Famous Quotes
I love famous quotes, love reading them, try to memorize them. I turn them over, shake them, try to see if anything applies to me that I should hold onto. When a profound truth (or even a provoking idea, regardless of it's complete truth) can be neatly summed up in a perfectly crafted quote, the world just seems a letter better. I especially lean towards ones that can inspire.
For instance, here is one from Albert Einstein that I appreciate:
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition
from mediocre minds.
-Albert Einstein
Here's another, not sure who said it:
Don't be afraid to take a big step if one is indicated. You
can't cross a chasm in two small jumps.
When I find really good ones, I save them in one long document that is called QUOTES. Ocassionally I will share them with you all.
I say all this as background to let you know that it is one of my ambitions to be a person who makes these quotes. I've been making a conscious effort to take observations of universal truth and boil them down to a gleemingly slick quote. It's not so easy, but here is one of the fruits of my labor:
It is a great fool indeed who insists upon making enemies out of those who would love to be his friend.
This way, someday when I'm in a conversation with a friend about a person who the friend has no problem with; however inexplicably the person continues to insult, act badly, and generally make himself out to be a cur I can say, "Well, you know what they say -- "It is a great fool indeed who insists upon making enemies out of those who would love to be his friend." And the friend could say, "So true, but I've never heard that before -- who said it?" And I could say, "Why, I did! I'm glad that you appreciated it." And the friend could say, "I'll have to add that to my QUOTES document."
11 Comments:
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds."
Indeed, the focus of great minds is the metaphysical, after all. That is how they come to be the stronger. While the weaker-minded, the pseudo and so on use more physical methods, emotions/feelings that can lead to physical violence itself. But before we slip all the way off into the la, la, land of Platonism, although I do like to travel there, it should be noted....well, Ian?
"It is a great fool indeed who insists upon making enemies out of those who would love to be his friend."
It is foolish to fail to understand who your real enemies are. You might not be my enemy. But you do have enemies. If you think I am one then pray for me. I would love to be your friend but my feelings are not more important than the truth.
Here is a quote to think on. No witness is better than a false witness. A witness that lacks wit is no witness at all. Wit = knowledge.
"...it should be noted....well, Ian?"
In case he's not around: That it is nice to be nice.
Of course it is, niceness contains its own intrinsic truth but not the whole truth. It is one part. Does that mean it is a lie?
No, it just contains the possibility for the whole truth when combined. The whole truth comes about when the truth is spoken in love/niceness. Such gives life itself. Sometimes one is more necessary than the other. In some situations niceness can be weakness and weak-mindedness can lead to your mind being bent around and handed back to you, tied with a little bow, as a present.
Information patterns....can you sense some "stereotypes"?
Later.
"If you think that all quotes are specifically about you you may be egocentric."
There is another one!!!
MN-
"The whole truth comes about when the truth is spoken in love/niceness. Such gives life itself. Sometimes one is more necessary than the other."
Do you really think the latter situation applies to the band? To be frank, I am utterly mystified as to why you seem to hold that belief! I cordially invite you to consider my last post on the previous blog post.
To the rest of the band-
Enjoyed the quotes, Jason! I hope y'all are amused and honored by the amount of "debate" surrounding your webspace! Nothing like a little action to liven things up- enjoy it! Don't take it too seriously, that's for sure.
But, Seriously- how's the music-making? (grin). Or at least some pictures... (yes, I'm an insatiable media hog).
~ jd
MN-
"The whole truth comes about when the truth is spoken in love/niceness. Such gives life itself. Sometimes one is more necessary than the other."
Do you really think the latter situation applies to the band? To be frank, I am utterly mystified as to why you seem to hold that belief! I cordially invite you to consider my last post on the previous blog post.
To the rest of the band-
Enjoyed the quotes, Jason! I hope y'all are amused and honored by the amount of "debate" surrounding your webspace! Nothing like a little action to liven things up- enjoy it! Don't take it too seriously, that's for sure.
But, Seriously- how's the music-making? (grin). Or at least some pictures... (yes, I'm an insatiable media hog).
~ jd
Jason, That is the best post that I have read in a long time. That was GREAT. I loved the quotes of others that you had as well as your own. This post brought me great joy.
MyNym, I liked what you had to say about truth. However, I would submit that in order to find the whole truth, you need to find it's parts, and should not reject something that contains part of a greater truth. Don't throw out a piece of the puzzle or you wil never see the whole picture. While we are dealing with quotes, you may want to consider this one. See if you can guess where it is from. "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body."
In the interest of keeping the quote short, I did not include all of this, but I think it is worth considering in this context. I know some of you have heard this several times before, but read it again and process how it can apply to truth.
"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor....there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it"
"Do you really think the latter situation applies to the band? To be frank, I am utterly mystified as to why you seem to hold that belief!"
Let's ask Gimpy...
"Yes, I still live on...but the messenger with more answers than questions killed Limpy! What will work against you? You're a Big Meanie!"
Yeah, yeah, so Gimpy, why are you fighting?
"Because you want to let the Word crush my head and of course I would prefer to keep it intact. There are many more hiding places than there used to be. Now, remember, I don't exist...and it's all just happenstance."
It is true that you can hide in "happenstance" and chance more and more. Men are corrupt and they cause evil, Nature is cursed and winds down to its own extinction. You can hide in the evil of men and in the cursed nature of Nature itself. So many hiding places now...it is not as it once was when you could not hide so easily. But who helped to corrupted Nature in the first place, Gimpy?
"It was not us! It was God who cursed it. The morning star, son of the dawn, the Prince of this world will rebuild it because he is the creator!"
Yeah, yeah....not that I'd ever want to meet the son of the dawn because he can shake even the strongest, let alone me. But as far as seeking a nonphysical being out amongst all the evil of men and the corruption of Nature don't you think it a bit obvious to speak in the same word patterns over and over? The ancient texts reveal your patterns. How could they be the same after so many millenia? Why are the words there? Why is so much the same. It seems that in metaphysical matters that words deal in there is nothing new under the sun.
"But no one reads the texts of ancients now, all of the ancient peoples were all ignorant, superstitious and less evolved! Did you not know? Why do you not believe me? Hehe...our enchantment of disenchantment gives us the time we need to grow strong once again..."
So...you couldn't win in a fair fight of real enchantment and meaning so now you just seek to empty everything of deeper meaning.
"Indeed, we don't exist, did you not know? This kind of sucks for us. But it protects us for neither does the Word that kills us exist....hehe. We must gather together and grow in strength, then manifest for a final fight."
But wasn't Hitler a little obvious...I mean, come on, a "vision" in which it just so "happens" that the message is to kill all God's chosen people and so on. Kill the messenger to kill the message, you just don't seem to get it that information is there regardless of its mode of transport.
"Stupid, of course we must kill God's chosen! And we must kill all babies who represent a similar threat to us! But anyway, did you not read that his vision was caused by a psychologist who whispered in his ear at the hospital. So don't blame us....it was a psychologist."
What's the difference?
"Well, you have a point there.
Okay, okay...the Legion told the Prince it was too soon! Too soon! But he thought he was strong enough, with his strong allies."
Mistakes seem to be your forte. But anyway, why would I supposedly "pick a fight" with this band.
"It was the word patterns. I told Limpy about the penis one but he just wouldn't listen!"
It wasn't that one Gimpy. It was the one about lending support to those who rip the tiny arms off of little babies, tear the little body apart and then leave it in the trash. It does not take a genius to see the pattern of evil there.
"So it is obvious. But we must eliminate the threat of the incarnation of love! What if the Word became flesh again? You're losing, Molech's shrines are on many a street corner once again. Just give up..."
It seems I can't because of the Word that became flesh. It seems He left His words/spirit in our heads. You're awfully cocky for someone lacking an ear.
"Heeey, give that back! That's just not nice...and look at what you've done to poor Limpy! It's just not nice!"
"Nothing like a little action to liven things up- enjoy it!"
Those who place the physical life before the metaphysical lose the essence of life itself.
That is to say, the sense of the sensuous....and it is also a little, shall we say, odd, for a man to demand sensitivity and in so doing start to become the sensuous. Why do psychologists seem to know nothing of the soul? Are they not the Soul Doctors?
"Don't take it too seriously, that's for sure."
There once was a pack of beasts. These beasts tread the same paths they always tread, eating, sleeping and so on. But one day a beast who was more than a beast spoke and said, "Why do you tread these paths?" At this, the other beasts all turned and tore the beast who seemed to be no beast at all apart. But the word had already been spoken, all the beasts realized they could speak and even those who argued against speaking found themselves speaking to do so.
The victory had already been won by the one who spoke.
I was called away. Perhaps that last parable needed more but I didn't have time. Ironically, there is literally a speck in my eye right now. This makes me mad! Hmmm, uh oh. "Not more words that give me that funny feeling in my tummy! I preferred the headaches of the smarty pants language..." Do you think you can have a sense of humor without sense? Feelings sans thought? If you can see a speck in my third eye then speak but with your third eye blind don't try to prophesy.
"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many."
The body is made of many parts. When the body is disordered it can still have some semblance of life but if disorder proceeds too much, it dies. Perhaps that's why one doesn't always really want too point out what issues forth from some parts of the body when it is disordered and certain parts speak that should not. After all, why put your finger in excrement? One metaphysician said of the body, if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. Man, that's just not nice. I wonder what Jesus would say?
Do you feel that mercy can exist without justice? Are you ready to dance with the Devil?
Until some other time....later.
Hey Gimpy, you still here? "...yeah? You going to give me back my ear or what?" Why? All you would hear is the silence of the lambs. "Yess, I aim to keep them that way, nice little tasty lambs!" Ah, but you know that they are not really meant to be little lambs and might let the Word kill you? "No...they were meant to be nice little lambs, for listen to the silence of the lambs. No more words that any might speak of my death."
Let me tell you a story Gimpy. "No! Not more words..." Hmmm, don't worry, I promise it is a truly nice story this time.
"As long as the words are just nice words, weak words...."
Oh, it is truly nice. "Okay, I likes stories, as long as they're nice."
....once upon a sometime, there was a nice little village in a nice little woods. It was called Niceville. All the people that lived in Niceville were...well, nice. They had nice little homes and nice little gardens. But one thing they didn't have was any powerful weapons because they didn't write anything down and so didn't have much knowledge about anything. They didn't believe that words really meant anything other than nice soothing coos meant to be nice. Their lack of weapons suited them because weapons simply aren't nice.
Now, on one side of Niceville there was a shining city on a hill which had narrow gates and strong defenses. On the other side of Niceville there was a dark city that had wide gates and sprawling weak defenses. On the last side was a cliff which sometimes nice groups of friends from Niceville all walked off of together. The city on a hill was ruled by an honorable General who ruled by truth, justice and mercy. The dark city was ruled by warring factions who sometimes made alliances so as to make war against the General. The war between the two cities was constant and unlike the people of Niceville these cities made and used many weapons. Sometimes, as war planes flew overhead the people of Niceville would look up at the sky, give a nice little shake of their heads and say, "Now...that is just not nice! If only everyone would be nice and weak, as we are!"
Every once in a while some of the boys from Niceville would make it to the city on a hill and become soldiers. But most went into the city with the wider gates. One day, some boys from Niceville were playing in the woods near the dark city. Some of the men of the city came up to them and said, "You know, the General from the city on the hill has plans to cut down your nice woods and demolish Niceville! For he is your enemy." These men who seemed nice had an edited copy of the General's rules of engagement (It was edited just to make it nice they said.) which they gave to the nice boys who accepted it. They also had some vests for them to wear, that seemed nice enough too. So the boys went to the other side of Niceville towards the shining city on a hill.
About that time, two soldiers were driving a tank out of city on the hill. One was a veteran and the other was a new recruit. They saw the boys coming through the woods. "What's that in their hands?" the new recruit said. Hmmm, "Looks like sticks...and they're waving them about as if they can fight." the veteran replied with resignation. "Here we go again, some boys from Niceville have been talking to the other side again. This just isn't my day." They drove the tank closer to the woods. "Hey, looks like they have vests on." The veteran replied, "Uh oh, they've been rigged with bombs." The new recruit said, "So let's just blast them!" The veteran called the general and then replied, "Nope, he says blast all around them and try to scare them back to Niceville but you can't blow them up." The new recruit said, "What is that one boy doing...Hey, it looks like he's trying to go around our tank and see it from all sides. How odd." The veteran said, "Okay, blast next to him." The recruit said, "Yup, that did it. Looks like he'll be seeing things from one side for a while!" Another boy was just sitting there and he seemed to be just banging two sticks together. The veteran said, "Hmmm, oh just leave him be, he's just sitting there." The recruit replied, "But he'll blow up eventually. Let's blast next to him too!" The veteran said, "Oh, okay." So they did. "Nope...still just sitting there. I don't think he even heard it." But another nice boy did...and with a quaver in his voice he said, "Now, that's REALLY just not nice!!" And he started running at the tank.... "Back her up." The recruit replied, "Oh, just run over him!" "Nope, General's orders and besides...with great power comes great responsibility." The recruit just looked at him for a moment. "Okay, okay, I watched Spiderman last night. Geez man, cut me some slack here!" The recruit said, "Look, we're backing up all the way into the city and if we go there...." The veteran said, "Okay, blast next to him now!" When the smoke cleared the veteran said, "Oopsy....that one was a little close." "Yup." "Hmmm, hey there's someone behind that boy back there who threw a stick once and then just kept shouting, "That's not nice!" "Yup, looks like the leader of Niceville or something." He said, "I cordially invite you, nicely, to go back to the city on the hill." The recruit said, "Hey, why is he inviting us to go back to our own city anyway?" The veteran said, "Beats me...but he sure is nice about it. Remember, people from Niceville don't believe something has to actually make sense, as long as it's nice." The recruit said, "False niceness? Let's blast him!" "No, look, it looks like they're going back to Niceville now." The recruit replied, "Well, won't they all blow up?" The veteran said, "Oh, that's not the worst of the things that go on in Niceville where people are a little 'too nice' and just a little 'too friendly' if you get my drift. They might all walk off the cliff together before then, all nice and friendly like."
-----
"Something walking about in the words of that story just does not seem nice!"
But Gimpy, I said I would try to make it truly nice, not just nice. "But the truth is not nice!"
Isn't it?
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