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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.
My life is my message.
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.
Speech:
None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.
Laughter is to life what shock absorbers are to automobiles. It won’t take the potholes out of the road, but it sure makes the ride smoother.
If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into some one else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.
Living inspired is born in the awareness that this is it! We have but one chance at life, and the wonderful gift we are given each morning is the choice of how we are going to live that moment, that day.
Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
A young man who wishes to remain an atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere - “Bibles laid open, millions of surprises” … .God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.
Book: Surprised by Joy (1955)
Time by minutes slips away | first the hour and then the day | small
the daily loss appears| yet it soon amounts to years.
the daily loss appears| yet it soon amounts to years.
Inscribed over the door of the Indianapolis Public Library in Indiana
This I say is the first and deadly error, which appears on every level of life and is equally deadly on all, turning religion into a self-caressing luxury and love into auto-eroticism.
Book: Surprised by Joy (1955)
Joy is not a substitute for sex; sex is very often a substitute for joy. I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures are not substitutes for Joy.
Book: Surprised by Joy (1955)
We should always endeavor to wonder at the permanent thing, not at the mere exception. We should be startled by the sun, and not the eclipse. We should wonder less at the earthquake, and wonder more at the earth.
ILN, October 21, 1905, CW 27:41.
Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our great war is a spiritual war. Our great depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars, but we won’t. We’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.
Book: Fight Club
Really believe in your heart of hearts that your fundamental purpose, the reason for being is to enlarge the lives of others. Your life will be enlarged also. And all of the other things we have been taught to concentrate on will take care of themselves.
There are three classes of men; lovers of wisdom, lovers of honor, and lovers of gain.
I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact: that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber. (from Pascal’s Pensèes by 17th Century Christian Philosopher & Scientist, Blaise Pascal)
Book: Renovation of the Heart, Pg 174
To fight or to give up? This is it, the most basic and the hardest choice in life.
Video game: Cryostasis: The Sleep of Reason
“If you take risks, you may still fail. But if you do not take risks, you will surely fail. The greatest risk of all is to do nothing.” -Roberto C. Goizuet
We look back upon history and what do we see, empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter- revolutions, wealth accumulated and wealth dispersed. Shakespeare has spoken of the rise and fall of great ones, that ebb and flow with the moon. I look back on my own fellow countryman in England, once upon a time dominating a quarter of the world. Most of them convinced in the words of what is still a popular song, that the god who made them mighty shall make them mightier yet. I’ve heard of a craze-cracked Austrian announce to the world the establishment of a Reich that would last a thousand years. I’ve seen an Italian clown saying he was going to stop and restart the calendar with his own ascension to power. I’ve heard of a murderous Georgian in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as a wiser than Soloman, more humane than Marcus Aurelius, more enlightened than (any wise man). I have seen America wealthier, and in terms of military weapons, more powerful than the rest of the world put together. So had the American people so desired, they could have out done a Caesar or an Alexander in the range and scale of their conquest. All in one life time - all in one life time - all gone - gone with the wind. England, part of a tiny island of the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he help found and dominate for some three decades. All in one life time, all gone with the wind. Behind the debris of our self-styled-soloman supermen, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom and through whom alone, mankind may still have hope - - the person of Jesus Christ. (And I present him to you as the veritas, the Truth - - and it does matter because the truth does.)
Quoting: British Journalist, Malcom Muggeridge (1903 to 1990)
Quoting: British Journalist, Malcom Muggeridge (1903 to 1990)
Speech: The Harvard Veritas Forum (1992)
Western culture is, largely unbeknown to itself, is a culture of rejection. And rejection, no matter how old one is, is a sword thrust to the soul that has literally killed many.
Book: Renovation of the Heart (2002)
dansmind86 /
education, evolution, humanity, learning, life, mankind, religion, science, truth
#2997
All truth is one. In this light may science and religion endeavor here for the
steady evolution of mankind. From darkness to light, from narrowness to
broad-mindedness, from prejudice to tolerance, it is the voice of life, which
calls us to come and learn.
steady evolution of mankind. From darkness to light, from narrowness to
broad-mindedness, from prejudice to tolerance, it is the voice of life, which
calls us to come and learn.
A lot of my internal conflict and malaise comes from the tension between the life I ACTUALLY want to live, and the stories I’d love to be able to tell.
Comic: Dinosaur Comics
I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.
Kierkegaard’s definition of truth is the objective uncertainty, held fast through appropriation with the most passionate inwardness, is the truth, the highest truth there is for an existing person.
The definition of truth stated above is a paraphrasing of faith. Without risk, no faith. Faith is the contradiction between the infinite passion of inwardness and the objective uncertainty. If I am able to apprehend God objectively, I do not have faith; but because I cannot do this, I must have faith. If I want to keep myself in faith, I must continually see to it that I hold fast the objective uncertainty, see to it that in the objective uncertainty I am ‘out on 70,000 fathoms of water’ and still have faith.
The definition of truth stated above is a paraphrasing of faith. Without risk, no faith. Faith is the contradiction between the infinite passion of inwardness and the objective uncertainty. If I am able to apprehend God objectively, I do not have faith; but because I cannot do this, I must have faith. If I want to keep myself in faith, I must continually see to it that I hold fast the objective uncertainty, see to it that in the objective uncertainty I am ‘out on 70,000 fathoms of water’ and still have faith.
Book: Kierkegaard
I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see.
Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
I went to the woods because I wished to live life deliberately, to confront only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
Book: Walden
Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires courage.
All people should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.
I have lived and will always live, my life as it can be lived at its best, with art, music, poetry, literature, science, philosophy, and thought. I shall know the keener people of this world, think the keener thoughts, and taste the keener pleasures, as long as I can and as much as I can. That’s the real practical use of self-education and self-culture. It converts a world which is only a good world for those who can win at its ruthless game into a world good for all of us. Your education is the only thing that nothing can take from you in this life.
Book: The Independent Scholar’s Handbook
The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.
We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus go round and round.
Movie: The Bucket List
Live as if you will die tomorrow but learn as if you will live forever.
And where does a newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite. -
Movie: Ghost in the Shell
An educational system isn’t worth a great deal if it teaches young people how to make a living and doesn’t teach them how to live.
Don’t you enjoy being alive? Don’t you like feeling: This is me, this is my hand, this is my leg, I’m real, I’m solid, I’m alive! Don’t you like this?
Book: 1984
Despair is a mortal sin.
Article: May We Not Lose His Kind by Peggy Noonan (A tribute to Wlm. F. Buckley at his death)
Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.
If you are not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.
Those living on the bleeding edge tend to bleed a lot
Speech: Anonymus
Joy is the serious business of Heaven.
Speech: Chip Ingram
That night, a man was killed by a speeding car and I was there to take his soul. The street on which he died turned into a flowing river of light, and he hesitated at its banks. I told him to take a deep breath as if its the last one you will ever take, because sometimes in life, or in death I guess, you just never know.
TV: Dead Like Me
The day I dropped out of college, I remember lying on my bed. My mother came into my room, and she’d been crying. She stared at me for a long time and then she said, “You only have one shot at life, Georgia. This is no dress rehearsal.” And I said, “You know what, Mom? Maybe I don’t even want to be in the play.” A month later I was killed. I wonder sometimes if someone was listening.
TV: Dead Like Me
Humans beings are simple, predictable clichés. Broken hearts, betrayal, it’s all been done a billion times before. The problem is, every time still hurts like the first. And if you’re lucky enough to recover, you can be sure that just as you finish filling in all the cracks in your life, the next one is starting to open.
TV: Dead Like Me
Living is one constant and perpetual instant when the arras-vail before what-is-to-be hangs docile and even glad to the lightest naked thrust if we had dared, were brave enough (not wise enough: no wisdom needed here) to make the rending gash.
Book: Absalom, Absalom!
Look, everybody else in America has already been to Prague, what’s the big deal if you send one extra? I’m sorry, you see I’ve been needing to go there for a long time, now. I mean there’s Czech and Slovakia, and the big Jewish cemetery, and the opera house… maybe that’s Vienna where the opera house is, but that’s nearby, and given the opportunity, I’d hit Vienna, too. Hell, I’d do all of Europe, given the chance. I can imagine Jane and some Praguean idiot dancing the night away… horrible image. And the coffee, see, all I know is American coffee, and the beer, and whatever is good over there. It’s gotta all be better over there. Nothing I eat has any taste. It’s been such a strange time. And what if I was there now, how would things be different? Isn’t there a big bridge with statues on it? I seem to remember that from a history class. And Jane and some guy kissing on the bridge in public. No, it’s Jane and some Czech writer. Image kills me… Just great. This is so frustrating. I’m terrible at conflict. I hate it. And if I’d imagined this problem while falling asleep one night I don’t think I would have spoken up to you. Even in my fantasy life, I just would’ve accepted it. That’s who I am. But today, I have to go. I have to. And when I tell people about this in the future, I know that, you know, it’ll be the time that I went. And I know when I review this whole episode in my head I’m not gonna know what I did or why I did it. I think they’ve done something with the real Grover. But it’ll make a good story of my young adult life. You know, the time I chose to go to Prague. I’ll look back on it and I won’t believe that I actually went, you know. I went away. So let me go. I have to, I need - just put me on the plane. Let me go.
Movie: Kicking and Screaming
The Christian life is different: harder, and easier. Christ says, “Give me all, I don’t want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desire which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked — the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself; my own will shall become yours.” C.S. Lewis
I make good life choices — mostly because they’re forced on me — but I make them, and I find myself in unpleasant situations all the time. You know why? Because even if you have a choice it can and will be taken away from you. We’re all fate’s bitch. You might as well go ahead and bend over for destiny now.
TV: Wonderfalls
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