A human being is a part of the whole called by us “universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
There is no birth of consciousness without pain.
I say that radiation is inherently disintegrative; it comes apart. Gravity is inherently integrative; it pulls together. And to me, there’s a good possibility that love is what I’d call metaphysical gravity. It really holds everything together.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.
Ever desireless one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring one can see the manifestations.
I am always running into peoples’ unconscious.
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.
Every man’s foremost task is actualization of his unique, unprecedented and never-recurring potentialities, and not the repetition of something that another, and be it even the greatest, has already achieved.
The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.
In the nature of things, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.
i once heard the survivors
of a colony of ants
that had been partially
obliterated by a cow’s foot
seriously debating
the intention of the gods
towards their civilization
Kinds of cultural change: there is change by necessity, or adaptation, and there is contrived change or novelty.
The only conflict of interest in politics is when you have a dinner meeting with two lobbyists on the same night in a different place.
What is grief compared to physical pain? Whatever fools may say, the body can suffer twenty times more than the mind. The mind has always some power of evasion. At worst, the unbearable thought only comes back and back, but the physical pain can be absolutely continuous. Grief is like a bomber circling round and dropping its bombs each time the circle brings it overhead; physical pain is like the steady barrage on a trench in World War One, hours of it with no let-up for a moment. Thought is never static; pain often is.
A happy marriage is the union of two good forgivers.
Marriage is our last, best chance to grow up.
But what is your duty? The demands of every day.
