posted June 11, 2008 01:10 AM              

Adam ate the apple, and our teeth still ache. ~Hungarian Proverb

Why was man created on the last day? So that he can be told, when pride possesses him: God created the gnat before thee. ~The Talmud

Man - a creature made at the end of the week's work when God was tired. ~Mark Twain

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated His ability. ~Oscar Wilde

O poor mortals, how ye make this earth bitter for each other. ~Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution, vol. I, book II, chapter 1

God pulled an all-nighter on the sixth day. ~Author Unknown

posted June 11, 2008 01:21 AM              

It is the nature of mortals to kick a fallen man. ~Aeschylus, Agamemnon

God doesn't measure His bounty, but oh how we do! ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. ~Joseph Conrad, Under Western Eyes, 1911

The human race is governed by its imagination. ~Napoleon

Man uses his intelligence less in the care of his own species than he does in his care of anything else he owns or governs. ~Abraham Meyerson

Human beings cling to their delicious tyrannies and to their exquisite nonsense, till death stares them in the face. ~Sydney Smith

Man is nature's sole mistake. ~W.S. Gilbert

The average man's judgment is so poor, he runs a risk every time he uses it. ~E.W. Howe

Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him? ~Pierre Troubetzkoy

The study of crime begins with the knowledge of oneself. ~Henry Miller, The Air-Conditioned Nightmare, 1945

Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be. ~William Hazlitt, The English Comic Writers, 1819

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd. I stand and look at them long and long. They do not sweat and whine about their condition.... Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth. ~Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Nature is neutral. Man has wrested from nature the power to make the world a desert or to make the deserts bloom. There is no evil in the atom; only in men's souls. ~Adlai Stevenson

We have a world for each one, but we do not have a world for all. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better. ~Author Unknown

God has given a great deal to man, but man would like something from man. ~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

{I've got to get that book)

As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities. ~Voltaire

The question is this: Is man an ape or an angel? I am on the side of the angels. ~Benjamin Disraeli

I viewed my fellow man not as a fallen angel, but as a risen ape. ~Desmond Morris, The Naked Ape

posted June 11, 2008 08:59 AM            

Your point is well taken.

The New Agers who insist that materiality is illusion are mistaken,
and their error does indeed result in all sorts of hippocrisy.

While an enlightened person may drink budweiser,
and vials of LSD (as reported in the book "Be Here Now"),
those of us who have not attained to that level of realization
are still, consciously or unconsciously, dependent upon materiality.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Mr. Bryson,

There is actually a very practical purpose to the use of chopsticks.

The idea is that forks violently stab the morsel,
while chopsticks work with, and around, it,
encouraging attitudes of flexibility and cooperation with nature.

This reflects very well the fundamental difference between East and West.

posted June 11, 2008 06:27 PM            

Thats another good reason,
although that only works for us,
who are inept with chopsticks.
Those who have used them regularly for years
are perfectly capable of shoveling it in.

I see people with noodles hanging like beards from their lips all the time,
just shoveling it in with the chopsticks faster than they can get it down.

posted June 26, 2008 06:40 PM            

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened. - Mark Twain

posted June 28, 2008 03:10 PM            

There is believing and there is knowing.
Faith goes nowhere without its shadow of doubt.
Because we cannot, or will not, accept the answers at face value,
we come to understand their deepest meanings;
not only our faith, but our doubts carry us to the heart of truth.

~ Valerian

posted June 28, 2008 03:12 PM            

quote:

---

There's no difference between a pessimist who says, "Oh, it's hopeless, so don't bother doing anything,"
and an optimist who says, "Don't bother doing anything, it's going to turn out fine anyway."
Either way, nothing happens. - Yvon Chouinard, founder of outdoor gear company, Patagonia

---

posted June 28, 2008 04:50 PM              

"The opposite of love is indifference"

posted July 01, 2008 04:43 PM            

...Or not.

posted July 01, 2008 11:17 PM            

helloooo AG, Big Brother coming up... hope to yack about it with you soon

posted July 03, 2008 02:31 AM            

"A rose of the West should not seek to bloom like a lotus of the East." ~ Traditional Hermetic Teaching

posted July 03, 2008 11:57 PM              

Love this one!! :

"A rose of the West should not seek to bloom like a lotus of the East." ~ Traditional Hermetic Teaching

('cept reversed )

Thank you. I was discussing something along these lines the other night to someone and am going to send them this quote. It puts my point or message across so perfectly, so simply.

posted July 04, 2008 12:25 AM              

Your Sacred Self: Making the Decision to be Free
by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

'Words are not peace. Thoughts are not peace. Plans are not peace. Programs are not peace. Peace is fundamental. It is easy to prove in the sciences, and the real spiritual masters who are here are teaching it. It is fundamental to all faiths, all religions, all spirituality. It is from this that everything was, or let us say: In the beginning was Peace and the Peace was with God and the Peace was God, and out of this Peace has everything been made that was made:

'The difference between this Logos-Peace and what we generally call 'peace' is that the latter is a vacuum, a zero, a nothing, a blank, a negative to the extreme. The Logos-Peace is fullness, all-inclusive, and expresses the human family. ….". (Samuel L. Lewis, a Sufi teacher).

Many well intentioned and wonderful people speak of peace and love but without God awareness and knowing who and what we really are, we don't go deep enough. There is also wisdom, knowing, unity, power, creativity and sacredness. To start from seeking and knowing God we cannot help but express love, wisdom, power, creativity, unity and peace. We fall by the wayside at times because we are not perfect in our present state of human consciousness. Jesus is purported to have said "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all else will be added unto you", and "The Kingdom of God is within you".
http://www.sacredconnections.co.uk/Sacred%20Connections/SpiritualAwareness.htm