160108

We have been told that all paths lead to truth ・you have your path as a Hindu and someone else has his path as a Christian and another as a Muslim, and they all meet at the same door ・which is, when you look at it, so obviously absurd.

Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static,but when you see that truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, no teacher, no philosopher, nobody can lead you to ・then you will also see that this living thing is what you actually are ・ your anger, your brutality, your violence, your despair, the agony and sorrow you live in. In the understanding of all this is the truth, and you can understand it only if you know how to look at those things in your life. And you cannot look through an ideology, through a screen of words, through hopes and fears.
- J. Krishnamurthy

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I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty.
-Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

For money you can have everything it is said. No that is not true. You can buy food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; soft beds, but not sleep; knowledge but not intelligence; glitter, but not comfort; fun,but not pleasure; acquaintances, but not friendship; servants, but not faithfulness; grey hair, but not honor; quiet days, but not peace. The shell of all things you can get for money. But not the kernel. That cannot be had for money.
-Arne Garborg, writer (1851-1924)

X

Care more than others think wise;
Risk more than others think safe;
Dream more than others think practical;
Expect more than others think possible.


I have learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
- Maya Angelou

I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful
- John Constable

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Not being able to govern events, I govern myself.
-Michel De Montaigne, essayist (1533-1592)

The superior man must be watchful over himself when he is alone
- Confucius

“We must find the courage to leave our temples”, Ghosananda insisted, “and enter the suffering-filled temples of human experience.”
-- Preah Maha Ghosananda (The Gandhi of Cambodia)

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Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.
-Carl Schurz, revolutionary, statesman and reformer (1829-1906)

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It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace.
-Andre Gide, author, Nobel laureate (1869-1951)

Rudeness is a weak imitation of strength.
-Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)

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Words are things; and a small drop of ink /
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces /
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
-Lord Byron, (1788-1824)

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A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.
-Oliver Herford, writer and illustrator (1863-1935)


I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, the needs of others, your work, meeting new people, and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you.
Age 65

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Be like the bird, who halting in his flight /
On limb too slight, /
Feels it give way beneath him, yet sings /
Knowing he has wings.
-Victor Hugo, writer (1802-1885)

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A half-truth is a whole lie.
-Yiddish proverb

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You can never understand one language until you understand at least two.
-Ronald Searle, artist (1920- )

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We shall succeed only so far as we continue that most distasteful of all activity, the intolerable labor of thought.
-Learned Hand, jurist (1872-1961)

The difference between false memories and true ones is the same as for jewels: it is always the false ones that look the most real, the most brilliant.
-Salvador Dali, painter (1904-1989)


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The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely.
-Lorraine Hansberry, playwright and painter (1930-1965)

"The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets
painful is the man who will win."
- Roger Bannister

"Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking of yourself at all"
--- William Temple, 98th Archbishop of Canterbury

Virtues of Dishonesty

These are from an article by Shoba Narayan in the Lounge-Mint, of 20 October 2007

"Pretty much all the truth-telling in the world is done by children"
- Oliver Wendell

"People who are brutally honest get more satisfaction from brutality than from honesty."

Happiness Quotes

Abd Er-Rahman III of Spain (960 C.E.):
I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen.

Albert Schweitzer:
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

Anne Frank:
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be andthat God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.

Aristotle:
Happiness belongs to the self-sufficient

Carl Jung:
There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Edward de Bono:
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations.

Helen Keller:
Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves.

Helen Keller:
When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

James Oppenheim:
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet

IX

"Humility does not mean thinking less of yourself than other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking of yourself at all"
-- William Temple, 98th Archbishop of Canterbury


"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies inside us"
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

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You Raise Me Up --- Lyrics by Russel Watson

When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
When troubles come and my heart burdened be;
Then, I am still and wait here in the silence,
Until you come and sit awhile with me.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up….To more than I can be.

There is no life – no life without its hunger;
Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
But when you come and I am filled with wonder,
Sometimes, I think I glimpse eternity.

You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;
I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;
You raise me up….To more than I can be.

You raise me up ...To more than I can be.

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VIII

To see the world in a grain of sand
And Heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour
- William Blake


The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest men of past centuries.
-Rene Descartes, philosopher and mathematician (1596-1650)

“His life was gentle; and the elements/
So mix’d in him that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world ‘This was a man!’”


I leave to others the importance of what I have or have not done; but let me say that all I have done is to have stood on the shoulders of others so that I can see a little further.
- Issac Newton


If you would not be forgotten,As soon as you were dead and rotten,either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.
- Benjamin Franklin


When money speaks, the truth keeps silent.
-Russian proverb


One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.
-Bertrand Russell, philosopher,mathematician, author, Nobel laureate (1872-1970)


Once you hear the details of victory, it is hard to distinguish it from a defeat.
-Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980)


Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.
-Pericles, statesman (430 BCE)


He who opens a school door, closes a prison.
-Victor Hugo, poet, novelist,and dramatist (1802-1885)


In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.
-Eric Hoffer, philosopher and author (1902-1983)


To a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.
-Yiddish proverb


No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.
-Zen saying

The penalty that good men pay for not being interested in politics is to begoverned by men worse than themselves.
-Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)


If you are planning for one year, grow rice. If you are planning for 20years, grow trees. If you are planning for centuries, grow men.
-Chinese proverb


No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
-Heraclitus, philosopher (c. 540-470 BCE)


Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than in the one where they sprung up.
-Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., US Supreme Court Justice(1841-1935)


What soap is for the body, tears are for the soul.
- Jewish proverb


Those who wish to sing always find a song.
-Swedish proverb


To a person instructed in natural history, his country– or seaside stroll is a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, nine-tenth of which havetheir faces turned to the wall.
- Thomas Huxley


To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.
-Hippocrates, physician(460-c.377 BCE)


Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. Thats relativity.
- Albert Einstein


To be able under all circumstances to practice five things constitutesperfect virtue; these five things are gravity, generosity of soul,sincerity, earnestness and kindness.
-Confucius, philosopher and teacher(c. 551-478 BCE)


Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use.
-Charles Schulz, cartoonist (1922-2000)


A bit beyond perception's reach /
I sometimes believe I see /
that life is two locked boxes /
each containing the other's key.
-Piet Hein, poet andscientist (1905-1996)


Never spend your money before you have it.
-Thomas Jefferson, third USpresident, architect and author (1743-1826)


There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.
-Dalai Lama


If men could regard the events of their own lives with more open minds,they would frequently discover that they did not really desire the things they failed to obtain.
-Emile Herzog, writer (1885-1967)


Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
-Eric Hoffer,philosopher and author (1902-1983)


An old miser kept a tame jackdaw, that used to steal pieces of money, and hide them in a hole, which a cat observing, asked, "Why he would hoard upthose round shining things that he could make no use of?" "Why," said thejackdaw, "my master has a whole chestfull, and makes no more use of them that I do."
-Jonathan Swift, satirist (1667-1745)


'He who fears losing face has no face to lose'
- Confucius


'If you can't convince them, confuse them.'
- The dictum of Hamish McLintock


What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.
-P.D. James, writer(1920- )


Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.


You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
-John Morley,statesman and writer (1838-1923)


"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."
- Charles Schultz


In matter of style, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock.
- Thomas Jefferson


No man is an Island, entire of itself;
every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less,
as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were;
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind;
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
-John Donne, poet (1573-1631)


A man has to live with himself, and he should see to it that he always has good company.
- Charles Evans Hughes, jurist (1862-1948)


Ships that pass in the night and speak each other in passing; /
Only a signal shown and a distant voice in the darkness; /
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another, /
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence.
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)


Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions; but those who kindly reprove thy faults.
-Socrates, philosopher (469?-399 BCE)


The world in general doesn't know what to make of originality; it is startled out of its comfortable habits of thought, and its first reaction is one of anger.
-W. Somerset Maugham, writer (1874-1965)