User:Kalki/Vox Box

It is not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You should also have an open mind at the right time.

He was an absolutely wonderful man. He was interested in everything. You felt right away that you are not dealing with one of your colleagues or an average guy. He was a genius, his thoughts were all over the place. I've met very smart people. I have never met a genius before. ... He basically disregarded any disciplined approach to anything.
Jonas Gellert

Nothing bothered Erdős more than political strictures which did not allow for complete freedom of expression and the ability to travel freely. ... Always traveling with a single shabby suitcase which doubled as a briefcase, he had little need or interest in the material world.
Peter Schumer

A conjecture thought to be sound
Was that every circle was round
In a paper of Erdős
written in Kurdish
A counterexample is found!
Anon

Faraday could not write otherwise than as a gentleman; but … had he willed it he could have hit hard.
We have heard much of Faraday's gentleness and sweetness and tenderness. It is all true, but it is very incomplete.
You cannot resolve a powerful nature into these elements, and Faraday's character would have been less admirable than it was had it not embraced forces and tendencies to which the silky adjectives "gentle" and "tender" would by no means apply.
Underneath his sweetness and gentleness was the heat of a volcano. He was a man of excitable and fiery nature; but through high self-discipline he had converted the fire into a central glow and motive power of life, instead of permitting it to waste itself in useless passion.
"He that is slow to anger" saith the sage, "is greater than the mighty, and he that ruleth his own spirit than he that taketh a city."
Faraday was not slow to anger, but he completely ruled his own spirit, and thus, though he took no cities, he captivated all hearts.
John Tyndall
in
Faraday as a Discoverer (1868)
"Points of Character"

ALL THIS IS A DREAM.
Still examine it by a few experiments.
Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature; and in such things as these experiment is the best test of such consistency.

The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction.

I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.

I have far more confidence in the one man who works mentally and bodily at a matter than in the six who merely talk about it — and I therefore hope and am fully persuaded that you are working. Nature is our kindest friend and best critic in experimental science if we only allow her intimations to fall unbiassed on our minds. Nothing is so good as an experiment which, whilst it sets an error right, gives us (as a reward for our humility in being reproved) an absolute advancement in knowledge.

We learn by such results as these, what is the kind of education that science offers to man. It teaches us to be neglectful of nothing, not to despise the small beginnings — they precede of necessity all great things. Vesicles make clouds; they are trifles light as air, but then they make drops, and drops make showers, rain makes torrents and rivers, and these can alter the face of a country, and even keep the ocean to its proper fulness and use. It teaches a continual comparison of the small and great, and that under differences almost approaching the infinite, for the small as often contains the great in principle, as the great does the small; and thus the mind becomes comprehensive. It teaches to deduce principles carefully, to hold them firmly, or to suspend the judgment, to discover and obey law, and by it to be bold in applying to the greatest what we know of the smallest. It teaches us first by tutors and books, to learn that which is already known to others, and then by the light and methods which belong to science to learn for ourselves and for others; so making a fruitful return to man in the future for that which we have obtained from the men of the past.

There is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.

Bacon in his instruction tells us that the scientific student ought not to be as the ant, who gathers merely, nor as the spider who spins from her own bowels, but rather as the bee who both gathers and produces. All this is true of the teaching afforded by any part of physical science. Electricity is often called wonderful, beautiful; but it is so only in common with the other forces of nature. The beauty of electricity or of any other force is not that the power is mysterious, and unexpected, touching every sense at unawares in turn, but that it is under law, and that the taught intellect can even now govern it largely. The human mind is placed above, and not beneath it, and it is in such a point of view that the mental education afforded by science is rendered super-eminent in dignity, in practical application and utility; for by enabling the mind to apply the natural power through law, it conveys the gifts of God to man.

Speculations? I have none. I am resting on certainties.
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

I shall be with Christ, and that is enough.

At all times man approached his surroundings with wide open senses and a fertile intelligence, at all times he made incredible discoveries, at all times we can learn from his ideas.

I do not see why I should be polite to tyrants, who slobber of humanitarianism and think only of their own petty interests.

Unanimity of opinion may be fitting for a church, for the frightened or greedy victims of some (ancient, or modern) myth, or for the weak and willing followers of some tyrant. Variety of opinion is necessary for objective knowledge. And a method that encourages variety is also the only method that is comparable with a humanitarian outlook.

If we want to understand nature, if we want to master our physical surroundings, then we must use all ideas, all methods, and not just a small selection of them. The assertion, however, that there is no knowledge outside science — extra scientiam nulla salus — is nothing but another and most convenient fairy-tale.

One can show the following: given any rule, however "fundamental" or "necessary" for science, there are always circumstances when it is advisable not only to ignore the rule, but to adopt its opposite.

Not only are facts and theories in constant disharmony, they are never as neatly separated as everyone makes them out to be.

Taking experimental results and observations for granted and putting the burden of proof on the theory means taking the observational ideology for granted without having ever examined it.

No single theory ever agrees with all the facts in its domain.

We've learned from experience that the truth will come out.

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

I never pay attention to anything by "experts".
I calculate everything myself.

A great deal more is known than has been proved.

Our imagination is stretched to the utmost, not, as in fiction, to imagine things which are not really there, but just to comprehend those things which are there.

Looking back at the worst times, it always seems that they were times in which there were people who believed with absolute faith and absolute dogmatism in something.
And they were so serious in this matter that they insisted that the rest of the world agree with them.
And then they would do things that were directly inconsistent with their own beliefs in order to maintain that what they said was true.

Let's look at the bird and see what it's doing — that's what counts.
I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty damn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain. Now, we scientists are used to this, and we take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure, that it is possible to live and not know. But I don’t know whether everyone realizes this is true. Our freedom to doubt was born out of a struggle against authority in the early days of science. It was a very deep and strong struggle: permit us to question — to doubt — to not be sure. I think that it is important that we do not forget this struggle and thus perhaps lose what we have gained.

The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to. ...
No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.

My centre is giving way, my right is retreating, situation excellent, I am attacking.

None but a coward dares to boast that he has never known fear.

There is but one means to extenuate the effects of enemy fire: it is to develop a more violent fire oneself.

The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.

The distribution of troops devoted to the defence of a place includes a garrison, an occupying force, numerically as weak as possible; a reserve as strong as possible, designed for counterattacking and for providing itself, at the moment it goes into action, with a security service which will guard it from any possible surprise.

To inform, and, therefore to reconnoitre, this is the first and constant duty of the advanced guard.

To be disciplined does not mean being silent, abstaining, or doing only what one thinks one may undertake without risk; it is not the art of eluding responsibility; it means acting in compliance with orders received, and therefore finding in one's own mind, by effort and reflection, the possibility to carry out such orders. It also means finding in one's own will the energy to face the risks involved in execution.

In war there are none but particular cases; everything has there an individual nature; nothing ever repeats itself.
In the first place, the data of a military problem are but seldom certain; they are never final.
Everything is in a constant state of change and reshaping.

The truth is, no study is possible on the battle-field; one does there simply what one can in order to apply what one knows.
Therefore, in order to do even a little, one has already to know a great deal and to know it well.

Men called to the conduct of troops should prepare themselves to deal with cases more and more varied upon an ever-increasing horizon of experience. They can only be given the capacity to arrive at a prompt and judicious position by developing in them through study their power of analysis and of synthesis; that is, of conclusion in a purely objective sense, conclusion upon problems which have been actually lived and taken from real history. Thus also can they be founded through the conviction that comes from knowledge in a confidence sufficient to enable them to take such decisions upon the field of action.

Far from being a sum of distinct and partial results, victory is the consequence of efforts, some of which are victorious while others appear to be fruitless, which nevertheless all aim at a common goal, all drive at a common result: namely, at a decision, a conclusion which alone can provide victory.

A war not only arises, but derives its nature, from the political ideas, the moral sentiments, and the international relations obtaining at the moment when it breaks out.
This amounts to saying : try and know why and with the help of what you are going to act; then you will find out how to act.

The military art is not an accomplishment, an art for dilettante, a sport.
You do not make war without reason, without an object, as you would give yourself up to music, painting, hunting, lawn tennis, where there is no great harm done whether you stop altogether or go on, whether you do little or much.
Everything in war is linked together, is mutually interdependent, mutually interpenetrating.
When you are at war you have no power to act at random.
Each operation has a raison d'etre, that is an object; that object, once determined, fixes the nature and the value of the means to be resorted to as well as the use which ought to be made of the forces.

The unknown is the governing condition of war.

Humans are allergic to change. They love to say, "We've always done it this way." I try to fight that. That's why I have a clock on my wall that runs counter-clockwise.

If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It is much easier to apologize than it is to get permission.
Grace Hopper

I think there's so much good in the worst of us, and so many of the worst of us get the best of us, that the rest of us aren't even worth talking about.

Try to understand me. Nothing is impossible.

I don’t pretend to know all the answers. I’m just a plain, ordinary, everyday genius who loves her fellow-man whenever possible.

While breeding isn’t everything, it is said to be lots of fun.

It’s silly to think that Presidents are born, because very few people are 35 years old at birth, and those who are won’t admit it.

Let them call us nonentities. Who cares?
A nonenitiy can be just as famous as anybody else if enough people know about him.
But let’s leave personalities out of this and just talk about me.

As I always say, as long as we have issues, we can’t have everything.

Cultivate friendships.
If you don’t have time to cultivate all of them, plow under every fifth one and collect your bonus.

A platform is something a candidate stands for and the voters fall for.

I’m having my platform run up by a movie set designer, so it will be very impressive from the front, but not too permanent.
After all, there’s no sense putting a lot of time and thought into something you’ll have no use for after you’re elected.

Never place a period where God has placed a comma.

One of my favorite kind-of-dark jokes is, "How do you make God laugh?"
"You make a plan."
Ben Gibbard

If you tell certain people that you like Kerouac, they assume that’s all you read, like you don’t know anything else about literature. I recognize all the things that people dislike about the way he writes — his tone and the sentimentality of it all. But those books were there for me at a very important point in my life.
Ben Gibbard

The only medicine for suffering, crime, and all the other woes of mankind, is wisdom.

The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land, to add something to the extent and the solidity of our possessions.

For every man the world is as fresh as it was at the first day, and as full of untold novelties for him who has the eyes to see them.

The foundation of morality is to have done, once and for all, with lying; to give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibilities of knowledge.

I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything — especially as I am now so much occupied with theology — but I don't see my way to your conclusion.

Science seems to me to teach in the highest and strongest manner the great truth which is embodied in the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of God. Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved at all risks to do this.

My business is to teach my aspirations to conform themselves to fact, not to try and make facts harmonise with my aspirations.

Agnosticism is not properly described as a "negative" creed, nor indeed as a creed of any kind, except in so far as it expresses absolute faith in the validity of a principle which is as much ethical as intellectual. This principle may be stated in various ways, but they all amount to this: that it is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty. This is what agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to agnosticism. That which agnostics deny and repudiate as immoral is the contrary doctrine, that there are propositions which men ought to believe, without logically satisfactory evidence; and that reprobation ought to attach to the profession of disbelief in such inadequately supported propositions. The justification of the agnostic principle lies in the success which follows upon its application, whether in the field of natural or in that of civil history; and in the fact that, so far as these topics are concerned, no sane man thinks of denying its validity.

The extent of the region of the uncertain, the number of the problems the investigation of which ends in a verdict of not proven, will vary according to the knowledge and the intellectual habits of the individual agnostic. I do not very much care to speak of anything as unknowable. What I am sure about is that there are many topics about which I know nothing, and which, so far as I can see, are out of reach of my faculties. But whether these things are knowable by any one else is exactly one of those matters which is beyond my knowledge, though I may have a tolerably strong opinion as to the probabilities of the case.

When I reached intellectual maturity and began to ask myself whether I was an atheist, a theist, or a pantheist; a materialist or an idealist; Christian or a freethinker; I found that the more I learned and reflected, the less ready was the answer; until, at last, I came to the conclusion that I had neither art nor part with any of these denominations, except the last. The one thing in which most of these good people were agreed was the one thing in which I differed from them. They were quite sure they had attained a certain "gnosis," — had, more or less successfully, solved the problem of existence; while I was quite sure I had not, and had a pretty strong conviction that the problem was insoluble.
So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of "agnostic." It came into my head as suggestively antithetic to the "gnostic" of Church history, who professed to know so much about the very things of which I was ignorant. To my great satisfaction the term took.

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.

The saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing is, to my mind, a very dangerous adage. If knowledge is real and genuine, I do not believe that it is other than a very valuable possession, however infinitesimal its quantity may be. Indeed, if a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?

Perhaps the most valuable result of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it ought to be done, whether you like it or not; it is the first lesson that ought to be learned; and, however early a man's training begins, it is probably the last lesson that he learns thoroughly.

The great end of life is not knowledge but action.

God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me.

If the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessed of great means of influence and yet who employs these faculties and that influence for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion, I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.

The man who is all morality and intellect, although he may be good and even great, is, after all, only half a man.

Life is too short to occupy oneself with the slaying of the slain more than once.

I have never had the least sympathy with the a priori reasons against orthodoxy, and I have by nature and disposition the greatest possible antipathy to all the atheistic and infidel school. Nevertheless I know that I am, in spite of myself, exactly what the Christian would call, and, so far as I can see, is justified in calling, atheist and infidel.

No human being can arbitrarily dominate over another without grievous damage to his own nature … no slavery can be abolished without a double emancipation, and the master will benefit by freedom more than the freed-man.

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.

The only freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the freedom to do wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest terms to any one who will take it of me.

The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.

In an ideal University, as I conceive it, a man should be able to obtain instruction in all forms of knowledge, and discipline in the use of all the methods by which knowledge is obtained. In such a University, the force of living example should fire the student with a noble ambition to emulate the learning of learned men, and to follow in the footsteps of the explorers of new fields of knowledge. And the very air he breathes should be charged with that enthusiasm for truth, that fanaticism of veracity, which is a greater possession than much learning; a nobler gift than the power of increasing knowledge; by so much greater and nobler than these, as the moral nature of man is greater than the intellectual; for veracity is the heart of morality.

I do not advocate burning your ship to get rid of the cockroaches.

All our best men are laughed at in this nightmare land.

I want to work in revelations, not just spin silly tales for money. I want to fish as deep down as possible into my own subconscious in the belief that once that far down, everyone will understand because they are the same that far down.

I went one afternoon to the church of my childhood and had a vision of what I must have really meant with "Beat"... the vision of the word Beat as being to mean beatific... People began to call themselves beatniks, beats, jazzniks, bopniks, bugniks and finally I was called the "avatar" of all this.

Ah, life is a gate, a way, a path to Paradise anyway, why not live for fun and joy and love or some sort of girl by a fireside, why not go to your desire and LAUGH...

I like ecstasy of the mind. I'm a wretch. But I love, love.

I will die, and you will die, and we all will die, and even the stars will fade out one after another in time.

Who knows, my God, but that the universe is not one vast sea of compassion actually, the veritable holy honey, beneath all this show of personality and cruelty?

All human beings are also dream beings. Dreaming ties all mankind together.

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"

All is well, practice kindness, heaven is nigh.

The power of simple Truth and Honesty is far greater than the power of all the most elaborate lies and deceits which have ever been created, and the power of the Love of Reality is far greater than any form of hatred for any of its aspects or apparent qualities which have ever existed, or which ever shall or ever could exist in the ignorant and confused minds of mortal beings.
The wise KNOW this to be FACT, in ways which transcend all doubts and confusions, while the very ignorant and confused are often prone to ignore, deny, or remain largely oblivious to it, and think expressions of such truth merely incredible fantasy.
Such is an indication of my faith, and that faith has stood steadfast and beyond the reach of destruction, even when many an idol of mind has been shattered forever.
"There is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed."
Yet, there are no mortal minds which can encompass all that IS revealed to the Immortal Spirit.
Kalki

Wrong Prong
Bong Gong

When very young, Hannali would sit on the black ground and chuckle till it was feared he would injure himself.
Whatever came over him, prenatal witticism or ancestral joke, he seldom was able to hold his glee.
In all his life he never learned to hold it in.

I sometimes tackle ideas and notions that are relatively complex, and it is very difficult to be sure that I am conveying them in the best way.
Anyone who goes beyond cliche phrases and cliche ideas will have this trouble.

Do not be deceived by the way men of bad faith misuse words and names ...Things are set up as contraries that are not even in the same category. Listen to me: the opposite of radical is superficial, the opposite of liberal is stingy; the opposite of conservative is destructive. Thus I will describe myself as a radical conservative liberal; but certain of the tainted red fish will swear that there can be no such fish as that.
Beware of those who use words to mean their opposites. At the same time have pity on them, for usually this trick is their only stock in trade.

True love is that we should hate whatever interferes with our vision of the high and the lowly.

A crisis should have thunder in it.

Listen now to a series of sayings that always come hard to brave people.
Our own great movement will grow with its own impetus wherever it is not blighted.
We will break up persons of blight and centers of blight.
But often, and this will be the hard part for all of you to understand, we will warn and advise before we kill.
And quite often we will not kill at all.
Try to understand this.

We ourselves become the bridges out over the interval that is the world and time.
It is a daring thing to fling ourselves out over that void that is black and scarlet below and green and gold above.
A bridge does not abandon its first shore when it grows out in spans towards the further one.

In this growing there are no really new things or new situation.
There are only things growing out right, or things growing out deformed or shriveled.
There is nothing new about railways or foundries or lathes or steel furnaces.
They also are green-growing things.
There is nothing new about organizations of men or of money.
All these growing things are good, if they grow towards the final answers that were given in the beginning.

In its flexibility and in its wide-open opportunities, this is the total Utopia. Anything that you can conceive of, you can do in this non-world. Nothing can stop you except a total bankruptcy of creativity. The seedbed is waiting. All the circumstances stand ready. The fructifying minerals are literally jumping out of the ground. And nothing grows. And nothing grows. And nothing grows. Well, why doesn't it?

This myth filter was necessary.
The ship logs could not tell it rightly nor could any flatfooted prose.
And the deeds were too bright to be viewed direct.
They could only be sung by a bard gone blind from viewing suns that were suns.

To you who are scattered and broken, gather again and mend.
Rebuild always, and again I say rebuild.
Renew the face of the earth.
It is a loved face, but now it is covered with the webs of tired spiders.

Expressions of sharp and even violent criticism of religion and the church have been welcomed, for they usually imply sincerity of thought. If caustic criticism of religious institutions and practices is irreligious, then Amos, Isaiah, and Jesus were very irreligious men. In fact, that is exactly what many of their contemporaries took them to be.

Many years ago Rudyard Kipling gave an address at McGill University in Montreal. He said one striking thing which deserves to be remembered. Warning the students against an over-concern for money, or position, or glory, he said: "Some day you will meet a man who cares for none of these things. Then you will know how poor you are."
That has happened on a grand scale.
Jesus cared for none of these things.
And for nineteen centuries he has led many people to see how poor they are with only a collection of things to show for their journey through life, and no spiritual resources.

There is the liability of accepting prematurely an artificial horizon for our own character and personality, of losing the horizon of the possible person we might be. It is the danger of considering our character as something static, rather than as something emerging.

We ought to recognize that uncertainty of mind is not all a bad thing. It is a sign that your mind is still alive, still sensitive.

When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled "made in Germany"; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, "Americanism."

The words "God is love" have this deep meaning: that everything that is against love is ultimately doomed and damned.

Live each moment with freedom, honesty and responsibility.

Therapy isn't curing somebody of something; it is a means of helping a person explore himself, his life, his consciousness. My purpose as a therapist is to find out what it means to be human. Every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture, where he says, "This is me and the world be damned!" Leaders have always been the ones to stand against the society — Socrates, Christ, Freud, all the way down the line.

Dogmatists of all kinds — scientific, economic, moral, as well as political — are threatened by the creative freedom of the artist. This is necessarily and inevitably so. We cannot escape our anxiety over the fact that the artists together with creative persons of all sorts, are the possible destroyers of our nicely ordered systems. For the creative impulse is the speaking of the voice and the expressing of the forms of the preconscious and unconscious; and this is, by its very nature, a threat to rationality and external control.

Artists are generally soft-spoken persons who are concerned with their inner visions and images. But that is precisely what makes them feared by any coercive society. For they are the bearers of the human being's age old capacity to be insurgent. They love to immerse themselves in chaos in order to put it into form, just as God created form out of chaos in Genesis. Forever unsatisfied with the mundane, the apathetic, the conventional, they always push on to newer worlds.

One does not become fully human painlessly.

Lacking positive myths to guide him, many a sensitive contemporary man finds only the model of the machine beckoning him from every side to make himself over into its image.

The value of dreams, like ... divinations, is not that they give a specific answer, but that they open up new areas of psychic reality, shake us out of our customary ruts, and throw light on a new segment of our lives.

The self is made up, on its growing edge, of the models, forms, metaphors, myths, and all other kinds of psychic content which give it direction in its self-creation. This is a process that goes on continuously. As Kierkegaard well said, the self is only that which it is in the process of becoming.

Whereas moral courage is the righting of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.

Communication leads to community — that is, to understanding, intimacy, and the mutual valuing that was previously lacking.
Community can be defined simply as a group in which free conversation can take place.

The authentic rebel knows that the silencing of all his adversaries is the last thing on earth he wishes: their extermination would deprive him and whoever else remains alive from the uniqueness, the originality, and the capacity for insight that these enemies — being human — also have and could share with him. If we wish the death of our enemies, we cannot talk about the community of man. In the losing of the chance for dialogue with our enemies, we are the poorer.

There is no meaningful "yes" unless the individual could also have said "no."

However it may be confounded or covered up or counterfeited, this elemental capacity to fight against injustice remains the distinguishing characteristic of human beings.

Revolution may do more harm than good.
The rebel, on the other hand, is "one who opposes authority or restraint: one who breaks with established custom or tradition." ... He seeks above all an internal change, a change in the attitudes, emotions, and outlook of the people to whom he is devoted. He often seems to be temperamentally unable to accept success and the ease it brings; he kicks against the pricks, and when one frontier is conquered, he soon becomes ill-at-ease and pushes on to the new frontier. He is drawn to the unquiet minds and spirits, for he shares their everlasting inability to accept stultifying control. He may, as Socrates did, refer to himself as the gadfly for the state — the one who keeps the state from settling down into a complacency, which is the first step toward decadance. No matter how much the rebel gives the appearance of being egocentric or of being on an "ego trip," this is a delusion; inwardly the authentic rebel is anything but brash.

We are more apt to feel depressed by the perpetually smiling individual than the one who is honestly sad. If we admit our depression openly and freely, those around us get from it an experience of freedom rather than the depression itself.

Power is required for communication. To stand before an indifferent or hostile group and have one's say, or to speak honestly to a friend truths that go deep and hurt — these require self-affirmation, self-assertion, and even at times aggression. ... My experience in psychotherapy convinces me that the act which requires the most courage is the simple communication, unpropelled by rage or anger, of one's deepest thoughts to another.

Violence is the daimonic gone awry. It is "demon possession" in its starkest form. Our age is one of transition, in which the normal channels for utilizing the daimonic are denied; and such ages tend to be times when the daimonic is expressed in its most destructive form.

Not to recognize the daimonic itself turns out to be daimonic, it makes us accomplices on the side of the destructive possession.
The denial of the daimonic is, in effect, a self-castration in love and a self-nullification in will. And the denial leads to the perverted forms of aggression we have seen in our day in which the repressed comes back to haunt us.

Poets often have a conscious awareness that they are struggling with the daimonic, and that the issue is their working something through from the depths which push the self to a new plane.

Vanity and narcissism — the compulsive need to be admired and praised — undermine one's courage, for one then fights on someone else's conviction rather than one's own.

We define religion as the assumption that life has meaning. Religion, or lack of it, is shown not in some intellectual or verbal formulations but in one's total orientation to life. Religion is whatever the individual takes to be his ultimate concern. One's religious attitude is to be found at that point where he has a conviction that there are values in human existence worth living and dying for.

To love means to open ourselves to the negative as well as the positive — to grief, sorrow, and disappointment as well as to joy, fulfillment, and an intensity of consciousness we did not know was possible before.

Joy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one's identity as a being of worth and dignity, who is able to affirm his being, if need be, against all other beings and the whole inorganic world.

Many people feel they are powerless to do anything effective with their lives. It takes courage to break out of the settled mold, but most find conformity more comfortable. This is why the opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it's conformity.

Finding the center of strength within ourselves is in the long run the best contribution we can make to our fellow men. ... One person with indigenous inner strength exercises a great calming effect on panic among people around him. This is what our society needs — not new ideas and inventions; important as these are, and not geniuses and supermen, but persons who can be, that is, persons who have a center of strength within themselves.

My early book learning came to me as naturally as the seasons in … the little town in which I grew up.
… Quite early I began to find a special charm in an unpeopled world … of lava rock and sagebrush desert. …
I was often more purely happy at such times than I think I have ever been since.

Jake Holman knew he was a strange bird and he was used to going aboard new ships. By the time they realized they were in a struggle Jake Holman would already have made for himself the place he wanted on their ship and they could never dislodge him. Or wish to.

"At home in America, when today reaches them, it will be Flag Day. They will gather to do honor and hear speeches. For us who wear the uniform, every day is Flag Day. We pay our honor in act and feeling and we have little need of words. But on this one day it will not hurt us to grasp briefly in words the meaning of our flag. That is what I want to talk about this morning.
"Our flag is the symbol of America. I want you to grasp what America really is," Lt. Collins said, nodding for emphasis. "It is more than marks on a map. It is more than buildings and land. America is a living structure of human lives, of all the American lives that ever were and ever will be. We in San Pablo are collectively only a tiny, momentary bit of that structure. How can we, standing here, grasp the whole of America?" He made a grasping motion. "Think now of a great cable," he said, and made a circle with his arms. "The cable has no natural limiting length. It can be spun out forever. We can unlay it into ropes, and the ropes, into strands, and the strands into yarns, and none of them have any natural ending. But now let us pull a yarn apart into single fibers —" he made plucking motions with his fingers " — and each man of us can find himself. Each fiber is a tiny, flat, yellowish thing, a foot or a yard long by nature. One American life from birth to death is like a single fiber. Each one is spun into the yarn of a family and the strand of a home town and the rope of a home state. The states are spun into the great, unending, unbreakable cable that is America."
His voice deepened on the last words. He paused, to let them think about it. ...
"No man, not even President Coolidge, can experience the whole of America directly," Lt. Collins resumed. "We can only feel it when the strain comes on, the terrible strain of hauling our history into a stormy future. Then the cable springs taut and vibrant. It thins and groans as the water squeezes out and all the fibers press each to each in iron hardness. Even then, we know only the fibers that press against us. But there is another way to know America."
He paused for a deep breath. The ranks were very quiet.
"We can know America through our flag which is its symbol," he said quietly. "In our flag the barriers of time and space vanish. All America that ever was and ever will be lives every moment in our flag. Wherever in the world two or three of us stand together under our flag, all America is there. When we stand proudly and salute our flag, that is what we know wordlessly in the passing moment. ...
"Understand that our flag is not the cloth but the pattern of form and color manifested in the cloth," Lt. Collins was saying. "It could have been any pattern once, but our fathers chose that one. History has made it sacred. The honor paid it in uncounted acts of individual reverence has made it live. Every morning in American schoolrooms children present their hearts to our flag. Every morning and evening we render it our military salutes. And so the pattern lives and it can manifest itself in any number of bits of perishable cloth, but the pattern is indestructible."

Civilians are only morally bound to salute our flag. We are legally bound. All Americans are morally bound to die for our flag, if called upon. Only we are legally bound. Only we live our lives in a day to day readiness for that sacrifice. We have sworn our oaths and cut our ties. We have given up wealth and home life, except as San Pablo is our home. It marks us. It sets us apart. We are uncomfortable reminders, in time of peace. Those of you who served in the last war know what I mean.

It is said there will be no more war. We must pretend to believe that. But when war comes, it is we who will take the first shock and buy time with our lives. It is we who keep the faith. We are not honored for it. We are called mercenaries on the outposts of empire. … We serve the flag. The trade we follow is the give and take of death. It is for that purpose the American people maintain us. Any one of us who believes he has a job like any other, for which he draws a money wage, is a thief of the food he eats and a trespasser in the bunk in which he lies down to sleep!

He had a light in his gaunt face and his voice and manner were strangely solemn. The were all a bit afraid of him. …
"We're mixing our lives together, Maily, and we'll never be able to unmix them again, and we'll never want to." His voice was strong but tender, and he was smiling down at here. "I take you for what you are, and all that you are, and mix you with all of me, and I don't hold back nothing. Nothing! When you're cold, and hungry, and afraid, so am I. When you're happy, so am I. I'm going to stay with you all that I can, take the very best care of you that I can, and love you every minute until I die." He took a deep, slow breath. "Now you say it"
"I will always love you and honor you and serve you, Frenchy, and stay as near to you as I can, and do everything for you, and live for you, and I won't have any life except our life together…" Tears welled out of her eyes but she smiled steadily up without blinking. "I will just love you, Frenchy, all of me there is just loving you forever."

Our armament must be adequate to the needs, but our faith is not primarily in these machines of defense but in ourselves.

God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.

Don't fight a battle if you don't gain anything by winning.

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do, and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.

We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

You can't run an army without profanity; and it has to be eloquent profanity.
An army without profanity couldn't fight its way out of a piss-soaked paper bag.
...
As for the types of comments I make, sometimes I just, by God, get carried away with my own eloquence.

Some goddamn fool once said that flanks have got to be secure.
Since then sonofabitches all over the globe have been guarding their flanks.
I don't agree with that.
My flanks are something for the enemy to worry about, not me.
Before he finds out where my flanks are, I'll be cutting the bastard's throat.

Through the travail of the ages,
Midst the pomp and toil of war,
Have I fought and strove and perished
Countless times upon this star.

And I see not in my blindness
What the objects were I wrought,
But as God rules o'er our bickerings
It was through His will I fought.

So forever in the future,
Shall I battle as of yore,
Dying to be born a fighter,
But to die again, once more.

"Old Souls" by "Winslow Leach" (lyrics actually by Paul Williams)
Jessica Harper (Phoenix), performing the song in the film
Phantompalooza2
shorter clip from Phantompalooza, but better quality

Our love is an old love, baby.
It's older than all our years.
I have seen in strange young eyes
Familiar tears.

We're old souls in a new life baby.
They gave us a new life
To live and learn.

Our paths have crossed and parted,
This love affair was started
Long, long ago.
This love survives the ages
In its story lives are pages
Fill them up, may ours turn slow.

Our love is a strong love, baby.
We give it all
And still receive.

All souls last forever
So we need never fear goodbye.

In time, we kiss … Hello.

Reality ever rules and impels all things within a splendorous and complex Kosmos — and ever lets the Lore of Light, Liberty, Life, and Love rule, glorify, enhance, and multiply the splendors of all existences. Language is always limited, but ultimately Awareness, Life, and Love are not — not in any mortally conceivable ways — and therefore are never-ending aspects of ALL Awareness, Life, and Love every perceived to be expanding their potential and actual presences and processes — or diminishing those of others. Within lives and lifetimes of individuals, societies and ages, language and any use of it can always be corrupted or enhanced in many diverse ways. Any statement of truth which can ever be made can be well understood or extremely misunderstood in slightly or immensely different ways from different perspectives. The wise know this well, and have as little dependence or reliance upon words or assertions as are necessary to circumstances — and teach others to do the same in whatever ways they honorably can.

Ultimate Love is ever and always the most glorious aspect of Reality. And the highest and most glorious form of love is certainly not that of love of perceptual self, nor personal self — nor even love of another, or many others or all others, which are only partial and incomplete manifestations of the Ultimate Love and Ultimate Life. Quests for Ultimate Awareness ever lead to Ultimate Love and quests for Ultimate Love ever lead to Ultimate Awareness — and a love of the Ultimate Spirit of ALL Awareness, Life, and Love to such a degree that one can abide in hatred of no person or appearance or mysteries — but transcend all limited concerns and accept the necessary reality of all. Though any mortal mind or personalty can be perceived to rightfully or properly fall or descend into states of hatred and harmfulness to some aspects of one's condition or that of others when one perceives that it is so helpful as to be needful or indeed necessary to do so to prevent or limit even further harm, the wisest cannot abide in deep or permanent resentment of anyone or anything, and are always aiming to optimize their capacities to properly react to and apply the lessons of all that they encounter.
Kalki

Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.

Just as there are Laws of Conservation of Matter and Energy, so there are in fact Laws of Conservation of Pain and Joy. Neither can ever be created or destroyed.
But one can be converted into the other.

A person should live forever, or die trying.

To all the Callahan's Places there ever were or ever will be, whatever they may be called — and to all the merry maniacs and happy fools who are fortunate enough to stumble into one: may none of them arrive too late!

The delusion that one's sexual pattern is The Only Right Way To Be is probably the single most common sexual-psychosis syndrome of this era, and it is virtually almost always the victim's fault. You cannot acquire this delusion by observing reality.

God is an iron.

If a person who indulges in gluttony is a glutton, and a person who commits a felony is a felon, then God is an iron.

Man has historically devoted much more subtle and ingenious thought to inflicting cruelty than to giving others pleasure — which, given his gregarious nature, would seem a much more survival-oriented behavior. Poll any hundred people at random and you'll find at least twenty or thirty who know all there is to know about psychological torture and psychic castration — and maybe two who know how to give a terrific back-rub.

Call it… joy. The thing like pleasure that you feel when you've done a good thing or passed up a real tempting chance to do a bad thing. Or when the unfolding of the universe just seems especially apt. It's nowhere near as flashy and intense as pleasure can be. Believe me! But it's got something going for it. Something that can make you do without pleasure, or even accept a lot of pain, to get it.

It took a couple of hundred million years to develop a thinking ape and you want a smart one in a lousy few hundred thousand?

To live outside the law, you must be lucky.

Look about you.
This is paradise.
It's hard to find, I'll grant you, but it is here.
Under our feet, beneath the surface, all around us is everything we want.
The earth is shining under the soot.
We are all fools.

Justin Playfair/"Sherlock Holmes"