Gems of Wisdom

[simplybill]

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” 

― Theodore Roosevelt

[simplybill]

“Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his gods”

— Thomas Babington Macaulay 

[psyche101]

Be excellent to each other.

Bill and Ted.

[Skirnum]

Wisdom refines all knowledge. I think.

[simplybill]

“I came to the conclusion when I traveled in what was then the Eastern Bloc that the ubiquitous propaganda was not intended to persuade, much less to inform, but to humiliate; for citizens … had not merely to avoid contradicting it in public, but actually to agree with it in public. Therefore, from the point of view of the ruling power, the less true and more outrageously false the propaganda was, the better. For to force people to assent to propositions that are outrageously false, on pain of losing their livelihoods or worse, was to crush them morally and psychologically, and thus make them docile, easily manipulated, and complicit in their own enslavement.”

— Theodore Dalrymple 

[Amita]

Measuring a thing is a crude act, which cannot be applied in any other way than extremely imperfectly to living bodies.

Johann Goethe

[Sojo]

“All our work, our whole life is a matter of semantics, because words are the tools with which we work, the material out of which laws are made, out of which the Constitution was written. Everything depends on our understanding of them.”
― Felix Frankfurter, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1939-1962

Semantics is also why "A blackberry is red when it's green." is a true statement; and also why so many fail to understand what someone really means by their words.

[simplybill]

Seeing as how this topic is in the ‘Spirituality, Religion, and Beliefs’ forum, I thought I’d post two of my favorite Bible passages, along with a personal perspective of how these passages have influenced my life. 

I often get sidetracked, and I settle for a life of mediocrity, where the familiar becomes a substitute for freedom. Many times I’ve given up on my dreams of ‘food and wine’ and instead chosen a meager diet of bread and water. It’s a dead end. As the last line says: “But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.” When I stop reaching for “the tops of the heights” I get depressed. It’s as though my spirit has departed. But with the grace of God I eventually regain my senses and continue the journey.

From Proverbs, Chapter 9:

Wisdom has built her house,
She has hewn out her seven pillars;
She has prepared her food, she has mixed her wine;
She has also set her table;
She has sent out her maidens, she calls
From the tops of the heights of the city:
“Whoever is naive, let him turn in here!”
To him who lacks understanding she says,
“Come, eat of my food
And drink of the wine I have mixed.
“Forsake your folly and live,
And proceed in the way of understanding.”

The woman of folly is boisterous,
She is naive and knows nothing.
She sits at the doorway of her house,
On a seat by the high places of the city,
Calling to those who pass by,
Who are making their paths straight:
“Whoever is naive, let him turn in here,”
And to him who lacks understanding she says,
“Stolen water is sweet;
And bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”
But he does not know that the dead are there,
That her guests are in the depths of Sheol.

 

[Amita]

Wisdom rules - or ought to.  Here is the more beauteous version (IMO) of Knox:

1 See, where wisdom has built herself a house, carved out for herself those seven pillars of hers!
2 And now, her sacrificial victims slain, her wine mingled, her banquet spread,
3 this way and that her maidens are dispatched, to city keep and city wall, bidding her guests make haste.
4 Simple hearts, she says, draw near me; and to all that lack learning this is her cry,
5 Come and eat at my table, come and drink of the wine I have brewed for you;
6 say farewell to your childishness, and learn to live; follow all of you in the path that leads to discernment.
[...]
13 Out upon her silly clamour, the woman that is so crafty, yet knowledge has none!
14 At her door she sits, her chair commanding the city’s height,
15 and cries aloud to such as pass by on their lawful errands.
16 Simple hearts, she says, draw near me, and to all that lack learning this is her cry,
17 Stolen waters are sweetest, and bread is better eating when there is none to see.
18 Who shall warn them that dead men are her company, no guest of hers but is guest of the dark world beneath?

 

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by Amita

[simplybill]

But faith in God does not bring you safety. The fox still exists. Danger still exists. And by that I mean, danger is not optional, but fear is. Because maybe the opposite of fear isn't bravery. Maybe the opposite of fear is Love. So in response to the very real dangers of this world we have an invitation as people of faith, which is to respond with Love.

Unknown

[simplybill]

“No one understood better than Stalin that the true object of propaganda is neither to convince nor even to persuade, but to produce a uniform pattern of public utterance in which the first trace of unorthodox thought immediately reveals itself as a jarring dissonance.”

 

Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives

by Alan Bullock

[+Liquid Gardens]

"What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence"  - Christopher Hitchens

"Religion... Giving people hope in a world torn apart by religion."  - Jon Stewart

[Will Due]

 

"The greatest affliction of the cosmos is never to have been afflicted."

 

 

[XenoFish]

If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down.

[simplybill]

A favorite ‘Gem of Wisdom’ that I often use to measure my own life is actually a misquote and a misattribution credited to Henry David Thoreau:

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation, and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

The first part of the quote is close to being accurate. The original from Thoreau: “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”   

The second part is a misquote from Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem ‘The Voiceless’:

 “Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.”

The following quote from ‘The Ladies Repository’ adds another perspective:

”Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those who sang best.”

[Amita]

There is no need to fear those who kill the body, but have no means of killing the soul.

Mt 10:28

[Piney]

"Religion is a distortion. Blind faith unrealistic."

Lao the Child

Edited July 14, 2022 by Piney
urantia is trash

[XenoFish]

Human beings live in their myths. They only endure their realities.

Robert Anton Wilson

[XenoFish]

[+Sherapy]

“Approach life with beginner’s mind, not expert mind”. ~Suzuki paraphrased 

[Sojo]

"God cannot be proven, only realized." - Me (Sojo)

[XenoFish]

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." Marcus Aurelius

[+Sherapy]

5 hours ago, XenoFish said:

"The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts." Marcus Aurelius

On g~d claims;
 

“There really isn’t a polite way to tell someone they have dedicated their lives to an illusion.” ~David Dennett

Edited July 17, 2022 by Sherapy

[XenoFish]

11 minutes ago, Sherapy said:

On g~d claims;
 

“There really isn’t a polite way to tell someone they have dedicated their lives to an illusion.” ~David Dennett

[+Hammerclaw]

Love is a possessive illusion, as it gives one power over another, the power to do ill or good. One does not always choose to do good.