“If you wish to avoid foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean.”
Henry Clay (1777–1852) American politician from Kentucky
Speech on the Increase of the Navy, House of Representatives (22 January 1812).
“at the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.”
Source: The Consolations of Philosophy (2000), Chapter III, Consolation For Frustration, p. 80.
Context: Though the terrain of frustration may be vast — from a stubbed toe to an untimely death — at the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.
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Alain de Botton146
Swiss writer 1969Related quotes
“Heart of my heart, the world is young;
Love lies hidden in every rose!”
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet
Unity, § I
The Golden Hynde and Other Poems (1914)
Context: Heart of my heart, the world is young;
Love lies hidden in every rose!
Every song that the skylark sung
Once, we thought, must come to a close:
Now we know the spirit of song,
Song that is merged in the chant of the whole,
Hand in hand as we wander along,
What should we doubt of the years that roll?
Tenzin Gyatso book The Universe in a Single Atom
The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality (2005).
Context: My confidence in venturing into science lies in my basic belief that as in science so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of reality is pursued by means of critical investigation: if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims.
Jane Roberts (1929–1984) American Writer
Session 75, Page 271
The Early Sessions: Sessions 1-42, 1997, The Early Sessions: Book 2
W. Brian Arthur (1946) American economist
Source: The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves. (2009), p. 11
Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet
Epilogue
The Flower of Old Japan and Other Poems (1907), The Flower of Old Japan
Context: p>We have come by curious ways
To the Light that holds the days;
We have sought in haunts of fear
For that all-enfolding sphere:
And lo! it was not far, but near.We have found, O foolish-fond,
The shore that has no shore beyond.Deep in every heart it lies
With its untranscended skies;
For what heaven should bend above
Hearts that own the heaven of love?</p