Civilizations throughout history
have been enriched by humans
who chose to be extraordinary.
This possibility stirs within us all.
The day will come when,
After harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation,
We shall harness for God the energies of love.
And on that day,
For the second time in the history of the world,
We shall have discovered fire.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Many of us spend our whole lives
Running from feeling
With the mistaken belief
That you cannot bear the pain.
But you have already borne the pain.
What you have not done
Is feel all you are beyond that pain.
~ Kahlil Gibran
In all persons, all creatures,
The self is the innermost essence.
And it is identical with Brahman:
Our real self is not different
From the ultimate reality called God.
~ The Upanishads
I have a capacity in my soul
For taking in God entirely.
I am as sure as I live
That nothing is so near to me as God.
God is nearer to me than I am to myself;
My existence depends
On the nearness and the presence of God.
~ Meister Eckhart
We see but dimly through the mists and vapors;
Amid these earthly damps
What seem to us but sad, funeral tapers
May be heaven’s distant lamps.
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Your vision will become clear
Only when you look into your heart …
Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside, awakens.
~ Carl Gustav Jung
What a curious phenomenon it is
That you can get men to die for the liberty of the world
Who will not make the little sacrifice
That is needed to free themselves
From their own individual bondage.
~ Bruce Barton
I would rather live in a world
Where my life is surrounded by mystery
Than live in a world so small
That my mind could comprehend it.
~ Henry Emerson Fosdick
I don’t know what your destiny will be,
But one thing I do know:
The only ones among you who will be really happy
Are those who have sought
And found how to serve.
~ Albert Schweitzer
Sit down before fact as a little child,
Be prepared to give up every conceived notion,
Follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads,
Or you will learn nothing.
~ Thomas Huxley
It has pleased God
That divine verities
Should not enter the heart
Through the understanding,
But the understanding through the heart.
~ Blaise Pascal
You are a child of the Universe,
No less than the moon and the stars;
You have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
No doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should.
~ Max Ehrmann
There is only one of you in all time,
this expression is unique.
And if you block it,
it will never exist through any other medium
and it will be lost.
~ Martha Graham
Time is but the stream I go a-fishin in.
I drink at it, but while I drink
I see the sandy bottom
and detect how shallow it is.
It’s thin current slides away,
but eternity remains.
~ Henry David Thoreau
When you know a thing,
to hold that you know it;
and when you do not know a thing,
to allow that you do not know it
–this is knowledge.
~ Confuciu
Stop thinking and talking about it
and there is nothing
you will not be able to know
~ Zen Paradigm
And then, there is Albert Einstein who saw with eyes
that perceived beyond the limitations of the visible spectrum.
Here are a few of his gifts for us all to enjoy:
ON KNOWLEDGE
The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
Education is what remains
After one has forgotten
Everything he learned in school.
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger,
More complex, and more violent.
It takes a touch of genius ?? and a lot of courage ??
To move in the opposite direction.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.
The only real valuable thing is intuition.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.
REFLECTIONS
Not everything that counts can be counted,
And not everything that can be counted counts.
ON PEOPLE AND LIFE
The whole of science is nothing more
Than a refinement of everyday thinking.
God does not care about our mathematical difficulties.
He integrates empirically.
Technological progress is like an ax
In the hands of a pathological criminal.
We can’t solve problems
By using the same kind of thinking
We used when we created them.
As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality,
They are not certain,
As far as they are certain,
They do not refer to reality.
Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute,
And it seems like an hour.
Sit with a pretty girl for an hour,
And it seems like a minute.
That’s relativity.