The Great Quotes thread

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Sue (Ayt) (here)
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

A passing thought. Every time I consider a Great Quote from several hundred years ago (John Donne lived from 1571—1631), I'm mindful of the wonderfully high intellect and spiritual awareness of so many of the great minds that lived in centuries past — with no means of mass communication, writing letters with quill pens by candlelight that were delivered on horseback sometimes many weeks later.

(Even George Mallory's letters to his wife, written on Mount Everest in 1924, were taken to the coast by Sherpa runners, hundreds of miles away, where they then found their way to England by steamship — and they always arrived, too. It really does bear thinking about.)

[Michel Leclerc]

Thank you Bill.

Those people wrote, they did not push buttons. The mobilisation of all their bodily, incarnational instruments implied that their words meant what they meant. They did not only telephone (voicing) or telegraph (writing): they “telepathed”. They “telekineticked” vibrations in the bodies of the receivers of their messages. They did as a matter of day-to-day communication what nowadays only poets still do. What we mean these days – the vibrations of our meaning things – is erased by the electrified tools we use. People receive the ashes of our meanings, or, as Baudrillard would say, the simulacra.

[Sue (Ayt)]

Posted by Michel Leclerc (here)
Thank you Bill.

Those people wrote, they did not push buttons. The mobilisation of all their bodily, incarnational instruments implied that their words meant what they meant. They did not only telephone (voicing) or telegraph (writing): they “telepathed”. They “telekineticked” vibrations in the bodies of the receivers of their messages. They did as a matter of day-to-day communication what nowadays only poets still do. What we mean these days – the vibrations of our meaning things – is erased by the electrified tools we use. People receive the ashes of our meanings, or, as Baudrillard would say, the simulacra.

So true, Michel.
I fondly miss the letters in the mail that I used to write and anticipate receiving so dearly.
It was one of my greatest joys, for some reason... and even as a child I had penpals from all over the world.
To me, it was almost magical.

And love letters to wrap with a ribbon and stash in a pretty box for future generations... oh my.
Do they still exist?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fEKEKrAjsD0

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Sue (Ayt) (here)
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

A passing thought. Every time I consider a Great Quote from several hundred years ago (John Donne lived from 1571—1631), I'm mindful of the wonderfully high intellect and spiritual awareness of so many of the great minds that lived in centuries past — with no means of mass communication, writing letters with quill pens by candlelight that were delivered on horseback sometimes many weeks later.

(Even George Mallory's letters to his wife, written on Mount Everest in 1924, were taken to the coast by Sherpa runners, hundreds of miles away, where they then found their way to England by steamship — and they always arrived, too. It really does bear thinking about.)

And then to turn the "letters of high intellect delivered on horseback" into metaphor, where do these eloquent thoughts come from in the first place? Clearly the mind is just the tool we fine tune until it becomes the clear receiver, the radio turning into the different broadcasts, the many and varied vibrations Michel Leclerc spoke of, that we need it to be. It's ironic that the further back in time you wander down that road of great poets and philosophers, the greater the intellect and awareness. This appears to go hand in hand with the great architecture found all over the world, evidence of a once great civilization that had a real working knowledge in sacred geometry and the great secrets of the universe. I wish to read the ancient scrolls and tomes hidden away beneath the Vatican. How do we ever really know what our true history is in this world since it's been burned, stolen, buried at sea, locked away..? The wisest words of all seem to be two of the earliest ever recorded: "Know Thyself." And this line of thinking, of telepaths receiving messages, always takes me back to the sibyls of ancient Greece, wise women who trained since childhood to reveal the message of the oracles and the words supposedly written in their room in the Temple of Apollo in Delphi:

“I warn you, whoever you are, Oh! You who want to probe the “Arcana of Nature”, that if you do not find “within yourself” that which you are looking for, you shall not find it outside either! If you ignore the excellences of your own house, how do you pretend to find other excellences? Within you is hidden the treasure of treasures! “Know Thyself” and you will know the Universe and the Gods.”


p.s. I miss letters in the mail too...

[Violet3]

Posted by Sue (Ayt) (here)

Posted by Michel Leclerc (here)
Thank you Bill.

Those people wrote, they did not push buttons. The mobilisation of all their bodily, incarnational instruments implied that their words meant what they meant. They did not only telephone (voicing) or telegraph (writing): they “telepathed”. They “telekineticked” vibrations in the bodies of the receivers of their messages. They did as a matter of day-to-day communication what nowadays only poets still do. What we mean these days – the vibrations of our meaning things – is erased by the electrified tools we use. People receive the ashes of our meanings, or, as Baudrillard would say, the simulacra.

So true, Michel.
I fondly miss the letters in the mail that I used to write and anticipate receiving so dearly.
It was one of my greatest joys, for some reason... and even as a child I had penpals from all over the world.
To me, it was almost magical.

And love letters to wrap with a ribbon and stash in a pretty box for future generations... oh my.
Do they still exist?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=fEKEKrAjsD0

Yes I love mail and send postcards to those who still care about opening a real mail box. Years ago while living in Canada for a year I fell in love through the mail, with a friend from back home that I discovered was a superb writer. There is nothing like the heartfelt written word, penned in private reverie and released into the future. Back to topic

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Violet3 (here)
Yes I love mail and send postcards to those who still care about opening a real mail box. Years ago while living in Canada for a year I fell in love through the mail, with a friend from back home that I discovered was a superb writer. There is nothing like the heartfelt written word, penned in private reverie and released into the future. Back to topic

I had a friend who used to send postcards. I always thought that was so cool, like a lover slipping a note under your door, those were always my favorite. Something very intimate about a line on the page. To my point, this line is stellar: There is nothing like the heartfelt written word, penned in private reverie and released into the future. I love the future twist, very intriguing. And it's true, a heartfelt line written on the page has always left a more profound impact upon me over the years. I used the written word to help heal the past, say a sorrowful or painful experience that just isn't sitting right. Turn it into a story and inject some humor into it, you know, transform a past pain into something beautiful or humorous or both. Good honest reflection like that can also teach you a lot about yourself, pinpoint core values and flaws to work on. So many brilliant minds who put pen to paper (by candlelight?), where are they now? You're so right, a heartfelt word will always make it into the future...


"Great thoughts come not so much from great intelligence as from great feeling."


Dostoevsky


P.s. and afterthought: I just noticed that I read one of your lines wrong. I thought you fell in love with corresponding through the mail with a friend from home who you discovered was a superb writer. Now I see you "fell in love" with the writer. Congratulations! The power of the heartfelt word, indeed. My wife and I endured a long distance relationship our first year and a half together. Luckily we were both in school so it helped us really focus on our studies between monthly visits while giving us something to look forward to as well. Because it was the early days of the internet, it wasn't actually letters in the mail. But those daily emails formed a bond that will never be broken.

[Kryztian]

"once you’ve been to hell and back,
you don’t look behind you when the floor creaks
and the sun is always up at midnight
and things like the eyes of mice
or an abandoned tire in a vacant lot
can make you smile
once you’ve been to hell and back.”

–Charles Bukowski

[Raskolnikov]

[kfm27917]

“We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.”

Attributed to Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn

[Raskolnikov]

This one almost qualifies for your film thread Ewan:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=6WfbRJYKlM0

"Every night and every morn
Some to misery are born,
Every morn and every night
Some are born to sweet delight.

Some are born to sweet delight,
Some are born to endless night."

William Blake

[Raskolnikov]

"A jealous man is gloomy . . . for the same reason that tyrants are gloomy—they know what they are up to."

Diderot

[Eva2]

“You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension.”

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.”

“If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world.”

“What we now want is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth, and the elimination of egoism and pride which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife... Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment...”


― Nikola Tesla

[Raskolnikov]

Posted by Eva2 (here)
". . I care that they don't have any of their own”

So on point. These quotes shoot holes through the WEF's, "You'll own nothing and be happy."

[Sue (Ayt)]

“Medical Science has made such tremendous progress that there is hardly a healthy human left.”

― Aldous Huxley

[kfm27917]

Experience teaches only the teachable.

- Aldous Huxley

[Raskolnikov]

[Frankie Pancakes]

Robert Frost

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

[pueblo]

"Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours."

- Hermann Hesse

[Raskolnikov]

I'm going to stretch the boundaries of "Great Quotes" a bit to include two excerpts from the book, Zen & the Art of Making a Living, because I think they follow the last couple of entries nicely. If you're still not buying it, there are a couple quotes contained within the excepts

"Modern life has altogether too much ugliness. This is doubly so since most of it is so unnecessary. The ugliness of poverty may be excused, but the ugliness of the mediocre, the bland, and the lifeless is an appalling waste. Beauty sensitizes the soul—evoking the finer, subtler feelings and inspiring noble thoughts. Ugliness depresses and diminishes life—sapping the creative spirit of the individual and weakening the character of society.
There is unnecessary ugliness, not only in the things we make, but in the way we make them. Mass production ensures that quantity dominates quality, and profit rules beauty. White collar or blue, the worker is taken to be a machine. Engaged, not as a whole person, but as a tool of production, he becomes alienated from his work and himself. No wonder the worker is more interested in sports or gossip than in his or her work. No wonder, in the words of popular bumper talk, he “would rather be fishing” or she “would rather be shopping.” Work devoid of meaning and spirit, work without the discipline and satisfaction of a job well done, is work without joy. So work has gotten a bad name, and we live for the weekends. Art curator and philosopher Ananda K. Coomaraswamy put it like this: 'It is taken for granted that while at work we are doing what we like least, and at play what we should wish to be doing all the time.'"


"The pleasure in art, both in its practice and in its contemplation is meditation, that is, the arresting of the mind. We lose ourselves in art. As Arthur Schopenhauer noted, the contemplation of great art switches off the sense of “other.” As we merge our consciousness with the art object, we lose the sense of ourselves as a thing apart. This “loss of self” is extremely pleasurable—echoing the transcendent bliss of the mystics. Likewise, in the practice of art, the sense of self is lost in ecstatic absorption. One loses oneself and gains eternity. Moving safely between the twin whirlwinds of desire and repulsion, the artist enters into paradise. While here on earth, attending to the most practical of affairs (his daily work), the artist, as Blake would say, “travels in his mind to Heaven.” This is Zen at work, the essence of work as art—self-liberation."

[Eva2]

'It is during the phase of culmination that the rotting fruit expels the new seed into the light of day. The end holds potential for the beginning. The radical extent to which the global control mechanism has accelerated is being laid bare, the masks of the gods have fallen. Conspiracy theories once damned as delusional are now seen as not only plausible but concrete.
We are experiencing a world that is in the clutches of forces which we are finally beginning to openly and bravely evaluate.The realisation of the predatory and merciless nature of those who are running this reality is awakening a great number of individuals through the Internet and is pervading the collective field of shared consciousness. Many are now, to varying degrees, working with this realisation and struggling to accept it. However religions ( including the New Age) have a built-in prophecy designed to compartmentalise the end game scenario as a part of the sin/saviour karma/atonement Armageddon clause. As a result the present acceleration of degeneracy, debasement and debauchery in world affairs and elite cultures is registered and accredited to the prophecies of their chosen faith.
Disenchantment is required in order to fully recognise and appreciate the convolution of the situation. It will help you to understand what is happening around you. What it is you are experiencing. Why it is happening and your potentially congruous and feasible response to the events unfolding around you. The assessment that the construct of this paradigm is beyond redemption breaks down barriers of denial and prepares you to reconsider the reason you chose to incarnate at such a time. What we are about to achieve is extraordinary. we did not come here to suffer the apocalypse...we came to embody the solution...to harness these energies of culmination...to collectively construct the transcendent reality resonant with our original blueprint prior to genetic modification.'

Juliet J Carter
The Template