Quotes From the Quiet

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.

- Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002)

An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.

- James Albert Michener (1907-1997)

Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.

- Hal Borland (1900-1978)

I have never thought much of the courage of a lion tamer. Inside the cage he is at least safe from other men. There is not much harm in a lion. He has no ideals, no religion, no politics, no chivalry, no gentility; in short, no reason for destroying anything that he does not want to eat.

- George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950

The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.

- John Quincy Adams, (1767-1848)

We are healed of a suffering only by expressing it to the full.

- Marcel Proust, (1871-1922)

I believe the greatest gift I can conceive of having from anyone is to be seen, heard, understood, and touched by them. The greatest gift I can give is to see, hear, understand, and touch another person.

- Virginia Satir (1916-1988)

Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love.

- Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.

- Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation. Tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego.

- Jean Arp (1887-1948)

There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all.

- Ogden Nash, poet (19 Aug 1902-1971)

The world is changed not by the self-regarding, but by men and women prepared to make fools of themselves."

- PD James (1920-2014)

‡ My Destiny ‡
"At some point in life, a man who had previously been a great sinner has spiritually awakened and started to preach the word of God. He believed that he was inspired by the Lord Himself. So he dies, and meets St. Peter.
"Saint Peter, I need to see God"
"Why? You were an okay guy, we won't send you to hell." "No, I really need it. I need to ask Him one question."
St. Peter shrugs his shoulders and brings him in God's Presence. The man asks:
"My Lord, tell me, did I understand my destiny well? Was it to carry Your word?"
God is silent.
"Please tell me!"
"Do you really want to know?" asks God.
"Yes, I long to know, I crave for this knowledge, I implore you!"

"Okay, okay. Do you remember how you travelled by train from Samara to Syzran'? It was forty-seven years ago." "Yes!"
"Do you remember how you went to the dining car?" "Yes"
"Do you remember how your neighbour to the left asked you to pass the salt?" "Yes"
"This was your destiny. You were born to pass the salt to this person" "

- Unknown

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.

- Learned Hand (1872-1961)

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

- William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

The real index of civilization is when people are kinder than they need to be.

- Louis de Bernieres, novelist (1954 - )

Drink water from the spring where horses drink. The horse will never drink bad water.
Lay your bed where the cat sleeps.
Eat the fruit that has been touched by a worm.
Boldly pick the mushroom on which the insects sit.
Plant the tree where the mole digs.
Build your house where the snake sits to warm itself
Dig your fountain where the birds hide from heat. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time with the birds – you will reap all of the days' golden grains.
Eat more green – you will have strong legs and a resistant heart, like the beings of the forest.
Swim often and you will feel on earth like the fish in the water.
Look at the sky as often as possible and your thoughts will become light and clear.
Be quiet a lot, speak little – and silence will come in your heart, and your spirit will be calm and full of peace

- Saint Seraphim of Sarov)

Not that I want to be a god or a hero. Just to change into a tree, grow for ages, not hurt anyone.

- Czeslaw Milosz (1911-2004)

Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds - all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have.

- Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909)

Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he's destroying is this God he's worshipping.

- Hubert Reeves

When you're good at something, you'll tell everyone. When you're great at something, they'll tell you.

- Walter Payton

Those who believe without reason cannot be convinced by reason.

- James Randi (1928 - )

‡ The Voice of Happiness ‡
After Bankei had passed away, a blind man who lived near the master's temple told a friend, "Since I am blind, I cannot watch a person's face, so I must judge his character by the sound of his voice.
"Ordinarily when I hear someone congratulate another upon his happiness or success, I also hear a secret tone of envy. When condolence is expressed for the misfortune of another, I hear pleasure and satisfaction, as if the one condoling was really glad there was something left to gain in his own world.
"In all my experience, however, Bankei's voice was always sincere. Whenever he expressed happiness, I heard nothing but happiness, and whenever he expressed sorrow, sorrow was all I heard".

No amount of belief makes something a fact.

- James Randi (1928 - )

The hardest-learned lesson: that people have only their kind of love to give, not our kind.

- Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983)

All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.

- Blaise Pascal

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars, and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable.

- Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983)

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

- Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

‡ Calling Card ‡
Keichu, the great Zen teacher of the Meiji era, was the head of Tofuku, a cathedral in Kyoto. One day the governor of Kyoto called upon him for the first time.
His attendant presented the card of the governor, which read: Kitagaki, Governor of Kyoto.
'I have no business with such a fellow,' said Keichu to his attendant. 'Tell him to get out of here.'
The attendant carried the card back with apologies. 'That was my error,' said the governor, and with a pencil he scratched out the words Governor of Kyoto. 'Ask your teacher again.'
'Oh, is that Kitagaki?' exclaimed the teacher when he saw the card. 'I want to see that fellow.'

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.

- Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

What didn't you do to bury me;But you forgot that I was a seed.

- Dinos Christianopoulos

To move freely you must be deeply rooted.

- Bella Lewitsky (1916-2004)

Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.

- Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926-2004)

‡ The Tunnel
‡ Zenkai, the son of a samurai, journeyed to Edo and there became the retainer of a high official. He fell in love with the official's wife and was discovered. In self-defense, he slew the official. Then he ran away with his wife.
Both of them later became thieves. But the woman was so greedy that Zenkai grew disgusted. Finally, leaving her, he journeyed far away to the province of Buzen, where he became a wandering mendicant.
To atone for his past, Zenkai resolved to accomplish some good deed in his lifetime. Knowing of a dangerous road over a cliff that had caused the death and injury of many persons, he resolved to cut a tunnel through the mountains there.
Begging food in daytime, Zenkai worked at night digging his tunnel. When thirty years had gone by, the tunnel was 2,280 feet long, 20 feet wide.
Two years before the work was completed, the son of the official he had slain, who was a skilful swordsman, found Zenkai out and came to kill him in revenge.
'I will give you my life willingly,' said Zenkai. 'Only let me finish this work. On the day it is completed, you may kill me.'
So the son waited the day. Several months passed and Zenkai kept on digging. The son grew tired of doing nothing and began to help with the digging. After he had helped for more than a year, he came to admire Zenkai's strong will and character.
At last, the tunnel was completed and the people could use it and travel in safety.
'Now cut off my head,' said Zenkai. 'My work is done.' 'How can I cut off my own teacher's head?' asked the younger man with tears in his eyes.

Pick a flower on earth and you move the farthest star.

- Paul Dirac (1902-1984)

Truth is not a reward for good behaviour, nor a prize for passing some tests. It cannot be brought about.
It is the primary, the unborn, the ancient source of all that is.
You are eligible because you are.
You need not merit truth.
It is your own.
Just stop running away by running after. Stand still, be quiet.
A quiet mind is all you need.
All else will happen rightly, once your mind is quiet.
As the sun on rising makes the world active, so does self-awareness affect changes in the mind. In the light of calm and steady self-awareness inner energies wake up and work miracles without effort on your part.

When you demand nothing of the world, nor of God, when you want nothing, seek nothing, expect nothing, then the Supreme State will come to you uninvited and unexpected.

- Nisargadatta Maharaj

A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but not necessarily in that order.

- Jean-Luc Godard (1930 - 2022)

There is nothing to practice. To know yourself, be yourself. To be yourself, stop imagining yourself to be this or that. Just be."
Let your true nature emerge. Don't disturb your mind with seeking.

- Siddhrameshvar Maharaj

There are many people who reach their conclusions about life like schoolboys; they cheat their master by copying the answer out of a book without having worked out the sum for themselves.

- Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Every man's work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.

- Samuel Butler (1612-1680)

Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm but the harm does not interest them.

- TS Eliot (1888-1965)

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.

- Thomas Alva Edison, inventor

‡ The Stingy Artist ‡
Gessen was an artist monk. Before he would start a drawing or painting, he always insisted upon being paid in advance, and his fees were high. He was known as the 'Stingy Artist'.
A geisha once gave him a commission for a painting. 'How much can you pay?' inquired Gessen.
'Whatever you charge,' replied the girl, 'but I want you to do the work in front of me.'
So on a certain day Gessen was called by the geisha. She was holding a feast for her patron.
Gessen with fine brushwork did the painting. When it was completed he asked the highest sum of his time. He received his pay. Then the geisha turned to her patron, saying: 'All this artist wants is money. His paintings are fine but his mind is dirty; money has caused it to become muddy. Drawn by such a filthy mind, this work is not fit to exhibit. It is just about good enough for one of my petticoats.'
Removing her skirt, she then asked Gessen to do another picture on back of her petticoat.
'How much will you pay?' asked Gessen. 'Oh, any amount,' answered the girl.
Gessen named a fancy price, painted the picture in the manner requested, and went away.
It was learned later that Gessen had these reasons for desiring money.
A ravaging famine often visited his province. The rich would not help the poor, so Gessen had a secret warehouse, unknown to anyone, which he kept filled with grain, prepared for these emergencies.
From his village to the National Shrine the road was in very poor condition and many travelers suffered while traversing it. He desired to build a better road.
His teacher had passed away without realizing his wish to build a temple, and Gessen wished to complete this temple for him.
After Gessen had accomplished his three wishes he threw away his brushes and artist's materials and, retiring to the mountains, never painted again.

The sorrow which has no vent in tears may make other organs weep.

- Henry Maudsley, psychiatrist (1835-1918)

Don't surrender your loneliness so quickly. Let it cut more deeply. Let it ferment and season you as few human Or even divine ingredients can.

- Hafez, poet (1315-1390)

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

- Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992).

You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts.

- Khalil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

You need not do anything. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, just wait. You need not even wait, just learn to be quiet, still and solitary. And the world will freely offer itself to you unmasked. It has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

- Franz Kafka, writer

If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?.

- Jalaluddin Rumi, mystic

We're not here on this earth to accumulate victories, things and experiences but to be whittled and sandpapered till all that's left is who we truly are.

- Arianna Huffington

‡ Right and Wrong ‡
When Bankei held his seclusion weeks of meditation, pupils from many parts of Hapan came to attend. During one of these gatherings a pupil was caught stealing. The matter was reported to Bankei with the request that the culprit be expelled. Bankei ignored the case.
Later the pupil was caught in a similar act, and again Bankei disregarded the matter. This angered the other pupils, who drew up a petition asking for the dismissal of the thief, stating that otherwise they would leave in body.
When Bankei had read the petition he called everyone before him. 'You are wise brothers,' he told them. 'You know what is right and what is not right. You may go somewhere else to study if you wish, but this poor brother does not even know right from wrong. Who will teach him if I do not? I am going to keep him here even if all the rest of you leave.'
A torrent of tears cleansed from the face of the brother who had stolen. All desire to steal had vanished.

Try again. Fail better.

- Samuel Beckett, playwright

I have no parents: I make the heavens and earth my parents;
I have no home: I make awareness my home
I have no life or death: I made the tides of breathing my life and death;
I have no divine power: I make honesty my divine power;
I have no means: I make understanding my means;
I have no magic secrets: I make character my magic secrets;
I have no body: I make endurance my body;
I have no eyes: I make the flash of lightning my eyes;
I have no ears: I make sensibility my ears;
I have no limbs: I make promptness my limbs
I have no strategy: I make "unshadowed by thought" my strategy;
I have no design: I make "seizing opportunity by the forelock" my design;
I have no miracles: I make "right action" my miracles;
I have no principles: I make adaptability to all circumstances my principles;
I have no tactics: I make emptiness and fullness my tactics;
I have no talent: I make ready wit my talent;
I have no friends: I make my mind my friend;
I have no enemy: I make carelessness my enemy;
I have no armor: I make benevolence and righteousness my armor;
I have no castle: I make immovable-mind my castle;
I have no sword: I make absence of self my sword.

-14th century anonymous Samurai.

Like cars in amusement parks, our direction is often determined through collisions.

- Yahia Lababidi, writer (b. 1973)

And this our life, exempt from public haunt Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

- William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.

- William James, psychologist and philosopher (1842-1910)

Let us enrich ourselves with our mutual differences.

- Paul Valery, poet and philosopher (1871-1945)

Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence.

- Spanish proverb

‡ Publishing the Sutra ‡
Tetsugen, a devotee of Zen in Japan, decided to publish the sutra, which at that time were available only in Chinese. The books were to be printed with wood blocks in an edition of seven thousand copies, a tremendous undertaking.
Tetsugen began by traveling and collecting donations for this purpose. A few sympathizers would give him a hundred pieces of gold, but most of the time he received only small coins. He thanked each donor with equal gratitude. After ten years Tetsugen had enough money to begin this task.
It happened that at that time the Uji River overflowed. Famine followed. Tetsugen took the funds he had collected for the books and spent them to save others from starvation. Then he began again his work of collecting.
Several years afterwards an epidemic spread over the country. Tetsugen gave away what he had collected, to help his people.
For a third time he started his work, and after twenty years his wish was fulfilled. The printing blocks, which produced the first edition of sutra, can be seen today in the Obaku monastery in Kyoto.
The Japanese tell their children that Tetsugen made three sets of sutra … and the first two invisible sets surpass the last!

The victorious ones have said That emptiness is the relinquishing of all views. For whomever emptiness is a view, That one will accomplish nothing.

- Naagarjun, mystic [Mulamaadhyamikaa-Karika XIII, 8]

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologise for truth.

- Benjamin Disraeli, British parliamentarian

One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.

- William Feather, author, editor and publisher (1889-1981)

Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.

- Roger Miller, musician (1936-1992)

If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues.

- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, author (1803-1873)

A politician is a man who thinks of the next election; while the statesman thinks of the next generation.

- James Freeman Clarke, preacher and author (1810-1888)

Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are - chaff and grain together - certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

- George Eliot (pen name of Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)

They deem him their worst enemy who tells them the truth.

- Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)

[Success defined as] To go from failure to failure with great enthusiasm.

- Winston Churchill, Statesman.

No man is clever enough to know all the evil he does.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld, writer (1613-1680)

The crucial disadvantage of aggression, competitiveness, and skepticism as national characteristics is that these qualities cannot be turned off at five o'clock.

- Margaret Halsey, novelist (1910-1997)

In some circumstances, the refusal to be defeated is a refusal to be educated.

- Margaret Halsey, novelist (1910-1997)

The older I grow, the more I listen to people who don't talk much.

- Germain G. Glien

Almost all our faults are more pardonable than the methods we resort to to hide them.

- Francois de La Rochefoucauld, writer (1613-1680)

‡ The Moon Cannot be Stolen ‡
Ryokan, a Zen master, lived in the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain.
One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it to steal.
Ryokan returned and caught him. 'You may have come a long way to visit me,' he told the prowler, 'and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift.'
The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.
Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. 'Poor fellow,' he mused, 'I wish I could give him this beautiful moon.'

True remorse is never just a regret over consequences; it is a regret over motive."

- Mignon McLaughlin, author (1915 - )

There are two things to aim at in life; first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. "

- Logan Pearsall Smith, essayist (1865-1946))

Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man's growth without destroying his roots.

- Frank A. Clark, writer (1911- )

It is better to have loafed and lost than never to have loafed at all.

- James Thurber, writer and cartoonist (1894-1961)

A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.

- Leo Rosten, author (1908-1997)

People do not wish to appear foolish; to avoid the appearance of foolishness, they are willing to remain actually fools. "

- Alice Walker, writer (1944- )

If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture - that is immortality enough for me.

- Edward Abbey, naturalist and author (1927-1989)

How to cope with wavering thoughts? Versatile are flying clouds, Yet from the sky they're not apart. Mighty are the ocean's waves, Yet they are not separate from the sea. Heavy and thick are banks of fog, Yet from the air they're not apart. Frantic runs the mind in voidness, Yet from the Void it never separates.

- Milarepa 'Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa'

To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer

In trying to give, you see that you have nothing; Seeing you have nothing, you try to give of yourself; Trying to give of yourself, you see that you are nothing; Seeing you are nothing, you desire to become; In desiring to become, you begin to live. .

- René Daumal, poet

The Greatest danger for Most of Us Lies Not in Settling our Aim Too High and Falling Short, but in Setting our Aim too Low, and Achieving Our Mark.

- Michelangelo Buonarotti, artist

He Who Works with His Hands is a Laborer; He Who Works with His Hands and his Head is a Craftsman; He Who Works with His Hands, His Head and His Heart is an Artist.

- St. Francis of Assisi, mystic.

If we escape punishment for our vices, why should we complain if we are not rewarded for our virtues?.

- John Churton Collins, Literary Critic (1848-1908)

Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is.
Many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disappointment it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars.
You have a right to be here. And whether it is clear to you or not, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham and drudgery and broken dreams it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

- Quoted by Max Ehrman in 1927; found in Old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore, U.S.A. Dated 1692.

‡ The Thief Who Became a Disciple ‡
One evening as Shichiri Kojun was reciting sutra,- a thief with a sharp sword entered, demanding either his money or his life.
Shichiri told him: 'Do not disturb me. You can find the money in that drawer.' Then he resumed his recitation.
A little while afterwards he stopped and called: 'Don't take it all. I need some to pay taxes with tomorrow.'
The intruder gathered up most of the money and started to leave. 'Thank a person when you receive a gift,' Shichiri added. The man thanked him and made off.
A few days afterwards the fellow was caught and confessed, among others, the offense against Shichiri. When Shichiri was called as a witness he said: 'This man is no thief, at least as far as I am concerned. I gave him the money and he thanked me for it.'
After he had finished his prison term, the man went to Shichiri and became his disciple.