Week 2022-04: Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina] - Collected Quotes

"Absence of understanding does not warrant absence of existence." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina]) 

"Anyone who denies the law of non-contradiction should be beaten and burned until he admits that to be beaten is not the same as not to be beaten, and to be burned is not the same as not to be burned." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina])

"Cultivate the self with learning in order to progress and leave all else; for knowledge is an abode of all things. 

The self is like glass, the knowledge, like a lamp, and the wisdom of God, like oil. 

When your self is illuminated - you are alive, and when there is darkness - you are dead." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina])

"Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina])

"Further, this power which conceives these ideas does at times gain from sense forms mental, imaginative, and innate in (instinctive to) itself; and in such a case it does this in that it lays before itself the forms that are in the conceiving power and in the remembering (preserving) power, by employing the imaginative and the conjecturing power, and then contemplates them, and finds them to have participated in some forms and to have differed in some other forms; and finds some amongst the forms that are in these powers to be essential and others to be accidental." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina])

"God is knowledge; he is knowing; and he is being known. Since God has knowledge of his own essence, and since God is one, it follows that the essence of God is knowledge. And knowledge means that he knows himself, and is known by himself." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina], "al-Risalat al-Arshiya")

"It is evident that everything which does not exist at first and then exists, is determined by something other than itself." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina])

"Medicine deals with the states of health and disease in the human body. It is a truism of philosophy that a complete knowledge of a thing can only be obtained by elucidating its causes and antecedents, provided, of course, such causes exist. In medicine it is, therefore, necessary that causes of both health and disease should be determined." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina]) 

"Now it is established in the sciences that no knowledge is acquired save through the study of its causes and beginnings, if it has had causes and beginnings; nor completed except by knowledge of its accidents and accompanying essentials." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina]) 

"Pain is a sensation produced by something contrary to the course of nature and this sensation is set up by one of two circumstances: either a very sudden change of the temperament (or the bad effect of a contrary temperament) or a solution of continuity." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina]) 

"Prayer is that which enables the soul to realize its divinity. Through prayer human beings worship absolute truth, and seek an eternal reward. Prayer is the foundation-stone of religion; and religion is the means by which the soul is purified of all that pollutes it. Prayer is the worship of the first cause of all things, the supreme ruler of all the world, the source of all strength. Prayer is the adoration of the one whose being is necessary." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina], "Kitab al-Najat")

"The different sorts of madness are innumerable." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina]) 

"The mind (Understanding, Reason) is in fact and deed wholly and solely nothing else than the forms of mentally-grasped things, if these be arrayed in the very mind potentially, and through it they are brought out to effective action; and hence it is said that the mind is in fact and deed at once both understanding and understood. Amongst the properties of the understanding power is this, that it unifies the many and multiplies the one through analysis and synthesis. As to multiplication, it is such as the analysis of one man into essence, body, nourishment-getting, animal, speaking (rational). As to unification of the many, it is such as the composition (synthesis) of this one man out of essence, body, animal, speaking (rational) into one notion which is mankind (human being)."(Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina])

 

"The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina]) 

"When knowledge reaches the specific natures and what is accidental to them, inquiry stops and is not followed by the fleeting knowledge of individuals to which our souls are not at all inclined." (Avicenna Latinus [Ibn Sina], "The Physics of The Healing", cca. 1014)

Week 2022-03: Paulo Coelho - Collected Quotes

"Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself." (Paulo Coelho, "The Pilgrimage", 1987)

"Everything on earth is being continuously transformed, because the earth is alive. and it has a soul. We are part of that soul, so we rarely recognize that it is working for us." (Paulo Coelho, "The Alchemist", 1988)

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." (Paulo Coelho, "The Alchemist", 1988)

"People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don't deserve them, or that they'll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren't, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly."(Paulo Coelho, "The Alchemist", 1988)

"When you cease doubting, you have stopped moving forward." (Paulo Coelho, "Brida", 1990)

"Life takes us by surprise and orders us to move toward the unknown - even when we don't want to and when we think we don't need to." (Paulo Coelho, "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept", 1994)

"The spiritual path can only be traveled through the daily experience of love." (Paulo Coelho, "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept", 1994)

"At every moment of our lives, we all have one foot in a fairy tale and the other in the abyss."(Paulo Coelho, "Eleven Minutes", 2003)

"Life always waits for some crisis to occur before revealing itself at its most brilliant." (Paulo Coelho, "Eleven Minutes", 2003)

"Love is not to be found in someone else, but in ourselves; we simply awaken it. But in order to do that, we need the other person." (Paulo Coelho, "Eleven Minutes", 2003)

"Everyone believes that the main aim in life is to follow a plan. They never ask if that plan is theirs or if it was created by another person. They accumulate experiences, memories, things, other people's ideas, and it is more than they can possibly cope with. And that is why they forget their dreams." (Paulo Coelho, "The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession", 2005)

"We humans have two great problems: the first is knowing when to begin; the second is knowing when to stop." (Paulo Coelho, "The Zahir: A Novel of Obsession", 2005)

"Everyone's looking for the perfect teacher, but although their teachings might be divine, teachers are all too human, and that's something people find hard to accept. Don't confuse the teacher with the lesson, the ritual with the ecstasy, the transmitter of the symbol with the symbol itself." (Paulo Coelho, "The Witch of Portobello: A Novel", 2006) 

"Everyone contributes a word, a sentence, an image, but in the end it all makes sense: the happiness of one becomes the joy of all."(Paulo Coelho, "Aleph", 2011)

"I understand that everything is connected, that all roads meet, and that all rivers flow into the same sea." (Paulo Coelho, "Aleph", 2011)

"If you want to see a rainbow you have to learn to see the rain." (Paulo Coelho, "Aleph", 2011)

"That is what marks out the warrior: the knowledge that willpower and courage are not the same thing. Courage can attract fear and adulation, but willpower requires patience and commitment. Men and women with immense willpower are generally solitary types and give off a kind of coolness. Many people mistakenly think that (they) are cold (people) when nothing could be further from the truth." (Paulo Coelho, "Aleph", 2011)

"Excessive caution destroys the soul and the heart, because living is an act of courage, and an act of courage is always an act of love." (Paulo Coelho, "Manuscript Found in Accra", 2012)

"Love rules, but no one knows where it has its throne; in order to know that secret place, you must first submit to Love." (Paulo Coelho, "Manuscript Found in Accra", 2012)

"Love transforms, Love heals. But sometimes it lays deadly traps and ends up destroying the person who decided to surrender himself completely." (Paulo Coelho, "Manuscript Found in Accra", 2012)

"The act of discovering who we are will force us to accept that we can go further than we think." (Paulo Coelho, "Manuscript Found in Accra", 2012)

"All battles in life serve to teach us something, even the battles we lose." (Paulo Coelho)

"Love is looking at the same mountains from different angles." (Paulo Coelho)

"The two hardest tests on the spiritual road are the patience to wait for the right moment and the courage not to be disappointed with what we encounter." (Paulo Coelho)

Week 2022-02: Hermann Hesse - Collected Quotes

"During deep meditation it is possible to dispel time, to see simultaneously all the past, present, and future, and then everything is good, everything is perfect, everything is Brahman." (Hermann Hesse, "Siddhartha", 1910)

"Passion is always a mystery and unaccountable, and unfortunately there is no doubt that life does not spare its purest children and often it is just the most deserving people who cannot help loving those that destroy them." ("Hermann Hesse, "Gertrude", 1910)

"Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again." (Hermann Hesse, "Demian", 1919)

"Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, be fortified by it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it." (Hermann Hesse, "Siddhartha", 1922)

"Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it." (Hermann Hesse, "Siddhartha", 1922)

"All existence seemed to be based on duality, on contrast." (Hermann Hesse, "Narcissus and Goldmund", 1930)

"All interpretation, all psychology, all attempts to make things comprehensible, require the medium of theories, mythologies, and lies." (Hermann Hesse)

"Chaos demands to be recognized and experienced before letting itself be converted into a new order." (Hermann Hesse)

"It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is." (Hermann Hesse)

"Our mind is capable of passing beyond the dividing line we have drawn for it. Beyond the pairs of opposites of which the world consists, other, new insights begin." (Hermann Hesse)

"Seeking means to have a goal; but finding means to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose." (Hermann Hesse)

"Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go." (Herman Hesse)

"There is no reality except the one contained within us." (Herman Hesse)

"Whither will my path yet lead me? This path is stupid, it goes in spirals, perhaps in circles, but whichever way it goes, I will follow it." (Hermann Hesse)

"Within you there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time." (Hermann Hesse)