HAZRAT INAYAT KHAN 1882-1927 “The Mysticism of Sound” “The Dance of the Soul” “Philosophy, Psychology” “The Art of Being”
“The purification of the body leads to the purification of the breath, the purification of the breath leads to the purification of them mind, and the purification of the mind leads to the purification of the heart.”
ONE MUST CHECK THE WRONG IMPULSE: an impulse to talk back to a person who insults one, an impulse to pinch a person by saying a word, an impulse to hurt a person by cutting words, an impulse to find out the secret of others, an impulse to criticize. All such undesirable impulses can be mastered. and it is not that one has mastered them, but one has gained power over oneself.
OUR SPIRIT IS THE REAL PART OF US, the body but its garment. A man would not find peace at the tailor’s because his coat comes from there; neither can the spirit obtain true happiness from the earth just because his body belongs belongs to earth.
THE FIRST EXERCISE TO HELP THE WILL POWER to develop would be to check every act, word, and thought which we do not wish to occur, to avoid unintentional actions, speech and thoughts.
ERIC HOFFER 1902-1983 “THE TRUE BELIEVER”
PASSIONATE HATRED CAN GIVE MEANING AND PURPOSE TO AN EMPTY LIFE.
PROPAGANDA does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.
RUDENESS IS A WEAK IMITATION OF STRENGTH.
THE HARDEST THING TO COPE WITH is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity.
THE HARDEST ARITHMETIC TO MASTER is that which enables us to count our blessings.
WE CAN BE ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN only about things we do not understand.
NO MATTER HOW NOBLE the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life and breeds ill will and suspicion; it is an evil government.
THE RATIO between supervisory and producing personnel is always highest where the intellectuals are in power. In a communist country it takes half the population to supervise the other half.
LEARNERS INHERIT THE EARTH; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
IT IS BY ITS PROMISE OF A SENSE OF POWER THAT EVIL OFTEN ATTRACTS THE WEAK.
IBN ARABI 1165-1240 PHILOSOPHER
I BELIEVE IN THE RELIGION OF LOVE, whatever direction its caravans may take, for love is my religion and my faith.
GOD sleeps in the rock, dreams in the plant, stirs in the animal, and awakens in man.
WHEN you know yourself, your ‘I’ness vanishes and you know that you and God are one and the same.
I AM IN LOVE WITH NO OTHER THAN MYSELF, and my very separation is my union . . . I am my beloved and my lover; I am my knight and my maiden.
YOUR PERSONAL NATURE SEEKS ITS PARADISE.
OH, LORD, nourish me not with love, but with the desire for love.
WHILE YOU ARE ALIVE, your worldly self is like a collector of benefits from god’s bounties, which come to you from myriads of hands.
ROSALIND FRANKLIN 1920-1958 SCIENTIST
IN MY VIEW, all that is necessary for faith is the belief that by doing our best we shall succeed in our aims: the improvement of mankind.
SCIENCE & EVERYDAY LIFE CANNOT & SHOULD NOT BE SEPARATED.
ELIAS CANETTI 1905-1994 “Crowds and Power: Masse and Macht”
NOBEL PEACE PRIZE “THE DECEPTION”
THERE IS NOTHING THAT MAN FEARS MORE THAN THE TOUCH OF THE UNKNOWN.
THE FIRST EFFECT of adjusting to other people is that one becomes boring.
WHENEVER YOU OBSERVE AN ANIMAL CLOSELY, you feel as if a human being sitting inside were making fun of you.
ALL THINGS ONE HAS FORGOTTEN SCREAM FOR HELP IN DREAMS.
EXPLAIN NOTHING. PUT IT THERE. SAY IT. LEAVE.
UNDERSTANDING, AS WE UNDERSTAND IT, IS MISUNDERSTANDING.
WHEN YOU WRITE DOWN YOUR LIFE, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about.
LEARNING IS THE ART OF IGNORING.
HIS HEAD IS MADE OF STARS, but not yet arranged into constellations.
IT IS IMPORTANT to say all the great thought again, without knowing that they have already been said.
SPEAK AS THOUGH IT WERE THE LAST SENTENCE ALLOWED YOU.
EVERY DECISION IS LIBERATING, EVEN IF IT LEADS TO DISASTER.
SOMEONE WHO ALWAYS HAS TO LIE discovers that every one of his lies is true.
THE SELF-EXPLORER, whether he wants to or not, becomes the explorer of everything else. He learns to see himself, but suddenly, provided he was honest, all the rest appears, and its is as rich as he was, and, as a final crowning, richer.
ARTHUR BALFOUR 1848-1930 FORMER PRME MINISTER GREAT BRITAIN “THEISM AND HUMANISM” “BALFOURS SHADOW”
THE TYRANNY of majorities may be as bad as the tyranny of kings.
IT IS UNFORTUNATE, CONSIDERING THAT ENTHUSIASM MOVES THE WORLD, THAT SO FEW ENTHUSIASTS CAN BE TRUSTED TO SPEAK THE TRUTH.
THERE ARE plenty of cases of war being begun before it is declared.
I NEVER FORGIVE, BUT I ALWAYS FORGET.
SOCIETY, dead or alive, can have no charm without intimacy and no intimacy without an interest in trifles.
ASK WITH URGENCY AND PASSION.
BUT SCIENCE IS THE GREAT INSTRUMENT OF SOCIAL CHANGE, all the greater because its object is not change but knowledge, and its silent appropriation of this dominant function, amid the din of political and religious strife, is the most vital of all the revolutions which have marked the development of modern civilization.
PERSEVERANCE is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th. Julie Andrews