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Humility

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Also: Equality, Modesty

Humility means understanding that the delights, pains and needs of others are as important as our own, even though they don’t feel so. When we are humble, we can laugh at our self importance and sometimes, even, set it aside. We can see our own faults and the strengths of others, and we recognize how much we have been given, unearned.


Humility makes us aware of our personal limitations and the limitations of humanity more broadly. We acknowledge that there is much we do not know, that certainty is impossible, and that our understandings of the world are provisional at best. Humility opens us to growth and love.

Humility


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Men rarely (if ever) managed to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

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To write that essential book, a great writer does not need to invent it but merely to translate it, since it already exists in each one of us. The duty and task of a writer are those of translator.

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Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket, and do not pull it out and strike it merely to show you have one. If you are asked what o'clock it is, tell it, but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman.

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We are all of us more or less echoes, repeating involuntarily the virtues, the defects, the movements, and the characters of those among whom we live.

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"The best way I know to prepare for our future is through our fervent faithfilled prayer today"

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Contribution #4271


No human being is constituted to know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; and even the best of men must be content with fragments, with partial glimpses, never the full fruition.

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There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.

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When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty

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I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth.

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The aim of a joke is not to degrade the human being, but to remind him that he is already degraded

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Its amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit.

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Before you go and criticize the younger generation, remember who raised them.

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There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.

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It is easier to fight for ones principles than live up to them

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The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.

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Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest", but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.

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I am selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best

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Ethiopians imagine their gods as black and snub-nosed; Thracians blue-eyed and red-haired. But if horses or lions had hands, or could draw and fashion works as men do, horses would draw the gods shaped like horses and lions like lions, making the gods resemble themselves.

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I have three precious things which I hold fast and prize. The first is gentleness; the second is frugality; the third is humility, which keeps me from putting myself before others. Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men.”

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It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.

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There is a guilty conscience behind every brazen word and act and behind every manifestation of self-righteousness.

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Source type: Book
The True Believer
Page 89
http://
Contribution #3973


The act of self-denial seems to confer on us the right to be harsh and merciless toward others. The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breed pride and arrogance. The true believer is apt to see himself as one of the chosen, the salt of the earth, a prince disguised in meekness, who is destined to inherit this earth and the kingdom of heaven, too. He who is not of his faith is evil; he who will not listen shall perish.

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Source type: Book
The True Believer
Page 93
http://
Contribution #3971


Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us.

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Source type: Book
The True Believer
Page 89
http://
Contribution #3970


There is no doubt that in exchanging a self-centered for a selfless life we gain enormously in self-esteem. The vanity of the selfless, even those who practice utmost humility, is boundless.

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Source type: Book
The True Believer
Page 23
http://
Contribution #3952


The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.

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Source type: Book
The True Believer
Page 23
http://
Contribution #3950


There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous.

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God made so many different kinds of people; why would God allow only one way to worship?

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Love means to love that which is unlovable; or it is no virtue at all. Gilbert K. Chesterton

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Source type: Website
Gilber K Chesterton
Contribution #3871


It is better to be silent and thought a fool then to speak and remove all doubt.

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if you wish to avoid seeing a fool, you must first break your mirror

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No one can be always right and be a true Christian. It is a contradiction of terms. It comes from the failure to be real about oneself in the light of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. It is based on fear, and on the misuse of power. I imagined that I could somehow prevent my children from making mistakes. This is a temptation that many parents have to face, and it can be agonizing. After their early years, in which they must be taught the difference between right and wrong, we need to encourage them to choose to do the very best they can, to obey the deepest thing in their hearts, thoughts good and loving; but we must leave them really free to choose, without fear in ourselves. Perfect love drives out fear, and goes on whichever way they may choose.

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Source type: Book
Through Darkness to Light, A personal voyage by W Heaton Cooper, author of "Mountain Painter"
Page 20-21
Published by Frank Peters Limited , Kendal, United Kingdom , 1986
http://www.heatoncooper.co.uk/eshop1/product.php?xProd=1376&xSec=176
Contribution #3841


History is an orphan. It can speak, but cannot hear. It can give, but cannot take. Its wounds and tragedies can be read and known, but cannot be avoided or cured.

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Source type: Website
Selected Works of Kedar Joshi
Kedar Joshi
"Quotations – General"
http://works.bepress.com/kedar_joshi/23/
Contribution #3832


Homo sapiens is the species that invents symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then forgets that symbols are inventions.

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The future belongs to those who prepare for it today. Malcolm X

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Source type: Website
Malcolm X
Contribution #3815


“My faith runs so very much faster than my reason that I can challenge the whole world and say, 'God is, was and ever shall be'” Mahatma Gandhi

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Source type: Website
Mahatma Gandhi
Contribution #3814


If common sense were a reliable guide, we wouldn't need science.

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Source type: Periodical
New Scientist
Page 23
Volume: 2697
http://www.newscientist.com/issue/2697
Contribution #3813


And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. Nelson Mandela

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Contribution #3807


The animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.

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For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

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Source type: Book
Holy Bible
http://
Contribution #3796


"We unite our humility with our Creator’s ability when we embrace Christ grace"

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Source type: Periodical
Integrated Gospel Perceptions http://
Contribution #3795


Sometimes the only way you can take a really good look at yourself is through someone else's eyes.

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The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human and, therefore, brothers. Martin Luther King Jr., 'Strength to Love,' 1963

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Source type: Book
The Strength Of Love
http://
Contribution #3742


The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

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Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one.

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Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.

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What children don't understand, and can't understand until they grow up some, is how much the whole fabric and process of human society depends on everybody agreeing to ignore, most of the time, the fact that all of us are, most of the time, inadequate, incompetent, pitiful, and, in fact, naked to our enemies. None of us really has very much in the way of spiritual, moral clothing. We dress ourselves in rags. And we agree to say nothing about it. To a very large extent, it is human charity that clothes us.
--remarks about the children's story, "The Emperor's New Clothes."

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Source type: Periodical
Freethought Today
Page Section 2, Page 7
Le Guin: Look! There Is No Emperor! http://
Contribution #3713


Every one is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.

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The cardinal doctrine of a fanatic's creed is that his enemies are the enemies of God.

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The same lesson keeps presenting itself to me. As soon as I rebound, I will be presented with the same lesson.

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from me
Contribution #3622


"The world will be saved by the western woman."

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Source type: Website
Women on the Edge of Evolution
His Holiness the Dalai Lama
http://womenontheedgeofevolution.com/
Viewed on November 13, 2009
Contribution #3620


The truth is in the mystery.

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It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.

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To toughen up, is to calm down -Melvin

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Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.

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If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.

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Generally speaking, the first nonviolent act is not fasting, but dialogue. The other side, the adversary, is recognized as a person, he is taken out of his anonymity and exists in his own right, for what he really is, a person. To engage someone in dialogue is to recognize him, have faith in him. At every step in the nonviolent struggle, at every level we try tirelessly to establish a dialogue, or reestablish it if it has broken down. When I say 'the other side,' that could be a group of persons or a government.

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" Want now,and want later, give and never lack"

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Contribution #3497


Is it not in the struggle to obtain knowledge that happiness exists? I am very ignorant, consequently the conditions of happiness are mine.

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Source type: Book
Farthest North
by Fridtjof Nansen
Page 4
Published by Harper and Brothers , London , 1897
http://books.google.com/
Contribution #3489


What you cannot enforce, do not command.

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Of course you will insist on modesty in the children, and respect to their teachers, but if the boy stops you in your speech, cries out that you are wrong and sets you right, hug him!

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Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars etc., and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons.

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The doubts of an honest man contain more moral truth than the profession of faith of people under a worldly yoke.

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Conceit is a sure sign of insecurity; humility denotes awareness.

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Gurudeva Weekly Calendar
http://www.minimela.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=69_70&products_id=477
Contribution #3411


Solitude has but one disadvantage; it is apt to give one too high an opinion of one's self. In the world we are sure to be often reminded of every known or supposed defect we may have.

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A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.

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Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

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A lifetime of assiduous effort has culminated in this moment when you arrive at the garden’s gate. You may enter the garden once you have ceased to believe that your merit has qualified you for admission.

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Source type: Website
Daily Inspiration
Josh Mitteldorf
"June 7, 2009"
http://daily-inspiration.org/
Viewed on June 12, 2009
Contribution #3246


Those who know do not speak; those who speak do not know.

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Source type: Sacred Text
The Sayings of Lao-Tzu
The Sayings of Lao-Tzu Paradoxes p 45
Version or Translation Lionel Giles translation
Published in Translation 1905
http://www.sacred-texts.com/tao/salt/salt10.htm
Contribution #3210


If science is to carry on a meaningful dialogue with religion, it must work to establish a level playing field where both sides honestly address what we can and cannot know about ourselves and the world around us. We need to back away from perpetuating the all-knowing rational mind myth that makes real discussion impossible. At the same time, we need to acknowledge that the evidence for a visceral need for a sense of faith, purpose and meaning is as powerful as the evidence for evolution.

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Source type: Book
On Being Certain
Page 196
Published by St. Martin's Press , New York , 2008
http://
Contribution #3182


Properly conducted scientific studies . . . give us a pretty good idea of when something is likely to be correct. To me, pretty good is a linguistic statistic that falls somewhere in between more likely than not and beyond a reasonable doubt, et avoides the pitfalls arising from the belief in complete objectivity.

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Source type: Book
On Being Certain
Page 176
Published by St. Martin's , New York , 2008
http://
Contribution #3181


Oh, how small a portion of earth will hold us when we are dead, who ambitiously seek after the whole world while we are living!

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Everything that lives - lives not alone nor for itself.

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To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.

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Source type: Website
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
"Doubt Quotes"
http://www.best-quotes-poems.com/doubt-quotes.html
Viewed on February 14, 2009
Contribution #3100


The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.

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Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a dangerous enemy indeed.

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Source type: Book
The Witching Hour
http://
Contribution #3081


Physics is mathematical not because we know so much about the physical world, but because we know so little; it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover.

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The most savage controversies are those about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way. Persecution is used in theology, not in arithmetic.

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...it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.

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What wretched doings come from the ardor of fame; the love of truth alone would never make one man attack another bitterly.

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Source type: Book
"Letter to JD Hooker 1848," The Correspondence of Charles Darwin
by Fredrick Burkhardt and Sydney Smith, eds.
Page Volume 4, Page 140
Published by Cambridge University press , Cambridge , 1985-1991
http://
Contribution #3042


Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system- with all these exalted powers- Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.

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Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

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Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.

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Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.

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Source type: Website
Jerry A. Coyne
"Seeing and Believing, The New Republic"
http://www.tnr.com/booksarts/story.html?id=1e3851a3-bdf7-438a-ac2a-a5e381a70472&p=1
Viewed on February 7, 2009
Contribution #3024


The most considerable difference I note among men is not in their readiness to fall into error, but in their readiness to acknowledge these inevitable lapses.

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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.

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It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance.

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History warns us that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions.

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You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.

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Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.

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The less you know, the more you believe.

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We project our ideas about ourselves into the heavens and call them ideas about God.

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Source type: Book
What is Religion?
Page 42
Published by Dialectical Publishers , Seattle , 2007
http://richardcurtis42 at msn.com
Contribution #2849


When we consider reality itself we quickly become aware of its infinite complexity, and we realize that our habitual perception of it is often inadequate. If this were not so, the concept of deception would be meaningless.

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Source type: Book
Ethics for the New Millenium
Page 36
Published by Riverhead Books , New York , 1999
http://
Contribution #2787


To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.

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To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.

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When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self.

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We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.

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Every individual is at once the beneficiary and the victim of the linguistic tradition into which he has been born - the beneficiary inasmuch as language gives access to the accumulated records of other people's experience, the victim in so far as it confirms him in the belief that reduced awareness is the only awareness and as it bedevils his sense of reality, so that he is all too apt to take his concepts for data, his words for actual things.

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We don't accomplish anything in this world alone ... and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one's life and all the weavings of individual threads from one to another that creates something.

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In science, every set of conclusions is just a status report. They say, “this is how far we’ve gotten in terms of figuring out what’s real.”

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An unrevengeful spirit, never given to rate itself too high;- such be the signs, O Indian Prince! of him whose feet are set on that fair path which leads to heavenly birth!

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Source type: Sacred Text
The Song of Celestial
16:3
http://
Contribution #2674


Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

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It doesn't matter how big a ranch you own or how many cows you brand, the size of your funeral is still gonna depend on the weather.

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If only it were all so simple, if only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

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Source type: Book
The Gulag Archipelago
http://
Contribution #2643


Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.

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If one man says to thee, ''Thou art a donkey',' pay no heed. If two speak thus, purchase a saddle.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Talmud
http://
Contribution #2627


One can only be humbled by the richness of the animal and plant life on this place we call Earth – the diversity of life in the oceans – so evident here on the Great Barrier Reef. Hundreds of soft and hard corals, fish species and marine animals. I want to do my part to secure this wonderful world for future generations.

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Starbucks - The Way I See It #231
http://www.starbucks.com/retail/thewayiseeit_default.asp?act=0&first=8
Contribution #2598


All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

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The true test of the American ideal is whether we’re able to recognize our failings and then rise together to meet the challenges of our time. Whether we allow ourselves to be shaped by events and history, or whether we act to shape them. Whether chance of birth or circumstance decides life’s big winners and losers, or whether we build a community where, at the very least, everyone has a chance to work hard, get ahead, and reach their dreams.

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speech, Jun. 4, 2005
Contribution #2531


We know what we are, but know not what we may be.

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It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

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We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.

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It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.

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The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.

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He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.

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When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.

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We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.

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No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

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The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn--the less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything.

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Source type: Book
What's God Got to Do with It?
by ed. Tim Page
Page 108 "On Learning and Genius"
Published by Steerforth Press , Hanover, NH , 2005
http://www.amazon.com/Whats-God-Got-Ingersoll-Separation/dp/1586420968/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224970457&sr=8-1
Contribution #2279


With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.

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Source type: Website
Jone Johnson Lewis
"Integrity/Individuality Quotes"
http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_integrityindividuality.html
Viewed on October 25, 2008
Contribution #2269


Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

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Virtues Reflection Cards
http://www.virtuesproject.com
Contribution #2236


You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long, and the greatest charm of all power is modesty.

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Virtues Reflection Cards
http://www.virtuesproject.com
Contribution #2213


And when we would make much of that which cannot matter much to thee, forgive us. --a frequent part of the prayer that opened sermons.

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as quoted by John Shelby Spong
http://newsletters.johnshelbyspong.com
Contribution #2176


It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance; for it requires knowledge to perceive it and therefore he that can perceive it hath it not.

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No source entered for Contribution #2153


We seek guidance from an inspired place within, but as we listen for that still, small voice we also become hostage to our phobias and neuroses, which have learned to impersonate inspiration.


To be able to distinguish our highest callings from base distortions of our personality is an elevated form of self-knowledge. Don’t imagine you can perform this feat of wisdom through thinking. When the gift of discrimination arrives, it is likely to operate beneath the level of conscious analysis. The best you can do is to observe your own process, to refrain from taking sides in the debate, to watch yourself deciding.

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Source type: Website
Josh Mitteldorf
"Daily Inspiration - October 12, 2008"
http://daily-inspiration.org/
Viewed on October 17, 2008
Contribution #2106


The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause.

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Source type: Book
The True Believer
Page 14
Published by HarperCollins , New York , 1951
http://
Contribution #2069


All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed.

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Source type: Book
The True Believer
by Eric Hoffer
Page xiii
Published by HarperCollins Publishers , New York , 1951
http://
Contribution #2068


The line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.

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Source type: Website
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
http://www.weboflove.org//inspiring_stories_08/081007_transcend_polarization_duality
Viewed on October 8, 2008
Contribution #2050


We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions.

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No source entered for Contribution #2045


Who is wise? One who learns from all.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Talmud
http://
Contribution #2030


The greatest wisdom is to realize one's lack of it.

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No source entered for Contribution #2027


Well I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems that I am wiser than he is to this small extent, that I do not think that I know what I do not know.

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No source entered for Contribution #2025


True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.

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No source entered for Contribution #2024


No man is wise enough by himself.

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No source entered for Contribution #2013


Wise people are foolish if they cannot adapt to foolish people.

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No source entered for Contribution #2009


There is a difference between happiness and wisdom: he that thinks himself the happiest man is really so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.

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No source entered for Contribution #1981


In seeking wisdom thou art wise; in imagining that thou hast attained it, thou art a fool.

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No source entered for Contribution #1980


The human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.

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No source entered for Contribution #1957


Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.

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No source entered for Contribution #1948


Heaven always bears some proportion to earth. The god of the cannibal will be a cannibal, of the crusades a crusader, and of the merchants a merchant.

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No source entered for Contribution #1947


To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle.

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No source entered for Contribution #1926


Talent is God-given, be humble; Fame is man-given be thankful; Conceit is self given, be careful.

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No source entered for Contribution #1910


The LORD will destroy the house of the proud: but he will establish the border of the widow.

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Source type: Sacred Text
Bible
Proverbs 15:25
Version or Translation KJV
http://
Contribution #1905


The most important product of knowledge is ignorance.

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Source type: Periodical
New York Times From a Physicist and New Nobel Winner, Some Food for Thought http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/science/19phys.html
Contribution #1893


Certainty is not biologically possible. We must learn (and teach our children) to tolerate the unpleasantness of uncertainty. Science has given us the language and tools of probabilities. We have methods for analyzing and ranking opinion according to their likelihood of correctness. That is enough.

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Source type: Book
On Being Certain
Page 223
Published by St. Martin's Press , New York , 2008
http://
Contribution #1892


Good science requires distinguishing between "felt knowledge" and knowledge arising out of testable observations. "I am sure" is a mental sensation, not a testable conclusion. Put hunches, gut feelings, and intuitions into the suggestion box. Let empiric methods shake out the good from bad suggestions.

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Source type: Book
On Being Certain
Page 167
Published by St. Martin's Press , New York , 2008
http://
Contribution #1890


Good science is more than the mechanics of research and experimentation. Good science requires that scientists look inward--to contemplate the origin of their thoughts. The failures of science do not begin with flawed evidence or fumbled statistics; they begin with personal self-deception and an unjustified sense of knowing.

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Source type: Book
On Being Certain
Page 167
Published by St. Martin's Press , New York , 2008
http://
Contribution #1889


Our mental limitations prevent us from accepting our mental limitations.

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Source type: Book
On Being Certain
Page 159
Published by St. Martin's Press , New York , 2008
http://
Contribution #1887


No one seriously doubts Socrates' maxim: The unexamined life isn't worth living. Self-assessment and attempts at self-improvement are essential aspects of "the good life." Yes, we should engage in ruthless self-reflection and harsh scrutiny, but we should simultaneously acknowledge that such introspection will, at best, only result in a partial view of our minds at work. Complete objectivity is not an option.

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Source type: Book
On Being Certain: Believing You are Right Even When You are Not
Page 158-159
Published by St. Martin's Press , New York , 2008
http://
Contribution #1886


As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there afre known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns--the ones we don't know we don't know.

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No source entered for Contribution #1884


Thoughts are the shadows of our sensations--always darker, emptier, simpler than these.

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No source entered for Contribution #1883


Thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words may indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.

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Source type: Book
The Prophet
Page 60
Published by Alfred A. Knopf , New Yo