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Another entry to World Mysteries
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament: Have leisure, and know that I am God.
Psalm lxv, 11.
A BOOK OF WISDOM...
WELCOME, to this misbehaving, wandering book of wandering WISDOM.
Why consider WISDOM? Unfortunately, wisdom is in very short supply as we approach the Year 2000 and beyond. It is difficult to say why this is.
The Problem is: The considered wisdom of the past 4000 years or so presently seems to be unable to assist us in guiding people's lives as population expands.
This may have something to do with the fact that wisdom cannot be taught, it can only be learned. The more rapidly population grows, the more rapid is the reduction in the proportion of wisdom available (?). This book contains only a little, of what has been learned. From here you are on your own ...
For other good quotes, go to: www.wow4u.com/
Please consider...
The Meaning of Life is the sense
of happiness you take in
being of usefulness to the people around you.
This
definition
comes from the Dalai Lama.
"Happiness is absorption." |
"Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it's grief that
develops the powers of the mind." |
God grant me the serenity, to remember who I am. |
"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two
bodies." |
When you enter your room,
you
enter your heart. Happy those who delight to enter their hearts and
find no evil there. |
Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the
life
of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness is never decreased by
being shared. |
Mere humour: "Defrag wonders about the wisdom of the French leader immersing himself in either medium, but it's good to know he'll remain completely ignorant of the Internet until he's finished making decisions about it", after noting that French prime minister Lionel Jospin had said, "I surf more in the Atlantic than on the Internet, I am waiting till I am no longer prime minister to get into it."
Kerrie Murphy, writer of the Defrag column in The Australian, and one of Australia's best humourists, 18 July 2000.
THIS CHRISTMAS
- Mend a quarrel - Seek out a
forgotten friend
Write a love letter - Share some treasure
Give
a soft answer - Encourage youth
Keep a promise - Find the
time
Forgive an enemy - Listen
Apologize if you
were wrong
Think first of someone else - Be kind and gentle
Laugh
a
little - Laugh a little more
Express your gratitude -
Gladden the
heart of a child
Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of
the
earth
Speak your love - Speak it again - Speak it still once
again
Anonymous.
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"There is not a crime, there is not a
dodge, there
is not a
trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not
live by secrecy. Get these things out in the open, describe them,
attack them, ridicule them in the press, and sooner or later public
opinion will sweep them away."
-Joseph Pulitzer
"The tongues of dying men enforce attention like deep
harmony."
William Shakespeare, Richard II, II, 1.5.6
"Ideas must work through the brains and the arms of good and brave men, or they are no better than dreams." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I doubt that art needed Rushkin any more than a moving train
needs one of its passengers to push it."
A remark about art
criticism from UK playwright Tom Stoppard on the C19th art critic
John Rushkin.
"All man's troubles stem from a single cause: his inability
to sit quietly in a room."
French philosopher, Blaise Pascal.
"Always tell the truth. That way, you don't have to
remember
what you said."
Mark Twain.
| "Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one." - Salman Rushdie. A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. "The literary world is a dangerous place to inhabit too
frequently if you want to get serious work done." "Those who do not read are no better off than those who can
not." |
Art occurs at the point where a form is sincerely honoured by an awakened spirit. Lawrence Durrell, Clea |
Anton Chekhov, playwright, once wrote in his notebook, wondering whether "the universe is not suspended on the tooth of some monster". |
"The excellent tribe of grammarians, the precisians and all
others who strive to be correct and correctors, have as much power to
prohibit a single word or phrase as a gray squirrel has to put out
Orion with a flicker of its tail." War will never cease until babies begin to come into the world with larger cerebrums and smaller adrenal glands. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956) - From Wordsmith |
"We read novels because they give us a sense of what the
consciousness of other people is like." Jerome (who translated the Bible into Latin) "Jerome even describes the feelings of guilt and laziness that commonly afflict writers when they are not at their work, the little mechanisms of self-delusion, too, that often serve to put off the moment when pen touches paper. `If we spend more than an hour in reading, you will find us yawning and trying to restrain our boredom by rubbing our eyes; then, as though we had been hard at work, we plunge once more into worldly affairs. I say nothing of the heavy meals which crush such mental faculties as we possess. I am ashamed to speak of our numerous calls, going ourselves every day to other people's houses, or waiting for others to come to us.'" |
"Writing is not a profession, but a vocation of unhappiness."
|
"Books are the channels through which the influence flows
that makes the difference between the wise, and well - the
otherwise ... |
"I swear that too great a lucidity is a disease, a true,
full-fledged disease." It was George Bernard Shaw, who used to write 10 letters per
day,
who after writing a 50-page letter to someone, added, "Please
forgive this long letter, I didn't have time to write a short one."
"Once a writer is born into a family, that family is doomed." - Czeslaw Milosz "If you are capable of living without writing, do not write."- German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. "All the colleges in the world cannot turn a bad writer into a good one. But good teaching can teach you how not to write." - Alistair Cooke. |
It's never too late, in fiction or in life, to revise.
Nancy
Thayer
"We know no absolute truth in this world,
only varying
degrees of ambiguity".
Attributed to:
Tao Deng Ming
Dao
"Things are always different from what they might be."
Henry James
"It is not down in any map; true places never are."
Herman Melville, Moby Dick.
If you don't stand for something you will fall for something - African proverb
If you climb up a tree, you must climb down the same tree - African proverb
It is not what you are called, but what you answer to - African proverb
If you run aftr two hares you will catch neither - African proverb
For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today - African proverb
Stricks in a bundle are unbreakable - African proverb
To become a person, deal with people - African proverb
It is not work that kills, but worry - African proverb
Seeing is different than being told - African proverb
There is no medicine tocure hatred - African proverb
p>Smooth seas do not make skilful sailors - African proverbEven the mighitest eagle comes down to the tree tops to rest - African proverb
p>One must talk little and listen much - African proverbHaving a good discussion is like having riches - African proverb
Rain does not fall on one roof alone - African proverb
The earth is a beehive, we all enter by the same door - African proverb
Don't set sail on someone else's star - African proverb
- African proverb
"Men stumble over the truth from time to time, but
most pick
themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened."
--Winston
Churchill
When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.
-
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Any man who is under 30, and is not a liberal, has not heart;
and
any man who is over 30, and is not a conservative, has no brains.
-
Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
"There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are
different from the things we do."
-- Albert Camus
"The great end of life is not knowledge but action".
Henry David Thoreau.
The sage accepts the ebb and flow of things,
Nurtures
them, but
does not own them
Tao Te Ching
"If you suffer and forgive those who made you suffer, you are
the
stronger of the two."
Derek Ivany
Interesting question for feminists: Why
don't feminists who
claim God is a woman also claim Satan as a woman? (Or decry him as
male?)
From Spectrum, literary pages of Sydney
Morning
Herald, 25 August 2001
"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for
there is in London all that life can afford."
Dr. Samuel
Johnson, 1777.
"Civilisation exists by geological consent, subject to change
without notice."
Will Durant
"Men begin as men, in distinction to other animals, precisely
when they experience the world as a concept."
Marshall
Sahlins
"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on ceating oneself endlessly." - Philosopher, Henri Bergson
"All I know of love is that is all there is." - Emily Dickinson.
"People seldom see the halting and painful steps by
which the most
insignificant success is achieved."
- Anon
| "Computers are useless. They can only give answers." - Pablo Picasso " ... when faced with a problem you do not understand, do any
part of it you do understand, then look at it again." "Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." - Poet, T. S. Eliot. |
"The more you reason, the less you create." - Raymond Chandler. "Man has three ways of living wisely: Firstly on meditation,
this
is the noblest. Secondly on imitation, this is the easiest. And
thirdly on experience: this is the bitterest." |
"The future arrives of its own accord; progress does not".
"Imagination grows by exercise, and contrary to common belief, is more powerful in the mature than in the young". - W. Somerset Maugham. |
"Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot; others
transform a yellow spot into the sun." |
|
"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the
world
and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the
day." H. L. Mencken, "For every complex problem there is a solution, neat, simple and wrong..." |
"The real voyage of
discovery is
not in discovering new lands but in seeing with new eyes."
"What lies beyond us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." Ralph Waldo Emerson "A problem well defined is a problem half solved." - Ralph Waldo Emerson It's not the genius who is 100 years ahead of his time but average man who is 100 years behind it. - Robert Musil, novelist (1880-1942) From Wordsmith Invention requires an excited mind; execution, a calm one. -Johann Peter Eckermann, poet (1792-1854) From Wordsmith |
The Seven Deadly Sins listed by Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi,
(1869-1948):
(1) Wealth without work
(2) Pleasure
without
conscience
(3) Science without humanity
(4)
Knowledge without
character
(5) Politics without principle
(6)
Commerce without
morality
(7) Worship without sacrifice.
"Sir," I said to the universe, I exist".
"However,"
replied the universe, "that fact has not created in me a sense
of obligation."
Anon
"A doctor can bury his
mistakes but an
architect can only advise his clients to plant vines."
-
American architect, Frank
Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)
"The
average person thinks he isn't."
- Father Larry
Lorenzoni
"Heav'n hath no rage like love to hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a
fury,
like a woman scorn'd."
- William Congreve (1670-1729)
"A husband is what is left of the lover after the nerve has
been
extracted."
- Helen Rowland (1876-1950)
"Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st
century."
- Perelman
>"The man who goes alone can
start today;
but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready."
- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
"Better to be lowly in spirit and among the oppressed than to share plunder with the proud."
A bad workman blames his tools.
Every Ass loves to hear himself bray.
One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.
The only thing one can give an artist is leisure in which to work. To give an artist leisure is actually to take part in his creation. - Ezra Pound, poet (1885-1972) From Wordsmith
"If you understand, things are as they are. If you do not
understand, things are as they are."
Gensha, Zen Master
| More to come | "The assertion that people in the past did not really know
why they were doing what they did leads to the conclusion that we do
not really know why we are doing what we do today." |
"To know nothing of what happened before you were born is to
remain
forever a child." |
A kind of negative wisdom? One of the hardest things ever said
about humanity, by a French writer (?), a lost citation. |
"But history is not acceptable until it is sifted for the truth. Sometimes this can never be reached." Patrick White, in Voss [Australian novel]. "Getting its history wrong is part of being a nation." Ernest Renan, quoted in Linda Colley, Britons, p. 20 |
>The Roman historian, Livy, thought that the study of history... "is the best medicine for a sick mind; for in history you have a record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself and your country both examples and warnings; fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through, to avoid." |
"The man of probity acts acts decently because of education,
habit, vested interest or fear. But the honourable man feels and
thinks and acts nobly; it is not laws which he obeys, it is not some
kind of teacher whose rulings he must follow; for his soul seems to
be his own legislator. Honour is the instinct of virtue and its
courage, as in the time of the knights."
Charles
Pinot-Duclos, eighteenth century French writer.
"By all means marry. If you get a good wife, you'll
be happy. If
you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher ... and that is a good
thing for any man."
Socrates
"The cultivated person's first duty is to be always prepared
to
rewrite the encyclopedia."
Umberto Eco
"Look not upon the creatures of God except with the eye of
kindliness and of mercy."
Baha'u'llah
"If you aim at nothing you will invariably hit it every time!"
Anon
"Death is the kiss of God".
Kabbalistic saying, so
called.
"One has two duties - to be worried and not to be worried."
British author, E. M. Forster, died 1970.
"Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that
it
shall never have a beginning."
John Henry Cardinal Newman
"Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you
make a living;
the other helps you make a life."
Sandra Carey
"Let us read and let us dance - two amusements that will never
do
any harm to the world."
Voltaire
"Love which is greater than oneself is like the glow-worm. A thing which is impossible to hide even though you wrap it up. " - Akahito (Japan)
On Divine Love: "To love is to believe, to know; 'Tis an essay, a taste of Heaven below." - Edmund Waller (1606-1687)
"Trust in Allah, but tie your camel."
Arabian Proverb
"Beware the barrenness of a busy life."
Socrates
"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience:
this is the
ideal life. (The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is
no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.)"
Mark Twain
"Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of
me, I
may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
Albert
Camus
"Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would
seem strange
if old friends lacked certain quirks."
Goethe
"Little is the number that think with their own mind and feel
with
their own heart."
Einstein
THE VALUE OF TIME
To realize the value of one year - ask a student who has failed a final exam.
To realize the value of one month, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of one week - ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of one hour - ask lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of one minute - ask the person who missed his train/plane/bus.
To realize the value of one second - ask the person who survived an accident.
To realize the value of one millisecond - ask the Silver medal winner in the Olympics.
Time waits for no one. Treasure each moment you have. Then, when you can share it with someone special, you will treasure it even more.
Author unknown (placed on the Net in Oct 1998)
15 January 15, 1929 is birth date of Martin Luther
King, Jr.
Follows some of his words: of wisdom: |
"We will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr. |
"Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted." |
"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the
oppressor: it must be demanded by the oppressed." |
"We all of us have the strength to bear the misfortunes of
others."
Aphorism from Francois, duc de la Rochefoucald,
born 1613.
"When you don't know what you are doing, do it neatly." - Anon
"Journeys are the midwives of thought."
Alain de
Botton in The Art of Travel..
| More to come | More to come |
| More to come | More to come |
| More to come | More to come |
| More to come | A Book of Wisdom - Folk Sayings Better a home with no roof than one with no view. |
| More to come | "It's not the road ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe." - Arabian proverb |
| More to come | "Pity the land that needs heroes". |
"Most people get life wrong out of muddle, not out of
malevolence."
Novelist Joanna Trollope
"The sound of laughter is the most civilized music in the
universe."
Peter Ustinov
"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are
too strong to be broken."
Samuel Johnson
"Self-conquest is the greatest of all victories."
Plato
"Humour is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it
crops
up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit
takes their place."
Mark Twain
"Man is the only organism in nature fated to puzzle over what
it
actually means to feel 'right'."
Ernest Becker
"Be the change that you want to see in the world."
M.
K. Gandhi
"It is quite certain that there is no good without the
knowledge of
God; that the closer one comes, the happier one is, and the further
away one goes, the more unhappy one is."
Blaise Pascal
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| More to come | More to come |
"I suppose you might agree that reality is sufficiently
implausible
to cause people great anxiety." |
"Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures." |
"Reality! What a concept!" |
Beatle John Lennon once said: "Reality leaves a lot to the imagination." |
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
"Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
Without having any chief, officer or ruler, she prepares her food in
summer, and gathers her sustenance in harvest. How long will you lie
there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little
sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and
poverty will come upon you like a vagabond, and want like an armed
man."
Proverbs: 6: 6-11
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
"Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the
drops of dew?
From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to
the hoarfrost of heaven? The waters become hard like stone, and the
face of the deep is frozen."
The Book of Job: 38: 28-29-30
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
Beauty in a woman without good judgement is like a
gold ring
in a
pig's snout.
Proverbs 11:22
What good people want always results in good. When the wicked
get
what they want, everyone is angry.
Proverbs 11:23
Be not ashamed to acknowledge your guilt, but of your
ignorance
rather be ashamed.
Sirach, 4:26
What is too sublime for you, seek not, unto things beyond your
strength search not.
Sirach, 2:20
A patient man need stand firm but for a time, and then
contentment
comes back to him.
Sirach, 15:26
Play not the hypocrite before men; over your lips keep watch.
Sirach, 1:20
| More to come | "Don't play the music you know - play the music you don't
know!" |
| More to come | "Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is
impossible to be silent." |
"Man has life and death before him: whichever a man likes better will be given him." - Proverbs, Old Testament
"For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread
befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but
trouble comes."
The Book of Job: 4 - 25-26
"For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble
sprout from the ground, but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly
upward."
The Book of Job: 5: 6-7
A Book of Wisdom - General
A stitch in time saves nine.
Old English
saying
"Praise ... it throws light on the inner recesses of the human
spirit."
Saturday Reflection, The Age,
Melbourne. 9
February 1974.
A Book of Wisdom - World of Islam
The motion of every atom is towards its origin, A man comes to
be
the thing on which he is bent, The soul and the heart by the
attraction of wish and desire assume the qualities of the Beloved.
Rumi (Sufi Studies)
A Book of Wisdom - World of Islam
Dhul Nun once asked a woman what was the end of
love. "Thou
fool," she relied. "Love has no end, because the Beloved is
eternal."
(Sufi Studies, p. 53)
"I fell asleep, and Wisdom said to me,
'Sleeping, the
rose
of happiness never bloomed,
Why do you do a thing which is
next
to death?
Drink 'wine', for you will have long to sleep."
-
Kahyyam.
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
"That men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words
of insight, receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness,
justice and equity; that prudence may be given to the simple,
knowledge and discretion to the youth - the wise man also may hear
and increase in learning, and the man of understanding acquire skill,
to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their
riddles."
Proverbs: 1: 1-6
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
"Does not the ear try words as the palate tastes
food? Wisdom
is with the aged, and understanding in length of days."
The
Book of Job, 12: 11-12.
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
"Have you listened in the council of God? And do you
limit
wisdom to yourself? Do you know what we do not know? What do you
understand that is not clear to us?"
The Book of Job: 15:
8-9
A Book of Wisdom - India "Sages say there are two kinds of wisdom, the higher and the lower ... But the higher wisdom is that which leads to the Eternal. He is beyond thought and invisible, beyond family and colour." From Mundaka Upanishad A Book of Wisdom - India "By the grace of wisdom and purity of mind, he can be seen indivisible in the silence of contemplation." From Mukanda Upanishad |
In the secret high place of the heart |
| More to come | A Book of Wisdom - India When the wise realise the omnipresent Spirit, who
rests
invisible
in the visible and permanent in the impermanent, then they go beyond
sorrow. |
| More to come | Book of Wisdom - India By the grace of wisdom and purity of mind, he can be
seen
indivisible in the silence of contemplation. |
| More to come | A Book of Wisdom - India Sages say there are two kinds of wisdom, the higher and the lower ... But the higher wisdom is that which leads to the Eternal. He is beyond thought and invisible, beyond family and colour. From Mundaka Upanishad |
| More to come | A Book of Wisdom - India Who enjoys the mystery of sleep with no dreams? |
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
The Ten Commandments - as delivered to Moses ... Consider not the negatives, but the positives implied by the negatives.
A bad cause requires many words. German Proverb
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket. Arab Proverb
A bird in the hand is worth two in a bush. English Proverb
A broken hand works, but not a broken heart. Persian Proverb
A clear conscience is a soft pillow. German Proverb
A close friend can become a close enemy. Ethiopian Proverb
A closed mouth catches no flies. Italian Proverb
A country can be judged by the quality of its proverbs. German Proverb
A courtyard common to all will be swept by none. Chinese Proverb
"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it." - Chinese Proverb
A drowning man is not troubled by rain. Persian ProverbA fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees. William Blake "Proverbs of Hell" (1790)
A friend's eye is a good mirror. Irish Proverb
A hungry man is an angry man. English Proverb
A lock is better than suspicion. Irish Proverb
A monkey never thinks her baby's ugly. Haitian Proverb
A new broom sweeps clean, but the old brush knows all the corners. Irish Proverb
A rumour goes in one ear and out many mouths. Chinese proverb
A silent mouth is melodious. Irish Proverb
A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. Greek Proverb
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. Bible - Proverbs 15:1.
A spoon does not know the taste of soup, nor a learned fool the taste of wisdom. Welsh Proverb
A table is not blessed if it has fed no scholars. Yiddish Proverb
A thorn defends the rose, harming only those who would steal the blossom. Chinese proverb
A throne is only a bench covered with velvet. French Proverb
A trade not properly learned is an enemy. Irish Proverb
A tree falls the way it leans. Bulgarian Proverb
A white Christmas fills the churchyard. French Proverb A wise man hears one word and understands two. Yiddish Proverb
Act in the valley so that you need not fear those who stand on the hill. Danish Proverb
Advice when most needed is least heeded. English Proverb
Anger can be an expensive luxury. Italian Proverb
Be neither intimate nor distant with the clergy. Irish Proverb
Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Chinese Proverb
Better wear out shoes than sheets. Scottish Proverb
Children are poor men's riches. English Proverb
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
Wine is as good as life to a man, if it be drunk
moderately...
Measurably drunk and in season, it bringeth
gladness
of heart.
The Book of Wisdom (circa 190BC)
A Book of Wisdom - Literary
"Everything changes but the avant garde."
The
French
poet, Verlaine. (So someone said)
A Book of Wisdom - New Testament
Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy
stomach's
sake.
St Paul
A Book of Wisdom - World of Islam
In cell and cloister, monastery and synagogue, one
lies in
dread
of Hell, one dreams of paradise.
But none that know the
secrets
of the Lord Have sown their hearts with suchlike fantasies.
Omar Khayyam (on universalism) (Sufi Studies)
A Book of Wisdom - General
"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him".
Voltaire
A Book of Wisdom - General
"...Than wine, what could be more wonder-working?
Why look
you now; 'tis when men drink they thrive, grow wealthy, win success,
are happy, help their friends..."
Aristophanes, The Knights
(424BC)
Wine is the best liquor to wash glasses in.
Jonathan
Swift,
circa 1738.
A Book of Wisdom - Folk Sayings
Eating and drinking should not keep men from
thinking.
Old
Anglo-Saxon saying
Three glasses of wine can set everything to rights.
Old
Chinese proverb
Who loves not women, wine and song,
Remains a fool
his whole
life long.
Martin Luther
| More to come | "What is in a man's heart when he is sober is on his tongue when he is drunk, as those who are given to the proverb say." Plutarch |
| More to come | "Wine is a constant proof that God loves us and likes to see us happy." Benjamin Franklin "Wine is a whetstone to wit." Bailey's Dictionary, circa 1721 |
| More to come | "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works." - Ecclesiastes |
| More to come | Be not among wine-bibbers. - Proverbs: XXII, 20. |
Some quotes here concerning wine have been extracted (thus far without permission) from Quaffing Quotes and Wine Facts. The Watermark Press. Sydney. 1984. [The Watermark Press Pty Ltd, 29A King Street, Sydney NSW 2000]. The compilers of this book were Simon Blackall, Chris Foulkes and Elizabeth Blackall. |
Kings, we are told, ply with many a bumper and test
with wine
the
men they are anxious to see through. |
"I think it is better for us to steer clear of the big oblong words like Beauty and Truth and so on."
Lawrence Durrell, Balthazar, p. 204
The mirror cannot reflect itself.
Unknown
- lost
citation
A Book of Wisdom - World of Islam
"The secret", in the Sufi phrase, "protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practice of the Work."
(Sufi Studies)
A Book of Wisdom - World of Islam
I fell asleep, and Wisdom said to me, "Sleeping, the rose of happiness never bloomed, Why do you do a thing which is next to death? Drink 'wine', for you will have long to sleep."
Kahyyam (Sufi Studies)
Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
"Lay hands on him [God]; think of the battle; you will not do
it again!"
The Book of Job: 41: 8
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel:
"That men may know wisdom and instruction, understand words of insight, receive instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice and equity; that prudence may be given to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth - the wise man also may hear and increase in learning, and the man of understanding acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles." Proverbs: 1: 1-6
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
"Does not the ear try words as the palate tastes food? Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days."
The Book of Job, 12: 11-12.
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
"Have you listened in the council of God? And do you limit wisdom to yourself? Do you know what we do not know? What do you understand that is not clear to us?"
The Book of Job: 15: 8-9
A Book of Wisdom - India
"When the wise realise the omnipresent Spirit, who rests invisible in the visible and permanent in the impermanent, then they go beyond sorrow."
From Katha Upanishad
A Book of Wisdom - Old Testament
"Wine is as good as life to a man, if it be drunk moderately... Measurably drunk and in season, it bringeth gladness of heart."
The Book of Wisdom (circa 190BC)
A Book of Wisdom - General
"...Than wine, what could be more wonder-working? Why look you now; 'tis when men drink they thrive, grow wealthy, win success, are happy, help their friends..."
Aristophanes, The Knights (424BC)
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Son of Man! Magnify My Cause that I may reveal unto thee the mysteries of My greatness and shine upon thee with the light of etenrity. 0 Son of Man! Should prosperity befall thee, rejoice not, and should abasement come upon thee, grieve not, for both shall pass away and be no more.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i O Son of Being! If poverty overtake thee, be not sad; for in time the Lord of wealth shall visit thee. Fear not abasement, for glory shall one day rest on thee.
O Son of Man! Many a day hath passed over thee whilst thou hast busied thyself with thy fancies and idle imaginings. How long are thou to slumber on thy bed? Lift up thy head from slumber, for the Sun hath risen to the zenith, haply it may shine upon thee with the light of beauty.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Son of Spirit! The time cometh, when the nightingale of holiness will no longer unfold the inner mysteries and ye will all be bereft of the celestial melody and of the voice from on high.
O Essence of Negligence! Myriads of mystic tongues find utterance in one speech, and myriads of hidden mysteries are reevealed in a single melody; yet, alas, there is no ear to hear, nor heart to understand.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Friend! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love, and from the nightingale of affection and desire loose not thy hold. Treasure the companionship of the righteous and eschew all fellowship with the ungodly.
O Son of Desire! Give ear unto this: Never shall mortal eye recognize the everlasting beauty, nor the lifeless heart delight in aught but the withered bloom. For like seeketh like, and taketh pleasure in the company of its kinds.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Son of My Handmaid! Quaff from the tongue of the merciful the stream of divine mystery, and behold from the day-spring of divine utterance the unveiled splendour of the day-star of wisdom...
| More to come | A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i O My Servants! Ye are the trees of My garden; ye must give forth goodly and wondrous fruits, that ye yourselves and others may profit therefrom. Thus it is incumbent on every one to enage in crafts and professions, for therein lies the secret of wealth, O men of understanding! For results depend upon means, and the grace of God shall be all-sufficient unto you. Trees that yield no fruit have been and will for ever be for the fire. |
| More to come | More to come |
| More to come | A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i "It is not fitting that I tell thee more, For the stream's
bed cannot hold the sea." |
| More to come | A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i O My Servant! The best of men are they that earn a livelihood by their calling, and spend upon themselves and upon their kindred for the love of God, the Lord of all worlds. |
| More to come | O Man of Two Visions! Close one eye and open the other. Close one to the world and all that is therein, and open the other to the hallowed beauty of the Beloved. |
| More to come | O My Servant! The basest of men are they had yield no fruit on earth. Such men are verily counted as among the dead, nay better are the dead in the sight of God than those idle and worthless souls. |
"Everybody has a sense of right and wrong, but it being subjective rather than objective is most of us is what makes it a problem." - Igor d. Radovic
Those who keep making the same mistake generally find room to make new mistakes as well." - Igor d. Radovic
Mistakes due to stupidity are unavoidable; those owed to weakness are inexcusable." - Igor d. Radovic
Computers ... The problem is that many people are going to
mistake
information for knowledge.
Dan Byrnes
Right and wrong are as often pretexts and excuses for conflict as they are the causes of it. - Igor D. Radovic
Mistakes of ignorance are easier to correct than those of judgement - Igor D. Radovic
We judge justice, but we feel injustice. - Igor D. Radovic
Wit - Perspective is in the eye of the beholder - Anon - (from a website)
Wit - "Learn to listen. Opportunity sometiems knocks very softly." - Life's Little Instruction Book
"A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions." - Alexander Pope
Nothing is right or wrong all the time and everywhere - Igor D. Radovic
All these are - From Confucius - * When you say something, say what you know. When you don't know something, say you don't know. That is knowledge.
* Study the past if you would define the future. - From Confucius
* Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. - From Confucius
* Virtue is more to man than either water or fire. I have seen men die from treading on water and fire, but I have never seen a man die from treading the course of virtue. - From Confucius
* I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. - From Confucius
* If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people. - From Confucius
* Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the three universally recognized moral qualities of men. - From Confucius
* Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men from beasts? - From Confucius
* Study without thought is vain: thought without study is dangerous. - From Confucius
* You cannot open a book without learning something. - From Confucius
* The gentleman is calm and peaceful; the small man is always emotional. - From Confucius
* If one acts with a view to profit, there will be much resentment. - From Confucius
* Clever words and a plausible appearance have seldom turned out to be humane. - From Confucius
* One who can bring about the practice of five things everywhere under Heavens has achieved humaneness . . .Courtesy, tolerance,good faith diligence and kindness. - From Confucius
| More to come | More to come |
| More to come | More to come |
| More to come | Kant's Categorical Imperative... [From Beethoven's Conversation Books] "The moral law within us and the starry heavens above." "Music was a higher revelation than philosophy" Attributed to Beethoven |
| More to come | "One must have passed through the tunnel to understand how black is the darkness." St Therese of Lisieux on spiritual life |
| More to come | Perseverance - continuously acting out the law of one's own being. The I Ching (Really? But what are the implications here if one's own being or way of behaving is less than desirable in some ways? -Ed) |
"All our ills come from incautious dreaming. Trivial or impure dreaming literally rots the fabric of the future."
Lawrence Durrell, Tunc.
John Romer, Testament: The Bible and its History. Collins Dove with the Australian ABC, 1989, First pub. in 1988., p. 241.
"...Adam Kadmon, who was both man and woman and born before eternity. They believed that to every person belongs one letter of the alphabet, that each of these letters constitutes part of Adam Kadmon's body on earth, and that these letters converge in people's dreams and come to life in Adam's body."
Milorad Pavic, Dictionary of the Khazars. (The Male Edition) Penquin. 1989. (First Pub, 1988). A note on Adam Kadmon:
Item: 1979 - The Kabala came some say from an anonymous treatise in Palestine in 1295 called The Gates Of Justice, expounding on prophetic Kabalism. It utilised the Persian distinction between good and evil, so the source of the tree with left and right sides is the Kabalistic dualism, plus a host of intermediate divine beings.
"So, little by little, time brings out each several thing into view, and reason raises it up into the shores of light."
Lucretius
Great things are not done by impulse but by a series of small things brought together. - -Vincent Van Gogh
Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live. - Norman Cousins.
"Words which come forth from the heart enter into the heart." - Jewish saying
Maturity is the ability to live in peace with that which we can not change. - Ann Landers.
"Keep me from the wisdom that does not weep And the
philosophy that does not laugh And the pride that does not bow its
head before a child."
Unknown, lost attribution.
"And if a hundred chapters of wisdom are read to an ignorant one - it will reach his ears as a trifle."
Sheikh Saadi, Gulistan, Chapter II, Sufi Studies: East and West.
| More to come | Talk is cheap because supply exceeds demand. |
| More to come | Life is what happens to you while you're planning
other
things.
|
"Wisdom is what - if you need to know the definition of - you
ain't
got." |
"I don't care what is written about me as long as it isn't true." New York writer, wit and important drinker, Dorothy Parker. |
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sadder and sorrier lingers on alone,
re-plays each throw,
and drinks of wisdom's cup.
Note: hazard (la zara) was a gambling game played with three dice, the winner of the cast being the player whose pips added up to a number previously called.
Dante, Purgatory, Canto VI
"Our striving is infinite, but vulgarity makes everything finite."
Beethoven
A Book of Wisdom - Literary
"If time had a watermark like paper one could perhaps hold it up to the light?" Lawrence Durrell, Tunc.
A Book of Wisdom - Islam
"Despairing of love and mercy is a greater fault than your sin."
Koran: 39:54
"I lean against one pine after another with my heart full of longings."
Li Po [From Four Seasons of T'ang Poetry]
A Book of Wisdom - World of Islam
The Sufi law of life requires ...
Kindness
to the young.
Generosity to the poor. Good counsel to friends. Forebearance with
enemies. Indifference to fools. Respect to the learned.
Idries Shah, The Sufis
A Book of Wisdom - General
A Book of Wisdom - General
" ... that house divided against itself ... that house cannot stand..." (Seen also in the Christian Gospels)
A Book of Wisdom - World of Islam
On Hope... "It is not, 'Have I got a chance?' It is more often, 'Have I seen my chance?'"
Sufi Studies
A Book of Wisdom - World of Islam
"The secret", in the Sufi phrase, "protects itself. It is found only in the spirit and practise of the Work."
Sufi Studies
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton |
1759: Benjamin Franklin's famous quote on liberty: "They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." "The ground of liberty is
to be
gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get
from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get.
It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own
good." |
Sir Alec Cairncross, "We do not know for sure how the economy works, and it certainly does not work in the same way for long.", in Britain's Economic Prospects Reconsidered, 1971. The noble and the nobility are usually at odds with one another. -Johann Gottfried Seume, author (1763-1810) From Wordsmith There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for. - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) From Wordsmith |
:I'm tired of being labelled anti-American because I ask questions." US actress and activist, Susan Sarandon. The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. - Patrick Henry, American revolutionary (1736-1799) - From Wordsmith |
"The chief business of the nation, as a nation, is the setting up of heroes, mainly bogus." H. L. Mencken, in Prejudices, 1922. "The American puritan was not content with the rescue of his
own soul; he felt an irresistible impulse to hand salvation on, to
disperse and multiply it ... to make it free and compulsory"
|
On politics: "Men seek power over others, only to lose it over themselves." US Historian Barbara Tuchman. |
It's said that: John Robinson, a distinguished Cambridge economist and a contemporary of J. M. Keynes, once said that the purpose of studying economics is to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists. |
... nations "all bear some marks of their origin, and the circumstances which accompanied their birth and contributed to their rise, affect the whole term of their being". - de Tocqueville "Never was Empire less the result of design than the British Empire of India." - Prof Ramsay Muir in The Making of British India, cited in Ramkrishna Mukherjee, p. xiv. It was our own moral failure and not any accident of chance, that while preserving the appearance of the Republic we lost its reality. - Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE) From Wordsmith |
"Political language... is designed to make lies sound
truthful and murder respectable and to give an appearance of solidity
to pure wind. "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a
revolutionary act." "Democracy is the devolution downwards of the privileges of
aristocracy". "In our country, lies
become not
just a moral category but a pillar of State." |
"Treason never prospers. And the reason? That, if it prosper, none dare call it treason." |
A Book of Wisdom - World of Islam
I fell asleep, and Wisdom said to me, "Sleeping, the rose of happiness never bloomed, Why do you do a thing which is next to death? Drink 'wine', for you will have long to sleep."
Kahyyam, Sufi Studies
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Aphorisms:
Since aphorisms often have the taste of truth, we have selected some to be noted for their usefulness in a context of rapid social change, as below ...
Baha'u'llah, (Translators, Ali-Kuli Khan and Marzieh Gail), The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys. Baha'i Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois. 1945-1952.
"Shows you the kind of world we live in. Love is illegal, but
hate isn't".
The Waiter, in the movie, Irma La
Douce.
James McAuley the Australian poet mentioned about love, in "One Thing At Last": Love is: "It's how to mean the other's being".
From Poetry of the Abbasid Period (Arabian poetry), remarks from Abbasid (Arabian)Abdullah Ibn Al Mu'tazz (861-908)
"If you're rich, then you're unlucky; All you need is a face which says, I'm a descendant of Adam."
Another Abbasid poet wrote,
"People are
like water
which is ruffled
And made one by the east wind."
A poem by the Roman, Publius Virgil, titled, "Georgics":
"Some find God in all things,
See Him in Earth, in
sea's
wide ways, in lofty
heaven's arch; All animals, all flocks
and
herds, yea men from Him also -
Each (they say), its thin
rivulet
draws from the Divine Stream
At birth, and thither back each
will
flow back."
Publius Virgil, 70-19BC.
From a Japanese poet, Akahito, c.730ad.
"Love
which
is greater than oneself is like
The glow-worm,
A
thing which
is impossible to hide
Even though you wrap it up."
Akahito.
From Jalal-al-Din Rumi: "The Unseen Power".
"We are the flute, our music is all Thine; We are
the
mountains echoing only Thee;
Pieces of chess Thou
marshallest in
line, and movest to defeat or victory .
Lions emblazoned
high on
flags unfurled -
Thy wind invisible sweeps us through the
world."
Jalal al-Din Rumi, d. 1273.
A remark... Graziella,
"To love for the sake of being loved is human, but to love
for the sake of loving is angelic."
1790-1869, Alphonse
Lamartine.
A famous Prayer, from St Francis of Assisi...
"Lord, Make me an instrument of Thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
After St Francis of Assisi, (1181-1226).
Do not go outside yourself, but turn back within;
truth dwells in
the inner man; and if you find your nature given to frequent change,
go beyond yourself. Move on, then, to that source where the light of
reason itself receives its light.
Augustine
Cited
in James
Houston, In Search of Happiness: A Guide to Personal
Contentment.
Sydney, Lion Publishing plc, 1990.
"The heart has reasons that reason cannot know."
Philosopher
Blaise Pascal.
Who am I?
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate,
Our
deepest
fear is that we are powerful beyond measure,
It is our
light, not
our darkness that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I
to be
brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who
are you
not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing
small doesn't
serve the world.
There's nothing enlightening about
shrinking so
that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were
born to
make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not
just
in some of us, it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light
shine
We unconsciously give other people permission to do
the
same.
As we are liberated from our own fear our presence
automatically liberates others.
From the book, Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson.
THE VALUE OF TIME
To realize the value of one
year - ask
a student who has failed a final exam
To realize the value
of one
month, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby
To
realize the value of one week - ask the editor of a weekly newspaper
To realize the value of one hour - ask lovers who are waiting
to
meet
To realize the value of one minute - ask the person who
missed his train/plane/bus
To realize the value of one
second -
ask the person who survived an accident
To realize the value
of
one millisecond - ask the Silver medal winner in the Olympics
Time
waits for no one. Treasure each moment you have. Then, when you can
share it with someone special, you will treasure it even more.
Author unknown/ placed on the Net in October 1998
"Novels are stories about people who are emotionally
connected."
Somerset Maugham.
"Just as a tree without roots is dead, a people without a
history or culture also becomes a dead people."
Malcolm X
(1925-1965).
Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather that
it
shall never have a beginning.
John Henry Cardinal Newman.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughful, committed
citizens
can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead
Napoleon once said, "A leader is a dealer in hope".
From Lewis Wolpert, Malignant Sadness: The Anatomy of Depression. Faber, 2000-2001. ("The primary aim of human judgement is not accuracy but the avoidance of paralysing uncertainty ... ")
"Integrity needs no rules".
Albert Camus (See also
Bob Dylan: "To live outside the law, you must be honest".)
"It is easy to be philosopher in academia, but it is very difficult to be a philosopher in life." - Anton Checkov
"The only sure thing is that nothing is for sure." - Anon
Learning is a treasure which follows its owner everywhere." - Anon
"Four things do not come back: the spoken word, the sped arrow, the past life and the neglected opportunity." - Arabian proverb
| More to come | More to come |
| More to come | More to come |
| More to come | Poetic Insight |
"...unless the seed of grief is sown, "I fold a leaf in sympathy |
"...now I am grey my body hurts |
" He moved toward death... |
Poetic Insight "...in fact, purely untellable things..."
"...when your eyes sink down before |
"For beauty is nothing but
the
beginning of terror |
The angel of this life, "whose care is lest men see too much at once." Sir Walter Raleigh, on Shakespeare. [From notes from The Four Season of T'ang Poetry as translated by John C. W. Wu]. |
THE QUIDDITY
by George
Herbert
God, a verse is not a crown,
No point of honour, or
gay
suit,
No hawk, or banquet, or renown,
Nor a good
sword, nor yet
a lute.
It cannot vault, or dance, or play;
It never was in
France or
Spain;
Nor can it entertain the day
With a great
stable or
domain.
It is no office, art, or
news;
Nor
the Exchange, or busy Hall:
But it is that which, while I
use,
I
am with Thee: and Most take all.
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"This handful of dust, the earth, is one home: let it be in
unity."
Baha'u'llah.
"Laughter for no reason is a sign of foolishness."
Russian
proverb.
"I doubt if the oppressed ever fight for freedom. They fight for pride and power - power to oppress others." (Eric Hoffer, The True Believer)
"The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed
mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of their mischiefs,
which has ruined cities, depopulated countries, and disordered the
peace of the world, has not been whether there be power in the world,
nor whence it came, but who should have it."
John Locke, Two
Treatises of Civil Government.
"Real poverty is a poverty of the spirit; real riches consist in the enjoyment of non-material rewards."
Former prime minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam, in July 1974, at the time, PM
Language is a form of human reason, which has its internal logic of which man knows nothing. -Claude Levi-Strauss, anthropologist (b. 1908) - From Wordsmith
One cannot quarrel without an opponent - Japanese proverb
With the first glass a man drinks wine, with the second glass the wine drinks wine, with the third glass the wine drinks the man - Japanese proverb
Let what is past flow away downstream - Japanese proverb
The hawk with talents hides its talons (The person who knows most often says least) - Japanese proverb
When in Rome, doe as the Romans do - A universal proverb
If you believe everything you read, better not read - Japanese proverb
Art is the illusion of spontaneity - Japaense proverb
The reverse side also has a reverse side - Japanese proverb
Vision without action is a daydreanm. Action without vision is a nightmare - Japanese proverb
If you understand everything, you must be misinformed - Japanese proverb
"Today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tommorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day." - Sanskrit proverb
"In character, in manners, in style, in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity." - Longfellow
You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will life in torment if you don't trust enough." - Anon
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ... one old love she can imagine going back to ... and one who reminds her how far she has come ... A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE.. enough money within her control to move out and rent a place of her own, even if she never wants to or needs to ... A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE... something perfect to wear if the employer or date of her dreams wants to see her in an hour ... |
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ... a youth she's content to leave behind ... A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ... a past juicy enough that she's looking forward to retelling it in her old age ... A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE... a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra ... A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ... one friend who always >makes her laugh ... and one who always lets her cry. |
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ... a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her family ... A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ... eight matching plates, >wine glasses with stems, and a recipe for a meal that will make her guests feel honoured. A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ... A feeling eling of control over her destiny |
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... how to fall in love without losing herself ... EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... How to quit a job, Break up with a lover, and confront a friend, without returning the friendship... EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... when to try harder ... and when to walk away ... |
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... that she can't change the length of her calves, the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents ... EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... that her childhood may not have been perfect ...but its over ... EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... what she would and wouldn't do for love or more ... |
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... how to live alone ... even if she doesn't like it ... EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... whom she can trust, whom she can't, and why she shouldn't take it personally ... |
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... where to go ... be it to her best friend's kitchen table ... or a charming inn in the woods ... when her soul needs soothing ... |
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW ... what she can and can't accomplish in a day ... a month ... and a year ... |
There are few absolutes in matters of right and wrong, and as many conflicts between right and right as between right and wrong." - Igor d. Radovic
The best is to do what is right; second best, not to do what is wrong." - Igor d. Radovic
Denis Donoghue, (art crtic, his essay, Speaking of Beauty):"the history of art is the record of innumerable ways of being beautiful".
"Beauty plus pity; that is the closest we can get to a definition of art". - Vladimir Nabakov..
An elderly Chinese woman had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the woman bringing home only one and a half pots of water.
Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it could only do half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the woman one day by the stream: "Old Woman, I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house."
The woman smiled and replied, "Cracked Pot, did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on Perfect Pot's side? I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house."
Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You just have to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me
the serenity
to
accept the things
I cannot change:
The courage to
change the
things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Living
one
day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting
hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did,
this
sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting
that
You will make all things right
if I surrender to your will;
so
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely
happy
with you forever in the next.
Amen
Reinhold Niebuhr
Now return to theLost Worlds Index
Wisdom of Will
Rogers (US many decades
ago now):
Don't squat with your spurs on.
Good
judgment comes
from experience, and a lot that comes from bad judgment.
Lettin'
the cat outta' the bag is a whole lot easier 'n puttin' it back in.
If you're riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every
now
and then to make sure it's still there.
After eating an
entire
bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up
until a hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you're full
of bull, keep your mouth shut!
There's two theories to
arguing
with a woman. Neither one works.
When you give a lesson in
meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn
their lesson.
Never miss a good chance to shut up.
"So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with," wrote philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). From Wordsmith
Uttering a word is like striking a note on the keyboard of the imagination. -Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher (1889-1951) From Wordsmith
To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman. - George Santayana, philosopher (1863-1952) From Wordsmith
Looking after the children
If a child lives with criticism, It learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, It learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, It learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
It learns to be guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance,
It learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
It learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
It learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness,
It learns justice.
If a child lives with security,
It learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
It learns to like itself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
It learns to find love in the world.
Skill without imagination is craftsmanship, imagination
without
skill gives us modern art. "The power of accurate observation is frequently called
cynicism by
those who don't have it." |
Profits, like sausages ... are esteemed most by those who know least about what goes into them. - Alvin Toffler, futurist and author (b. 1928) From Wordsmith "Never interrupt your enemy
when he is
making a mistake." "Opium teaches only one thing,
which is that aside from
physical suffering, there is nothing real." André
Malraux, Man's Fate. |
| "Never accept a 'no' from someone who is empowered to say
'yes'." "Corporation: an ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility." - American author, Ambrose Bierce You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements. - Norman Douglas, novelist (1868-1952) From Wordsmith "We have art to save ourselves from the truth." |
"A puritan culture's conception of art is something which will endorse its morality and flatter its patriotism." Lawrence Durrell, Clea, p. 111. "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -Hunter S. Thompson |
A joke, From Cynic's Dictionary: "Behavioural Psychology: The science of drawing habits out of rats." |
"It is dangerous
to be sincere
unless you are also stupid." "People cannot bear too much reality." "From prohibitions you can tell what people normally do. It's
a way of drawing a picture of daily life." "The broad mass of the nation ... would more easily fall
victim to a big lie than to a small one." "Brain: an apparatus with which we think we think." - American editor, Ambrose Bierce "A specialist is one who knows everything about something and nothing about anything else." - American author, Ambrose Bierce |
From email incoming, said to be a NEPALESE GOOD LUCK TANTRA TOTEM
INSTRUCTIONS FOR LIFE
(Though to us it sounds more as though it's from the
advice-needy US than from Nepal -Ed)
1. Give people more than they expect. Do so cheerfully.
2.
Memorize your favorite poem.
3. Don't believe all you hear,
spend
all you have or sleep all you want.
4. When you say, "I love
you," mean it.
5. When you say, "I'm sorry," look
the person in the eye.
6. Be engaged to be married for at
least
six months.
7. Believe in love at first sight.
8.
Never laugh
at anyone's dreams. People who don't have dreams don't have much.
9.
Love deeply and passionately. You might get hurt but it's the only
way to live life completely.
10. In disagreements, fight
fairly.
No name calling.
11. Don't judge people by their relatives.
12.
Talk slowly, think quickly.
13. When someone asks you a
question
you don't want to answer, smile and ask, "Why do you want to
know?"
14. Remember that great love and great achievements
involve great risk.
15. Call your mum.
16. Say
"bless
you" when you hear someone sneeze.
17. When you lose, don't
lose the lesson.
18. Remember the three R's: Respect for
self;
Respect for others; Responsibility for all your actions.
19.
Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
20.
When
you realize you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct
it.
21. Smile when picking up the phone. The caller will
hear it
in your voice.
22. Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As
you
get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any
other.
23. Spend some time alone.
24. Open your
arms to
change, but don't let go of your values.
25. Remember that
silence is sometimes the best answer.
26. Read more books
and
watch less TV.
27. Live a good, honorable life. Then when
you get
older and think back, you'll get to enjoy it a second time.
28.
Trust in God but lock your car.
29. A loving atmosphere in
your
home is so important. Do all you can to create a tranquil, harmonious
home.
30. In disagreements with loved ones, deal with the
current
situation. Don't bring up the past.
31. Read between the
lines.
32. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
33.
Be gentle with the earth.
34. Pray. There's immeasurable
power in
it.
35. Never interrupt when you are being flattered.
36.
Mind your own business.
37. Don't trust a man/woman who
doesn't
close his/her eyes when you kiss.
38. Once a year, go some
place
you've never been before.
39. If you make a lot of money,
put it
to use helping others while you are living. That is wealth's greatest
satisfaction.
40. Remember that not getting what you want is
sometimes a stroke of luck.
41. Learn the rules and then
break
some.
42. Remember that the best relationship is one, where
your
love for each other is greater than your need for each other.
43.
Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
44. Remember that your character is your destiny.
45.
Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.
Peter Isaacson, (Ed.), Inspiring Words. Published by Information Australian - early 2000. (Anthology)
There are none so sour as those who are sweet to order. - Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues, essayist (1715-1747) From Wordsmith
Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty. -Stephen King, novelist (b. 1947) From Wordsmith
"Whenever I climb I am followed by a dog called 'Ego'."
-
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain. - Samuel Johnson, lexicographer (1709-1784) From Wordsmith
A language is never in a state of fixation, but is always changing; we are not looking at a lantern-slide but at a moving picture. -Andrew Lloyd James, linguist From Wordsmith
Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect. -Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860) From Wordsmith
"Truth never hurts the teller." - English poet, Robert Browning
"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" - English poet Robert Browning
"Destiny: a tyrant's authority for crime, and a fool's excuse for failure." - American author, Ambrose Bierce.
"There are no hopeless situations. There are only men who have grown helpless about them." - Clare Booth Luce.
"The Promised Land always lies on the other side of a wilderness." - Havelock Ellis
There are three great secrets in life - love, art and suicide. (Citation source mislaid).
"Try as you will, there is no explanation for madness, happiness or death." Lawrence Durrell, Tunc.
"Truth is so bitter that the knowledge of it confers a kind of luxury."
Lawrence Durrell, Mountolive, p. 279.
"Every man is made of clay and daimon, and no woman can nourish both." Lawrence Durrell, Justine, p. 44.
"Life gets more and more mysterious, not less."
Lawrence Durrell, Tunc.
"I waited for time to change it, the only change that came was over me."
Ian Anderson [Jethro Tull, song "Look into the Sun", on the album, STAND UP]
"The free should never moralize to the bound."
Lawrence Durrell, Tunc.
"Work was the earliest tranquilizer against anxiety, and will
always remain the best."
Lawrence Durrell, from a book of
interviews with him by Marc Alyn.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Son of Man! Magnify My Cause that I may reveal unto thee the mysteries of My greatness and shine upon thee with the light of eternity.
0 Son of Man! Should prosperity befall thee, rejoice not, and should abasement come upon thee, grieve not, for both shall pass away and be no more.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Son of Being! If poverty overtake thee, be not sad; for in time the Lord of wealth shall visit thee. Fear not abasement, for glory shall one day rest on thee.
O Son of Man! Many a day hath passed over thee whilst thou hast busied thyself with thy fancies and idle imaginings. How long are thou to slumber on thy bed? Lift up thy head from slumber, for the Sun hath risen to the zenith, haply it may shine upon thee with the light of beauty.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Son of Spirit! The time cometh, when the nightingale of holiness will no longer unfold the inner mysteries and ye will all be bereft of the celestial melody and of the voice from on high.
O Essence of Negligence! Myriads of mystic tongues find utterance in one speech, and myriads of hidden mysteries are revealed in a single melody; yet, alas, there is no ear to hear, nor heart to understand.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Friend! In the garden of thy heart plant naught but the rose of love, and from the nightingale of affection and desire loose not thy hold. Treasure the companionship of the righteous and eschew all fellowship with the ungodly.
O Son of Desire! Give ear unto this: Never shall mortal eye recognize the everlasting beauty, nor the lifeless heart delight in aught but the withered bloom. For like seeketh like, and taketh pleasure in the company of its kinds.
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A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Son of My Handmaid! Quaff from the tongue of the merciful the stream of divine mystery, and behold from the day-spring of divine utterance the unveiled splendour of the day-star of wisdom... O My Servant! The basest of men are they had yield no fruit on earth. Such men are verily counted as among the dead, nay better are the dead in the sight of God than those idle and worthless souls.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O Man of Two Visions! Close one eye and open the other. Close one to the world and all that is therein, and open the other to the hallowed beauty of the Beloved. O my children! I fear lest, bereft of the melody of the dove of heaven, ye will sink back to the shades of utter loss, and, never having gazed upon the beauty of the rose, return to water and clay.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O My Servants! Ye are the trees of My garden; ye must give forth goodly and wondrous fruits, that ye yourselves and others may profit therefrom. Thus it is incumbent on every one to enage in crafts and professions, for therein lies the secret of wealth, O men of understanding! For results depend upon means, and the grace of God shall be all-sufficient unto you. Trees that yield no fruit have been and will for ever be for the fire.
A Book of Wisdom - Baha'i
O My Servant! The best of men are they that earn a livelihood by their calling, and spend upon themselves and upon their kindred for the love of God, the Lord of all worlds.
"It is also a victory to know when to retreat." - Erno Paasilinna, essayist and journalist (1935-2000)
|
"If the gods want to drive you mad, first they tell you your future." Judge not that you not be judged. |
"Good
people do not need laws to tell them to act
responsibly,
while bad people will find a way around the laws." |
"Conditions are never just right. People who delay action
until
all
factors are favourable do nothing." |
More to come |
Tear man out of his outward circumstances; and what he then is; that only is he. -Johann Gottfried Seume, author (1763-1810) From Wordsmith Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago. - Horace Mann, educational reformer (1796-1859) From Wordsmith |
If you lie down with dogs, you'll stink in the morning. |
"If you push passion to the extremes you are bound to tumble into mere mysticism." Lawrence Durrell, Tunc. |
"Evil from time immemorial has often worn a mask of
innocence. One of evil's principal modes of being is looking
beyond (with indifference), that which is before the eyes." |
We cannot be more sensitive to pleasure without being more sensitive to pain.
Poor men seek meat for their stomach; rich men seek stomach for their meat.
The best throw of the dice is to throw them away.
Love is an ideal thing; marriage is a real thing.
Subject: A.Word.A.Day--schnorrer (from awordaday e-mail service by 24-3-2008)
A language is the soul of its people. This is nowhere illustrated more
profoundly than in the Yiddish language, the language of Jews of eastern
and central Europe and their descendants. A tongue full of wit and charm,
Yiddish embodies deep appreciation of human behavior in all its colorful
manifestations. The word Yiddish comes from German Judisch meaning Jewish.
But it is not the same as Hebrew, even though it is written in Hebrew script.
Here's what Yiddish writer Isaac Bashevis Singer had to say about the
language in his 1978 Nobel Prize acceptance speech:
"Yiddish language - a language of exile, without a land,
without frontiers, not supported by any government, a language
which possesses no words for weapons, ammunition, military
exercises, war tactics ...
There is a quiet humor in
Yiddish and a gratitude for every day of life, every crumb of
success, each encounter of love. The Yiddish mentality is not
haughty. It does not take victory for granted. It does not demand
and command but it muddles through, sneaks by, smuggles itself
amidst the powers of destruction, knowing somewhere that God's
plan for Creation is still at the very beginning ... In a
figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language of us
all, the idiom of frightened and hopeful Humanity."
"Who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once." - English poet, Robert Browning
"Treat the earth well; it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." - Old American Indian saying
"Humankind has not woven the web of Life. We are but one thread in it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect." - Chief Seattle
"Inferiors revolt in oder that they may be equal, and equals revolt that they may be superior." - Aristotle (who once taught Alexander the Great)
"For man, when perfected, is the best of all animals, but when separated from law and justice,he is the worst of all, since armed injustice is the more dangerous, meant to be used by intelligence and virtue, he is the most unholy and savage of all animals, and the worst of, full of lust and gluttony. Aristotle
"That judges of important offices should hold office for life is not a good thing, for the mind grows old as well as the body." - Aristotle
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit" - Aristotle
"Mistakes of commission plague the fools, and of omission the wise." - Anon
"Rioght and wrong are not always a matter of choice." - Igor D. Radovic)
"People often coexist because there is no other option. And so do right and wrong." - Igor D. Radovic
| More to come | More to come |
"Poor Fellow, my country."
|
"Australian history is almost always picturesque; indeed it
is so curious and strange that it is itself the chiefest novelty the
country has to offer, and so it pushes the other novelties into
second and third place. It does not read like a history, but like the
most beautiful lies, and all of a fresh new sort, no mouldy old stale
ones. It is full of surprises and adventures, and incongruities, and
contradictions and incredibilities; but they are all true, they all
happened." |
"Australians ... seem to be able to combine exquisite
hospitality and urbane and enlightened discourse with fantastic
parochialism and uncultured roughness ..." |
"Part of being an Australian is feeling part of somewhere else." - artist Imants Tillers |
"Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood." - Helen Keller
In the film The Scoundrel Beaumarchais, on the birth pangs of the French Revolution, are three good lines which might apply to Australia's "sedition laws" appearing before 24 October 2005: "printed matter only matters if it is censored", "only little men fear the scratch of little pens", and "when criticism is forbidden, true praise cannot exist".
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