A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Unknown Zen Proverbs Great Works
Edward Abbey (1929-1989)
The
world is full of burled and gnarly knobs on which you can hang a metaphysical
system. If you must.
The
more fantastic an ideology or theology, the more fanatic its adherents
The
missionaries go forth to Christianize the savages – as if the savages weren’t
dangerous enough.
Reason
has seldom failed us because it has seldom been tried.
From
the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite
of the tapeworm.
Nothing
could be more reckless than to base one’s moral philosophy on the latest
pronouncements of science.
I
do not believe in personal immortality; it seems so unnecessary. Show me one man who deserves to live forever.
There
is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. And then there is
Beware
the man who has no enemies.
A
patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.
Anarchism
is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule
themselves; even fewer are wise enough to rule others.
You
cannot reshape human nature without mutilating human beings.
When
the situation is hopeless, there is nothing to worry about.
You
can’t study the darkness by flooding it with light.
The
very poor are materialistic. It takes
money to be a mystic.
One
man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there
ain’t nothin’ can beat
teamwork.
Dean Acheson (1983-1971)
Secretary of State under President Truman
A
memorandum is written not to inform the reader, but to protect the writer
Negotiating in the classic diplomatic sense assumes
parties more anxious to agree than to disagree.
The
first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.
The
great corrupter of public man is the ego.
Looking at the mirror distracts one’s attention from the problem.
The
greatest mistake I made was not to die in office.
The manner in which one endures that what must be endured is more
important than the thing that must be endured.
Time
spent in the advertising business seems to create a permanent deformity like
the Chinese habit of foot binding.
Douglas Adams (1951-2001) English Humorist
and Science Fiction Author (“Hitchhiker’s Guide..”)
I
love deadlines. I especially like the
whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.
In
the beginning the Universe was created.
This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a
bad move.
There
is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the
Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced
by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that
this has already happened.
A
common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely
foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of fools.
I
don’t believe it. Prove it to me and I
still won’t believe it.
Isn’t
it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that
there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
The
impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.
Anyone
who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be
allowed to do the job.
Flying
is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
I
may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I
intended to be.
We
demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!
He
hope and prayed that there wasn’t and afterlife. Then he realized that there was a
contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn’t an afterlife.
Time
is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so.
Henry Adams (1838-1918)
We shall some day catch an abstract truth by the tail, and
then we shall have our religion and our immortality
Chaos often breeds life, where order breeds habit.
A
teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
Practical
politics consists in ignoring facts.
A
friend in power is a friend lost.
He
too serves a certain purpose who only stands and
cheers.
In
plain words, chaos was the law of nature.
Order was the dream of man.
Friends
are born and not made.
No
man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he
has doubts about himself.
Nothing
in education is so astonishing as the amount of
ignorance as it accumulates in the form of inert facts.
There
is no such thing as an underestimation of average intelligence.
John Adams (1735-1826)
The question before the human race is, whether the God of
nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings
shall rule it by fictitious miracles.
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there
were no religion in it.
Power
must never be trusted without a check.
Let
us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
Fear
is the foundation of most governments.
Facts
are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the
dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
If
we do not lay out ourselves in the service of mankind whom should we serve?
Power
always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of
the weak.
Children
should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom.
In
my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two
is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
Democracy
never lasts long. It soon wastes,
exhausts, and murders itself. There was
never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
Scott Adams (1957- ) Dilbert
cartoonist
If
you have any trouble sounding condescending, find a Unix
user to show you how it’s done.
Creativity
is allowing oneself to make mistakes.
Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Engineers
like to solve problems. If there are no
problems handily available, they will create their own problems.
The
primary job of the manager is not to empower, but to remove obstacles.
If
there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people
ask? Do they get smart just in time to
ask questions?
Remind
people that profit is the difference between revenue and expense. This makes you look smart.
The
creator of the universe works in mysterious ways, but he uses a base ten
counting system and likes round numbers.
The
only risk of failure is promotion.
You
don’t have to be a “person of influence” to be influential
Informed
decision making comes from a long tradition of guessing and then blaming others
for inadequate results.
Men
live in a fantasy world. I know this
because I am one, and I actually receive my mail there.
Nothing
inspires forgiveness quite like revenge.
You
can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public.
Give
a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day.
Teach him how to fish and he will buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fishing and you’re
a consultant.
Frankly,
I’m suspicious of anyone who has a strong opinion on a complicated issue.
Aesop (620 bc – 560 bc)
Greek slave and fable author
Little by little does the trick.
Better
to die once for all, than live in continual terror.
Any
excuse will serve a tyrant.
United
we stand, divided we fall.
After
all is said and done, more is said than done.
In
critical moments, even the powerful have need of the weakest.
Persuasion
is often more effectual than force.
We
hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
Jean Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) Biologist that
formulated the theory of ice ages.
Every
great scientific truth goes through three states, First,
people say it conflicts with the Bible; next, they say it has been done before;
lastly, they say they always believed it.
I
cannot afford to waste my time making money.
The time has come when scientific truth
must cease to be the property of the few, when it must be woven into the common
life of the world.
The
facts will eventually test all our theories, and they form, after all, the only
impartial jury to which we can appeal.
Howard Aiken (1900-1973)
Don’t
worry about people stealing your ideas.
If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down peoples
throats.
Dante degli
Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet and author
Lasciate ongni speranza,
voi Ch’intrate – Abandon
all hope, ye who enter here.
Alphonse Allais (1854-1905) French writer and
humorist
Statistics
have shown that mortality increases perceptibly in the military during wartime.
Fred Allen (1894-1956) US radio comedian
A
conference is a gathering of important people who singly can do nothing, but
together can decide that nothing can be done.
Steve Allen (1921-2000)
If
there is a God, the phrase that must disgust him is – Holy War
In
a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In our actual society we insist they be
cheerleaders.
It is not hardness of heart or evil
passions that drive certain individuals to atheism, but rather a scrupulous
intellectual honesty.
To those who wish to punish others— or at least to see them punished, if the
avengers are too cowardly to take matters in to their own hands— the belief in
a fiery, hideous hell appears to be a great source of comfort.
God is by definition the holder of all
possible knowledge, it would be impossible for him to have faith in anything.
Faith, then, is built upon ignorance and hope.
Ideas have consequences, and totally
erroneous ideas are likely to have destructive consequences.
No
philosophy, sadly, has all the answers. No matter how assured we may be about
certain aspects of our belief, there are always painful inconsistencies,
exceptions, and contradictions. This is true in religion as it is in politics,
and is self-evident to all except fanatics and the naive.
Religious
believers of the world, you are free to continue to debate the simple, narrow
question that divides you from atheists, but you have no right, in so doing, to
treat the Humanists of the world with contempt. You owe them a deep debt of
gratitude, for not only have they shed much light on a naturally dark world but
they have very probably helped civilize your own specific religion.
We
are entitled to make almost any reasonable assumption, but should resist making
conclusions until evidence requires that we do so.
Woody Allen (1935- )
I’m
astounded by people who want to “know” the universe when it’s hard enough to
find your way around
I
do not believe in an afterlife, although I am bringing a change of underwear.
I
do not want to achieve immortality through my work…I want to achieve it by not
dying!
It’s
impossible to experience one’s death objectively and still carry a tune.
Love
is the answer, but while you’re waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty
good questions.
Not
only is there no God, but try finding a plumber on Sunday.
The
difference between sex and death is that with death you can do it alone and no
one is going to make fun of you.
The
good people sleep much better at night than bad people. Of course, the bad people enjoy the waking
hours much more.
What
do I dislike about death? Must be the hours.
Eternal
nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.
I
was thrown out of college for cheating on a metaphysical exam. I looked into the soul of the boy sitting
next to me.
To
you, I am an atheist. To God, I am the
loyal opposition.
More
than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to
despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total
extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.
Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) Persian philosopher and Muslim
theologian
The happiness of the drop is to die in the river.
John Allston
The
only thing you take with you when you’re gone is what you leave behind.
If
you don’t control your mind, someone else will.
The only competition worthy of a wise man is with himself.
Thomas J. J. Altizer (1927 - ) Radical Theologian
Theology itself is coming to confess that ours is a time in
which God is dead.
St. Ambrose
(340-397) Bishop of
There is nothing evil save that which perverts the mind and
shackles the conscience.
It is not death therefore that is
burdensome, but the fear of death.
Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss Philosopher
In order to see Christianity, one must forget almost all
the Christians.
A belief is not true because it is useful.
The great artist is the simplifier.
Truth is not only violated by falsehood, it may be outraged
by silence.
To
breathe is a beatitude
An
error is the more dangerous the more truth it contains.
A
man who insists on seeing with perfect clearness
before he decides, never decides.
The
test of every religious, political, or education system is the man that it
forms.
Learn
to limit yourself, to content yourself with some definite thing, and some
definite work; dare to be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace
all that you are not and to believe in your own individuality.
Oh,
do not let us wait to be just or pitiful or demonstrative toward those we love
until they or we are struck down by illness or threatened with death! Life is
short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who
are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh, be swift to love, make haste to be
kind!
Analysis
kills spontaneity. The grain once ground into flour springs and germinates no
more.
A
man without passion is only a latent force, only a possibility, like a stone
waiting for the blow from the iron to give forth sparks.
Is
all my scribbling collected together- my correspondence, these thousands of
pages, my lectures, my articles, my verses, my various memodanda- anything but
a collection of dry leaves? To whom and for what have I been of use? And will
my name live for even a day after me, and will it have any meaning to anyone?
An insignificant, empty life! Vie Nulle!
There
is no repose for the mind except in the absolute; for feeling except in the
infinite; for the soul except in the divine.
I
can find no words for what I feel.
To shun one's cross is to make it heavier.
Man
becomes man only by his intelligence, but he is man only by his heart.
Anaxandrides (500 bc – 428 bc)
Greek astronomer and philosopher
It is good to die before one has done anything deserving of
death.
To
decent to Hades is the same from every place.
Maya Angelou (1928- ) Actress, Director, Civil Rights
Activist
Nothing
will work unless you do.
People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made
them feel.
A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings
because it has a song.
Achievement
brings its own anticlimax.
All
great achievements require time.
All
men are prepared to accomplish the incredible if their ideals are threatened.
Any
book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his
deep and continuing needs, is good for him.
Ask
for what you want and be prepared to get it.
Bitterness
is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all
clean.
Children's
talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.
Don't
bring negative to my door.
Everything
in the universe has rhythm. Everything dances.
History,
despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need
not be lived again.
Human
beings are more alike than unalike, and what is true anywhere is true
everywhere, yet I encourage travel to as many destinations as possible for the
sake of education as well as pleasure.
I
have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the
giver.
I
love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a
bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.
I
speak to the black experience, but I am always talking about the human
condition— about what we can endure, dream, fail at, and still survive.
If
one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform one million realities.
If
we lose love and self respect for each other, this is how we finally die.
If
you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your
attitude. Don't complain.
If
you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.
In
order to be profoundly dishonest, a person must have one of two qualities:
either he is unscrupulously ambitious, or he is unswervingly egocentric.
It
is this belief in a power larger than myself and other
than myself which allows me to venture into the unknown and even the
unknowable.
It
is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is
beauty and there is strength.
Look
for the beauty in things.
Men
fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in
children is increased with tales, so is the other.
Music
was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back
to loneliness.
My
mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of
illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and
more intelligent than college professors.
Nature
has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a
bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway."
Success
is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how
you do it.
Talent
is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug
into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you
can electrocute a person with it.
The
honorary duty of a human being is to love.
The
main thing in one's own private world is to try to laugh as much as you cry.
The
most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.
The
needs of society determine its ethics.
There
is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.
There
is no agony like bearing an untold story inside of you.
There
is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing
to believing nothing.
There's
a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth.
Troubles
are a blessing that force you to change, to believe.
You
did what you knew how to do, and when you knew better, you did better.
Ansari Look to what you do, for that is what you are worth. True labor means neither fasting nor prayer.
If
thou canst walk on water, thou art no better than a straw. If thou canst fly in
the air, thou art no better than a fly. Conquer thy heart that thou mayest become somebody.
St Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274) Catholic priest,
philosopher, and theologian
The
light of faith makes us see what we believe
Beware
the man of one book.
John Arbuthnot, (1667 – 1735), Scottish
Physician, Mathematician, and Satirist
All
political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies.
Biography
is one of the new terrors of death.
Law
is a Bottomless Pit, it is a Cormorant, a Harpy, that
devours every thing.
Archimedes (287 bc – 212 bc) Greek
mathematician, engineer, and physicist
Give
me a place to stand and I will move the world
Eureka!
Aristophanes (450 bc – 388 bc) Greek Athenian comic dramist
The
wise learn many things from their foes.
Under
every stone lurks a politician.
Aristotle (384 bc – 322 bc) Greek critic, philosopher, physicist, &
zoologist
One should always prefer the probable impossible to the
improbable possible.
The gods too are fond of a joke.
Even
the gods cannot change history.
To
perceive is to suffer
All
men by nature desire to know
Man
is a political animal
The
law is reason unaffected by desire
There
was never a genius without a tincture of madness.
In
all things of nature there is something of the marvelous.
All
human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature,
compulsion, habit, reason, passion, and desire.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to
entertain a thought without accepting it.
I
count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who overcomes his enemies.
I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law.
Nature does nothing uselessly.
Matthew Arnold
(1822-1888) English critic and poet
The
strongest part of our religion today is its unconscious poetry.
The
bible is no longer dogma, it is literature.
The
freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
Truth
sits upon the lips of a dying man.
The
free-thinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
Isaac Asimov (1920-1972)
The
most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most
discoveries, is not “
If
knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve
them.
Never
let your sense of moral get in the way of doing what’s right.
I
am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an
atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually
unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one
didn't have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I
finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason.
Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God
doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste
my time.
Creationists
make it sound as though a "theory" is something you dreamt up after
being drunk all night.
I
don't believe in an
afterlife, so I don't have to spend my whole life fearing hell, or fearing
heaven even more. For whatever the tortures of hell, I think the boredom of
heaven would be even worse.
Violence is the last refuge of the
incompetent.
It
pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety.
Never
let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.
There's
something about a pious man such as he. He will cheerfully cut your throat if
it suits him, but he will hesitate to endanger the welfare of your immaterial
and problematical soul.
Now
any dogma, based primarily on faith and emotionalism, is a dangerous weapon to
use on others, since it is almost impossible to guarantee that the weapon will
never be turned on the user.
I
believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning,
confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild
and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous
something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.
There
is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who
will defend it to the death.
We
are ensnared by the wisdom of the serpent; we are set free by the foolishness
of God.
The
greatest virtues are only splendid sins
What
is faith save to believe what you do not see
Understanding
is the reward of faith. Therefore seek
not to understand that thou mayest believe, but
believe that thou mayest understand.
There
is no possible source of evil except good.
People
travel to wonder at the height of the mountain, at the huge waves of the sea,
at the long course of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular
motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
Augustus (121 – 180) Roman Emperor, Stoic Philosopher
The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and
know them for what they are.
You will find
rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your
last.
By a tranquil mind I mean nothing else
than a mind well ordered.
All
is ephemeral - fame and the famous as well.
It
is man's peculiar duty to love even those who wrong him.
By
a tranquil mind I mean nothing else than a mind well ordered.
Baba Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert, 1931 - ) Contemporary spiritual
teacher
The quieter you become, the more you can hear.
Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani, 1894-1969) Indian Spiritual Teacher
The finding of God is the coming to one's own self.
Don't worry, be happy.
If
God can be found through the medium of any drug, God is not worthy of being
God.
Satya Sai Baba (born Sathyanarayana Raju, 1926-) Southern Indian Guru and religious leader.
People
say “I want peace.” If you remove “I”
(ego), and your “want” (desire), you are left with peace.
Francis Bacon
(1561 – 1626) English philosopher, statesman, and essayist
If
we do not maintain Justice, Justice will not maintain us.
Universities
incline wits to sophistry and affection.
The
sum of behavior is to retain a man’s own dignity, without intruding upon the
liberties of others.
Men
fear death as children fear to go in the dark
A
wise man will take more opportunities than he finds.
Knowledge
is power.
Baha’u’llah (born
Mirza Husayn Ali, 1817 –
1892) Founder of the Bahai Religion
Truths
for a new day: 1. The oneness of mankind, 2. The
foundation of all religion is one, 3. Religion must be in accord with science
and reason.
Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693) Zen Buddhist Master
The
farther you enter into the truth, the deeper it is.
You
need do nothing else – no practice, no precepts, no zazen,
or koan study.
If the Buddha-mind is clearly realized, that is enough.
J. M. Barrie
(1860-1937) Scottish Novelist and author of Peter Pan
I’m
not young enough to know everything.
Do you believe in fairies?...If you
believe, clap your hands!
It
is frightfully difficult to know much about the fairies, and almost the only
thing known for certain is that there are fairies wherever there are children.
Always
be a little kinder than necessary.
Matsuo Basho
(1644-1694) Japanese poet in the style of haikai no renga
New Year's first snow - ah - just barely enough to tilt the
daffodil
Summer in the world; floating on the waves of the lake.
Do
not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.
How
very noble! One who finds no satori in the lightning
flash
Why
am I aging so this autumn? A bird flying
into the clouds.
On
a bare branch a crow settles in the autumn dusk.
On
a journey, ill – and my dreams, on withered fields, are wandering still.
How
I long to see among the morning flowers the face of God
Clouds
come from time to time – and bring a chance to rest from looking at the moon.
I
go; thou stayest: Two Autumns
Snow
fallen on snow, and this evening, the full moon of November
Merchants
– who will buy this hat, glazed with snow?
Nothing’s
worth noting that is no seen with fresh eyes.
An
autumn evening – please, I too am a stranger.
Whiter than the stones of
Jean Baudrillard (1929 – 2007) French cultural philosopher
Like
dreams, statistics are a form of wish fulfillment.
The need to speak, even if one has nothing
to say, becomes more pressing when one has nothing to say, just as the will to
live becomes more urgent when life has lost its meaning.
For
it is with the same imperialism that present-day simulators try to make the
real, all the real, coincide with their simulation models.
Today's
terrorism is not the product of a traditional history of anarchism, nihilism,
or fanaticism. It is instead the contemporary partner of globalization.
Charlotte Joko Beck
You
cannot avoid paradise, you can only avoid seeing it.
Samuel Beckett
(1906 – 1989) Irish dramatist and poet
Nothing is more real than nothing.
They were most correct, according to their
god.
It
was long since I had longed for anything and the effect on me was horrible.
Nicholas Berdyaev
(1874 – 1948) Russian religious and political philosopher
Perhaps
the saddest thing to admit is that those who reject the Cross have to carry it,
while those who welcomed it so often engaged in crucifying others.
Claude Bernard
(1813 – 1878) French physiologist
Man can learn nothing except by going from the known to the
unknown.
Yogi Berra (1925
- ) Hall of Fame catcher and baseball
manager
Half this game is ninety percent mental.
You got to be careful if you don't know where you're going,
because you might not get there.
How can you think and hit at the same time?
You can observe a lot just by watching.
No
wonder nobody comes here – it’s too crowded.
When
you come to a fork in the road, take it.
It
gets late early out there.
In theory there is no difference between
theory and practice. In practice there is.
It
ain't over 'til it's over.
It's tough to make predictions, especially
about the future.
The
future ain't what it used to be.
We're
lost but we're making good time.
Ugo Betti (1892 – 1953) Italian playwright
At any given moment, I open my eyes and exist. And before that, during all eternity, what
was there? Nothing
Ambrose Bierce (1842 – 1914) American
editorialist and satirist
Experience is a revelation in light of which we renounce
our errors of youth for those of age.
War is God's way of teaching Americans
geography
Speak
when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
The
covers of this book are too far apart
The
world has suffered more from the ravages of ill-advised marriages than from
virginity.
Bible, n. A collection of fantastic
legends without any scientific support, full of dark hints, historical
mistakes, and contradictions.
Philosophy, n. A route of many roads
leading from nowhere to nothing.
Saint, n. A dead sinner revised and edited
Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is
told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.
Idiot, n. A member of a large and
powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and
controlling. The Idiot's activity is not confined to any special field of
thought or action, but "pervades and regulates the whole." He has the
last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and
opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct
with a dead-line.
Patience, n. A minor form of despair,
disguised as a virtue.
Prayer, n. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a
single petitioner confessedly unworthy.
Otto von Bismarck
(1815 – 1898) Prussian Statesman that organized the unification of
People
never lie so much as after a hunt, during a war, or before an election.
All
treaties between nations cease to be binding when they come in conflict with
the struggle for existence.
He who is not a socialist
at 19, has no heart. He who is still a socialist at 30, has no brain.
Bayazid Bistami (804 – 874) Persian Sufi
The thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet
only seekers find it.
William Blake
(1757 – 1827) English poet
One
thought fills immensity.
R. H. Blyth (1898
– 1964) English author and student of Japanese culture
Zen is poetry; poetry is Zen.
Zen passes through all our definitions and remains Zen as
before.
He (D. T. Suzuki) taught me all that I don't know.
I
have been asked many questions in my like about poetry, religion, life, and I
have given precisely the same number of answers, but I have
never, I repeat, never, satisfied a single interlocutor. Why?
Because all questioning is a way of avoiding the real answer, which, as
Zen tells us, is really known already.
Every man is enlightened, but wishes he wasn’t. Every man knows he must love his enemies, and
sell all he has and give to the poor, but he doesn’t wish to know it – so he
asks questions.
Niels Bohr (1885 –
1962) Danish physicist that developed the modern theory of the atom
Predictions are hard, especially about the future
The opposite of a correct statement is a false
statement. The opposite of a profound
truth may well be another profound truth.
An
expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very
narrow field.
Never
express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.
(to
Albert Einstein) You are not
thinking. You are merely being logical.
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821) French
military and political leader
History
is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon.
The
best way to keep one’s word is not to give it.
Victory
belongs to the most persevering.
A
man may have no religion and yet be moral.
If
I were to give liberty of the press, my power could not last three days.
Borkowski
You can't guard against the arbitrary.
Linda Bowles
Unfortunately,
the media have trouble distinguishing between real science and propaganda
cross-dressed as science.
C.J. Bradfield
Statistics
is the art of never having to say you’re wrong.
Variance is what any two statisticians are at.
Joyce Brothers
(1928 - ) American psychologist
There
is a rule in sailing where the more maneuverable ship should give way to the
less maneuverable craft. I think this is
sometimes a good rule to follow in human relations as well.
Robert Williams
Buchanan (1841 – 1901) Scottish poet
Believing
hath a core of unbelieving.
James Branch Cabell (1879 – 1958) American
author
The
optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the
pessimist fears this is true.
John Cage (1912 – 1992) American composer of
avant-garde music
If you develop and ear for sounds that are musical it is
like developing and ego. You begin to
refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good
deal of experience.
I
can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.
Value
judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.
Albert Camus
(1913 – 1960) French philosopher
From the evening breeze to this hand on my shoulder,
everything has its truth.
I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment, it takes
place every day.
The absurd is clear reason recognizing its limits.
Some
people talk in their sleep. Lecturers
talk while other people sleep.
You
cannot create experience. You must
undergo it.
Our
reason has driven all away. Alone at
last, we end up by ruling over a desert.
Thomas Carlyle
(1795 – 1881) Scottish essayist
Silence is as deep as Eternity; speech as shallow as Time.
Democracy
is, by the nature of it, a self canceling business and gives in the long run a
net result of zero.
As
long as our civilization is essentially one of property, of fences, of
exclusiveness, it will be mocked by delusions.
Every
new opinion, at its starting, is precisely a minority of one.
The
greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none.
Johnny Carson (1925
– 2005) Tonight Show host
People
will pay more to be entertained that to be educated.
Lewis Carroll
(1832 – 1898) English author mathematician and logician
Now,
here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same
place. If you want to get somewhere
else, you must run at least twice as fast as that (Through the Looking Glass)
Thomas Carruthers
A
teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.
Jimmy Carter (1924 - ) 39th President of the
You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it
even better than you think you can.
John L. Casti
Reality
is a wave function traveling both backward and forward in time.
Charlie Chaplin (1889 – 1977) English comedy
actor
In
the end, everything is a gag.
G. K. Chesterton
(1874 – 1936) English writer
Nothing is certain but uncertainty.
You can only find truth with logic if you have already
found truth without it.
There
is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect.
A
good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tell us the truth
about its author.
Anything
worth doing is worth doing badly.
Art
consists of limitation. The most
beautiful part of every picture is the frame.
Christianity
has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried
I
believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.
I
still believe in liberalism today as much as I ever did, but, oh, there was a
happy time when I believed in liberals.
Love
means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all.
Marriage
is an adventure, like going to war.
Progress
is the mother of all problems
The
thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.
The
Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably
because they are generally the same people.
The
coziness between church and state is good for the state and bad for the church
The
honest poor can sometimes forget poverty.
The honest rich can never forget it.
The
way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
Truth
must necessarily be stranger than fiction, for fiction is the creation of the
human mind and therefore congenial to it.
It
isn’t that they can’t see the solution.
It is that they can’t see the problem.
An
adventure is only an inconvenience rightly understood; an inconvenience is only
an adventure wrongly considered.
Chuang-tzu (Zhuangzi) 4th
century Chinese philosopher
To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
All the fish needs is to get lost in water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.
If you try to know it, you have already departed from it.
The
torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.
When
we understand, we are at the center of the circle, and there we sit while Yes
and No chase each other around the circumference.
If
one asks about Tao and another answers him, neither of them knows it.
Right
is not right; so is not so. If right
were really right, it would differ so clearly from not right that there would
be no need for argument. If so were
really so, it would differ so clearly from not so that there would be no need
for argument. Forget the years; forget
distinctions. Leap into the boundless
and make it your home.
Who
can look on non-being as his head, on life as his back, and on death as his
rump? Who knows that life and death,
existence and annihilation, are all in a single body? I will be his friend.
A
dog is not reckoned good because he barks well, and a man is not reckoned wise
because he speaks skillfully.
The
sound of water says what I think.
The
universe came into being with us together; with us, all things are one.
The
knowledge of the ancients was perfect.
How perfect? At first they did
not know that there were things. This is
the most perfect knowledge – nothing can be added. Next, they knew that there were things, but
did not make distinctions between them.
Next they made distinctions, but did not pass judgment. When they started to pass judgment, the Tao
was destroyed.
Winston Churchill (1874 – 1965) British
politician and Prime Minister during WWII
Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of
the time he will pick himself up and continue.
Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge
Any
man who is under 30 and is not a liberal, has no heart; and any man who is over
30, and is not conservative, has no brain
History
will be kind to me for I intend to write it
The
greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.
The
inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal share of the blessings; the inherent
virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.
The
optimist sees opportunity in every danger; the pessimist sees danger in every
opportunity.
We
make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Whatever happens in accordance with nature should be
accounted good.
The
authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn
Arthur C Clarke
(1917 - ) British science fiction
writer including 2001: A Space Odyssey
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable
from magic.
When
a distinguished but elderly scientist stats that
something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible,
he is very probably wron.
The
only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the
impossible.
It
may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him.
Samuel Clements
(1835 – 1910) American humorist and author (aka Mark Twain)
Always do right - this will gratify some and astonish the
rest
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over
the man who cannot read them.
Faith
is believing what you know ain’t so.
Few
things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.
I
didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.
I
have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
It
is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably
precious things, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence
never to practice either of them.
Let
us be thankful for the fools. But for
them the rest of us could not succeed.
Man
is the only animal that blushes – or needs to.
Often
it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.
The
human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.
The
more I know about people, the more I like my dog.
The
principle of give and take is the principle of diplomacy – give one and take
ten.
Truth
is more of a stranger than fiction.
Under
certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.
You
cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
Let
us endeavor to live so that when we come to die, even the undertaker will be
sorry.
Cochrane Before ordering a test, decide what you will do if the
results are positive or negative. If
both answers are the same, don't take the test.
Confucius (551bc
– 479bc) Chinese philosopher
I hear and I forget, I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
If you know, say you know.
If you don't know, say you don't know.
By
three methods may we learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest;
second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is
bitterest.
We
don’t know yet about life, how can we know about death?
Silence
is a friend that will never betray you.
If
you plan for a year, plant rice. If you
plan for a decade, plant trees. If you
plan for a lifetime, educate children.
Samuel Taylor
Coleridge (1772 – 1834) English poetic and philosopher
He
prayeth best, who loveth
best all things both great and small.
Calvin Coolidge
(1872 – 1933) 30th President of the
I
have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm.
Rene Coty (1882 –
1962) President of
It’s
taken me all my life to understand that it is not necessary to understand
everything.
Noel Coward (1899
– 1973) English actor and musician
Work is much more fun than fun.
Edward Dahlberg
(1900 – 1977) American novelist
It takes a long time to understand nothing.
The Dalai Lama
(aka Tenzin Gyatso, 14th
successor) (1935 - )
My
religion is kindness.
The
only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.
Simone de
Beauvoir (1908 – 1986) French author and philosopher
I
wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom.
W. E. Deming
The
minute a statistician steps into the position of the executive who must make
decisions and defend them, the statistician ceases to be a statistician.
The
only useful function of a statistician is to make predictions, and thus to
provide a basis for action.
St. Denis,
Christian martyr and bishop of
The most divine knowledge of God is that which is known by
not knowing.
Rene Descartes
(1596 – 1650) French philosopher and mathematician
If
you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in
your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.
In
order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn than to contemplate.
Taisen Deshimaru (1914 – 1982) Soto Zen Buddhist teacher
Time is not a line, but a series of now points.
Emily Dickinson
(1830 – 1886) American poet
The
truth dazzles gradually, or else the world would be blind.
Denis Diderot
(1713 – 1784) French philosopher
I
have only a small flickering light to guide me in the darkness of a thick
forest. Up come a theologian and blows
it out.
Annie Dillard
(1945 - ) American author
We are here to witness the creation and to abet it.
Paul Dirac (1902
– 1984) British theoretical physicist
In
science one tries to tell people in such a way as to be understood by everyone,
something that no one ever knew before.
But in poetry, it’s exactly the opposite
Benjamin Disraeli
(1804 – 1881) Conservative Prime Minister of
The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are
perpetuated by quotations.
Action
may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
It
is easier to be critical than correct
There
are three kinds of lies, lies, damned lies, and statistics
What
we anticipate seldom occurs; but what we least expect generally happens
A
precedent embalms a principle.
When
men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.
The
sense of existence is the great happiness.
J. Frank Dobie (1888 – 1964) American
folklorist
The average Ph.D. thesis is nothing by a
transference of bones from one graveyard to another.
Dogen (1200 – 1253)
Japanese Zen Buddhist teacher
That the self advances and confirms the ten thousand things
is called delusion; That the ten thousand things
advance and confirm the self is call enlightenment.
Zazen is itself enlightenment.
Do not travel far to other dusty lands, forsaking your own
sitting place; if you cannot find the truth where you are now, you will never
find it.
Since it is the practice of enlightenment, that practice
has no beginning and since it is enlightenment within the practice, that
realization has no end.
Do
not arouse disdainful mind when you prepare a broth of wild grasses; do not
arouse joyful mind when you prepare a fine cream soup.
In
a snowfall that covers the winter grass a white heron uses his own whiteness to
disappear.
Do
no arouse disdainful mind when you prepare a broth of wild grasses; do not
arouse joyful mind when you prepare a fine cream soup.
Do
not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment.
A
monk asked Joshu, “Does a dog have Budda nature?” Joshu replied, “Mu.”
Beyond this word “Mu”, can you measure or grasp anything? There is entirely nothing to hold on to. What is conducted? What is birth and death? What is Buddha dharma? What are the laws of the world? What in the end are mountains, rivers, earth,
human beings, animals, and houses?
Truth
is not far away. It is nearer than
near. There is no need to attain it,
since not one of your steps leads away from it.
Consider
that nirvana is itself no other than our life.
Feodor Dostoyevsky (1821 – 1881) Russian
novelist
Thou
shalt love life more than the meaning of life.
God
sets us nothing but riddles.
Peter Drucker (1909 – 2005) Writer and management consultant
Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing right things.
William Drummond
He
who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not
is a slave.
Dunlap Fact is solidified by opinion; facts may weaken under extreme
heat and pressure; truth is elastic.
K. Dunnigan
A
statistician is a person who stands in a bucket of ice water, sticks his head
in an oven, and says on average I feel fine.
Will Durant (1885
– 1981) American philosopher and historian
Nothing is often a good thing to do and always a good thing
to say.
Democracy
is the most difficult of all forms of governments, since it requires the widest
spread of intelligence.
Protestantism
was the triumph of Paul over Peter.
Fundamentalism is the triumph of Paul over Christ.
Marguerite Duras
(1914 – 1996) French writer and director
I have never waited for anything the way I've waited for
today, when nothing will happen.
Meister Eckhart (1260 – 1328) German
theologian and philosopher
A
man shall be free, and as pure as the day prior to his conception in his
mother’s womb, when he has nothing, wants nothing and knows nothing.
God
can no more do without us than we can do without him.
What
is truth? Truth is something so noble
that if God could turn aside from it, I would keep to the truth and let God go.
If
it is true that God became man, it is also true that man became God.
In
silence a man can most readily preserve his integrity.
Man’s
last and highest parting is when, for God’s sake, he takes leave of God.
Scripture
says, “No one knows the Father but by the Son.”
Therefore, if you want to know God, you must not only be like the Son,
you must be the Son.
If
one could understand a flower as it has its being in God – this would be a
higher thing than the whole world.
Doc Edgerton (1903 – 1990) American inventor
That’s
the nature of research – you don’t know what the hell you’re doing
Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) German
theoretical physicist, Times person of the 20th century
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a
miracle.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
Not everything that can be counted counts, and not
everything that counts can be counted.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler
A
man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. He sits on a hot stove for a minute; it’s
longer than any hour. That is relativity
A
man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and
social ties; no religious basis is necessary.
Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of
punishment and hope of reward after death
A
person starts to live when he can live outside himself
A
theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is something everybody
believes, except the person who made it.
Anyone
who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.
As
far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as
far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality
Before
God we are all equally wise – and equally foolish
Common
sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
Do
not worry about your difficulties in mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.
Everything
that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor
in freedom.
Generations
to come will find it difficult to believe that a man such as Gandhi ever walked
the face of the earth.
Great
spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man
does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and
courageously uses his intelligence.
I
live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of
maturity.
I
never think of the future – it comes soon enough.
If
I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.
If
the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.
If
we knew what we were doing, it wouldn’t be called research
Imagination
is more important than knowledge, for knowledge is limited while imagination embraces
the world.
In
the middle of difficulty come opportunity
It
is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education
My
religion consists of a humble admiration of the unlimitable
superior who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with
our frail and feeble minds. That deeply
emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is
revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.
Only
two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure
about the former.
Science
without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
The
grand aim of all science is to cover the greatest number on empirical facts by
logical deduction from the smallest number of hypotheses or axioms
The
hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax
The
most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.
The
most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is all comprehensible.
The
secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
Whoever
undertakes to set himself up as judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by
the laughter of the gods.
Only
a life lived for others is a life worth while.
Whoever
is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important
matters.
1.
Out of clutter find
simplicity, 2. from discord, find
harmony, 3. In the middle of difficulty
lies opportunity (three work rules)
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not
one bit simpler.
We must learn to see the world anew.
T. S. Eliot (1888
– 1965) British-American poet and dramatist
Where
is the knowledge that is lost in information?
Where is the wisdom that is lost in knowledge?
Ralph
Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) American essayist and poet. Leader of the
Transcendentalism movement
Sometimes a scream is better than a thesis
Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in
it.
There is a crack in everything God has made.
The world is all gate, opportunities, strings of tension
waiting to be struck.
Standing on the bare ground…a mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing;
I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.
Do
not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a
trail
I
hate quotations. Tell me what you know.
Nothing
great was ever achieved without enthusiasm
Nothing
is beneath you if it is in the direction of your life.
People
only see what they are prepared to see.
When
it is dark enough, you can see the stars.
It
is very hard to be simple enough to be good.
The
only preparation I can make for death is by fulfilling my present duties. This is the everlasting life.
God
offers every mind its choice between truth and repose.
God
builds his ‘temples in the heart’ on the ruins of churches and religions
The
days come and go like muffled and veiled figures sent from a distant party, but
they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as
silently away.
The
invariable mark of wisdom is seeing the miraculous in the common.
Epictetus (55 – 135)
Greek stoic
Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly
as it does.
All
philosophy lies in two words: sustain and abstain.
Whenever
anyone is against his will that is to him a prison.
Epicurus (341bc – 270bc) Greek philosopher
Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no
concern to us; for while we exist death is not
present, and when death is present, we no longer exist.
The
gods can either take away evil from the world and will not, or, being willing
to do so cannot, or they neither can nor will, or lastly, they are able and
willing. If they have the will to remove
evil and cannot, then they are not omnipotent.
If they can but will not, then they are not benevolent. If they are neither able nor willing, they
are neither omnipotent for benevolent.
Lastly, if they are both able and willing to annihilate evil, why does
it exist?
A
free life cannot acquire many possessions, because this is not easy to do
without servility to mobs or monarchs.
Necessity
is an evil, but there is no necessity to live under the control of necessity.
If
you enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of philosophy.
If
God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly die for they are
forever praying for evil against one another.
Desiderius Erasmus (1466 –
1536) Dutch humanist and theologian
All
things obey money.
It
is impossible to live with women or without
In
the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Who
feed on hope hang on, but do no live.
Len Evans
You
can pay attention to the fact, in which case you’ll probably become a
mathematician, or you can ignore it, in which case you’ll probably become a
physicist.
Norman Fischer (1879 – 1948) British civil
servant
Meditation is when you sit down and do nothing. Poetry is when you sit down and do something.
Henry Ford (1863 – 1947) Founder of the Ford
Motor Company
My
best friend is one who brings out the best in me!
Obstacles
are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
One
of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find
he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.
The
highest use of capital is not to make more money, but to make money do more for
the betterment of life.
Whether
you think you can, or that you can’t, you are usually right.
You
can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.
Kelly Fordyce
Language
is a wonderful thing. It can be used to
express thoughts, to conceal thought, but more often, to replace thinking.
Harry Emerson
Fosdick (1878 – 1969) American theologian
No
existent theology can be a final formulation of a spiritual truth.
George Fox (1624
– 1691) Founder of Society of Friends (Quakers)
Be
still and cool in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and then thou
wilt feel the principle of God to turn thy mind to the Lord God.
Foyan
Buddhism
is extremely easy and saves the most energy.
It’s just that you yourself waste energy and cause yourself trouble.
Leonard Roy Frank
Democracy
+ Private ownership = Capitalism; Democracy + Public ownership = Socialism; Dictatorship +
Private ownership = Fascism; Dictatorship + Public ownership = Communism
Benjamin Franklin
(1706 – 1790) One of
There
are three great friends: and old wife, and old dog, and ready money
Whatever
is begun in anger ends in shame
There
was never a good war or a bad peace
Laws
gentle are seldom obeyed, too severe seldom executed
We
must indeed hand together or most assuredly we shall all hang separately
They
that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve
neither liberty nor safety
If
you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.
One
of the greatest tragedies of life is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang
of brutal facts.
Erich Fromm (1900 – 1980) German social
scientist
The quest for certainty blocks the search for meaning. Uncertainty is the very condition to impel
man to unfold his powers.
Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a
problem which he has to solve.
Religion
– What at one time was a dynamic structure, mediating between man and his
destiny and interpersonal responsibilities, has become mere mechanical ritual
that dwarfs men rather than strengthens them.
Robert Frost
(1874 – 1963) American poet laureate
The best way out is always through.
In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about
life. It goes on.
You
are educated when you have the ability to listen to almost anything without
losing your temper or self-confidence.
A
jury consists of twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.
A
liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.
Don’t
ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.
Hell
is a half-filled auditorium
The
brain is a wonderful organ. It starts
working the moment you get up in the morning, and does not stop until you get
into the office.
I
hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.
A
poem begins with a lump in the throat.
J. William
Fulbright (1905 – 1995)
Government
by the people is possible, but highly improbable
My
question is whether
R. Buckminster Fuller (1895 – 1983) American
author and inventor
When I am working on a problem I never think about
beauty. I only think about how to solve
the problem. Bit when I have finished,
if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
Either
war is obsolete, or man is
Don’t
oppose forces, used them. God is a verb,
not a noun.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 – 2006) Canadian-American
economist
Politics
is not the art of the possible. It
consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
Wealth
is the relentless enemy of understanding
George Gallup (1901 – 1984) Developer of the
I
could prove God statistically
Gampopa (1079 – 1153)
Founder of the Kagyu
Too close to be recognized, Too
deep to grasp, Too easy to believe, Too amazing to be understood
intellectually.
Indira Gandhi (1917 –
1984) Prime Minister of
You must learn to be still in the midst of activity and to
be vibrantly alive in repose.
You
can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.
Mahatma Gandhi
(1869 – 1948) Political and spiritual leader of
Everything we do is futile, but we must do it anyway.
When asked what he thought of Western civilization, he
said, "I think it would be a good idea".
Consciously
or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service
deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and will
make, not only our own happiness, but that of the world at large.
Honest
disagreement is often a good sign of progress.
I
believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.
There
is more to life than increasing its speed.
We
must become the change we want to see.
Whatever
you do will be insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.
Where
there is love there is life
Hate
the sin, love the sinner
I
believe in the doctrine of non-violence as a weapon of the weak. I believe in the doctrine of non-violence as
a weapon of the strongest. I believe
that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed.
God
never occurs to you in person but always in action.
Be
the change you want to see in the world.
Live
as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever.
Jerry Garcia (1942 – 1995) Musician,
songwriter, and singer of the Greatful Dead
Truth
is something you stumble into when you think you are going someplace else.
John Gay (1685 – 1732) English poet
Shadow
owes its birth to light.
Andre Gide (1869 – 1951) French author and
Nobel Prize winner
One
doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a
very long time.
Thomas Gilb (1940 - )
American systems engineer
Any system which depends on human reliability is
unreliable.
Kahlil Gibran (1883 –
1931) Lebanese American writer
A
root is a flower that disdains fame.
Forget
not that the earth likes to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with
your hair.
Dizzy Gillespie
(1917 – 1993) American jazz trumpeter
It's taken me all my life to learn what not to play.
Ellen Glasgow
(1873 – 1945) American author and Pullizer Prize
winner
All change is not growth: all movement is not forward.
The
mob that would die for a belief seldom hesitates to inflict death upon any
opposing heretical group.
Gail Godwin (1937
- ) American novelist
Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater
William Godwin
(1756 – 1836) English novelist and philosopher
God
himself has no right to be a tyrant
Martyrs
are suicides by the very definition of the term
Johann Wolfgang
von Goethe (1749 – 1832) German writer and philosopher
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less
interesting than looking.
Every situation - nay, every moment - is of infinite worth
for it is representative of a whole eternity.
What, then, is your duty?
What the day demands.
It is better to do the most trifling thing in the world
than to regard half an hour as a trifle.
As long as
you haven’t experienced this: to die and so to grow, you are only a troubled
guest on the dark earth
Age does not
make us childish, if finds us true children.
Everything
in the world may be endured except continued prosperity
Mathematicians
are like Frenchman: whatever you say to them they translate into their own
language and forthwith it is something entirely different.
More Light!
(dying words)
Nothing
shows a man’s character more than what he laughs at.
The artist
alone sees spirits. But after he has
told of their appearing to him, everyone sees them.
The
intelligent man finds almost everything ridiculous, the sensible man hardly
anything.
Treat people
as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they
are capable of being.
Viewed from
the summit of reason, all life looks like a malignant disease and the world
like a madhouse.
What does
not kill me makes me stronger.
Whatever you
can do or dream, you can begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
When ideas
fail, words come in very handy.
Art is long,
life short, judgment difficult, opportunity fleeting
With wisdom
grows doubt
The fool and
the wise man are equally harmless; it is the half-wise and the half-foolish who
are most to be feared
How can you
come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you’ll know right
away what amount to. And what is your
duty? Whatever the day
calls for.
Sidney Goff
A
good time to keep your mouth shut is when you are in deep water.
Barry Goldwater (1909 – 1998) American
politician and presidential candidate
I
would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in
the pursuit of justice is no virtue!
Gregory of Nyssa (335 – 394) Early Christian
bishop
The
path that lies beyond our immediate grasp is infinite.
Baltasar Gracian (1601 – 1658) Spanish writer
Sometimes it proves that highest understanding is not to
understand.
It
is as hard to tell the truth as to hide it.
Che Guevara (1928 –
1967) Argentine Marxist who supported revolutionary activities in
Silence
is argument carried out by other means.
Ekaku Hakuin (1686 – 1769) Supporter of the Rinzai
Not knowing how near the truth is, we seek it far away.
Nirvana
is right here, before our eyes
Pointing
directly to the human heart: See into
your own nature and become Buddha!
All
you clever young people, no matter what you say, if you don’t hear the sound of
one hand, everything else is rubbish!
Dag Hammarskjold (1905 – 1961) Swedish
Diplomat and second Secretary General of the United Nations
God
does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we
die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance,
renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.
The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the
better you will hear what is sounding outside.
And only he who listens can speak.
Do
not seek death. Death will find
you. But seek the road which makes death
a fulfillment.
The
longest journey is the journey inward…the road to holiness necessarily passes
through the world of action.
The
more faithfully you listen to the voice within you, the better you will hear
what is sounding outside. And only he
who listens can speak.
Hashin
There is neither heaven nor earth, only snow, falling
incessantly
Steven Hawkings
(1942 - ) British theoretical physicist
Progress does not consist in replacing a theory that is wrong
with one that is right. It consists in
replacing a theory that is wrong with one that is more subtly wrong.
Ben Hecht (1894 – 1964) Broadway playwrite
Trying
to determine what is going on in the world by reading newspapers is like trying
to tell the time by watching the second hand of a clock.
Prejudice
is a raft onto which the shipwrecked mind clambers and paddles to safety
Joseph Heller (1923 – 1999) American novelist
best known for Catch-22
He
had decided to live forever or die in the attempt
Some
men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have
mediocrity thrust upon them.
The
enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on.
There
is wisdom in madness and strong probability of truth in all accusations, for
people are complete, and everyone is capable of everything.
The
promises of maniacs, like those of women, are not safely relied upon.
Christian
Johann Heinrich Heine (1797 – 1856) German journalist and poet. Born Jewish, he later converted to
Christianity
Whenever
books are burned men also in the end are burned.
Werner Heisenberg
(1901 – 1976) German physicist and father of quantum mechanics
Atoms are not things.
The
very act of observing disturbs the system
Heraclitus (535bc
– 475bc) Greek philosopher
The
path up and down is one and the same.
Georg Wilhelm
Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831) German philosopher
I
am free when I am within myself
Ernest Heminway (1899 – 1961) American novelist
You lose it if you talk about it.
Zbigniew Herbert (1924 –
1998) Polish poet
The pebble is a perfect creature equal to itself mindful of
its limits.
Oliver Herford
(1863 – 1935) American writer
A man is known by the silence he keeps.
Hermann Hesse (1877 – 1962) German novelist
Nothing
in the world is so distasteful to man as to go the way which leads him to
himself.
Adolf Hitler
(1889 – 1945) German author and Chancellor, later became dictator leading to
WWII
What
luck for rulers that men do not think.
Lisa Hoffman
Love
is like pi – natural, irrational, and very important
Baron d’Holdbach
If
God has spoken, why is not the universe convinced?
Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Jr. (1841 – 1935) Justice of the
A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience.
Don't be consistent, but be simply true.
You must see the infinite, i.e., the universal, in your
particular, or it is only gossip.
Every
calling is great when greatly pursued.
Man’s
mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.
The
young man knows the rules, but the old man knows the exceptions.
The
main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts but
learning how to make facts live.
Horngren
Among economists, the real world is often a special case.
Hui-neng
Morals are Buddhas. Delusion is enlightenment
Fundamentally not one thing exists.
The meaning of life is to see.
Forget
the difference between a saint and an ordinary man.
Before
you think good or evil, who are you?
Hubert Humphrey
(1911 – 1978) Vice president and presidential candidate
The
right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken
seriously
Robert A.
Humphrey
An
undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions.
Christmas
Humphreys
That
which has been successfully defined has been successfully killed.
Aldous Huxley (1894 –
1963) British author
Silence is as full of potential wisdom and wit as the unhewn marble of a great sculpture.
After
silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.
Experience
is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.
Experience
teaches on the teachable.
It
is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as
superstitions.
Maybe
this world is another planet’s hell.
Our goal is to discover that we have always been where we
ought to be.
That
men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of
all the lessons that history has to teach.
There
comes a time when one asks even of Shakespeare, even of Beethoven, is this all?
The
more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the
religion of solitude.
Thomas Henry
Huxley (1825 – 1895) British biologist
The great tragedy of Science - the
slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
Hafez Ibrahim
(1872 – 1932) Egyptian poet
The
place you are right now God circled on a map for you.
Kozan Ichikyo
(Death Poem) Empty handed I entered the world, barefoot I
leave it. My coming, my going - Two
simple happenings that got entangled.
Robert Green
Ingersoll (1833 – 1899) American activist and prominent agnostic
In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments; there
are consequences.
In
the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds.
Colleges
are places where pebbles are polished and diamonds are dimmed.
Courage
without conscience is a wild beast.
I
would rather live and love where death is king than have eternal life where love
is not.
In
the republic of mediocrity genius is dangerous.
The
greatest test of courage on earth is to bear defeat without losing heart
Eugene Ionesco
(1909 – 1994) French playwright
It
is not the answer that enlightens, but the questions
Issa
Grasshopper! Be the keeper of the graveyard when I die.
A
cool breeze, the grasshopper singing with all his might
The
turnip farmer points the way with a turnip.
A
hole in the bridge – the horse remembers it in the evening mist.
William James
(1842 – 1910) American psychologist and philosopher
Lives based on having are less free than lives based on
either doing or on being.
All religion begins with the cry "Help!"
The
art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.
A
great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging
their prejudices.
The
greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives
by altering their attitudes of mind.
Genius
means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual
way.
Religion,
in short, is a monumental chapter in the history of human egotism.
There
is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.
My
first act of free will shall be to believe in free will.
When
you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is itself a choice.
James Jeans (1877
– 1946) British physicist and astronomer
The
plain fact is that there are no conclusions.
From
the intrinsic evidence of his creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now
begins to appear as a pure mathematician.
Jan-fishan
You may follow one stream.
Know that it leads to the Ocean, but do not mistake the stream for the
Ocean.
Karl Jaspers
(1883 – 1969) German psychologist and philosopher
The moment is the sole reality
Thomas Jefferson
(1743 – 1826) one of the founding father, principle author of the Declaration
of
In
every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to
The
price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
The
merchant has no country
The
whole of government consists in the art of being honest.
Those
who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people.
We
should all then, like the Quakers, live without an order of priest, moralize
for ourselves, follow the oracle of conscience, and say nothing about what no
man understand, nor therefore believe.
Of
all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my
observation, none appears to me so pure as that of Jesus.
Had
the doctrines of Jesus been preach always as pure as they came from his lips,
the whole civilized world would now have been Christian.
And
the day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being
as His Father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the
generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.
Our
liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without
being lost.
Joshu
When a sincere man teaches a wrong doctrine the doctrine
becomes truth; when an insincere man expounds a true doctrine it becomes error.
Joseph Joubert
(1754 – 1824) French moralist
Words,
like eyeglasses, blur everything they do not make clear.
To
teach is to learn twice
Carl Jung (1875 – 1961) Swiss psychologist
The
greatest sin is to be unconscious.
Everything
that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
Nothing
worse could happen to one than to be completely understood.
There
can be no transforming of darkness into light and of apathy into movement
without emotion.
The
realities of faith lie outside the realm of psychology.
If
there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine
it and see whether it is not something that could be better changed in
ourselves.
Kabir (1440 – 1518)
Indian mystic and philosopher
The knowledge beyond knowledge is my knowledge.
Franz Kafka (1883
– 1924) Bohemian Jewish novelist
We
are sinful not merely because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also
because we have not eaten of the Tree of Life.
Our
world is merely a practical joke of God.
Beyond
a certain point there is no return. This
point has to be reached.
Kamin
When attempting to predict legislative moves by a
politician, never be misled by what is said; instead -- watch what is done.
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) Prussian
philosopher
Supreme
Being is, therefore, for the speculative reason, a mere ideal, though faultless
one, the objective reality of which can neither be
proved or disproved by pure reason.
Philip Kapleau
Those driven by the need to dispel a fundamental
contradiction between their faith in the truth of the Buddha's pronouncement
and the evidence of their senses have a natural koan.
Dainin Katagiri
If we were not already Buddha, we could not bow to the
Buddha. When the Buddha receives our
bow, we become one with him. At the very
moment the practice of the bow is actualized.
The Buddha does not force the practice of the bow upon us but that which
has been offered is brought back to us.
In Zen monasteries there is always a verse written on a
wooden gong that reminds us how important the problem of life and death
is. The person who hits this gong is
always looking at the verse. This is Zen
practice.
John Keats (1795
– 1821) English poet
The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make
up one's mind about
Philosophy
will clip an angel’s wings.
Walt Kelly (1913
– 1973) American cartoonist
I
refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person.
Look
alive, here come the buzzards.
Thomas A Kempis
Would to God that we might spend a single day really well!
A
humble knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God than a deep search after
learning.
Yoshida Kenko (1283
– 1350) Japanese author
If you imagine that once you have accomplished your
ambitions you will have time to turn to the Way, you will discover that your
ambitions never come to an end.
If
life were eternal all interest and anticipation would vanish. It is uncertainty which lend it satisfaction.
So
long as people, being ill-governed, suffer from hunger, criminals will never
disappear. It is extremely unkind to
punish those who, being sufferers from hunger, are compelled to violate laws.
John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963) President of
the
Compromise
does not mean cowardice.
The
world is very different now. For man
holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and
all forms of human life.
Jack Kerouac
(1922 – 1969) American novelist
Conceive of Nothing while you live
and I give you Heaven.
Khawwas
All wisdom can be stated in two lines: What is done for you - allow it to be
done. What you must do yourself - make
sure you do it.
Soren Kierkegaard
(1813 – 1855) Danish philosopher
A fly, when it exists, has as much being as God.
To
love another person is to help them love God.
Life
can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
For
if God does not exist it would of course be impossible to prove it, and if he
does exists it would be folly to attempt it.
It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Martin Luther
King Jr. (1929 – 1968) American minister and leader of the
Shallow
understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute
misunderstanding from people of ill will.
Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Everyone
can be great because anybody can serve.
You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb
agree to serve, you only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love.
Hatred
paralyzes life; love releases it
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.
Man
must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression
and retaliation. The foundation of such
a method is love.
Our
scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
The
church must be the critic and guide of the state, and never its tool.
We
shall match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure
suffering. Do to us what you will and we
shall continue to love you.
When
your are right, you cannot be too radical;
when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.
Nothing
in the world is more dangerous than a sincere ignorance and conscientious
stupidity.
The
choice today is not between violence and non-violence. It is either non-violence or non-existence.
Henry Kissinger
(1923 - ) German born American diplomat
University politics are vicious precisely because the
stakes are so small.
I
don’t know as much as God, but I know more than he did at my age.
Muso Kokushi
Do
not consciously seek enlightenment.
Jack Kornfield
There
are no holy places and no holy people, only holy moments, only moments of
wisdom.
Paul Krassner
I used to believe in reincarnation, but that was in a past
life.
Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895 – 1986) Indian author and philosopher
Meditation
is not the means to an end. It is both
the means and the end.
Truth
is a pathless land. You cannot approach
it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.
Jean de LaBruyere
All
our evils come from not being able to be alone.
A
wise man neither suffers himself to be governed, nor attempts to govern others.
Women
run to extremes; they are either better or worse than men.
Time,
which strengthens friendship, weakens love.
There
is nothing of which we are so fond, and withal so careless, as life.
Charles Lamb
Nothing puzzles me more than time and space; yet nothing
troubles me less.
Lao-tzu 4th century bc Chinese of philosopher
Approach it and there is no beginning; follow it and there
is no end. You can't know it, but you
can be it, at ease in your own life.
Just realize where you come from: this is the essence of wisdom.
True words always seem paradoxical but no other form of
teaching can take their place
A truly good man is not aware of his goodness, and it therefore
good.
The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
When you look for it, there is nothing to see. When you listen for it, there is nothing to
hear. When you use it, it is
inexhaustible.
True perfection seems imperfect, yet perfectly itself. True fullness seems empty, yet is fully
present.
Hope and fear are both phantoms that arise from thinking of
the self. When we don't see the self as
self, what do we have to fear?
True words aren't eloquent; eloquent words aren't
true. Wise men don't need to prove their
point; men who need to prove their point aren't wise.
The sage himself never strives for the great, and thereby
the great is achieved.
He who knows speaks not; he who speaks, knows not.
Ordinary
men hate solitude. But the Master makes
use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole
universe.
To
love someone deeply gives you strength.
Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.
When
a foolish man hears of the Tao, he laughs out loud. If he didn’t laugh, it wouldn’t be the Tao.
Tao
never does anything; yet through it all things are done.
To
yield is to be preserved whole. To be
bent is to become straight. To be hollow
is to be filled. To be tattered is to be
renewed. To be in want is to
possess. To have plenty is to be
confused.
To
know that you do not know is the best.
To pretend to know when you do not know is a disease.
To
the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.
Throw
away the sacredness and wisdom and people will be a hundred times happier.
Only
one who makes no attempt to possess it cannot lose it.
The
Tao is what happens of itself.
Pierre Laplace (1749–1827) French mathematician and astronomer
to Napolean on why his works make no mention of God. "Your highness, I have no need of this
hypothesis."
D. H. Lawrence
(1885 – 1930) English writer
(On religion) Setting the little life in
the circle of the greater life.
I’d
wipe the machines off the face of the earth again, and end the industrial epoch
absolutely, like a black mistake.
Life
is ours to be spent, not to be saved.
I
worship Christ, I worship Jehovah, I worship Pan, I worship Aphrodite. But I do not worship hands nailed and running
with blood, upon a cross, nor licentiousness, nor lust. I want them all, all the gods. They are all God.
Men
are freest when they are most unconscious of freedom.
Life
is what one wants in one’s soul.
Trevor Leggett
All
have the Buddha nature, but it cannot be seen when covered by the passions.
The
life of Zen attainment is not like standing on a riverbank watching the current
and appreciating the water or the landscape as a witness; it is jumping into
the current and becoming one with it.
Lenin (1870 –
1924) Russian revolutionary and Premier of
From each according to his abilities, to each according to his
needs.
Do
not deny the Terror. Don’t minimize the
evils of a Revolution
Never
play with insurrection, but having begun it, make up your mind to go through
with it to the end.
What
else could we have done. (Last words)
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 – 1519) Italian inventor, painter, sculptor,
and musician
There
are three classes. Those who see. Those who see when they are shown. Those who do not see.
Nature
never breaks her own laws.
Experience
never errs; what alone may err is our judgment, which predicts effects that
cannot be produced by our experiments.
Nature
is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience.
Aaron Levenstein
Statistics
are like a bikini. What they reveal is
suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.
Levy
Only God can make a random selection.
Lilly
All laws are simulations of reality.
Lin-chi ( - 866) founder of the Linji
If
you love the sacred and despise the ordinary, you are still bobbing in the ocean
of delusion.
Do
you want to know the Buddha: He is none other than you who stand before me.
Living
in hell is like taking a walk in a beautiful park.
Abraham Lincoln
(1809 – 1865) 16th President of the
Always
bear in mind that your own resolution to success is more important than any
other one thing.
And
in the end it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
As
I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.
Better
to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak our and remove all doubt.
I
claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have
controlled me.
I
do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
I
have come to the conclusion never again to think of marrying, and for this
reason, I can never be satisfied with anyone who would be blockhead enough to
have me.
If
I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop
might as well be closed for any other business.
If
I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
It
has been my experience that folks who have not vices have very few virtues.
My
father taught me to work, he did not teach me to love it.
Nearly
all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give
him power.
No
man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.
People
are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Tact
is the ability to describe others as they see themselves
The
better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.
The
possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the
support of a cause we believe to be just.
What
kills a skunk is the publicity it gives itself.
What
ever you are, be a good one.
With
the catching end the pleasures of the chase.
With
the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should
die.
If
I have lost every friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and
that friend shall be down inside me.
Walter Lippman (1889 – 1974)
Many a time I have wanted to stop talking and find out what I
really believed.
When
men can no longer be theists, they must, if they are civilized, become
humanists.
Henry
Each
dewdrop and raindrop has a whole heaven in it.
The
heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but
they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.
Martin Luther (1483 – 1546) German theologian and one of the
founders of the protestant reformation
There
is no divine authority for preaching that the soul flies out of purgatory
immediately as the money clinks in the till.
Superstition,
idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a-begging.
The
fear of death is merely death itself; he who abolishes that fear from his
heart, neither tastes nor feels death.
Lu Wang
Where
there is good there must be evil.
Antonio Machado
(1875 – 1939) Spanish poet
The
deepest words of the wise man teach us the same as the whistle of the wind when
it blows or the sound of the water when it is flowing.
Between
living and dreaming there is a third thing.
Guess it.
Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469 – 1527) Florentine political figure and playwright
War
is a profession by which a man cannot live honorably; an employment by which
the soldier, if he would reap any profit, is obliged to be false, rapacious,
and cruel.
Politics
have no relation to morals.
It
is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.
For
when men are well governed, they neither seek nor desire any other liberty.
The
fact that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to
grief among so many who are not virtuous.
Men’s
hatred generally spring from fear or envy.
How
perilous it is to free a people who prefer slavery.
Archibald
MacLeish (1892 – 1982) American poet
A poem should not mean, but be.
Doug MacLeod
I
still say a church steeple with a lightening rod on top shows a lack of
confidence.
Maimonides (1135
– 1204) Jewish rabbi and philosopher
Anticipate
charity by preventing poverty.
Malcolm X aka
Malcolm Little (1925 – 1965) American Black Muslim Leader
Power
never takes a back step – only in the face of more power.
Karl Marx (1818 –
1883) philosopher and political economist, father of Communism
Capitalistic
production is not merely the production of commodities; it is essentially the
production of surplus value. All surplus
value, whatever particular it may subsequently crystallize into, is in
substance the materialization of unpaid labor.
The
rich will do everything for the poor except get off their backs.
The
philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to
change it.
Abraham Maslow (1908 – 1970) American
psychologist
I can feel guilty about the past,
apprehensive about the future, but only in the presents can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a
major component of mental wellness.
To the man who only has a hammer in the tool kit, every
problem looks like a nail.
If
you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will
probably be unhappy all the days of your life.
Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954) French artist
I don't know whether I believe in God or not. I think, really, I'm some sort of
Buddhist. But the essential thing is to
put oneself in a frame of which is close to that of prayer.
Rules
have no existence outside of individuals.
Ma-tsu
If the universe is seen to be the realm of the spirit, then
there is nothing outside the realm of the spirit. If it is seen to be truth, then there is
nothing other than truth.
Outside
mind there is no Buddha, Outside Buddha there is no mind.
Somerset Maugham (1874 –
1965) English playwright
There
is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very
little about which one can be certain.
A
proverb distills the wisdom of the ages and only a fool is scornful of the
commonplace.
One
should only have acquaintances and never make friends.
A
dictator must fool all the people all the time and there’s only one way to do
that. He must also fool himself.
I
cannot believe in a God that has neither honor nor common sense.
Vincent McNabb
(1868 – 1943) Irish scholar and priest
There are no short cuts to heaven, only the ordinary ways
of ordinary things.
Meadow
You can't push on a rope.
Yuan Mei (1716 –
1797) Qing Dynasty poet
If I can rejoice for a moment, death at an early age would
still be a long life.
Herman Melville
(1819 – 1891) American novelist, writer of Moby Dick
But
it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.
He
who has never failed somewhere, that man can not be great.
Better
to sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian.
Mencius (Meng-tse) (372bc – 289bc) Chinese philosopher
The
great man is one who never loses his child’s heart
Henry Louis Mencken (1880 – 1956) American
journalist and editor
For centuries, theologians have been explaining the
unknowable in terms of the not worth knowing
A
Sunday school is a prison in which children to penance for the evil conscience
of their parents.
Conscience
is the inner voice which warns us that someone may be looking.
Criticism
is prejudice made plausible.
For
every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
In
this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as
for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
Men
become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in
their readiness to doubt.
Under
democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that
the other party is unfit to rule—and both commonly succeed, and are right.
The
basic fact about human existence is not that it is a tragedy, but that it is a
bore.
To
die for an idea; it is unquestionably noble. But how much nobler it would be if
men died for ideas that were true!
Faith
may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the
improbable.
Thomas Merton (1915 – 1968) American Catholic
author
One
bird sits still watching the work of God: one turning leaf, two falling
blossoms, ten circles upon the pond.
Milarepa (1052 – 1135) Tibetian yogi
My
religion is to live – and die – without regret.
John Stuart Mill (1806 – 1873) British
philosopher and economist
Ask
yourself whether you are happy and you cease to be so.
Conservatives
are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservative.
He
who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.
The
worth of the state, in the long run, is the worth of the individuals composing
it.
We
can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false
opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
Henry Miller
(1891 – 1980) American writer and painter
Usually what is taught in school must be unlearned. Life is the teacher.
If we have not found heaven within, it is a certainty we
will not find it without.
Don’t
look for miracles. You yourself are the
miracle.
Until
we lose ourselves there can be no hope of finding ourselves. We are of the world, and to enter fully into
the world we must first lose ourselves in it.
Example
moves the world more than doctrine.
There
are two paths to take; one back toward comfort and security of death, the other
forward to nowhere.
A. A. Milne (1882 – 1956) English author best
known for Winnie the Pooh
One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is
constantly making exciting discoveries.
John Milton (1608
– 1674) English poet
The first and wisest of them all professed to know this
only, that he nothing knew.
To
reign is worth ambition, though in Hell.
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav’n.
Wilson Mizener
I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
Copy from one, it's plagiarism; copy from two, it's
research.
Michel de
Montaigne (1533 – 1592) French writer and essayist
There is nothing useless in nature; not even uselessness
itself.
The
greatest thing in the world is to know how to be one’s own self.
Nothing
fixes a thing so intensely in the memory as the wish to forget it.
There
is no course of life so weak and sottish as that
which is managed by order, method, and discipline.
There
is nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old
man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.
He
who would teach men to die would at the same time teach them to live.
How
many things which served us yesterday as articles of faith are fables for us
today.
Miracles
arise from our ignorance of nature, not from nature itself.
The
greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to ourselves.
John Muir (1838 –
1914) founder of the Sierra Club
When
one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the
world.
Mumon (1183 – 1260)
Song period Japanese Zen master
The failure is wonderful indeed!
Zen has no gates.
The purpose of Buddha's words is to enlighten others. Therefore Zen should be gateless. But, how does one pass through the gateless
gate?
Vladimir Nabokov (1899 – 1977) Russian
American writer
No
free man needs a God.
Soen Nakagawa (1907 –
1984) Rinzai teacher of Zen Buddhism
Zen, which is fundamentally about the emancipation of all
beings, is unfortunately sealed in a square box called Zen.
Autumn
light fills the room vacancy.
Vast
solitude, my thinning body, transparent autumn
Finished,
finished; when it is completely finished, there is nothing to finish
Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727) English physicist
and mathematician
If
I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
I
shall not mingle conjecture with certainty.
Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) German philosopher
If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back
into you.
I would believe only in a God who could dance.
Faith
means not wanting to know the truth.
It
was subtle for God to learn Greek when he wished to become an author and not to
learn it better.
I tell you: one must still have chaos in one, to give birth
to a dancing star.
Convictions
are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
There
are no eternal facts as there are no absolute truths.
There
is an old illusion, it is called good and evil.
What
ever does not destroy me makes me stronger.
What
is it: is man only a blunder of God’s or is God the only blunder of man.
The
center is everywhere. Bent is the path
of eternity.
And
those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not
hear the music.
Mary Flannery
O'Connor (1925 – 1964) American novelist
There's many a bestseller that could have been prevented by
a good teacher.
Oemaru
The
fire-fly gives light to its pursuer.
P. J. O’Rourke
(1947 - ) American political satirist
Even
a band of angels can turn ugly and start looting if enough
angels are unemployed and hanging around the Pearly Gates convinced that all
the succibi own all the liquor stores in
Heaven.
The
Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller,
richer, and remove crabgrass on your lawn.
The Republicans are the part that says government doesn’t work and then
get elected and prove it.
The
Middle Eastern states aren’t nations; they’re quarrels with borders.
Robert
Oppenheimer (1904 – 1967) American theoretical physicist and director of the
(a quote from the Bhagavadgita after
the first nuclear explosion) I am become
death, shatterer of the worlds.
Sir William Osler (1849 – 1919) Canadian
physician
Look wise, say nothing, and grunt. Speech was given to conceal thought.
A
man is sane morally at 30, rich mentally at 40, wise spiritually at 50 – or
never.
Ovid, aka Publius Ovidius Naso (43bc – 17ad) Roman
poet
Let your hook be always cast. In the stream where you least expect it,
there will be a fish.
George Patton
(1885 – 1945)
If
everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking
The
object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die
for his.
Fritz Perls (1893 – 1970) German psychiatrist
Lose
your mind and come to your senses.
Jacques Pervert
Our Father which are in heaven, stay there and we will stay
on earth, which is sometimes so pretty.
The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting
for our wits to grow sharper.
Pablo Picasso
(1881 – 1973) Spanish painter
I
do not seek. I find.
Brian Pickrell
The
two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity. But not in that order.
Robert Pirsig (1928 - ) American
writer and philosopher
The
only Zen you find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there.
The number of rational hypotheses that can explain any
given phenomenon is infinite.
Plato (423bc – 347bc) Greek philosopher
He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that
his wisdom is in truth worth nothing
A
tyrant is always stirring up some war or other in order that the people may
require a leader.
Plutarch (46 – 120) Greek writer and
historian
Research
is the act of going up alleys to see if they are blind.
Not
even the gods can undo what has been done.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) American poet
and writer
All
that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream
Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) English poet
Whatever
is, is right.
To
err is human, to forgive divine.
Marcel Proust (1871 – 1922) French writer
The
real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having
new eyes.
We
love only what we do not completely possess.
Putt
Technology is dominated by two types of people; those who
understand what they do not manage, and those that manage what they do not
understand.
Pythagoras 6th century bc Greek mathematician and
philosopher
The
oldest, shortest words, ‘yes’ and ‘no’, are those that require the most
thought.
Ramachandra Legendary king of ancient
India
Life
does not need to be changed. Only your
intent and actions do.
When
you no longer make any distinction between the water of this pool and the water
of the
Ayn Rand (1905 –
1982) Russian born American writer and philosopher
If
any civilization is to survive, it is the morality of altruism that men have to
reject.
The
cross is the symbol of torture; I prefer the dollar sign, the symbol of free
trade, therefore of a free mind.
Capitalism
and altruism are incompatible.
Jules Renard (1864 – 1910) French author
I
don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for his reputation if He
didn’t.
As
I grow to understand life less and less, I learn to live it more and more.
John Renmerde
When
one finds oneself in a hole of one’s own making, it is a good time to examine
the quality of the workmanship.
Kenneth Rexroth
(1905 – 1982) American poet
The meaning of life can be revealed but never explained.
Hyman Rickover
(1900 – 1982) Admiral of the
If
you are going to sin, sin against God, not the bureaucracy. God will forgive
you but the bureaucracy won’t.
Great
minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people.
Rainer Maria
Rilke (1875 – 1926) German writer
A
billion stars go spinning through the night, blazing high above your head. But in you is the presence that will be, when
the stars are dead.
Tom Robbins (1936
- ) American writer
Disbelief
in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.
If
little else, the brain is an educational toy.
Politics
is for people who have a passion for changing life but lack a passion for
living it.
There
are many things worth living for, there are a few things worth dying for, but
there is nothing worth killing for.
To
be or not to be isn’t the question. The
question is how to prolong being.
Using
words to describe magic is like using a screwdriver to cut roast beef.
I
believe in nothing, everything is sacred.
I believe in everything, nothing is sacred.
To
achieve the impossible, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought
It
is never too late to have a happy childhood.
Francois de la Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680) French author
Our
virtues are most often, but our vices are disguised.
We
all have strength enough to endure the misfortune of others.
We
need greater virtue to sustain good than evil fortunes.
Those
who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of
great things.
We
would often be ashamed of our nobler actions if all their motives were known.
Few
people know how to be old.
Theodore Roethke
(1908 – 1963) American poet
In a dark time, the eye begins to see.
What
we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.
John Rogers
Grad
school is the snooze button on the clock radio of life.
Will
If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get
us out?
I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat!
Even
if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.
The
man with the best job in the country is the Vice President. All he has to do is get up every morning and
say, “How’s the President?”
There
ought to be one day – just one – when there is open season on senators.
This
country has come to feel the same when Congress is in sessions as when the baby
get hold of a hammer.
We
are all here for a spell; get all the good laughs you can.
You
can’t say civilization isn’t advancing; in every war they kill you in a new
way.
There
is no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for
you.
Maezumi Roshi
Regardless
of how long you sit, the Buddha Dharma never appears because it is already
here! Reveal it! Do not cover it up!
All
day long, we are living the life of the Buddha
The
best way to practice is to forget the self.
Frans Van Roy
If you can distinguish between good advice and bad advice,
then you don't need advice.
Rudnicki
Only someone who understands something absolutely can
explain it so no one else can understand it.
Jelaluddin Rumi (1207 – 1273) Persian Islamic theologian
Those on the way are almost invisible to those who are
not. A man or a woman recognizes God and
starts out. The other say he or she is
losing faith.
If you could get rid of yourself just once, the secrets of
secrets would open to you.
The true teacher knocks down the idol that the student
makes of him.
Listen. Make a way for yourself inside yourself. Stop looking in the other way of looking
I
have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know the reasons, knocking on the
door. It opens. I’ve been knocking from the inside.
Listen
with your ear. Speak without forming words. Language turns against itself and is likely
to cause injury
Be
melting snow. Wash yourself of yourself.
That
moment you leap free of yourself, the wine of the friend, in all its brilliance
and dazzle, is held out to you.
Sogyal Rinpoche (1950 - )
Tibetian Lama
Meditation,
then, is bringing the mind home.
Damon Runyan (1884 – 1946) American newspaperman
It
may be that the race is not always to the swift, nor
the battle to the strong – but that is the way to bet.
John Ruskin (1819
– 1900) English art critic
He who can take no interest in what is small will take
false interest in what is great.
Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970) British
philosopher, mathematician, and logistician
One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is
the belief that one's work is terribly important.
Do
not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once
eccentric.
Mathematics,
rightly viewed, posses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and
austere, like that of a sculpture.
The
whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain
of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
The
secret of happiness is this: Let your
interests be as wide as possible, and let your reactions to things and persons
that interest you be as far as possible friendly rather than hostile.
Mark Russell (1932 - ) American political satirist
The
Republicans have a new healthcare proposal; Just say
NO to illness
The
scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely
of lost airline luggage.
Carl Sagan (1935
– 1996) American astronomer and astrophysicist
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
To say a human being is nothing but molecules and atoms is
like saying a Shakespearean play is nothing but words and letters.
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must
first create the universe.
Abu Said
Take
one step away from yourself, and behold, the path!
George Santayana
(1863 – 1952) Spanish philosopher and author
A
man’s feet should be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the
world.
Beauty
as we feel it is something indescribable; what it is or what it means can never
be said.
Each
religion, by the help of more or less myth which it takes more or less
seriously, proposes some method of fortifying the human soul and enables it to
make its peace with its destiny.
Fanaticism
consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.
Happiness
is the only sanction of life; where happiness fails, existence remains a mad
and lamentable experience.
Matters
of religion should never be matters of controversy. We neither argue with a lover about his taste,
not condemn him, if we are just, for knowing so human a passion.
There
is no cure for birth or death save to enjoy the interval.
Those
who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Taneda Santoka (1882 – 1940) Japanese haiku poet
In the never-ending sound of water, you will always find
the Buddha
William Saroyan
(1908 – 1981) American author
Try
as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you
laugh, laugh like hell and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough.
Jean Paul Sartre
(1905 – 1980) French existential philosopher
…and he was almighty because he had wrenched from chaos the
secret of its nothingness.
Hell is others.
(Hell is other people)
Consciousness is a being, the nature of which is to be
conscious of the nothingness of its being.
If
you say, “Thou shalt not lie,” there is no longer any
possibility of political action.
A
writer must refuse to allow himself to be transformed
into an institution.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860) German
philosopher
If you put a spoonful of wine in a barrelful of sewage, you
get sewage. If you put a spoonful of
sewage in a barrelful of wine, you get sewage.
If
we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that
none of us would be able to endure it.
To
marry is to halve your rights and double your duties.
But
life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.
Optimism
is irreconcilable with Christianity.
A
man can surely do what he wills to do, but he cannot determine what he wills.
Robert Schuller
(1926 - ) American televangelist
What
would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?
Albert Schweitzer
(1875 – 1965) German born physician, philosopher, theologian, and
philanthropist
Truth has no special time of its own. Its hour is now - always.
An
optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees
only the red stoplight. The truly wise
person is color-blind.
Humanitarianism
consists in never sacrificing a human being to a purpose.
The
tragedy of man is what dies inside himself while he still lives.
Reverence
for life is the highest court of appeals.
The
future of civilization depends on our overcoming the meaninglessness and
hopelessness which characterizes the thought of men today.
Segal
A man with one watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the younger (4bc – 65ad) Roman stoic
philosopher
It
is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do
not dare that they are difficult.
We
never reflect how pleasant it is to ask for nothing.
Leisure
without study is death.
Wisdom,
above all else, is liberty.
Most
powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
In
every good man a god doth dwell.
There
has never been a genius without some touch of madness.
A hungry people does not listen to reason.
Might
makes right.
Seng-Tsan
Seeking
the mind with the mind – is not this the greatest of all mistakes?
Nyogen Senzaki (1876 – 1958) Rinzai Zen
monk
You cannot see it with your eyes. You cannot hold it with your hands. You cannot smell it with your nose. You cannot hear it with your ears. You cannot taste it with your tongue. You cannot form it in your thoughts. Here it is!
American
Zen is running sideways, writing books, lecturing, referring to theology,
psychology, and whatnot. Someone should
stand up and smash the whole thing to pieces.
Eric Sevareid (1912
– 1992) American news journalist
Saints
are usually killed by their own people.
Shantideva 8th
century Indian Buddhist
Like
a dream, whatever I enjoy will become a memory; the past is not revisited.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) Irish
playwright
The longer I live, the more I see that I am never wrong
about anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to verify my
notions have only wasted my time.
There is only one religion though there are a hundred
versions of it.
Life is too short for men to take it seriously.
All great truths begin as blasphemies.
No
question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.
A
critic is one who leaves no turn unstoned.
A
fool’s brain digest philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art
into pedantry. Hence University
education.
A
government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.
Better
to keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must
see the world.
Build
a system that even a fool can use, and only a fool will want to use it.
Democracy
is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve
Democracy
substitutes election by the incompetent many for the appointment by the corrupt
few.
If
all economists were laid end to end, they would still not reach a conclusion.
It
is dangerous to be sincere unless you are also stupid.
Life
isn’t about finding yourself. Life is
about creating yourself.
Patriotism
is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were
born in it.
The
power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not
got it.
We
learn form experience that men never learn anything from experience.
Youth
is wasted on the young.
Churches
must learn humility as well as teach it.
When
a thing is funny, search it carefully for a hidden truth.
H. W. Shaw
It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself,
but the most inconvenient one too.
W. H. Sheldon
Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere
wholeheartedly.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 – 1822) English poet
I
believe because I do believe.
No
more let Life divide what Death can join together.
Government
is never supported by fraud until it cannot be supported by reason.
Siddhartha, The Buddha, recognized as the founder of Buddhism
You cannot cross a river in two strides.
(first words after realizing the
truth) I am enlightened, and always have been, simultaneously with the
beginning of the universe.
You
yourselves must make the exertion. The Buddhas are only teachers.
(Near the end of his life)
I am always at the beginning.
Explanation of the unspeakable cannot be finished.
Remember thou must go alone; the Buddhas
only point the way.
The
seeker is that which is being sought
Like
the moon, come out from behind the clouds!
Shine.
Even
death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.
Neither
fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.
Be
a lamp to yourself. Be your own
confidence. Hold to the truth within
yourself, as to the only truth.
Buddhas only point the way.
Work out your salvation with diligence.
The
path of the enlightened one leaves no track – it is like the path of birds in
the sky.
B. F. Skinner
(1904 – 1990) American psychologist
The
real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
Education
is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten
Adam Smith (1723
– 1790) Scottish political economist
Labor,
therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities.
Alexander Smith
A
man gazing at the stars is proverbially at the mercy of the puddles in the
road.
Socrates (470 –
399) Greek philosopher
By
all means marry. If you get a good wife
you will become happy, and if you get a bad one you will become a philosopher.
I
cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them
think.
My
plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof
that I am speaking the truth.
I
was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.
I
know that I know nothing.
Muso Soseki (1275 – 1351) Rinzai
Buddhist monk
When there is no place that you have decided to call your
own then no matter where you go you are always heading home.
Herbert Spencer (1820 – 1903) English
philosopher
Anyone can make a decision given enough facts; a good
manager can make a decision without enough facts; a perfect manager can operate
in perfect ignorance.
Baruch Spinoza (1632 – 1677) Dutch
philosopher
I
would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either
beauty or deformity, order or confusion.
Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautify or
ugly, well-ordered or confused.
Reality
and perfection are synonymous.
The
endeavor for self-preservation is the primary and only foundation of virtue.
The
crowd plays the tyrant when it is not in fear.
Don Stanford
Experience
is what you get when you don’t get what you want.
Gertrude Stein
(1874 – 1946) American writer
When you get there, there isn't any there there.
It
takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit
around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.
There
ain’t no answer. There ain’t gonna be any answer.
There never has been an answer.
There’s the answer.
Gloria Steinem
(1934 - ) American feminist and
journalist
The first problem for all of us is not to learn but to
unlearn.
Adlai Stevenson
(1900 – 1965) American politician and presidential candidate
In
Robert Louis
Stevenson (1850 – 1894) Scottish novelist
I believe in an ultimate decency of things.
A
man met a lad weeping. “What do you weep
for?” he asked. “I am weeping for my
sins,” said the lad. “You must have
little to do,” said the man. The next
day they met again. Once more the lad
was weeping. “Why do you weep now?”
asked the man. “I am weeping because I
have nothing to eat,” said the lad. “I
thought it would come to that,” said the man.
The
cruelest lies are often told in silence.
Tom Stoppard
(1937 - ) British actor
I do not pretend to understand the universe. It's a great deal bigger than I am.
Eternity
is a terrible thought. I mean, where’s
it going to end?
Carlo Suares (1892 – 1976) French writer and painter
This
table has four legs. A table with a
broken leg remains a table. But a table
from which the four legs have been removed becomes only a flat piece of
wood. At what moment did it cease to be
a table?
D. T. Suzuki (1870 – 1966) Japanese author of
Zen Buddhism
Logically considered, Zen may be full of contradictions and
repetitions. But as it stands above all
things, it goes serenely on its own way.
To think you are not good enough to practice zazen is a form vanity.
We have two eyes to see two sides of a
things, but there must be a third eye which will see everything at the same
time and yet not see anything. That is
to understand Zen.
To
imagine that Zen is mysterious is the first grave mistake which many make about
it.
Zen
wants absolute freedom, even from God.
Zen
is like looking for the spectacles that are sitting on your nose.
Zen
is a matter of character, not a matter of intellect.
I
raise my hand; I take a book from the other side of the desk; I hear the boys
playing outside my window; I see the clouds blown away beyond the neighboring
woods – in all these I am practicing Zen, I am living Zen. No wordy discussion is necessary, nor any explanation.
Shenryu Suzuki
The most important point is to accept yourself and stand on
your two feet.
Our life and death are the same thing. When we realize this fact, we have no fear of death nor actual difficulty in our life.
Life is like stepping onto a boat that is about to sail out
to sea and sink.
Moment after moment, completely devote yourself to
listening to your inner voice.
Things are always changing, so nothing can be yours.
Be grateful for the weeds you have in your mind, because
eventually they will enrich your practice.
Our practice should be based on the idea of
selflessness. Selflessness is very
difficult to understand. If you try to
be selfless, that is already a selfish idea.
Selflessness will be there when you do not try anything.
When you can laugh at yourself, there is enlightenment.
To have some deep feeling about Buddhism is not the point;
we just do what we should do, like eating supper and going to bed. This is Buddhism.
Buddhism is not any special teaching. It's our human way.
As long as you seek for something, you will get the shadow
of reality and not reality itself.
The
goal of Buddhism is to bring about right human life, not to have the teaching,
or teacher, or sentient beings, or Buddhism, or Buddha. But if you think that without any training
you can have that kind of life, that is a big mistake.
Settle
the self on the self.
We
die, and we do not die.
This
is the ultimate fact: “I am here”.
Each
one of you is perfect as you are. And
you all could use a little bit of improvement.
Jonathan Swift
(1667 – 1745) Irish writer and satirist
May you live all the days of your life.
We
have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one
another.
There
is nothing so extravagant and irrational which some philosopher
have not maintained for truth.
Publilius Syrus Syrian born 1st century bc latin
writer
Each day should be passed as though it were our last.
Thomas Szasz (1920 - )
Hungarian born psychiatrist
Boredom
is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.
If
you talk to God, you are praying; if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
When
a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for other to laugh at him.
Albert
Szent-Gyorgyi (1893 – 1986) Hungarian physiologist
Discovery
consists of looking at the same thing as everyone else does and thinking
something different.
Rabindranath Tagore (1861 –
1941) Bengali poet and philosopher
The butterfly counts not days but moments, and has time
enough.
If
you shut your door to all errors, truth will be shut out.
Tao-wu
If you want to see it, see into it directly; but when you
stop to think about it, it is altogether missed.
Freeman Teague
Nothing is so simple that it cannot be misunderstood.
The wise are pleased when they discover truth, fools when
they discover falsehood.
Alfred, Lord
Tennyson (1809 – 1892) English poet
There is no joy but calm!
The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth
if you lost all of your money.
Knowledge
comes, but wisdom lingers.
‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved
at all.
Self-reverence,
self-knowledge, self-control – these three alone lead to sovereign power.
Mother Teresa aka Agnes
Gonxha Bojaxhiu (1910 – 1997) Roman Catholic nun and founder of the
We need to find God, and He cannot be found in noise and
restlessness.
If
you can’t feed a hundred people, then just feed one.
Kind
words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.
The
most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.
We
can do no great things; only small things with great love.
I
have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt,
but only more love.
Thaganapa
To see truth, contemplate all phenomena as a lie.
Dylan Thomas
(1914 – 1953) Welsh poet
Oh, isn't life a terrible thing, thank God?
There
is always the one right word, use it, despite its foul or merely ludicrous
associations.
Henry David
Thoreau (1817 – 1862) American author and transcendentalist
Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
Distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes
As
naturally as the oak bear an acorn, and the vine a gourd, a man bears a poem, either
spoken or done.
Read not the Times, read the Eternities
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be
looking for it.
My life has been the poem I would have writ, but I could
not both live and utter it.
It
is the stars not known to science that I would know, the stars which the lonely
traveler knows
Men
have become the tools of their tools.
The
government is best which governs least.
The
mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.
In
proportion as our inward life fails, we go more constantly and desperately to
the post office. You may depend on it,
that poor fellow who walks away with the greatest number of letters, proud of
his extensive correspondence, has not heard from himself this long while.
Truth
is always paradoxical.
I
cannot come nearer to God and Heaven that I live to Walden even. I am its stony shore,
and he breeze that passes o’er; in the hollow of my hand are its water and its
sand, and its deepest resort lies high in my thoughts.
But
I would say to my fellows, once and for all, as long as possible live free and
uncommitted.
To
we awake is to be alive. I have never
yet met a man who was quite awake.
A
man is rich in proportion of the number of things he can afford to let alone.
How
many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
I
never found the companion that was so companionable as
solitude.
No
man ever followed his genius till it misled him.
What
man believes, God believes.
It
is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
Many
men go fishing all their lives without knowing that is not fish they are after.
The
buds swell imperceptibly without hurry or confusion, as if the short spring day
were an eternity.
Make
the most of your regrets; never smother your sorrow, but tend and cherish it
until it comes to have a separate and integral interest. To regret deeply is to live afresh.
James Thurber
(1894 – 1961)
Let
us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.
You
can fool too many of the people too much of the time.
J.R.R. Tolkein (1892 – 1973) English writer
All
that is gold does not glitter. Not all
those who wander are lost.
Leo Tolstoy (1828
– 1910) Russian writer
The more we live by our intellect, the less we understand
the meaning of life.
The only thing that we can know is that we know nothing and
that is the highest flight of reason.
Without
knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.
The
man who commits sin is the slave of the sin.
Tonna
Clouds disappear and the sky is a deep blue but as I gaze
upward that blueness, too, fades into emptiness.
Tosotsu
To inquire after the truth, groping your way through the underbrush, is for the purpose of seeing into your true
nature. At this very moment, where is
your true nature?
If you realize your own true nature, you are free from
life, free from death. But when the
light of your eyes is failing, how can you be free from life and death?
If you have freed yourself from life and death, you know
where you will go. When earth, air,
fire, and water separate, where are you off to?
Harry Truman (1884 – 1972) 33rd
President of the
If
you can’t convince them, confuse them.
When
you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
I
never give them hell. I just tell the
truth and they think it is hell.
Mao Tse-tung (1893
– 1976) Chinese military and political leader
Once
all struggle is grasped, miracles are possible.
John Tudor
Technology
makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over
technology.
Herbert Westren
Turnbull
Mathematics
transfigures the fortuitous concourse of atoms into the tracery of the finger
of God.
Sun Tzu (544bc – 496bc) Chinese author of The
Art of War
Opportunities
multiply as they are seized.
Miguel de Unamundo y Jugo
Life is doubt, and faith without doubt is nothing but
death.
Science
as a substitute for religion, and reason as a substitute for faith have always
fallen to pieces.
True
science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant.
Paul Valery (1871
– 1945) French poet and philosopher
Death speaks to us with a deep voice but has nothing to
say.
Having precise ideas often leads to a man doing nothing.
A gloss on Descartes: Sometimes I think and sometimes I am.
The
best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
A
person who is “of sound mind” is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and
key.
A
poem is never finished, only abandoned.
Science
is a collection of successful recipes.
Every
thought is an exception to the general rule that people do not think.
Vincent van Gogh
(1853 – 1890) Dutch artist
Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of
small things brought together.
Venificus Benevolus
Do not hold your lantern near the ground. Its range is poor and the shadows it casts
are confusing. Instead, hold your light
high. This simple act increases the
range of the lantern many times. It will
draw the people towards you!
Your teachers cannot teach you; they cannot even show you
the way. They can only point towards the
summit hidden in clouds.
First you must learn everything to attain knowledge; then
you must unlearn everything to attain wisdom.
Lack of Knowledge is the road to discovery; therefore, know
nothing.
A great prophet need only make you understand what you
already know.
Be better than you perceive yourself to be.
"Seek and ye shall find" …Don't seek and ye shall
understand
Seek
not to know all the answers, rather seek to understand the questions.
Francois-Marie
Voltaire (1695 – 1778) French writer and philosopher
The more I read, the more I meditate; and the more I
acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.
on his deathbed in response to a priest asking that he
renounce Satan. "Now, my good man,
this is no time for making enemies."
There is nothing more respectable than an ancient evil.
If
God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
Anything
too stupid to be said, is sung.
God
is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.
If
God created us in His image, we have certainly returned the compliment.
The
first clergyman was the first rascal who met the first fool.
To
succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be
well-mannered
It
is no more surprising to be born twice than it is to be born once.
I
detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to
continue to write.
Doubt
is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
To
hold a pen is to be at war.
There
are truths that are not for all men or for all occasions.
It
is forbidden to kill, therefore all murders are
punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Prejudices
are what fools use for reason.
A
man is free the moment he wants to be.
Wernher Von Braun (1912
– 1977) German scientist and architect of modern rocketry
Research is what I'm doing, when I do not know what I'm
doing
John Von Neuman (1903 – 1957) Hungarian born mathematician
Anyone
who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in
a state of sin.
Peter de Vries
(1910 – 1993) American editor
The universe is like a safe to which there is a
combination, but the combination is locked up in the safe.
It
is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save
us.
There
are times when parenthood seems nothing but feeding the mouth that bites you.
Martha Washington (1731 – 1802) wife of
George Washington
I have learned from experience that the greater part of our
happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.
Bill Watterson
(1958 - ) American cartoonist, creator
of Calvin and
The
surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it
has never tried to contact us.
Alan Watts (1915
– 1973) English born writer and philosopher of eastern thought
Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own
teeth.
If
you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it?
“To
be or not to be” is not the question – because you can’t have one without the
other!
Zen
has been used for healing people’s sicknesses, but it has also been used by the
samurai for chopping off people’s heads.
If
we are not totally blind, what we are seeking is already here. This is it.
Simone Weil (1909
– 1943) French born Christian philosopher
Attachment
is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone
who is detached.
Even
if our efforts of attention seem for years to be producing no result, one day a
light that is in exact proportion to them will flood the room.
If
we go down into ourselves we find that we possess exactly what we desire.
God
can only be present in the creation in the form of absence.
Hermann Weyl (1885 – 1955) German mathematician
You
cannot apply mathematics as long as words still becloud reality.
Alfred North
Whitehead (1861 – 1947) English born mathematician and philosopher
All truths are only half truths.
The silly question is the first intimation of some totally
new development.
The most important thing about a proposition is not that it
be true, but that it be interesting
Seek
simplicity and distrust it.
But
wherever ideas are effective, there is freedom.
An
attack upon the systematic thought is treason to civilization.
Must
“religion” always remain a synonym for “hatred”?
To
know the truth partially is to distort the Universe.
Every
simplification is an over-symplification.
Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) American poet
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
I hear and behold God in every object.
Whatever
satisfies the soul is truth.
Whoever
degrades another degrades me.
I
am a radical of radicals, but I don’t belong to any school.
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) Irish playwright
There are only two tragedies in life; one is not getting
what one wants, and the other is getting it.
One's real life is often the life that one does not lead.
Life is much too important a thing ever to talk seriously
about.
Seriousness
is only refuge of the shallow.
Experience
is one thing you can’t get for nothing.
Experience
is the name that everyone gives to their mistakes
I
am not young enough to know everything.
I
sometimes think that God, in creating man, overestimated His ability.
It
is absurd to divide people into good and bad.
People are either charming or tedious.
Man
is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act
in accordance with the dictates of reason.
Moderation
is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like
excess.
The
difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable
and literature is not read.
The
only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.
The
truth is rarely pure, and never simple.
Questions
are never indiscreet. Answers sometimes
are.
I
love talking about nothing. It is the
only thing I know anything about.
When
people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong.
The
true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.
To
be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.
Nothing
that is worth knowing can be taught.
There
is no sin except stupidity.
All
great ideas are dangerous.
I
can resist everything but temptation.
Life
is too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.
Religions
die when they are proven not to be true.
Science is the record of dead religions.
A
man that does not think for himself does not think at
all.
Society
often forgives the criminal, it never forgives the dreamer.
My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just
enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate – that’s my philosophy.
Life is an unanswered question, but let’s still believe in
the dignity and importance of the question.
Security
is a kind of death.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) Austrian
philosopher
Most of the propositions and questions to be found in
philosophical words are not false but nonsensical.
For
an answer which cannot be expressed the question too cannot be expressed.
The
aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their
simplicity and familiarity.
The
philosopher asks himself, “What is your aim in philosophy?” and he answers, “To
show the fly the way out of the bottle.”
And where is he when he has made his escape? He is, it appears, exactly where he started;
for philosophy ‘leaves everything as it is.”
Whereof
one cannot speak, thereon one must remain silent.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 – 1797) British
writer and feminist
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady
purpose - a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.
Frank Lloyd
Wright (1867 – 1959) American architect
The truth is more important than the facts.
A
doctor can bury his mistakes but an architect can only advise his clients to plant
vines.
Ugliness
is a sin.
Steven Wright
(1955 - ) American comedian
I have an existential map; it has "you are here"
written all over it.
Black holes are where God divided by zero.
Curiosity
killed the cat, but for a while, I was a suspect.
I
have a large seashell collection which I keep scattered on the beaches around
the world. Maybe you’ve seen it?
If
you’re not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate.
Ying-an
You
should let go and make yourself empty and quiet, clear and calm.
It
is just like learning archery; eventually you reach a point where ideas are
ended and feelings forgotten, and then you suddenly hit the target.
Yung-chia
Trying
to get rid of an illusion, and seeking to grasp reality – sophistry and lies.
Walking
is Zen, sitting is Zen, whether we speak or are silent, move or are still, it is unperturbed.
Yun-men (862 – 949)
Chinese Zen Master
The world is so vast and wide. Why do you put on your priest's robe at the
sound of a bell?
Emiliano Zapata (1879 – 1919) Leader of the Mexican
Revolution
It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees.
Keizan Zenji
Did you not know that at the edge of a deep valley there is an excellent pine tree growing up straight in spite of the many years of cold?
Carl Zwanzig
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
African Proverb Only
a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet.
American Proverb You
have to kiss a lot of toads before you find a handsome prince.
If
we don’t turn around, we just may get where we’re going.
Arabic Proverb It
is good to know the truth, but it is better to speak of palm trees.
An
army of sheep led by a lion would defeat an army of lions led by a sheep.
Burmese Proverb Too
much talk will include errors.
Chinese Proverb I
hear and I forget. I see and I
remember. I do and I understand.
Govern
a family as you would cook a fish – very gently.
Learning
is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.
Who
knows this morning what will happen tonight?
English Proverb The shortest answer is doing.
A
small family is soon provided for.
Children
are a poor man’s riches.
In
a cat’s eyes, all things belong to cats.
We
never know the worth of water ‘til the well is dry.
Gaelic Proverb To
the unwilling, nothing is easy.
Greek Proverb The believer is happy, the doubter is wise.
Japanese Proverb Vision
without action is a daydream. Action
without vision is a nightmare.
Adversity
is the best source of strength.
Pride
means the end of wisdom.
Indian Proverb Call
on God, but row away from the rocks.
Wisdom
tells me I am nothing; love tells me I am everything. Between the two, my life flows.
Navaho saying A
man can’t get rich if he takes proper care of his family.
Nigerian Proverb When
a mouse laughs at the cat, there is a hole nearby.
Norwegian Proverb Heroism
consists of hanging on one minute longer.
Polish Proverb Under
capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true.
Russian Proverb An
egg is dear on Easter day.
Serbian Proverb Good
deeds are the best prayer.
Spanish Proverb To the good listener a work is enough.
Sufi Prayer O
Lord, give me understanding concerning thyself, for I cannot understand thee
except by means of thee.
Sufi Saying Love
the pitcher less, and the water more.
Western Proverb Leap and the net will appear
Doing it the hard way is always easier.
The solution to a problem changes the nature of the
problem.
No one keeps a record of the decisions you could have made
but didn't. Everyone keeps a record of
your bad ones.
When
working toward the solution of a problem, it always helps if you know the
answer.
When
people you greatly admire appear to be thinking deep thoughts, they probably
are thinking about lunch.
The first place to look for anything is the last place you
would expect to find it.
You may know where the market is going, but you can't
possible know where it's going after that.
Everything you know is wrong.
The inefficiency and stupidity of the staff corresponds to
the inefficiency and stupidity of the management.
In every organized activity, no matter the sphere, a small
number will become oligarchical leaders and the others will follow.
When all else fails, try the boss's suggestion.
No amount of genius can overcome a preoccupation with
detail.
Never argue with a fool - people might not know the
difference.
There is never time to do it right, but there is always
time to do it over.
Keep running a test until you get the right answer.
Things equal to nothing else are equal to each other
There is no job so simple that it cannot be done wrong.
It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.
In a surplus labor economy, the squeaking wheel does not
get the grease, it gets replaced.
Mediocrity imitates.
Two wrongs are only the beginning.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you
need it.
There are two types of people: those who divide people into
two types, and those who don't.
Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it
himself.
The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt
the one who is doing it.
Enough research will tend to support your theory
It is impossible for an optimist to be pleasantly
surprised.
A goal is a dream with a deadline.
No real problem has a solution.
Wisdom consists of knowing when to avoid perfection.
The best laid plans of mice and men are usually about
equal.
If one views the problem closely enough, one will recognize
oneself as part of the problem.
Social legislation cannot repeal physical laws.
What you resist, you become.
In any organization there will always be one person who
knows what is going on. This person must
be fired.
Law of the unattainable triad. Good, Cheap, Fast, pick any two.
virtue is its own punishment.
The solving of a problem lies in finding the solvers.
There are some things that are impossible to know - but it
is impossible to know what these things are.
An expert is anyone from out of town.
If you want a track team to win the high jump, you find one
person who can jump 7 feet, not seven people who can jump one foot.
Changing things is central to leadership; changing them
before anyone else does is creativeness.
If you can keep your head when all about you are losing
theirs, then you just don't understand the problem.
An expert is one who knows more and more about less and
less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
Anything is possible if you don't know what you're talking
about.
Those most opposed to serving on committees are made
chairmen
If enough data is collected, anything may be proven by
statistical methods.
In order for something to become clean, something else must
become dirty…but you can get everything dirty without getting anything clean.
A committee is twelve men doing the work of one.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism
The first myth of management is that it exists.
Don't let your superiors know you're better than they are
You never know who's right, but you always know who's in
charge
An
economic forecaster is like a cross-eyed javelin thrower, they don’t win many
accuracy contests, but they keep the crowd’s attention.
Despite
the high cost of living it remains a popular item.
Jealousy
is the only vice that gives no pleasure.
Most
people are more comfortable with old problems than with new solutions.
Where
am I going? And why am I in this Handbasket?
I
don’t know exactly what democracy is, but we need more of it (Chinese student
at Tianamen Square)
I
think therefore I’m single (female philosopher)
Give
me ambiguity or give me something else (bumper sticker)
If
God had meant us to vote, He would have given us candidates (bumper sticker)
There
are three types of people in the world, those who can count and those who can’t
(bumper sticker)
Men,
you can’t live with them. You don’t have
to (Tee Shirt)
The Bhagavad Gita As
unnecessary as a well is to a village on the banks of a river, so unnecessary
are all scriptures to someone who has seen the truth.
Nonbeing can never be; being can never be. Both these statements are obvious to those
who have seen the truth.
An intense love of solitude, distaste for involvement in
worldly affairs, persistence in knowing the Self and awareness of the goal of
knowing - all this is called true knowledge.
The
man who in his work finds silence, and who sees that silence is work, this man
in truth sees the light and in all his works finds peace.
For
that which is born death is certain, and for the dead birth is certain. Therefore grieve not over that which is
unavoidable.
Forsaking
egoism, power, pride, lust, anger, and possession; freed from the notion of
mind, and tranquil; one is thus fit to become one with Brahman.
Restless
man’s mind is, so strongly shaken in the grip of the senses; gross and grown
hard with stubborn desire for what is worldly.
How shall he tame it? Truly, I
think the wind is no wilder.
Bible I have
been a stranger in a strange land
Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Physics
There is no reality in the absence of observation.
Dr. Strangelove Hey,
you can’t fight in here! This is a war
room!
Engineer’s Motto Question
everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.
Les Miserables To love another person
is to see the face of God
Sioux Indian Prayer Great
Spirit, help me never to judge another until I have walked in his moccasins.
The Sandokai This I offer to the secret of great Truth: Do not waste
time!
The
Diamond Sutra As
stars, a fault of vision, as a lamp, a mock show, dew drops, or a bubble, a
dream, a lightening flash, or cloud. So
should one view what is conditioned.
Everything falls under the law of change, like a dream, a
phantom, a bubble, a shadow, like dew or a flash or lightning; you should
contemplate like this.
Arouse
the mind without resting it on anything.
All
Bodhisattvas should develop a pure, lucid mind that doesn’t depend on sound,
touch, flavor, smell or any thought that arises in it. A Bodhisattva should develop a mind that alights
nowhere.
Pirke Avot To attend to creation is to attend to God. To attend to the moment is to attend to
eternity.
The Talmud If thou hast commenced a good action, leave it not
incomplete.
Tao Te Ching Do you have the
patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action
arises by itself?
How
clear it is! How quiet it is! It must be something eternally existing!
The
Upanishads The spirit down here in man and the spirit up there in the
sun, in reality are only one spirit, and there is no other one.
God
made the senses turn outward, man therefore looks outward, not into
himself. But occasionally a daring soul,
desiring immortality, has looked back and found himself.
What
is within us is also without, what is without is also within. He who sees difference between what is within
and what is without goes evermore from death to death.
As
a man in sexual union with his beloved know neither outside nor inside, so a
man in union with Self knows nothing, wants nothing.
That
is perfect. This is perfect. Perfect comes from perfect. Take perfect from perfect, the remainder is
perfect.
The
Vedas Truth
is one; sages call it by different names.
Buddist Chant All things in this world are impermanent. They have the nature to rise and pass
away. To be in harmony with this truth
brings true happiness.
Vows
of the Boddhisattvas I
should become a savior to all beings. I
shall release them from their sufferings.
Buddhist
Saying Do you not
seek a light, ye who are surrounded by darkness?
The
Samurai's Zen Creed I have no parents; I make heaven and earth my parents. I have no divine power; I make honesty my
power. I have no means; I make
submission my means. I have no magic
power; I make inward strength my magic.
I have no friends; I make my mind my friend. I have no enemy; I make incautiousness my
enemy. I have no armor; I make goodwill
and righteousness my armor. I have no
castle; I make immovable Mind my castle.
The
Song of Enlightenment There is no sin, no paradise, no loss or gain; About this transcendentality, no questions!
When
we attain reality, it is seen to neither personal nor impersonal
Western koan Let the dead bury the dead.
Who loves his life shall lose it.
“Who
is there?” asks God. “It is I” “Go away,” God says. Later…
“Who is there?” asks God. “It is
thou.” “Enter,” replies God.
Zen Koan Fen-yang held up his walking stick and addressed the assembly:
"Whoever understands this walking stick thoroughly can end his quest for
Zen."
Zen
Practice Great
faith, great doubt, great determination.
Zen Mondo One day the emperor Gayosei asked
Gudo, "In Zen, this very mind is considered
Buddha, is it not?" "If I say
yes, you will think that you understand something which in fact you don't. And if I say no, I will contradict a fact
many do understand.
Three
monks met in a garden. One saw a water
pail and pointed to it. "The water
is clear, the moon reflects its image."
The second said. "it is neither water nor moon." The third kicked over the pail.
A samurai once asked Zen Master Hakuin
where he would go after he died. Hankuin answered, "How am I supposed to
know?" "How do you know?
You're a Zen master!" exclaimed the samurai. "Yes, but not a dead one", Hakuin answered.
What
is the most miraculous of all miracles?
That I sit quietly by myself.
Zen Saying It's never too late to do nothing.
When
you eat, the meal is yourself
When
the ordinary person realizes, he is a sage.
When a sage understands, he is an ordinary man.
First thought, best thought.
Better
to see the face than to hear the name.
After ecstasy, the laundry.
What one understands is only half true. What one does not understand is the full
truth.
No one binds you so there is no need to be set free.
It is useless to show the gold piece to a cat.
Just this!
Everyday life is the way.
All things flow freely, as the fish swims in water.
Hopeless fellow - using their heads to look for their
heads!
The
wild geese do intend to cast their reflection, the water has no mind to receive
their image.
If
something is boring after 2 minutes, try it for four. If still boring, try it for eight, sixteen,
thirty-two, and so on. Eventually, one
discovers that it is not boring but very interesting.
Doing
nothing, but leaving nothing undone.
Everything
is true just as it is: Why dislike it?
Why hate it?
If
you want to make a cart go, do you hit the horse or the cart?
There
are ways but the Way is uncharted
Without
a rope, people bind themselves
All
is one, one is none, none is all.
If
you have no feelings about worldly thinks, they are all Buddhism. If you have feelings about Buddhism, it is a
worldly thing.
Make
your mind empty. Right there is the
Buddha!
In
studying the Way, realizing it is hard; on you have realized it, preserving it
is hard. When you can preserve it,
putting it into practice is hard.
Going
forward is a matter of ordinariness.
The
mystery of life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.
One
thought follows another without interruption.
But if you allow these thoughts to link up to a chain, you put yourself
in bondage.
Zen
is the religion of no religion.