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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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No source entered for Contribution #4333
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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No source entered for Contribution #4327
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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No source entered for Contribution #4322
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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No source entered for Contribution #4315
"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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No source entered for Contribution #4234
There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.
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No source entered for Contribution #4208
When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty
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No source entered for Contribution #4199
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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No source entered for Contribution #4197
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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No source entered for Contribution #4191
Its amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit.
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No source entered for Contribution #4167
Before you go and criticize the younger generation, remember who raised them.
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No source entered for Contribution #4166
There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.
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No source entered for Contribution #4163
It is easier to fight for ones principles than live up to them
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No source entered for Contribution #4161
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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No source entered for Contribution #4103
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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No source entered for Contribution #4087
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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No source entered for Contribution #4069
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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No source entered for Contribution #4048
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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No source entered for Contribution #4034
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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No source entered for Contribution #4000
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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No source entered for Contribution #3912
God made so many different kinds of people; why would God allow only one way to worship?
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No source entered for Contribution #3879
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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No source entered for Contribution #3858
if you wish to avoid seeing a fool, you must first break your mirror
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No source entered for Contribution #3856
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.
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.
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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No source entered for Contribution #3818
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.
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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No source entered for Contribution #3799
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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No source entered for Contribution #3760
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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No source entered for Contribution #3730
Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
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No source entered for Contribution #3728
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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No source entered for Contribution #3724
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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No source entered for Contribution #3651
The cardinal doctrine of a fanatic's creed is that his enemies are the enemies of God.
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No source entered for Contribution #3628
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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No source entered for Contribution #3596
It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
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No source entered for Contribution #3586
To toughen up, is to calm down -Melvin
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No source entered for Contribution #3575
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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No source entered for Contribution #3553
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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No source entered for Contribution #3546
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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No source entered for Contribution #3538
" 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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No source entered for Contribution #3482
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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No source entered for Contribution #3479
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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No source entered for Contribution #3478
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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No source entered for Contribution #3429
Conceit is a sure sign of insecurity; humility denotes awareness.
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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No source entered for Contribution #3398
A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.
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No source entered for Contribution #3365
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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No source entered for Contribution #3310
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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No source entered for Contribution #3170
Everything that lives - lives not alone nor for itself.
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No source entered for Contribution #3127
To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.
The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.
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No source entered for Contribution #3098
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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No source entered for Contribution #3068
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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No source entered for Contribution #3060
...it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.
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No source entered for Contribution #3045
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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No source entered for Contribution #3039
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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No source entered for Contribution #3035
Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.
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No source entered for Contribution #3030
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.
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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No source entered for Contribution #3018
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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No source entered for Contribution #3014
It is not who is right, but what is right, that is of importance.
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No source entered for Contribution #3005
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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No source entered for Contribution #2999
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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No source entered for Contribution #2992
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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No source entered for Contribution #2962
The less you know, the more you believe.
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No source entered for Contribution #2854
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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No source entered for Contribution #2776
To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
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No source entered for Contribution #2775
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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No source entered for Contribution #2768
We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.
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No source entered for Contribution #2765
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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No source entered for Contribution #2764
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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No source entered for Contribution #2759
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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No source entered for Contribution #2721
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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No source entered for Contribution #2666
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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No source entered for Contribution #2664
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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No source entered for Contribution #2642
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.
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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No source entered for Contribution #2576
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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No source entered for Contribution #2507
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
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No source entered for Contribution #2475
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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No source entered for Contribution #2464
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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No source entered for Contribution #2409
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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No source entered for Contribution #2399
He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.
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No source entered for Contribution #2398
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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No source entered for Contribution #2397
We are all inclined to judge ourselves by our ideals; others, by their acts.
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No source entered for Contribution #2369
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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No source entered for Contribution #2326
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.
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.
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
What does humility look like in a person?
(0 responses)
