Although the West has its own contemplative tradition in the Catholic Church, the life of “sitting and look” has lost its appeal, for no religion is valued which does not “improve the world,” and it is hard to see how the world can be improved by keeping still.
Yet it should be obvious that action without wisdom, without clear awareness of the world as it really is, can never improve anything. Furthermore, as muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.
Yet it should be obvious that action without wisdom, without clear awareness of the world as it really is, can never improve anything. Furthermore, as muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone, it could be argued that those who sit quietly and do nothing are making one of the best possible contributions to a world in turmoil.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Book: Foundation
At the end of each therapy session, I waited for an evaluation, a clinical judgment, some kind of pronouncement on “my condition.” I hoped I suffered from something serious, a clear syndrome, maybe requiring heavy medication and hospitalization. I pictured myself wearing a robe and paper slippers and looking out of a window with bars on it. I wanted to be relieved of the responsibility of taking any action to help myself.
Book: The Boy Who Fell Out of the Sky
If there is no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do. ‘Cause that’s all there is. What we do, now, today. …If there is no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.
TV: Angel
Nothing is more wasteful than doing with great efficiency that which should not be done.
Do what you feel like doing. Don’t bully yourself. Violence will make you hard and rigid. Do not fight with what you take to be obstacles on your way. Just be interested in them, watch them, observe, enquire. Let anything happen—good or bad. But don’t let yourself be submerged by what happens.
If something is worrying you, always do something about it. It doesn’t have to be the big thing that will make it disappear. It can be any small thing. But the effect it will have on you will be enormous. You’ll have done something.
Book: “100 Ways to Motivate Yourself” by Steve Chandler
The true test of character is how we behave when we don’t know what to do.
The very young do not often do what they’re told.
TV: Stargate: SG-1, episode 1x07 “The Nox”
If you can’t do something smart, do something right.
Movie: Serenity
There comes a time when you can’t run from the things you’ve done.
TV: Battlestar Galactica
Sometimes we don’t do things we want to do so that others will not know we want to do them.
Movie: The Village
I think it puts into question all of the Homeland Security and Northern Command planning for the last four years, because if we can’t respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we’re prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?
What a feeling of release it gives one… in knowing that there really can be a thing in the world as free and fearless action. Something irradiated with spontaneous beauty.
Play: Hedda Gabler, Act Four
It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.
If we do not change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed.
Proverb: Chinese
When people say to me: “How do you do so many things?”, I often answer them, without meaning to be cruel: “How do you so little?” It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take risks. Yet most people don’t. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.
The best-kept secret today is that people would rather work hard for something they believe in than enjoy a pampered idleness.
Procrastination and worry are the twin thieves that will try to rob you of your brilliance, but even the smallest action will drive them from your camp.
If you observe a really happy man you will find him building a boat, writing a symphony, educating his son, growing double dahlias in his garden. He will not be searching for happiness as if it were a collar button that has rolled under the radiator. He will have become aware that he is happy in the course of living 24 crowded hours of the day.
Ordinary people merely think how they shall spend their time; a person of talent tries to use it.