, to come in contact with it, — rocks, trees, wind on our cheeks! The solid earth! the actual world! the common sense! Contact! Contact! Who are we? where are we?

The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

The fate of the country does not depend on how you vote at the polls — the worst man is as strong as the best at that game; it does not depend on what kind of paper you drop into the ballot-box once a year, but on what kind of man you drop from your chamber into the street every morning.

It is not enough to be industrious; so are the ants. What are you industrious about?

Men and boys are learning all kinds of trades but how to make men of themselves. They learn to make houses; but they are not so well housed, they are not so contented in their houses, as the woodchucks in their holes. What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? — If you cannot tolerate the planet that it is on? Grade the ground first. If a man believes and expects great things of himself, it makes no odds where you put him, or what you show him ... he will be surrounded by grandeur. He is in the condition of a healthy and hungry man, who says to himself, — How sweet this crust is!

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear. Atheism may comparatively be popular with God himself.

The bluebird carries the sky on his back.

The perception of beauty is a moral test.

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.

Any fool can make a rule
And any fool will mind it.

If a thousand [citizens] were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

How does it become a man to behave toward this American government today? I answered that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

Most men would feel insulted, if it were proposed to employ them in throwing stones over a wall, and then in throwing them back, merely that they might earn their wages. But many are no more worthily employed now.

It is remarkable that among all the preachers there are so few moral teachers. The prophets are employed in excusing the ways of men.

I hardly know an intellectual man, even, who is so broad and truly liberal that you can think aloud in his society. Most with whom you endeavor to talk soon come to a stand against some institution in which they appear to hold stock, — that is, some particular, not universal, way of viewing things.



Voltaire-

It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.

Men who look for happiness are like drunkards who cannot find their house but know that they have one

When it is a question of money, everybody is of the same religion.

To pray to God is to flatter oneself that with words one can alter nature.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

Truly, whoever is able to make you absurd is able to make you unjust. If the God-given understanding of your mind does not resist a demand to believe what is impossible, then you will not resist a demand to do wrong to that God-given sense of justice in your heart. As soon as one faculty of your soul has been dominated, other faculties will follow as well. And from this derives all those crimes of religion which have overrun the world.

Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one.

Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.

Thought depends largely on the stomach. In spite of this, those with the best stomachs are not always the best thinkers.

"If God did not exist, He would have to be invented." But all nature cries aloud that he does exist: that there is a supreme intelligence, an immense power, an admirable order, and everything teaches us our own dependence on it.

Let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson.

Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Divorce is probably of nearly the same age as marriage. I believe, however, that marriage is some weeks the more ancient.

A witty saying proves nothing.


Scottish proverbs-

To marry is to halve your rights and double your duties.

Twelve highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion.


Elbert Hubbard-

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.


aphorism of the Virl-ya-

the poor mans need, is the rich mans shame.


Tom Robbins-

Whether a man is a criminal or a public servant is purely a matter of perspective.

So you think that you're a failure, do you? Well, you probably are. What's wrong with that? In the first place, if you've any sense at all you must have learned by now that we pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats. Go ahead and fail. But fail with wit, fail with grace, fail with style. A mediocre failure is as insufferable as a mediocre success.

Of course I'm inconsistent! Only logicians and cretins are consistent!

Teachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did, they would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only be received.

If you fail to pilot your own ship, don't be surprised at what inappropriate port you find yourself docked.

A sense of humor, properly developed, is superior to any religion so far devised

Religion is not merely the opium of the masses, it's the cyanide.


Three of the four elements are shared by all creatures, but fire was a gift to humans alone. Smoking cigarettes is as intimate as we can become with fire without immediate excruciation. Every smoker is an embodiment of Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and bringing it on back home. We smoke to capture the power of the sun, to pacify Hell, to identify with the primordial spark, to feed on the marrow of the volcano. It's not the tobacco we're after but the fire. When we smoke, we are performing a version of the fire dance, a ritual as ancient as lightning.
 
Light, in the absence of eyes, illuminates nothing. Visible forms are not inherent in the world, but are granted by the act of seeing. Though the world and events do exist independent of mind, they obtain of no meaning in themselves: none that the mind is not guilty of imposing on them.

"Trevor Goodchild" / Aeon Flux the animated series.
 
Years ago, someone - out of the blue - gave me this piece of cardboard on which was written some words of wisdom. I have no idea where they came from but I've kept it around my studio ever since - years now. I've always been puzzled where they came from - if anyone knows I'd appreciate a source. The cardboard is all dented up but the words still ring true:

Acknowledge any truth in criticism.

Remain non-judgemental, observant, impeccable and calm.

Avoid becoming distracted by the trivial.

Never attack or defend EGO for that puts you dangerously upon their turf.

The battle is waged for the undecided who deserve an informed choice, not the permanently ignorant.

You cannot override free will.

Never abandon your principles or give up progress for the sake of defense.

Don't hold regrets or grudges.

Always use love.

::::modified for clarity:::
 
The difference between the almost-right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning-bug & the lightning.
~Mark Twain

"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made proof-readers."
~Mark Twain
[I only add this one because it reminded me of organic portals vs. "Adamics" and the idea of "Debugging the Universe". Just some stray associative thought.]
 
I just received the book "Character Disturbance" by George K. Simon and, as I often do with new books, opened it randomly at the middle just to read one or two excerpts, and right there came across a few pearls (highlighted by the author):

Character Disturbance page 140 said:
Remember, you are NOT ENTITLED to anything. Your life is an unearned gift. Strive to be truly grateful for the many gifts you've received. Regard life and the miracle of creation with appropriate awe and appreciation. Gratitude will enable you to develop a sense of obligation to value, preserve, and to promote life and to respect all aspects of creation. Knowing how inherently indebted you really are will keep you from feeling entitled.

And just beneath it:

You are neither an insignificant speck nor are you so precious or essential to the universe that it simply cannot do without you. Know where you fit in the grand scheme of things and keep a balanced perspective on your sense of worth. Thinking too much of yourself is as dangerous as thinking too little of yourself.
 
This touched me deeply. Recently I watched Star Trek, The Next Generation, where Data and his self-constructed daughter-android, Lal, have the following conversation:

Data and Lal ENTER.

LAL
I watch them and I can do the
things they do... but I'll never
feel the emotions. I'll never
know love.

DATA
That is a limitation we must
learn to accept, Lal.

LAL
Then why do you still try to
emulate humans? What purpose
does it serve except to remind
you that you are incomplete?

DATA
I have asked myself that many
times as I have struggled to be
more human, Lal. Until I finally
realized that it is the struggle
itself that is most important.
We must strive to be better than
we are. It does not matter that
we will never reach our ultimate
goal. The effort yields its own
rewards.
 
Data said:
This touched me deeply. Recently I watched Star Trek, The Next Generation, where Data and his self-constructed daughter-android, Lal, have the following conversation:
That quote touches upon why I liked that character so much when I used to watch TNG. To me, Data represents the tendency toward the mechanical in all of us and at the same time the genuine drive to do better.
 
Richard Dolan said:
Hope and fear: Fear is an enemy. We know this because when we are afraid, we react irrationally to things, we don’t think through. Hope is an enemy, too, though. That sounds kind of wrong, doesn’t it? Everyone likes to have hope: Don’t give up hope. But, here’s the problem with hope: Hope also deludes.

We need to have a cold eye.
 

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