“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; and for everything you gain, you lose something.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Browsing Posts tagged quotations
Be sincere: it never crossed your mind to want to see yourself live? You pay attention to living for yourselves, and rightly, with no thought of what in the meanwhile you might be for the others; not because you care nothing about the opinion of others: on the contrary, you care a great deal; but because you live in the blissful illusion that the others, outside, must picture you to themselves as you picture yourself.
~Luigi Pirandello
Valerie: What I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that though I do not know you and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you, I love you. With all my heart, I love you.
Let us keep alive the flame of thought and love; they are one and the same flame. Let us communicate to those around us the desire to understand and to give (and also to receive). There are too many walled-up consciences.
~Abbe Monchanin
Truth, James, is the foundation of all eloquence; he who knowingly speaks what is not true, may dazzle and perplex; but he will never touch with that power and pathos which spring from truth.
~William Carleton
Purportedly, there is an inscription on the tomb of a bishop buried in Westminster Abbey that reads:
When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country. But it, too, seemed immovable.
As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.
And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world.
“Love the earth and sun and animals, Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, Stand up for the stupid and crazy, Devote your income and labor to others… And your very flesh shall be a great poem.”
~Walt Whitman
You only see things properly when you’re about to leave. Then, it’s as if you seeing for the first time. Everything seems to shine.
~Alice in How About You..
The causa finalis, the ultimate and highest value that I hold, is what determines how I answer all questions that begin with ‘should.’ ‘Should I do this?’ Should I allow this to happen?’ ‘Should I react for or against this situation that confronts me?
~Richard McLernan
A human being…experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest–a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness…restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
~Albert Einstein
