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6d2bd54 Cheap booze is a false economy. economy value wisdom Christopher Hitchens
03e83ec The essence of wisdom is to know when to be doing, and when it's useless even to try arthurian-saga fantasy mary-stewart merlin the-last-enchantment wisdom Mary Stewart
1a3eb20 On some such night as this she remembered promising to herself to live as brave and noble a life as any heroine she ever read or heard of in romance, a life sans peur et sans reproche; it had seemed to her then that she had only to will, and such a life would be accomplished. And now she had learnt that not only to will, but also to pray, was a necessary condition in the truly heroic. Trusting to herself, she had fallen. heroic individual-will noble prayer strength wisdom Elizabeth Gaskell
756057b We shouldn't have been so scornful; we should have had compassion. But compassion takes work, and we were young. wisdom youth Margaret Atwood
0614973 After his experience with Minos, Nico realized that most spectres held only as much power as you allowed them to have. They pried into your mind, using fear or anger or longing to influence you. Nico had learned to shield himself. Sometimes he could even turn the tables and bend ghosts to his will. lesson life past wisdom Rick Riordan
256c5c9 Nico knew something about ghosts. Letting them get inside your head was dangerous. He wanted to help Reyna, but since his own strategy was to deal with his problems alone, spurning anyone who tried to get close, he couldn't exactly criticize Reyna for doing the same thing. wisdom Rick Riordan
93e417f Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens,'said Gimli. 'Maybe,'said Elrond,'but let him not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall. wisdom J.R.R. Tolkien
5dbbee1 When I start a new seminar I tell my students that I will undoubtedly contradict myself, and that I will mean both things. But an acceptance of contradiction is no excuse for fuzzy thinking. We do have to use our minds as far as they will take us, yet acknowledge that they cannot take us all the way. contradiction imagination intellect mind wisdom Madeleine L'Engle
69bc235 Wisdom is justified by all her children. Luke 7:35 plurality tolerance wisdom Anonymous
4994d1a She was not too young to be wise, but she was too young to know that wisdom shouldn't be spoken aloud when you are happy. wisdom youth Graham Greene
9e1959b So winners, Hae-Joo proposed, are the real losers because they learn nothing? What, then, are losers? Winners? improvement learning-from-mistakes loser perspective postmodern postmodernism winner wisdom David Mitchell
a1c9762 "When the prophet, a complacent fat man, Arrived at the mountain-top He cried: "Woe to my knowledge! I intended to see good white lands And bad black lands-- But the scene is grey." black-and-white good-and-evil gray grey knowledge morality white wisdom Stephen Crane
ce313c3 It is easy to be wise after the event. true wisdom Arthur Conan Doyle
5e1d65e Each day is a little life: every waking and rising a little birth, every fresh morning a little youth, every going to rest and sleep a little death. life philosophy wisdom Arthur Schopenhauer
c22ee87 Even fools say something worthwhile now and again. Even a blind pig finds an acorn sometimes. luck wisdom Robert Jordan
1be41b9 My story is of such marvel that if it were written with a needle on the corner of an eye, it would yet serve as a lesson to those who seek wisdom. stories wisdom Anonymous
a192051 Seeds of past karma cannot germinate if they are roasted in the fires of divine wisdom. peace spirituality wisdom yoga Paramahansa Yogananda
821182a "Who can tell truth from falsehood any more? I say it, and you feel it in your hearts: no man or woman on this big small earth. How should our sages miss the mark of life, and our most skillful players lose the game? six-nonlectures truth wisdom E.E. Cummings
0fd81c2 So do flux and reflux--the rhythm of change--alternate and persist in everything under the sky. flux reflux truth wisdom Thomas Hardy
ce6d814 I know that in the end, God will forgive me. He will forgive your father, me, and you too. I hope you can do the same. Forgive your father if you can. Forgive me if you wish. But most important, forgive yourself. forgiveness wisdom Khaled Hosseini
f959192 Eastward and westward storms are breaking,--great, ugly whirlwinds of hatred and blood and cruelty. I will not believe them inevitable. bigotry black-history-month civil-unrest crimean-war cruelty diplomacy faith faith-in-humanity hate-crimes hope-for-the-future intolerance national-history-day nonviolent-conflict-resolution peace peace-movement peacism political-aggression political-turmoil prophecy russia syrian-civil-war ukraine violence war war-crimes we-can-do-better wisdom W.E.B. Du Bois
cda1256 Philosophers have often held dispute As to the seat of thought in man and brute For that the power of thought attends the latter My friend, thy beau, hath made a settled matter, And spite of dogmas current in all ages, One settled fact is better than ten sages. (O,Tempora! O,Mores!) wisdom Edgar Allan Poe
505e7cf "Every judgment teeters on the brink of error," Leto explained. "To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." knowledge uncertainty wisdom Frank Herbert
f0b7228 There's more than one way to skin a cat, my father used to say; it bothered me, I didn't see why they would want to skin a cat even one way. humor method wisdom Margaret Atwood
f577f2f Those who possess wisdom cannot just ladle it out to every wantwit and jackanapes who comes along and asks for it. A person must be prepared to receive wisdom, or else it will do him more harm than good. Moreover, a lout thrashing about in the clear waters of wisdom will dirty those waters for everyone else. foolishness wisdom Tom Robbins
8998890 "Aeschylus writes, "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." suffering wisdom Madeleine L'Engle
c9ce67b If you succeed in judging yourself rightly, then you are indeed a man of true wisdom. wisdom Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
e2eb424 The world would hate His followers, not because of evil in their lives, but precisely because of the absence of evil or rather their goodness. Goodness does not cause hatred, but it gives occasion for hatred to manifest itself. The holier and purer a life, the more it would attract malignity and hate. Mediocrity alone survives. faith life mediocrity p315 truth wisdom Fulton J. Sheen
239c208 A traitor may betray himself and do good he does not intend. intention wisdom J.R.R. Tolkien
cfb215c Once is never. Twice is always. once pessimism quip twice wisdom James S.A. Corey
1466a40 The whole world is beautiful, Belgarion' Eriond assured him in response to that unspoken thought. 'You just have to know how to look at it life-philosophy wisdom David Eddings
4ed534a You can never know everything, and part of what you know is always wrong. Perhaps even the most important part. A portion of wisdom lies in knowing that. A portion of courage lies in going on anyway. knowledge wisdom Robert Jordan
47a4443 God, with a wisdom I can't claim to understand, called you home a long time ago, and the tears I shed that night have never seemed to dry. home nicholas-sparks tears the-longest-ride wisdom Nicholas Sparks
f9ad1d3 Perhaps I'd been a slow developer, but I was well into my forties before I realized that you don't have to comply with a request just because it's reasonable or reasonably put. Age is the great dis-obliger. You can be yourself and say no. confidence wisdom Ian McEwan
88ae15d Stupidity and wisdom meet in the same centre of sentiment and resolution, in the suffering of human accidents. wisdom Michel de Montaigne
a69ee12 I did start out in witchcraft to get boys, to tell you the truth.' 'Think I don't know that?' 'What did you start out to get, Esme?' Granny stopped, and looked up at the frosty sky and then down at the ground. 'Dunno,' she said at last.'Even, I suppose. nanny-ogg wisdom Terry Pratchett
51f7457 "The chaplain had sinned, and it was good. Common sense told him that telling lies and defecting from duty were sins. On the other hand, everyone knew that sin was evil and that no good could come from evil. But he did feel good; he felt positively marvelous. Consequently, it followed logically that telling lies and defecting from duty could not be sins. "The chaplain had mastered, in a moment of divine intuition, the handy technique of protective rationalization, and he was exhilarated by the discovery. It was miraculous. "It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue, slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character." wisdom Joseph Heller
1ffca15 "Pure has become impure, Impure has now become pure. Good has now become bad, Bad has become evil. For one to live is to die, good impure inuyasha kikyo pure wisdom Rumiko Takahashi
d3f0b2e Hardest of all, as one becomes older, is to accept that sapient remarks can be drawn from the most unwelcome or seemingly improbable sources, and that the apparently more trustworthy sources can lead one astray. ageing henry-kissinger old-age sources wisdom Christopher Hitchens
3cb8aad Saying 'I could have done more,' Zin, is what marks a man as a man and not a God. wisdom R. Scott Bakker
4c9a827 It's the truth, even if it didn't happen... ...if they don't exist, how can a man see them? wisdom Ken Kesey
db7cdb3 We are losing the ability to understand anything that's even vaguely complex. thought understanding wisdom Chuck Klosterman
d15b564 Yet do not miss the moral, my good men. For Saint Paul says that all that's written well Is written down some useful truth to tell. Then take the wheat and let the chaff lie still. open-mind wisdom Geoffrey Chaucer
e9cb8da She had always observed that she got on better with clever women than silly ones like herself; the silly ones could never understand her wisdom; whereas the clever ones - the really clever ones - always understood her silliness. silliness understanding wisdom women Henry James
781ca92 Whenever man attempts to do what he knows to be the Master's will, a power will be given him equal to the duty. p221 wisdom Fulton J. Sheen
d8bd405 What people want, mainly, is to be told by some plausible authority that what they are already doing is right. I don't know know of a quicker way to become unpopular than to disagree. popularity wisdom John Brunner
7e548c0 Be patient and live with the knowledge that all you are searching for is certain to come if you prepare for it and expect it. wisdom Robin S. Sharma
09ba6ed Live. For Now. For the time being. live time wisdom Ruth Ozeki
040031c Religion, too, is a weapon. What manner of weapon is religion when it becomes the government? religion strategy wisdom Frank Herbert
0df7589 My father used to tell me that stories offer the listener a chance to escape but, more importantly, he said, they provide people with a chance to maximize their minds. Suspend ordinary constraints, allow the imagination to be freed, and we are charged with the capability of heighetned thought. Learn to use your eyes as if they are your ears, he said, and you become connected with the ancient heritage of man, a dream world for the waking mind. in-arabian-nights knowledge stories sufis sufism wisdom Tahir Shah
8e70320 For the most part wisdom comes in chips rather than blocks. You have to be willing to gather them constantly, and from sources you never imagined to be probable. No one chip gives you the answer for everything. No one chip stays in the same place throughout your entire life. The secret is to keep adding voices, adding ideas, and moving things around as you put together your life. If you're lucky, putting together your life is a process that will last through every single day you're alive. crossroads hope inspiration lessons life patchett wisdom Ann Patchett
9159cb3 When we want something, we have to have a clear purpose in mind for the thing that we want. The only reason for seeking a reward is to know what to do with that reward targets wisdom Paulo Coelho
9e952f3 When we venture in that unfamiliar sea, we trust blindly in those who guide us, believing that they know more than we do. guidance knowledge maxim sea trust truth wisdom Paulo Coelho
132261a I feared my own kind more than anything the natural world could ever threaten me with. fear fitz mankind nature robin-hobb wisdom Robin Hobb
1cf24f2 What you may seek and what you may find are not always one. find intentions seek seeker wisdom Lloyd Alexander
ed85cb3 What was to be the value of the long looked forward to, Long hoped for calm, the autumnal serenity And the wisdom of age? Had they deceived us Or deceived themselves, the quiet-voiced elders, Bequeathing us merely a receipt for deceit? The serenity only a deliberate hebetude, The wisdom only the knowledge of dead secrets Useless in the darkness into which they peered Or from which they turned their eyes. There is, it seems to us, At best, only a limited value In the knowledge derived from experience. The knowledge imposes a pattern, and falsifies, For the pattern is new in every moment And every moment is a new and shocking Valuation of all we have been. We are only undeceived Of that which, deceiving, could no longer harm. experience knowledge maturity wisdom T.S. Eliot
2e954ba The rationalist imagines an imbecile-free society; the empiricist and imbecile-proof one, or even better, a rationalist-proof one. atheism empiricism nerd nerdiness nerds pitfalls-of-bad-thinking rationalism rationalists reddit white-male-privilege white-privilege wisdom wisdom-vs-nerds Nassim Nicholas Taleb
7796873 They [Nazi captors]had more liberty, more options to choose from in their environment; but he [Viktor Frankl] had more freedom, more internal power to exercise his options. p69 philosophy wisdom Stephen R. Covey
04f200e Cara: I used to believe everything my brother told me, because he was older and I figured he knew more about the world. But as it turns out, being a grown-up doesn't mean you're fearless. It just means you fear different things. fear jodi-picoult lone-wolf wisdom Jodi Picoult
02436c4 There are 1,198,500,000 people alive now in China. To get a feel for what that means, simply take yourself - in all your singularity, importance, complexity, and love - and multiply by 1,198,500,000. See? Nothing to it. wisdom Annie Dillard
e019054 You can't expect anyone to trust revelation if he hasn't experienced it himself. Those who haven't only know reason. And since revelation is a thing apart, and cannot be accounted for reasonably, they never will believe you. This is the great division of the world and always has been. When reason and revelation run together, why, then you have something great, a great age. knowledge numinous seek-and-you-shall-find solace spiritual wisdom Mark Helprin
879a629 Knowledge can be conveyed, but not wisdom. It can be found, it can be lived, it is possible to be carried by it, miracles can be performed with it, but it cannot be expressed in words and taught. wisdom Hermann Hesse
0986fc6 I did not know that mankind were suffering for want of gold. I have seen a little of it. I know that it is very malleable, but not so malleable as wit. A grain of gold will gild a great surface, but not so much as a grain of wisdom. life suffering wisdom wit Henry David Thoreau
e0e0102 I have a pretty good memory, but memories are time beings, too, like cherry blossoms or ginkgo leaves; for a while they are beautiful, and then they fade and die. memory time-being wisdom Ruth Ozeki
47c5b37 Love burdens itself with the wants and woes and losses and even the wrongs of others. p205 sheen wisdom Fulton J. Sheen
6c54d58 Bullish or bearish are terms used by people who do not engage in practicing uncertainty, like the television commentators, or those who have no experience in handling risk. Alas, investors and businesses are not paid in probabilities; they are paid in dollars. Accordingly, it is not how likely an event is to happen that matters, it is how much is made when it happens that should be the consideration. reality-check wisdom Nassim Nicholas Taleb
b073a38 Virtue comes through contemplation of the divine, and the exercise of philosophy. But it also comes through public service. The one is incomplete without the other. Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless. philosophy power public-service tyranny virtue wisdom Iain Pears
b30643e In any given situation there will always be more dumb people than smart people. We ain't many! funny intelligence mindfulness sincere truthfulness wisdom Ken Kesey
c08b8a8 Don't be afraid anymore. Not of anyone. Not of anything. Nothing. Ever again. Listen to me: not ever again. afraid fear freedom life marguerite-duras wisdom Marguerite Duras
6c8081f "We are wise women," Abuela liked to say. "Not because we are wise, but because we seek wisdom." wisdom Charles de Lint
57f9240 "It is a mistake," he said, "to suppose that the public wants the environment protected or their lives saved and that they will be grateful to any idealist who will fight for such ends. What the public wants is their own individual comfort." hedonism human-nature lost-values needs-and-wants prophetic self-injurious-behaviors social-satire-predictability the-way-the-world-works truth wisdom Isaac Asimov
cea4564 We may call Eurydice forth from the world of the dead, but we cannot make her answer; and when we turn to look at her we glimpse her only for a moment, before she slips from our grasp and flees. As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes. Voices may reach us from it; but what they say to us is imbued with the obscurity of the matrix out of which they come; and, try as we may, we cannot always decipher them precisely in the clearer light of our own day. day dystopia eurydice light matrix past time wisdom Margaret Atwood
9e96b37 Head knowledge is worthless, unless accompanied by submission of the will and right action. p40 wisdom Fulton J. Sheen
b062b13 In the end, though, maybe we must all give up trying to pay back people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end, maybe it's wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you, forever and sincerely, for as long as we have voices. gratefulness life wisdom Elizabeth Gilbert
4147265 Do little things every day that no one else seems to want to do, be patient, and success will find you. elizabeth-gilbert enlightenment life success wisdom writing Brandi L. Bates
b3353ff "I'm not trying to tell you," he said "that only educated men are able to contribute something valuable to the world. It's not so. But I do say that educated and scholarly men, if they're brilliant and creative to begin with--which, unfortunately, is rarely the case--tend to leave infinitely more valuable records behind them than men do who are MEREly brilliant and creative." education wisdom J.D. Salinger
aa6f23d The young specialist in English Lit, having quoted me, went on to lecture me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern 'knowledge' is that it is wrong. The young man then quoted with approval what Socrates had said on learning that the Delphic oracle had proclaimed him the wisest man in Greece. 'If I am the wisest man,' said Socrates, 'it is because I alone know that I know nothing.' The implication was that I was very foolish because I was under the impression I knew a great deal. Alas, none of this was new to me. (There is very little that is new to me; I wish my correspondents would realize this.) This particular theme was addressed to me a quarter of a century ago by John Campbell, who specialized in irritating me. He also told me that all theories are proven wrong in time. My answer to him was, 'John, when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together. earth flat-earth greece ignorance knowledge relativity science scientific-theory socrates theory understanding universe wisdom wrong Isaac Asimov
620db40 Yes, she now believed that when her body died, her soul would go on. Gods she did not worship, and faith she had none, but love she had and forever. Love alone had awakened her sleeping soul and had made it deathless. She knew she was immortal. love soul wisdom Pearl S. Buck
80e14b1 Our lives are like these things I make. Turn 'em, build 'em, bake 'em in fire. That's what you've been, son. Baked and fired. But a pot don't have the right to choose whether he be for water, wine, or just left empty. You have, son. You have. life philosophy wisdom Joanne Harris
96af4b5 For a while the hobbits continued to talk and think of the past journey and of the perils that lay ahead; but such was the virtue of the land of Rivendell that soon all fear and anxiety was lifted from their minds. The future, good or ill, was not forgotten, but ceased to have any power over the present. Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song. wisdom J.R.R. Tolkien
6b505f1 One of the extraordinary things about life is the sort of places it's prepared to put up with living. living wisdom Douglas Adams
37bd38d I will bestir myself,' was her resolution, 'and try to be wise if I cannot be good. intelligence resolution wisdom Charlotte Brontë
6771c8d It would be a mistake, though, to consider care by family doctors or midwives inferior to that offered by obstetricians simply on the grounds that obstetricians need not refer care to a family physician or midwife if no complications develop during a course of labor. doctor health labor normal wisdom Ina May Gaskin
6167e05 Music shouldn't be just a tune, it should be a touch. advertisement album alliterations amit-kalantri amit-kalantri-quotes amit-kalantri-writer artist background-music background-score band book-writing catch-lines catchphrases characters concert creative-writing drums essay guitar inspirational instruments knowledge melody michael-jackson motivational movie movie-dialogue movies music music-director music-industry music-quotes musicians novel-writing philosophy playing pop proverbs public-speaking quotes rhetoric rock script script-writing scriptwriting singer singing song soul sound speech speechwriting story tag-lines touch tune vocal wisdom writing Amit Kalantri
ee67754 Give men your ear, but not your heart. Show respect for those in power, but don't follow them blindly. Judge with logic and reason, but comment not. eragon garrow inheritance inspirational intelligence quotes-on-life wisdom Christopher Paolini
be81384 Pimping is an art, Whoreson. There are very few pimps in this world who can really take the title of being a pimp. Just because a man gets his money from a whore, that don't make him no true pimp. Real pimps are really rare. pimping street-life truth wisdom wisdom-in-fiction Donald Goines
1d40cbe Everything he admired or loved had been the product of intense individualism. ...when had mass philosophies ever brought benefit or wisdom? philosophy wisdom John le Carré
0d43ba7 You don't trade in the devil you know for the one you don't know. wisdom Ann Rinaldi
0e153bc The key to wisdom is doubt! wisdom Marjane Satrapi
2ee15a7 Wisdom, itself, is often an abstraction associated not with fact or reality but with the man who asserts it and the manner of its assertion. foolishness wall-street wisdom John Kenneth Galbraith
fe68281 ...the best way to know who we are is often to find out how others see us. This doesn't mean that we should do what others expect us to do, but it helps us to understand ourselves better. wisdom Paulo Coelho
6195d82 "Divinely wise souls often infuriate the worldly-wise because they always see things from the Divine point of view. The worldly are willing to let anyone believe in God if he pleases, but only on condition that a belief in God will mean no more than belief in anything else. They will allow God, provided that God does not matter. But taking God seriously is precisely what makes the saint. As St. Teresa put it, "What is not God to me is nothing." This passion is called snobbish, intolerant, stupid, and unwarranted intrusion; yet those who resent it deeply wish in their own hearts that they had the saint's inner peace and happiness." wisdom Fulton J. Sheen
ba6dd2e Try your hardest to combat atrophy and routine. To question The Obvious and the given is an essential element of the maxim 'de omnius dubitandum' [All is to be doubted]. contrarian doubt routine wisdom Christopher Hitchens
6dcbd8a The forces of piety have always and everywhere been the sworn enemy of the open mind and the open book. freethought piety rebellion religion strength wisdom Christopher Hitchens
4c00eba [T]here were two musics progressing at one time before the seat of Iluvatar, and they were utterly at variance. The one was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came. The other had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern. life wisdom J.R.R. Tolkien
9ed90d8 The thought came to me that perhaps it is the loving that counts, not the being loved in return - that perhaps true loving can never know anything but happiness. love wisdom youth Dodie Smith
aebe039 Indeed if fish had fish-lore and Wise-fish, it is probable that the business of anglers would be very little hindered. futility wisdom J.R.R. Tolkien
3dc92f1 You cannot see what I see because you see what you see. You cannot know what I know because you know what you know. What I see and what I know cannot be added to what you see and what you know because they are not the same kind. Neither can it replace what you see and what you know, because that would be to replace you yourself. knowledge provocative wisdom Douglas Adams
a54fdf9 They're just weeds, love, they don't belong anywhere.' Her granddaughter stuck out her bottom lip and furrowed her brow. 'That doesn't seem very nice. Everything belongs somewhere. inspirational weeds wisdom Kathryn Hughes
7d5c628 No kindness is ever wasted, nor can we ever tell how much good may come of it. wisdom Nancy Farmer
dda0759 What a rich wisdom it would be, and how much more bountiful a harvest, to gain pleasure not from achieving personal perfection but from understanding the inevitability of imperfection and pardoning those who also fall short of it. forgiveness grace humanity imperfection wisdom Barbara Kingsolver
0be4885 Knowledge isn't evil, in and of itself. It's what people choose to do with their knowledge that makes the difference. I think it matters what you want knowledge . And what you're willing to sacrifice to get it. wisdom Margaret Peterson Haddix
b99c46c But, alas, in most of us good and bad are closely woven as the threads on a loom; greater wisdom than mine is needed for the judging. wisdom Lloyd Alexander
0afaa3c God is Infinite Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness - and LOVE; but if this idea is too vast for your human faculties - if your mind loses itself in its overwhelming infinitude, fix it on Him who condescended to take our nature upon Him, who was raised to Heaven even in His glorified human body, in whom the fulness of the Godhead shines. goodness jesus-christ love power wisdom Anne Brontë
be568ec "So Merlyn sent you to me," said the badger, "to finish your education. Well, I can only teach you two things -- to dig, and love your home. These are the true end of philosophy." home philosophy wisdom T.H. White
9bb3334 The only wisdom we can hope to acquire Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless. humility wisdom T.S. Eliot
2809e02 There is only one thing which is generally safe from plagiarism -- self-denial. individuality self-denial wisdom G.K. Chesterton
014bf34 It is the desire for irreverence as much as anything else that brought me first to poetry. The need to make fun of authority, break taboos, celebrate the body and its functions, claim that one has seen angels in the same breath as one says that there is no god. myth nosology taboo wisdom Charles Simic
95f7eab For the odd thing about wisdom is the more you use it the more it grows; and the more you share, the more you gain. You'd be amazed how few understand that. dallben orddu wisdom Lloyd Alexander
3f828f0 Only those who row the boat make waves inspirational true wisdom Christina Dodd
477ce99 Folly is as often justified of her children as wisdom. folly wisdom Edith Wharton
ecf0dc3 The very freedom which the sinner supposedly exercises in his self-indulgence is only another proof that he is ruled by the tyrant. p211 wisdom Fulton J. Sheen
64d7d08 What I want is for you to build a bridge. A bridge that connects these two parts of my life so I don't have to choose one or the other I don't want to choose Because the thing about choices? You get something while you lose something else. If you choose wrong you risk losing everything. inspirational life love truth wisdom Lisa Schroeder
bc6d8e2 one should never assume anything wisdom Dick Francis
7c1c6d3 As a man gets older, his regrets changes. Especially when he's gotten into the Scotch. men regret scotch wisdom Robert Crais
274e321 At the time of Lewis and Clark, setting the prairies on fire was a well-known signal that meant, 'Come down to the water.' It was an extravagant gesture, but we can't do less. If the landscape reveals one certainty, it is that the extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation. After the extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down aeons of emptiness, heaping profusions on profligacies with ever fresh vigor. The whole show has been on fire from the word go. I come down to the water to cool my eyes. But everywhere I look, I see fire: that which isn't flint is tinder, and the whole world sparks and flames. landscape life nature wisdom Annie Dillard
69d426c No plaque reminds the passer-by of these glories, although there should be one; for those who invent biscuits bring great pleasure to many. humour wisdom Alexander McCall Smith
c44782d An intelligent enemy,' he would say, stroking his beard as if it were a bristly pet, 'rather than a foolish friend.' Or, 'He learnt the language of pigeons, and forgot his own.' Or, the favourite of Jan Fishan Khan: 'Nothing is what it seems. afghanistan folklore proverbs saying sufis sufism wisdom Tahir Shah
2af41ce Darling, has not the count just told us that all human wisdom is summed up in two words? Wait and hope. wisdom Alexandre Dumas
ec5a739 "To know you are ignorant is the beginning of wisdom," Viviane said. "Then, when you begin to learn, you will not have to forget all the things you think you know." knowledge wisdom Marion Zimmer Bradley
3135090 "I have said: "Blow out the lamp! Day is here!" And you keep saying: "Give me a lamp so I can find the day." wisdom Frank Herbert
667b300 Thinking is man's only basic virtue, from which all the others proceed. And his basic vice, the source of all his evils, is that nameless act which all of you practice, but struggle never to admit: the act of blanking out, the willful suspension of one's consciousness, the refusal to think - not blindness, but the refusal to see; not ignorance, but the refusal to know. It is the act of unfocusing your mind and inducing an inner fog to escape the responsibility of judgment - on the unstated premise that a thing will not exist if only you refuse to identify it, that A will not be A so long as you do not pronounce the verdict 'It is. evil good john-galt life man mind morality morals objectivism philosophy pursuit-of-happiness rational reason think thinking truth values virtue wisdom Ayn Rand
9fe2a46 The world is being created and destroyed in this very moment. inspirational wisdom world Paulo Coelho
627193c And don't forget: Elvendork! It's unisex! inspirational james-potter wisdom J.K. Rowling
542a84c Cheers the spirit, humor does, even at the darkest times. star-wars wisdom yoda Christie Golden
c23ba20 Each cherry took about three seconds to eat. Three seconds to eat, but at least five years in the making. It seemed unfair to the hard-working cherry tree. The least I could do was to devote my attention to the cherry in those three seconds, really appreciate the tartness of the skin and the faint crunching sound when I bite down. I guess it's called mindfulness. Or being in the moment, or making the mundane sacred. Whatever it is, I'm doing it more. Like the ridiculously extended thank-you list for my hummus, the fruit taboo made me more aware of the whole cherry process, the seed, the soil, the five years of watering and waiting. That's the paradox: I thought religion would make me live with my head in the clouds, but as often as not, it grounds me in this world. attention cherries cherry-tree page-172 paradox religion sacred wisdom A.J. Jacobs
9aac367 "Cardan's eyebrows rise, but he has all the appearance of blissful unconcern. "My lady, you flatter me. I had no idea you were interested." Her gaze is unflinching as she passes her gift to one of Cardan's personal guard. "May you grow into the wisdom of your counselors." "The fervent prayer of many," he says." prayer wisdom Holly Black
12e871f The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure. time wisdom William Blake
f731467 The ultimate difference between God's wisdom and man's wisdom is how they relate to the glory of God's grace in Christ crucified. God's wisdom makes the glory of God's grace our supreme treasure. But man's wisdom delights in seeing himself as resourceful, self-sufficient, self determining, and not utterly dependent on God's free grace. wisdom John Piper
b76d62e Asa had a sharp understanding of the future--that is, a time when would be past. Time was rushing through and around him, he almost heard it whistling, and this awareness rounded the world somehow and made it sweet. wisdom Susanna Kaysen
ffff59f I've noticed...that whenever a man is asked to be realistic he is being asked to betray something in which he believes. It is the favorite argument of those who believe that only the end matters, not the means. philosophy truth wisdom Louis L'Amour
347c822 Authentic love must be founded on reciprocal recognition of two freedoms... life love respect truth wisdom Simone de Beauvoir
3a71a5f Independence is the recognition of the fact that yours is the responsibility of judgment and nothing can help you escape it--that no substitute can do your thinking--that the vilest form of self-abasement and self-destruction is the subordination of your mind to the mind of another, the acceptance of an authority over your brain, the acceptance of his assertions as facts, his say-so as truth, his edicts as middle-man between your consciousness and your existence. evil good happiness independence john-galt life man mind morality morals objectivism pain philosophy pursuit-of-happiness rational reason think thinking truth values virtue wisdom Ayn Rand
ca87f59 He brooded on how close destruction always was to all creatures, animals as well as humans, and he realized that there is nothing we can predict or know for certain in this world except death. death life wisdom Hermann Hesse
44fc828 Young people have many pleasures and many sorrows, because they have only themselves to think of. sorrow wisdom youth Hermann Hesse
f2f363f "It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one simply assumes that everything will, somehow or other, work out for the best." -Destruction" confidence essential happiness human-nature inspirational knowledge-of-self philosophy values wisdom Neil Gaiman
1288f4b When I visited , in 1948, at his home in Aylot, a suburb of London, he was extremely anxious for me to tell him all that I knew about . During the course of the conversation, he told me that had made a tremendous impression upon him, and had exercised an influence upon him probably greater than that of any other man. He seemed particularly anxious to impress me with the importance of 's influence upon his intellectual endeavors and accomplishments. In view of this admission, what percentage of the greatness of belongs to ? If 's influence upon so great an intellect as was that extensive, what must have been his influence upon others? What seed of wisdom did he plant into the minds of others, and what accomplishments of theirs should be attributed to him? The world will never know. What about the countless thousands from whom he lifted the clouds of darkness and fear, and who were emancipated from the demoralizing dogmas and creeds of ignorance and superstition? What will be 's influence upon the minds of future generations, who will come under the spell of his magic words, and who will be guided into the channels of human betterment by the unparalleled example of his courageous life? The debt the world owes can never be paid. darkness debt fear george-b-shaw george-bernard-shaw george-shaw greatness honor ignorance influence ingersoll praise respect robert-g-ingersoll robert-green-ingersoll robert-ingersoll shaw superstition wisdom Joseph Lewis
f5d87ab There are skeletons in everyone's closet, things no one ever wants the world to discover. privacy secret wisdom Jodi Picoult
d4aa10e Rationality is the recognition of the fact that existence exists, that nothing can alter the truth and nothing can take precedence over that act of perceiving it, which is thinking--that the mind is one's only judge of values and one's only guide of action--that reason is an absolute that permits no compromise--that a concession to the irrational invalidates one's consciousness and turns it from the task of perceiving to the task of faking reality--that the alleged short-cut to knowledge, which is faith, is only a short-circuit destroying the mind--that the acceptance of a mystical invention is a wish for the annihilation of existence and, properly, annihilates one's consciousness. evil good happiness john-galt life man mind morality morals objectivism pain philosophy pursuit-of-happiness rational reason think thinking truth values virtue wisdom Ayn Rand
33f88eb If your opponent is better armed and has longer reach, then surprise is your only ally. And then you'd better hope he's half asleep. enemy opponent strategy tactics wisdom Sherwood Smith
a514c2b Existence is Identity, Consciousness is Identification. consciousness existence john-galt life man mind morality morals objectivism philosophy pursuit-of-happiness rational reason think thinking truth values virtue wisdom Ayn Rand
ca9dea3 In Antartica, The Wright and half a dozen other valleys in the Central Transantarctic Mountains are collectively referred to as the dry valleys. It has not rained here in two million years. No animal abides, no plant grows. A persistent, sometimes ferocious wind has stripped the country to stone and gravel, to streamers of sand. The huge valleys stand stark as empty fjords. You look in vain for any conventional sign of human history- the vestige of a protective wall, a bit of charcoal, a discarded arrowhead. Nothing. There is no history, until you bore into the layers of rock or until the balls of your fingertips run the rim of a partially exposed fossil. At the height of the austral summer, in December, you smell nothing but the sunbeaten stone. In a silence dense as water, your eye picks up no movement but the sloughing of sand, seeking its angle of repose. On the flight in from New Zealand it had occurred to me, from what I had read and heard, that Antarctica retained Earth's primitive link, however tenuous, with space, with the void that stretched out to Jupiter and Uranus. At the seabird rookeries of the Canadian Arctic or on the grasslands of the Serengeti, you can feel the vitality of the original creation; in the dry valleys you sense sharply what came before. The Archeozoic is like fresh spoor here. nature wisdom Barry Lopez
4c555ad Are you seeking to know what is wrong with the world? All the disasters that have wrecked your world, came from your leaders' attempt to evade the fact that A is A. All the secret evil you dread to face within you and all the pain you have ever endured, came from your own attempt to evade the fact that A is A. evil good john-galt life man mind morality morals objectivism philosophy pursuit-of-happiness rational reason think thinking truth values virtue wisdom Ayn Rand
8bde9f7 No true love is possible, Lewis demonstrates, until we abandon our claims, our rights, our grievances. Until then we will be trapped in the obscurity of our heart's mixed motives, our will to possess, to control, to be our own gods. control cslewis life love rights wisdom Michael D. O'Brien
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