Quotes: 'Some Things Borrowed'

BORROWED WISDOM: Names have been purposely omitted with the intention that, if found interesting enough, the receiver will seek out their source for him or herself.

"All life has value in itself, independent of its usefulness to humans."

"Fear and those who incite it lead a species to its basest inclinations."

"We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight."

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."

"Let me be patient, let me be kind, make me unselfish, without being blind, I may have faith to make mountains fall, but if I lack love then I am nothing at all."

"What you resist, persists."

"Be a light unto yourself."

"The basic idea of Ecopsychology is that while the human mind is shaped by the modern social world, it can be readily inspired and comforted by the wider natural world, because that is arena in which it originally evolved. Mental health or unhealth cannot be understood simply in the narrow context of only intrapsychic phenomena or social relations. One also has to include the relationship of humans to other species and ecosystems. The relations have a deep evolutionary history; reach a natural affinity within the structure of their brains and they have a deep psychic significance in the present time, in spite of urbanization. Humans are dependent on healthy nature not only for their physical sustenance, but for mental health, too. The destruction of ecosystems means that something in humans also dies."

"Throw away the clocks and compasses."

"We demand permanency and create a culture based on this demand, inventing gods which are not gods at all but merely a projection of our own desires."

"It used to be that brands were formed from people's desires. Now it's the people that are being formed according to the desires of the brands."

"Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future."

"A person hears only what they understand."

"The traveler sees what they see, the tourist sees what they have come to see."

"...can't beat a route that in being a beautiful journey becomes an extraordinary destination!" 

"I see my path, but I don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it."

"You must learn a new way to 'think' before you can master a new way to 'be'."
 
"Our anger or annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us."

"There is a point to it, but only up until a point."

"Jikishin kore dojo" (The straightforward mind, this is the place of the way)

"The importance is in forgetting scheduled time, and being more in rhythm with what surrounds you."

"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history."

"The best journeys answer questions, that in the beginning, you didn't even think to ask."

"For me adventure is when everything goes wrong. That's when the adventure starts."

"Time is but the stream I go fishing in."

"A little learning is a dang'rous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again."

"If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development."

"I shall try to tell the truth, but the result will be fiction."

"Selfishness is attempting to force someone to do something they don't want to do."

"The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others."

"There's no other time but now, there's no other question but how..."

"If these be vague words, then seek not to clear them. Vague and nebulous is the beginning of all things, but not their end, And I fain would have you remember me as a beginning. Life, and all that lives, is conceived in the mist and not in the crystal. And who knows but a crystal is mist in decay?"

"One who says that it can not be done should not interrupt the one that is trying to do it."

"It does not take a great person to do great things; it simply takes an ordinary person to do things in an extraordinary fashion."

"A person that can not control their temper is like a city without defenses."

"It is easier to build strong children, than to fix broken adults."

"A sane person in an insane world will always appear insane."

"When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."

"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience."

"No self, No problem."

"Expect nothing, be prepared for anything."

"Hard work wins when talent refuses to work hard."

"Pain is weakness leaving the body disguised as soreness."

"We are an evolved element of the cosmos and more than that, we are the Universe Aware of Itself."

"Potentiality (energy available to the process of creation) is limited only by the availability of the awareness to grasp its limitlessness. The missing link is the understanding of how to utilize this field of available energy."

"What you think, you become."

"Learn to admit when you are wrong and to keep quiet when you are right."

"One who only sees with their eyes walks in eternal darkness."

"The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge, and there's no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system. The history of our study of our solar system shows us clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong, and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources....

Does trying to understand the universe at all betray a lack of humility? I believe it is true that humility is the only just response in a confrontation with the universe, but not a humility that prevents us from seeking the nature of the universe we are admiring. If we seek that nature, then love can be informed by truth instead of being based on ignorance and self-deception. If a Creator God exists, would He or She or It or whatever the appropriate pronoun is, prefer a kind of sodden blockhead who worships while understanding nothing? Or would they prefer their votaries to admire the real universe in all its intricacy?

I would suggest that science is, at least in part, informed worship. My deeply held belief is that if a god of anything like the traditional sort exists, then our curiosity and intelligence are provided by such a god. We would be unappreciative of those gifts if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves.

On the other hand, if such a traditional god does not exist, then our curiosity and our intelligence are the essential tools for managing our survival in an extremely dangerous time. In either case the enterprise of knowledge is consistent surely with science; it should be with religion and it is essential for the welfare of the human species."