Random Pearls
My life has no purpose, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy. I can't figure it out. What am I doing right?
-
Charles M. Schulz
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
-
Aristotle
Things change moment to moment,
things are impermanent. We worry over the past,
we anticipate the future,
and we barely perceive a shred
of the passing moment.
-
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
If you understand,
things are just as they are.
If you do not understand,
things are just as they are.
- Zen Saying
The first key to wisdom is this-
constant and frequent questioning. . .
for by doubting we are led to question
and by questioning we arrive at the truth.
-
Peter Abelard
People wish to be settled;
only as far as they are unsettled
is there any hope for them.
-
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Until he extends the circle of his compassion
to all living things,
man will not himself find peace.
- Albert Schweitzer
Nothing can bring you peace
but yourself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
See, the human mind is kind of like. . .
a pinata. When it breaks open,
there's a lot of surprises inside.
Once you get the pinata perspective,
you see that losing your mind
can be a peak experience.
-
Jane Wagner
It takes a lot of time to be a genius,
you have to sit around so much
doing nothing, really doing nothing.
- Gertrude Stein
When you understand one thing
through and through
you understand everything.
- Shunryu Suzuki
Risk!
Risk anything!
Care no more for the opinion of others,
for those voices.
Do the hardest thing on earth for you.
Act for yourself.
Face the truth.
- Katherine Mansfield
This world, after all our sciences,
is still a miracle:
wonderful, inscrutable, magical, and more,
to whoever will think of it.
- Thomas Carlyle
As one lamp serves to dispel
a thousand years of darkness,
so one flash of wisdom destroys
ten thousand years of ignorance.
-
Hui-Neng
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
This moment is a gift.
That's why they call it the present!
- Unknown
Mail me if you know.
Wherever you are is the entry point!
-
Kabir
In all affairs it's a healthy thing
now and then to hang a question mark
on the things you have long taken for granted
-
Bertrand Russell
Each moment is a place you've never been.
-
Mark Strand
To be satisfied with what one has;
that is wealth.
As long as one sorely needs a certain additional amount,
that man isn't rich.
-
Mark Twain
As scarce as truth is,
the supply has always been in excess of the demand.
-
Josh Billings
Every now and then go away,
have a little relaxation,
for when you come back to your work
your judgment will be surer.
Go some distance away because then
the work appears smaller
and more of it can be taken in at a glance
and a lack of harmony and proportion
is more readily seen.
-
Leonardo da Vinci
Illusion is the only reality
-
Gustave Flaubert
The problem is not that there are problems.
The problem is expecting otherwise
and thinking that having problems is a problem.
- Theodore Rubin
Never doubt that a small group
of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
-
Margaret Mead
There is nothing lacking in you,
and you yourself are no different from the Buddha.
Be boundless and absolutely free from all conditions.
Be free to go in any direction you like.
Do not act to do good, nor to pursue evil.
Whether you walk or stay,
sit or lie down,
all are the wonderful activity of the Great Enlightened One.
It is all joy, free from anxiety--it is called Buddha.
--Tao-Hsin
Selfish, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.
--
Ambrose Bierce
It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what
they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed
that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so
much -- the wheel, New York, wars and so on -- whilst all the dolphins
had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But
conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more
intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons.
-- Douglas Admas "The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy"
Whoso loveth God truly
must not expect to be loved by him in return
--
Spinoza
"Studying the Way" is just a figure of speech,
a method of arousing people's interest in the early stages
of their development. In fact, the Way is not something
which can be studied. Study leads to the retention of
concepts, and so the Way is entirely misunderstood.
--
Huang-Po
There is but one success -
to be able to spend your life in your own way.
-
Christopher Morley
Resolve to be thyself,
and know that he who finds himself,
loses his misery.
-
Coventry Patmore
Be humble, for you are made of dung.
Be noble, for you are made of stars.
-
Serbian Proverb
Doubt is an uncomfortable condition,
but certainty is a ridiculous one.
-
Voltaire
To be what we are,
and to become what we are capable of becoming,
is the only end of life.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
I can't change the direction of the wind,
but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.
-
Jimmy Dean
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart
people into thinking they can't lose.
- Bill Gates
The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon,
but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him
to put the other somewhat higher.
-- Aldous Huxley
Through trainin there is knowledge. You can produce compassion,
love, forgiveness. You can change yourself.
-- The Dalai Lama
If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today.
-- Lou Holtz
Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
--
Mary Bryanta
. . .if you can't think for yourself,
no amount of 'methodology' is going to save you.
--
Joel Spolsky
Not everything that is faced can be changed,
but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
--
James Baldwin
An inventor fails 999 times, and if he succeeds once, he's in. He treats his failures simply as practice shots.
--
Charles F. Kettering
Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.
--
Madeleine L'Engle
Failure is only opportunity to more intelligently begin again.
--
Henry Ford
