Week 2023-07: Chang Tsai - Collected Quotes

"All rotating things have a spontaneous force and thus their motion is not imposed on them from outside." (Chang Tsai)

"By enlarging one's mind, one can enter into all the things in the world [to examine and understand their principle]. As long as anything is not yet entered into, there is still something outside the mind. The mind of ordinary people is limited to the narrowness of what is seen and what is heard. The sage, however, fully develops his nature and does not allow what is seen or heard to fetter his mind. He regards everything in the world to be his own self. This is why Mencius said that if one exerts his mind to the utmost, he can know nature and Heaven. (1) Heaven is so vast that there is nothing outside of it. Therefore the mind that leaves something outside is not capable of uniting itself with the mind of Heaven. Knowledge coming from seeing and hearing is knowledge obtained through contact with things. It is not knowledge obtained through one's moral nature. Knowledge obtained through one's moral nature does not originate from seeing or hearing." (Chang Tsai)

"Every birth is a condensation (of Qi). Every death is a dispersal (of Qi). Birth is not a gain; Death is not a loss. When condensed, Qi becomes a living thing, when dispersed, it is the substrata of mutation." (Chang Tsai)

"Everything is destiny. A man should accept obediently what is correct [in his destiny]." If one obeys the principles of his nature and destiny, he will obtain what is correct in them. If one destroys principle and indulges in desires to the limit, he will be inviting evil fortune." (Chang Tsai)

"From the Great Vacuity, there is Heaven. From the transformation of material force, there is the Way. In the unity of the Great Vacuity and material force, there is the nature (of man and things). And in the unity of the nature and consciousness, there is the mind." (Chang Tsai)

"He who understands virtue will have a sufficient amount, that is all. He will not allow sensual desires to be a burden to his mind, the small to injure the great, or the secondary to destroy the fundamental." (Chang Tsai)

"Human nature at its source is absolutely tranquil and unaffected by externality. When it is affected by contact with the external world, consciousness and knowledge emerge. Only those who fully develop their nature can unify the state of formlessness and unaffectedness, and the state of objectification and affectedness." (Chang Tsai)

"In one's words there should be something to teach others. In one's activities there should be something to serve as model for others. In the morning something should be done. In the evening something should be realized. At every moment something should be nourished. And in every instant something should be preserved." (Chang Tsai)

"Material force moves and flows in all directions and in all manners. Its two elements unite and give rise to the concrete. Thus the multiplicity of things and human beings is produced. In their ceaseless successions the two elements of yin and yang constitute the great principles of the universe." (Chang Tsai)

"The Great Void cannot but consist of ch’i; this ch’i cannot but condense to form all things; and these things cannot but become dispersed so as to form (once more) the Great Void." (Chang Tsai)

"The great benefit of learning is to enable one to transform his physical nature himself. Otherwise he will have the defect of studying in order to impress others, in the end will attain no enlightenment, and cannot see the all-embracing depth of the sage." (Chang Tsai)

"The Great Harmony is called the Way (Tao, Moral Law). It embraces the nature which underlies all counter processes of floating and sinking, rising and falling, and motion and rest. It is the origin of the process of fusion and intermingling, of overcoming and being overcome, and of expansion and contraction. At the commencement, these processes are incipient, subtle, obscure, easy, and simple, but at the end they are extensive, great, strong, and firm. It is ch'ien (Heaven) that begins with the knowledge of Change, and k'un (Earth) that models after simplicity. That which is dispersed, differentiated, and capable of assuming form becomes material force (ch'i), and that which is pure, penetrating, and capable of assuming form becomes spirit. Unless the whole universe is in the process of fusion and intermingling like fleeting forces moving in all directions, it may not be called Great Harmony." (Chang Tsai)

"The Great Vacuity is clear. Being clear, it cannot be obstructed. Not being obstructed, it is therefore spirit. The opposite of clearness is turbidity. Turbidity leads to obstruction. And obstruction leads to physical form. When material force is clear, it penetrates; and when it is turbid, it obstructs. When clearness reaches its limit, there is spirit. When spirit concentrates, it penetrates like the breeze going through the holes (of musical instruments), producing tones and carrying them to great distances. This is the evidence of clearness. As if arriving at the destination without the necessity of going there, penetration reaches the highest degree." (Chang Tsai)

"The integration and disintegration of material force is to the Great Vacuity as the freezing and melting of ice is to water. If we realize that the Great Vacuity is identical with material force, we know that there is no such thing as non-being." (Chang Tsai)

"When a thing first comes into existence, material force comes gradually into it to enrich its vitality. As it reaches its maturity, material force gradually reverts to where it came from, wanders off and disperses. Its coming means positive spiritual force (shen), because it is expanding (shen). Its reversion means negative spiritual force (kuei), because it is returning (kuei)." (Chang Tsai)

"When one knows that the Great Void is full of ch’i, one realizes that there is no such thing as nothingness." (Chang Tsai)

"When the ch’i condenses, its visibility becomes apparent so that there are then the shapes (of individual things). When it disperses, its visibility is no longer apparent and there are no shapes. At the time of its condensation, can one say otherwise than that this is but temporary? But at the time of its dispersing, can one hastily say that it is then non-existent?'" (Chang Tsai)

"When it is understood that the Vacuity, the Void, is nothing but material force, then existence and nonexistence, the hidden and the manifested, spirit and eternal transformation, and human nature and destiny are all one and not a duality. He who apprehends integration and disintegration, appearance and disappearance, form and absence of form, and trace them to their source, penetrates the secret of Change." (Chang Tsai)

"When the Way of Heaven [or principle] and the nature of man [or desires] function separately, there cannot be sincerity. When there is a difference between the knowledge obtained by following (the Way of) Heaven and that obtained by following (the nature of) man, there cannot be perfect enlightenment. What is meant by enlightenment resulting from sincerity is that in which there is no distinction between the Way of Heaven as being great and the nature of man as being small." (Chang Tsai)

Week 2023-06: Hakuin Ekaku - Collected Quotes

"All beings are by nature are Buddhas, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, no Buddhas. How sad that people ignore the near and search the truth afar: like someone in the midst of watercrying out in thirst: like a child of a wealthy home wandering among the poor." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"At the bottom of great doubt lies great awakening. If you doubt fully, you will awaken fully." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"From the sea of effortlessness, let your great uncaused compassion shine forth." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"If you forget yourself, you become the universe." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"Meditation in action is endlessly more important than meditation in stillness." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"Should you desire the great tranquility prepare to sweat white beads." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"The spirit of meditation is the combating of self-willed thinking - it is a combat against the weight of one's feelings."

"Those who practice only in silence/tranquility, cannot establish their [internal] freedom when entering into activity. When they engage into worldy activities, their usual satori (enlightment) will eventually disappear without any trace." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"Those who testify to the truth of the nature of the Self, Have found it by reflecting within themselves." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"Zen practice in the midst of activity is a million times superior to that pursued within tranquility." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"What is this true meditation? It is to make everything: coughing, swallowing, waving the arms, motion, stillness, words, action, the evil and the good, prosperity and shame, gain and loss, right and wrong, into one single koan." (Hakuin Ekaku)

"You know the sound of two hands clapping; tell me, what is the sound of one hand?" (Hakuin Ekaku)

Week 2023-5: Anaxagoras of Clazomenae - Collected Quotes

"All things were together, infinite both in number and in smallness; for the small too was infinite." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC) 

"And since the portions of the great and the small are equal in number, so too all things would be in everything. Nor is it possible that they should exist apart, but all things have a portion of everything." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"Everything has a natural explanation. The moon is not a god, but a great rock, and the sun a hot rock.

The seed of everything is in everything else." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"Men would live exceedingly quiet if these two words, mine and thine, were taken away." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"Mind is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing, but is alone itself by itself." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"The contents of the cosmos are not separated from each other or cut of by an axe not the hot from the cold nor the cold from the hot." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"The descent to Hades is the same from every place." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"Th ere is no smallest among the small and no largest among the large; but always something still smaller and something still larger." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"There is no smallest among the small and no largest among the large, But always something still smaller and something still larger." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"Thought is something limitless and independent, and has been mixed with no thing but is alone by itself. […] What was mingled with it would have prevented it from having power over anything in the way in which it does. […] For it is the finest of all things and the purest." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

"Wise men argue causes; fools decide them." (Anaxagoras, cca. 5th century BC)

Week 2023-4: Thales of Miletus - Collected Quotes

"A multitude of words is no proof of a prudent mind." (Thales of Miletus)

"All things are from water and all things are resolved into water." (Thales of Miletus)

"Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing." (Thales of Miletus)

"Hope is the only good that is common to all men; those who have nothing else possess hope still." (Thales of Miletus)

"Nothing is more active than thought, for it travels over the universe, and nothing is stronger than necessity for all must submit to it." (Thales of Miletus)

"Place is the greatest thing, as it contains all things." (Thales of Miletus)

"The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself." (Thales of Miletus)

"There are three attributes for which I am grateful to Fortune: that I was born, first, human and not animal; second, man and not woman; and third, Greek and not barbarian." (Thales of Miletus)

"What is the sagest of all? It is a time, because it opens all." (Thales of Miletus)

Week 2023-3: Pythagoras of Samos - Collected Quotes

"All was numbers." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"Be silent or let thy words be worth more than silence." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"Choose always the way that seems the best, however rough it may be; custom will soon render it easy and agreeable." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"everything changes, nothing is lost" (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"Geometry is knowledge of the eternally existent."  (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"Hearing and keeping silence, you become a wise man. The beginning of wisdom is silence." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"Number is the ruler of forms and ideas, and the cause of gods and demons." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"Number rules the universe." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"Number was the substance of all things." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"The first elements of wisdom: you should study to reflect and to lose your ability to chat." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"The learning of many things does not teach intelligence […]." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

"There is geometry in the humming of the strings; there is music in the spacing of the spheres." (Pythagoras of Samos, cca. 6th century BC)

Week 2023-2: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Collected Quotes

"One does not get to know that one exists until one rediscovers oneself in others." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1775)

"The imagination lurks as the most powerful foe. It has an irresistible affinity for the absurd. Even cultured individuals are subject to this impulse to a high degree. It  is hostile to all civilized life and it confronts our decorous society with a reversion to the innate rudeness of the savage and his love of grimaces." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Annals", 1805)

"Genuine works of art carry their own aesthetic theory implicit within them and suggest the standards according to which they are to be judged." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1808)

"The highest gift we have received from God and nature is life, the rotating movement of the monad about itself, knowing neither pause nor rest. The impulse to nurture this life is ineradicably implanted in each individual, although its specific nature remains a mystery to ourselves and to Others." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "On Theory of Color", 1810)

"The modern age has a false sense of superiority because of the great mass of data at its disposal. But the valid criterion of distinction is rather the extent to which man knows how to form and master the material at his command." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "On Theory of Color", 1810)

"As soon as we proceed from the principle that knowledge and faith are not designed to cancel each other out but rather to supplement each other, we are on the right path pointing to just solutions." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1813)

"Faith is a sacred vessel in which each individual is prepared to sacrifice his feeling, his reason, his imagination, to the best of his ability. In the case of knowledge exactly the opposite holds true, I said. Not that one knows but what one knows, how well and how much one knows, is what counts. That is why knowledge is a subject for argument, inasmuch as it may be corrected, expanded, and concealed. Knowledge begins with isolated facts; it is endless and formless, and we can at most dream of grasping it as a totality. Hence it is diametrically opposed to faith." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "The Autobiography", 1814)

"Idea and experience will never coincide in the center. Only art and action can effect a synthesis." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1816) 

"When all is said and done, nothing suits the theater except what also makes a symbolic appeal to the eyes a significant action suggesting an even more significant one." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Shakespeare and No End", 1816)

"That which is formed is straightway transformed again, and if we would to some degree arrive at a living intuition of Nature, we must on our part remain forever mobile and plastic, according to her own example." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Morphology", 1817)

"As we contemplate the edifice of the universe, in its vastest extension, in its minutest divisibility, we cannot resist the notion that an idea underlies the whole, according to which God and Nature creatively interact forever and ever. Intuition, contemplation, reflection give us an approach to these mysteries, We are emboldened to venture upon ideas; in a more modest mood we fashion concepts that might bear some analogy to those primal beginnings." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Doubts and Resignation", 1820)

"Even in the sciences, mere knowing is of no avail. It is always a matter of doing." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1822)

"General concepts and great conceit are always poised to make a terrible mess of things." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1822)

"The most foolish of all errors is for young people to believe that they lose their originality by accepting the truths which have already been accepted by their predecessors." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1822)

"When Nature begins to reveal her manifest mystery to a man, he feels an irresistible longing for her worthiest interpreter art." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1823)

"Truth is like a torch, but of gigantic proportions. It is all we can do to grope our way with dazzled eyes, in fear even of getting scorched." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1824)

"Man was not born to solve the problems of the universe, but rather to seek to lay bare the heart of the problem and then confine himself within the limits of what is amenable to understanding." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1825)

"The true, which is identical with the divine, transcends our grasp as such. We perceive it only as reflection, parable, symbol, in specific and related manifestations.  We become aware of it as life that defies comprehension, and for all that we cannot renounce the wish to comprehend. " (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Essay on Meteorology", 1825)

"Error finds ceaseless repetition in deed, for which reason one must never tire of repeating the truth in words." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1826)

"Knowing is possible only when one knows little. As one comes to experience more, one gets gradually assailed by doubts. [...] No phenomenon can be explained, taken merely by itself. Only many, surveyed in their connection, and methodically arranged, finally yield something that can pass for theory." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1828)

"The greatest art, both in teaching and in life itself, consists in transforming the problem into a postulate." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1928)

"For truth is simple and without fuss, whereas error affords opportunity for dissipating time and energy." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1829)

"Man must cling to the belief that the incomprehensible is comprehensible. Else he would give up investigating. " (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1829)  

"To concentrate on a craft is the best procedure. For the person of inferior gifts it will always remain a craft. The more gifted person  will raise it to an art. And as for the man of highest endowment, in doing one thing he does all things; or, to put it less paradoxically, in the one thing that he does properly, he sees a symbol of all things that are done right. " (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1829)

"'Nature does nothing for nothing' is an old Philistine saying. She is eternally alive, prodigal and extravagant in her workings, to keep the infinite ever present, because nothing can endure without change." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1831)

"The desire to explain what is simple by what is complex, what is easy by what is difficult, is a calamity affecting the whole body of science, known, it is true, to men of insight, but not generally admitted." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1833)

"With the growth of knowledge our ideas must from time to time be organized afresh. The change takes place usually in accordance with new maxims as they arise, but it always remains provisional. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", 1833)

"Nothing hurts a new truth more than an old error." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Sprüche in Prosa", 1840)

"All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) 

"Everything is simpler than one can imagine, at the same time more involved than can be comprehended." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

"In nature we never see anything isolated, but everything in connection with something else which is before it, beside it, under it and over it." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

"In tearing down a position, all false arguments carry weight; not so in building up. Only the truth is constructive." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections" [posthumous])

"It requires a much higher organ to seize upon truth than it does to defend error." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections" [posthumous])

"Nature, despite her seeming diversity, is always a unity, a whole; and thus, when she manifests herself in any part of that whole, the rest must serve as a basis for that particular manifestation, and the latter must have a relationship to the rest of the system." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

"No phenomenon can be explained in and of itself; only many comprehended together, methodically arranged, in the end yield something that could be regarded as theory." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

"That is the way of youth and life generally, that we usually come to understand the strategy only after the campaign is over. " (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "The Autobiography",  [posthumous])

"The highest happiness of man as a thinking being is to have probed what is knowable and quietly to revere what is unknowable." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections" [posthumous])

"The orbits of certainties touch one another; but in the interstices there is room enough for error to go forth and prevail." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

"The tissue of the world is built from necessities and randomness; the intellect of men places itself between both and can control them; it considers the necessity and the reason of its existence; it knows how randomness can be managed, controlled, and used." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

"Thinking by analogy is not to be despised. Analogy has this merit, that it does not settle things - does not pretend to be conclusive. On the other hand, that induction is pernicious which, with a preconceived end in view, and working right forward for only that, drags in its train a number of unshifted observations, both false and true." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

"Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but not more so than beholding." (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, "Maxims and Reflections", [posthumous])

Week 2023-01: Leonardo da Vinci - Collected Quotes

"All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"Experience does not feed investigators on dreams, but always proceeds from accurately determined first principles, step by step in true sequence to the end." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"Inequality is the cause of all local movements." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind." (Leonardo da Vinci)

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

"Mechanics is the paradise of mathematical science, because by means of it one comes to the fruits of mathematics." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"Nature is economical and her economy is quantitative." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"[…] no human inquiry can be called science unless it pursues its path through mathematical exposition and demonstration." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"Science is the observation of things possible." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"The grandest pleasure is the joy of understanding." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"There is no certainty where one can neither apply any of the mathematical sciences nor any of those which are connected with the mathematical sciences." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"There is no higher or lower knowledge, but one only, flowing out of experimentation." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"Those who condemn the supreme certainty of mathematics feed on confusion, and can never silence the contradictions of the sophistical sciences which lead to eternal quackery." (Leonardo da Vinci)

"To me it seems that all sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, mother of all certainty […] that is to say, that do not at their origin, middle or end, pass through any of the five senses." (Leonardo da Vinci)

Week 2022-52: Gichin Funakoshi - Collected Quotes

"In training, do not expect good results in a short time. [...] train systematically, without becoming impatient or overexerting yourself, and develop gradually, advancing steadily, one stop at a time, with increased application of force and numbers of exercises practiced." (Gichin Funakoshi, "Karate-do Kyohan: The Master Text", 1935)

"The objective of martial arts has always been to defend oneself and not to attack others [...]" (Gichin Funakoshi, "Karate-do Kyohan: The Master Text", 1935)

"The secret principle of martial arts is not vanquishing the attacker but resolving to avoid an encounter before its occurrence. To become the object of an attack is an indication that there was an opening in one's guard, and the important thing is to be on guard at all times." (Gichin Funakoshi, "Karate-do Kyohan: The Master Text", 1935)

"To stand still is to regress; those who think that they have learned everything and become conceited braggarts proclaiming their own merits after learning the movements of some kata and acquiring dexterity in their physical movements are not fit to be considered as serious trainees in the martial arts." (Gichin Funakoshi, "Karate-do Kyohan: The Master Text", 1935)

"Karate is a defensive art from beginning to end" (Gichin Funakoshi)

"Since karate is a martial art, you must practice with the utmost seriousness from the very beginning." (Gichin Funakoshi, Karate-dō Nyūmon: The Master Introductory Text")

"The ultimate aim of the art of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of it's participants." (Gichin Funakoshi)

"There is no first strike in Karate." (Gichin Funakoshi)

"You may train for a long time, but if you merely move your hands and feet and jump up and down like a puppet, learning karate is not very different from learning a dance. You will never have reached the heart of the matter; you will have failed to grasp the quintessence of karate-do." (Gichin Funakoshi)

"When two tigers fight, one is certain to be maimed, and one to die." (Gichin Funakoshi)

Week 2022-51: Jim Lau - Collected Quotes

"A good player recognizes these moves for what they are: a process of sounding out and experimentation. The good player is patient. He is observant, controlling his patience, and organizing his composure. When he sees an opportunity he explodes." (Jim Lau)

"I can defeat you physically with or without a reason. But I can only defeat your mind with a reason. (Jim Lau)

"It's not bad to have aggressive or hostile thoughts and feelings towards others. When you acknowledge these feelings you no longer have to pretend to be that which you are not. You can learn to accept these moods. What is bad, however, is letting them dictate your nature. When you unleash your aggression or hostility on another person, it inspires aggression and hostility in return. The result then is conflict, which all true martial artists try to avoid. Anger doesn't demand action. When you act in anger, you lose self-control." (Jim Lau)

"Stop straining. The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be." (Jim Lau)

"There are times when you should fight, and there are times when you should split." (Jim Lau)

"When a problem arises, don't fight with it or try to deny it. Accept and acknowledge it. Be patient in seeking a solution or opening, and then fully commit yourself to the resolution you think advisable." (Jim Lau)

"You must learn to allow patience and stillness to take over from anxiety and frantic activity for the sake of doing something, Between martial artists of the first rank, there is room for only one mistake. Before an exchange of blows, several minutes may be spent in controlled patience and planning while each man respectfully observes his opponent, studying his position or stance, watching, getting ideas, and charging his energy. When one man thinks he is going to attack, his opponent may quickly change his stance. If he has overreacted, his opponent makes a note of it. This is a weakness which he will later attempt to use to his advantage." (Jim Lau)

Week 2022-50: Wayne Dyer - Collected Quotes

"Acceptance means no complaining, and happiness means no complaining about the things over which you can do nothing." (Wayne Dyer, "Your Erroneous Zones", 1976)

"Behavior is a much better barometer of what you are than words." (Wayne Dyer, "Your Erroneous Zones", 1976)

"Be a student. Stay open and willing to learn from everyone and anyone. Being a student means you have room for new input. When you are green you grow, when you are ripe you rot. By staying green you will avoid the curse of being an expert. When you know in your heart that every single person you encounter in your lifetime has something to teach you, you are able to utilize their offerings in a profound way." (Wayne Dyer, "Real Magic: Creating Miracles in Everyday Life", 1992)

"Everything in the universe has a purpose. Indeed, the invisible intelligence that flows through everything in a purposeful fashion is also flowing through you." (Wayne Dyer, "Real Magic: Creating Miracles in Everyday Life", 1992)

"Act as if what you intend to manifest in life is already a reality. Eliminate thoughts of conditions, limitations, or the possibility of it not manifesting. If left undisturbed in your mind and in the mind of intention simultaneously, it will germinate in the physical world." (Wayne Dyer, "Everyday Wisdom for Success", 1993)

"The only boundaries we have are in form. There are no obstacles in thought." (Wayne Dyer, "Everyday Wisdom", 1993)

"You create your thoughts, your thoughts create your intentions, and your intentions create your reality." (Wayne Dyer, "Everyday Wisdom for Success", 1993)

"Gratitude is a sacred space where you allow and know that a force greater than your ego is always at work and always available." (Wayne Dyer, "The Power of Intention", 2004)

"Intention is not something you do, but rather a force that exists in the universe as an invisible field of energy, a power that can carry us. (Wayne Dyer, "The Power of Intention", 2004)

"Your imagination creates the inner picture that allows you to participate in the act of creation." (Wayne Dyer, "The Power of Intention", 2004)

"Thoughts are mental energy; they're the currency that you have to attract what you desire. You must learn to stop spending that currency on thoughts you don't want." (Wayne Dyer, "Being in Balance: 9 Principles for Creating Habits to Match Your Desires", 2006)

"While the world of reality has its limits, the world of your imagination is without boundaries." (Wayne Dyer, "Being in Balance: 9 Principles for Creating Habits to Match Your Desires", 2006)

"Most people are searching for happiness. They're looking for it. They're trying to find it in someone or something outside of themselves. That's a fundamental mistake. Happiness is something that you are, and it comes from the way you think." (Wayne Dyer, "Staying on the Path: Easyread Super Large 24pt Edition", 2009)

"Our most important problems cannot be solved; they must be outgrown." (Wayne Dyer, "Excuses Begone!: How to Change Lifelong, Self-Defeating Thinking Habits", 2009)

"The use of mental imagery is one of the strongest and most effective strategies for making something happen for you." (Wayne Dyer, "Staying on the Path: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition", 2009)

"With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose." (Wayne Dyer, "Staying on the Path: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition", 2009)

"This is called synchronicity - a state in which you almost feel as if you are in a collaborative arrangement with fate." (Wayne Dyer, "I Can See Clearly Now", 2014)

Week 2022-49: Sri Aurobindo - Collected Quotes

"Our actual enemy is not any force exterior to ourselves, but our own crying weaknesses, our cowardice, our selfishness, our hypocrisy, our purblind sentimentalism." (Sri Aurobindo, "New Lamps for Old", 1893)

"The deeper we look, the more we shall be convinced that the one thing wanting, which we must strive to acquire before all others, is strength — strength physical, strength mental, strength moral, but above all strength spiritual which is the one inexhaustible and imperishable source of all the others. If we have strength everything else will be added to us easily and naturally." (Sri Aurobindo, "India's Rebirth", 1905)

"A thought is an arrow shot at the truth; it can hit a point, but not cover the whole target. But the archer is too well satisfied with his success to ask anything farther."  (Sri Aurobindo, "Thoughts and Aphorisms", 1913)

"Inspiration is a slender river of brightness leaping from a vast and eternal knowledge, it exceeds reason more perfectly than reason exceeds the knowledge of the senses." (Sri Aurobindo, "Thoughts and Aphorisms", 1913)

"Mankind has used two powerful weapons to destroy its own powers and enjoyment, wrong indulgence and wrong abstinence." (Sri Aurobindo, "Thoughts and Aphorisms", 1913)

"Be conscious first of thyself within, then think and act. All living thought is a world in preparation; all real act is a thought manifested. The material world exists because an Idea began to play in divine self-consciousness." (Sri Aurobindo, "Thoughts and Glimpses", 1916-17)

"Nothing in the many processes of Nature, whether she deals with men or with things, comes by chance or accident or is really at the mercy of external causes."  (Sri Aurobindo, "The Renaissance in India", 1918)

"Suffering makes us capable of the full force of the Master of Delight; it makes us capable also to bear the utter play of the Master of Power. Pain is the key that opens the gates of strength; it is the high-road that leads to the city of beatitude." (Sri Aurobindo, "Thoughts and Aphorisms", 1913)

"The strangest of the soul's experiences is this, that it finds, when it ceases to care for the image and threat of troubles, then the troubles themselves are nowhere to be found in one's neighbourhood. It is then that we hear from behind those unreal clouds God laughing at us." (Sri Aurobindo, "Thoughts and Aphorisms", 1913)

"Transform effort into an easy and sovereign overflowing of the soul-strength; let all thyself be conscious force. This is thy goal." (Sri Aurobindo, "Thoughts and Glimpses", 1916-17)

"Spirituality is not necessarily exclusive; it can be and in its fullness must be all-inclusive." (Sri Aurobindo, "The Renaissance in India", 1918)

"The supreme truths are neither the rigid conclusions of logical reasoning nor the affirmations of credal statement, but fruits of the soul's inner experience." (Sri Aurobindo, "Indian Spirituality and Life", 1919)

"All religions have some truth in them, but none has the whole truth; all are created in time and finally decline and perish."  (Sri Aurobindo, [letter] 1929)

"The way of yoga followed here has a different purpose from others, - for its aim is not only to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter." (Sri Aurobindo, "Lights on Yoga", 1935)

"Nothing to the supramental sense is really finite; it is founded on a feeling of all in each and of each in all." (Sri Aurobindo, "The Synthesis of Yoga", 1948)

"The material object becomes [...] something different from what we now see, not a separate object on the background or in the environment of the rest of nature but an indivisible part and even in a subtle way an expression of the unity of all that we see." (Sri Aurobindo, "The Synthesis of Yoga", 1948)

 "When mind is still, then truth gets her chance to be heard in the purity of the silence." (Sri Aurobindo)

Week 2022-48: Carlos Castañeda - Collected Quotes

"A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Teachings of Don Juan", 1968)

"Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question... Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Teachings of Don Juan", 1968)

"Only as a warrior can one withstand the path of knowledge. A warrior cannot complain or regret anything. His life is an endless challenge, and challenges cannot possibly be good or bad. Challenges are simply challenges." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Teachings of Don Juan", 1968)

"The most effective way to live is as a warrior. A warrior may worry and think before making any decision, but once he makes it, he goes his way, free from worries or thoughts; there will be a million other decisions still awaiting him. That's the warrior's way." (Carlos Castañeda, "A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan", 1971)

"Things don't change. You change your way of looking, that's all." (Carlos Castañeda, "A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan", 1971)

"It doesn't matter what one reveals or what one keeps to oneself. Everything we do, everything we are, rests on our personal power. If we don't have enough personal power the most magnificent piece of wisdom can be revealed to us and it won't make a damn bit of difference." (Carlos Castaneda, "Tales of Power", 1974)

"The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary man takes everything as a blessing or a curse." (Carlos Castaneda, "Tales of Power", 1974)

"The world doesn't yield to us directly, the description of the world stands in between. So, properly speaking, we are always one step removed and our experiences of the world is always a recollection of the experience. We are perennially recollecting the instant that has just happened, just passed. Re recollect, recollect, recollect." (Carlos Castaneda, "Tales of Power", 1974)

"The daily world exists because we know how to hold its images; consequently, if one drops the attention needed to maintain those images, the world collapses." (Carlos Castaneda, "Second Ring of Power", 1977)

"To tune the spirit when someone is trampling on you is called control." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Fire from Within", 1984)

"The third point of reference is freedom of perception; it is intent; it is spirit; the somersault of thought into the miraculous; the act of reaching beyond our boundaries and touching the inconceivable." (Carlos Castaneda, "Power of Silence", 1987) 

"Anything is one of a million paths. Therefore, a warrior must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if he feels that he should not follow it, he must not stay with it under any conditions. His decision to keep on that path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition. He must look at every path closely and deliberately. There is a question that a warrior has to ask, mandatorily: 'Does this path have a heart?'" (Carlos Castaneda, "The Wheel of Time: The Shamans of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life", 1998)

"The internal dialogue is what grounds people in the daily world. The world is such and such or so and so, only because we talk to ourselves about its being such and such and so and so. The passageway into the world of shamans opens up after the warrior has learned to shut off his internal dialogue." (Carlos Castaneda, "The Wheel of Time: The Shamans of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life", 1998)

Week 2022-47: Kyuzo Mifune - Collected Quotes

"A chance to try your technique is in one instant never to be regained, so try it without hesitation." (Kyuzo Mifune, "Canon of Judo: Principle and Technique", 1956)

"Action of a man, for instance, done without the unity of mind and body. may be indecent and cause harm to the people around him. This unity of mind and body creates reason in external presentation." (Kyuzo Mifune, "Canon of Judo: Principle and Technique", 1956)

"Be swift. The center of gravity follows the movement of body; as the center of gravity is the most important center of keeping stability, so if the center of gravity is lost. the body is naturally unbalanced. So always fix your mind and keep your body lightly, and move quickly when needed. fixing the center of gravity so instantly as to admit of no chance to the opponent." (Kyuzo Mifune, "Canon of Judo: Principle and Technique", 1956)

"In explaining Judo, often we say 'Gentleness often controls sturdness' (as 'Ju' or Yawara implies tenderness) : Judo shows free mental-attitude created by gentle and elastic capability, physical and mental, which enables a player in face of emergency to change his position and act or avert a danger in accordance with the requirement of time and place given." (Kyuzo Mifune, "Canon of Judo: Principle and Technique", 1956)

"Judo objective is found in infinite sincerity naturally shown, and is in common with truth. mind and body. And this is universal life of nature. Everything in nature keeps or endeavors to keep stability in motion, and the human beings as one of them are not against reason. But man, having ability to think. judge. select and act. seeks to obtain stability in psychology and the law of nature." (Kyuzo Mifune, "Canon of Judo: Principle and Technique", 1956)

"The revolution of heavens and earth is carried on according to the laws of universe, and such laws correspond to nature. Nature exists without will; consistent with existence. nature is not against fidelity." (Kyuzo Mifune, "Canon of Judo: Principle and Technique", 1956)

"A sphere never loses its center, it moves swiftly without strain, and it does not resist force." (Kyuzo Mifune)

"Do not place hope in finding a secret technique. Polish the mind through ceaseless training; that is the key to effective techniques." (Kyuzo Mifune)

"The mind, if slackened even a little, will cause defeat, the same as fearing the opponent will make you unable to use full strength." (Kyuzo Mifune)

Week 2022-46: Lin Yutang - Collected Quotes

"A good traveler is one who does not know where he is going to, and a perfect traveler does not know where he came from."  (Lin Yutang, "The Importance of Living", 1937)

"After all, only he who handles his ideas lightly is master of his ideas, and only he who is master of his ideas is not enslaved by them. Seriousness, after all, is only a sign of effort, and effort is a sign of imperfect mastery." (Lin Yutang, "The Importance of Living", 1937)

"Now it must be taken for granted that simplicity of life and thought is the highest and sanest ideal for civilization and culture, that when a civilization loses simplicity and the sophisticated do not return to unsophistication, civilization becomes increasingly full of troubles and degenerates. Man then becomes the slave of the ideas, thoughts, ambitions and social systems that are his own product." (Lin Yutang, "The Importance of Living", 1937)

"Peace of mind is that mental condition in which you have accepted the worst." (Lin Yutang, "The Importance of Living", 1937)

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials." (Lin Yutang)

"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence." (Lin Yutang)

"No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow." (Lin Yutang)

"Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do." (Lin Yutang)

"This I conceive to be the chemical function of humor: to change the character of our thought." (Lin Yutang)

Week 2022-45: Ken Wilber - Collected Quotes

"The ultimate metaphysical secret, if we dare state it so simply, is that there are no boundaries in the universe. Boundaries are illusions, products not of reality but of the way we map and edit reality. And while it is fine to map out the territory, it is fatal to confuse the two." (Ken Wilber, "No Boundary: Eastern and Western Approaches to Personal Growth", 1979)

"Physics is the most fundamental, and least significant, of the sciences." (Ken Wilber, "Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution", 1995)

"Anybody can they say they are being "spiritual" — and they are, because everybody has some type and level of concern. Let us therefore see their actual conception, in thought and action, and see how many perspectives it is in fact concerned with, and how many perspectives it actually takes into account, and how many perspectives it attempts to integrate, and thus let us see how deep and how wide runs that bodhisattva vow to refuse rest until all perspectives whatsoever are liberated into their own primordial nature." (Ken Wilber, "The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad", 1997)

"Spirit slumbers in nature, awakens in mind, and finally recognizes itself as Spirit in the transpersonal domains."  (Ken Wilber, "A Brief History of Everything", 1998)

"Truth, in the broadest sense, means being attuned with the real. To be authentically in touch with the true, and the good and the beautiful." (Ken Wilber, "A Brief History of Everything", 1998)

"These similarities would seem to suggest, among other things, that there are spiritual patterns at work in the universe, at least as far as we can tell, and these spiritual patterns announce themselves with impressive regularity wherever human hearts and minds attempt to attune themselves to the cosmos in all its radiant dimensions." (Ken Wilber, "An Integral Spirituality: A Startling New Role for Religion in the Modern and Postmodern World", 2007)

"Reality is a rich tapestry of interwoven levels, reaching from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit." (Ken Wilber)

"The modern West, after the enlightenment, became the first major civilization in the history of humanity to deny almost entirely the existence of the Great Nest (or chain) of Being. In its place was a 'flatland' conception of the universe as composed basically of matter (or matter/energy) and this material universe [...] could be studied by science and science alone." (Ken Wilber)

Week 2022-44: Frank Herbert - Collected Quotes

"A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it." (Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965)

"A system has order, flowing from point to point. If something dams that flow, order collapses. The untrained might miss that collapse until it was too late. That's why the highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences." (Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965)

"Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. This is as true of humans as it is of gas molecules in a sealed flask. The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive." (Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965)

"Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic." (Frank Herbert, "Dune: The Prophet", 1965)

"Growth is limited by that necessity which is present in the least amount. And, naturally, the least favorable condition controls the growth rate." (Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965)

"Proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you have always known." (Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965)

"Scientists seek the lawfulness of events. It is the task of Religion to fit man into this lawfulness." (Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965)

"The mind can go either direction under stress - toward positive or toward negative: on or off. Think of it as a spectrum whose extremes are unconsciousness at the negative end and hyperconsciousness at the positive end. The way the mind will lean under stress is strongly influenced by training." (Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965)

"The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience." (Frank Herbert, "Dune", 1965)

"Learning a language represents training in the delusions of that language." (Frank Herbert, "The Bureau of Sabotage: Whipping Star", 1969)

"There are problems in this universe for which there are no answers." (Frank Herbert, "Dune Messiah", 1969)

"Whether a thought is spoken or not it is a real thing and has powers of reality." (Frank Herbert, "Dune Messiah", 1969)

"Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." (Frank Herbert, "Children of Dune", 1976)

"All proofs inevitably lead to propositions which have no proof! All things are known because we want to believe in them." (Frank Herbert, "Children of Dune", 1976)

"It must certainly be more dangerous to live in ignorance than to live with knowledge." (Frank Herbert, "The White Plague", 1982)

"Memory never recaptures reality. Memory reconstructs. All reconstructions change the original, becoming external frames of reference that inevitably fall short." (Frank Herbert, "Heretics of Dune", 1983)

"Technology is both a tool for helping humans and for destroying them. This is the paradox of our times which we're compelled to face." (Frank Herbert, [interview with Tim O'Reilly], 1983)

"We never completely escape the teachers of our childhood nor any of the patterns that formed us." (Frank Herbert, "Heretics of Dune", 1983)

"Dangers lurk in all systems. Systems incorporate the unexamined beliefs of their creators. Adopt a system, accept its beliefs, and you help strengthen the resistance to change." (Frank Herbert, "God Emperor of Dune", 1984)

"History is a constant race between invention and catastrophe." (Frank Herbert, "God Emperor of Dune", 1984)

"The truth always carries the ambiguity of the words used to express it." (Frank Herbert, "God Emperor of Dune", 1984)

"What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking - there's the real danger." (Frank Herbert, "God Emperor of Dune", 1984)

"Clinging to any form of conservatism can be dangerous. Become too conservative and you are unprepared for surprises. You cannot depend on luck. Logic is blind and often knows only its own past. Logic is good for playing chess but is often too slow for the needs of survival." (Frank Herbert, "Chapterhouse: Dune", 1985)

"Intelligence takes chances with limited data in an arena where mistakes are not only possible but also necessary." (Frank Herbert, "Chapterhouse: Dune", 1985)

"Order generally was a product of human activity. Chaos existed as a raw material from which to create order." (Frank Herbert, "Chapterhouse: Dune", 1985)

"Education is no substitute for intelligence. That elusive quality is defined only in part by puzzle-solving ability. It is in the creation of new puzzles reflecting what your senses report that you round out the definitions." (Frank Herbert, "Chapterhouse: Dune", 1985)

"The thing the ecologically illiterate don't realize about an ecosystem is that it's a system. A system! A system maintains a certain fluid stability that can be destroyed by a misstep in just one niche." (Frank Herbert, "Dune: House Atreides", 1999)

"Life - all life - is in the service of life. Necessary nutrients are made available to life by life in greater and greater richness as the diversity of life increases. The entire landscape comes alive, filled with relationships and relationships within relationships." (Frank Herbert, "Dune: House Corrino", 2001)

Week 2022-43: Blaise Pascal - Collected Quotes

"Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)

"Education produces natural intuitions, and natural intuitions are erased by education." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)

"Man is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness from which he emerges and the infinity in which he is engulfed." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)

"Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)

"Symmetry is what we see at a glance; based on the fact that there is no reason for any difference, and based also on the face of man; whence it happens that symmetry is only wanted in breadth, not in height or depth." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)

"Take away probability, and you can no longer please the world; give probability, and you can no longer displease it." (Blaise Pascal, "Thoughts", 1670)

"We know that there is an infinite, and we know not its nature. As we know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore true that there is a numerical infinity. But we know not of what kind; it is untrue that it is even, untrue that it is odd; for the addition of a unit does not change its nature; yet it is a number, and every number is odd or even (this certainly holds of every finite number). Thus, we may quite well know that there is a God without knowing what He is." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)

"We see neither justice nor injustice which does not change its nature with change in climate. Three degrees of latitude reverse all jurisprudence: a meridian decides the truth." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)

"What is man in nature? A Nothing in comparison with the Infinite, an All in comparison with the Nothing, a mean between nothing and everything. Since he is infinitely removed from comprehending the extremes, the end of things and their beginning are hopelessly hidden from him in an impenetrable secret; he is equally incapable of seeing the Nothing from which he was made, and the Infinite in which he is swallowed up." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670) 

"The eternal silence of these infinite spaces terrifies me." (Blaise Pascal)

"We are generally more effectually persuaded by reasons we have ourselves discovered than by those which have occurred to others." (Blaise Pascal)

Week 2022-42: Immanuel Kant - Collected Quotes

"God put a secret art into the forces of Nature so as to enable it to fashion itself out of chaos into a perfect world system." (Immanuel Kant, "Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens", 1755)

"It is presumed that there exists a great unity in nature, in respect of the adequacy of a single cause to account for many different kinds of consequences." (Immanuel Kant, "Theoretical Philosophy", 1755-1770)

"The sublime must always be great; the beautiful can also be small. The sublime must be simple; the beautiful can be adorned or ornamented. A great height is just as sublime as a great depth, except that the latter is accompanied with the sensation of shuddering, the former with one of wonder. Hence the latter feeling can be the terrifying sublime, and the former the noble." (Immanuel Kant, "Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime", 1764)

"All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us." (Immanuel Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason", 1781)

"Our knowledge springs from two fundamental sources of the mind; the first is the capacity of receiving representations (receptivity for impressions), the second is the power of knowing an object through these representations (spontaneity [in the production] of concepts)." (Immanuel Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason", 1781)

"There can be no doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience." (Immanuel Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason", 1781)

"Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind. The understanding can intuit nothing, the senses can think nothing. Only through their unison can knowledge arise." (Immanuel Kant, "Critique of Pure Reason", 1781)

"Happiness is not an ideal of reason but of imagination." (Immanuel Kant, "Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics", 1785)

"Each according to his own way of seeing things, seek one goal, that is gratification." (Immanuel Kant, "Critique of Judgment", 1790)

"We assume a common sense as the necessary condition of the universal communicability of our knowledge, which is presupposed in every logic and every principle of knowledge that is not one of skepticism." (Immanuel Kant, "Critique of Judgment", 1790)

"One says of a person who has travelled much, that he has seen the world. to the knowledge of the world than just seeing it. Whoever wants to must draw up a plan beforehand and must not just regard the world senses." (Immanuel Kant, "Physische Geographie" [Physical Geography], 1802)

"[…] there is a God precisely because Nature itself, even in chaos, cannot proceed except in an orderly and regular manner." (Immanuel Kant)

Week 2022-41: Edgar Cayce - Collected Quotes

"Actually, we have no problems - we have opportunities for which we should give thanks [...] An error we refuse to correct has many lives. It takes courage to face one's own shortcomings and wisdom to do something about them." (Edgar Cayce)

"Healing of the physical without the change in the mental and spiritual aspects brings little real help to the individual in the end. How true, because the mind and the body imprint and imitate each other. What we think, we become. What we become, we think. It's an insidious process that can predispose us to illness or it can lead us to health." (Edgar Cayce)

"Individuals do not meet by chance. They are necessary in the experiences of others, though they may not always use their opportunities in a spiritual way or manner." (Edgar Cayce)

"It is the rhythmic form in which the mind tends to perceive monotonously repeated stimulation. That's why we pray and why we should also pray audibly, because the sound stimulates the ability to awaken our senses, in order to arouse the forces which will strengthen the psychic abilities within." (Edgar Cayce)

"Mind is indeed the Builder [...] what is held in the act of mental vision becomes a reality in the material experience. We are gradually builded to that image created within our own mental being." (Edgar Cayce)

"Since karma is meeting self, we acquire karma as we meet self in our many attitudes and emotions; when we serve in loving kindness and patience or hold resentful malicious thoughts What we do to our fellow man we do to our Maker our karma or problem is within self." (Edgar Cayce)

"The purpose of the heart is to know yourself, to be yourself, and yet one with God." (Edgar Cayce)

"What Is Meditation? It is not musing, not daydreaming; but as ye find you bodies made up of the physical, mental and spiritual, it is the attuning of the mental body and the physical body to its spiritual source." (Edgar Cayce)

Week 2022-40: Yagyū Munenori - Collected Quotes

"A stroke of the sword that does not hit its target is the sword stroke of death; you reach over it to strike the winning blow. Your adversary's initiative having missed its mark, you turn the tables around and get the jump on your adversary." (Yagyū Munenori, "A Hereditary Book on the Art of War", 1632)

"Conquering evil, not the opponent, is the essence of swordsmanship." (Yagyū Munenori, "A Hereditary Book on the Art of War", 1632)

"If you gaze at a single leaf on a single tree, you do not see the other leaves. If you face the tree with no intention and do not fix your eyes on a single leaf, then you will see all the many leaves. If your mind is preoccupied with one leaf, you do not see the others, if you do not set your attention on one; you will see hundreds and thousands of leaves." (Yagyū Munenori, "A Hereditary Book on the Art of War", 1632)

"Once a fight has started, if you get involved in thinking about what to do, you will be cut down by your opponent with the very next blow." (Yagyū Munenori, "A Hereditary Book on the Art of War", 1632)

"There may be a hundred stances and sword positions, but you win with just one." (Yagyū Munenori, "A Hereditary Book on the Art of War", 1632)

"When you strike a blow, do not let your mind dally on it, not concerning yourself with whether or not it is a telling blow; you should strike again and again, over and over, even four or five times. The thing is not to let your opponent even raise his head." (Yagyū Munenori, "A Hereditary Book on the Art of War", 1632)

"It is because a mirror has no commitment to any image that it can clearly and accurately reflect any image before it.  The mind of a warrior is like a mirror in that it has no commitment to any outcome and is free to let form and purpose result on the spot, according to the situation." (Yagyu Munenori)

"It is bias to think that the art of war is just for killing people. It is not to kill people, it is to kill evil. It is a strategem to give life to many people by killing the evil of one person." (Yagyū Munenori)

"See first with your mind, then with your eyes, and finally with your body." (Yagyū Munenori)

"The archer should forget about shooting the arrow, and shoot as he would doing nothing special. Then the shot will be smooth. When wielding the long sword, or riding a horse, do it as though you would not wield a sword or ride a horse [...] Stop doing everything, have an empty, everyday's mind, even when you have lots of things to do, do it easily, smoothly. The man who has nothing on his heart is the man of the Way." (Yagyu Munenori)

"Throwing down your own sword is also an art of war. If you have attained mastery of swordlessness, you will never lack for a sword. The opponent's sword is your sword. This is acting at the vanguard of the moment." (Yagyū Munenori)

"When you practice archery, if your mind is occupied with shooting the arrow, the shot will be disturbed, and will not be settled (smooth). If you are wielding the long sword, and your mind is fixed on wielding the sword, the sword will not move smoothly." (Yagyu Munenori)

Week 2022-39: Kabir - Collected Quotes

"Admire the diamond that can bear the hits of a hammer. Many deceptive preachers, when critically examined, turn out to be false." (Kabir)

"Be quiet in your mind, quiet in your senses, and also quiet in your body. Then, when all these are quiet, don't do anything. In that state truth will reveal itself to you." (Kabir)

"But if a mirror ever makes you sad you should know that it does not know you," (Kabir)

"Don't open your diamonds in a vegetable market. Tie them in bundle and keep them in your heart, and go your own way." (Kabir)

"Just throw away all thoughts of imaginary things, and stand firm in that which you are." (Kabir)

"The apple blossom exists to create fruit; when that comes, the petal falls." (Kabir)

"The flute of the infinite is played without ceasing, and its sound is love." (Kabir)

Week 2022-38: Pao-chih - Collected Quotes

"Buddha-nature is natural and spontaneous; it is not caused, conditioned, or fabricated." (Pao-chih)

"Do not hold to the intellectual understanding of others; turn the light of awareness back to the root, and it is not there at all." (Pao-chih)

"If you place your mind in the midst of grasping and rejecting, you will be under the influence of those two states." (Pao-chih)

"If you realize the original mind is empty some day, the fullness of reality as is will not leave you lacking." (Pao-chih)

"Just seek nothing at all, and afflictions will naturally fall away." (Pao-chih)

"The nature of things is empty and has no verbal explanation; there is nothing at all in interdependent occurrence." (Pao-chih)

"The objects of sense are originally empty and null; ordinary people arbitrarily create attachments and fixations. Nirvana and samsara are equal; who in the world gets differential treatment? The uncontrived Great Way is natural and spontaneous; you don’t need to use your mind to figure it out." (Pao-chih)

"The right way and wrong ways are not two. When perfectly known, ordinary and sage are on the same road. Illusion and enlightenment originally have no distinction; nirvana and samsara are one suchness." (Pao-chih)

"The wise have no mind to seek Buddha. The ignorant cling to wrong and right. Passing all their lives in wasted toil, they do not see the sublime peak of realization of being as is. If you realize the essence of lust is empty, then even hellfire is cool." (Pao-chih)

"When they realize that life and death are like dreams, all their sense of seeking will spontaneously stop." (Pao-chih)

"When you know all things are equal, you are serenely clear and open, blissfully happy." (Pao-chih)

Week 2022-37: Dogen Zenji - Collected Quotes

"A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, even though we do not love it." (Dogen Zenji)

"Bodhisattvas who study prajna-wisdom must first have deep compassion for all beings and a deep longing to save all of them. They must practice samadhi meditation with great care. Refusing to practice zazen only for their own emancipation, they must promise to ferry these sentient beings over to the other shore." (Dogen Zenji, "Zazen gi", cca. 13th century)

"Do not follow the ideas of others, but learn to listen to the voice within yourself. Your body and mind will become clear and you will realize the unity of all things." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own enlightenment." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"Don’t cling to your own understanding. Even if you do understand something, you should ask yourself if there might be something you have not fully resolved, or if there may be some higher meaning yet." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"Enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dewdrops on the grass, or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky. The depth of the drop is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop, and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"Even after getting out of samadhi, you should always be on the alert to act responsively and protect your power of concentration as you protect a baby. Then, it will be easy for you to cultivate your power of concentration until it comes to maturity." (Dogen Zenji, "Zazen gi", cca. 13th century)

"Even if it is painful and lonely, associate with worthy companions." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"If you want to get out of samadhi, move your body slowly, stand up calmly and not suddenly."  (Dogen Zenji, "Zazen gi", cca. 13th century)

"First awaken your compassionate mind with a deep longing to save all sentient beings. You must practice samadhi meditation with great care, and promise to ferry these sentient beings over to the other shore, refusing to practice zazen only for your own emancipation." (Dogen Zenji, "Zazen gi", cca. 13th century)

"Once the posture has been stabilized and the breath regulated, push forth the lower abdomen; one thinks not of good or evil." (Dogen Zenji, "Zazen gi", cca. 13th century)

"One need not necessarily depend on the words of the ancients, but must only think of what is really true." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"One should not differentiate good and bad on the basis of taste."  (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"People of the world cannot necessarily be considered good - let them think whatever they will." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"If the heart is not empty, it will not admit truthful words." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"If the right faith arises in your mind, you should train in Zen. If it does not arise, you should wait for awhile and reflect upon the fact that the Buddha Dharma did not become part of you long ago." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"If you think you can become enlightened just by worshipping images and relics, this is a mistaken view. This is actually possession by the poisonous serpent of temptation." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"If you would be free of greed, first you have to leave egotism behind. The best mental exercise for relinquishing egotism is contemplating impermanence." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"If you want to travel the Way of Buddhas and Zen masters, then expect nothing, seek nothing, and grasp nothing." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"The color of the mountains is Buddha's body; the sound of running water is his great speech." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"The mind has no fixed characteristics; depending on circumstances, it may turn out any way at all." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"The practice of Buddhism depends on whether your teacher is right or wrong. The potentiality of the pupil is like good material, and the teacher is like the master of art. Even if the material is good, good work will not be produced without a good artisan. On the other hand, even a crooked piece of wood will immediately reveal the skill of workmanship in the hands of a good worker. This will testify to the fact that true or false satori (enlightenment) depends on the adequacy of the teacher." (Dogen Zenji, "Gakudo Yojinshu" ["Points to Watch in Practicing the Way"], cca. 13th century)

"There is fundamentally no good or bad in the human mind; good and bad arise according to circumstances." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"To study the Self is to forget the Self." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"Truth is not greater or lesser, but people are shallow or deep." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"What you think in your own mind to be good, or what people of the world think is good, is not necessarily good." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"When we discover that the truth is already in us, we are all at once our original selves." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"When you see others’ errors and you want to guide them because you think they are wrong and you feel compassion for them, you should employ tact to avoid angering them, and contrive to appear as if you were talking about something else." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

"Zazen is something which makes us want to sit in zazen." (Dogen Zenji, cca. 13th century)

Week 2022-36: Takuan - Collected Quotes

"Consider the core of the mind to be a wagon, with will-power to be carried about in it. Push it to a place where there can be failure, and there will be failure. Push it to a place where there can be success, and there will be success. But whether there is success or failure, if one entrusts himself to the straightness of this wagon of the core of the mind, he will attain right-mindedness in either case. Severing oneself from desire and being like a rock or tree, nothing will ever be achieved. Not departing from desire, but realizing a desireless right-mindedness - this is the Way." (Takuan Soho)

"Conquer the self, and you will conquer the opponent." (Takuan Soho)

"Completely forget about the mind and you will do all things well." (Takuan Soho)

"When facing a single tree, if you look at a single one of its red leaves, you will not see all the others. When the eye is not set on one leaf, and you face the tree with nothing at all in mind, any number of leaves are visible to the eye without limit. But if a single leaf holds the eye, it will be as if the remaining leaves were not there." (Takuan Soho)

"If the mind is not restricted to just one direction, it will be in all ten." (Takuan Soho)

"No doubt you see the sword about to strike you, but do not let your mind “stop” there. Have no intention to counterattack him in response to his threatening move, cherish no calculating thoughts whatsoever. You simply perceive the opponent’s move, you do not allow your mind to “stop” with it, you move on just as you are toward the opponent and make use of his attack by turning it on to himself. Then his sword meant to kill you will become your own and the weapon will fall on the opponent himself."  (Takuan Soho)

"One is not likely to achieve understanding from the explanation of another." (Takuan Soho)

"One does not divine this by impressions or knowledge." What this means is that no matter how much you try to figure or calculate by means of impressions or knowledge, it will not prove the least bit useful. Therefore, separate yourself from the discrimination of figuring things out." (Takuan Soho)

"The Buddha and all sentient beings are not two." (Takuan Soho)

"When this No-Mind has been well developed, the mind does not stop with one thing nor does it lack any one thing. It appears appropriately when facing a time of need." (Takuan Soho)

"The art of the sword consists of never being concerned with victory or defeat, with strength or weakness, of not moving one step forward, nor one step backward, or the enemy not seeing me and my not seeing the enemy. Penetrating to that which is fundamental before the separation of heaven and earth where even yin and yang cannot reach, one instantly attains proficiency in the art." (Takuan)

"The mind should be nowhere in particular." (Takuan)

"The mind must always be in the state of 'flowing', for when it stops anywhere that means the flow is interrupted and it is this interruption that is injurious to the well-being of the mind. In the case of the swordsman, it means death." (Takuan)

"When the swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the opponent, nor of himself, nor of his enemy's sword movements. He just stands there with his sword which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictates of the unconscious. The man has effaced himself as the wielder of the sword. When he strikes, it is not the man but the sword in the hand of the unconscious that strikes." (Takuan)

"True Self is the Self that existed before the division of heaven and earth and before one's father and mother were born. This Self is the Self within me, the birds and the beasts, the grasses and the trees and all phenomena. It is excatly what is called 'Buddha Nature'.  
This Self has no shape or form, has no birth, has no death. It is not a Self that can be seen with the aid of your present physical eye. Only the (hu)man who has received enlightenment is able to see this. The (hu)man who does see this is said to have seen into her own nature and became a Buddha. It is to use neither thought nor reasoning and to look straight ahead." (Takuan Soho)

"We must know that it is not enough just to see what the Mind is, we must put into practice all that makes it up in our daily life. We may talk about it glibly, we may write books to explain it, but that is far from being enough. However much we may talk about water and describe it quite intelligently, that does not make it real water. So with fire. Mere talking of it will not make the mouth burn. To know what they are means to experience them in actual concreteness. A book on cooking will not cure our hunger. To feel satisfied we must have actual food. So long as we do not go beyond mere talking, we are not true knowers." (Takuan Soho)

"When a person does not think, 'Where shall I put it?' the mind will extend throughout the entire body and move to any place at all. [...] The effort not to stop the mind in just one place - this is discipline. Not stopping the mind is object and essence. Put it nowhere and it will be everywhere. Even in moving the mind outside the body, if it is sent in one direction, it will be lacking in nine others. If the mind is not restricted to just one direction, it will be in all ten." (Takuan Soho)

Week 2022-35: Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj - Collected Quotes

"As long as you are a beginner certain formalised meditations, or prayers may be good for you. But for a seeker of reality there is only one meditation - the rigorous refusal to harbour thoughts. To be free from thoughts is itself meditation. You begin by letting thoughts flow and watching them. The very observation slows down the mind till it stops altogether. Once the mind is quiet, keep it quiet. Don't get bored with peace, be in it, go deeper into it." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"Of course, when there is total surrender, complete relinquishment of all concern with one's past, present and future, with one's physical and spiritual security and standing, a new life dawns, full of love and beauty; then the Master is not important, for the disciple has broken the shell of self-defense. Complete self-surrender by itself is liberation." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

 "The mind creates the abyss, and the heart crosses it." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"The primary purpose of meditation is to become conscious of, and familiar with, our inner life. The ultimate purpose is to reach the source of life and consciousness." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"The real world is beyond our thoughts and ideas; we see it through the net of our desires, divided into pleasure and pain, right and wrong, inner and outer. To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond the net. It is not hard to do so, for the net is full of holes." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"The seeker is he who is in search of himself." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be. Let your true nature emerge. Don't disturb your mind with seeking." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

There is in the body a current of energy, affection and intelligence, which guides, maintains and energizes the body. Discover that current, and hold onto it unswervingly. Be aware of the spark of life that weaves the tissues of your body and stay with it. It is the only reality that the body has. It is like looking at a burning incense stick; you see the stick and the smoke first; when you notice the fiery point, you realize it has the power to consume mountains of sticks and fill the universe with smoke. Timelessly the Self actualizes itself, without exhausting its infinite possibilities. In the incense stick simile, the stick is the body, and the smoke is the mind. As long as the mind is busy with its contortions, it does not perceive its source. The Guru comes and turns your attention to the spark within."  (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"Truth is not a reward for good behaviour, nor a prize for passing some tests. It cannot be brought about. It is the primary, the unborn, the ancient source of all that is. You are eligible because you are. You need not merit truth. It is your own. [...] Stand still, be quiet." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"Whatever happens, happens to you, by you, through you; you are the creator, enjoyer and destroyer of all you perceive."  (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"When I look within and see that I am nothing, that is wisdom. When I look without and see that I am everything, that is love. And between these two, my life turns." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"When you sit quiet and watch yourself, many things may come to the surface. Do nothing about them, don't react to them. As they have come, so will they go." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

"Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,
 love is knowing I am everything,
and between the two my life moves." (Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj)

Week 2022-34: Deepak Chopra - Collected Quotes

"Don't try to steer the river." (Deepak Chopra)

"Even when you think you have your life all mapped out, things happen that shape your destiny in ways you might never have imagined." (Deepak Chopra)

"Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future." (Deepak Chopra)

"Expectations determine outcomes. If you expect your mental and physical capacity to diminish with age, it probably will. If you have the expectation that you will grow younger and live longer, this will be your experience." (Deepak Chopra)

"In every act of perception we create the world," (Deepak Chopra)

"In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you." (Deepak Chopra)

"It helps if you remember that everyone is doing their best from their level of consciousness." (Deepak Chopra)

"One way to access the field is through the daily practice of silence, meditation, and non-judgment. Spending time in nature will also give you access to the qualities inherent in the field: infinite creativity, freedom, and bliss." (Deepak Chopra)

"Religion is belief is someone else's experience. Spirituality is having your own experience." (Deepak Chopra)

"Surrender is faith that the power of love can accomplish anything... even when you can not foresee the outcome." (Deepak Chopra)

"The best way to motivate other people to help you fulfill your goals is to help them fulfill their goals." (Deepak Chopra)

"The need for approval, the need to control things, and the need for external power are needs that are based on fear. When we experience the power of the Self, there is an absence of fear, there is no compulsion to control, and no struggle for approval or external power." (Deepak Chopra)

"The way you think about your body leads to the way you treat it. For people to shift their behavior toward self-care and heightened well-being, we don't need just compliance with standard prevention. There also has to be a drop in our addiction to drugs and surgery as the main approaches of medicine." (Deepak Chopra)

"There are many aspects to success; material wealth is only one component. But success also includes good health, energy and enthusiasm for life, fulfilling relationships, creative freedom, emotional and psychological stability, a sense of well-being, and peace of mind." (Deepak Chopra)

"There are no extra pieces in the universe. Everyone is here because he or she has a place to fill, and every piece must fit itself into the big jigsaw puzzle." (Deepak Chopra)

"Through silence, through meditation, and through non-judgment, you will access the first law, the Law of Pure Potentiality." (Deepak Chopra)

"We have to learn to go beyond both a positive mind and a negative mind to become a silent, nonjudgmental, non-analytical, non-interpretive mind. In other words, the silent witness. In the process of silent witnessing, we experience inner silence. In the purity of silence, we feel connected to our source and to everything else." (Deepak Chopra)

"Whatever relationships you have attracted in your life at this moment, are precisely the ones you need in your life at this moment. There is a hidden meaning behind all events, and this hidden meaning is serving your own evolution." (Deepak Chopra)

"You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible." (Deepak Chopra)

"You must learn to get in touch with the innermost essence of your being. This true essence is beyond the ego. It is fearless; it is free; it is immune to criticism; it does not fear any challenge. It is beneath no one, superior to no one, and full of magic, mystery, and enchantment." (Deepak Chopra)

Week 2022-33: Sir Francis Bacon - Collected Quotes

"[…] no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth […]" (Sir Francis Bacon, "Essays", 1597)

"God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world." (Francis Bacon, "The Great Instauration", 1620)

"Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true." (Sir Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum", 1620)

"Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, dies and understands as much as his observations on the order of nature, either with regard to things or the mind permit him, and neither knows or is capable of more." (Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum", 1620)

"No one has yet been found so firm of mind and purpose as resolutely to compel himself to sweep away all theories and common notions, and to apply the understanding, thus made fair and even, to a fresh examination of particulars. Thus it happens that human knowledge, as we have it, is a mere medley and ill-digested mass, made up of much credulity and much accident, and also of the childish notions which we at first imbibed." (Sir Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum" Book 2, 1620)

"The first and most ancient inquirers into truth were wont to throw their knowledge into aphorisms, or short, scattered, unmethodical sentences." (Sir Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum", 1620)

"The human mind is often so awkward and ill-regulated in the career of invention that is at first diffident, and then despises itself. For it appears at first incredible that any such discovery should be made, and when it has been made, it appears incredible that it should so long have escaped men’s research. All which affords good reason for the hope that a vast mass of inventions yet remains, which may be deduced not only from the investigation of new modes of operation, but also from transferring, comparing and applying those already known, by the methods of what we have termed literate experience." (Sir Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum", 1620)

"The human understanding resembles not a dry light, but admits a tincture of the will and passions, which generate their own system accordingly; for man always believes more readily that which he prefers." (Sir Francis Bacon, "Novum Organum", 1620)

"The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible." (Francis Bacon, "New Atlantis", 1627)

"A prudent question is, as it were, one half of wisdom." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"Every act of discovery, advances the art of discovery." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"Great discoveries appear simple once they are made." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with 

doubts, he shall end in certainties." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"If a man’s wit be wandering, let him study mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must expect to employ methods never before attempted." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"Make the time to come the disciple of the time past and not its servant." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"Man can only conquer nature by obeying her." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"Mere power and mere knowledge exalt human nature but do not bless it; we must gather from the whole store of things such as make most for the uses of life." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"That all things are changed, and that nothing really perishes, and that the sum of matter remains exactly the same, is sufficiently certain." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"The human understanding is of its own nature prone to abstractions and gives us a substance and reality to thing which are fleeting. But to resolve nature into abstractions is less to our purpose than to dissect her into parts." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"We are not to imagine or suppose, but to discover, what nature does or may be made to do." (Sir Francis Bacon)

"We do not arbitrarily give laws to the intellect or to other things, but as faithful scribes we receive and copy them from the revealed voice of Nature." (Sir Francis Bacon)

Week 2022-32: Carl von Clausewitz - Collected Quotes

"Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"Beauty cannot be defined by abscissas and ordinates; neither are circles and ellipses created by their geometrical formulas." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"It should be noted that the seeds of wisdom that are to bear fruit in the intellect are sown less by critical studies and learned monographs than by insights, broad impressions, and flashes of intuition." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"Our knowledge of circumstances has increased, but our uncertainty, instead of having diminished, has only increased. The reason of this is, that we do not gain all our experience at once, but by degrees; so our determinations continue to be assailed incessantly by fresh experience; and the mind, if we may use the expression, must always be under arms." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832) 

"[…] the conduct of war branches out in almost all directions and has no definite limits; while any system, any model, has the finite nature of a synthesis. An irreconcilable conflict exists between this type of theory and actual practice." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"The deduction of effect from cause is often blocked by some insuperable extrinsic obstacle: the true causes may be quite unknown." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"The function of theory is to put all this in systematic order, clearly and comprehensively, and to trace each action to an adequate, compelling cause. […] Theory should cast a steady light on all phenomena so that we can more easily recognize and eliminate the weeds that always spring from ignorance; it should show how one thing is related to another, and keep the important and the unimportant separate. If concepts combine of their own accord to form that nucleus of truth we call a principle, if they spontaneously compose a pattern that becomes a rule, it is the task of the theorist to make this clear." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"The insights gained and garnered by the mind in its wanderings among basic concepts are benefits that theory can provide. Theory cannot equip the mind with formulas for solving problems, nor can it mark the narrow path on which the sole solution is supposed to lie by planting a hedge of principles on either side. But it can give the mind insight into the great mass of phenomena and of their relationships, then leave it free to rise into the higher realms of action." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"The principle of polarity is valid only in relation to one and the same object, in which positive and negative interests exactly cancel one another out. […] When, however, we are dealing with two different things that have a common relation external to themselves, the polarity lies not in the things but in their relationship." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"[…] the role of determination is to limit the agonies of doubt and the perils of hesitation when the motives for action are inadequate." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"The state of crisis is the real war; the equilibrium is nothing but its reflex." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"The primary purpose of any theory is to clarify concepts and ideas that have become, as it were, confused and entangled. Not until terms and concepts have been defined can one hope to make any progress in examining the question clearly and simply and expect the reader to share one’s views." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"Theory becomes infinitely more difficult as soon as it touches the realm of moral values. Architects and painters know precisely what they are about as long as they deal with material phenomena. Mechanical and optical structures are not subject to dispute. But when they come to the aesthetics of their work, when they aim at a particular effect on the mind or on the senses, the rules dissolve into nothing but vague ideas." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"Truth in itself is rarely sufficient to make men act. Hence the step is always long from cognition to volition, from knowledge to ability. The most powerful springs of action in men lie in his emotions." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

"War is the province of chance. in no other sphere of human activity must such a margin be left for this intruder. it increases the uncertainty of every circumstance and deranges the course of events." (Carl von Clausewitz, "On War", 1832)

Week 2022-31: Benjamin Disraeli - Collected Quotes

 "It is remarkable that when great discoveries are effected, their simplicity always seems to detract from their originality: on these occasions we are reminded of the egg of Columbus!" (Benjamin Disraeli, "Curiosities of Literature" Vol. 3, 1824)

"Knowledge must be gained by ourselves. Mankind may supply us with facts; but the results, even if they agree with previous ones, must be the work of our own minds." (Benjamin Disraeli, "The Young Duke", 1831)

"Nature is more powerful than education; time will develop everything." (Benjamin Disraeli, "Contarini Fleming", 1832)

"What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens." (Benjamin Disraeli, "Henrietta Temple", 1837)

"Extreme views are never just; something always turns up which disturbs the calculations formed upon their data." (Benjamin Disraeli, 1847)

"As a general rule the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information." (Benjamin Disraeli, "Endymion", 1880)

"Imagination is too often accompanied by somewhat irregular logic." (Benjamin Disraeli, "Wit and Wisdom, Imagination", 1881)

"The world is devoted to physical science, because it believes theses discoveries will increase its capacity of luxury and self-indulgence. But the pursuit of science only leads to the insoluble. (Benjamin Disraeli, "Lothair", 1870)

"Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"Change is inevitable in a progressive society. Change is constant." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"Ignorance never settles a question." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creature of man. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is to know when to forgo an advantage." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"Nothing can resist a will which will stake even existence upon its fulfillment." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"Nothing in life is more remarkable than the unnecessary anxiety which we endure, and generally create ourselves." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"Nurture your minds with great thoughts. To believe in the heroic makes heroes." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"Philosophy becomes poetry, and science imagination, in the enthusiasm of genius." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own."  (Benjamin Disraeli)

"The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"The secret of success is constancy of purpose." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"There is no education like adversity." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." (Benjamin Disraeli)

"What art was to the ancient world, Science is to the modern; the distinctive faculty. In the minds of men, the useful has succeeded to the beautiful." (Benjamin Disraeli)