Week 2017-41

"Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time." (Rabindranath Tagore)

"The knowledge which lies behind is our natural help to that which lies before." (Peter M Latham)

"Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn’t believing. It’s where belief stops, because it isn’t needed any more." (Terry Pratchett)

"Knowing what you know, be serene also, like a mountain; and do not be distressed by misfortune. Knowledge without serenity is an unlit candle; together they are honey-comb; honey without wax is a noble thing; wax without honey is only fit for burning." (Hakim Sanai)

"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words." (Philip K. Dick)

"The true measure of a man is not his intelligence or how high he rises in this freak establishment. No, the true measure of a man is this: how quickly can he respond to the needs of others and how much of himself he can give." (Philip K. Dick)

"Search a beautiful heart, not a beautiful face. Beautiful things are not always good, but good things are always beautiful." (Sufi saying)

"Sometimes surrender means giving up trying to understand and being comfortable with not knowing." (Eckhart Tolle)

"A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout your life." (Winston Churchill)

"He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed." (Albert Einstein)

Week 2017-37

[#imagination, #human nature]
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is." (Francis Bacon)

[#life, #duality]
"There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast. Nothing exists in itself." (Herman Melville)

[#beliefs, #confidence]
"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained." (Marie Curie)

[#values, #strength]
"The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one's self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course." (Michelangelo)

[#spirituality, #simplicity]
"To realise the constancy and steadiness in your life is to realise the deep nature of the universe. This realisation is not dependent on any transitory internal or external condition, rather it is an expression of one’s own immutable spiritual nature. The only way to attain the Universal Way is to maintain the integral virtues of the constancy, steadiness and simplicity in one’s daily life." (Lao Tzu)

[#knowledge, #values]
"Knowledge is the highest good, truth the supreme value, all the rest is secondary and subordinate." (Aldous Huxley)

[#truth, #goals]
"Approximate truth is the only truth attainable, but at least one must strive for that, and not wade off into arbitrary falsehood." (George Eliot)

[#simplicity, #values]
"The aspects of things that are most important for us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity." (Ludwig Wittgenstein

[#facts, #wisdom]
"Facts are ventriloquists' dummies. Sitting on a wise man's knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere they say nothing or talk nonsense..." (Aldous Huxley)

[#journeys, #spirituality]
"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." (René Descartes)

[#journeys, #truth]
"Keep the company of those who seek the truth - run from those who have found it." (VÁCLAV HAVEL)

Week 2017-27

"Treat every moment as your last. It is not preparation for something else." (Shunryū Suzuki)

"Think simple as my old master used to say - meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles." (Frank L. Wright)

"Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly." (Edward Albee)

"Fear is a distraction from ‘what is', from the present actual moment, preventing us from existing, from being what we are." (Vanda Scaravelli)

"Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"The power of imagination makes us infinite." (John Muir)

"Happy is he who gets to know the reasons for things." (Virgil)

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." (Lao Tzu)

"The more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves" (Roald Dahl)

"The real dirt is not outside, but inside, in our hearts. We can wash all stains with water. The only one we can’t remove is the grudge and the bad intentions sticking to our hearts." (Shams Tabrizi)

Week 2017-25

[#discovery, #models]
"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open." (Shakti Gawain)

[#complexity, #simplicity]
"Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves." (Edwin Way Teale)

[#learning, #perfection]
"Perfecting oneself is as much unlearning as it is learning." (Edsger W. Dijkstra)

[#complexity, #simplicity]  
"Great truths are simple because they are of universal application. Truth itself is always simple. Complexity is due to man's ignorance." (Swami Vivekananda)

[#gaia]
"Constantly regard the universe as a single living being, having one substance and one soul; observe how all creation relates to the cosmic consciousness of this one living being. Observe too how everything moves with its impulse, working together to create all events, continuously spinning its delicate thread in the amazing complexity of its web." (Marcus Aurelius)

[#peacefulness, #change]
"Peace of mind comes from not wanting to change others, but by simply accepting them as they are. True acceptance is always without demands and expectations." (Dr. Gerald Jampolsky, "Love Is Letting Go of Fear", 1979)

[#illness, #human nature]
"Illnesses do not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against Nature. When enough sins have accumulated, illnesses will suddenly appear." (Hippocrates)

[#self control, #strength]
"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." (Marcus Aurelius)

[#acceptance]
"When faced with any difficulty of life, resolve it by following these four steps: face it, accept it, deal with it and let it go." (Sheng Yen)

[#learning #acceptance]
"Reading doesn’t mean accepting everything you read, it means reasoning everything you read." (Amit Kalantri)

Week 2017-14

[#duality, #light]
"There are two kinds of light - the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures." (James Thurber)

[#wisdom, #thought]
"Thinking and doing, doing and thinking, these are the sum of all wisdom. Both must move ever onward in life, to and fro, like breathing in and breathing out. Whoever makes it a rule to test action by thought, thought by action, cannot falter, and if he does, will soon find his way back to the right road." (Goethe)

[#mastery, #strength]
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing - to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." (John Keats)

[#character, #mastery]
"You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one." (Henry David Thoreau)

[#belief]
"An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run." (Sydney J. Harris)

[#feelings, #thought]
"Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think." (Jean de La Bruyère)

[#patience]
"To endure the unendurable is true endurance." (Japanese saying)

[#simplicity]
"If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done." (Ludwig Wittgenstein)

[#action, #love]
"The grand essentials of life are something to do, something to love, something to hope for." (Thomas Chalmers)

[#knowledge]
"Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little." (Epicurus)

Week 2017-02

"The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds." (Nicholas Sparks)

"Abandon certainty! That's life's deepest command. That's what life's all about. We're a probe into the unknown, into the uncertain." (Frank Herbert, "Dune")

"No literature is sound, no philosophy of action workable, if it doesn’t take a hard look at itself." (John W. Campbell)

"Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained." (C. S. Lewis)

"You cannot create experience. You must undergo it." (Albert Camus)

"Understanding arises from reducing one type of reality into another." (Claude Lévi-Strauss)

"Forgiving someone doesn’t give them a free pass. It gives you a free pass to move on." (Charles F Glassman)

"Your strength is in your calmness, in the clarity of your mind. Strength comes from putting the negative aside without reacting. Win in calmness, in consciousness, in balance. Win without fighting." (Yogi Amrit Desai)

"Order and simplification are the first steps toward mastery of a subject - the actual enemy is the unknown.: (Thomas Mann)

"Do not destroy what you cannot create." (Leó Szilárd)